Crawford’s Birth Story
There’s a special amount of mental fortitude needed when your first baby comes 10 days early and your second comes 4 days late.
Look, as a whole, chiropractors tend to really cook our babies! We trust our bodies and the process and typically let babies cook as long as they need. One of the most well known chiropractic principles is “there is no process that does not take time.” And I wasn’t going to do anything to force this baby to come before he/she was ready.
BUT when my first baby gave me false expectations by coming so early, it really was hard on me mentally to still be pregnant so much longer. Even I started second guessing things. “Was there something wrong with my body that it won’t go into labor this time?” “Is there something wrong with the baby?” It was Thursday and I was two days away from being pregnant two full weeks longer with this baby than Hollis, and my amazing midwife, Kayce (Nations Midwifery) , could obviously see it written all over my face. All she had to ask was “how’s it going?!” and I bust into tears. And I don’t often cry…but maybe I needed an emotional release to go into labor!? She was amazing at validating my feelings when I kept saying I know I’m crazy for being this upset when I’m only a couple days past my “due date” and I don’t even really pay attention to due dates. BUT my mental fortitude was diminishing by the day.
Fast forward to 3:30am Saturday morning (yep, this baby will probably never live down making me wait TWO WEEKS longer than sister did ), and I woke up to pretty moderate contractions. I sat in bed trying to decide if this was wishful thinking or if things were really happening. But not even an hour later, contractions had gotten pretty intense and were already 5 minutes apart. I told myself I was going to wait until 5:00am to call our midwife Kayce, and knowing my first labor went pretty quick, she got ready and head our way.
I told her I was going to hop in the bath tub for a bit to rinse off, and when I did, things stalled…
Looking back, I was SO stuck in my head. I had spent the last 2 weeks being annoyed that I was still pregnant instead of protecting my mind and preparing to birth this baby. I also was counting the minutes and comparing it to labor with Hollis and was getting frustrated that things weren’t progressing as quickly. This labor was going to be longer than hers. I laugh now because I don’t know why I thought this baby was going to come quicker?! Baby hasn’t been in a hurry this whole time.
Somewhere around 10ish, Kayce asked if it’d be okay if she went to a coffee shop to give us some space to enjoy our last morning as a family of 3. Yall, midwives are a special breed and have an uncanny ability to read the room. She made sure I wasn’t going to feel abandoned in that moment, and I definitely didn’t. I also knew I probably needed some time to myself to get things back on track. So after she left, I also sent Hollis and Maxx to go drive in the car so I knew Hollis would get a nap.
So with a quiet house, I said some prayers, got a few things prepped and set out like I wanted, cleared my head and got to doing things I know to do. Luckily it was Saturday, I text Dr. Ericka (@empoweredlifechiro) to see if she could come adjust me. She got there about 12, adjusted me, and did cranial and spinning babies work. After that, I alternated between sitting on an exercise ball, the dilation station (if you know, you know!), walking around the house, one sided lunge stretches, and whatever else felt right while doing some homeopathics.
Around 3:15 I text Kayce that things were picking up again. And by 3:30, I urgently messaged her a picture of my contractions timer showing them going from 5 minutes apart to under 2 minutes apart almost instantly. This was what we were all worried would happen. That my body would progress so fast that no one would make it out to our house in the country in time. Kayce said she and the other midwives were on their way and would be there in 15 minutes! I asked her to call our fabulous videographer, Erin, too (I’ll get the timing of calling you right, eventually!). I then text my mom to come take care of Hollis so Maxx could focus on me, but really didn’t think she was going to make it in time.
The next 15 minutes we’re a little bit of chaos… we had a naked toddler playing in the kitchen sink. I was definitely in transition working through intense contractions leaned over the island. Maxx was trying to was trying to multitask hip squeezes every 90 seconds during my contractions, a toddler trying to figure out what was happening with Mommy, and trying not to overflow the birth tub (bless him!).
Everyone knew this baby was coming and coming fast. Kayce looked at me and told me, if I want to have this baby now, let’s have this baby. But if I wanted Erin to make it in time to video (and I did!), that I might want to try laying on my left side to give her a bit more time to get here. So I laid on the bed willing my body to wait just a little longer for Erin to make it…
I truly don’t know the timing of anything from here on out. But I heard the sound of Erin’s voice at the door and knew I could have this baby now! I still had my personality about me because I looked at her and said “what took you so long?!” Everyone laughed and Kayce told me I could get in the birth tub now if I wanted! Even though the time in the tub was some of the most intense moments of my life, it was also the sweetest with my husband and Hollis hugging on me and being the best cheerleaders.
At 5:06, Crawford Thomas Godfrey came into the world and I got to catch him in the comfort and safety of our own home! If you talked to me at all during pregnancy, you probably know I was convinced we were having another girl. So to find out we had a little boy was a huge shock! But he has been the sweetest addition to our family. Hollis has thrived so much better in her big sister roll than I ever though she would! Life as a family of FOUR is so sweet!
Our Fabulous Birth Team:
