INTRODUCING SCOTLAND JON COURVILLE

BORN APRIL 2ND, 2020 AT 4:17PM, WEIGHING 8LBS. 7OZ. AND MEASURING 20.5" LONG.

The Birth Story

(Before I begin, this is a VERY long post! This includes lots of iPhone photos as well as photos from our camera)

When I reflect upon my pregnancy, labor, and delivery with Scotland, the word that comes to mind is “Peace.” And not this hippy-dippy, empty your mind kind of synthetic peace. No, I’m referring to the REAL peace that comes from Heaven, which guards my heart and mind - in the midst of learning to surrender my fears. I definitely had fears, plenty of them. But God kept bringing me to a point of surrender and trust.

Little did I know, I would finish out my pregnancy and deliver Scotland during a worldwide pandemic called COVID-19.

I prayed daily for Scotland’s health and safety. In fact, one day, I felt guilty for completely forgetting to pray for him as a person, and who he would grow up to be. I was so focused on his health and safe arrival! Looking back, I see God’s hand in directing my prayers concerning the circumstances in which he was born.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Once I reached 36 weeks pregnant, I had weekly chiropractor appointments to keep my hips and pelvis in alignment. Since I’m very petite, my hips tend to close in, so we always have to work hard at keeping them open so that I can birth a baby!

I was feeling very discouraged. I was over 40 weeks, and I felt like my body just didn’t even know how to go into labor. I was induced with London at 41 weeks, so I didn’t even know what it was like to time contractions or wonder, “is this labor??”

Jon watched London while I had my chiropractor appointment. I was actually feeling pretty good, and even wondered if I was wasting this appointment. But boy, am I glad I went! My back, neck, and hips were all out, so Dr. Weaver from Upper Cervical Wellness Center worked hard to put me back together (kind of like a broken barbie doll). I walked out of the office feeling “off.” Like something just felt weird and I kind of felt sick and weak. Maybe this was the start??

I continued to have lots of strong cramps afterwards, so I was intentional to stretch and rest.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

I really didn’t want to have an April Fool’s baby, but at the same time, labor sounded amazing. I had lots of contractions, pressure, and strong period cramps all day. I took off my belly band because it was too tight. For the last few weeks, I didn’t feel like I was exactly growing bigger, but rather, I felt like I was getting tighter and tighter. Scotland was literally taking up every space inside of me, and my upper right rib area was discolored and painful from bruising. I kept saying, “he’s a big baby!” but I had NO CLUE that he actually was...very big.

As the day progressed, I wondered if I would go into labor! It was exciting, but also annoying because I didn't know if this was a false alarm. I waited until later that evening to tell Jon that I felt like labor would be starting soon. We watched an episode of a show before I decided to wash up and to go to bed. I mean, I wanted to look nice in the hospital for pictures, so I kept my makeup on as long as I could! But then I was ready for sleep and nothing more was happening.

Thursday, April 2, 2020

This was THE day!

3am - I woke up with strong contractions and cramps. Most of the pain felt like horrible period cramps in my hip flexor area (NOT where I’m used to feeling them). It was so uncomfortable that I kept changing positions to try to find relief. I assumed his head was finally dropping since Dr. Weaver told me at my adjustment that he was still high.

4:30am - After 1.5 hours, I decided to take a shower just in case. I hadn’t washed my hair in 5-6 days, so if I didn’t get to wash it before going to the hospital, I’d feel tremendously GROSS. Plus, I wasn’t planning to wash my hair in the hospital, and I’d never gone more than 6 days without washing…

The moment the hot shower water hit my skin, the pain immediately stopped. It was weird. Almost like a switch was flipped! So you better believe I took my time in the shower!

5am - Yes, you read that right. I took a 30min shower. Again, once I turned the water off, the pain and contractions began!

I went back to bed and slept until 6:40am.

7am - I texted my mom to give her a heads up that I thought I may be in the beginning stages of labor.

7:20am - I got up and got dressed. Made breakfast for Jon, London, and I (omelettes).

8:40am - I decided that I should probably start timing the contractions since they were feeling pretty consistent. I wasn’t feeling miserable yet, so I felt funny timing them! But they were actually coming every 5min apart, and it was 5min on the dot.

