51. MyMaine Birth: Jesse shares her 5 natural Hospital Birth Experiences
Welcome to episode 51 of the MyMaine Birth podcast! Today's birth story guest is Jessie and she shares about her five natural hospital birth stories. The first three were at Inland Hospital in Waterville, and her youngest two were born at Houlton Hospital in Aroostook County.
I'm your host Angela, I am a certified Maine Birth photographer, experienced birth doula and childbirth educator. MyMaine Birth podcast is a space where we share the real life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine. From our state's biggest hospitals to birth center births and maine home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated. From the first feelings of pregnancy to the first cry of your newborn, we explore the journey of childbirth in all of its beauty, intensity, and emotion. Whether you are a soon to be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you.
As part of my commitment to capturing these incredible moments, I am proud to offer my birth photography services to families throughout Maine. As an experienced doula and photographer I am dedicated to capturing the beauty and emotion of this special moment in your life. And I create a personalized and intimate photo album that you will treasure forever. For all of the information head over to https://www.mymainephoto.com
Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories! See you back here again next week!
Jesse: 0:00
My doctor, dr Mosenfeller, came in and said we're going to have to put you on Pertocin because you're not progressing and water has been broken for a while now and it's not good for the baby. And so I just, you know, kind of looked at him like OK, I understand. And when he left, like my husband, looked at me and he said I know, that's not what you want. You need to talk to me because I'll be your advocate, but you need to talk to me. And I started crying and I was like no, I really don't want to go on Pertussan, I really want to not do this natural. So my friend came in because it was her shift, which was a huge blessing that it worked out that way and we talked. And she talked to the doctor and said can we try a few things to try to get it going naturally? And he said well, I'll give you until he gave me a set time. He said I'll give you to this time and if it's not, she's not progressing naturally then we need to put Pitocin in her. So I had more than one nurse come in. It worked out. Actually, we were the only couple on the ward at that time, so we had more than one nurse come in with all these peanut balls and all kinds of things. So we came up with a plan I was going to pump for 10 minutes and then rest for 10 minutes and I was going to continue to do that. And while we were doing that they had me in all these funny positions to try to speed along the process. It worked.
Jesse: 1:33
I slowly started to go into labor and before that time was even up that he said we had to put in, put pitocin on. They had me go in one more position because she said all right, my friend her name's tony marie. She's a ob nurse in holton amazing she said this is going to hurt but you need to trust me because it it will get you to where you need to be. She had me lay on my side and I took my leg on the top and I she had me fling it all the way off to where it was touching the floor off the bed and she held me like that through two contractions. It was.
Jesse: 2:22
She did not lie to her. It was the most painful position to be in, but after those two contractions she was coming out just like that. I was shocked. Like it worked. She was coming and the doctor came in because Tony rang the bell and she was out within a few minutes, just like that. So I had her. I was again kind of on my back, but I was upright. So I was sitting up and Tony was on one side, my husband was on the other and I had her natural like I wanted.
Angela: 2:59
I'm Angela and you're listening to my Maine Birth a space where we share the real-life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine. From our state's biggest hospitals to birth center births and home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated. From the first feelings of pregnancy to the first cry of your newborn, we explore the journey of childbirth in all of its beauty, intensity and emotion. Whether you're a soon-to-be mom, a seasoned mother or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you. As part of my commitment to capturing these incredible moments, I'm proud to offer my birth photography services to families throughout Maine. As an experienced moments, I'm proud to offer my birth photography services to families throughout Maine. As an experienced photographer, I'm dedicated to capturing the beauty and emotion of this special moment in your life, and I create a personalized and intimate photo album that you will treasure forever. For all of the information, head over to mymainphotocom and fill out the contact form to schedule a call with me. Now sit back, relax and join me as we dive into the world of childbirth in Maine and discover the joy, strength and love that is at the heart of every birth story.
Angela: 4:23
Welcome to episode 51 of the my Main Birth podcast. Today's birth story guest is Jessie, and she is going to be sharing about her five natural hospital birth stories. Hi Jessie, welcome to my Main Birth. How are you doing Good, hi. Well, to get started, will you share a little bit about you and your family?
Jesse: 4:48
Yeah, my husband and I have five beautiful girls. We live up in northern Maine. Right now we homeschool all of our kids and four out of our five are in dance class, which they love. Our life is very full between homeschooling and classes outside the house and we attend church on Sunday and we have a big church family we love and we're just mostly homebodies. We have a big family and we spend a lot of time that we can with them.
