Sophia's Birth Story

So I don't use my blog very often but it is a good place to post lengthy stories so here we go.

Sophia’s Birth Story

On December 1st I started having labour contractions. I had them all night and did not sleep really well. They were the easy first stage of labour kind of contractions. The next morning they stopped and I did not start having them again until that evening. I did not have them very consistently that night though. I slept really well and I only had them randomly. The next morning on the 3rd I woke up around 6am because John woke up. My early bird always. I got up to go tend to him and I went to the bathroom and felt a small pop and had the bloody show. I called my mom and told her that she better start heading my way because things were probably going to start picking up. We called my midwife to let her know and she told us she wanted to come and assess the bleeding. She got here and assessed that everything was okay that I did have a little bit of cervical bleeding but it was normal and nothing to worry about. My contractions still had not picked up yet and were not consistent so my midwife and her assistant decided to go home and come back when things were more consistent.

My mom got here around noon and that's when my my contractions started to be more consistent. I told my mom since she arrived baby knew that things could get more consistent. We sat and talked for a couple of hours and then we decided to go grocery shopping. We went to the store around 2:30pm and while we were at the store I was having contractions around 8 minutes apart and a couple at 5 min apart. We hadn’t called anyone yet because we wanted to make sure it was going to stay consistent. Stan was on the tractor with Samantha and I had John with me. When we got home from the store my contractions were staying around 10min apart. I called my midwife around 4pm and they started to head my way. Stan got home around 5 or 6pm and started making preparations for the birth. Things were now consistent and my contractions were staying around 8-10min apart. After my midwife got here Sonja showed up. I had her come to be my Doula. My Sister came and then my Photographer and Eliza and Kim. It was so nice for me to have all the love and support surrounding me. I spent awhile in my rocking chair while we chatted and enjoyed each other in between contractions. I ended up on the floor sitting on the ground in a cross legged position while Sonja massaged my back and neck. Stan sat next to her and helped caress me. I ended up having a little bit more bloody show as my cervix continued to dilate. I was dilated to a 6 around 7 or 8pm.

John went to bed around 8pm and we asked samantha if she wanted to go to bed or to stay up and watch the birth. She said she was tired but wanted to stay up to see the birth. She was very interested in what was happening and excited for the birth of the baby. Eliza kept her close by so she could help her.

I continued to like being on the floor they put a pillow for me to sit on. My hips were not enjoying the cross legged position but it felt so good to have the pressure on my perineum so I stayed in that position. They put a birth ball in front of me that I would lean on for the contraction. I tried one contraction to get on my knees leaning over the birth ball and I did not like that, it was more intense that way. So I stayed sitting.

Things were starting to get more intense so Sonja suggested getting in the birth pool. So she helped me change into my sports bra and her and Stan helped me climb into the birth pool. The warm water felt so good. As things were getting more intense I asked Stan to get in the birth pool with me. He helped support my legs. I was really glad he was in the birth pool with me. When I was fully dilated and going through transition my arms got tingly. I don’t think I was breathing well enough. I said the usual things when I went through transition. I don’t want to do this anymore, I don’t want to be pregnant anymore. Everyone in the room knew I was going through transition. Then I started to push. I only pushed a little bit during the transition contraction. Then the next push I pushed the baby out in one push. Stan said that he barely saw the top of the baby's head and then she was out. She came out in one push! I was shocked it kind of surprised me. It felt like the baby shot out of me like a rocket. The baby came out so fast that even some people in the room missed the baby coming out. We had waited until the birth to find out the gender. I had kinda forgotten about looking for that the first little bit because we were just making sure baby was breathing and that everything was good. Then I remembered “ oh what did we have?” We had a girl!! I was so excited that she was a girl. Everyone had guessed that I was having a boy so I was almost expecting to have a boy. Stan got to catch her when she was born. That was really special. He said that he did not get to do all the things the midwife was trying to tell him to do to catch her because she came out so fast he just caught her and pulled her up onto my chest. She was born at 10:30pm and weighed 6lbs 8oz and 20.5 inches long. I was so shocked how small she was. That was the first thing I noticed when she was born how tiny she was. Samantha was 8lbs 3oz and John was 9lbs 2oz so I didn't know I was capable of making a baby so small.

