Isabella Ann Hodge's Birth Story

Yes its been far too long since I have written on here but none the less here it is...

Isabella Ann Hodge’s Birth Story

It was June 21st, Fathers Day that Isabella Ann decided it was her birthday. Im not sure of the time, but early in the morning while it was still dark I found myself waking for what seemed to be no reason. I would wake up, feel nothing and fall back asleep. It wasn't until around 6:30am that I was woken up and actually felt a contraction. I do remember at that time that they were like 45 mins apart. I thought, man I have a long way to go to get to active labor. Shortly after realizing these were real, yet far apart, Tyler texted my mom and asked her to come and pick up the boys around 8-9. 

When my parents arrived it was about 8am. My mom and I went for a walk before she left. No more than 5minutes into the walk my contractions were sporadic some 1 minute apart others 3 minutes, one minute long, 10 seconds and all over the place. I had to stop walking many times to catch my breath. When we got home I sat down for a little bit, ate breakfast with my family, and gave Tyler his fathers day gift. At some point everyone left me in the living room with the boys alone and they started to go wild. I was chasing and discipling them all on my own. Because of my increased activity and movement the contractions intensified. At that point I called the adults back in and said it was time for Nana and Papaw to take the boys up to their house.

  My doula Rhonda told me to relax, try to ignore the contractions and just go on with normal life. I dont know why I thought this was normal but I then chose to watch 2 movies and rock in a rocking chair. (Totally not a normal day) But i was able to relax and ignore the contractions. After the movies were over my doula came over and said I needed to be moving around for labor to move along. She told me to take some time to sleep before getting up to maybe conserve some energy. If I was unable to sleep through the contractions then I needed to get moving. 

I dozed in and out of rest for about an hour or hour and a half before getting up and moving. Tyler and I decided to get up and start to make a birthday cake for baby Bella. I mean it was going to be her birthday soon enough.  For sure contractions picked up and becoming more noticeable and more frequent. At one point I couldn't even hold the mixer because the contractions were getting greater.  I texted my doula to come on to the house and I also decided to go sit down and FaceTime my mom, Lucas, and Calvin before labor became too much. It was pretty amazing thing to have contractions almost decrease in pain by 80% as I rocked in the chair and chatted with my family. 

It was about a 10 minute conversation and once I got off my doula arrived. I moved to the birth ball told her that my contractions, while I was moving, were much more intense. After chatting for about 10mins we decided I would go relax in the shower, Tyler would keep an eye on me, and Rhonda would set up for labor in the living room. (I don't like laboring at the hospital so I labor at home as long as I can then move to the hospital for delivery) So I got up to head back to the shower and not sooner than the hall way bathroom did I have yet another intense contraction where I needed to stop and lean on the wall. I made it to the master bathroom and sat on the birth ball while tyler ran down to take care of a quick chore. He was gone maybe 5 mins but in that time I had 3 contractions that were pretty intense. I happen to text Dr. Dornfeld with the message… “Well I believe I have hit active labor”. (My doctor is amazing! I was able to text her through the day and she texted me to check my progress. She is amazing)  Although you will learn that my text was a major understatement. 

Tyler came back in I told him things were moving fast and they were feeling much more intense. As the contractions continued Rhonda, Tyler and, myself discussed what needed to be done. At that time i started to have those thoughts of doubt and I don't know if I can do this… THEN I heard a faint song on my phone. I was my labor playlist. The next contraction I zoned in on my music. As I sang along with the song I found my labor pains when from a pain level 7 to a 3. That was it. It was my special place and a true source of comfort. It was all about who God is and his presence was clear from that point on. 

I then decided to get in the shower to hopefully help easy any labor pains. Tyler loaded the car quickly while Rhonda stayed with me. Because I relaxed most of the day I assumed I had a few hours to get through active labor and transition… Oh was I wrong. After about 5 mins in the shower I looked at Rhonda and said we need to go now. Like Im feeling lots of pressure low and Im certain we need to go now. So we rushed out of the shower, to the car, and drove to the hospital. During the drive I found that if I zoned out of what was happening around me and focused on what I was doing that labor was still very manageable. I played “Never Once” by Shane and Shane on repeat for the entire time I was at the hospital. I jammed my phone speaker as far into my ear as possible, to the point I couldn't hear anyone else and I just sang to God, out loud, worshiping the Lord in the midst of labor. (Gods character was the center of my labor, the drive, the strength, and the hope. I could not have done it on my own. His truth was my Rock.) 

