Owen's Birth Story

Trying to figure out what just happened!

With this pregnancy, I was told that labor would most likely be shorter, and my baby boy might come earlier than last time. Both of these sounded amazing- I had a fairly short labor with Landon, and I would love to not be almost 2 weeks late again! With these things in mind, a few weeks ago, I started having more Braxton-Hicks contractions. I would have several mild-moderate contractions each day, but they never formed a pattern. We moved into our short-term, furnished rental home over the first weekend in November and I had a few days to settle into the space and put our things away.


After everything was settled in the house, contractions started becoming more frequent. Nothing regular, but definitely stronger. I took Landon to story time on Thursday, and contractions were coming consistently 10 minutes apart. At that point, I really wanted to wait until my mom arrived on Tuesday, the 10th to have the baby, so I rested and tried to stop the contractions. It worked for Thursday, and I felt better Friday. I suddenly had a burst of energy on Friday and did laundry along with other chores as well as resting. Friday afternoon, I took Landon to his first T-ball class and met Austin there. Contractions started to get stronger at the class, even though I was just sitting there. They got closer together to 8 minutes, and by the time I got home and laid down to rest they were 5-7 minutes apart. They did not stop with laying down for an hour, so Austin and I dropped Landon off at a friend's house and headed for the hospital.

Brand new!

I was GBS positive again this pregnancy, and last time, I barely made it to the hospital in time to have Landon, much less to get antibiotics I needed prior to the delivery. We had to stay 48 hours in the hospital and it felt like prison. This time, we wanted to get there in time to get enough antibiotics prior to delivery. Because my labor was short and crept up on us with Landon, I was more cautious than necessary! When we arrived, I was only dilated to a 1. They still admitted me because my contractions were consistently 4 minutes apart. With walking and squatting and moving, they continued to get stronger and closer together- down to 2-3 minutes for several hours. We were there all night- walking, timing contractions, getting IV antibiotics, practicing hypnobirthing relaxation techniques and waiting for me to dilate. Our nurse was a newbie and had a hard time with drawing my blood and getting my IV going. She had me hop in the bed once every two hours for monitoring, which slowed the contractions. In hindsight, I'm glad that I did not end up delivering on Friday because she just was not the right nurse for me. Around 5:00 am, after both doses of antibiotics, I was so tired from being up all night I just laid down to rest. Although the contractions continued, they spaced further apart and were less intense. I was still just dilated to a 1. They discharged me and told me to try again later. It was embarrassing going back home and retrieving Landon! I was exhausted from not sleeping along with the walking/squatting/bouncing on a birthing ball all night for no reason.

Saturday, I took a long nap and tried to recover. I was still super pregnant, which is such an energy drain in itself, and I was mad at myself that we went to the hospital for a false alarm. I talked to my mom and she encouraged me to continue resting and booked a red-eye flight leaving that night. I was so relieved that she would be around to help with Landon by the next morning!

Saturday night I had a great night's rest and we picked up my mom. She saved the day and came to church with us on no sleep whatsoever. In the middle of church, I started having contractions again every 10 minutes or so. We came home and I laid down but they did not go away. I sat on the exercise ball and bounced around for a few hours, had dinner, and then laid down again. The contractions did not stop, but continued to get stronger and more regular. Every so often, they would stall or slow, so I knew we weren't ready to go quite yet. We went to bed, and I tried to sleep but the contractions were too intense! After a few hours of this, every time I closed my eyes I envisioned myself giving birth on the side of the road on the way to the hospital, and so I woke up Austin and told him we needed to go!

Proud dad

We got to the hospital around 1:30 am. I was having regular contractions, but was only dilated to a 2. That was a major blow. These contractions felt different, stronger, and more productive, but I still was not dilating! Since we had just gone through this a few days prior, they did not admit me right away. I was to walk the halls for 2 hours and come back to get checked again. We walked the halls for two whole hours until 4:15 am. They checked me again and I was a 3. Since I had made a change, they admitted me, and started IV antibiotics around 6:00 am. That's when my labor and delivery nurse, Michelle, came on shift. She was super experienced and had given birth naturally at home several times. She understood my birth plan and wanted to uphold it in whatever way she could. She intermittently monitored our baby with Doppler instead of the stupid baby monitors so that I could be in whatever position or situation I wanted to while she checked. She put my IV in while I was standing against the bed because I wanted to be upright. Every time she came in to help out, she stayed in the background and tried not to disturb me in my hypnobirthing. She was awesome.


I decided to rest while the antibiotics were going in to save energy for later, and my contractions stayed about the same, and so did my cervix. Michelle tried to strip my membranes to help, but my amniotic sac was right against baby's head and would not tear. At this point, I had walked for hours and my contractions were getting stronger, but were not yet very productive. I cried. I prayed. I was mad that my contractions were so intense and nothing was happening! She told me that my baby's head was not yet descended onto the cervix, so I needed to change positions and use gravity to help him get in a better position to make my cervix dilate. Around that time, my IV was done so I got up and started lunging, walking, going on all fours, swaying back and forth, and bouncing on the birthing ball- anything to get him to situate himself better and allow for dilation.

