Spencer - Lynden - Marleigh: June 2008

Lynden's Birth

I don’t think my pregnancies or labor & deliveries could have been any different. I found out I was pregnant with Lynden on Jan. 12^th, 2006. It was Lisa’s 31^st birthday & Mom’s 50^th surprise birthday party. Mom totally didn’t know. She thought it was a surprise party for Lisa, so when she showed up with gift in hand, it was priceless. Anyway, Amy & I had gone to Wal-mart that day & she talked me into getting a pregnancy test. I had taken so many tests over the last several months that there was no part of me that thought it might actually be positive. But sure enough, it was! We were so excited. It was very surreal the first couple months. I had heartburn pretty much from the get go. It slowed down about mid pregnancy but came back full force toward the end. I was so sick the first 24 weeks or so. That was not fun at all. I couldn’t even so much as think about mushrooms or chicken fat without running to the bathroom. I couldn’t handle a lot of smells. We went to Red Lobster for Valentine’s Day and the left overs were making me gag so they had to ride home in the trunk. The smell started to waft into the car shortly before we got home but I managed to keep dinner down. I was also really congested (same as with Spencer). That didn’t help. Once I got over that it was pretty good. I first heard his heartbeat on Feb. 23^rd. I first felt him move on March 30^th, Michael didn’t feel him until May 4^th. We had our first ultrasound on April 28^th, (Uncle Jason’s 28^th birthday). He waived his little toes at us but didn’t let us see anything else. That was a little disappointing. So we had to wait until June 7^th to find out that he was a proud boy. We were so happy. We didn’t really care if it was a boy or a girl. It was so hot that summer (7^th hottest on record)! That was the big challenge toward the end, not to mention, I felt the size of a planet. Lynden was so so active. From fairly early on he would roll & kick & turn dozens and dozens of times a day. Spencer was active too & I could watch my stomach roll with him also, but nothing compared to Lynden. It was unreal how much he moved & it was so awesome. I love that part about being pregnant so much. It is amazing feeling a little life move inside of you. I also felt from early on that he would be a feisty kid, a sassy little rascal. Sometimes I would call him Amy. She was a feisty kid. At 26 weeks I got pretty dehydrated & started having contractions in my back two different nights. Those were very painful, nothing like Braxton hicks. From then on I was downing water like crazy. Having had a C-section with Spencer, I was hoping to have a VBAC for several reasons. First of all, a C-section is major surgery. Secondly, it is horribly painful to recover from, and third, Michael & I want several kids & C-sections can limit the number of kids you can have. When attempting a VBAC there are more precautions that have to be taken due to a risk of uterine rupture. In my situation, that risk is a 0.6% chance of having problems. Anyway, around 35 weeks Dr. Moffett suggested I have a dula. Teresa Barstow was her best friend and she had been a nurse in the maternity ward for the last 25 years & had participated in several home births. She asked her to help & thankfully she was thrilled. I was so excited about this & she was wonderful! She also lived just a few miles down the road from us. After studying up on VBACs, Michael & I decided that we would wait for the baby to come on his own, that Teresa would come to our house & I would labor at home as long as I felt comfortable, then we would go to the hospital. By this time Dr. Moffett had moved her practice to Berryville (1 hour from our house, but she was well worth the drive). The main reason that we wanted to stay home for a while was because as a VBAC patient, I would have to be hooked up & monitored the entire time I was at the hospital. I started having some contractions around 38 weeks or so. They were never very regular and would only last a few hours at a time every few days or so. They were annoying more than anything. Because Spencer weighed 8lb 13 oz, it was a concern that Lynden would get too big. At 39 weeks I had a 3^rd ultrasound (Sept. 6^th) to check his size. The ultrasound showed his weight at 7lb 2oz. Once I heard that I felt really good about waiting for him to come on his own. Michael, Dr. Moffett, Teresa & I were all on the same page. It was good. My due date was Thursday Sept. 14^th & it came & went. I did certain exercises to better get him in the right position to