Labor Of Love

Hello everyone! I am a mother of 3 children now! Wow! I love it! I am so glad baby Coast is finally here! I want to use this post to explain in detail my labor and delivery story! So here it goes:

After waiting many weeks and hoping my body would go into labor on its own, my midwives suggested that I be induced. I had a c-section with the twins, so with this birth I wanted to try for a VBAC or vaginal birth after cesarian. I really did not want another c-section and wanted to vaginally birth baby Coast. The big concern with VBACs is uterine rupture. This is when the scar from the c-section comes apart during labor. There is great risk of great harm and even death to the mother and baby. This risk of uterine rupture, however, is very low. Being induced using pitocin increases the risk of uterine rupture, which is why I was trying to avoid it, but I was almost 42 weeks so the baby needed to come out! Plus I felt very safe being at a hospital where they would be closely monitoring me and the baby.

So Friday, January 20th I planned to go to the hospital Saturday morning around 11 and be induced. I told all my family and announced it on Facebook ha ha. Then I got a call Friday night form my mom saying she was driving out the next morning to come be with me and help me out. I was in total shock! She already come for a week! I was so incredibly happy though! It meant so much to me that she was coming out and I knew it wasn't easy for her. So with my mom coming and knowing I was finally gonna meet my baby soon, we were pumped and excited!

The next morning we were all ready to go and then I couldn't do it. I couldn't walk out the door and go to the hospital! I felt terrible and just had a really bad feeling about going in that morning. I needed more time. I told my midwife I would think about it more and let her know what I decided. After thinking about it a lot, I finally felt at peace about waiting until Sunday morning to be induced. So that was that! Plans were made to go to the hospital at 7 a.m. and be induced! And this time I really meant it!

So on Sunday, January 22nd Hayden and I left around 6:45 a.m. to drive to the American Fork Hospital. My mom was there to watch the kids until she dropped them off with the babysitters. We all knew my labor was going to be a long process so there was no rush to have her there right away. Hayden and I got all checked in and then waited for my midwife to get there. She checked me and I was barely dilated to 1 cm and about 60% effaced! I couldn't believe it! I was 42 weeks after all. We started the pitocin at 9:40 a.m. They start off very slow and slowly and steadily increase the amount every 30 minutes. Baby Coast was showing distress around noon and talk of a c-section started so Hayden told my mom to come and she got there around 1. My contractions started to get strong and painful around 3 pm. Around 4:30 pm my midwife checked me and I was 1.5 cm dilated! I could not believe it. I was so sad and discouraged. I had put in 7 hours and was having terrible contractions and hadn't progressed hardly at all!

They decided to put in a foley bulb. This is when they insert a catheter up into the cervix and inflate the end with water to about 3 cm to help dilate you. So they did this and holy crap! My contractions got more intense, more painful, and longer, which means my rest time between them got shorter! I honestly thought I was gonna die! I was shaking, crying, and passing out from the pain. I had really wanted to do a natural birth (which most of you know since I told everyone lol) but at that point everyone was telling me to get an epidural because I still had so much further to go. They were worried I wouldn't be able to have the vaginal birth I wanted without it. I finally agreed, but made them take out the foley bulb first. There was no way I was going to be able to to hold still with all the pain I was in. So they took it in and around 5:30 p.m. I had the epidural. OH. MY. GOODNESS. All I can say is that after that it was HEAVEN!!! The epidural made the experience amazing! I could relax, be at peace, enjoy life, get some rest, talk with my mom and Hayden, etc, the list goes on and on. After being in so much pain and then getting the epidural I can't believe I ever wanted a natural birth!! But I know all labor is different for women and all the benefits and risks and everything. Trust me, I know. I did tons of research! But my body was not progressing and I honestly could not go on without one. So that was that.

So once the epidural took effect, the foley bulb went back in, seeing as I was still at 1.5 cm!! I can't remember how long it took, maybe 2 hours, but the bulb did its job and got me dilated to 4 cm. Wohoo!! I felt good about that and though for sure my body would pick it up and get things going. They broke my water, hoping to get more contractions and speed things up, and put an internal monitor in my uterus. Around midnight my midwife checked me and I was dilated 4.5 cm. I could not believe it. I was crushed! I was so sad and disappointed. I could not believe how stubborn and slow my body was being! The bad thing was that Coast was not doing too good. He was in distress so they decided to take me off pitocin for about an hour to give him a break and then would start again, very slowly.