Angela: 5:22
Awesome. Well, to get into your birth stories, will you share about when you first found out you're pregnant and a little bit about your thoughts in choosing your care?
Jesse: 5:33
Well with my oldest. It was a surprise. I found out I was pregnant and I chose to go through the hospital, not have a home birth or anything like that. Being my first time, I was very scared. My first experience being pregnant was actually kind of scary for me, like it is, I think, for most moms, and I actually didn't know what to expect with my first child in labor and I had heard all these you know, wonderful horror stories from friends. And so when I woke up that morning when I thought I was in labor, I was actually my oldest daughter's from a previous marriage and my husband at the time didn't think I was in labor and I convinced my friend to bring me into the hospital and I told them I really think I'm in labor, I'm going to have this baby, and they told me I was only two centimeters dilated. She wasn't due for another three days.
Jesse: 6:35
First time, mom, they told me to go home. I begged them to keep me and they kept me and my mother came out and stayed with me overnight and by about 430 in the morning I had gotten there at five o'clock at night. So I was there all night. By about 430 in the morning the pain just got so unbearable that I called the nurse in and the nurse came in and checked me and said I was eight and a half centimeters dilated and baby came right away. Eight and a half centimeters dilated and baby came right away. So that was my first experience with having a child. So no epidural. No, I had no time because I didn't know I was really in active labor because I was told I wasn't. So I believed I wasn't.
Jesse: 7:22
And the wonderful thing for me about that, when you fast forward several years later and I met my husband that I'm with now we had our second child is I learned with that first experience that a lot of it is mind over matter, if you can. I mean, I understand some women might not be able to really get there because it is painful, but I kind of have done that with all my, all my kids. Now it's kind of gotten to that mind of you know, this really relaxed state of like trying to not focus so much on the pain, and then all of a sudden you're kind of there and active labor and it's your body just takes over. And they are in active labor and your body just takes over. So with my second child. I've had all my kids in the hospital setting, mainly because I am just nervous of the unknown, of what could happen. I think women who can have babies at home are amazing. I really, really do. I just am always nervous of what could happen. What hospital did?
Angela: 8:29
you deliver at.
Jesse: 8:31
My first. Three were born at Inland Hospital, so my third child. We were actually moved up north but because I'm such a creature of habit, I actually traveled all the way down to the Augusta area and stayed with family to have my child at Inland Hospital. I had Dr Bradfield and I loved him. My two youngest I had in Houghton with Dr Mosenfeller and he's fabulous, absolutely fabulous. I'm so thankful that I came up here and got care. I've had amazing experiences with the hospital up fabulous. I'm so thankful that I came up here and got care. I've had amazing experiences with the hospital up there. I'm actually very close friends now with the nurse who helped deliver my two youngest, just because it was just such a great experience.
Angela: 9:19
Yeah, it definitely bonds you with the people that are in the room. That's amazing.
Jesse: 9:24
It really does. I mean there's there's nothing like giving birth, that experience, whether it can be good or bad, you know, it's just something you'll never go through again. That's changes your, your life. One months old now, all my pregnancies have been fairly easy, honestly, but my youngest that I just had was an interesting experience for me. When they say every pregnancy is different, it's really true. All of them have been a bit different.
Angela: 9:58
When you first found out you were pregnant with your second child. How did that kind of unfold for you and how was that pregnancy?
Jesse: 10:03
My pregnancy with my second child was actually really wonderful. I have to say it was my easiest pregnancy. I didn't have any morning sickness, I didn't have any complications or pain or or anything. It was really easy. This summer I had her. I had her in July and about a month or so before she was due we had my husband's cousin was getting married and we were helping with that and so I was very pregnant in the heat of the summer outside trying to help and I think it kind of sped things along. I ended up having her about three weeks early but my labor with her was not bad. I didn't have any epidural or anything. I was able to labor through really easily and I gave birth to her standing up, which I have to say was amazing, the gravity of standing up. I had her with no problem at all. I didn't have any tearing, I didn't have. You know it was painful but it wasn't unbearable and but she was just under seven pounds.
Angela: 11:10
So how is that? In the hospital Did it kind of was it something where it was just happening fast and did you? Did you catch her yourself, or was no, my doctor caught her.
Jesse: 11:20
I actually had my sister-in-law and my husband on each side of me kind of holding me up and she just came right out. It was a great experience. I loved having my sister there and my husband. Both of their support was amazing, and both my mother and my husband's mother were in the room with us as well, and just having that family bond in the room was beautiful. It really was beautiful. And even my sister-in-law, my niece, is exactly three months apart from my child that I had given birth to, so I had my three-month-old niece in the room in a swing. So it was really kind of neat to have that whole bonding experience with the family there, and how beautiful the birth went was just the icing on the cake. It really was. So, yeah, my birth with my pregnancy, my birth with my second child, was beautiful. It really was.
