The best birth story ever!

So on Monday February 13th I had contractions all day, they even got as close as 3-5 minutes apart, not super strong, but enough that they hurt. I was hopeful, I’d never had contractions like that with any of my other deliveries, when the babies decided they wanted to come they came and they came with force not this kind of painful-semi regular contractions, and then the contractions just STOPPED! I was so bummed and figured that was it, and I’d be pregnant for another week!

At 1am, Tuesday the 14th, I got up since I was having stretching/contraction feelings... I peed and noticed some things an experienced mom would say “hmmm, something might be going on” to, and then I walked down the hall to check on the kids and had a pain, not a bad contraction though, more just a tightening.

I came back in the bedroom and told Jake I thought something was going on. He immediately jumped out of bed, and I told him just to stay in bed, it would be a while, and I was going to go out and time the pains. Instead he followed me out to the living room, I sat down on the edge of the couch and reached to move the laundry baskets off of the coffee table, and my water broke!! It was 1:20am....

So, I clean up and change my clothes and Jake is wanting to wake up the kids. I kind of wanted to wait, I really didn't want to rush to the hospital and have them try and make me lay down or anything because I was handling the contractions so much better standing up! And being a VBACer they always want to took me up to IV's and monitors--which I hate!!

But, he won, and went and woke kids up. They all wanted to leave right then but I didn't feel like I was even very far along!

I went and sat in the bathroom for a few min and called my mom to let her know things were happening. I breathed through some contractions, and had a moment where I realized these were my last moments, I was never going to be pregnant again, and this was it....kind of emotional! Still emotional now that I think about it.

I came out and said "alright, let’s go!" Contractions at this point were about 3-4 min and lasting about a minute to a minute and a half, they were painful, but totally doable!!

We drove to moms’ house and dropped off Mara, Eli and Solomon wanted to come. We got on the freeway and the contractions were really moving, I had put the seat down in the front and was kneeling going through the contractions, and about 1/2 way there they really started hurting, and I began thinking, "I'm going to scare these boys, I can't believe it hurts this much already, I'm going to need drugs!". About 5 min to the off ramp I was really groaning and moaning it was awful! We drive up to the hospital and I was having a contraction, Jake was going to drop me off there and go park. I get in to the hallway and stop and have a contraction, I make it to the triage desk and sign my form and have another contraction.....I'm waiting for the nurse to look up my information and I get a major major contraction, I can feel my girl bits all burning, I need to push! So I yell that I feel like I need to push! As I'm really vocalizing through the contraction, not really yelling but loud! As I finish that contraction a midwife and nurse come up behind me the midwife says, "I don't think we need triage lets get you in the room", so we start off down the hall, and I grab the railing and have this massive contraction, in my head I'm thinking, "I'm going to have him in my pants, how do I catch him?" as the contraction starts to go down they each grabbed an arm and lifted me almost into the room, I dropped my pants, knelt on the bed and pushed! I could feel the burning and knew it wasn't going to be long. As I was mid contraction I thought, "Jake's going to miss it", and was going to say something to a nurse to go find him when the contraction was over, but midway though I heard one say what I was thinking and someone ran to find him and the boys. 

Jake says he and the boys were waiting for their ID tags to print and a nurse comes running out,
 "are you Jacob?" 
"Yes"
"You need to hurry you are going to miss the birth"
"what???"

They take off running, and he kind of forgets about the boys and the boys start running after him! He is thinking they must have the wrong Jacob so as he comes in the room he is really cautious worried he is walking in on some other lady! But there I am-my rear facing the door and 1/2 a babies head out of my body! The boys run in behind and see the view and head back behind the curtain ( didn't want to see the birth really in the first place, they always just wanted to be in the room, but not really see it!) I get his head out to his eyes and then I guess he was stuck there for a bit, I felt like my body was ripping apart and still pushing, but Jake says at that point the midwife seemed really anxious and was putting all her weight into pulling him out. He comes out and they pass him to me, and he was purple, like totally purple! They were rubbing and tugging on him but he was just staring at us, so they clipped the cord and took him to the warmer. His first APGARS were only 6, they were talking about taking him to the NICU but he started pinking up and was good!

About 15 minutes later my mom and sister showed up with Mara. After we left Mara had decided she wanted to come with them to the birth rather than stay with her uncles, they couldn’t believe they had missed the birth! One of the nurses when I got up to our room said that in the intake info it showed that it was only 5 min from the time I got to the hospital until he was out!

Asher Bruce Heninger weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces, and was 21 inches long. He and Solomon are only 1 ounce difference in size, and what's funny, is Eli and Mara are the same way! I only seem to make one sized babies!

He was born with a full head of dark hair, and hair down his back, and hair on his ears, and sideburns! He looks way more like his daddy ( even down to the ears! ) than any of the other kids do, which sure has warmed Jakes heart! Finally, after 4 kids he has one that really looks like him! ( Solomon is the closest and is a pretty good mix, depending on his age we have thought he leaned towards one side more than the other!)

The other kids are in love and can’t seem to get enough of him, in fact I often have to steal him back from them so I can have some cuddle time!

Despite his labor being totally nuts, I did get exactly what I wanted, I wanted no IV’s, no meds, and to be able to deliver not laying down and that all happened, so I am one happy mommy!