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Each time I leave a birth, I feel breathless. As if nothing else in the world matters…
Babies are beyond miracles and what our bodies can do to birth them is INCREDIBLE.
One reason I am so passionate about documenting birth stories is because, as mothers, we forget. Thank goodness we forget about the pain eventually or no one would want multiple children ha! But seriously, we forget the strength we had and what our bodies did. There are so many details that are easily forgotten.
Danny and Quincy told their full birth story beautifully on their family blog. You can read her experience and see behind the scenes pictures HERE.
Below is a large quote I pulled from her blog.
“September 30: At about 6:00 AM, Dr. Barbour came in our room and said that the contractions were causing the baby’s heart rate to dip which was concerning enough that if he saw that pattern continue for another few minutes, he would rush us to the O.R. where we would have an emergency C-Section. Danny called everyone to tell them to come down to the hospital right away. We waited for Dr. Barbour to come back and tell us what was going to happen but we did not see him again for another couple of hours. When our photographer, Ashley Grimes, got to the hospital she told us that she overheard the doctor talking about how the baby’s heart rate was showing signs of improvement and that we probably would not need to have an emergency C-Section after all. Shortly after this, and finding out that Quincy was still only 2 centimeters dilated, we decided that Quincy was suffering so much that she needed to get an epidural. This relieved some of the pain temporarily. At 9:00 AM, Dr. Barbour changed shifts with Dr. Bird. She was an improvement over Dr. Barbour in that she was not the worst person we have ever met. Quincy was in so much pain still that they were concerned the epidural was not working properly. A second anesthesiologist came to undo the previous procedure and put in another epidural. This worked temporarily again but Quincy was still in excruciating pain. The anesthesiologist came back in to test the epidural’s effectiveness and was shocked that not only did Quincy still have movement and feeling in her legs, but she could kick both legs up almost as easily as she could before she got an epidural. Around 11:00 AM, Dr. Bird came in and said that we had three options: 1) Continue waiting it out and hope that labor starts becoming active and actually initiates dilation. 2) Ramp up Pitocin to initiate stronger and more frequent contractions. 3) Get a C-Section. She said the benefit to choosing the C-Section right away was that it would be more controlled and the likelihood of having to be put under for the surgery was less, the sooner we decided to do it. We asked everyone to go outside so we could discuss the options. Quincy had not slept for over 80 hours at this point so she had to have the options repeated several times. While we were deciding, the nurse in charge of our room that day, Laura, came in and talked to us about the lack of risk in trying the second option and trying to get the epidural dosage ramped up while the Pitocin was being administered. She talked us into that option because she said there were no drawbacks to at least trying it before the C-Section option and because we really wanted to have a vaginal birth. After trying that for a couple of hours, the epidural wore off and Quincy was in the most intense pain of her labor. Before going in for the C-Section she asked to be checked one more time. Dr. Bird performed the exam and told her that she was 9 cm dilated! Quincy decided to keep going because she was so close. She was in agony for about an hour before it was time to start pushing. They gave her the go ahead to start pushing around 2:40. She would do three pushes per contraction and was coached on how exactly to do that by Laura and Dr. Bird. She pushed much faster than expected and at 2:52 PM, Dr. Bird told Quincy to take a breather. Quincy did not hear her (or did not want to hear her) and pushed as hard as she could. Lennon was caught by Dr. Bird, who did not even have time to put on her gloves. In Lennon’s first few minutes in the world, he was put skin to skin with Quincy while Danny put on Beautiful Boy by John Lennon. Quincy was able to request delayed cord clamping as well. Lennon weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces. All three of us were able to spend the night together in a new hospital room even though Lennon had to be under a warmer throughout the night.” – Danny Sullivan
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Each time I leave a birth, I feel breathless. As if nothing else in the world matters…
Babies are beyond miracles and what our bodies can do to birth them is INCREDIBLE.
One reason I am so passionate about documenting birth stories is because, as mothers, we forget. Thank goodness we forget about the pain eventually or no one would want multiple children ha! But seriously, we forget the strength we had and what our bodies did. There are so many details that are easily forgotten.
Danny and Quincy told their full birth story beautifully on their family blog. You can read her experience and see behind the scenes pictures HERE.
Below is a large quote I pulled from her blog.
“September 30: At about 6:00 AM, Dr. Barbour came in our room and said that the contractions were causing the baby’s heart rate to dip which was concerning enough that if he saw that pattern continue for another few minutes, he would rush us to the O.R. where we would have an emergency C-Section. Danny called everyone to tell them to come down to the hospital right away. We waited for Dr. Barbour to come back and tell us what was going to happen but we did not see him again for another couple of hours. When our photographer, Ashley Grimes, got to the hospital she told us that she overheard the doctor talking about how the baby’s heart rate was showing signs of improvement and that we probably would not need to have an emergency C-Section after all. Shortly after this, and finding out that Quincy was still only 2 centimeters dilated, we decided that Quincy was suffering so much that she needed to get an epidural. This relieved some of the pain temporarily. At 9:00 AM, Dr. Barbour changed shifts with Dr. Bird. She was an improvement over Dr. Barbour in that she was not the worst person we have ever met. Quincy was in so much pain still that they were concerned the epidural was not working properly. A second anesthesiologist came to undo the previous procedure and put in another epidural. This worked temporarily again but Quincy was still in excruciating pain. The anesthesiologist came back in to test the epidural’s effectiveness and was shocked that not only did Quincy still have movement and feeling in her legs, but she could kick both legs up almost as easily as she could before she got an epidural. Around 11:00 AM, Dr. Bird came in and said that we had three options: 1) Continue waiting it out and hope that labor starts becoming active and actually initiates dilation. 2) Ramp up Pitocin to initiate stronger and more frequent contractions. 3) Get a C-Section. She said the benefit to choosing the C-Section right away was that it would be more controlled and the likelihood of having to be put under for the surgery was less, the sooner we decided to do it. We asked everyone to go outside so we could discuss the options. Quincy had not slept for over 80 hours at this point so she had to have the options repeated several times. While we were deciding, the nurse in charge of our room that day, Laura, came in and talked to us about the lack of risk in trying the second option and trying to get the epidural dosage ramped up while the Pitocin was being administered. She talked us into that option because she said there were no drawbacks to at least trying it before the C-Section option and because we really wanted to have a vaginal birth. After trying that for a couple of hours, the epidural wore off and Quincy was in the most intense pain of her labor. Before going in for the C-Section she asked to be checked one more time. Dr. Bird performed the exam and told her that she was 9 cm dilated! Quincy decided to keep going because she was so close. She was in agony for about an hour before it was time to start pushing. They gave her the go ahead to start pushing around 2:40. She would do three pushes per contraction and was coached on how exactly to do that by Laura and Dr. Bird. She pushed much faster than expected and at 2:52 PM, Dr. Bird told Quincy to take a breather. Quincy did not hear her (or did not want to hear her) and pushed as hard as she could. Lennon was caught by Dr. Bird, who did not even have time to put on her gloves. In Lennon’s first few minutes in the world, he was put skin to skin with Quincy while Danny put on Beautiful Boy by John Lennon. Quincy was able to request delayed cord clamping as well. Lennon weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces. All three of us were able to spend the night together in a new hospital room even though Lennon had to be under a warmer throughout the night.” – Danny Sullivan
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