Jesse: 12:19
Postpartum was a little bit more difficult. I actually got a little bit of the baby blues with my second child and that was really hard for me because I was really happy and I was in a really good place when I had her at the hospital and then about I stayed there for three days and about the third day that I was going home, all of a sudden I just like felt really overwhelmed and sad and I just wasn't doing good and I couldn't put a finger on why. I had no reason, why, really. And when we got home, my child started showing signs of colic, and there was no reason. You know. We brought her to the doctor, we tried to, I tried eliminating dairy out of my system and you know all those things and nothing was helping. So I really struggled with that and I think between feeling kind of depressed and the baby being really colicky, I was having a hard time nursing her and I got mastitis, which kind of added to the whole thing. Time nursing her and I got mastitis, which kind of added to the whole thing.
Jesse: 13:28
And then, you know, having I had my two-year-old at home and trying to, you know, take care of my two-year-old and love on her and my family trying to help me but not understanding how to help me. It was a really hard. That was really hard experience. So I had a really good birth, really good, you know, really hard experience. So I had a really good birth, really good, you know, pregnancy, but my postpartum was really difficult and I did get through it, though, and it was really a lot of help for my family. I had so much family support and that really helped me get through, because they helped me with my toddler, the baby, and just was there to you know. Let me know that it was going to be okay and they care about me.
Jesse: 14:08
But that was very hard and she was colicky for about three months until she finally came out of it and I had a happy baby and I had moments I'll never forget, you know, being up at like three o'clock in the morning and we're passing baby around trying to calm her, me, my father-in-law and my mother-in-law all sitting on the bed trying to calm down that baby, like three o'clock in the morning, and in the moment that that was happening I was really sad. But I look back at it now and I'm really thankful that I had that family support. I mean, how many you know in-laws are going to sit up with you in the middle of the night to be there and try to help take care of your baby, so you can have a moment, you know?
Angela: 14:52
Yeah, that's super helpful to have that support. Yes, Now tell me about when you found out you were pregnant with your third child.
Jesse: 15:02
My third child is much longer in age span from my first two. So my first two are only two years apart. My third, well, she's four now and my second child's 10. I'm so bad with doing the math here, but we had her quite later and that was hard because we actually tried to have her closer in age to the older two.
Jesse: 15:23
But I had several miscarriages in between and I actually went got to the point where I went to the, to a special facility in Portland, to talk to a physician about fertility and he didn't think there was anything wrong, just you know one of those things. And it turned out that, you know, it was fine. I ended up having before I even knew my period was missed. I just kind of had like that mom intuition that I was pregnant and I was really excited. But I was trying not to get too excited because I didn't know. So I actually made my husband. We were out visiting family. On the way back I was like, can we stop at CVS? And so we stopped and I got a pregnancy test and that's how I found out I was pregnant. I was ecstatic through the roof that I was pregnant and my pregnancy with her went pretty easy. I did get a little bit of morning sickness but it wasn't too bad. And I think the hardest thing for me was how stubborn I was about sticking with my doctor in Waterville and we had already moved up north. So I decided to stay with family when I got closer to my due date so I could give birth at Inland Hospital, and so my pregnancy went pretty easy.
Jesse: 16:45
But then when I got to the point where I was staying with my family down there, that was hard, harder than I kind of anticipated it would be to be kind of far away from the girls and my husband to choose to give birth down there. And they did come down and stay with me. They gave us our whole like own they were able to with their house. They gave us our whole like own they were able to with their house, to give us our whole space to be able to stay down there. And again I had, when I went into labor I had a room full, having women surround you when giving birth. I would do that again, but having a whole family, I wouldn't do that again. That experience I decided I had my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, my father, my mother, my sister, my husband, of course.
Jesse: 17:35
My oldest daughter unfortunately came sick, got sick the night I went into labor. I mean I literally my water broke when I was in the bathroom, before I was putting the girls down to sleep, and we walked out of the bathroom and she just got sick everywhere so and I had to send her with a friend to go stay the night. But my second child came with us to the hospital so she was in the in the room when I gave birth, so I had this whole family in the room to give birth and now when I actually gave birth, it was wonderful. And when I actually gave birth, it was wonderful. But as I was laboring, that was kind of hard. My daughter was totally she was little and she didn't. She was like, let's really easy. Like I said, I didn't scream out in pain or anything. I had a really easy time.
