Oliver’s Birth Story

It has always been my hope to go into natural labor on my own. I was induced at 42 weeks with both my girls, and I have been praying towards a natural labor since we found out we were expecting. This pregnancy had hard unexpected realities: not only did I experience harder side effects of pregnancy (worse morning sickness, migraines, swelling, varicose veins, etc) but we found out Oliver was breech at 36 weeks. Many of you prayed with me that he would turn on his own, and while he didn’t turn on his own, our scheduled external version (where the OB manually attempts to turn him around) was successful and we were so thankful.

My due date was Saturday the 3rd, and Monday the 5th I had regular contractions from 11pm to 5am. That morning they were 7 mins apart as I headed to a scheduled OB appointment — bags packed and hoping they’d send us straight on to the hospital.

But when they checked me, I was only dilated 3cm and after my exam the contractions stopped on a dime. I was so discouraged as they sent us home.

That evening, I shared my frustration and discouragement with Austin — I want a natural labor but I’m already post due. I didn’t want to wait too long to be induced because both my girls were born with meconium in their water. Austin was so gracious, gentle, and kind to remind me that only weeks ago we were talking about scheduling a c-section because he was breech. So we prayed together that God would give us the birth we hoped for, but also admitted that we really just wanted a healthy birth.

In the days of prayer that followed, I would pray regularly that God would send my body into labor naturally. And every single time — every single time — I would sense his Spirit saying, “I have the perfect plan.”

I surrendered to that. I would hope to go into labor naturally, or I would be induced at 40 and 5.

The Lord saw it fit that we’d be induced on 8/8 at 5am. We drove to the hospital through a tornado warning, and started pit at 6am. The nursing team was amazing, one of the nurses had helped turn Oliver at his version. After a few hours on pitocin, they broke my water and I opted for an epidural. With Elliot, I had three failed epidurals and so I had a lot of nerves around getting another. But the anesthesiologist we had at the top of our list had just arrived, and it was a gift to feel so confident in her abilities.

Unfortunately, the epidural failed again — like with Elliot, it only worked below my pelvis and on one side of my body. This is going to sound strange (it did to everyone in the room) but it kind of worked for me. I liked that I could feel the contractions but that the edge was taken off. I turned down extra meds and labored that way for a few more hours. I listened to worship music while sniffing alcohol swabs 😜 by 1:30 I was 10cm it was time to push!

When I had my OB appointment on the 5th (three days prior), the ultrasound measured him right at 8lbs. That tracked with my girls who were both born just around 8lbs. Which is why none of us were prepared for Oliver to arrive at 9.9. I pushed for about 30 mins and seemed to make good progress. But then he got stuck, and the midwife and nursing team jumped into action realizing that Oliver’s air was cut off. We didn’t realize it when I started pushing, but one of his hands was up (fist to mouth) and one was down, and his left shoulder was stuck. Austin, who had been helping me push, got out of the way just in time for the team to manually deliver Oliver’s shoulder — pulling his left arm in the process. 

They set Oliver on my chest and he was entirely blue and his face was white. It might have been the most scared I have felt in my life.

The NICU team was called and arrived gloriously in 30 seconds to assess his oxygen loss and shoulder. Their primary concern (I learned later) was his oxygen levels which came up quickly, and a clavicle break. For about 20 mins, Austin and I felt like we were on the sidelines just praying our son would be okay.

Oliver’s shoulder showed no breaking, but they remained concerned about nerve damage. He wouldn’t lift his left hand, and it hung limp at his side for the first day. While a break was more likely, it was the more simple healing process. Nerve damage is less likely, but is long term damage and could result in a lame arm, or an arm that doesn’t develop.

We stayed overnight, the girls came and met him, as did his grandparents and aunt and uncle. It was a tender time of sharing our sweet boy with those we love.

We are home now (tomorrow Oliver will be one week and I can hardly believe it)!l, and resting as much as we can. Oliver’s arm is showing good progress and giving me lots of optimism that he won’t have long term damage. He has started rotating it and lifting it, and he even has some grip in his fingers.

We are immensely grateful — for the care we received, for God’s grace, for those family members who helped with the girls, for our friends who prayed. We adore our family of five, and we are planning to take the next week (in addition to last week) away from work and just enjoy being together (and working on getting some sleep) 🧡