leo's birth story

This is the story of Leo Grant Hardin's birth. Born February 25th at 6:37 a.m. weighing 9 lbs and measuring 22 inches long. We are so smitten with this baby boy who perfectly completes our little family. 

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So here we were again waiting on baby, and boy did I want this baby out. Mentally, I had a harder time waiting for Charlie who was 8 days past his due date. This time with Leo, I was mentally prepared for the waiting, but I was so physically done with being pregnant. It was certainly harder this go-round – probably because I had a toddler to chase around, kitchen renovation to oversee and a traveling husband for much of this pregnancy. I also experienced this really fun nerve pain just below my ribs that became almost constant in the last couple of weeks.

I did everything I could think of to help evict this baby. Despite my best efforts, he was determined to give his older brother a run for his money. I went to the chiropractor on Wednesday, my midwife tried to jump-start things with a membrane sweep on Thursday, and finally, I had acupuncture on Friday. I’m not sure which of these things gets the credit, but by Saturday afternoon just after 1:00 p.m. I finally started having contractions. At first, I really didn’t pay much attention to them. Over the last week or so, I’d had a few times where contractions would last for 1-2 hours and then fizzle out. I just assumed that was happening again, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

It wasn’t until just after dinner (shrimp tacos that I could barely eat) around 7:00 p.m. that I started to feel they were getting a little more intense, but there still wasn’t much of a pattern forming and they were several minutes apart. I took a bath, drank a little wine, and we watched a few episodes of The West Wing. Around 10:00 p.m. I decided I should just try to go to sleep…still thinking there was a good chance they’d go away while I slept. I rested for about 2 hours (meanwhile, Jon was not so much in denial and started to get ready to head to the hospital).

By 1:00 a.m., it became apparent I was not going to sleep, and I went back to timing the contractions, which were getting longer and more intense, but were still about 4.5-5 minutes apart. We decided to call the midwife at 1:45 to get her advice on how soon we should come in. At this point, I think I finally accepted that I was in labor and it wasn’t going to stop – probably right about the time I moved from early to active labor. The midwife initially advised we should come within the hour, but by the time the call was over, we all agreed we should leave now.

I was still a little worried we were going in too soon because I was totally fine in between contractions – able to talk, think straight, etc. We called our doula Cara to let her know we were headed in soon so she could meet us at the hospital. God bless doulas who answer their phones at all hours of the night! While I kept questioning the decision, I had a pretty strong contraction that caused me to start shaking. That’s when I knew it was time. We were in the car on our way to the hospital by 2:10 a.m. On the car ride, contractions started coming every 3 minutes. By the time we were checked in at the hospital around 2:45 a.m., they were about 2 minutes apart.

I must say that arriving at the hospital in the middle of the night was so calm. It’s a busy, urban hospital usually bustling with traffic so I really enjoyed the empty, quiet hospital that greeted me this time (compared to Charlie’s birth when we arrived in the middle of the day). We had to use the emergency room entrance where a nice man was waiting to escort us to the elevators and up to labor & delivery. He offered me a wheelchair, but that just seemed silly so I walked. Much better than riding in a crowded elevator while in labor! They were ready for us at L&D so check-in was a breeze. It was also great because L&D was very quiet that night. There was plenty of room at the inn. I had heard that sometimes they get so full and second babies come so fast that they’ve had deliveries in the triage area before. That kind of sounded like my worst nightmare so I was relieved to arrive to have a good midwife on call, wonderful nurses, and not as many laboring women vying for rooms and attention from the staff.

And last, but not least, it was a great night to have a baby because it was my birthday! I’d been saying for months – as soon as I found out my due date – that this baby was going to come 7 days late on my birthday. I remember looking down at my hospital bracelet and seeing that it said my age was “32” now. That was the first time it really hit me that this baby was going to share my birthday with me. I really can’t think of a better (or more painful ;) way to spend my birthday.

We started out in (an empty) triage area because we wanted to wait for one of the L&D rooms with a tub –it just needed to be cleaned before we could move over there. Our nurse was really lovely, and another one volunteered to go start filling the tub so it would be ready as soon as I moved over. They hooked me up for my antibiotics (since I was GBS positive a dose of antibiotics was recommended to protect the baby from contracting strep during delivery). There was a student midwife Rachel there that night, and Whitney was the main midwife on call. I was so happy to have her for this delivery. She was exactly who I needed that night.

