Josephine's Birth Story

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love hearing and sharing birth stories. Going through pregnancy, labor, and delivery a second time has made me so much more in awe of the whole process. As i sit here nursing Josephine, I literally can not believe that she grew inside me! Like my body made a human - again! It’s so common place to have a child but i truly believe each and every life conceived, carried, and birthed is a true miracle.

If you have been following along here for a while, you may remember when I shared Logans birth story. I got asked about some details from that a lot, and It actually has a lot to do with Josie’s birth story, too! You can read the full version here, but in short I had a c section with him due to posterior presentation and was told because my incision had to be extended upwards (about 1-2 cm - known as an inverted t incision) that I was not a candidate for a VBAC - vaginal birth after cesarian. I felt totally at peace with this, but the Lord brought other doctors into the picture and I found out that if I wanted to try for a VBAC, I could! Although the risk with this kind of incision (and many other non traditional incisions) is quoted as much higher, the most recent and comprehensive study done by AGOG (linked: here) showed that with 18+ months between births, the risk of rupture was 1.9% - where a traditional VBAC carries about a 1% risk. Comparing this to the numbers associated with multiple repeat c sections the choice for me seemed clear. I’m not a doctor and this is not intended to be medical advice, but I think there are many women who are told things aren’t an option for them - when in reality there is much more information to be considered. Having an informed provider who will be honest and who you can trust is crucial. The OBGYN I had this time around was so much different than my last, and I absolutely love him.

Now that there’s a little more context, onto the fun part! My due date was January 20th, but I knew she would come earlier than that. My whole pregnancy she sat low and was semi engaged before 30 weeks. This pregnancy I hired a midwife to be my doula - who would come to our house during labor and could do monitoring and cervical checks and then would come to the hospital as our doula. She was so amazing and I’m really glad we made this decision!

The week of January 6th i just knew she was coming. Her movements changed and I had lots of cramping here and there. I walked into my chiropractors office that Monday and she took a look at me and said “oh! She’s coming this week!” I wasn’t doing anything special to get her to come, although I did try to eat dates to help my body be as ready as possible when she did decide to make an appearance. The night of January 9th I asked Ian if we could pick up Indian food - mostly to eat something spicy, which can help encourage things along. I LOVE spicy foods and there is one dish at a restaurant we like that I can barely handle, so I opted for that. The next morning I recalled barely waking throughout the night periodically but was pretty sure i had been having contractions. When I got up and got going for the day, it was obvious that is indeed what had happened. Ian had to go to work that morning so Logan and I were at home. I started having short and irregular contractions that were more annoying than anything, but i did text my midwife that i was having prodromal labor but that i suspected it might also be early labor. She told me just to keep and eye on things and try to rest when i could. Moving my hips helped a lot, so i tried to just stay active. Logan needed diapers and I wanted to get groceries so we headed out to Costco. Things were pretty calm in the car but once we got into the store I started timing things and i was having very mild contractions that were lasting 30 seconds about 3 1/2 minuets apart. I still felt fine and could ignore them but texted my mom asking her to get Logan for the night because i thought things were going to progress come evening time. Something I’ve learned about my body the last two labors is I don’t have contractions far apart. They start close together, and that’s just how it is for me! Things continued to progress in intensity until we left and I decided to forgo my Trader Joe’s trip.

When we got home and Ian had gotten home from work so he fed Logan lunch and put him for a nap while i laid on the couch to rest. My contractions /cramping completely stopped for 3 hours so i assumed it was false labor. I was praying the Lord would make it clear whether i was in labor or not because I didn’t want to send Logan overnight if we didn’t have to. I got up to go to the bathroom and there was bloody show. I was thankful the Lord gave me a sign for what to do with our boy. I started cleaning things and packed his bag.

Around 5 pm I asked Ian if we could all go to Trader Joe’s and pick up some groceries. We headed out and I started having mild contractions again but I could still walk and talk through the store. When we got home my parents were at our house and took Logie home with them. I tried to eat a little bit and then just laid down and stretched. My contractions at this point were 3-5 minutes apart and lasted 30-45 seconds. They weren’t too intense, and Ian and I just watched White Collar on Netflix. I decided to use my birth ball and did circles and bounced on that for about an hour. At this point i was trying to figure out when my midwife should come. I could still hold a conversation and was so sure I wasn’t even dilated yet so we held off.

Intensity started picking up and suddenly the TV was very annoying. I texted my midwife that i decided to hop in the shower. She said that if i was in early labor things would probably slow down, but if I was further along than I thought it may speed things up. Ian was timing my contractions and they started coming every one and a half minutes. We decided to tell our midwife it was time to come. I spent a while in the shower then moved to the bed / birthing ball. Mentally I wasn’t doing well and just kept telling Ian “I’m doing so horrible!” He was encouraging and was so supportive the whole time.