Jesse: 18:41
My third child, it was very painful. Again, I didn't have any epidural or medication and I did scream out in pain and I tore a little bit so I'd have stitches, and my mother-in-law said I cannot sit through another birth like this. She said I just can't handle seeing you in pain like that, which I completely understand. I don't think I could sit through my daughters being in pain like that either. I mean even when they're little and they get sick. It breaks my heart.
Jesse: 19:14
But other than needing a few stitches after I gave birth, everything went really well and I gave birth again standing up with I actually had my friend this time. My sister-in-law had to leave just before I gave birth to go pick up her daughter and she didn't make it back in time so but my friend and my husband held me up as I stood and gave birth. So birth went good. Postpartum with my third child went great. I didn't have any problems. Nursing went really well. I had a little bit of a harder time with getting my milk to come in, but it wasn't too bad. So that was my experience with my third child, was it wasn't too bad.
Angela: 19:58
Wow, oh my gosh. So you gave birth twice standing up. Usually, when you go to give birth in the hospital, they really want you to be in the bed, so they didn't really try to get you into the bed or they were just really where you wanted to be.
Jesse: 20:13
That's amazing where you wanted to be.
Jesse: 20:19
That's amazing, yeah, no, I talked to my doctor, you know, prior before giving birth about what I really wanted and he was so supportive he really was, even when my water had broken at home, and so that's one thing.
Jesse: 20:31
I it's hard to with all five children, to kind of go back a little bit, but with my third child that is what happened. My water broke around like 1030 ish at night and I didn't give birth to her until that next morning. So like we almost went on we too long, but he was so supportive on trying to let me labor naturally and he didn't give me any hard time about what position I was in and that's why, like I said, I traveled all the way down there to give birth, because he was such a wonderful doctor and I was nervous about how going to a new place and how their policies might be. You know, because that is usually a lot how it is in the hospital setting is there. You know they have certain things they have to follow and I get that, but it is, I believe it definitely for me, it's a lot harder on the mom to be on your back and to try to give birth when you have that gravity to pull down baby, it's so much easier. But yeah, no, he was wonderful.
Angela: 21:41
So now, when you got pregnant with your fourth, you had already settled in up north. Tell me a little bit about when you found out you were pregnant that time and your thoughts in choosing your care of being somewhere different.
Jesse: 21:53
Yeah, well, number four was a huge surprise. I was, my daughter was only a year old and I'm nursing, and we were pretty careful obviously not careful enough. So when I started I didn't have again, I didn't have any symptoms that I was pregnant, because I also wasn't having a period because I was nursing. But I had this like intuition that I was pregnant and I was actually out shopping with my mother-in-law and I was telling her and she was like, well, get a test, you know. So I got a test right there in the Walmart with my mother-in-law and it was positive and I was in complete shock like oh my gosh, can I even do this? You know, I have my two older girls and then I have my still baby, you know. So I I remember telling my husband and all three of our kids before this. Whenever I told him I was pregnant, he was just kind of looked at me like that's wonderful. I told him this time and the look on his face of shock was priceless. He couldn't believe it either. He was like, oh my gosh, you're kidding me. So that was. It was actually pretty scary to find out I was pregnant, especially that close together, and by this time I was going to be up here, and so I started, you know, I called and started seeing the OBs at the hospital and getting to know the doctors and the nurses, and I started to express to them my you know how I've given birth naturally, and that's what I would like to do again, and I prefer to be upright, and my doctor was very comfortable with all of that, and he said unless there's, you know, a medical reason to have to do it a different way, he said that's perfectly fine with me, so that was great news to hear. My pregnancy with her went really great and no complications at all, and I went all the way up to my due date with her, which was great, and but this was the time. This was. I had her in 2020.
Jesse: 24:07
So COVID was here, and so I couldn't have any extra family in the room was just my husband and I, so my family stayed at home with the kids, and I think the hardest part for me, though, was being apart from my baby. That was really hard for me, but my husband and I we labored through, and he's amazing at helping me labor through. I have to say, I am less scared about labor because of my husband. It's just he's a pro at knowing exactly what I need you know, without me even having to say anything.