After a little while of that, things started to get more intense, so I decided to get into the shower. Best idea ever. My contractions were still 3 minutes apart, but they were getting stronger. I used hypnobirthing deep breathing and visualization techniques to get through contractions, especially visualizing my baby moving down and my body opening like a rosebud.  I stayed in the shower for hours swaying back and forth and watering my belly and back with the removable shower head during contractions. Austin kept me fueled with animal crackers, fruit, water and orange juice. I was starving! A different midwife came on shift and recommended that Austin order me some breakfast. Food did not sound like the best thing at the time, but he ordered me some oatmeal, toast and fruit. It took so long to come all I got into me was the fruit prior to his birth anyway. After a few hours, Austin could see that I was getting exhausted and contractions were coming closer and closer together. He got in the shower and took over "watering" duties while I sat on the birth ball. After awhile, I could feel my baby moving down and even felt his wide shoulders pass through the top part of my pelvis. At that point, I asked to be able to use the birthing tub. I had been upright for 3 hours at this point, doing deep relaxation breathing, and my postural and breathing muscles were absolutely exhausted.

The Brown boys

The catch with the tub was that I could not actually go in until the midwife arrived. As I had not been dilating only a few hours earlier, she was on her way to the hospital but had not yet arrived. Our nurse filled the tub in preparation for me to get in, but I couldn't yet. The contractions were going straight to my back, and I was exhausted from the hours and hours of walking and standing. Finally, Mary, our midwife was in the building and I was allowed to get into the tub. My contractions were a minute apart at that time, and when I got into the water I instantly relaxed. It felt awesome! My contractions spaced out and I welcomed a relative state of rest. Mary arrived and I was dilated to a 9! She tried to break my water to get him to come sooner- even putting the hook in to break the amniotic sac, but the sac was so tight against his head that she was unsuccessful.  She told me to breathe down whenever I felt like it. For a few more contractions, I continued to breathe up, visualizing breathing the uterus up and baby's head down onto the cervix. Around that time, my arms went numb. It all started with my left arm- when my nurse took my blood pressure- and moved to the other arm soon after. I tried breathing into a wash cloth, relaxing my arms, etc, but they continued to be numb through several contractions. We're not really sure why that happened, but they were thinking perhaps I was over oxygenating with all of my deep breathing. Eventually, they stopped being numb, but with the next contraction, I felt like I had to vomit. I had just chugged a cup of orange juice, and so it came right back up. I think the force of vomiting helped push baby even further down, because on the next contractions I felt like I should breathe down instead of up. I changed to a squatting position in the tub, holding onto handles on the side of the tub.

After a few contractions of breathing down, I felt him coming down and crowning. My water broke the contraction before he crowned. At the same time, the tub became too contaminated to continue with the water birth, so Mary had me hop out of the tub and squat on a birthing stool. Michelle the nurse was going to go get something for Mary, but Mary called her back because Owen was about to be born! With the next contraction, Owen's head came and then soon after his shoulders at 11:01 am. My baby was finally here! As I held him to my chest, I was overcome with relief and joy. We waited for the cord to stop pulsing, and Austin cut the cord while I continued to hold him. He had a ton of dark hair and was covered with the cheesy vernix. We noticed his shoulders were wider than Landon's, and his face shape was definitely different.  It wasn't until later that we realized the miracles that had occurred during my labor and birth.

First family of four photo

The first problem occurred when my placenta was not delivering well. Mary discovered that the umbilical cord had avulsed, or torn off of the placenta. She had to manually remove the placenta and upon inspection, found that the cord had grown on the side of the placenta instead of the middle. Later we learned that if my amniotic sac had broken (or been stripped!) in the wrong spot, the cord could have broken off in utero and Owen could have bled out and died. We know that it was a miracle that two times, my healthcare providers were unable to break my water. I know I was protected and so was baby Owen. At the time, I found it annoying that my water wouldn't break to signal that I was really in labor, but I'm so glad it didn't! I'm forever grateful for my amniotic sac of steel!

I was passing some big clots after Mary removed the placenta, but again, Michelle saved the day/made me make sad faces as she vigorously massaged my uterus and tried to get as many of the blood clots out as possible. Since then, my bleeding has been less severe than last time, and I did not require pitocin to contract my uterus after delivery. Yay!


We appreciated the policies of Elmhurst Memorial hospital because we were able to bond/spend time together as a family immediately after birth without worrying about measuring and bathing baby right away. I breastfed him for the first time and we just chatted quietly and marveled in the miracle that was our new baby. After about an hour, Michelle came back in to weigh, measure, and put bracelets on our little boy. He was 8 lbs, 13 oz. and 20.5 inches long. Even though he came four days early, he was five ounces bigger than Landon. I am glad that he came early!

perfect tiny fingers

Owen's birth went much differently from Landon's. I spent more time laboring in the hospital, he wasn't perfectly positioned to dilate my cervix, and I had to be upright and moving in order to get him correctly situated. This meant that I did not spend as much time in deep relaxation, and I felt more pain and pressure throughout labor. I was still able to breathe and relax through contractions and did not require any medication. I still used birth breathing during the "pushing" phase to effectively and quickly move him down and crowning within a few contractions. I'm happy with my labor and delivery, and I'm glad we went to the hospital when we did because I completed my second dose of antibiotics just a few minutes prior to Owen being born. At the time, it seemed like we were SO early, but things moved along quickly once they got moving! Hypnobirthing for the win once again!

Our precious boy