9:15am - I told my mom to get ready to come over. The midwife had told me to call the office once my contractions were 5min apart for about 45min. My sister, Lauren, called me on the phone to see how I was doing. I’m so glad she did! Here’s what I didn’t know about labor: you can feel totally normal and sane in between contractions. During the contractions, I was still able to talk, but it took a lot of concentration. Since this was my second baby, she urged me to call asap just in case.

10:15am - Called the midwife office. We changed my original 1pm appointment to 11am.

10:40am - Missy arrived to watch London so that Jon and I could go!

11am - Midwife appointment with Hallie. I was a little frustrated that she had me wait in the room for 30min before she came to see me. Didn’t they tell her I was in labor?? When the nurse checked me in, she was like, “so you think you may be in labor?” Almost as if there was a big possibility that I wasn’t. I was a little annoyed, but I understand many women think they’re in labor when they’re not. However, I was 40 weeks + 5 days, so there was NO WAY I was going back home!

Once Hallie came in, we quickly learned that I was 100% effaced and 5cm already! Thank You, Jesus!!! I was praying that I would be at least 4cm, so I was stoked! “Looks like you’ll be going straight to the hospital!”

She put the order for the epidural in for me, and they were waiting for me to arrive! YAY! Meanwhile, Jon went to Noodles & Co. for some lunch before picking me back up. He kept offering to get me some food, but I just wasn’t hungry at all.

The weather was a perfect, spring day with blue skies and flowers blooming everywhere. I had always wondered what the drive would be like while being in labor. Would I be screaming from pain? Puking my guts out? Sweating like a sprinkler? Making my husband drive 200mph? Gushing water from my pants? I breathed through about 5 contractions during the drive to the hospital. Otherwise, the drive was very nice and relaxing!

Because of the COVID-19 visitor restrictions, the parking deck was pretty open. I told Jon that we could go ahead and park before walking in together - no need to drop me off. We waited for a contraction to end and then quickly made our way to the parking deck elevator - we had 5min before the next contraction!

We went through the maternity entrance, and they were already waiting for us! I bypassed the wheelchair since I was perfectly fine walking.

When we got to the maternity floor, the nurses behind the desks all greeted us as I waddled to our room. I was hit with the smell of hand sanitizer, or some kind of sterile smell. It made me nervous and uncomfortable since I really, really dislike that smell. Thankfully, the room didn’t reek of those fumes, so I quickly relaxed once my nurse came in.

Poor buddy was so bruised in his face…keep reading to hear why!

12:30pm - All set up in the room with my IV done! My nurse’s name was Jenna, and she was AMAZING. She was so relatable, kind, gentle, and confident. She was in the process of becoming a nurse midwife, so she was very knowledgeable and helpful. Jenna also did a fantastic job with my IV - it didn’t hurt me at all and I never felt it in my arm! I was SO grateful! Such a different experience compared to London’s birth. Jenna kept saying, “He’s so beautiful! He’s perfect,” as she watched him through the monitors.

Everything was very laid back, and I remember Jenna asking if I wanted the epidural now or if I wanted to wait. I was like, “uhhhh, you tell me! Should I get it now? I’m not dying from pain, and I feel like I can keep going for a long time before needing it. But if you don’t think it’ll slow down labor, then I’m fine getting it…” I was pretty neutral, but I also thought it was strange that it was so laid back and she let me decide.

Since we didn’t want me to progress too fast to the point of not being able to get the epidural (which would be horrific to me), we decided to go ahead and get it. And thank goodness we did! Right after I agreed, apparently several other ladies asked for the epidural, but I was first in line!

1:30pm - Epidural all done! I asked for the same doctor who did my epidural with London, but he was no longer at that hospital. This other doctor was nice, but it really hurt. I wasn’t expecting pain with the epidural since I essentially felt nothing with London’s!

(You can read London’s Birth Story HERE…)

Before we started the needles, Jenna was prepping me mentally for the process. Honestly, it scared me! I didn’t remember this from London’s epidural. She was stressing the importance of staying still and breathing and I don’t remember what else. I just remember thinking, “This is supposed to be no big deal! Why are they making this sound so scary and serious??” Ok, I know it’s a serious deal to get an epidural, but it just wasn’t like my first experience AT ALL. My first epidural was very calm, quiet, virtually pain free, and incredibly fast.

