Don't Sneeze! Logan's Birth Story

Our oldest son Isaac was born February 9th,2014. His birth story was terrible for me. But, he arrived into this world as healthy and happy as can be. And that is all that matters. My husband and I knew we wanted to have another (our original goal was 4 kids) and soon. We planned our wedding for 4 months after Isaac was born. We wanted enough time for me to lose the baby weight (I admit now that it was a lofty goal… almost 5 years later I still think that one of these days I’ll finally lose the baby weight from Isaac’s birth) and I also didn’t want to be breastfeeding during our wedding and honeymoon. So, in my grand plan, I was going to breastfeed Isaac for 4 months and then pump and store so that he would have

enough milk for 6 months. Then I would stop my milk supply, have our wedding, go on our honeymoon, and then we would try for baby number 2 right away. We were pretty close to making that plan a reality except for breastfeeding for me did not go well. I over produced and it was so painful. I will tackle that in another blog entry. Long story short- I pumped for 2 weeks and bottle-fed Isaac, and then moved to formula.

Our wedding was June 7th, 2014 and we left for our honeymoon the day after. I went off birth control in May, because everyone said it would take 3 months for the BC to get out of my system. As soon as we got back from our honeymoon we started trying. By August I had a positive pregnancy test and Logan had the due date of April 1st,2015.

Logan’s pregnancy was pretty rough at first, as I expected it would be. I was very sick, but I knew it was probably going to happen this time since I was so sick with Isaac. Unlike Isaacs pregnancy though, I now had to chase a growing 5-month-old around the house. I still slept on the bathroom floor most of the time with the shower running hot (FYI all that steam is terrible for the paint in your bathroom). But, I managed it day by day. Towards the end of Logan’s pregnancy, I had some tests done to see why I was so sick still. We learned that my body has a difficult time absorbing folic acid. Thanks, prenatal vitamins! So, every day that I took them I was unintentionally making myself sick. I didn’t do much with this information, it was the end of his pregnancy and by this point my husband and I were set with just having two. But I was happy to know why it was happening.

Logan’s birth story is a dream of a birth story. Don’t get me wrong, I still had contractions that hurt like h*ll until I was dilated enough for the epidural (which worked this time!). With each birth, I get my contractions in my lower back on both sides. I had it with Isaac just like this, so I was prepared for them with Logan. Breathing exercises/techniques were the best way I could manage them. My husband also pushing on the spots on my back with his hands to massage me where the contractions were shooting through my back helped a ton too. Bouncing on the ball didn’t work for me and laying in different positions did nothing. The back pushing and breathing where the only things I could do to alleviate the pain.

I went into labor with Logan on March 28th. I had a terrible first experience giving birth to my oldest son Isaac, and I did not want to recreate any component of what happened with him. So, we waited and waited until my contractions where to the point I couldn’t handle them anymore and coming in sharp waves about 5 minutes apart. We were in constant contact with our OB and when they finally gave me the okay to go in, I was ready and determined to not be sent home this time. They were down to 3 minutes apart by the time we got into the car and 1 minute by the time we parked at the hospital.

When I got to the hospital I couldn’t make it in without having to stop every 15 seconds walking through the parking lot. I would hold onto my husband for dear life while I was trying to make my way into the Emergency Room doors and head towards Labor and Delivery. I got so many looks of encouragement and pity from everyone who saw me walk, stop, cry, walk, stop, cry… When we got up to the area, I made it clear I would not go home unless I was with a baby in my arms. They got me set up in triage and started monitoring the contractions. I remember laying on bed and screaming “I can’t do this! I can’t do this!” as the contractions became more intense. My body just doesn’t handle contractions well. I know so many mothers who are like “Contractions? Barely felt them…” Definitely not me.

By the time I was ready for the epidural it was early morning (like 1 or 2am), and I was READY. It was the same anesthesiologist who gave me the epidural for Isaac’s birth. Without blaming him or letting on that he was the same person who gave me the first one, we gave him a brief rundown of how bad Isaac’s birth was for me and really drove home that working epidural would be nice. He nodded and gave me the greatest epidural ever that I have ever received. I fell asleep shortly after and woke up a little after 11am. The last check I had done was around 6am and the nurses let me sleep after that.

Around 11am the nurse came in and asked if I wanted to be checked. I hadn’t felt a thing since the epidural went in so I was on the fence about it. Eventually she said she would check just to see. As soon as I got set up for her to look, she stopped, ordered “DO NOT SNEEZE” and ran to get the doctor.

I asked my husband what was going on, and he told me he could see Logan’s head right there. This didn’t mean much to me since when my husband could see Isaac’s head, I still had a long ways to go before he was out. The doctor was in there in less than a minute. I asked them if Logan would be out in the next 30 minutes and they laughed. “One good push and he will be here” which is what every mother wants to hear. I hadn’t been pushing at all yet and as I adjusted my body and pushed once, Logan entered the world! No rips, no tears, no pain. He was born at 11:18am. He was two days early, 21.5 inches long and weighed 8lb 15.5 ounces. There is absolutely nothing more amazing than that feeling of holding your new born baby. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, but never in my life have I ever been so at peace and happy as when I first held each of my children.

Fun fact, we had decided to name Logan “Harvey” for a solid two months. It’s a family name. But, he used to claw so intensely on my belly towards the end of pregnancy that we changed it to Logan for the Wolverine.