Birth Story

Townes Randall Pittman

Townes Randall Pittman

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Born April 17th, 2014 10:29AM

7 lbs 4 oz 19 3/4 inches

 Birth Story

Someone… actually, everyone told me that because my first baby was early, my second would likely arrive before my due date. Olivia was born at 39 weeks and you’d better believe that when 39 weeks rolled around  this time I was READY to meet our precious baby boy! Little did I know… there’s absolutely NO truth in the length of gestation being the same with subsequent pregnancies.  On top of that expectation, I experienced  at least 3 weeks of prodromal labor, a term I wasn’t at all familiar with from my pregnancy with Olivia. These weren’t the Braxton Hicks contractions I’d become familiar with at around 20 weeks… these were REAL, painful (sometimes just uncomfortable) contractions lasting 30-90 seconds, at 5-30 min intervals… just uncomfortable enough to make me wonder if “this” was the real deal.

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40 Weeks

Gramma G flew in on April 1st (my self-declared 8-day preterm due-date) to surprise me . She knew how much I wanted her to be here for “Baby Brother’s” big arrival! Her plan was to be here through April 6th… feeling positive that would overlap with our new addition. April 6th came and went… and G extended her trip, not once… not twice.. but 3 times, adding an extra day, feeling certain he’d be here “tomorrow.” After walking countless miles around the neighborhood, morning, noon and night… G finally went home… for 5 days to repack for her next scheduled trip. Meanwhile, my due date came and went… G flew back in. And finally at 40 weeks + 6 days I suspected something really was about to get started. Maybe it was the walking… or the Raspberry Leaf Tea.. Maybe it was the Clary Sage… and pressure points, or the Black and Blue Cohosh… who knows…  More likely that it was the impending Induction at 42 weeks (which I felt strongly against!).

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Hiking at Harry Moss Nature Preserve – 39 Weeks

Wednesday, early afternoon, April 16th, Olivia, G and I were on our way to Cafe of Life for my bi-weekly chiropractic adjustment. When we arrived and realized that there was an hour wait we decided to have a quick lunch at Stackhouse. Towards the end of lunch I started to suspect that my water may be leaking… (funny story… the cushions at Stackhouse had apparently been rained on – I DID NOT pee myself!) I waddled over to COL for my adjustment and between Dr. Autumn and my WONDERFUL doula Nikki we decided that I probably needed to head to the hospital to get checked out (I’d had low fluid levels earlier in the pregnancy and a decline in fetal movement.) Called Daniel at work at told him to grab our bags and meet me at the hospital. Got checked in and confirmed that baby was doing great, fluid levels were still good… amniotic bag… still in tact. HOWEVER. at 41 weeks, my doctor’s orders were “you’re not leaving this hospital until you’ve had that baby!” Determined to get labor started naturally, I got me checked in to an L&D room (at about 1pm) and the nurses agreed to let me walk. And we walked… and we walked… and we walked. upstairs and downstairs… literally, miles around the hospital. My wonderful doula and friend, who was recovering from a barre class, and my not-so-athletic husband by my side… until 10:30pm.. when  we finally decided to call it a night. At that point, my contractions were 5-10 min apart but not regular or strong enough to jump start active labor. So we slept… from 10:30 until about 6AM…  My contractions had slowed overnight so by around 6 we agreed that I should get up and back at trying to get labor started. And again, we tried EVERYTHING to get things going… By 8AM Dr. Crites arrived and insisted on breaking my water… she did agree to give me 45 min to see if that would kickstart things… at 8:45 AM I agreed to a small dose of piton… within 30 min my contractions were regular and intense enough that they agreed to back off the meds. Nikki, with perfect timing, arrived and walked me through everything. Positions, breathing (Especially breathing… breathing is SO important… who would have thought?!) By 10:00 I was sure I was ready to push… in fact, I remember telling Dr. Crites (who I had just overheard say to a nurse that she was going to upstairs to see a few patients) that I wasn’t going to be able to wait for her… that this baby was coming quickly. (I was dilated to 9cm)… I started pushing at around 10:15, maybe 4-5x?… The pain was like nothing I’ve ever experienced (obviously)… and to be honest, I’m not sure I can really totally accurately recall… I know at one point I lost focus and started hyperventilating… got dizzy and tingly fingers… Nikki talked me down and helped me remember to breathe through the contractions. Seriously… this woman was MY ROCK. I think I really may have not remembered to breathe without her!  Daniel never once suggested that I reconsider the epidural or pain management… He says, “(I) made it look easy” … I’d rather believe he just had 100% confidence that I could do it!