deliver. Although I wanted him to come when he was ready, I was getting miserable fast. I was so thankful to be able to carry this baby to term, but once I passed my due date I was even more uncomfortable & more cranky if you can imagine (mostly a mental thing). The last week or so I was so ready & I couldn’t stand one more person asking “you haven’t had that baby yet?” or “when ya gonna have that baby?” It was driving me crazy. The last time I checked, the small talk questions weren’t getting me there any faster. I’m not talking about our families or the people we were close to. I’m talking about people I didn’t know very well & didn’t know us, including strangers (that’s right, strangers). Bless their hearts! I didn’t even go to church the last two Sundays I was pregnant. I know it was no walk in the park to tolerate me either. There was even one day I refused to take phone calls, (sorry for those of you that affected). I just wanted to sit home & feel sorry for myself in peace & quiet & sweat. Anyway, I knew that I could only go over my due date so many days before something would have to be done. On Tuesday Sept 26^th , (12 days over) I had a Dr. appt . I had a stress test & Lynden was doing great, just sitting pretty in there. Dr. Moffett said that he was low enough & appeared to be in the right position that she thought it would be safe to break my water. She left the room so I could call Michael & talk to him about it. We decided that since there were only a couple more days before she would have to break my water anyway, to do it! I was a little nervous, but excited & tired of being pregnant. Plus, Lisa was leaving for Florida on Saturday & I really wanted her to be there and it could have taken a couple days to go into labor even after my water was broken. This was around 11:00. I left the Dr. office & went to the hospital to see my best friend Heather who had just had her baby the day before. That was so cool (even though she was due over 3 weeks after me), still cool! Anyway, I went home to get some rest & clean up a little. I did neither one. I had some painful contractions throughout the day here & there. They started getting more frequent, more regular & more intense around 4:00. Judy came over shortly after that & Michael got home around 5:30. By that time I was in full blown labor & the contractions only got harder & closer from there. Judy took Spencer with her & we called Teresa. She got to our house around 6:15. She checked me & I was at 3 cm. I thought I would be farther because my contractions were very painful. From there I got in the tub, walked around, knelt at the couch, got a massage, etc., whatever I could do to stay as comfortable as possible. I spent most of my time in a hot bath. I was falling asleep in between contractions. Teresa had a hand held heart monitor & would check Lynden’s heart rate about every half hour. Teresa checked me around 9:30 & I was dilated to 6 cm & having a few “pushy” contractions (these are extremely painful & almost impossible to breathe through). She was keeping Dr. Moffett updated all evening. I was feeling like I could use a little something for pain. Amy & Lisa came over & got the van. Teresa & I loaded up in the backseat of her Explorer while Michael drove. He called everyone else on the way. We left our house around 10:00. I think I had my eyes closed almost the entire time. Each time I had a contraction I would roll down my window & let the cool wind blow on my face as I breathed through them. It was relaxing I guess. This was certainly one of the longest hours of my life. We got to the hospital around 11:00. Dr. Moffett was waiting at the door for us. At this point I could barley walk, the contractions were so hard. I couldn’t do anything during a contraction. I would double over & would have hit my knees every time if Michael had not been right there by my side. He was so great the entire time. She checked me & I was dilated to 8 cm. The hospital had not pre-registered me right so I had to sign some papers which seemed to take forever. All I wanted was a shot & a scalding bath (for real, the water could not get too hot to suit me). Teresa was running me a bath while I am getting my IV in (because of the VBAC thing). Finally the nurse gave me a half a shot of nubain & I got in the tub. The tub was absolute HEAVEN! It was a deep tub & had jets in it. It took a few minutes for the shot to kick in but once it did it helped out a lot. It did not seem to bring down the intensity of my contractions, but it slowed them down for about an hour & a half. My contractions went