After she was born we moved to the couch so that I could nurse her while the cord pulsed all the way out. Once the cord was done pulsing we clamped and cut the cord and then they checked baby out and checked me. I did not tear which I was very grateful for. Baby was healthy and beautiful. Everyone said that I made it look easy. My sister said that she thought that it was good to come to the birth but that she did not think it was a good one to prepare her for her first in the future because it would probably not be as easy as this birth was for me. I did not feel like it was hard or super easy. I felt like everything went well. I felt confident in myself and my ability to birth the baby and I knew everything was going to go well. I did not expect her to be pushed out so easily. Usually that part takes a little bit more work. I am grateful that I have had 3 beautiful home births. They have been very special and life shaping for me.

This was the first birth that my mom was able to come to. I was so glad to have her there. I needed her love and support.
We came up with her name the next day. Her first name kind of came to Stan and it stuck. We were talking about her name as we layed down to sleep. We were going to name her Penelope but the name did not fit her. So we named her Sophia Josephine Jensen. The middle name came to me, I just really liked it and we were trying to decide between Sophia and Josephine for her first name and then I thought that the reason I was having a hard time deciding was that she was suppose to have both those names. So that is when I thought to give Josephine as her middle name. She is such a blessing to add to our family and she has been so calm and such a good baby. We feel so blessed. to have three beautiful children.

Johnathan Stanford Jensen Born March 5th at 4:07am

Johnathan Stanford Jensen Born March 5th 2014 4:07am

Birth Story of John

On March 4th I hung out with my friend Megan and that day we went for a walk around town. I did not feel different during the day. That evening I went grocery shopping at Walmart. I took Samantha with me so that Stan could work on getting the King size bed set up. We had ordered a new bed on amazon and Stan had to modify our wood bed frame to fit a bigger bed. We went from a full size bed to a King. Hooray!! When I was at the store I had a few contractions that felt more like menstrual cramps. I did not think anything of them though and rid them off as indigestion. I did however buy a lot of random foods that I would not have bought on a regular basis. I don’t know why. Must of been the pre labour thing. When I got home we unloaded groceries and got ready for bed. We slept on the floor on our old mattress in Samantha’s room so that our new mattress could air out and inflate. We went to bed around ten. I was still having contractions but I kept thinking that they would just go away, and that they were indigestion. After and hour of laying there and they did not go away I was starting to believe that I could be in labour. So I got up and started cleaning up toys out of the living room. Then I had a bowl of cereal thinking that if I was in labour I needed to probably eat something. After a few attempts of trying to wake stan up and it not working I let him sleep until about 12:30am. Then I decided I should probably wake him up and let him know I was in labour. I said “Stan are you awake?” He woke up and said “yes why are you asking me that?” I said “because I think I am in labour. So he downloaded an app to keep track of my contractions and then he called our midwife Cathy. My contractions were only about 8 to 9 minutes apart and I was sleeping in between them. Cathy told Stan to call her back in an hour. We kept keeping track of my contractions while sleeping in between them. They stayed at 8-9 minutes apart and they never got more intense. So Stan was thinking that we had a long time to go so he did not call Cathy back because he thought I would go like I was for a long time. Especially because my first labour with Samantha was so long. 

