Welcome Rowan James!

On Thursday, October 10th - we welcomed Rowan James Trier to our family. He was born at 7:38PM, measuring at 6 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches long. Of our four beautiful babes, he’s the smallest!

Welcoming Rowan has been an extremely special time for our family. Knowing this is our last baby - we’ve been doing our best to soak in all the little things we’re experiencing for the last time. Newborn sleeps and snuggles, around the clock feeding, having our days and nights flipped and more. There’s something about knowing this is the last time that makes it 1000x less daunting.

I still remember when Dave and I stepped into parenthood 8 years ago. We literally couldn’t get our shit together for the LIFE of us! It took all of our strength, patience and brain power to find a way to squeeze in a shower or cook a meal. It’s funny how your perspective changes as you age and life teaches you how to let go.

My mama heart isn’t quite sure how to process our last baby yet. Physically, I’m feeling amazing. Emotionally, I’m not so sure. Mentally, I’m also not so sure. I’m taking it all in stride, one day at a time, and just doing what I can to be present for my kiddos, my family, my husband and our sweet new baby boy.

If you’d like to hear more of Rowan’s Birth Story - read on…

ROWAN JAMES’ ARRIVAL

I’d like to start the story of Rowan’s birth at our 38 week appointment. When meeting with the OB, she checked me and measured that I was 2-3cm dilated. I had not been feeling any contractions or Braxton Hicks, but was still making slow progress. Over the weekend of October 5-6, I lost my plug - which in the past, meant that labor was close for me. But little Rowan was seemingly content.

On Wednesday, 10/9 I started having some more significant and consistent contractions starting around 8:00PM. By 9:00PM, the contractions weren’t super intense, but were coming every 5 minutes. My birth story with Rowan’s brother (Brendan) was SUPER fast - so I immediately grew anxious that contractions were going to come on STRONG and beyond my control. We decided to head into the hospital on Wednesday night to determine what was happening. With Rowan’s sister (Jillian), I had dilated to 5cm without feeling much as well - so I wanted to play it safe.

When we arrived at the hospital, we went through the Emergency Room and straight upstairs to Labor and Delivery. The nurse on call had me change into a gown and put the doppler/stress test around my belly to measure baby’s heartbeat and contractions. We stayed for about an hour and a half. While there, she checked my progression and monitored my contractions. While I was contracting consistently (really more like 8-10 minutes apart), it wasn’t anything progressive - meaning I was still measuring at 3cm for the duration of my time there. And ultimately, the nurse said my body was in “preterm” labor - but not active labor (yet!)

Dave and I decided to head home and wait it out. I cried. I was disappointed, scared, sad to go home. But it wasn’t quite time. Plus, our 39 week appointment was scheduled with my OB at 9:00AM Thursday morning. Since we were leaving the hospital at 10:30PM, we didn’t have too much time to wait until being seen/checked again.

Even though I arrived home anxious, I was able to get a few hours of sleep. The next morning - I woke up early. I did my morning routine of practicing gratitude, diving into my personal development book, reading my devotional from 100 Days to Brave and writing down positive affirmations and my intentions for the day. Once I felt my mind in a better, more relaxed place - I drank my pre-workout cocktail (giving me the all-natural pick-me-up I needed!) and pushed play on my workout. Little did I know, it would be the last workout I would do as a pregnant woman. Actually, I had a feeling that may be the case - so I made sure to spend time filming my body and celebrating its strength.

Post workout - we got the kids up and ready for school. We had breakfast, sent them off to the bus, got dressed/ready for the day and put our hospital bags in the car. With Jillian (#3), we were immediately admitted for delivery at our 39 week check-up - so Dave and I had a feeling our doctor would do the same thing this go around. We said goodbye to my mom and Jilly at the house then went to my 9:00AM appointment.

Upon arriving at the hospital, I had another stress test done. The test showed that I was still consistently contracting and baby looked great. When my OB came into the room to view the stress test results - she could see on my face that I was tired and scared to be sent home again. My biggest fear was another fast labor without medication and the feelings of barely making it to a safe delivery environment.

