Chasing Coles

Twenty two days. It has been 22 days since my life has been flipped upside down by the arrival of the newest member of our family. He is a precious bundle of joy who's entrance to this world changed so much of my preconceived notions about what birth in a hospital looks like. But our journey started long before 22 days ago. You can read about my difficult pregnancy and transition out of midwifery care into medical care  here.  I felt from the very beginning of the pregnancy and all throughout that this baby was going to bring peace to me & our home, even when it was so challenging! The end of Archie's pregnancy was my hardest yet- the first of the three where I felt so DONE so early on. There were days where I cried to Justin and my best friend that I couldn't keep going. It was, hands down, the most difficult pregnancy I've had yet. And on top of it, I had no clue what to expect when it came to his birth.  I started having prodromal labor (a type of labor th...

So excited to finally get to share my birth story! I will give as much detail as I can remember! Friday, October 5th was homecoming for the Perryton Rangers football team and Justin and I took our last date (unknowingly) as a married couple without kids to the game that night. We came home and watched tv until about 1:00 am. Terrible decision. 4:30am of October 6th gets here and my water breaks. I was 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I wanted to be sure it was really my water so I laid back down for a while and timed my contractions. They were about 30-45 seconds long about about 2 minutes apart but definitely feeling different than the Braxton Hicks contractions that I had gotten so used to. After I decided I was probably in real labor, I got up and spent some time on my birth ball and called the midwife. She is 2 hours away so she said she would head over soon. I let Justin sleep until about 6:00am because I wanted to make sure he had SOME rest for the journey we had ahead. I went int...

Justin, Silas and I had all been really sick for a week so on Sunday Dec 21, my mom and I decided to go to Amarillo to fill a script for medicine and do some last minute Christmas shopping. I was 41 weeks and 4 days pregnant at this point. We arrived around 2 and when we stopped at Starbucks for coffee & a potty break, I noticed I had lost a quarter size chunk of mucus plug & was feeling really crampy. I told my mom we should make the trip kind of snappy in case labor was close. We walked and shopped all afternoon and decided to eat before we left. At 7pm, we were walking into the restaurant and I had a contraction. I was able to walk and talk through it but I thought to myself "that was my first real contraction I've had this pregnancy." We sat down to eat and I didn't notice any more until we finished up everything in Amarillo and hit the road at 8:30. As soon as we were out of town, I started having light contractions every 8-10 minutes. When we were maybe ...