I am so blessed!
This is how my son eats Cake:
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| 1 year |
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| 2 year |
Here is his birth story from 2 years ago:
Post
Alder Stoker
Birth
Story
One week before this little
blessing was born I was at my Midwife appointment and I asked about the
positioning of the baby and how exactly low this little one was. She said she
could do a cervical exam, it may hurt…but I was up for it. Surprised, she said
that his head was really low and that I was 2cm dilated.
Sunday
May 23rd 2010
Cyrus
and I decided to go to the mountains and enjoy some fresh air. I was thinking
to myself that it would be interesting to go into labor in the mountains. We
stopped in Nederland, CO
at the lake and took a short walk. On the way back my kidney and my back
started to give me some pain. Coming down the mountain the pain didn’t really
stop, it only hid, and then came back. I decided to go to work and the pain made
it too hard to get around so I went home shortly after speaking to the midwife.
She informed me that I could be having Braxton Hicks in my back and that it
could be in combination with dehydration. A co-worker mentioned that she felt
the baby was going to come on Friday. I didn’t want to say anything at the time
but for about a month I was getting dreams and feelings that the baby would be
born on the 28th: that he would be here early…
Thursday,
May 27th, 2010
I
woke up that morning in love with everything I normally wasn’t in love with.
Nothing could have crashed my world.
I
went to a meeting at 6a, went on a walk with my best friend Jenna, went to my
midwife appointment to get a check up (she check to see how low the baby was: I
was 3cm and 80% effaced.
After
the appointment I met with my mother to do some shopping. However, I was
getting shooting pains in my legs and had to squat, unbeknown to me, she was timing
these little sits…she knew the baby would be here soon.
I
got home and really wanted to go to the pool and have my maternity pictures
taken underwater but the water was too cold for Cyrus to get in and we waded. I
saw a little spider trying to climb atop a drowned bee…so I inched closer to
move the spider to land. Cyrus pushed me in; and I continued to try to save the
spider, only for it to float to the bottom and try to crawl to safety. Later,
that evening we went to dinner for curry to celebrate Zeke’s completion of
middle school…
At
11:50pm I went into labor, but I didn’t know it at the time. I thought that I
was having indigestion due to the curry. In my birthing class I had learned of
hypno-birth and had done some of the exercises on the CD only to become very
frustrated with the woman’s voice, and ultimately trashing the idea of using it
in my labor process. Interestingly enough, I began to use the finger drop
technique that was used in the CDs. As I watched my finger drop, I closed my
eyes and told myself to dive deeper and deeper. I imagined myself diving and
swimming to the depths of a water world that comforted me. When the contraction
had passed I would open my eyes, bewildered that a tool I opposed before had
been used.
I
then realized I was in Labor. I rolled over and said, “Papa, we’re gonna have a
baby.” He opened his eyes only to tell me that he was dreaming of that exact
thing. I rolled over to nurse another contraction as he gently rubbed and
tickled my back. After a couple more times of this ritual, Cyrus said, “Let’s
go on a walk.” I rolled out of bed and we slowly made our way to the door
between contractions.
The
moon was bright and I remember a couple of days prior mentioning that it would
be funny if I had the baby during the full moon. That night was the end of the
full moon. The moon was dissolving the clouds as every couple steps we would
turn and hold each other, and slowly sway, during my contractions. I could hear
frogs and turned to Cyrus and said, “You hear the frogs? Let’s go frog
hunting.” We continued the walk down our street toward the frogs, toward the
water, toward the lake. Walking down the middle of the street we passed a Lilac
bush, which I had learned days prior from my Doula, Christine, is an aphrodisiac,
We stopped and turn to each other as I noticed the sent of this flower made my
contraction disappear. Cyrus took the branch off and I held it as we walked
further in the moon light. Suddenly, I noticed that my contractions were
getting closer and stronger.
This made sense: in the midwife
office I was reading about how the hormone oxytocin works during labor. Oxytocin,
being the love hormone, when it is released in the body during labor softens
the cervix and allows the baby to drop. In return as the baby drops the baby
releases Oxytocin to the mother and this exchange of love continues.
We
started to talk about what to bring to the hospital. Once we had gotten back to
the house and were packing I couldn’t bend down, get across the room, or get
down the stairs without having a contraction. And if Cyrus wasn’t there next to
me I resorted to staring myself down in my bathroom mirror to make myself dive
further into my water of safety.
Thank
goodness the hospital is right down the street and walking distance if need be.
It was part of my original birth plan to see if I could walk to the hospital
but after the moon lit walk we had taken earlier, I knew it would take hours to
get to the hospital and I didn’t think that I could comfortably make it.
Friday,
May 28th, 2010
We
pulled over multiple times in the neighborhood leading to the hospital and
finally pulled up to the sleepy emergency room door at 4:44am. Cyrus got out of
the car to get a wheel chair and I opened the door only to, thankfully, release
at my feet the rest of my curry dinner. Cyrus comes out and says, “Let me move
the car up for you, Mama.” I climbed into the wheel chair to find that this
wheel chair was made for someone much larger that I was. We joked on our
stop-and-go walk to the elevator about how this must be someone else’s wheel
chair and that we must have stolen it. Oops. We get upstairs and they were
ready to get us in a room, as the emergency room clerk had already informed
them that we were on our way up. They rolled me in.
