Rosi’s Birth Story

The week of Rosi’s due date was filled with unexpected large amounts of heavy snow fall which made for a stressful week of chores, animal care with downed fences, and plowing. It was also the first of gun hunting season and my father-in-law was here to hunt. I was trying to remain positive and calm despite these extra things to contend with. We had decided to not hire a doula this time - Paul said he would do the doula and the spouse role. I mean, after over a hundred puppy births, one child birth, and fifty plus sheep births, what more experience do you need!?

On Thursday evening, November 17, Paul and Bria went to sleep by 8pm. I got in bed and read my birth notes of Bria’s labor and shortly after starting having cramps. I decided to let Paul sleep as long as I could since I needed him to be ready to help me later on and he had very little sleep the previous nights since he had to plow at the university. I dozed off in between contractions and around 1:30am I had bloody mucus start coming out and Paul woke up. I told him I was in labor, contractions were 1.5mins long and 9-10mins apart. Later on in the night they were 15-20mins apart. Around 7am I told Paul he should get up and start animal chores just in case things progressed. I texted my parents to let them know that Bria would need to go there that day sometime. Contractions were inconsistent from then on - 10-25mins apart. My parents came and got Bria late morning. Once Paul was done with tasks outside, we sat around working some on our farm fertility plan for next season.

At 2:15pm, we got a call that our ram group was out of their fence (15 mins away in a field that was barely accessible with 4wd). I called one of our workers and asked him to head over to help Paul. Paul headed there with a trailer. I was trying to remain positive at home alone, but didn’t want things to progress too much now. Paul called me and said there was only good news- he got all the rams easily into the trailer, had help towing his rig out, and was on his way home with them. He then had to set up a solid fence paddock for them, get hay and water out, and then do all the other animal evening care. In the meantime, I ate a yogurt and decided I didn’t feel well enough to eat anything else. Paul came in and made himself some burritos for dinner. While he was eating, I had a contraction that lasted 4 mins and he promptly dropped his dinner and said he wanted to go to the hospital. Contractions were still not very close together as we drove there.

We parked in the emergency parking lot in our sprinter van with the heater running and laid down on the mattress in the back. The contractions were still 6+mins apart but started to be very strong through my back and didn’t completely let off inbetween. At about 8:20pm I told Paul maybe we should go into the hospital to be safe. I struggled to walk in and they seem to get more intense and closer together. I thought I would walk to triage but felt I couldn’t so rode in a wheelchair.

In triage, my doctor popped in and asked if I had been checked. I had not. He happened to be walking through after a dinner meeting and saw my name. He checked me and said I was fully dilated. That sent the nurses and doctors into a panic trying to get things ready and move me to the birthing room. Then someone called my doctor to tell him I was there and fully dilated.

I had to move myself onto the bed, try to undress, and wondered when everyone was going to be ready. I was still breathing through contractions. I laid on my right side, felt nauseous and told them I was going to barf, just dry heaved and my water broke. No one noticed so I told them. My doctor asked if I felt the urge to push and I said no. The next contraction I felt like I needed to but tried not since he had left to get more supplies. I then told them all that I was going to start pushing and needed help holding my legs. I pushed through three contractions and out she came at 8:56pm. She laid on me and I cut the cord once it stopped pulsating. I then pushed out the placenta and the doctor stitched my second degree tear. The doctor, resident, and nurses said it was just like on tv and I was so controlled and they never see births like that. I felt so relieved and proud of how I had birthed her and happy that she and I were both healthy. I reminded my doctor that I had told him on Monday that I would see him Friday night at 8pm!

We feel so blessed to have two healthy children when we didn’t expect to even have one! Please read our infertility posts below, if you haven’t already.