Birth Story of Alexander John

Walking around day 1, with a full on head cold

Dear Alexander,

This is your birth story. My hope is that someday you will cherish this letter and understand how deeply loved you are. Your story begins on a sunny winter Wednesday....   

Wednesday, February 22, 2012: We went to the hospital for a fourty-one weeks ultrasound. Mommy was still only dilated to one centimeter and you were being stubborn. Mary, the Midwife did a non-stress test twice. You weren't moving around much at that time so we decided to stay at the hospital. Mom got a dose of Cervadil (this helps soften her cervix) overnight and tried to rest even though we were quite excited.

Thursday, February 23, 2012: Twelve hours of anticipation and nothing happened overnight. The decision was made to start mom on Pitocin, this is a synthetic hormone that creates contractions. This is when the real work began for mom. The contractions didn't pick up for a while but eventually they became more intense. Mom’s water broke around 4:00pm and the contractions really picked up after that but died down around 8:00pm. Eventually our Midwife stopped the Pitocin and gave mom another round of Cervadil overnight. You weren't ready to be an outside baby just yet.  So mom got a shot of Morphine to help with pain and sleep.

Friday, February 24th, 2012: Pitocin was started again at 8:00am and the contractions really picked up around 11:00am. Unfortunately our Doula, Jonna was unavailable that morning so a volunteer Doula, Anna came to support us and she was amazing! During labor mom tried many different positions but nothing was working, not even the bath tub. She was still at one centimeter after all of that work. At 3:00pm she got a dose of Fentanyl to try and take the edge off the non-stop contractions. They were right on top of each other and mommy knew she still had the real work of pushing to do. Two more doses of Fentanyl didn't help. The whole time she kept her deep breathing and HypnoBirthing methods going with positive energy. Knowing that getting through the pain and fatigue would produce the best gift ever, YOU! At 5:00pm we finally decided to go with an epidural, a heavy duty pain reliever. Immediately after this, mom dilated to a three. There was so much joy that all the hard work was paying off. Rebecca, our Midwife, was like an angel sent from above. She was a spit-fire and made sure we kept the "get that baby out" vibe going. Jonna arrived at 5:45pm and set out candles and gave mom some lavender for relaxation. Mom had a head cold all week so she couldn't even smell it. At 6:45pm they put an internal monitor in to track the contractions. At that point she was dilated to five centimeters, negative one station and 100% effaced. Dilation happened slowly and at 10:45pm mom was seven centimeters.

Saturday, February 25th, 2012: At 4:45am mom was eight centimeters dilated. Two hours later mom’s cervix gave and felt the urge to push. Excitement filled the room. After one hour and fourteen minutes of pushing at 8:14am YOU WERE BORN! Jessica was the Midwife on shift but she had a student Tracy with her. Tracy helped mommy bring you into this world. She was a very big part of the birthing process and helped mom through pushing.

While I was laboring I heard dad’s words of encouragement,  "Alex is almost here, you’re doing great!". "Oh my gosh babe he is so close, you are amazing", “I see his head”, “Just one more push his head is out, I see hair”. “We have a son, Alex is here he is really here. I am so proud of you mommy".  As you were placed on my chest I was in a state of shock. YOU are my son. I am not sure how I ever got so lucky to have two men in my life that I love so much.

7.11 lbs, 19" long

After Birth: Grandma Schindeldecker was the first visitor. I was so happy to see her and introduce you to one of your Grandma’s (Grandpa was sick). We both cried as soon as she walked into the room and it was a great feeling. Grandma and Pappa Menier, Keyon too were the next to come visit. The rest of the family came throughout our stay. Everyone fell in love with you from the second they met you.

Night shifts: The first night as a family was a little scary. After everyone left and the nurses let us be dad and mom you gave us quite a scare while changing your first diaper. Complete with meconium (black poop) you had brown spit up and were choking and gasping for air. After flagging down a nurse we learned you might do this a few more times and is normal. The second night was a little better as we had a small idea of how to do this thing call being parents.

Monday, February 27th, 2012: Mommy's 30th birthday! BEST. GIFT. EVER. We started off the day attending a breast feeding class. Since Woodwinds is a healing and homeopathic based hospital mom was able to receive a complementary Acupuncture session and a healing touch massage. After a very long and stressful labor, both were very relaxing and gave mom positive energy. Today was a very emotional day for us and Mom had tears in her eyes most of the day. We were on cloud-nine. After the Healing Touch massage, Molli the lactation nurse came in for a one-on-one. While we were wrapping up the spiritual volunteer came by and asked if she could offer a blessing. We were blown away with this and jumped at the chance. So we all held our hands over you as the volunteer read the Blessing. YES mommy was again crying even daddy had tears in his eyes. It was finally time to pack up and bring you home. As we were walking out they had a grand piano in their common area and the pianist was playing the theme song to Beauty and the Beast, Tale as old as time...True as it can be...Just a little change...Both a little scared...Neither one prepared. Alexander you were loved from the second we found out we were pregnant and you will always be loved. Thank you for picking us. 

My dearest Alexander, we have waited our whole lives to meet you. In the few moments of realizing our dreams coming true you were given to us as gift from God. We were a family. From that moment we were no longer two souls walking this earth, we were a family. A perfect family.