My
Midwife on call, Gina, arrived shortly after to see how everything was going. I
was 4cm and 90% effaced. They had me strapped to a monitor to screen Post and
my contractions. They kept asking me to rate the contractions between one and
ten but being that I had nothing to compare them to I told them I couldn’t.
They mentioned that they could see my contractions on the monitor but couldn’t
tell when I was having them by watching me and I wouldn’t rate them for them. So,
they talked about sending me home and I could return later. At this point Cyrus
was lying with me and holding me. Having his heart next to mine helped me
breathe through intensifying contractions. I couldn’t eat anything of drink
anything without throwing it back up.
Cyrus
got me a piece of gum because before I left the house I hated that taste in my
mouth from the curry. Right after he slipped that gum in my mouth, I shook my
head and spit it out. I couldn’t handle strong smells or tastes. The nurse
said, “I am going to have the midwife come in and check you. Buzz me if things
are progressing.” She left the room and I buzzed her back to tell her things
were progressing. I must have been having a contraction when she was talking to
me because I didn’t answer her before she left.
The
midwife came in and checked me. I was then at 8cm. I turned to Cyrus and said,
“Call Christine and Nathan.” The nurse and midwife left and as Cyrus was on the
phone with my brother my water broke. The midwife and nurses were changing
shifts so Gina ran water in the tub for me as Angela the next midwife arrived.
They examined my water and said that they thought there was Meconium in my
water and explained to me what that meant once that baby came.
They
helped me to the tub and I climbed in right as Christine, my Doula, arrived.
She came in to talk to me and I feathered through my contractions. Closing my
eyes and breathing them away. My birthing team kept asking me to tell them when
I was having a contractions because they
couldn’t tell… so they kept me talking until I said, “Hold on a sec…”
That’s
the only way they knew when the contractions started, and when I opened my eyes
they knew I was finished. They’d ask me to compare it to the last one and
whether I felt pressure. Later, the nurse asked if I wanted aromatherapy and I
replied that was fine. She got some oils and asked me which one I wanted. I
told her the last one, but when she put it in the water I couldn’t handle the
intense smell and I told them. “Ok, I am ready.”
I
got out and it was time to start pushing this little wonder out. They checked
me again and told me that there was one more fluid sack and they were just
going to make a small cut to release the fluid. To that the fluid looked clear
and they decided that the color in my water was just from the Perineal massage
I was doing the past two months so that I wouldn’t rip during birth.
I
pushed for 2 ½ hours in every position
they could think of: I was on my back, squatting, on my knees hugging the bed
between contracts and moving into child’s pose during pushing, sitting… I
remember being given coconut water, because I refused to be on IV. I remember
at some point needing to be on oxygen. And I remember Cyrus’s voice, “Mama,
your hair looks amazing.” In which I cracked a huge smile.
The
midwife told me she was going to have me stand up and do a lunge. I stood up as
Cyrus helped me. Here I have to make note
that Cyrus is my strong-hold especially during this important moment and for
that, among so many other things, I love him so dearly. As I stood I needed
to bear down and held onto his neck trying to pull him to the floor. I stood up
again only to hear his voice, “Mama, this is what we are going to do. When you
go down I am going to put my knees in between yours and help spread them apart
further. You tell me if it is too far. After a couple times…
“Come
on! Come On! One more push, Jess.”
“You
can do it.”
“Quick
Breathe in.”
“Stand
up one more time.”
To
that I said, “I can’t.”
I
pushed one more time and kept thinking, I
just want to meet my son. And heard the midwife say, “Oh, that’s what was
in the way…”
And
there they placed my son in my arms to my surprise: I had thought I only pushed
out his head and now this little wonder was out in the world and in my arms!
I
had had a dream a couple months prior about my son the moment he was in my
arms, what he looked like, the color of his skin, the way his face was going to
look, his lips, his ears, his eyes… and I have to say he looked exactly like my
dream.
I
knew I was going to have this little one early. In fact, I knew that this one
was going to arrive the 28th of May. If you would have asked me and
pried it out of me, I would have told you. I remember waking up one morning
saying to myself, yep, this one is coming
early.
They
placed him in my arms.
We
wanted to wait until all of the blood was done pulsating to Post before we cut
his cord and during that time wanted to breastfeed him. My brother walked in
shortly after Post and I were moved to the bed and watched as Cyrus cut the
cord. Post was then officially in the world.
I
learned later that Post had his left hand next to his face. This hand we call The
Claw, as it seems to have a mind of its own and be in everything.
Post’s
Birth was all natural: no pain killers, no augmentation, no stitches, no
complications, and Mama made a sound only once.
 |
| Nathan (my brother), Cyrus (my hubby), Me and Post, Christine (aka. Mama C, My great friend, Sistren, and labor doula), and Angela Stevens (My midwife) |
post alder stoker
may 28th 2010
12:36pm
7lb.5oz.
21in.
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