On Sunday, December 13th at 10:47am our third baby, Jacob Barrett Breen came into the world and joined our family! He was exactly one week late! I remember days leading up to my due date and afterwards I was walking, doing squats everyday and had gone through 4 sweeps! I was really hoping for a VBAC. (My 2nd was an emergency c-section and I really didn’t want to go into the operating room again!) Thankfully, that plan panned out and I had a VBAC! A hectic one haha!
My contractions started on Saturday, December 12th in the evening and I remember saying to Chris, this is it! Fast forward to 5am, we were speeding off to the hospital. Labour is NOT comfortable. That car ride was probably the most uncomfortable ride ever. We got to the hospital and was met by my midwife, after a check, I was 4 cms dilated. Originally I had asked for an epidural. But after a deep breath of laughing gas while breathing through a contraction, I exhaled “You know what Nancy….” ( my midwife) “I think I can do this without the epidural”.
What the hell was I thinking?! Fast forward to 9am, mid grunt-scream, still breathing in the laughing gas (heavily), I looked at Nancy and said… “WHY did I think I could do this without the epidural?!?!”
Nancy laughed and said you’re doing great! I pushed trying to get our guy to come out, but he wasn’t tucking that chin down and would be sucked back in at the end of each push. I had changed positions, at one point I was even pushing while squatting upright. That was a first!
I remember breathing in the laughing gas as I squeezing Nancy’s hand and looking at her. I thought I passed out. Everything went into sloooow motion, Nancy was saying to me “Amanda, Aaaaammmmanddda?” and I had a dream. I dreamt that Jacob was born and we were all so relieved and i was crying looking at Chris who had a big smile on his face and then all of a sudden I started getting pulled back into reality, and it was like a movie being rewound, everything was going backwards then I was looking at Nancy again and she was saying “Amanda? Amanda?”.
This is it, I thought. This is it, I’m going to start pushing. I looked at Chris and he’s like “are you okay?” I said to him, I’m gonna push.
Jacob’s heart rate was dipping and then wouldn’t go back to normal as quick as the midwife and nurse would like it to so they called the OB. She came with all the tools including the vacuum.
I’m squeezing Chris’ hand with each contraction. The OB says to me. Ok Amanda! On your next contraction you’re going to give me one big push!
PUSH! I inhaled deeply and exhaled a loud yell and one big push. The nurse and Nancy were saying “here he comes!!” Out came Jacobs head. Then the burning feeling of his shoulders. Then the slip of his hips and legs and he was plopped right onto my chest. His slippery body on mine.
I looked at his face and tears came to my eyes. I looked at Chris then looked and this baby and we said “hi.”
Amanda is a writer, photographer, videographer and a content creator with a passion for sharing stories. With her family of 5, they share experiences, tips and ideas that empower Moms to make memories with their families right here in British Columbia.
