Chessidy's Birth Story by Trent

In case you were thinking this might be a repeat of Ila's birth story, please kindly take your pessimism to some other blog!!  This story helps highlight, among other things, a new appreciation for healthcare workers and the beautiful teamwork that took place among our birth team members which included the hospital staff and doctor.

Chessidy's birth started the same, it seemed, as Ila's.  Good progression in the weeks leading up to the birthday, and leaving the doctor's office with encouraging words that it is likely "going to be today, and happen fast!"
Nicole started having fairly regular contractions right away on Thursday the 19th ranging from 10 to 15 minutes apart.  By the time I got home from work she was having them about 8 to 10 minutes apart, but we had some house hunting plans, and decided to continue with them, in an effort to spur on the labor.  It sure seemed like it was working, and by the time we were done looking at places we called our Doula and started in with our plan of making it to the hospital a little sooner for the birth.

We ended up checking in to our lovely birth room around 10:30pm on April 19th and were all expecting to hear that the baby was all but out.  To our surprise Nicole was still about 4cm dilated, which is what she had been at 6 hours earlier during her appointment.  We just figured that we hadn't really hit the "hard" contractions yet, and rolled up our sleeves (because the room was warm) and started in with our mantra!

Three or so hours later the nurses were excited with all of the positive labor, and attitudes and said we might be nearing the "pushing part" and offered to give Nicole a little checky-wecky.  Well, she was progressed to 7cm, which was positive, because that meant that we were definitely moving forward to the birth, but we were all a little miffed that it was now 2:00am and we were just starting the hard part!!!

That wasn't enough to phase this team though, and the nurses were encouraging and helpful in lots of ways.  However, by the time 4:00am rolled around, and Nicole was still not fully dilated, suggestions started being murmured of breaking Nicole's bag of waters to help urge things along.  We said we were open to that if it was going to be beneficial, but we didn't want to just do it and then find ourselves not progressing AND being in lots of pain from the missing cushion of waters.  The time for the water to be broken came when our doctor gave Nicole the go-ahead to start pushing because she had finally dilated (around 5:30am on 4/20).  Nicole asked if she could push a little bit to see if the waters would burst on their own.  After a couple really good pushes, she politely requested for the intervention.

Since Chessidy was positioned so low breaking the bag of waters didn't appear to accomplish too much since only about a tablespoon of water drizzled out.  However, this took some of that hydraulic pressure off of the cervical area and allowed for the pushing to drive little Chessidy on through.  The drive involved a change in positions from sitting up in the bed to kneeling while facing the bed.  This position allowed gravity to help with the descending little one.  As Grandma pointed out later, "Gravity: it's not just a good idea, it's the law!"

So with just a few more pushes Chessidy graced us with her entry to the world at a healthy 9 lbs, 2.1 oz; 22 inches long, with a head circumference of 35 centimeters!  I was able to clamp and cut the cord, after we re-positioned Nicole to have some skin to skin contact with Chessidy and the cord stopped pulsing.  The placenta also came out without having to be tugged on or anything like that.

Within a couple hours we were in a new room recuperating and getting used to life with Chessidy Light.  The nurses and doctors were all we could have ever hoped for, and left us feeling well cared for, and valued.  They appreciated our concerns, and didn't pressure us to make conventional decisions, and they were very helpful and attentive when we needed explanations about certain nuances in practices or procedures.  This was important to us because of the disenchantment we experienced with healthcare professionals with Ila's birth.  We wanted to feel more trustworthy of our local healthcare facility and Chessidy helped us do that with her birth.