“Baby Boy Pittman” was born at 10:29AM. I felt as I pushed the last time and could reach out for him, Dr. Crites even let us wait a few minutes to cut the cord. From there… everything gets a little fuzzy… The endorphins rushed through me like nothing I’d ever felt. Natural childbirth… pretty exhilarating. It was the most amazing feeling of satisfaction… like I really got to experience the miracle of life. I’m still in awe that God made my body to do something as incredible and awesome.

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After I’d delivered the placenta and Crites stitched up a small tear ( 2 stitches… with lidocaine,) we enjoyed almost an hour of skin to skin time, nursing and bonding. Townes had the most amazing, intoxicating scent… He snuggled up so warm and perfect on my chest. He didn’t nurse right away like Olivia wanted to, instead he stared into my eyes, more alert than I’d ever imagined he would be, only seconds old.

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We were only in the hospital 2 days.. 18 hours or pre-labor, 2 hours of labor, 30 min of delivery and just over 24 hours of recovery. Although this wasn’t exactly the scenario I had envisioned, it was the most amazing birth experience and even better than I imagined. I am so beyond thankful for both Daniel and Nikki, who were exactly the support I needed… for Dr. Autumn Gore at COL, who helped prepare my body physically… for my mama, for giving me complete peace of mind that Olivia was safe and happy and Mawmaw for coming to the rescue with play dough and big girl toys!

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Probably deserving of a separate post completely… The first 2 weeks were a roller coaster. When we left the hospital Townes weighed 7 pounds 1 oz. My milk came in just 2 days later and by our first pediatrician appointment the following Monday he was up to 7 pounds 5 oz.

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3 days old

At 8 days old, Daniel left town for the weekend to play drums in Abilene, TX. My mom had also returned to California, leaving me solo with 2 for the first time… As if that wasn’t scary enough. Townes, who has a little bit of a reflux problem, had a particularly bad episode where he emptied the contents of his stomach, vomited up 4-5 ounces (obviously lots more than his tiny stomach could hold) Unfortunately, he got so choked up that i couldn’t get him to clear his air passages and it was obvious that he was really struggling to breathe. I stood on the front porch (performing what I knew of infant CPR) for the longest 12 minutes of my life until the ambulance arrived.  The EMTs were able to suction out his nose and throat and get him breathing normally again  before we even arrived at the hospital . A rather traumatic experience, I felt so lucky to have our good friend Laura over at the time to stay home with Olivia and wonderful new neighbors for their help!

By his 2 week appointment, Townes had gained another pound! up to 8 pounds, 5 ounces… evidence that his reflux was really not affecting his ability to nurse! Definitely a good thing because big sister came down with an awful tummy bug and 105 degree fever and mama’s antibodies proved to be great protection!

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5 days old

 

A Post about Liv

February 14, 2012

Words cannot begin to describe what an amazing experience having this baby girl was. Overall, I had a VERY uncomplicated, easy… even enjoyable pregnancy with Olivia. I experienced a moderate amount of nausea and general tiredness during the first 12 weeks but nothing as awful as I’ve heard others describe. At about 10 weeks, I made the decision to step down from my retail management position to Fine Jewelry sales to decrease my stress level and avoid a “4th quarter”  AKA holiday season in retail at 8 months pregnant. Around 12 weeks, like a switch was flipped, I felt like a whole new person. I’ve said before – I’m not sure if it was pregnancy or the healthier lifestyle (NO caffeine… or LIMITED caffeine, NO alcohol, healthier diet, less stressful job, etc.) but I’d never felt healthier and happier. I worked a full 40/hr work week up until 9 months… slowly cut back to around 30/hrs… but more or less worked up until a few days before Olivia was born.

