The Birth Story of Caleb Ryan
On September 13th, I had my 39 week appointment with Cindi. First I saw Larissa and she took one look at me and said, “This is the first time I can actually say Amanda you are done being pregnant. You have that look.” Yes, yes, I was ready to have this baby, but little Caleb had an agenda of his own and I was just waiting it out to let things happen on his time. She adjusted me and then I was called in to see Cindi. The appointment was just as ordinary as the rest. She asked me if I wanted her to check me for dilation, but I most definitely did not because I did not want any false hopes. As I was getting ready to leave, she told me that she thought a massage or acupuncture would be perfect for me as she felt I was starting to overthink everything hindering my abilities to go into labor and that would probably enough to make it happen. I called my husband upon leaving Cindi’s office and told him what she said. When he finally got off of work that evening, he was so excited and eager to meet his son that he drew me a nice warm bath with lavender bubble bath, lit some candles and put on relaxing music. He helped me get in and left me to go put our daughter to bed and to allow me time to just be. It was amazing and with that I had mild contractions, so of course I started to get excited, but did not want to get too excited. Alas, nothing happened and they faded out and Friday came. With nothing happening and feeling like I was going to be pregnant forever, on Saturday, I took Cindi’s advice. I went and got a massage and pedicure. Before the massage therapist was even done, I was having consistent contractions and thought for sure my little boy would be here before the weekend was over. Boy was I wrong. On Sunday evening, I was crying my eyes out and feeling sorry for myself that I was still pregnant and would have to return to work on Monday morning. I whined to my husband about how all I wanted was to not be pregnant anymore and heaven forbid I would go to work and my water would break there. That just could not happen to me. He sat next to me on the couch and touched my arm gently and told me to relax and quit worrying about it. He said, “You won’t be going to work tomorrow, I just know it, so relax.” A fellow GBO momma told me that the day/night that I would go into labor would be different and out of the ordinary. I was not quite sure what she meant until the early hours of Monday morning. Around 0245, I woke up, shook my husband and told him that our daughter was in the room. He, of course, responded with, “No she’s not go back to sleep.” I was insistent she was and sure enough she was on his side of the bed, which had never happened before. He got up and took her back to bed. He decided to stay in there with her so that we all could rest since we had to be up shortly anyways. I laid in bed, a minute, reflecting on the night of sleep that I had, which did not feel like much only to realize that my vivid dreams of contractions and yelling at my husband in the dreams, was me actually having contractions, but sleeping through them. Once I realized such, I couldn’t sleep anymore, so I went to check on Will and Aspyn to make sure they were both back to sleep. Like every pregnant woman does when they are up, I decided to use the restroom while I was over there by her room. A feeling came over me, so I texted Will saying that today would be the day. I had a bit of brown discharge as I wiped, but just went about my business. As I walked back into our bedroom, my water broke. I was so excited yet so frustrated because it broke on the carpet. Mind you we have a split floor plan house, so I am screaming from the kitchen trying to wake up Will, so he can get me a towel and help me clean up. Finally, he heard me and rushes to my side. I get all cleaned up and text Cindi and Nicole, our photographer. Next thing you know, my husband goes into OCD mode and is cleaning like no other. Cindi told me to rest, so I tried, but I was just too excited that we would meet our son today and I was finally getting the VBAC that I had dreamed about since I had our daughter almost two years prior. Around 0700, Will took Aspyn to daycare and I alerted our oncall babysitter in the event we would need her later on. Cindi kept periodically checking on me and told me that if I was not having consistent contractions by 1500, that she would need me to come into the office for monitoring. As soon as she said that, I As soon as she said that, I got my tennis shoes on and we went for a jaunt around the neighborhood because there was no way I was going anywhere in a vehicle that amount of distance. By 1430, I was having to really concentrate on contractions and had tears in my eyes. Will decided to call Cindi and she said she would be on her way shortly. We went and picked up Aspyn and that was the longest car ride of my life. It hurt so bad to sit in that seat and I knew in my heart I was getting close. We arrived back home just before 1500 and Cindi showed up shortly after. Next thing you know, she has me doing lunges on the stairs with each contraction. After that, I got to get in the shower and sit in there for a bit. Then I was on the toilet, then on the floor leaning over my exercise ball and that is where I started to transition. I was shaking and throwing up. Not glamorous, but that was a tall tale sign that my body was working. Finally, she told Will to fill up the birthing pool. That was the best thing ever, but it stalled contractions, so it was short lived. I recall spending the majority of my laboring time on the toilet. Yes, how awkward, but it was by far, the most comfortable until Cindi insisted I put my feet up on the two pots that she had Will bring in to help. I fought her with each contraction. After hours had passed and there was still no baby, I started to get extremely discouraged. I kept telling everyone that they were lying to me and that I was not even close to having a baby, so Cindi checked me to see where I was at. This was the only time she checked me and sure enough I was just about fully dialated I just needed to trust in my body to do what it was meant to do. Back to the toilet I went to help gravity work with finishing the dilation of my cervix. I was so tired and started to lose sight of what was important. Cindi had me lay down in bed, but I fought with that too because it hurt very badly. Cindi finally let me get up and I started to give up. I told her I could not do this anymore. She looked at me and in a stearn voice said, “Ok, that’s fine, I will take you to the hospital and we will just let them cut the baby out.” That was all I needed. A little bit of tough love. Nothing could stop me and I regained my focus and at that moment realized I was going to accomplish the vbac that I so badly wanted! From that moment on, I did what I needed to do and next thing I knew; there I was on all fours, on our bedroom floor, birthing our son. At 2044, Caleb Ryan Tyra made his grand entrance into this world with daddy catching him and handing him to me as I turned over to hold my sweet boy. He was absolutely perfect in every way. My hbac was the most rewarding, yet hardest thing I have ever done in life. I would not trade it for the world and would do it all over again no questions asked.