from being about 1 minute apart to about 4-5 minutes apart allowing me to rest in between them & to fall asleep. I camped there until I had to get out. After about an hour & a half, the shot had worn completely off & my contractions were back to back again & almost every one was a pushy one. I would start out trying to breathe through them but by the peak of it all I could do was yell out. It was getting close. Teresa had been having me take a drink of herbal tea all night & even when I was pushing. It was an amazing experience but the pain was so intense. I got out of the tub at 1:15 am. Dr. Moffett checked me & I was at 9 ½ cm. I was ready to push. I have heard people say that it felt so good to push & when I was asked that I thought they were crazy. My body was pushing so hard with each contraction that my pushing along with it just made the pain worse, but I did it. I pushed with all my might. About half way through pushing Michael went & got Mom, Amy, Lisa & Brandy. He was such a power house & so supportive. Dr. Moffett & Teresa were great also. Everyone else never made a peep until it was over. At the end I remember Dr. Moffett saying, “OK sweetie, 2 more contractions & this baby will be out….push, push, push!!!” but it didn’t take 2, it took 3, (probably not an important piece of the story, I just remember it). After about 45 minutes, Lynden Burnett Coffman made his entrance into the world @ 1:58 am on September 27, 2006! He weighed 8lb 8.6oz & was 20 inches long. When he was first, first born my first thought was “Thank you Jesus, it’s over!” Dr. Moffett wiped him down. He had his cord around his neck (1 out of 4 do). He didn’t cry at first until she roughed him up a little with the blanket. Then he made a noise that sounded just like a puppy’s whimper. She almost instantly put him on my chest. He was so sweet. He didn’t look anything like Spencer like I thought he would. He looked like Amy. Everyone was just snapping away. I couldn’t believe it was over. I just closed my eyes in gratitude. He was so sweet just looking around. I instantly loved him as much as I loved Spencer. It was hard to imagine loving another child as much as I loved Spencer. I thought that I loved Spencer with every amount & dept of love I had in me & I did. I must have just created more of that love for Lynden as soon as I first seen him. We instantly couldn’t imagine our lives without him. He was a beautiful newborn. He was so alert. It took about an hour to get everything & Lynden cleaned up. I nursed him for a little bit but he wasn’t very interested. Everyone else came in around 3:00. Spencer liked him, but wasn’t sure what to think. Plus he was really tired. Lynden was still wide awake & was until about 5:00. I couldn’t believe it. He appeared to just be checking everything & everyone out. The nurses took him around 5:00 to bathe him & everyone left. Michael & I got maybe 1 ½ hours of sleep & we were back up wide awake. He went to get us breakfast & I called all our closest friends to share our wonderful news. I took a bath (that was wonderful)! Several people came to visit that day. Spencer smiled the same smile the whole time he was there. He wanted to hold the baby but not for too long. He was so precious. It was an amazing experience. I think I had under underestimated natural birth a little until then. It was crazy painful, especially the last couple hours (they kicked my tail) and, when it was over, it was over for the most part, but my entire body was so so sore (not anywhere near c-section sore though) the next several days from using every single muscle in it to get him here. Although my contractions got a lot harder with Lynden than Spencer, it was over a lot faster & didn’t involve major surgery. With Spencer it took about 4 weeks before I felt half way human again. This was a great experience, painful but great. This time I was up 3 hours after delivery & felt like I could do anything in the world (OK, maybe not anything). I was able to adjust to being the Mom of a toddler and a newborn very quickly. I am so thankful that everything went so great. I certainly give all that glory to God for dealing me the wonderful hand that He did in this experience. I am well aware of how easily I could have been dealt something different. He is so good to me & my family. We are so blessed! We left the hospital around 12:30 Thursday afternoon & made it home around 2:00 after a drive thru detour at Taco Bell – I was starving! I was starving every few hours the first few days after he was born. I’m surprised I lost any baby weight during that time.