Welcome Sawyer! (A Birth Story for Baby Number 4) -

I am so excited to officially announce the newest baby boy in the Ox family! This is the birth story for baby number 4: Sawyer Reed Oxford.

Sometimes, I don’t know where to start in our birth story, since I really do believe the last few weeks of my pregnancy were preparing my body for labor.

However, I will start on the night of June 4th.

While my husband Mac was putting the boys to bed, I cleaned up our dinner and suddenly had a burst of energy! For an almost 40-weeks-pregnant woman at 8PM (who has three boys under the age of 6) – that’s surprising! I definitely needed to capitalize on it. I began cleaning the kitchen, picked up the living room, finished folding laundry, tidied up our bedroom, changed our sheets and did my nightly work out/ stretches! WOW! I can’t believe how much energy I had! I laughed thinking (and HOPING) that it would be funny if my water broke all over our clean sheets while we were sleeping.

Funny enough…

A Birth Story for Baby Number 4

I sat in bed scrolling through Instagram when Mac joined me after putting the boys to bed. I posted an update that I was still pregnant and SO curious as to when our baby boy would join us! We had a wonderful chat about how we want to parent our boys and how we desire to be better examples for them daily. How we wanted our home to be a happy home that our boys love walking into every day – now and in the future.

It was a beautiful conversation and I love how God orchestrated another little boy’s story shortly after this talk.

We fell asleep just before midnight and I tossed and turned for a bit having my nightly contractions like every other night. As I turned over to change positions in bed (like every pregnant woman does a million times a night to get comfortable) I felt a small gush. I instantly knew. Every birth of mine before this one started the same way with a similar gush. My water broke.

I took a deep breath and tapped Mac on the shoulder. His eyelids blinked open heavily and when I whispered “Are you ready to have our baby?” they shot open and he said “Seriously?!” I told him my water just broke and he thought I was joking.

Once I assured him this was for real we both hopped out of bed and the rest of my water broke everywhere. We laughed at how similar this was to our first birth story and it was! From start to finish, this labor and delivery almost mimicked the birth of Josiah.

I immediately began to change my clothes. I noticed meconium in the fluid and started to panic.

Anxiety and Labor Trauma

Since my dad died, I have struggled a lot with anxiety. This, paired with the trauma that I dealt with during the birth of Trenton, I feared this impending labor and delivery.

I had a lot of fears and anxiety about birth throughout this pregnancy. My husband prayed for me and continued to attempt to convince me of my capabilities. He would help me focus and breathe through my “practice” contractions and told me unceasingly that I could do this when the real time came. Although I wanted to believe him, I wavered between trusting him and listening to my fears. Despite this, I prayed throughout my pregnancy that God would give me HIS strength and HIS peace. That I would not be afraid and that I would focus on bringing my baby safely into this world.

However, now the real time had finally come. I felt ready until I saw the meconium and it sent me into a panic. Just then, contractions started immediately with almost no breaks. I was having minute-long contraction every 2-3 minutes and I was afraid.

I told Mac to hurry because I was worried that we wouldn’t make it to the hospital. The 20 minutes it took to gather our things and get to the car were terrifying. It didn’t help my fears and anxiety when I called the hospital to tell them I was coming and they told me they might have to send me to another hospital. I live about 7 minutes away from the hospital and I was VERY adamant with the nurse on the phone that I was GOING to my hospital and nowhere else. Luckily she agreed when she heard how IN labor I actually was.

I had contractions on the short ride to the hospital but we made it. Phew! I had contractions checking in, and walking down the hallway to my room.

We Made It

We all breathed a sigh of relief when we got to the room. My midwife knew that the labor would be quick too. It was after 3AM now and as soon as we got to the room, she prepped her table for the baby’s arrival. When she checked my cervix, I was a 4.

ANXIETY again. How was I having transition contractions again at a 4?!? I panicked again, thinking this would be exactly like Trenton’s birth. This is what I had feared throughout my pregnancy and it was happening all over again. Mac continued to urge me to stay focused on my breathing, so I did.

I cried and told him I couldn’t do it and he told me I could. I was doing it. He pointed out how relaxed I was and how perfect my breathing was. He told me that I was mimicking Josiah’s birth – not TJ’s. Josiah’s birth went PERFECTLY and I believed him. The doctor checked me again very shortly after and I was a 6. Somehow I made it through.

Suddenly the contractions became almost unbearable and I needed to push. She checked me again and I was only an 8. I screamed and breathed through a few more continual contractions and my body continued to push. My midwife told me to keep relaxing through my breaths but let my body push lightly as it needed. During this time, the pain overtook my body yet I began to pray the same prayer asking God to give me HIS strength because I could no longer do this on my own. I repeated this prayer and I breathed through the pain, squeezing my husband’s hand. With the next scream and proclamation that I could NOT do this, my husband leaned in to me and told me he could see our baby’s head.

Meeting Sawyer Reed

After hearing this, I did not waver. I was SO focused on meeting my son. After 2 quick pushes, Sawyer came out FAST and was placed on my chest. I lost it. I was so overwhelmed. But I did it. It was SO hard but Jesus’ strength and my husband’s perseverance got me through. Less than 90 minutes after I walked into that hospital, Sawyer Reed Oxford was born. I was so filled with joy and relief, I didn’t notice that he wasn’t breathing for 10-15 seconds before he let out his first cries.

That labor was so quick and SO rewarding. It was incredibly difficult but SO beautiful. The first thing I noticed was how he looked SO much like Nolan. Immediately I felt SO connected to this baby who was still inside of me just two hours before. It was the weirdest thing and everything happened so fast. We hoped to get more video and pictures of the process but Mac barely left my side and he came so quickly we hardly had time to process anything.

Sawyer has been a dream. He is so perfect. He sleeps pretty much all night long and he is so peaceful throughout the day. I feel like he has adventure in his soul when I hold him and I can’t wait to watch him grow up with his brothers.

When Trenton was first born, I would panic and wonder where our fourth child was (when we only just barely had our third). It was the weirdest feeling and I always felt as though I was missing someone. Sawyer has relieved that feeling and I feel so content with him in my arms.