The birth story of Chayden King Campbell

I have had Chayden's birth story in my head far before he was actually born. You see, I dreamed endlessly of his birth from the day I found I was pregnant. Chayden would be my last pregnancy, last round belly full of life and love, last chubby baby toes and milky baby breath. The last of many things that I so enjoyed over the years with the other 4 children. Because of the "lastness" of it all I knew exactly how I wanted to bring him into this world. I wanted him born into the hands of his father in the comfort of our own home.

We began this incredible journey by choosing a midwife (referred by Tasha) and boy did we choose well. Lisa Black quickly became one of my favorite people and through this all a great friend. We also were so blessed to have the great Tasha Hance in our lives. She literally captured every single moment of this pregnancy on camera and provided support to me and our family every step of the way. Tasha is greatness and she made my LAST pregnancy so special and one I will never forget.

As my belly grew (and it grew fast) we began preparing our children, our home, our friends and family for the arrival of this gift. My mom spent the summer with us and came back around the end of December to take care of us. Days passed quickly and my pregnancy progressed without complications. It was relaxing and fun and tiring but good. My main complaint was some back pain that got pretty bad for about a month but cleared up around 36 weeks. During that time I was referred(by Tasha) to a chiropractor and that was a lifesaver. Dr. Pam worked wonders and really helped me manage the pain in my back for those 4 weeks. She also became a good friend and gave up roughly an entire afternoon, evening and night to spend with us during my labor. Funny - 2 wonderful women referred by Tasha (she has a gift).

Around 34 weeks I noticed some cervical changes and Lisa ordered a sonogram to check it out and that is when we discovered that Chayden was breech. His baby butt was sitting right where his baby head should be. Already Chayden was being mischevious. Lisa was willing to deliver Chayden at home even if he was breech as long as he was not feet first. We all agreed to try to entice Chayden to turn head down because head first is ideal. Dr. Pam worked some magic and 2(or 3?) weeks later at the next sonogram Chayden had turned head down. Awesome.

Now with all my other pregnancies I delivered between 36 and 38 weeks, so in  my mind I just knew I was only days from giving birth. I was wrong. I spent the last 3 weeks of this pregnany going in and out of labor. Lisa and her great assisant (Kristine) came to my house at least 3 times before I actually went into true labor. In fact I was dilated to a 4 for 2 weeks before the actual birth day. The last visit that Lisa made at home she seemed to think that Chayden was turned face up or posterior presentation. Ideally the baby should be face down. Again not a big deal - I had already delivered one baby in a posterior position and I knew I could do it again. We opted to have one more sonorgram (Tuesday the 19th) just to get an idea of what we were dealing with and sure enough Chayden was head down but face up. Little stinker. I then went home and began doing exercises (spinningbabies.com) to entice Chayden to turn his head around. He had not engaged fully into my pelvis so it seemed possible to get him to turn.

Wednesday January 20th - I started my day just like the others - PREGNANT and tired. I sat down at my computer and started my office work. I noticed some light irregular contractions and decided to walk Chance to his sitter. She lives about 1/2 a mile from me. The contractions stayed light and irregular and I decided to forget about them and enjoy my last few days of this final pregnancy. Tasha called and invited me down for lunch - she was trying a new Chinese delivery place. Of course I said yes and headed down there - walking again. During our lunch my contractions picked up a bit - maybe every 15 or 20 minutes - not painful just annoying. I left Tasha's and walked back home, just me and my big round belly and too much chinese food. I think this was around 1 or 2pm.

I decided to get in the shower and see if the contractions would stop. At this point I had not notified anyone besided Tasha that I had been having light contractions since around 10am. Once I got in the shower the contractions started getting stronger but were not real consistent. They were coming about every 12-18 minutes and not painful enough to stop me from doing things. It was only about 30 or 45 minutes after my shower that I decided to go ahead and call Lisa - she decided to head my way and also alerted Kristine and she began her way over. I called Jason and he was about 40 minutes away and he headed home as well. Home - they were all headed HOME - How cool I thought - I'm gonna have this baby at Home.

I went ahead and texted Dr. Pam and she offered to come over as soon as she dropped off her kids at the sitter and I said AWESOME. My own personal chiropractor to help manage the pain. Tasha began getting her kids lined up with a sitter and she made her way down to the house.

Lisa called to check on me and could hear in my voice that the contractions were getting stronger and closer together - she asked me to lay down on the bed because she was nervous with being my 5th that it could happen very fast and she wanted someone there besides my mom. Kristine arrived first and came upstairs to my room and started unpacking.  I was laying down and she asked me how I was. I told her Lisa told me to lay down and I wanted to get up so I could move and get the contractions coming stronger. She said "Get up - I'm here - I will deliver this baby if need be." So I got up and the fun began. All the key players arrived within 30 minutes of Kristine and it was party time. I think this was around 4 or 5 pm. At this point I did not want my contractions timed - too much pressure. I was so worried that this was not it- that once again all these people showed up and nothing would happen. I literally was not convinced that I was in true labor until Lisa told me I was 8cm dilated. So crazy.

