Wehadababyitsaboy!

It's a BOY! Aaron William Gerritsen arrived Wednesday, September 19 at 4:21 pm. He weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 in. long.

I might as well start at the beginning of Aaron's birth story. I had a rough pregnancy with Audrey and I hate being pregnant anyway so although neither Jeremy nor I felt that our family was complete, I wasn't anxious to have another baby. Instead I decided to give myself a nice long break before the next one. I was quite content, and even overwhelmed at times, with the three kids we had. I joked with Jeremy that in order to have another one I'd have to make some deals with God so it wouldn't be so hard on me. As usual, God had different plans. One day I had a special spiritual experience and told Jeremy it was time for another baby. It was only a few weeks later that I found out I was pregnant. I think we were both surprised, but I felt so much peace about it all.

I really wanted to have a natural birth experience again. I did some research and decided to have a midwife this time. You can read about that here. There were a few things about my birth plan that I began to fixate on (not really sure why) like using the tub and not having an IV. Despite all my plans and the fact that I was dilated and 80% effaced for weeks, the baby wasn't coming. I started to develop pre-eclampsia and was a week past my due date, so we decided I needed to be induced. I knew once I was induced, the labor was out of my hands and I had to follow all the hospital procedures like being stuck in my room with monitors and an IV and no tub. I was really upset by this, but I there wasn't any thing I could do about it, expect eat a couple brownies and have a good cry.

We went in to St. Mark's Hospital on Wednesday morning. It took awhile for everything to get started since we had a student nurse as well as a regular nurse and Eve (my midwife) and I had originally thought that we'd break my water first and not start pitocin. Then I decided to just go ahead with the pit because I wanted to get it over with, but the nurses didn't realize this. So it was pretty slow going at first. One of the check-in questions was, "What would you like your pain level to stay below?" I laughed and said, "I don't know how to answer that. It's going to get really bad." Since I was dilated to a 5.5 and having steady contractions about 5-10 minutes apart when I came in we thought just a little bit of pitocin would do the trick, but again that baby did not want to come out. My nurses were great and Eve came in often just to check on us and chat. I liked that she let it be my decision when to get checked or break my water.

After she broke my water, at about 1:30 pm, the contractions finally really kicked in. At this point I started to wonder if I should just get an epidural. I wasn't feeling a strong desire to prove to myself that I could do a natural birth like I felt with Audrey. I was still feeling discouraged about being induced and how slowly it was going. But mostly I didn't want to get off the birthing ball and lay in that bed. So I gave myself a pep talk. About that point I started to feel impatient. I could feel the baby's head and wanted to start pushing. I got in bed and that's when the pain got "really bad." Eve checked me and said I had just a little left. One more excruciating contraction and I was ready to go.

With Sam and Audrey this is the point when I felt like my body just took over and it was like I was almost outside of myself and then they came out with just a few pushes. This time though, I was very aware of what was happening and felt more frustrated than empowered. The nurses started to panic a bit about placing the baby's monitor and giving me oxygen. I was pushing as hard as I could, but it didn't seem like the baby was coming out. I pushed for probably 20 minutes this time until finally the sweet relief of delivery came at 4:21 pm. They put the baby right on me and I asked Jeremy, "What is it? What is it?" It took him a second to check and then he said, "It's a boy," much to his surprise, but not so much mine. ( I thought it was the whole time.)

I was surprised that he was so big, but that explains why the pushing was so hard. I tore a little and had to have a couple stitches. Eve laughed that we'd had that ultrasound a few weeks before because I was measuring small. It was so relieving to have the pregnancy and delivery over with. In the end it's all worth it. It's always funny to me at this point because when I come in everyone seems skeptical that I want to go natural and then afterwards they are so surprised. Eve said she'd never seen anyone have so much control in labor (and she was a nurse for 10 years and a midwife for 7.) As terrible as I am at being pregnant, I am somehow really good at labor.

Aaron is the sweetest baby. He's a tough little guy and hardly was bothered by all the tests at the hospital. He wanted to suck the moment he was born, so he's a great nurser and a decent sleeper so far. In the end, I'm happy with how everything went. The nurses and care at St. Mark's were great and I loved having a midwife. Even though it didn't all go according to my plan, it was a good experience. And of course now it's all clouded by the love I have for our amazing baby.