So I had a break for an hour and then at 1:30 a.m. we started up the contractions again. It was a delicate balance because I needed to have good strong contractions to have any affect on my cervix, but they couldn't be too strong and hard because of the risk for uterine rupture. So I was pretty frustrated. I was willing to take things really slow and be in labor for days, but we could only do so much if baby Coast wasn't handling the contractions well. After the midwife left I had a breakdown. I was just so exhausted with so many emotions and physically exhausted. I hadn't eaten anything or gotten sleep. My dream of a vaginal birth was quickly and painfully slipping away and I had no control over it. I cried and cried and tried to make sense of it all. I pleaded with Heavenly Father. Hayden gave me a blessing. Then I changed my attitude. Instead of trying to get what I wanted, I decided to just give in and accept whatever was going to happen. If I was to have a c-section then I would be ok with it. I made peace with it. I didn't want to be bitter or angry toward Heavenly Father. I knew He loved me so I knew everything would be ok, even if I didn't get my VBAC. I write these sentences like it was nothing, but coming to that point was one of the hardest and most humbling things I have ever been through.

Around 3 a.m. my midwife came in and checked me and said she couldn't find my cervix and that she thought I was complete. I didn't understand what she meant and she explained that she though I was ready to push! She couldn't even believe it so she asked the nurse to check me and make sure she was right. The nurse then checked me and sure enough she said I was completely dilated to 10 cm! I was in total shock!! I could not believe it! I was so ecstatically happy! I had given in and surrendered to having a c-section. We were all elated. They gave my body an hour to push baby Coast down on its own and then came in at 4 a.m. so I could start the active pushing. That hour I was just in shock and disbelief. I know Heavenly Father gave me a tender mercy. It was my miracle.

Around 4 a.m. I started pushing and at 4:48 Coast was born!! When he popped out it was the best feeling in the world!! They placed him on me and I was so happy! I was overcome with emotion. We were all crying. Coast cried almost immediately. He had lots of dark hair, which I was and am so happy about! I could tell he was a little guy, which was later confirmed when they measured and weighed him. He was 6 pounds 9 ounces and 18 inches long! It was the hardest and most wonderful experience of my life!!

I was bleeding extremely heavily and it was discovered I tore a ton on the inside! The doctor had to come in and they spent over 30 minutes stitching me up! It was quite the process and recovering has been slow and painful but it was all worth it to have my vaginal birth!! I am so in love with this baby! He is so cute! He sleeps alllll the time and is a champ at nursing. Nursing one baby is great!! I know Heavenly Father truly blessed me. I am so thankful for the experience and love being a mom to 3! I love all my babies! Pictures to come soon!

Our Life

Hello world! Why is it so hard to keep up on blogging!? The thing that makes me really sad is this blog is for me, my family, and my posterity so you think I would be better about writing on it!! Oh well, I will keep trying! Things are going really well for the Gurmans at the moment. We got through the semester and Hayden did awesome! One B+ and four A's!!! He works so hard and is really smart! He only has two semesters left at BYU and will graduate in December! Yay!

The holidays were fantastic! We went down to Queen Creek, AZ for thanksgiving and celebrated with Jodi and her family, my parents, and Eric. It was such a great week! The weather was beautiful and our kids had a blast playing outside and with their cousins everyday.

We drove to Bakersfield, CA on December 14th and got there on the 15th. Eric showed up the next night. We all had a wonderful Christmas! There were lots of fun surprise presents, one of which was the xbox 360 kinect I bought for Hayden (and our family). It is really fun to play and I figure it is better to be up moving around than sitting on our bums just watching TV or something. It was so nice to spend some intimate quality time with my parents before all the rest of the siblings showed up the day after Christmas. Then things got crazy! 9 grandkids equals a lot of screaming and running around ha ha. All the cousins have so much fun playing together. Oh yeah and we got to talk to Brian on Christmas day, which was awesome!! He is doing great and his french is so beautiful! I can't wait for him to be home in August!!

Hayden and I had decided earlier that we were going to leave Bakersfield and go back home to Provo before New Year's just because I was over 38 weeks and didn't want to risk going into labor at my parent's house, although I think they all wanted me too! So we drove back home on Thursday and since then every day we have spent cleaning and organizing and just getting everything ready for baby Coast to get here! We went through all the baby boy clothes and got them all ready and it made me soooooooo excited to meet Coast! I want him to be here already!!

My due date is tomorrow, January 8, hence I will be 40 weeks!! I really hope I go into labor soon!! My parents are driving here today and then my dad leaves Tuesday and my mom will be here about a week! I am so excited to see them and hope that I have the baby while my dad is here! He's going to carry his name after all (Coast Mark Gurman). Have I mentioned I am doing a natural birth!? Ha ha, well I am! I will deliver at the American Fork hospital, but with no pain medications. Julie is probably going to come when I go into labor as well. She's never seen a live birth so mine will be her first! Hope it goes smoothly!! Well, I think that's it for now. School has started up again and Hayden has a really good schedule and good classes. Our twins are doing great and are so adorable and so smart. They learn new things everyday and I can't wait for them to meet their new baby brother!