Remington's Birth Story

A story that begins with a little fear and a lot of excitement and ends with a baby boy nestled in my arms 8 1/2 hours later.

Many of you know that since the horrendous labor story of my first child I have been drawn to do this child birth thing all natural with no meds. I contend that, although it is hard work (they don't call it labor for nothing), my recovery is so much quicker.

We have been ready to meet our little bundle of joy since the test came back positive, since the ultrasound came back with male anatomy in the picture and more so in the last few weeks before delivery. I was one of those crazy people who nested myself almost out of a nest. I cooked, I cleaned every surface in the house over and over again. From the moment my midwife said, "ok you are term and if labor started now we wouldn't stop it"....it was my license to get labor started. Especially since Harper was 9 days late....I was not about to go through that again.

Four days before my due date I had a regular pre-natal appointment in which my blood pressure was a wee bit high. After taking it 3 more times and it continuing to rise I was sent home and encouraged to relax and come back on Friday for a blood pressure check.

Thursday morning I got up and just didn't feel right. I was nauseous with a headache. I called the doctor who said to come in so we could check the blood pressure. It was high again. She sent me home to get a baby sitter for Harper with instructions to be back within the hour. Everyone was called, we found a sitter, found someone to pick up Sydney from school, got the grandparents on their way here, called the doula and away we went to the hospital.

I was induced with cytotech at 12:00 and then walked the halls.....9.million.times. Contractions were happening, I was making progress, my doula arrived, we joked and laughed, I contracted through it. The contractions were regular early on, but not intense until way later. I really thought it would be another quick labor. Babies have a funny way of fooling you. As the hours pressed on, the pain became more intense. I started to doubt if I could do this. My doula was amazing. My husband was phenomenal. Words of encouragement streamed from both of them. "You can do this", "You are unbelievable", "You are strong and beautiful", "this is a beautiful gift you are giving your baby".....on and on they encouraged me. Sarah tells me when it got really bad she would see Aaron shake his head, turn away, wipe his eyes, gather his strength and find more words of encouragement to whisper to me. My work was the toughest, but it can't be a picnic to watch your wife in that much pain and discomfort. Around the 8:00 hour was when the contractions became almost unbearable. But I had these two people that continued to tell me that I could do this, that I was doing this and that it was almost over. Around 10:00 I could feel myself push at the top of the contraction. I remember Sarah saying "push with your body, not with your voice" - clearly I was getting noisy. The midwife came in to check and said, "You are doing it, Courtney. Listen to your body and go with it." The rest of the delivery I had almost no direction from anyone. I didn't need it. My body was completely in charge. At 10:30 my midwife said "he's crowning". I pushed one more time after that and out he came at 10:34. It was beautiful. He cried immediately. He was ready to nurse immediately. He is a fantastic baby. So far, he almost never cries, he sleeps very well and is a champion nurser. The dude loves to eat.

I could have never done it without my amazing doula and unbelievable husband.

I am blessed.