He started with the numbing needle which felt like it was 5 inches long as he stuck in up my spine. I was clutching a pillow, holding Jon’s hand, wearing a face mask, and moaning to get through the pain. Next was the epidural needle. I was especially nervous now since the local numbing hadn’t taken effect! The epidural needle hurt just as bad as the local, and it took much longer for it to take effect. I felt pretty uncomfortable for about 20min. I prayed and breathed through it all, while keeping my focus on the end goal: having my baby and NOT feeling birth. That for sure would be more painful than the needles. Kuddos to the women who birth naturally…I’m not one of them.

After the epidural kicked in, my contractions were immediately closer together and stronger! They had me lay on my side with a peanut ball between my legs. Scotland had always preferred my right side (hence the bruising), so it was still uncomfortable to be on that side until I became more numb.

2:30pm - The midwife, Lisa, came in and broke my water to speed things up! At this point, I was already 6-7cm. I had never met Lisa before, but she, like all the other midwives, was very gentle, calm, nice, and motherly. I can’t recommend the midwives at Charlotte OB-gyn enough!

While we waited for my body to progress, I rested and watched some comedy shows with Jon, featuring Jim Gaffigan. The two shows we watched were about getting a colonoscopy and hiking in the woods with a grizzly bear. They were hilarious and I was laughing so hard! In fact, the nurses let us finish the show before coming back in because Jon and I were enjoying our time so much!

3:45pm - 9cm! Jenna says, “You ready to start pushing and have this baby? Yeah, let’s go ahead and do it.” Everything was happening so fast, I wasn’t prepared for it!

4pm - The labor team was there and I started pushing! They told me that Scotland would be born within just a couple pushes! But after a few minutes, I realized that he wasn’t coming as easy as we originally thought. Although his head was born, his left shoulder was stuck. They had me lay on my side while holding bars on the side of the bed to help me bear down and get him out. Lisa says, “call the emergency doctor to come in,” and there seemed to be slight panic from everyone. Jon leaned over me and started praying out loud - everything scared him more than it scared me, especially since the cord was also wrapped around Scotland’s neck. I knew I could push harder, so I began to give it everything I had.

When London was born, I would relate it to a mild ab workout. It was so easy! But once I realized that Scotland wasn’t coming as easy, I pushed to the point of discomfort - where my face was red, I would run out of breath, and my eyeballs could come out of my head.

I pushed through 4 contractions total before he was born at 4:17pm. Jenna and Lisa coached me through them. Right as Scotland was born, the emergency doctor came running into the room (or as much of a run that a doctor can do), but she was told that she wasn’t needed anymore, so she walked right back out. Instead of them bringing Scotland to my chest (or letting me pull him up), they quickly grabbed him to make sure he was ok. He started crying immediately, and they said, “He’s ok, he’s ok, now bring him to mommy!” They put him on my chest and I was all tears.

My son was here, and I was so in love with him, and grateful for a safe arrival. Meeting him was such a special and beautiful moment! When I heard that the cord was wrapped around him, I cried even more. THIS was something I was intensely afraid of. My friend had recently lost her baby at 39 weeks because the cord was wrapped around her baby’s ankle. 39 weeks. I was heartbroken for her, and terrified that something like that could happen to my baby. The very thing that gives and sustains life inside the womb can also be the very thing that ends life. I don’t say this to scare any of you ladies, but it was a huge realization for me (yet again) that Jesus is in complete control of what happens in my womb. I don’t have control. But Jesus was merciful to Scotland, and I’m so very grateful. I know that the cord being wrapped around a baby is very common, but it doesn’t make it less scary.

Also, I was SHOCKED when I heard he was 8.5 pounds! I thought for sure he’d be a pound lighter than that! But then, it made total sense. I could barely move and walk…

Having a boy was something I had difficulty imagining. Growing up with 4 sisters and only 1 brother (who was very tame considering all of the ladies he grew up with), I wasn’t sure what it would be like to have a boy! I found myself falling deeper in love with Scotland every day, and this is just the beginning.