Sunday, July 5, 2015

Brittany Schneider's Birth Story

The Birth of Blake James Schneider

December 7, 2014 Ochsner Baton Rouge



Sunday at 1:20am I woke up to what I thought was just more false labor. Frustrated, I went into the restroom and peed. I noticed thick mucous so I went to wake Brendon who was already half awake.  I told him I was going to take a shower to see if this was real or not. I barely got through the shower with contractions every 8-10 minutes. I started to track them on my phone using an app. I called my doula who had already told me not to go into labor Sunday because her sons christening was that day, go figure! The race started to find me a back-up doula. Around 3am we headed to the hospital, my contractions were then 5-8 minutes apart and getting pretty intense. Thankfully, Katy Soong, a back-up doula raced over to the hospital to be with me. We checked in pretty fast, got into a room, and monitored my contractions and baby’s heart rate for 20 minutes. I was 1.5cm when we got to the hospital. While being monitored Katy began putting clary sage oil on my feet to get labor going. After monitoring I was able to move around. I started by using the exercise ball, and then walked the hallways where my contractions got even more intense. I remember saying to my doula,  “that was the worse one yet” & she would respond “no, that was the best one yet”. (It was such a relief to have her and Brendon by my side encouraging me every step of the way.) After walking the hallways, I went back to the bathroom and proceeded to lose pretty much all of my mucous plug. I then bounced and rolled on the ball and the midwife on call came in. She helped me through my contractions for a bit but her advice for me to find a focal point instead of closing my eyes really threw me for a loop. After I bounced on the ball, I stood up and my water broke. This was about 8am and I was now 4cm dilated & 90% effaced. I remember saying a prayer & thanking God for being able to go into natural labor on my own. From then on I felt his presence every step of the way.
ry=400-7
I got into the tub at 8:45am where the water was about 98 degrees. Immediately I felt so relaxed and I said to myself “I can do this!” I repeated to myself “I am strong, my body and baby can do this” in my head & continued to pray for strength. In the tub things got more intense than ever.
ry=400-16
ry=400-12
ry=400-7-2
The midwife now was Jan; oh goodness she was a saint! I heard the nurse, Rebecca, say I was in transition and after hearing that I knew I could do this. I had to keep sitting up so the nurse could check baby’s heart rate because baby was having decels. After leaning on Katy, Brendon, hands and knees in the tub, standing up, rocking back and forth, cold rags, I finally had to get out the tub. I knew something wasn’t right when I couldn’t get any contraction relief & my stomach stayed hard no matter what.  I was so upset but I was so hot I was feeling like I could pass out at any minute. I remember thinking to myself “I am not getting my water birth I always wanted”.  
ry=400-15





After finally letting the midwife check me, because I was having such intense contractions that she couldn’t before, I found out I was only 5cm. It was now 10:30 and we thought I was already in transition. I looked back at my midwife who had the saddest face while looking at my doula, we were all shocked and disappointed. We then discovered baby was posterior, which causes tremendous labor with coupling transition contractions. Disappointed but in so much pain, I asked for the epidural. I couldn’t believe the words were coming out of my mouth, I was so against medicine when my body was supposed to be doing what it was created to do. I felt defeated, sad, but such relief when it was placed.
ry=400-16-2
ry=400-20
By 12:30 I was 6-7 centimeters and feeling some pressure. The nausea began around then & throwing up while stuck in a bed with no feeling in your legs is no fun. Around 12:40pm baby began having decels during my contractions & my blood pressure was dropping which was really scary for me. By 2pm I was finally 10cm! I was so happy & relieved and couldn’t believe I was about to meet my baby. My nurse came in and started doing practice pushes with me & that’s really when it hit me; looking over at my midwife getting her scrubs on and my doula preparing me. It was like a twilight zone, looking at the group of nurses cheering me on in the background anxious to see if baby was a boy or a girl.
ry=400-26
Jan informed me the on-call OB was going to come in & may have to use a vacuum to get baby’s head to come out. Hearing that word made me push & give me strength I didn’t think I had. About 10min into it the OB let Jan take back over & I felt relieved that my pushing was enough to get my baby out. Half way through pushing Jan spoke of Jesus, telling me He was about to bless me tremendously and how special and beautiful I was. Katy was excitingly telling me how awesome and amazing I was. I was really loved throughout my labor and pushing stage & I felt His presence over me as I pulled out my sweet baby BOY onto my chest.
ry=400-32    ry=400-31
ry=400-44    ry=400-79
ry=400-54
Blake James Tassin was born into this world at 3:02pm weighing in at 7 pounds 11 ounces & 20 ¾ inches long. He was perfect. His face, skin, hair, smell, he was so angelic. Here HE was, my baby, my son, lying on my chest. I couldn’t believe it. Brendon was over the moon to have his son here & perfect in every way. Shortly after my birth our family came into my room & Brendon shouted, “it’s a boy!” as I revealed a tiny blue hat on Blake.
ry=400-107

No comments:

Post a Comment