As most of you know, our second baby boy was due May 13th, 2022. The weeks leading up to that I was hoping to have baby boy here before than and figured surely I’ll deliver early as a second time mom. May 10th, prodromal labor started (“False Labor”) but at the time seemed like my body was starting early labor - cramps, contractions were consistent but then would space out and lingered on for a whole two days. By Friday “nothing was happening” but in reality the body never stops prepping for delivery of baby. It definitely wasn’t the easiest thing to acknowledge as I had been getting more anxious on his arrival and we all were so ready to meet baby boy. After all the chiropractic adjustments, pelvic floor PT sessions, Spinning Babies, Miles Cricut, NORA tea and of course walking and sitting on the birth ball, I thought I was doing all the things. It wasn’t until my good friend, Dr. Mary Beth reminded me to reach out for an induction massage. Induction massages are light and a non-invasive way on relaxing the mind and body. They are said to be effective within 24 hours, IF the body is truly ready. I figured, why not give it a shot. Luckily we knew a massage therapist, Rebecca, that had availability to come out to my home on Sunday, May 15th (40+2 weeks).

After the massage, I went on about my day, spent time at the pool with the kids, our neighbors had us over for pot roast dinner that they made, and came home to get ready for bed and school the next day. Around 8:30 pm, my water broke! I cried and was nervous as I wasn’t having any other signs of labor. With Kalum, my water did not break until active labor, so this was already a new direction of labor I was unfamiliar with. After calling my midwife, Patty at Kueo Birth Center, we decided to get the kids to my mother-in-law’s (as things were officially starting), and was instructed to shower and get sleep before labor contractions kicked in. Ha, that was easier said than done, baby boy had always been the most active from 9 pm - 12 am and would keep me up so this was just like every other night. By the time I fell asleep, I was awaken an hour later to pee and feeling contractions. They were uncomfortable but not consistent. A good sign things were progressing. I was awake and ended up falling asleep at 5 am for another hour.

It’s 9 am and Patty makes a house call to check on baby, and he was doing well! Continued to labor at home, do my home recommendations and just know that baby will be here soon. Shortly after lunch, I decided to give pumping a shot. The hope was to pump to help get the contractions more consistent and boy, did they and they got intense! After my session, I figured they may slow down or lessen in severity but didn’t. Contractions were six minutes apart, so I made the call to the birth center again and decided to start heading that way.

Upon arrival we had our wonderful birth team present already:

Ericka and her husband, Michael

Patricia, Jasmin, and Nichole - midwives
Meghann - birth assist
Brooke - birth photographer

Once at the birth center, I was able to just work through this stage of labor however my body felt fit to get through contractions. Some were in bed, on the birth ball, standing and squatting, got in the tub at one point to help easy my body’s soreness. Around 4 pm, I asked for a cervical check to see if I was progressing. During the check, Nichole had felt scar tissue around my cervix. Now, it was explained that it was probably from my prior pregnancy, but that it was likely holding baby “back” from fully engaging down to get full effacement and dilation. I was at 5 cm, so our hope was once it was broken up by essentially “massaging” the cervix during contraction, it would start allowing my cervix to progress faster.

It’s dinner time on Monday, May 16th and I was getting tired, as I still had not been able to sleep. Michael continually helped me figure out new positions to labor in and support me. He kept joking around that he wasn’t coming out until we decided on a name. At one point, I felt like I needed to get on all fours, which was the same position I birthed Kalum. Surely, it was time for baby to make his appearance. Contractions were intense, but I did not have the big amount of pressure to urge me to push. After staying there for a while, midwife Jasmin encouraged me to give my body a break in that position and go sit reverse on the toilet. Now, if you have not experienced this before, I highly encourage it, but just know it is not the most pleasant (at least for me). She wanted me to sit and work through 3-4 contractions. After the first one, I was ready to get off. It’s something about that position that just intensifies contractions and the pressure by opening up your pelvis to help baby REALLY get down. I cried, and Michael had to keep telling me to stay seated and relax. The moment I got through 4 contractions, I was off and headed back to the bed to try to relax my body. I was SO sleepy. I was ready to give up and felt like this baby was never going to come. I cannot lie that transferring to the hospital didn’t cross my mind. I never vocalized that because I knew deep down, I would regret that and knew the hospital would not be able to do anything for me at that point.

It was getting dark, and Michael brought up trying to get into the tub again. I was skeptical because my contractions slowed down a bit the first time, but he got the team to prep the water. I never have wanted or imagined myself delivering a child in water. It always just seemed like extra mess I did not want to worry about. However, they prepped the tub just in case baby was born in water and prepped us for the things we needed to know. The water temperature had to be checked to be ideal for a newborn and if baby was being born in water, I had to make sure to keep my butt down in the water. This was important because when the baby’s head is delivered under water, you need to keep it there until the full body has been delivered as well before exposing the baby to air and get them to take their first breath.

Once in the tub….

I felt a ton of relief pretty quickly. I was able to just lay there and close my eyes to rest and relax. Contractions were consistent but much more manageable to handle pain level wise and was giving my legs the much-needed break.

Over an hour goes by (and 25 hours in labor), I’m shifting from laying down to my sides then Michael told me to shift to my hands and knees. Thank goodness he did, because once I shifted my body, that is the moment all of the intense pressure hit. We were finally going to meet our boy any moment now. I remember saying I think his head is right there and that’s when I heard Patty say, mama you can reach down and feel. I did and sure enough I felt a slippery head of hair! It was one of the best feelings I could have felt at that moment to help me push through the end. Sure enough, contraction came on and pushed, and another. With that contraction, as I pushed while on all fours in the tub, I felt his head come halfway out and something in my brain had me shift my hands to my thighs that forced me to sit up more upright. And sure enough, his whole body comes straight out and into mama’s hands. Face down in the water and I could not believe that just happened. He was out, saw the cord pulsing still attached and was told I could bring him out of the water. As he was in my arms, he was wrapped with warm towels and gave us time to just take in those precious moments before getting out of the tub to deliver placenta, the final stage of labor. After a moment, I looked at Michael and asked him so are we going with Cohan Nelson? He said yes. Once in bed, we bonded more, Cohan latched for the first time and got snuggles from daddy. Once I ate, he received his first adjustment from his mommy.

Cohan’s Birth Story

Newborn Life with Cohan