Martinsen Musings : A Birth Story: Thomas Lyle

Waiting for this baby boy to be born was one of the most trying times of my life. Hands down! I have never felt so impatient before. It didn't help that he was the longest pregnancy I've had and the most uncomfortable...he was posterior, so it all makes sense now!

His pregnancy was different than any other of my children's. I can't exactly put it into words...it was just different. I had days early on where I was SURE he was a girl because I spent a couple days here and there kneeling over the toilet so so sick. My other children were definitely on their own those few times as I spent nearly all day in bed. Laneys pregnancy was so hard in the beginning too so I just assumed, ok, it's a girl, I am so sick.

Then I would have a few days where I didn't feel one ounce of sickness or being tired! Somedays I questioned if I was even pregnant anymore. So that felt a lot like my boys pregnancy's. I was just thrown for a loop the whole 9 months with him.

Around 10 weeks pregnant I ordered a sneak-peek-test where you prick your finger and send the blood in to a lab and they tell you the gender within a week. So by 11 weeks we knew he was a boy! That was really fun to know the gender before announcing I was pregnant. Doing that blood test at my friends house was hilarious and just all around fun.

We announced we were pregnant to family around Mothers Day, so I was around 14/15 weeks. I really just wanted to wait as long as possible to announce but I am not one of those lucky ones who doesn't show early on. My belly was sure growing and it was getting harder to keep it a secret! We had a fun 9 months waiting for him to arrive, in the midst of it all we moved to a new house, so we had a lot of changes last year!

Fast forward to about 38.5 weeks. At his point it was unbearable to move. Everything hurt, so I was sure he was going to come early like my others did. I got everything ready...my house was usually always clean too just in case! I saw a chiropractor the last few weeks which helped ease the pain too so I felt like he was totally going to arrive early. False. Those last couple of weeks were so hard! It didn't help that the last few appointments I had they kept mentioning my weight gain and that I was at risk for him being stuck. I kind of brushed it off and just knew everything would be fine. (but really...I gained SO much weight that last month. I still don't know how since I hardly ate anything...nothing sounded good ever.)

39 weeks came and I was miserable. I even had a friend (bless you Lexi...she is a L&D nurse) come to my house and check me. I was beyond desperate to do anything to go into labor. Well I did it all. NOTHING moved this little guy out. I'm still not even sure if I did anything to really get him out. We picked up my mom from the airport on Tuesday still very pregnant. I only had a few solid days with her here so the pressure was on! On Wednesday afternoon Peter was begging to go on a walk so I took him and decided to curb walk as he rode is scooter. I remember doing low squats on and off the curb, bouncing, jumping..ALL OF IT. I was done. We get home and I decided to drink more castor oil (which has always worked for me..but not this time) it did nothing. We go pick the kids up from school and thats when contractions started. I still am not attributing that to anything I did. I just think it was finally his time to come. My mom and I were laughing our heads off in the car just because I was emotional, didn't feel good and beyond done.

We get home and I go take a bath and a nap. It was about 4:30pm and I start making dinner. The contractions were still getting stronger and more painful. I go back and lay down still not feeling good. I remember walking out of my room and something my mom said made me just laugh. When I laughed my belly started violently shaking and I saw it in the mirror and I just could NOT stop laughing. Extreme giggles. Everyone was laughing now, my kids were very concerned and confused. During all of this I felt and heard a pop then water started leaking. I told my mom that and she just was shocked and kept saying "no way." I kept laughing, water kept leaking and my poor kids just stood there utterly confused. At this point Alex walked in and went into major protector-we-are-not-having-this-baby-at-home-mode. HE WAS NOT LAUGHING. In fact, he was getting pretty frustrated that I kept standing there laughing. My water has never broken at home before so I had zero clue what to do. I still wish I would have stayed home longer.

We finally get to the hospital and call my midwife on the way. It's so hard to know with the 4th baby if they are just going to come fast or not. My contractions were now nearly on top of each other so we just rushed there. Well I was only 3cm dilated when I arrived and was so sad about that. I've always been 5+ with every baby so I was not happy. They kept me since I was contracting regularly and my water had broken. Things picked up quickly and I decided to get the epidural. I kept having flashbacks to my appointments saying I was at risk for having him being stuck. I wasn't about to deliver a baby that way with no pain medication. I am so so happy I got that.

I rested for a bit with the peanut ball in between my legs and then I felt the pressure! It was time to meet this sweet boy! Knowing this could very well be my last baby I soaked everything in that day. I loved it all. We decided to call our moms and have them come into the room and watch him be born. We've never done that before and loved having them there.

It usually hasn't been difficult pushing before, all of my babies have come out within a few pushes at most so I was surprised with how hard it was to get Thomas out. It all made sense when he was...stuck. He had a shoulder dystocia. My midwifes were right and it all made sense as to why everything I tried didn't work to have him come earlier. He was never sitting right on my cervix and he was posterior. He was never in an ideal position. I still only pushed a short time for him, but he was definitely my hardest delivery in the pushing aspect.

My midwife told me to reach down and grab him! I told her before that I wanted to be the one to bring him to my chest if everything went well. I did that with Peter too and I loved it.

He was finally born and I placed big, heavy, warm baby on my chest. Everyone in the room gasped at how big he was. I was so relived he was here safely. They had to take him off pretty quick to evaluate him and look at his shoulder. I laid there feeling so happy he was here and unaware that I was bleeding quite a lot. More than normal so they gave me some more medicine to stop that...that part wasn't fun at all, especially with everyone in the room. (before I started pushing I had them turn the epidural off so at this point I could feel everything, luckily I didn't need stitches.)

Thomas Lyle Martinsen

10:39pm

11/6/19

9lbs 15oz

They brought him back to me and he immediately wanted to nurse. That is my most treasured memory. There is nothing sweeter in this world than a new baby rooting and nursing for the very first time. ( I actually miss birth photography mostly because of this part)

The rest of the hospital stay was full of sweet moments that I have tucked away. This boy was meant for our family and I felt that over and over. I still crave those hospital feelings, I loved it all. I could have babies forever and ever.