When we arrived we found I was 10cm! I labored for about 30 minutes at the hospital, because my water had not broken, to see if it would break on its own. Even though I was in the zone I finally arrived at DOC whats the hold up! Why is it not breaking?! She gave me 2 options, one, keep going or two she could break it and we could start pushing. I looked at Rhonda she gave me the nod and we broke my water. ( I am always hesitant to do any interventions but this was a good exception. Never would I break my water before this point unless baby or I were at risk)

Something happened at the point for me mentally. I lost much of my focus on my music and the fact that He was faithful and that He has never left me alone suddenly turned to be the loud natural labor lady. (Im gonna try to work on this next time) And for the life of me, would not open my legs while pushing. I fought it. I just kept thinking I HATE PUSHING! And repeatedly asked Dornfeld to GET HER OUT! Dr. Dornfeld calmly kept telling me that it was up to me. I needed to open up my pelvis more so there was room for Bella. We finally saw Bella’s head and my sweet doctor looked at me and said you give me all you have on this next push and you will be holding your baby. I said you bet! We learned then that she did have the cord around her neck but my awesome doctor slipped it off her very quickly with out us even knowing and because of Calvin and his shoulder distotia at his delivery, she also squeezed Bella’s shoulders in a bit just to be sure she wouldn't get stuck. What felt like forever to push Bella out took a total of 15mins. LOL! 15mins. Longest 15 minutes ever! But Bella was born at 6:22pm at 9.1lbs and 21 inches long. (To think she ever measured below 10% in the womb is hilarious)  Because of such a fast delivery she was pretty swollen and bruised. Literally she was bruised everywhere, black eyes, cheeks, blood shot whites of her eyes, arms and legs were bruised and goodness she was so swollen. But she was as healthy as can be. 

Later I found out that as I labor in the hospital and was completely unaware what was going on around me that a couple things were happening. 1) Everyone respected my wishes to be left alone and not asked any questions and they asked Tyler all the questions 2) My doctor was singing with me as she set up for delivery 3) My doula and nurses were crying because they had never seen natural labor done like this. Singing and calm.  *I HAD NO CLUE! I didn't plan this. I simply asked the Lord to be lord over my labor. The Lord was not only drawing my heart to Him while I labored but His name was being proclaimed, worshiped, and in awe of as my labor continued. HOW COOl! All the glory and honor to his name. This is one reason I can see that the Lord held off on my water breaking so we could all step back and see that HE IS LORD OF ALL. All of us in that room got 30mins to just worship Him in the midst of new life being delivered soon. Bella was born in a room that was filled with the Holy Spirit and love.

Finally want to thank my husband for his hands and encouragement during labor. As well as my doula Rhonda, my doula via phone Kim, my beautiful Dr. Dornfeld and those nurses who's names I dont know. You all were precious gift from God in such a life-changing moment. 

Because one of my requests was to get pictures throughout the day we have time stamps from the camera images metadate to tell us exactly when things were happening. Enjoy the play by play.

Heres the time frame…

7:13am- couldn't sleep but contractions were like 30mins apart. nervous energy maybe.

8:15am- went on a walk with my mom. Contractions were crazy. Every minute for like 30secs

9:24 am- settled into some movie watching in my trusty rocking chair. (great labor delayer)

1:13pm- Doula arrive and tells me to rest if I can for an hour then start moving!!! No more sitting

2:30-?*No pictures here so I dont know times but we started to bake a cake and because contractions increased I called the doula to come and made my last call to my family (in my rocking chair to slow labor so i could speak)

5:01pm- started my walk to the shower average pained contractions but I could feel active labor

5:08pm- 3 intense contractions within 5 minutes waiting for tyler. Then jumped into the shower.

5:35pm- Ive arrived at the hospital at 10cm and labored with my water for 30mins

6:04pm- the doctor broke my water and I began pushing

6:22pm- Isabella was born!     

Welcome to the family Bella! Thanks for reading y'all!