| Cassie's birth Jerry and I had begun our real walk with the LORD when we were 24 after moving to our first home and meeting our wonderful neighbors who were Christians. We began attending church with them and learned so much there. We also started homeschooling(for lack of a better word, although I don't like to use that term) our oldest daughter who was now 6 and a 1st grader. We also realized that we were only too happy to submit our wills to God and follow His leading as to our family's size. We believe that the Bible tells that the LORD opens and closes the womb as He wills and so we ought not use means to try and assert our wills but rather to be open to God's will. So, we were happy to find out in July 1991 that I was pregnant. We were 25 years old but turned 26 during the pregnancy. I had just weaned Meredith, who was now 14 months old. I was due March 10th 1992. I had another friend who was due in December 1991 and it was her 4th as well. She was planning a home birth this time because she was determined to avoid another unnecessary C-section, as her first 3 had been. I was not to the point yet of being ready to try that route. I really liked my OB and felt like he would respect my wishes for the birth I wanted. I had a talk with my OB early on and continually throughout the pregnancy to assure he knew my wishes. I told him that I definitely wanted to avoid an episiotomy this time, he said he didn't see any reason I should need one with my 4th baby. I also told him I wanted to avoid routine I.V., and continous monitoring, and I wanted to remain able to walk in labor if I desired. He suggested I go to another hospital where he has priviledges that was more relaxed in their policies about these issues. I agreed. Everything proceeded normally but as my due date approached My Dr. got concerned about the fact that I was measuring small and growth had "appeared" to slow and stop. I know now this is completely normal for me and with no detriment to the babies. I'm a small boned person, 5'2" and non-pregnant weight is between 98-105 pounds. I carry all my babies small. Anyway, he had me do a couple NST's,which were fine, but still wanted to induce labor on my due date if I didn't go on my own. I told him I would not submit to pitocin. I agreed to meet him at the hospital on my due date and have him break my water because the baby's head was engaged and I was dilated to 2-3 cm. So, I arrived at the hospital 8'ish in the morning, March 10th, 1992. I was already having some contractions but wasn't timing them. Dr. Cothren got there and broke my water about 10:00a.m. and Jerry and I started walking the halls. My neighbor also arrived about 1:00p.m. to help Jerry support me and to take pictures and video. I did good with the contractions and stayed up as much as I could until transistion started to hit about 4:30p.m. I got in the bed about 5:00p.m. and Dr. Cothren returned to check on me. I was about 7 cm and he had another lady in labor with an epidural who was going to de needing a C-section. He was trying to decide if I had time for him to do her surgery because he didn't want her to have to wait on me. So, off he went to surgery. I started feeling "pushy" about 5:55p.m. and Dr wasn't back yet. The nurse was telling me not to push and everyone was running around trying to break down the table. The nurse was getting ready to have to deliver her when Dr.Cothren came running in just in time to catch her. The table fell apart on him though and he almost fell because they hadn't had time to set it up right. Cassandra Ruth was born at 6:06p.m. (5 minutes after I was ready to push!) She weighed 7 pounds 8 oz. and was 19-3/4". See I told you she was fine! She cried the minute she was born and continued for as long as the nurse fooled with her. It was shift change at 7:00p.m. and she wanted to finish up all her paper work before leaving. For that reason as well as the fact that I felt weak from not eating ALL DAY, I didn't hold and nurse Cassie for about 30-45 minutes after she was born. I watched this later on the video and it really bothered me because she just cried and cried until I finally held her and nursed her and she was instantly quiet. This was the catalyst which I remembered later that caused me to change the place of birth to home when we had our next baby. At least I was mobile in labor as I had wanted and NO EPISIOTOMY! YAYYY! |