Valerie Joy Photography: A peek into My Labor!

Our second little boy arrived just like his older brother! We'd planned a home birth, and ended up with a swollen cervix, and c-section. But thank God my babies came out big, healthy, and perfect! The labor may not have gone as planned but God had His protective hand on us.

Photos taken by my beautiful & talented friend Alisia Thompson Photography.

Water broke at 12:15am

Contractions came fairly hard and fast right away, about 2 minutes apart from the start.

The boy's room has the cushiest carpet, so we labored in there for a while on the birth ball.

Bo stayed close by.

My doula, Melody, arrived and we quickly found our groove...
I'd lean on Jason, and Melody would massage my lower back.

one last full belly shot. 41 weeks, 4 days.

We moved into the tub after a few hours.

My birth team worked so hard! All through the night!

Christina Holmes, midwife with Birthways Family Birth Center

Jason is my quiet strength in labor. I am so thankful for his love and support!

Melody Hamm, massage therapist with Heavenly Touch, and birth doula.

We got to 7 cm dilated, but my cervix started to swell. Ugh! Just like my labor with Noah, 3 years ago.

My midwife suggested some different labor positions to get the pressure off my cervix.

We moved to our bedroom, but these positions hurt sssssoooooo bad!

After a couple hours of SUPER painful labor in the bedroom, I was still 7 cm and swollen.

I couldn't take the pain anymore and felt defeated mentally because of the swelling.
I told the team we were going to the hospital!

Unfortunately "checking in" to the hospital as a transfer from home takes about an hour. All the while I was having TERRIBLE contractions still about 2 minutes apart.

It's hard to fill out paper work and talk to the Dr. while in such pain. They just had to wait for it to pass.

My super-husband. Note the perspiration. =)

The Dr. on call allowed me to get an epidural to see if relaxing my body helped reduce the swelling.
i heart epidurals!

Well after about 3 hours of relaxing in bed with an epidural, there was still no change to my cervix. Levi's heart rate was a little sporadic as well, and my midwife, Dr., and myself all agreed a c-section was in order. I was clearly fine with it. =)