Wynnie’s Birth Story
At 4am on Thursday, September 17th, contractions started steadily every 7 minutes. This is when Justin leaves for work and I probably had 3-4 while he was getting ready but didn’t say anything knowing they might fizzle. I was never able to fall back to sleep after he left and they stayed coming every 7 minutes. I got Lena up around 8 and started nursing her like I do every day and immediately the contractions started hitting every 2 minutes so I stopped nursing her. If this was really the start of labor, I was going to need it to move a lot slower than that. I went about the day normally. Got Lena breakfast, logged into work, worked through the morning, played with Lena, told Justin he should probably leave work at noon (he works an hour and a half away), got Lena lunch. By noon, nothing had changed. They were still coming every 7 minutes so I told Justin to just stay at work unless something started to change. I went about the rest of my work day, Lena napped, my mom came over around 3 to help me with her while I finished up my workday and got the rest of the laundry folded. Justin got home around 7:30, my mom went home, we did Lena’s bedtime and she went to sleep. I decided to bounce on my exercise ball a bit and contractions did start picking up in intensity. We decided to go to bed and get what rest we could. Justin got a couple hours of sleep but my contractions were too much for me to actually fall asleep so I decided to start tracking them again and they were coming every 2-3 minutes. I didn’t feel like they hurt bad enough to be that far into labor but I had my mom come anyway and we let the midwives know we were going to head to the birth center.
Contractions slowed once we got there but stayed intense enough that I didn’t want to talk through them. We all decided to lay down and rest so I could get more relaxed and everyone else could get some sleep before things picked up anymore. It wasn’t long after laying down that my water broke and then things started moving.
I labored a bit longer on my side with a peanut ball until contractions had gotten a lot more painful. My whole labor I kept comparing contractions to my labor with Lena and thinking they would have to get so much worse before we got to the end. Pitocin contractions are way more intense and I didn’t have breaks between them with Lena so what I was trying to compare this natural labor to was just not the same AT ALL.
I flipped to my other side and almost immediately the contractions started coming with a ton of pressure and I felt like my hips were being pushed open. I didn’t think I had labored long or hard enough to be all that close to the end but I asked the midwife to check me so I could have some reference on how far we’d gotten. She didn’t get her fingers more than an inch and a half in and said “oh her butt is right here!”
With any birth, but a breech birth especially, you want as much room as possible for baby to come out so I wanted to go as long as I could before pushing. We tried a few different positions while things intensified. I was on my hands and knees when I got to the point that my body started forcing me to push even if I tried not to so my doula brought the midwives back in and we set up to push. I pushed for 47 minutes and at 5:02am, Rowynn Clair made her way into the world. Her umbilical cord was wrapped twice around her neck (that’s why she stayed breech) but she took her first breath before the top of her head had even come out yet.
They got me on my back and her on my belly and Justin and I just took her all in. She looked so much like brand new Lena. Once I delivered the placenta, they wrapped it up and laid it next to us and then they all left the room and Justin, Rowynn and I all cuddled in the bed. Rowynn latched immediately and chugged for close to an hour while we FaceTimed all our parents to introduce them to the newest little Sullivan.
The birth team came back in, Justin cut the cord, they weighed and measured Rowynn, helped me up and checked me, and then Rowynn and I got dressed and we loaded back into the car. We picked up ChickFilA breakfast and made it back home as Lena was getting up for the day.
I’m still in awe of how smoothly everything went. It is AMAZING what my body was able to achieve when I just let it do what it knew to do. 25 total hours of labor, 47 minutes of pushing, and not 1 thing went wrong. I felt able and empowered at every step. I know so many things could have gone wrong and I know God had His steady hand of protection on every part of this pregnancy and birth. I am beyond grateful for the plans He makes and carries out when we don’t get in the way.
My pregnancy and birth with Rowynn has healed so many hurts for me in my journey as a mama. She has answered so many “why Gods?”. Wynnie means “blessed reconciliation“ and I think that is a beautiful summary of her story. We couldn’t be any happier to have this surprise addition added to our family so quickly. You are a dream, Wynnie Clair, and you and your sister are our greatest treasures.