She pulled us over into an exam room and checked my progression. Overnight while at home and all morning, I had progressed from 3 - 5cm. YAHOO! She determined that it was best to admit me immediately to Labor and Delivery. I cried tears of relief knowing we were staying and going to meet our baby boy.

We arrived to L+D around 10:00AM. I was situated in our room, hooked up to the necessary monitors and had my IV administered. While getting settled, my contractions started to pick up on their own and became more intense. My body was pushing into active labor - which was nice, as we had anticipated an induction.

Around 11:30AM - I had my epidural. Although, it took 4 tries to get the placement right and in the end, the block wasn’t great. At 12:30PM - my OB came to break my water and check me. I was dilated to 6cm and 100% effaced at this point. We let time go by for a bit to see how my body progressed. As we waited, I cried. I held Dave’s hand. I wasn’t in too much pain (yet) - so we were able to talk and soak it all in. I was emotional that things were happening but felt stuck in the bittersweet, knowing this was the last time I would be experiencing the miracle.

At this point - Dave and I also made a bet on what time baby would arrive. I said 6:30PM. He said 7:45PM.

When my OB returned around 3:30/4 - my body was at a standstill. Still 6cm. Super disappointing, but part of the process. At this point in time - we decided to start Pitocin to help my body kick into more progressive contractions. We started on a low dosage and gradually worked our way into more Pitocin over the next few hours. By 5:30/6:00PM - I was in PAIN. The epidural block was not working well and I was feeling all the feels. The nursing staff had the anesthesiologist return quickly to administer a bolus (quick dose of extra meds) to try and help - but it only took the edge off for a portion of the time. Everything I had felt from the natural labor I had with Brendan was coming on with a vengeance.

Damn - labor is hard. SO SO hard.

Over the next hour or so, the pressure was overwhelming. The breathing. The squeezing of Dave’s hand. The extreme uncomfortable feelings. It’s hard to put it all into words. By 7:20PM, I felt the need to push, but I let myself labor and contract a little longer than I wanted because I didn’t want to push for long. I just wanted to meet our sweet baby and I wanted the pain to end.

At 7:31PM - I started pushing. 3 contractions/pushes later - Rowan was born at 7:38PM. My fastest round of pushes - EVER! In that moment, I have never been so overjoyed to see our baby on my chest - healthy, crying and peeing on the doctor. I have never been so overwhelmed with gratitude that my body had done it again and that the worst of the process was over. I have never been more in love with my husband, watching him cut the cord one last time, gripping my hand and telling me he was so proud of my strength. We had done it - together - and while it was so hard, it was so worth it.

In the end - Dave won the birth time bet by 7 minutes. Lucky duck!

I’ve had people ask me about my birth stories, laboring, what it’s like, what to expect and what my advice is.

All four of my labors were SO incredibly different:

One abroad in Australia for 27 hours, with epidural and Pitocin, that ended in a forcep delivery.
One all natural 6 hours (total!) that was so fast, we barely made it to the hospital!
One easy, 7 hour, perfect epidural delivery with little pain, but the cord was wrapped around her neck twice.
And one 9 hour, where I was poked 4 times for the epidural that didn’t end up working that well.

I personally didn’t make birth plans - as I didn’t want to add more stress and instead, just focused on trusting the process.
I had some vague early labor signs, but never had my water break on its own.
I never made it to the induction dates we had set out.
And I never in a million years thought I would survive natural birth.

In all honesty - my BEST possible advice is to simply go with the flow when it comes to labor and delivery. And TRUST the people around you. It’s amazing to have a plan and an idea of how you’d like things to go - but I can promise you, there will be curveballs. Things will NOT go exactly the way you hope or envision and that’s OK. What matters more than anything is safety, a healthy baby and a healthy mommy.

Rowan has been an absolute joy in our household. His sweet demeanor and quiet presence is something we’re cherishing in BIG ways. Thank you all for taking the time to follow our journey and read about Rowan’s birth story. Stay tuned for more, as I’m still trying to grasp how this is the last time I’ll be experiencing this as a mother…

God Bless all of you!