“The very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone.” -Jane Austen

HE is here! We had a son & his name is Sebastian William. He is such a gift.

I wanted to reflect on his birth & share his story, so here we go.

On Monday, June 19th, I had my 39+ week check up & little one decided to be head up for the 4TH TIME. So my incredible doctor flipped baby right there in the office & sent me over to the birth center to be induced & monitor baby to make sure the flipping (for the 4th time) didn’t cause distress & that baby would stay head down. We sent out a text to our praying friends to pray with us that baby WOULD JUST STAY HEAD DOWN! They wrapped me with 2 different belly braces to “help” baby stay in position & induced me with a low dosage of cytotec. Low & behold, just a few hours later with my labor starting slowly, baby decided to bring head back up towards my ribs. My doctor flipped baby for the 5TH & FINAL time (Praise the Lord!) & baby stayed head down which allowed me to have a natural vaginal delivery! The 5 times of flipping baby was a hospital record & my doctor should have a trophy in his office for his mad baby flipping skills. We are so grateful & appreciate him so much!

Monday afternoon & evening progressed slowly, my mom & sister came to join us & they broke my water that evening hoping to get things to move faster. This didn’t pan out like I had expected, after my delivery of Cora, this was a WHOLE different experience. We had lots of laughs as I scooted across the floor in our room with a towel under my feet as my water continued to take its sweet time “breaking”. This continued all through the night, I was awake walking back & forth trying to get my labor to progress, Noah, my mom & sister were able to sleep off & on. I was tired by the early hours of the morning & by then was having steady contractions two minutes apart. When they checked me, however, I was only at a 2, which is disheartening when you start feeling exhausted & are starting to feel more pain with the steady contractions. At that point, they started me on pitocin & increased the level consistently, which made my pain level increase as my contractions progressively intensified.

At about 10am, my doula arrived & by then I was having back labor. She was INCREDIBLE. My team of people in that room were INCREDIBLE. They prayed, we had worship music playing, the nurses & my doctor were full of kindness & encouragement. I labored in several positions & by 11am I couldn’t stand up during the contractions anymore. I sat on the birthing ball at the bottom corner of my bed & rested my head on the end of the bed. My doula sat behind me for HOURS & applied the perfect amount of pressure to my low back throughout each contraction while my husband & sister took turns squeezing my hands throughout each as well. These two things paired together were beautiful & essential for me.

The REALLY rad thing about my labor occurred during the hours of intensity with those growing contractions. I hadn’t taken any pain meds & didn’t throughout the whole labor & delivery which was my goal & I feel SO great being able to say that I did it. So with that, my pain level was high. I vomited everything in my system I think 12 times & I had a hard time sipping water. BUT THEN- Sitting there on that ball, with my head laying facedown on that bed…In between each contraction I had a moment of rest. TRUE rest. I literally felt like I left my body each time, it was a truly supernatural, amazing, BEAUTIFUL experience. In the midst of that pain, I felt the Lord take me out of the current moment & wrap me in His arms. I even FELL ASLEEP a few times! It felt like I was seeing everything in watercolors, like I was floating through the room. It was an out of body experience as I floated with the sounds of music & intercession in that place. I FELT Him wrap himself around me & it was incredible. I’ve had very few experiences that were that tangible with His presence & oh my goodness, it was beautiful. It was worth every one of those contractions. It was just Him & I. I felt so loved, so worth His attention. It was like nothing else in the whole world mattered & He was just there in that room with me. Gosh guys, I hope you get to experience something like this for yourselves in its own form, just you & Him some day! I am excited to know that every day is new & that I will get to experience His presence like that again sometime! Maybe even today! It is always life changing. There is NOTHING, nothing sweeter than His presence.

By the time I felt the need to push, they got me back up on the bed & checked. I was only dialated to a 7! This was at 2pm. My doctor said to call him in an hour & walked out of the room. At this point, I was laying sideways holding onto my doula’s hands as she helped me breathe rhythmically to help me not push until the right time. Within 10 minutes, I was at a 10 & the nurses ran to call my doctor back! I started pushing & 10 minutes later delivered him at 2:16pm! They held up our SON & with giant smiles told us we had a BOY! He was finally earthside. Noah laid his forehead on mine & cried tears of joy as they laid him on my chest. It was a beautiful moment. Noah was able to cut the cord & baby Sebastian William snuggled up to me & latched on easily within the next 10 minutes or so. He weighed 8lbs .09oz & stretched out at 20in long! We counted his fingers & toes, rubbed his sweet head & kissed him SO many times. There is absolutely nothing on earth that compares with giving birth & holding that baby close to your heart for the first time. Goodness. It takes my breath away just thinking about it.

That was that! We rested & bonded with our new sweet little one for the next two nights & days in the hospital while they monitored my recovery. Sebastian was born on the summer solstice, which is super duper rad because I am born on the winter solstice! He was also born during a heat wave of 106 degree temperatures that whole week, so staying in the hospital was a welcome respite from that heat. We had family come visit & meet the wee one & we slept & ate & just stared at Sebastian’s perfect little face. When we headed home, his first evening was spent being held under our AC blower because it was SO stinkin hot. I won’t ever forget that. He is now about 2 1/2 months old & still isn’t the biggest fan of heat. I can understand why! It has been a blisteringly hot summer.

So here we are now. Seb, SebiCakes, Sebastian, Baby Bastian, Bash, Little Squish, is growing & changing every day! It is crazy how fast they grow! He sleeps & eats well, he loves to smile & coo, he is just starting to laugh. At his 2 month check up, his pediatrician said he is a perfect baby, right on target for height & weight, responsive & adorable. He is our little joy! Our girls are totally smitten with him, as are we. It seriously took almost 2 months for us to switch our vocabulary to include “he” & “him”. It is exciting having a boy! He has already flown on a airplane halfway across the country (which he ROCKED, by the way), dipped his toes in a mountain lake, taken a nap under towering pine trees, road tripped for 12+ hours, has been on lots of family walks & been smothered with countless kisses.  I would dare to say, that his life has been pretty rad so far. FULL of love & laughter & life. The way it should be. 🙂

I am one blessed Mama.

“Little boy, you remind me how so much depends on days made of now.” -Alison McGhee

 

Cheers,

Katie.