Well around 3:30am my water broke. I felt a little pop and water gush out. I woke Stan up and told him he better call Cathy and everybody else. So he called Cathy and she said I don’t think I will make it but I hope I do. She lives an hour and fifteen minutes away. I called Sonja and told her my water broke and she hurried over. Stan called his mom and she started her drive. I called my photographer and I knew she had the furthest to drive and that she would probably not make it. So once Sonja got here I had her call my friend Liz Davis that I had as a back up photographer in case ours did not make it. So she ran over and got here in time to capture the moment for us. When sonja arrived I had already had two really strong contractions. They got much more intense once my water broke. Stan was trying to set up the birth pool. Sonja came in and helped me through the contractions. When she came in I had a really strong contraction and I said “ I don’t think I can do this anymore. I can’t do this.” She then knew that I was probably in transition. She tried to tell Stan to hurry up with the birth pool and that he probably did not have as long as he thought he had. He said once he heard me say that he knew I was in transition and thought “Crap I better hurry and get this set up” I think the next contraction I started pushing. Sonja asked me “Kristi are already pushing?” I said I think so. I was on all fours in my bedroom and the contractions were so intense that I could not really rest in between them. My arms were getting tired. I would try to put my elbows on the ground to rest my arms in between. I found it hard to move though because things were so intense. When Stan got closer to getting the birth pool ready for me to climb in Sonja helped me out into the living room and I stayed on all fours next to the birth pool as I was pushing. I remember yelling to Stan that he better get the pool set up because I was having this baby in the water. He barely got enough water in the pool just before John started to crown. I remember it being difficult to climb in the pool. When I got in Stan poured a big tote of water over my back.The water felt so good.  I was still on all fours. Then I turned around and rested the small of my back on the little seat in the birth pool. Stan came behind me to help support me under my arms and I continued pushing.The water helped take away from some of the gravity.  I remember Sonja telling me that I was pushing too hard and that I had to ease up or I was going to hurt my body. I did not think I would be able to ease up but some how I was able to gain complete control. I started to breath through the contractions instead of bearing down with all my might like my body was telling me to do. I remember how easy it got after that. He started to crown and I was able to ease him out slowly. Sonja said that she could not tell when I was having contractions after that. I remember when his head came out that it felt so good. Sonja did not tell us at the time that the cord was wrapped around his neck a couple times but when his head came out she just eased the cord of his neck and let me continue to ease him out. I kept saying wow that feels good as he kept easing down and out. Then Sonja told me to give one big push and push him out. Out he came and I was so happy. He took a minute or so to get him to keep breathing. He would start breathing and then stop. So we held his bum in the air and he started to breath. It felt so good to hold him. I was in awe of how wonderful the whole experience was and how much easier it was then samantha's birth. I had him 37 minutes after my water broke and after about 6 hours of labour. My midwife Cathy did not make it. She made it ten minutes or so after he was born. She helped me birth the placenta. Sonja said when she felt for the placenta she almost thought I had another baby in there because my placenta was so big. My placenta came out and it was pretty big and the cord was really long. After the cord was done pulsing Stan cut and clamped the cord. I sat in the pool for about an hour and then they helped me to the couch. I then breastfed John.

I remember telling Stan afterwards that if all my labours were like this I could have lots of kids. I was amazed at how fast and easy it was. Especially because I was in pre labour until my water broke. I am amazed at what a beautiful experience it was and I am so grateful I was able to have such a wonderful experience. I was so proud of myself because my perineum stayed in tact. I had a minor tear inside my vaginal wall. I was especially proud of myself when they weighed him and I found out that he was 9lbs and 2ozs and 21 and ½ inches long. A whole pound bigger than Samantha was. I am so grateful for the miracle of life and the amazing process of birth. I am grateful to have John as a part of our family. Johnathan Stanford Jensen born at 4:07am on March 5th 2014.

   Samantha is 9 months old! She is so adorable and the joy of our lives. She started crawling at 7 months and a few days after that she was already pulling herself up and standing. She can walk along furniture and we can tell that she really wants to start walking. We will see how soon she will try that. She still has not cut her first tooth. She has been trying to get teeth for a while now. She has become alot more investigative. She is starting to get into everything.

   

Striking some poses for the camera.

This is Stan's garden that has turned out really well this year. The pole beans will be producing soon and we will have lots and lots of beans. We are enjoying having the garden right outside our door. It makes it nice and easy to harvest and add the fresh food to our dinners.

 We actually received harvest from our garden this year. Stan did a really good job of making our garden a lot better this year. We got back from vacation and began to find all the wonderful things are garden had in store for us. We got green beans, tomatoes, cumcumbers, beats, caraba, carrots, peppers, and more.

 This beat was huge!

We are excited to start using all the yummy veggies!