Friday February 11th, I made the decision to leave work early thinking that labor was in my VERY near future. After several hours of pretty intense Braxton Hicks contractions I realized that I’d also not felt one of those precious kicks all day. Worried (first time mom), I decided to head to L&D Triage to make sure everything was OK. Slightly embarrassed when they told me everything was fine but encouraged that I was completely effaced and baby girl was already in the “go position.” Made it through the longest weekend of my life. Monday afternoon around 4pm, I started having more regular (still not time-able) contractions. Monday night, we continued on with normal everyday life, made a trip to central market for takeout, watched “Knocked Up” (Note: This is probably not the best movie to watch when you’re in labor). I think I finally mentioned that “this” was probably it and that we would probably be going to the hospital in the overnight hours around 8 o’clock. We decided to try to get some sleep. I was also determined to make sure that THIS really was IT… One false alarm for a first time mom is acceptable…2 is embarrassing. Daniel was successful (As always) at sleeping for a few hours. I slept in 15 minute increments… took a few baths… double checked that everything I needed was ready to go in my hospital bags (which had been packed and by the door for weeks). I still wasn’t experiencing much.. if any… real pain but since the contractions were definitely getting closer together. I decided to wake Daniel up and we headed to the hospital (Dallas Presbyterian) around 1am. We were moved from triage into a birthing suite by about 2:30. Since I wasn’t really in much pain, they told me I should sleep as much as I could… so I slept some more… in 15 min increments. About 4 am I was still only dilated to a 3, not much pain…I knew I wasn’t opposed to an epidural so when they offered and told me that now or later really made no difference, I decided that there was no time like the present…. So epidural around 4:30 am. More sleep until around 6:45.. When my doctor arrived, we agreed that a VERY minimal amount of Pitocin would be OK to get things going if necessary. The nurse felt like it would still be several hours until it “kicked things in to high gear” – gave me a tiny bit and told me to… yep, yet again… sleep a little bit more. My doctor also had decided to squeeze in an hour or so at the gym and… Nurse informed us that she would be leaving at 7am and the next nurse would be in to check on me shortly. At 7:15, our new nurse came in, followed by a few techs and a nursing student, flipped the lights on, started running through reports, charts, etc. and looked at me and said, “The baby’s heart rate has dropped a bit,” “Are you ready to push?” WHAT?! Wait a minute?! So many thoughts were flying through my head! What happened to my other nurse… the one who said it was going to be HOURS!? My doctor is at the gym! How can it be time already?! Oh, but it was. From 3 to 10cm in 30 min… Paged Doc Crites mid Zumba class… she got scrubbed in and Olivia was born at 9:53am.

Here are a few shots from Olivia’s newborn shoot at 12 days, by the talented Deena Riley. (Highly recommend for newborn portraits!)

A few things I’ll mention… 1) I definitely considered giving birth at a birth center down the street from our house with no pain meds. After meeting my doctor (I hadn’t had an annual exam in 3 years so first appointment, pregnant was SLIGHTLY embarrassing and yet I felt NO judgement) for the first time in June… I had pretty much abandoned that idea completely. 2)After such a wonderful and virtually pain-free delivery (I must have had the best epidural in the world) I’m still undecided as to wether I will try it the “other” way next time. Although I did feel somewhat “drugged” in the moments during/after… I was able to completely snap out of it as soon as I saw our precious baby girl. I also did not feel “robbed” of the experience… like less of a woman… or anything like that. 3)I probably should have done more reading and research on the cons for baby but Olivia scored a 9 on her apgar test both times and was perfectly healthy in every way.

The first 4 weeks – I was great about documenting little Olivia’s growth… quickly decided that a monthly documentation was totally sufficient. Oh! Holding Sophie for scale.

Hard to believe that little Liv will be 4 months old TOMORROW! I swear I love this girl more and more each day. Obviously I’m slightly biased, but every time I look at her I feel like she gets more beautiful. From the first few weeks – she’s had the most wonderful temperament. Sleeps wells, Eats well, generally happy… Sometimes I wonder, How did I get so lucky?