One Baby, Two Baby, Three Baby, More??

As many of my readers know...I am the mother of three beautiful children....two boys, one girl.

Here I will tell you the birth story of Baby One and in the days to come will be the stories of Two, Three and even the possibilities of More! ;-)

My journey of becoming a mother started roughly 6 1/2 years ago shortly after my husband and I said "I Do!" Even though things didn't happen as quickly as I would have liked for them to I can now look back and see how extremely blessed I was.

I found out I was pregnant with my first baby on March 18, 2007 only 6 months after we began trying. This is a day I will never forget. It's amazing how the (+) symbol can make you feel.....INSTANTLY NAUSEOUS in my case ;-). My husband and I were newly married, both working full time jobs, renting a house and had two big car payments! Boy were we in for some major changes! I was just 19 years old but my body and mind were ready to jump right into mommy mode.

Even though the first months of pregnancy were pretty difficult I was feeling overwhelmed with joy that I would soon be a mom. Ever since I was young I had studied the natural ways of birthing a baby and really had a passion for midwifery. It was a struggle for me to decide if I would be having a home birth or if I would travel to a hospital (Big Matt never had this same struggle). So after much discussion we both made the decision that we would travel to Blue Hill Memorial Hospital.
This is the hospital where I was born and it would be my best option for having a natural birth with an encouraging staff waiting on hand if there were to be any issues beyond my control.



40 weeks had come and gone and I was still working as a bank teller. I decided that I would take the next week off just to get the house ready and rest my body for the upcoming arrival of what we knew to be "Our Son". I was always anticipating going into labor naturally, rushing to the hospital, getting through the doors with minutes to spare and holding my baby in my arms.
This wasn't the case. Around 41 weeks the midwife assured me that this is "normal" and that things will happen when the baby is ready. What is this woman talking about she has no idea how uncomfortable I am and how much I wanted to see this baby! Lets just say that I am humbled now...and yes she did know a lot about birthing a baby. Imagine that?!

Another week had gone by and we had decided I would go into the hospital the morning of December 7, 2007 to "get things started". By this time I was approaching 42 weeks pregnant and I was READY! We had stayed the night before in Ellsworth with family so that the travel wouldn't be long in the morning hours. The day was beautiful when we finally set out around 6:30 a.m. I hadn't slept a wink the night before and was experiencing pains and aches I hadn't before. We arrived at the hospital around 7 a.m. where they soon discovered my body was "in labor" ...ALL BY ITSELF. Although I had lost all faith at this point that I would actually do it, I was in the very beginning stages of labor. The midwife and I were prepared to take the most natural approach. With this being said I had decided against all IVs...and that all we would do is break my bag of waters. (Yes you do have a choice! Do not think that you do not have a "say" during labor and delivery...). I wanted to prove to myself that God had invented a woman's body to birth babies without anything! Shortly after my waters were broke my entire family showed up in anticipation of the birth. If you are unfamiliar with Blue Hills delivery unit it was a very homey unit with a family room just on the other side of what they called the delivery room. Nothing separated me from my family during this time and it was such a blessing. Because I had decided not to have an IV I was free to move around and labor the natural way. Standing, squatting, bouncing, laughing and joking with friends and family the entire time. 11 hours after we arrived at the hospital I was ready to start pushing. Even though the policy at the hospital was not to deliver babies in the bath tub I refused to get out and the staff was fully prepared to deliver this baby no matter where I was.

My labor was very calm and I was able to manage the pain. The only thing I requested was that everyone stayed quiet. I wanted to hear nothing but the soon to be cries of my precious baby boy. It took about 1 hour of pushing before my little boy showed signs of exiting. After what felt like a life time his head made its exit but then stopped...I could see a little panic on everyone's faces but my midwife didn't hesitate for a second. Sneakers and all she jumped into the tub to deliver his shoulders which were stuck. Just seconds later I had a beautiful baby boy laying on my chest! The tears came from all that were there to witness the birth and all who were anxiously waiting in the waiting room. My mother-in-law exited quickly after he was born to get some air and to announce to everyone that he was here and safe. She explained to me later that the thought of a water birth had scared her but she stuck there right by my side and never flinched! Big Matt and my Mother coached me the entire time and my sister and sister-in-law took pictures and video footage of the whole thing! So much fun to watch :-)

Matthew Charles Hurlbert II was born at 7:43 p.m. On December 7, 2007 and weighed a whopping 8lbs 2ozs!

The coolest part of all was watching my husband place my son into the arms of my grandmother and saying Happy Birthday. My grandmother was born on December 7th also....71 years earlier.