Jesse: 24:45
But when I was in labor with her, I got you know, I was in that mindset of kind of pushing the pain off to the side. And I remember sitting on the birthing ball and I'm doing that in my head, pushing the pain off to the side. And I think I did it a little too long Because I got to the point where I'm sitting there and it went from one moment of okay, I'm in pain, but I got this to the next moment of I can feel her coming through the birth canal and I looked up and I said she's coming and I cannot move. And so he physically lifted me off. He picked me right up, lifted me off the birthing ball and put me onto the bed and the doctor was adamant he, she has to check me. So they kind of laid me back and she checked me and she's like okay, baby's right there. And then he wanted to lift me up and put me like on my knees and I'll say I can't move. I said do not move me, I cannot move. I could feel her in there and it felt like. It felt felt like if I moved, like my pelvis was going to like dig into her head. So I actually ended up giving birth to her on my back and what?
Jesse: 26:05
She came out fairly easy, but again I tore, so that was painful. But she was eight pounds eight ounces. She was pretty big, she was the biggest baby I'd had and I had her on my back and that pressure of having her on my back I think caused that even more, that pressure to tear. So that was really hard, not having her standing upright. So I think if I had been able to have her standing upright it would have been different. But she came so fast that I didn't know how to move for my position. And you know, I was sitting upright on that ball. But then when they wanted to check me and I had to be on my back for them to check me, I couldn't move from there Cause I was telling them I'm like she's coming right now. I cannot, I can't move, I literally can't get off the ball. So that was really hard. But she was out in about eight minutes from the ball being on the ball to being on the bed and she was out. So and she was healthy and she was. She did good. She latched immediately.
Jesse: 27:09
I had no problems with nursing her. I was already at home before I had her nursing my other baby all the way up to when I went to the hospital. So when I went home I was tandem nursing both of them and that went great. I nursed my third child till she was two and then I nursed my fourth child up until she was well, she's three now. So I nursed her till she was two. So just before I became pregnant with my fourth child, we weaned, which worked out great.
Jesse: 27:47
But I have to say, if any mother is nursing a child and they become pregnant and they're thinking, well, maybe I should wean. If you want to keep nursing and you can, I would do that hands down every time, because transitioning from giving birth to nursing a newborn baby, that was the easiest experience with nursing because I was already nursing. I have ever had every child. The first few weeks or so of nursing is painful. You know, I had no pain latching my child because I was already nursing and I had no difficulties with milk coming in or engorgement and I've had all those problems every time. I had none of that because I was already nursing. So I wish it was that easy every time. Well, that's really interesting, yeah, so I mean people who say that if you're already nursing, you should wean before you give birth. That's still not true. It's great If you can just nurse all the way through. It's great. So that was my experience with number four.
Angela: 28:53
Yeah. So how long was it until you found out you were pregnant again? Not very long.
Jesse: 29:00
My fourth child. She's three years old. She just turned three in the end of August and I had my youngest now August 14th. So I actually this year it was hard because my fourth child came, like I said, in COVID time. So when her birthday came around, when she turned one, we actually were sick with COVID so we didn't get to have a birthday. And then her second birthday. I don't remember what happened. I think my husband was sick or something happened. We didn't have a birthday. So this year she turned three and I'm like I'm going to have a baby by the time. Her birthday is here. So we had her birthday before baby came. So they're very close. Their birthdays are like a week apart. So that's so fun.
Jesse: 29:50
Yeah, so, but we're really excited and our house, my oldest child now she's 12, and my second is 10. And then we have our four-year-old and our three-year-old. So our house has been beaming with excitement because I have a house full of all girls and it's, you know, like a live baby doll that's coming to the house. And my three-year-old, since I found out I was pregnant, has every day she would wake up and rub my belly and say, hi, baby, and she would talk to my tummy and she has been saying that's my baby mommy and she's going to sleep with me. So she was so excited when she came in. I have, you know, the only thing that's ever an argument in our house right now is who's holding the baby next?
Angela: 30:44
Oh my gosh, I love it. That's a good argument to have.
Jesse: 30:49
I went with the same care with the hospital up in Holton. I didn't again. I didn't have any signs of morning sickness or anything when I first found out I was pregnant, but that quickly changed. I actually it was very scary. I actually started bleeding and it was on. I'll never forget it because it was on New Year's Eve.