The next couple hours were great - we all laughed and joked and ordered Chinese food for dinner. All our kids were there and their excitement filled our home. I went on a few walks to keep things going. The last walk was a good one and I had to hug a few mailboxes to get back home. Everytime I would stop and lean on a mailbox and work through the contractions - Chance would bend down and try to look at my face and say "Are you having the baby now?" Too funny.

After that walk things got intense. We retreated to our bedroom and all the candles were lit. A few lamps were turned on and there was warmth all around. Just what I wanted - Warmth - candle warmth, soft light warmth, my husbands warmth and the warmth from our birth team. Chance played games on my iphone for awhile while I labored next to him. Autumn fell alseep on our bed for awhile during my contractions. Chase and Chandler came in and out of our room to check on me. My mom and my sister visited with the kids and helped get Chance to bed. Everyone was doing their part all while I labored. So peaceful and cozy. I just kept thinking what a perfect enviroment to bring Chayden into. I was so ready to begin pushing and meet this little fellow.

The time came to begin pushing ( I think around 10:30) and I pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed. I pushed on my bed - I squatted on the floor and pushed - I pushed on my hands and knees. I am pretty sure I tried every possible position but Chayden would not come down. With my other labors, I pushed for maybe 25 minutes and all of them came flying out. After nearly 2 hours of pushing, Lisa knew something was not right. Chayden's heart rate began dipping a little and the the decision to go to the hospital was made. I can honestly tell you that I do not remember much after that. It seemed like I was in a dream and I was outside looking in on all the events. I felt blurry (if one can feel that way) - I wanted to speak but I was so tired I just could not form words.

Jason, Lisa and myself got into Tasha's Excursion and sped down the highway towards the hospital. I had to lean over the middle seat with my knees on the seat and my chest on the seat. Chayden's heart rate sounded the best in this postion so that is how I rode the whole way to the hospital. Lisa kept the oxgyen mask on me and Jason held me. Lisa instructed to not push with each contraction. That was really hard not to do. I did it though. I just kept thinking - 1 minute - I can endure any amount of pain for 1 minute. I said that over and over again for 20 minutes. Tasha got us all to the hospital safely .

Once there I was taken into labor and delivery and I really do not remember much. I know I was hooked up to monitors and Chayden had a monitor placed on him internally. His heart rate began dropping rather fast and about an hour after I got there I was rolled into the operating room where I was given a spinal block. Up until then I had not received any form of pain medication. Jason was brought in and the cut was made. It took longer than normal because Chayden's shoulders were stuck and they had a hard time getting him out. They had to make a T-cut on my uterus to fit his shoulders through and very large nurse literally pushed right below my sternum about 20 times to try get this boy out. He came out though. His cord was wrapped around his neck and wrapped around his body and left leg. It looked like he had done a alligator roll with his cord. He also had his neck hyperextended and had caught his face on the top of my pubic bone. Regardless of where I had chosen to give birth at - he would have had to be born C-section.

Chayden arrived at 2:08 am - 7lbs 9oz- 21 inches. I got to see hime for about 10 seconds and they whisked him away to NICU. He needed a oxygen tube to help with his breathing. He had been though alot. We all had.

Now I could go on with this story and tell you about the doctor with a horrible bedside manner or the nurse who waited until I was drugged with Demarol to let me know how she felt about our homebirth decision. I won't though. Overall Chayden and I were well taken care of at the hospital and I am grateful for the abilties of the staff there. I needed a C-section, plain and simple. I still believe in my heart that babies can be born at home, safe and sound. Just not this time and that's okay. I do not regret a single thing about our choice to homebirth. Because of our choice, we welcomed a few new people to our lives. People we may not have ever met. People I am thankful for. We formed a bond that will never be broken and shared a experience that will never be forgotten.

So thank you to you all that made this the most awesome experience of our lives. We truly went out with a bang.

Please follow this link and watch the story of Chayden King Campbell.

   A King is born...

MIA

Missing in Action...

Yep - I have been out of pocket for about 5months. I am not a daily blogger by any means but 5 months is a long time I admit. I won't offer up a long list of overused excuses - Just one - 5th pregnancy. Enough said.

My 5th pregnancy is now a 2 month old bouncing baby boy. Pretty awesome and the cutest baby I have seen in 5.5 years (since the last one was born). Chayden is a good baby. Happy and healthy - can't ask for too much more but maybe a couple hours more sleep every night.

3 days old

5 weeks

hat helmet