I found the good old blog again! I figured since Jayce and Owen's birth stories are on here I might as well put Aiden's on here too. This time I really do need to save the link to this blog just in case my hard copies are all destroyed. Plus, my children will know that their mother did bother to do some memory keeping! Onto the story of Aiden's birth! Well in a nutshell Aiden was born right in the middle of the living room floor in our Enoch house and yes it was on purpose and not on accident! When I was about 20 weeks pregnant I kept having anxiety every time I thought about giving birth in a hospital again. I was seeing the same CNM who delivered both Jayce and Owen at the hospital who is awesome by the way, but I felt this time I needed to look into doing something different. My postpartum experience at the hospital after Owen was kinda rough so that was one factor that caused a push to look into something else. I had been thinking about doing a home birth for a few years but didn't feel the need to pursue it until then. So I started researching online and asking around to find out some more information about local home birth midwives. I found one and she is golden! Her name is Elizabeth Smith. She is based out of St. George and has been a midwife for over 32 years and has delivered over 1,500 babies! There was definitely some divine intervention that led me to find her because she wasn't the first person to pop up on google! Anyways, I gave her a call and set up a meeting with her, me and Trevor so we could decide if it would be a good fit. We ended up talking to her for almost 2 hours and I felt that this was definitely the midwife we needed to hire to aide us in our home birth adventure! The rest of my pregnancy went smoothly and I continued my prenatal care with Elizabeth. When I got down to almost the last month I put together all of my home birth supplies, checked off the last minute prenatal labs I wanted done, and went over many emergency birthing scenarios with Elizabeth and Trevor where I would be transferred to a hospital. She has a really good relationship with the local hospital providers that I know well and trust. The Saturday I was about 39 weeks pregnant I was feeling pretty prepared. Personally, I thought that Aiden wouldn't come for another few days because that was the pattern that my previous two children followed. Also my mom was across the country in Washington DC with my little brother Jared on choir tour and the baby couldn't come while she was gone because she was part of the planned birth team. That afternoon I started to feel some light contractions. I kept calling them Braxten Hicks but looking back now my husband Trevor knew all along what they really were. I was in full blown denial. I even drove the truck and went grocery shopping during these contractions. Drove my husband a little bit bonkers because I forgot to turn on my ringer on my cellphone so I didn't answer when he called me 3 times in a row. When I finally looked at my phone and called Trevor back he was about ready to drive to the grocery store because I might be having a baby right there! I told him I was almost done shopping and I would come right home. Looking back now those contractions were kinda painful as I was driving the truck down the freeway. I was still in denial though. When I got home Trevor asked me to please call the midwife. This was about 7 pm. I did but I told the midwife that I was maybe having very, very early labor pains and that she didn't need to come yet. Elizabeth just told me to call her if I thought anything was changing. After that my dad called and while I was talking to him I had to keep stopping to breath through some more contractions. He also asked if I was in labor and I told him nope. Like I said denial. Trevor gave up watching me and went out to do some yard work with Jayce and Owen because I was driving him nuts. I calmly picked up my house and settled down to watch some Dr. Who on Amazon while having a contraction here and there. About 9:30 pm the contractions started to really hurt. Trevor got Jayce and Owen to bed and I tried to decide if I was going to call the midwife or not. She lived a hour away so I didn't want her to drive all the way out if nothing was happening. So Trevor suggested I call our neighbor who is an ER nurse to ask if she knew how to check a cervix to see if I was dilating or not down yonder. I called my neighbor and asked. She giggled and said that ER nurses did not have that kind of training, they were only taught how to catch a baby that was coming out and to call labor and delivery at the hospital. I was so embarrassed, but my neighbor was really kind and polite about the whole thing. I then called my other neighbor who is a retired labor and delivery nurse to see if she could come over but she was several hours up North with family at the time. About midnight the contractions were really starting to become painful. I called the midwife. She said that she would be on the road in 5 minutes. I was no longer in denial. I then called my sister Kaylyn because the deal was if I did happen to have my baby when my mom was out of state Kaylyn would come and fill in for her. Bless my angel sister's heart she had mentioned months before that she did not want to ever see a live birth because it would freak her out. However, when I called her crying over the phone a little past midnight that night without hesitation she said I will be in my car driving down to your house in 5 minutes. She truly is an amazing sister! Aiden, I sure hope you know how awesome your Aunt Kaylyn is. About 1 am the midwife showed up and she checked me and I was only dilated to 4 cm. She asked if it would be alright if she took a little nap since she was low on sleep (this was going to be her third delivery within the same week) I said I would be okay dokey and Trevor showed her to the guest bed downstairs. For the next two hours I shifted between the tub, bed and floor. I kept having to ask Trevor to please squeeze my hips because they hurt sooooo bad. My sweet husband kept falling asleep on me. I was a little annoyed. Just when I was about to give up and go wake up the midwife Kaylyn walked through the door. This was a little after 3 am. I have never been so happy to see anyone in my life! My superhero sister spent the next hour squeezing my hips with every contraction while we tried to watch the British Baking Show to keep me calm. A little before 4 am I had Kaylyn wake up the midwife because I was feeling intense pressure down yonder. The midwife quickly and calmly came up into the room and asked if I wanted to deliver in the living room. I said yes because I decided I didn't want to ruin love making in the bedroom forever. She calmly moved all of the birthing supplies from the bedroom to the living room while I yelled at Trevor to wake up. He must of shoot out of bed because he was in the living room within a matter of seconds. I assumed my favorite birthing position which is me kneeling on my hands and knees with my hands and arms slightly raised at an angle on the couch. I told Trevor to sit on the edge of the couch so I could properly grip his arms to stabilize my position. The midwife looked down there right before and announced I was at about a 9-10 cm. She then sat back and said I could push whenever I felt the urge to which I gladly obliged. Right at that moment Owen happened to wake up
so Kaylyn quickly grabbed him and sat a few feet to the side and witnessed everything. Good thing Owen is 2 and probably won't remember the whole experience. After a series of unearthly grunts and statements that I wasn't having any more children Aiden was born in a matter of minutes. Kaylyn was a champion at running to and from the kitchen to grab different items that the midwife needed throughout the whole process. Trevor was stuck on the couch because there was no way I was going to loosen my Vulcan gripe during those minutes. Aiden, you must of been positioned perfectly because your momma did not tear at all down yonder! This was a first! I got to hold you right away and we all kinda just hung out for a half hour because for some reason the contractions suddenly stopped after you were born so it took about a half hour and the help of a herb to birth out the placenta. Somebody went and woke up Jayce so that he could meet you too. Jayce had been asking for months when the baby was coming out. Overall the whole experience was perfect. I got to shower about an hour after and then just cuddle with you in my bed at my home while your Dad made your mom some egg, avocado toast! Aiden Spencer Bradford you were born on Sunday, April 15, 2018 at 4:19 am. You weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces and were 19 1/4 inches long. We love you so much and are so glad you are part of our family!