Jesse: 31:11
I started bleeding and we were getting ready to leave because my two oldest girls were in a Christmas concert at our church and I went to the bathroom and I had very heavy, bright red blood and I just started breaking down crying and then I like composed myself and I told my husband what was going on and he's like we don't have to go. And I was like no, I don't want to do that to my girls because they're really excited. So I just kind of like stopped my feelings and tried to go forward. And because I'm thinking I'm having a miscarriage, you know, because I've gone through this before I remember getting to the church and the first my my pastor he can see right through me. I got there and the first thing he did was come over and put his hand on my shoulder and all he did was look at me, in my eyes and I just broke right down crying and my church family's amazing. They prayed over me immediately. They didn't even ask try to pry into what was going on. They just, you know, comforted, comforted me and my girls put on a beautiful performance and we went home and the next day I called my OB and I also talked to my friend who is a nurse, the one that I met when I had my fourth child and you know they all said definitely, sounds like you're having a miscarriage. And I bled for about three days and I went into the hospital and we had an ultrasound and the doctor said your baby looks fine, there's a heartbeat, looks completely fine. He said I can see there's some clotting behind the placenta wall, but everything looks really healthy. And I was shocked, I was ecstatic that I couldn't believe everything was fine because I thought I definitely miscarried those. You know three days of bleeding but then it tapered off. So that was really hard.
Jesse: 33:13
And then, about a day and a half afterwards, I started having extremely bad morning sickness and as horrible as it was, I was so thankful for that morning sickness to know that that means everything's going okay. So I was very sick for that first trimester. It was hard. I could hardly do anything, I was so sick. But then I went into my second trimester and the morning sickness subsided.
Jesse: 33:43
But then I started having this really sharp pain down in like my lower midsection and I talked to my doctor about it and they said it's just that round ligament pain and it's the relaxin hormones, because you're a seasoned mom kicking in a little early and it was causing all of my joints and stuff to separate too early which was causing a lot of pain. So I was dealing with being in pain and then I was going to the bathroom one day and I noticed this like I had a lot of pressure down there and I kind of didn't think much of it. Because I was going to the bathroom one day and I noticed this like I had a lot of pressure down there and I kind of didn't think much of it because I was already in pain and I could feel a bulge. So I went into the OB and got seen and I had a prolapsed bladder and then I found out that I also part of that pressure in that bulging is a cystic seal. But I also part of that pressure in that bulging is a cystic seal got a prolapse rectum as well. So I was dealing with two prolapses. All this, you know, round ligament like girl pain. So pregnancy was really, really difficult and I dealt with that all the way up to. She went all the way up to 40 weeks, which is great, you know. She was healthy, she was doing great. I didn't have a prolapse uterus, so that was thankful for that. My mother-in-law and my mother stayed home with all of the kids.
Jesse: 35:07
When I found out I was going into labor, I my water broke and it was around 10 something at night just like kind of what happened with my third child and we got the hospital bags. My husband and I went into town. We let the moms know, so they were all at the house, but I wasn't having any pain at all, none. And I got into the hospital. They checked me and I was about three centimeters dilated, not too far along and still not having any pain. So I actually decided to just rest and I slept for a good hour or so and when I got up he came in to check me to see if I'm progressing at all, and I wasn't, and so I really wanted the nurse that had helped me before to be there, my friend and she wasn't on until that next morning and I ended up being there all the way to that.
Jesse: 36:08
Next morning I still had not progressed and my doctor, dr Mosenfeller, came in and said we're going to have to put you on pertocin because you're not progressing and water has been broken for a while now and it's not good for the baby. And so I just, you know, kind of looked at him like okay, I understand. And when he left, like my husband, looked at me and he said I know that's not what you want. You need to talk to me because I'll be your advocate, but you need to talk to me. And I started crying and I was like no, I really don't want to go on Pertussis and I really want to not do this natural.
Jesse: 36:49
So my friend came in because it was her shift, which was a huge blessing that it worked out that way and we talked and she talked to the doctor and said can we try a few things to try to get it going naturally? And he said well, I'll give you until he gave me a set time. He said I'll give you to this time and if it's not, she's not progressing naturally then we need to put Pitocin in her. So I had more than one nurse come in. It worked out Actually, we were the only couple on the ward at that time so we had more than one nurse come in and with all these peanut balls and all kinds of things, and so we came up with a plan I was going to pump for 10 minutes and then rest for 10 minutes and I was going to continue to do that and while we were doing that they had me in all these funny positions to try to speed along the process. It worked.
Jesse: 37:55
I slowly started to go into labor and by the time before the that time was even up that he said we had to put in, put pitocin on. They had me go in one more position because she said all right, my friend, her name's Tony Marie. She's a OB nurse in Houghton, amazing. She said this is going to hurt but you need to trust me because it will get you to where you need to be. She had me lay on my side and I took my leg on the top and she had me fling it all the way off to where it was, touching the floor off the bed and she held me like that through two contractions it was. She did not lie to her. It was the most painful position to be in. But after those two contractions she was coming out, just like that. I was shocked.
