Dinosaur&Robot: Gideon’s Birth Story

I know it has been a while since Gideon was born (2 months already!) but here is his birth story, for those interested parties.

I had mild contractions (starting as Braxton Hicks, becoming stronger) from Sunday night the 24th through Tuesday evening. They were consistently 10-12 minutes apart till Tuesday night when they got to 5 minutes apart.

We went to the hospital. The nurse had me walk for an hour which increased the intensity of the contractions, but did not progress my labor. So they sent me home. The nurse was kind of patronizing about my showing up too early, so I was sorry to be going home, but not sorry I’d get a new delivery nurse when we eventually came back.

We had already taken Magnus to Else’s, so we let him stay there that night. I slept through the night fine and Dana had to go to work in the morning. I woke up around 10 am and showered and the contractions started up every 5-7 minutes again. Over the course of the morning, the contractions got stronger and closer together. I called the nurse advice line at the clinic and they gave me the OK to go to the hospital.

I texted Dana at work and he got permission to leave early and come get me. We got to the hospital just after noon. They had me bounce on the birth ball for an hour before committing to let me stay. I had progressed to 5.5 cm and 90% effaced.

After they told me I could stay, I got into the tub. That was about 2 pm. I stayed in the tub 3 hours. I got out just after 5 pm to see how I was progressing. When my midwife checked me, nothing had changed. I was literally the same as when she had checked me before I got into the tub. Grr!

She suggested breaking my water because that usually got things moving along, “although it may make things more intense.” I was pretty tired and hungry at that point and tired of the pain I was already dealing with. I contemplated getting an epidural because they said I still had time for that.

Eventually I decided to skip the epidural and have my water broken. My midwife came and broke my water at 6:18 pm. They had to get some readings of my contractions and the baby before I was allowed to get back in the tub (which is where I really wanted to be.) Suddenly the contractions were VERY strong. They were terrible. After several minutes the nurse told me I could get in the tub and she could try and get the readings there. Dana had already started filling the tub, so I made my way, through the awful contractions, to the tub.

I got my feet in the tub and crouched down to sit in the water when I felt the need to push. I knew they had to check me before I got the OK to push and the nurse helped me get out of the tub and back to the bed. The pain was so strong I could hardly make the few steps from the bathroom to the bed. But I got there and lay down. My midwife checked me and didn’t even have time to tie on her scrub cover. The contractions pushed Gideon’s head out. I pushed twice more and he was all the way out. (His body in one push, his legs on the last). He was born at 6:38.

They let me hold him right away while they cleaned him. He was 9 pounds, 13 ounces, 20.5 inches long. We decided to name him Gideon Orion. We liked the stories about Gideon from the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Orion Rust is an ancestor of mine who wrote his name on Pioneer Register in Capitol Reef NP. Orion Rust is pronounced OR-ion, while we decided to pronounce it o-RI-on.

Gideon was perfect. His hair and eyes were dark and his eyes have only lightened a little. Magnus loves Gideon and when he sees him says, “Awww, Gideon so wiggly!”

Gideon is definitely a different baby than Magnus. His eating and sleeping patterns are completely different as well as what comforts him. We are learning about each other and it’s hard to remember not having Gideon around.

Here is me Tuesday night before going to the hospital.