my goodness, how did we get to Hayes turning ONE before I sat down to write his birth story?! Gosh I hope I can remember everything correctly.

Having a 4th baby has cracked me wide open and taken every single ounce of my strength…and then some. I have truly only done this on His strength alone. Which is why I haven’t really had much time to write his birth story!! It’s been a whirlwind. But since I’ve written all the other birth stories, I want to make sure I write his down as a keepsake!

You might know that my sister and I were pregnant at the same time, our due dates were 2 days apart. But with it being my 4th and her 1st, we always assumed she’d go late and we were hoping I’d go early! Well, things didn’t really go as we hoped.

My due date came and went. A few days passed and my sister ended up needing to be induced. She started to be induced on Monday night and by Tuesday morning, my mom knew she needed to leave town to go be with my sister. My sister lives 2.5 hours away and my mom lives in the same town as me! So, I was very overwhelmed and stressed about the thought of my mom being gone when I was potentially hours away from giving birth too. My dad also ended up leaving town with my mom!

Thankfully, my other sister and her family rushed into action and drove to be with us. On Tuesday afternoon, my sister gave birth to her baby boy!! I was truly just so shocked that she had her baby before me. I had a midwife appointment late in the afternoon and I had them strip my membranes again, but I hadn’t progressed in dilation in the last week since my previous membrane strip. So, that was discouraging. And I was told that they wouldn’t let me go more than a week past my due date without an induction (because I had a C-Section with my first baby). Which meant that I had 3 more days until I would have to be induced. And I did not want to be induced.

With my sister's family in town (just waiting with us for baby), we decided to get take out for dinner and swim. After all the kids were in bed, my sister and I went to do some curb walking and called it a night. I felt no changes. I had been having Braxton hicks contractions for weeks at this point, so nothing was new or different.

We went to bed. And veryyyy abnormally, our oldest came to our bed around 11 o clock at night. While he was cuddling in our bed, I felt this very strange popping sensation, almost like the baby kicked and popped my water. I got out of bed, but nothing. No new contractions or water leaking. I got back into bed and had a contraction that was a little stronger, but nothing super intense. And then I started to tremble. And for me, that’s when it means it’s go time. I know that means I’m in labor. If I was going off intensity of contractions, I never would have thought I was in labor. It was very mild. But with my previous birth being SO short and knowing that when the trembles started last time it resulted in giving birth 30 minutes later, I knew we needed to go to the hospital. I called my sister and told her to come over (she was sleeping across the street at my parents). She was there within a minute and we got in Joel’s truck to head to the hospital. I kept telling Joel and my sister that I wasn’t sure this was it because I wasn’t having strong contractions. I sat upright in the car the entire drive to the hospital and was taking deep breaths, but nothing was horribly intense yet. We left the house at 11:16pm.

The drive is about 7 minutes. We quickly parked, I walked to the elevator, then to the front desk for Labor and Delivery and that’s when I became panicked and it became physically intense. I told her I needed to get to a room immediately and that last baby was born fast and I needed to get back there NOW. I think most people think a woman in labor is not as far along as she’s acting cause she wasn’t moving very fast. She wanted a signature and my date of birth and I wanted to make it to a room before giving birth in the lobby LOL. I believe at this point I was in transition. The next 10 minutes were truly a blur. I know I started walking towards the locked doors to knock on them so they would let me back into L&D haha. They buzzed me in finally (it was probably 2 minutes but I was panicked). I remember I kept saying “I don’t know what to do, I think it’s happening.” The nurse asked me if I wanted a room or to go to triage and I said “I don’t know”. They took me to triage for 10 seconds and immediately got me to the closest room. I was standing up, begging for drugs (even though I knew I didn’t have time and that I didn’t want them), and the nurses were calling the doctor to come. It was almost midnight so she was obviously sleeping. I knew the doctor on call and the nurses were telling her that a patient came in with a history of precipitous labor and was asking for an epidural. She said “is it Rachel?” and giggled that I thought I’d be able to get drugs. She barely made it to the room before I delivered Hayes on all fours on the table. I think I pushed 2-3 times and he was here! At one point, I remember yelling “can someone please tell me if I’m close!!!” They assured me I was seconds away from meeting him. I cannot express to you what this type of labor is like. The kindest way to describe it is torture. Labor happens TO you. Your body cannot catch up. You cannot catch your breath. You cannot have deep breathing. It’s an onslaught. The pressure is impossible to explain, and it feels impossible to survive it too.

He was born at 11:46pm. In total, my active labor was 15-20 minutes. He was born 35 minutes after the trembling started. And remember, the trembling didn’t come with strong contractions. I know it may seem nice to get it over with so fast, and it is in some ways. But, it is also a very traumatic and insane experience to go through. While I know our family is complete for many reasons, I also know that I truly never want to experience that again. It is horrible. Zero out of 10 stars. BUT! I did it! And I did it twice because it was nearly identical to Silas’ birth too!

I’ll forever miss the hospital stay and the truly heavenly moment AFTER being done giving birth and meeting your baby. It was so special and so insane that he was born the same day my sister had her baby. If he was born 15 minutes later, it would have been a different day! I am so thankful I get to be his mom and he is such a sweet addition! We love him so much and can’t believe we’re already celebrating ONE year of life with Hayes!!! We are better because of him :)

Hayes Elliott Jones: My Final Birth Story