Sammy's birth

Here is Sammy's birth story, written and told by his mother, Kathryn.

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My birth story begins at 2:30 Wednesday afternoon. I had been having contractions the day before, but nothing that could be timed. Susie suggested I go to the chiropractor to get adjusted and to have any pregnancy acupressure points hit to induce labor. By the time I got home, my contractions started coming every 15 to 30 minutes. I laid around the house the rest of the day watching HGTV and the Food Network.

By the evening, my contractions had shortened to 10 minutes apart. I had my mother, father, and husband with me. I held my mother and husband’s hand every time a contraction came, and my father wrote down the time. We called Susie by the time my contractions were around 5 minutes apart. Susie came in around 2:30 AM. Cindy, her assistant, came in soon after.

My contractions were very strong, but I didn’t know how to breathe through them. Susie immediately stepped in and showed me how to breathe properly to lessen the pain of the contraction. At this time, I went into my bathtub to labor. It really helped me to focus on the comfort of the water than the actual contraction. I stayed in the bathtub until the early morning hours. I then went to labor on the bed and attempt to “sleep” between contractions. I was obviously unsuccessful, but it was still comforting.

Susie checked me and I was around 6 cm. I needed to get up to 8 cm before they could break my water. My water was bulging, and we were hoping I would break on my own, but even through walking up and down the hallway, sitting on my balance ball, and squatting on my toilet, I was unsuccessful in breaking my own water. When I finally got up to 8 cm, Susie broke my water.

It was a relief to feel my water break. I was thinking to myself, “This is finally it. This is finally the moment. All I have to do it get to 10 cm, and he will be here before I know it.” Getting from 8cm to 10cm was the most difficult. The pain of the contractions were not unbearable because I fancy myself to handle pain better than most individuals, but they were pretty close to it. The only real pain I have felt in my life and remember quite clearly was when I had a horse fall on my foot and crush all the bones, some of them were powdered. When the nerves re-fired in my foot, it was an unbelievable pain, and something I would not wish on anyone. The re-firing nerves felt like my contractions, but the contractions radiated over my entire body and were not just centralized to an area on my body.

As I labored on the bed, Susie checked me again and had news that she could get my cervix over

Sammy’s head. I had made it to 10cm! The feeling after that was unbelievable; it was the feeling to push. It’s like your body knows exactly what to do. I had hardly eaten anything the past two days because I had not felt like it, but my body was able to find enough energy to push. I pushed during each contraction. The most difficult and discouraging part was trying to get Sammy past my pelvic bone. I would push as hard as I could, but I felt nothing would happen. Susie, Cindy, my mother, and husband were there the entire time as I pushed Sammy into the world.

After Sammy made it pass my pelvic bone, I pushed several times and his head would start coming out, but then after the contraction was over, his head would go back in. Finally, I was able to push enough and keep his head from going back inside. Slowly, I pushed his head out entirely. Susie told me to hold him there while they suctioned his nose and mouth, then with one final push from me, his shoulders and the rest of his body made it into this world.

They immediately laid him on my chest; he was perfect. His ten little toes, his ten little fingers, and his little body all radiating life, a new beginning, a new journey.

Babies are truly God’s greatest gift.