His Birth Story.

January and February…….days spent cuddled up inside, binge watching Netflix, naps, cups of hot cocoa, sleepless nights, winter berries, blizzards and….

Baby cuddles!! Yup- baby decided to come 5 weeks early. As much as we weren’t ready for him, and I was really hoping for a few days late so I had a birthday buddy. But I’m so glad he’s here in my arms. And yes!!! A boy! Bright blue eyes, fuzzy strawberry blonde hair. All 4lbs 9oz 17in of pure love! By far my easiest birth.

I had a horrible cold and cough starting off the new year and little did I know my water broke and I didn’t even know it. I knew something was wrong, I knew something was off. Every time I coughed or moved, I was leaking fluid. So Saturday morning January 3rd I called my doctor and told them my concerns, I told my husband I was going to go get checked out and they would most likely just send me back home. Luckily, he wanted to come with me and then he’d head into work for a little while. The only thing I grabbed was a phone charger and I told the kids and my niece that I’d be right back home.

We got to the hospital, and the doctors checked me and tested the fluid I was leaking and returned back in the room to tell me my water did in fact break. We are having a baby!!

I started crying because he was five weeks early and I was worried something was wrong and I also still had things to do to get ready for him. We didn’t have a name picked out! The Christmas tree was still up!

They hooked me up to antibiotics because they didn’t know how long it had been since my water broke and there was a chance of infection and started me on Pitocin (yuck).

And then.....labor was started. With increased Pitocin came increased contractions. I was in labor for maybe 3 hours. Unmedicated- as I asked for. I have only had one birth with a epidural and I HATED it. As I sat there with the waves of contractions I thought to myself- this is 2026 they made pain meds for a reason- why aren't I using them??? I asked that my midwife check me to see how dilated I was. I was only 5cm. So, I asked what my options were for pain meds because I didn’t want to do it another 5cm! BUT she did not want me to have any. She thought it would slow down labor, and because I had a cold, I couldn’t get the laughing gas (which I did not want anyways). I got out of bed to walk around to relieve some pain. About 15 minutes and one big push later- baby came into the world at 5:41pm! The midwife scrambling to grab him since I had him on the floor because we didn't know I was just going to push him out like that and no one was ready. 😳

Daddy announced to the world “it’s a boy!!” Everyone helped me and baby back into bed where I got to hold him close to my chest and my heart for the first time ♥️ Daddy cut the umbilical cord after we got all the blood from it and our tiny baby took right to my breast like a champ. I'm so proud of myself for going unmedicated as I wanted and I liked how the staff just let me do my thing, unlike my other births they would tell me NOT to push even though I felt like pushing.

Baby boy had to go to the NICU for 12 hours to be monitored because he was so small. His temperature needed to be regulated, his blood sugars monitored and because I had him on the floor, they wanted to make sure he didn’t hit his head or get germs. We got to visit him throughout the night; I nursed him every two hours and snuggled him. They sent my placenta to the lab to test to see if they could figure out why my water broke early- I guess it just happens sometimes and they don't know why! We didn't get any clear results back. Mama and baby were healthy though!

Around 6am he was able to come back to us in our room from NICU! Where we got to learn each other more without wires in the way. Sunday our room was full of family and surround by love. We got to go home on Monday. Unfortunately, he was jaundice and ended up going back to NICU on Thursday evening to spend some time under the lights. I was a mess; I got to stay with him and take him out of the lights every two hours to feed him. I didn’t like his little body all alone under the lights. I just wanted to be home with all my babies under the same roof. He didn’t seem to mind it which made it better. He was done by 6am the next morning, they just had to check his blood work and then we got to go home! Grandma came and hung out with us while we waited and drove us home since daddy went to work that day. We were home before the siblings came home from school- what a nice surprise for them!