They checked my progress, and I was dilated about 6-8 cm at this point. I guess I really was in labor! After about 45 minutes in triage, we moved to the delivery room. I spent the next couple of hours in transition. It was totally different this time because I was very present. With Charlie, it almost felt like an out of body experience where I kind of just went inside myself to get through the contractions. I remember almost nothing of the time I spent in transition with Charlie. But this time, I was more aware and engaged while I was in labor. I was also much more verbal – talking in between contractions, voicing what I needed, and asking questions. I did get into the tub, but I didn’t stay in as long because I was getting too warm. I fully planned to get back in the tub for delivery, but I spent most of the time laboring out of the tub.

At this point, you may have noticed I haven’t mention anything about my water breaking…because it hadn’t, and after a few hours of active labor it was starting to become an issue. Baby was still pretty high and needed to descend in order to his way out. As I continued to labor, I think I became more and more aware of the fact that we weren’t really getting anywhere.

Around 6:00 a.m. I asked my doula if my water needed to break in order for baby to come. I knew it was possible for babies to be born “en caul,” but I also knew it was extremely rare. My doula confirmed what I suspected – my water probably needed to break in order for baby to be born. My next question was asking if the midwife could break my water for me. She advised we could call Whitney in and have a discussion about it. I knew it was the kind of intervention the midwives usually tried to avoid. But at this point, I was getting tired (you may remember that I hadn’t slept), and even worse, I was getting discouraged. I felt like progress was stalling, and it didn’t help that all of the things we were trying to encourage baby to descend made the contractions more intense.

Whitney came in a few minutes later, agreed to check my progress, and then talk about next steps. Sure enough, I was fully dilated, but my water needed to break. She agreed that this may be a unique situation where an intervention may help, but first she asked me to try one last position laying on my side for a few more contractions. It was pretty awful, but I powered through for 3-4 contractions with no luck.

She started to walk us through the risks of breaking my water for me. Jon and I were about to talk about it (turns out, I would have said “yes” and Jon was leaning toward giving it more time – easy for the one who isn’t in labor to say!) and make a decision, but before we could even respond, you guessed it, my water broke.

It was incredibly startling and overwhelming. I still thought I could potentially have hours of labor left, but as soon as my water broke, baby was more than ready to make his appearance. We went from 0-60 in an instant. I think everyone could read the panic on my face as I immediately yelled “He’s coming!”

But this is where Whitney was really amazing. She knew I was panicked by how quickly things were happening, but she took control of the room. She looked me in the eye, told me to stay calm and reassured me that everything was just as it should be. I felt completely out of control, but she guided me through what to do, when to push, when to breath, and finally when to reach down and help pull my baby to my chest. At 6:37 a.m., approximately 6 minutes after my water broke and with just a few frantic pushes, Leo was here.

Looking back on it, I can see why it was all so startling to me. With Charlie, I pushed for 2.5 hours because he wasn’t in an optimal position. I had a long time to work toward and mentally prepare for his arrival. It was a much more gradual process that I could control, and I had pretty decent breaks in between contractions during the pushing stage with Charlie. While I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to push for hours this time with Leo, it was completely out of my element for everything to happen so fast without much warning. Luckily, Leo was in a perfect position, and I was already at the hospital when my water did break. Had my water broken earlier in labor while we were still home, there is a good chance we would have had this baby at home. Yikes!

Leo gave out a good cry as I pulled him up to my chest. And just like that, all was right with the world. He was a big baby – apparently that’s just how I grow them. 9 lbs and 22 inches long. He has the longest fingers and toes, deep blue eyes, and lots of hair that’s pretty dark – we have no idea where the darker hair comes from. We’ll see if it stays this color!

I’m so thankful to have had two healthy, safe and natural deliveries. Although they were completely different experiences, they were very similar in some ways. I spent about 6+ hours in early labor with both boys and then roughly 6 hours in active labor. The hours were just dispersed differently – more pushing with Charlie, more time in transition with Leo. 

Welcome to the world, little lion man. Mama, Dada and big brother Charlie love you very much.

Joys of being at a teaching hospital :)

Getting dressed to go home!