Troha Family: Welcome, Baby Jace!

So, as you probably know by now that our Little Handsome (as I affectionately call him daily) is here. And what an entrance he made! This is going to be my birthing story. I'm going to have to post my other two later on since I wasn't blogging with their births. I won't get gruesome...but just a warning.

His due date that I was given by the midwife was October 9 but I made it October 14. The reason I did this is because BOTH girls came at 40 weeks and 5 days (technically Kendall came on the 6th day but at 1 AM). So anything before the 14th to me is early! I had my baby shower on Saturday, September 25. It was so very nice. But little did I know that it was only 1 week before I had my precious handsome. During the next week, I would get contractions almost every time I would walk around. However, they would stop after I sat down. I didn't mind, because I know that means it's less I have to do at game time. ; )

So on the morning of October 2 I had quite the surprise. I had bloody show. Now this was shocking. See, I NEVER had my water break before labor. My only indicator is bloody show that morning. Not very much, just a tiny bit. I told Jeff, but I was only 39 weeks that day so I wasn't thinking anything. That night, it had already been planned for the girls to spend the night with Grammy, Jeff's mom. So we were having a date night. Jeff suggested that we go to Southlake Town Center to walk around to see if we could get any contractions going. I said sure but I was thinking he was going to be disappointed. So I certainly didn't have any intentions of getting contractions going for labor by any means. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We got out there around 5:00 and started walking around. There was a great breeze that had just started to come through. And sure enough, I started walking so the contractions began coming off and on. Then at around 9:00 they were getting more intense and closer together. I was in shock that things were actually going to happen. We stopped at my Mom's house on the way to our house. At this point, Jeff was starting to get worried because he wasn't able to get in touch with our midwife which had never happened with the other two births. We actually got her mom on the phone and she told us that Amy was at a play. So her sweet mother went to the play to find her. By the time we got to our house, it was 10:00ish, I think. Jeff was starting to freak out, my poor baby, wondering if Amy was going to make it. I knew my births so I calmly told him to calm down and that this baby wasn't on the verge of coming out yet.

Our friends, Nate & Lori, got to our house not long after we did. Mother and Leah weren't far behind them. Then Amy got there a little after them ~ bless her heart for having to miss her play. After a little while we decided to start walking the street. I got cold so we went back inside. We did that a few more times. I just remember it being such a beautiful night. Every time a contraction would come on, I would just fold into Jeffrey's arms and put my face in his chest while he held me through it. It felt so good to have him hold me like that.

Amy decided to check me after a couple of hours of walking. I was 4 cm dilated but his head was cocked to the side. She told me to help him out that I was going to have to change positions after 2 contractions. So I went from all 4's to lying on my left side to lying on my right side. It felt like I did that for an eternity!!! It took him a while to descend so I was doing that for a couple of hours. The whole time I just stayed calm and prayed for this to go as quickly and as safe as possible. Jeff was so amazing. He never left my side one time. Eventually I started falling asleep in between contractions while lying down. Finally I was sick of labor and ready to get things going. Amy asked if I wanted to sit on the ball and I immediately said YES!!! It's funny to me how birthing naturally is so primal. All you can do is focus on the process ~ I always forget things that are so basic and I already know.

At 3:15ish I sat on the ball and almost immediately felt the need to push. I asked Amy to check me to see if I was ready. She said I was at an 8. I told her that I really needed to push even though I wasn't at 10. She said, "Eva, if you feel the need to push, I'm not going to stop you." Honey, that's all I needed to hear. I started pushing and WHOA did something start to hurt. Now I know that it's usually supposed to hurt when you begin pushing, but this was different. I thought it was Amy hurting me with the warm compresses but she assured me that wasn't it. She said that I had an anterior lip, which Jeff informed me later that even the women he gives epidurals too complain about the pain with anterior lips!! Amy said that the lip would move with each contraction as I pushed. I SO didn't want to have to push with that much pain, but of course My Father gave me all that I needed. All of a sudden I felt and heard this pop ~ kind of like a tendon/ligament going over a bone ~ and immediately Amy told me that was it and everything was ready. Jace's head was out on the next push. It was so funny that he immediately began crying with just his head out and the rest of him still in. The rest of his body came out on the next push at 3:27 am. He weighed 7 pounds even and was 22 inches long.

I absolutely love birthing at home and feel so blessed that I have been able to for all 3 children now. It really is amazing how God designed our bodies to handle it. Trust me, if I can handle that with the low pain tolerance that I have, then anyone can do it. It's the most non-allergenic environment for the baby to come into since it's been exposed to everything in the house all through the pregnancy. The list goes on and on for my reasons. Again, I am just so blessed. I love that the baby comes to me immediately and doesn't leave me for at least 20-30 minutes. We are doing nothing but looking at each other and bonding that entire time. Praise the Lord I wasn't hooked up to a lot of monitors or I wouldn't have been able to change positions like I did and most likely would have ended up with a C-section had I been in the hospital.

It didn't take long at all for him to settle. He had no desire to nurse whatsoever. I don't think he latched on until an hour or so later...not sure because there is NO concept of time during and after birth. Lori is a Le Leche League leader and she said he had a great latch. I was just in so much shock that he was really there.