Jesse: 38:58
Like it worked, she was coming and the doctor came in because Tony rang the bell and she was out within a few minutes, just like that. So I had her. I was again kind of on my back but I was upright so sitting up and Tony was on one side, my husband was on the other and I had her natural, like I wanted. And my doctor was amazing. I had told him prior to giving birth that I have torn with almost all my children except for my second and I was really nervous about that. So he looked at me as she was crowning and said now hold and breathe for a minute. And that was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. And I did, and he kind of took his hands and helped maneuver her and she was able to come out and I didn't have any tearing at all and she was eight pounds 13 ounces. So she was a good sized baby and the birth went really well.
Jesse: 40:08
So when she first came out she latched right on. I was ecstatic. I was like, great, this is going to be so easy, right? I later learned from the lactation consultant which the lactation consultant up in Holton has been by far the best lactation consultant I have ever met, and I have met quite a few. She told me it's most babies will latch within that golden hour because it's it's just like a reflex, but then it's like they almost forget after a little while. And that's what happened. Unfortunately, she latched.
Jesse: 40:47
At first I thought it was going to go easy and she was really calm and then all of a sudden by that night after I gave birth to her, I could could not get her to latch. She was extremely fussy, couldn't calm her down and I started to get really overwhelmed thinking about how I have four kids at home already. Two of them are toddlers. I don't know if I can make it through another fussy baby, like I did it with my other kids and it was okay, but I've never had two toddlers thinking about bringing home a fussy baby.
Jesse: 41:28
My electrician consultant worked with me and we came up with this like I can't remember what it's called, but it's like it's when you basically like supplementing, kind of she took the tube that came down and kind of like was like taped near my nipple and with a little bit of formula. So that little bit of formula in the baby's mouth kind of stimulated her to want to suck and then we didn't put any more through the tube just to get her initially to suck. And so we did that a few times and it worked and I was able to get her to nurse. And once I was able to get her to nurse she stopped being so fussy. So I was so thankful for the electrician consultant to help me, because I was kind of starting to break down, thinking I don't know what to do. I can't, I can't get her to latch, I can't feed her, I can't calm her. So my doctor was really wonderful and he put out a request to let me stay an extra day longer just so I could help that help with the electrician consultant. So I ended up being there for about three days because he did that, but it was really good. So when I came home I was calm and I had a happy, healthy baby.
Jesse: 42:52
When we pulled in the dooryard we didn't even make it out of the car yet until we had a swarm of girls at the door and I remember I opened the door and all my girls were so excited to see me, giving me hugs and stuff.
Jesse: 43:11
But my three-year-old barged through her sister's, completely, bypassed me and climbed into that car to see her baby. Oh, it was really cute. Yeah, there was a lot of a lot of excitement. All the girls were so happy and you know it's always nervous to think when you have at least for me, when I have already so many children at home to think how it's going to work, how it's going to blend and work out. But it's really worked out beautifully. I can't imagine my life without any of them. I love all of them and we're really, really, really blessed to have all of our girls and how they interact and get along with each other and in our family. I mean that helps. My mother lives across the street, my mother-in-law and father-in-law live here with us actually, and my sister and her family are always visiting, so we're really, really blessed with how it all goes together.
Angela: 44:16
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. I love that, and so that's. That's so special, and you really do, I think, a lot of times get anxiety, whether even it's just going from one to two or two to three or whatever it is like how is this going to flow? But then it just, it just does.
Jesse: 44:30
Yeah, yeah. And then you I mean I was every single one of my children I have had that thought of I can't imagine having another child right now. I just can't imagine it. And then, as soon as you have them, I've always felt like I can't imagine not having them, you know. So it's so amazing how your mind just changes instantly and you can't imagine not. You know you'd go through whatever you had to to have them all. So in all of them I never thought I would be a mom of five children, never. I remember being a young, I've always wanted children, but I always thought like I might have one child or two, but no more than that. And here I am with five. But I definitely owe a lot of that to my husband. He is amazing. He really is. He's so good with our kids and he's always there to help me out in any way I need and he makes having five children possible. He really does.
Angela: 45:37
Oh my gosh, yeah, that's so special. So if you were to give advice now to someone that's expecting, or even new parents, what would you say?
Jesse: 45:47
Well, definitely one thing I would say to a to like a new mom is and I wish someone had said to me is just be calm, it's going to be okay, because so many people make at least in my experience make it out to be like it's like the worst pain ever. It's going to be so hard. Like you better get that epidural, you better do this. It's going to be all right. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. And if you can stay calm in your mind, you surround yourself with the people that you love, the things that you need you know like essential oils helped me calm music, dimming the lights. Talk to your doctor about the things that you need beforehand. It's going to be fine. The biggest thing that I wish somebody had just been more comforting with me, especially with my first child, because I was so nervous. And my biggest advice definitely is talk to your doctor about what you would like to have done and how your experience that you would like to see happen. If you can and I wrote out a birth plan with my four youngest not my first child, because I didn't know, but a birth plan, I mean you have to expect that sometimes things will happen that you don't plan. But if you can try to write out what you'd like to have happen and hand that to your doctor and your nurses so that they're on the same page, it makes the birth experience so much better. Because all of my nurses knew how I would like to labor, so I didn't have anyone trying to push anything on me because they knew what I wanted to have happen. My doctor knew what I wanted to have happen. So that would be my biggest advice is make a birth plan. Talk to your doctor beforehand about what you would like to see happen and then when you go into labor, leave all of those expectations with them but let go of it in your own mind so that way, whatever does happen, you're able to just flow with it. It is definitely hard, but I know that it's. It's helped me because I know that anything can happen and I know what it's like to feel. You know let down when you have a certain expectation of something happen.
Jesse: 48:16
Like I said with my fourth child, I really wanted to labor. Naturally I did not want Pitocin, but they were saying that's what they needed to happen and, thankfully, because my husband knew what I wanted, he advocated for me and because he advocated for me, my nurse was able to advocate for me to my doctor and my doctor was like, okay, well, I know this is what she really wants and if you guys are all on board to try to let it happen naturally and try to come up with a plan, then we'll try this before we give her Pitocin right now. So because I talked about it beforehand and I was able to just kind of let go and let everyone else kind of like guide me it, it worked out really well. So I was fortunate for that.
Angela: 49:09
Yeah, yeah, absolutely that communication is really key.
Jesse: 49:13
Yeah, with my first child I felt like I didn't know what I was doing so I had to just listen to everyone else. So I didn't advocate what I wanted and so it worked out that I had her naturally, because they really thought that I wasn't in labor. They wanted to send me home. But if I had been in labor, I know things would have gone. I mean I was in labor. If they had thought I was in labor, things would have gone. I mean I was in labor. If they had thought I was in labor, things would have gone the way they wanted because I didn't advocate anything on how I wanted it to go.
Jesse: 49:48
So that's definitely my biggest advice is advocate for yourself and don't be afraid to do it. I think that's the hardest thing too is to imagine that it is possible, because I think the normal is to have an epidural and you're just kind of like I was told by all my friends like that's what you need to have. So I know that if I hadn't listened to the nurses that I wasn't in labor and if it was a different way, I would have gone for the epidural. But because of how it went with all my other children, I was able to exactly what you said.
Jesse: 50:29
Know that it's possible, know that I can do this, and that pain only lasts while babies, while you're in labor, and then for not not very, at least for me, not very long while she's coming out, and then, as soon as she is out, it all subsides, it's, it's gone, it really is. And it's so much better because, I mean, I've watched my friends who have had epidurals and, yes, their labor, I'm sure, is a lot, a lot easier as far as pain wise, but it's also I've watched them it's harder for them to push because they don't have that, that feeling to push and then afterwards they're stuck in the bed. So if you can put your you know your mind aside, have good support and and get through that pain, it's over quicker than you realize and you're able to get up and heal a lot quicker.
Angela: 51:26
I think so yeah, yeah, totally you can. You can handle anything for a minute and it really does all just melt away as soon as you have the baby in your arms. And then all of your other natural hormones are just kicking in and it's just like amazing right, yeah well. Thank you so much, jesse, for sharing your stories today. It was a pleasure speaking with you oh, thank you.
Jesse: 51:54
It's been lovely to to meet you and it's always fun to kind of go back and think about all the girls and all my different experiences.
Angela: 52:06
And that's the end of another episode of the my Main Birth podcast. Thank you for joining me and listening. I hope that the stories shared here have been inspiring and informative to all of my listeners. I hope that the stories shared here have been inspiring and informative to all of my listeners. If you're looking to capture your own birth story, I highly recommend considering my birth photography services. I'm a professional photographer and I'm very passionate about beautiful and lasting memory of one of the most special moments of your life. For more information, head over to MyMainPhotocom and schedule a call with me. Thanks again for tuning in and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories. Don't forget to subscribe and leave me a review, and I'll see you back here again next week.