Our Birth Story

Abigail Grace Roland has arrived!

Our turkey baby was born on Thanksgiving morning, November 25th, at 2:44am, weighing 6lbs. 9oz. and was 20 inches long.

Since a number of people have asked to hear our birth story, I thought I would share it on here. We are so thankful to the Lord for a healthy delivery and baby! We could not be more grateful!

Tuesday, November 23^rd, I went for my 40 week appointment with my midwife and was 2cm dilated and 70% effaced. She stretched me to 3cm and we went home. Around dinnertime I started complaining of cramping. After a few hours of that I realized that they were coming frequently and began timing them. I didn’t think it was labor because it did not include back pain but when I contacted my doula, she felt that I was in early labor. As we continued to time these early contractions they continued to stay fairly frequent. By eleven o’clock they had backed off to 6 minutes apart so we went to bed. Throughout the night they slowed to about 10 minutes apart. They lasted all through the night and I hardly slept a wink. They continued on all Wednesday sporadically and by the afternoon had picked back up to approximately 4-6 minutes apart. After two hours of this we started getting ready to go to the hospital, since I was group B positive. My doula thought that it would be wise for me to go on in and get checked by my midwife at the hospital and believed that I might be able to relax a little more in order for my labor to progress.

We arrived at Clark at 6pm and were admitted. When my midwife checked me I was only 3cm and 90% effaced. I was disappointed to have been in labor for 24 hours and with still so little progression.  I was encouraged to use pitocin to help my labor progress. It was a long hard decision for Kyle and I because I was afraid I would not be able to continue naturally if I used pitocin. However, we finally decided to use it after they encouraged me that many women use pitocin and are able to deliver without an epidural. They started my drip at 9pm and we waited around for the contractions to intensify. The hospital only had one telemetry monitor and another natural delivery was using it so we were stuck to the area right around my hospital bed, which meant no walking the halls or using the laboring tub.

At 11pm, my midwife came in and said she was going home. It’d been a crazy busy night there at the hospital and she didn’t feel that much else would be going on in the near future. She said she could break my water but after considering it, I decided against it because I was so exhausted and was afraid I didn’t have the energy to progress quickly. So she left the hospital. We all were planning on me just resting and slowly progressing through the night. I laid down in bed to try to rest and soon my contractions began to pick up. I quickly moved into active labor and soon after told Kyle that I didn’t think I could do it without an epidural. (Looking back I realize that was transition!) He quickly reminded me that it was not an option (which I had asked him before labor to tell me when I doubted myself). When my nurse came in and saw me in active labor, she turned off the pitocin.

At 1am I needed to go to the bathroom so I got up and went to sit down. On my first contraction on the toilet I suddenly felt the urge to push and then a slight burning sensation. When I told Kyle and my doula, they both got wide-eyed and looked at each other. On my second contraction, I felt the same thing and Kyle asked my doula to have the nurse to come check me. (I had not been checked since we first came to the hospital at 6pm!) I was basically complete with a little lip of cervix left. My water broke when she checked and she quickly said that she didn’t want me pushing on the toilet and they called for my midwife to come back to the hospital. Once back in bed, they told me not to push until my midwife had arrived. That was hard and I honestly did little pushes just to follow my body. When my midwife arrived about 1:20am, I started pushing. I pushed for about an hour and a half and little Abigail Grace Roland was born at 2:44am, Thursday, Thanksgiving morning! Kyle got to catch her and cut the cord. :-)

I was exhausted and overwhelmed by how quickly everything went at the end but so grateful to the Lord that active labor and transition were short because I was so tired and it was so intense. Kyle and my Doula were AMAZING and great supports throughout the entire process. I couldn’t have done it naturally without Kyle’s persistent encouragement and support!

I’m so glad we made the choice to stay at the hospital that night and use the pitocin! It’s wonderful to have little Abigail here with us, healthy and strong. We have thoroughly enjoyed being a family of three and are so grateful for our little bundle of pink joy!