Rachel, our midwife, arrived around 10:15 pm. She took my vitals and listened to Josie’s heart rate and everything was great! Then she checked me. I was convinced I was not even dilated, but she smiled and said “you’re 8 cm and you have a huge bulging bag of water - time to go to the hospital!.” I was honestly shocked, but also happy and relieved. The car ride went great and it just so happened that the triage was empty so we could get into a room quickly- around 11:30 pm

Looking back, I would say I learned a lot this labor. I was mentally not in a good place and kept discouraging myself rather than trusting my body that It knew what it was doing. When we got to the room I honestly didn’t even know what to do. Rachel and our nurse, Shawna, assured me that as soon as my water broke I would likely be complete very quickly. After a few contractions my water broke and sure enough I was 10cm and almost effaced. When i turned on my side my body started pushing without my control. I felt like i couldn’t even think anymore and asked for an epidural. Ian and Rachel were encouraging me to just push through (no pun intended) but I just felt like it was my only option. The anesthesiologist came quickly but he could not find the right spot. Interestingly enough just “having something to do” made everything more bearable and I feel like I was able to best cope during those moments and be mentally focused. After about 45 minutes he found the right spot and everyone came back in - including my OBGYN. However I quickly learned that she was already too low for the epidural to work, and a few minutes later when her heart rate started decelerating they just took the catheter out completely, so, so much for that.

I started pushing. The first three pushes I couldn’t exactly get good direction, but a few later her head came right down and we could see her hair! At this point her heart was dropping quite a bit with each push but quickly rallied up to normal in between. She was progressing well but the doctor knew she needed to come out quickly and we didn’t have lots of time to push, so he used a vacuum to hold her head in place in between pushes. We made a lot of progress quickly and she was crowning. At this point she had moved behind my pubic bone and they couldn’t read heart tones through the bone. Because of this and how much her heart was dropping my OBGYN decided to do an episiotomy. I looked at my midwife and she said “this is one of the rare necessary ones” which was helpful to know in the moment. Right before this I felt her make a very big movement, it was uncomfortable and I remember wondering why she moved so much. Looking back this was Gods grace because it gave me comfort and knowledge that she hadn’t been without oxygen very long, even when they couldn’t perform monitoring.

My doctor made the cut and Josephine Sophia Chessum came flying out - born January 11 at 1:56 am. She weighed 8lbs 1 oz and was 20.5 inches long. The first thing everyone said was “she’s posterior!” Logan had been posterior which contributed to my c section with him, and this stinker was too. Her changing positions was most likely her big movement I felt - since she wasn’t posterior throughout labor. Right after her head emerged we all saw the nuchal cord, which was wrapped tightly around her neck twice, and around her shoulder once. There were lots of “oh my goodness” remarks and as my doctor handed her to the NICU team who was waiting, he remarked that he hadn’t seen a cord like that in over 20 years. I didn't get to hold her until a few days post birth so I don't have too many photos, but my sweet midwife snapped these after she started breathing, and I am so thankful! 

She was flaccid, almost completely white and not responding to suction or stimulation. They quickly intubated her and used a tube to breathe for her manually.

I don’t know why but I wasn’t scared or nervous. I think partly because I had felt her move so much at the end I knew she would be okay. After about a minute or two (i think) I told them to bring her over to me. They rolled the cart over and I started talking to her and rubbing her chest. She immediately started breathing on her own and opened her eyes. I kept talking to her and rubbing her and if she hadn’t been intubated we would have been able to hear her cry. They continued to watch her vitals and such as I talked to her and she remained so responsive with her eyes locked on mine. After about 45 minutes they took her down to the NICU with Ian and my doctor delivered my placenta and got me settled.

I’ll end the info about Josie here, but I plan to share her NICU journey in another post.

When we found out she would be transferred to CHLA the nurse came in and said I could sign an AMA form for early release. She made it clear i had no complications, and asked what I wanted to do. I talked with Rachel and she encouraged me to go. I asked my nurse to call the doctor to get his thoughts and she said “I promise there’s no way he will discharge you.” I had no idea what decision was best so I just prayed the Lord would make it clear. About 15 minutes later, just before 4 am, she came back and joyfully said “He discharged you, you’re free to go!” All throughout this process God made our steps so clear and I am thankful he does give wisdom when we ask.

I showered and got ready to go - which by the way was so nice to be able to walk and shower immediately after birth! Such a different experience from birth with Logan. All in all I am so thankful I had a successful VBAC, and feel so empowered for giving birth in the future.

It’s been a sobering process because the Lord is the one who has such a clear window into the womb. Josephine moved into her cord the way she did long before labor started, and there’s no way to know these things! It truly is a miracle that anyone is conceived, makes it through pregnancy and labor, and grows up to nurture others, and I am thankful for my two sweet miracles.

I absolutely love having a daughter and can not imagine life without her. I know everyone says this about their babies, but she is the sweetest and most lovely little girl I’ve ever met. We can’t wait for all the memories ahead with our little sweetheart. 

If you have posted your birth story online, I'd love to read it! Comment below with the link so I can check it out :)

XO, B