Expectations

I had seen a couple of babies born when I was younger, thought the process was beautiful.  I knew there were other options other than a hospital birth but having only witnessed and really known hospital births, that was my comfort zone, so that’s where I planned on having my first child. My only real expectation was to try and have a natural birth in the hospital, because I really don’t like needles, like REALLY, so the thought of asking someone to shove a huge needle into my back was way at the bottom of my list.

Avoiding Induction Of Labor

I was now into my 40th week and saw my doctor on Wednesday. I had been 100% effaced for weeks but had just finally dilated to 1cm. My doctor was talking about induction of labor, but after birth class and prenatal yoga I really was trying to avoid it. So after some negotiating he agreed to let me get midway through my 41st week before scheduling the induction. From the signs of things he let me know he really didn’t think I was going to make it to my induction date anyway, but that he’d call Friday morning with when to report for my induction. Wednesday night, I went to prenatal yoga and Liza gave me some birth wisdom and techniques on how to get things progressing. Thursday night I walked, and walked, and walked, and my dear husband was nice enough to make sure there were a couple of hills included. I went to bed dreading the next morning’s phone call and feeling no closer to labor.

It Begins

I remember waking up thinking “Ugh, stupid Braxton Hicks contractions. It’s not even light out. Let me sleep!” Finally at 4:45am I realized these may not be Braxton Hicks contractions, so I grabbed some paper and started writing down times. Almost 20 minutes on the dot separated the contractions. Guess I should wake my husband. I informed him he needed to let his boss know he wouldn’t be in the office today. My husband asked if I needed anything or if he could go back to sleep; I told him I was hungry so was going to get some food, and he could grab a few more winks. After eating I dozed off in my chair for about an hour when a rather painful contraction hit. I timed a few more and now they were about 15 minutes apart. By now it was about 8 am.

Water From The Shower & Water From Me

I went and poked my husband, gave him a status update, and told him “If this is labor happening today, I’m not going to the hospital all stinky. I’m getting a shower.” The warm water felt so great. Most of my shower consisted of me leaning against the wall, letting the warm water run over my back while I swayed my hips. I emerged to find my mom up doing dishes. So I filled her in on the morning’s fun. Not sure if it was the shower or just the timing of things, but I found myself not wanting to sit. The contractions were getting closer together and more intense. They definitely required some support from my husband now. In between contractions I started to pace. I was in the middle of pacing across my living room when I suddenly stopped. My husband looked up at me a bit startled and asked if I was okay. I thought I’d just peed my pants. But something wasn’t right about it being pee. Maybe the baby moved and forced it out. Oh! My bag of waters broke! I went to check my pants while my husband informed my mom. My mom rushed in to see how I was doing and then rushed back to get my dad out of bed. My dear dad comes out of his room and finds me in the kitchen. “Mom says you’re in labor. How long’s that been going on?” When I informed him for about 6 hours I thought we’d never get his chin off the floor. We did a last minute check of our hospital bag and our snack bag. By now my contractions were under 10 minutes and lasting for about 1 minute. With a 30-40 minute drive to the hospital I told my husband let’s head down there because I wasn’t sure how much longer I might be able to sit in the car.

Never Happier To Be Out Of A Car

I kept urging my husband to drive faster because it was so uncomfortable sitting in the car during the contractions. I was never so happy to be out of a car when we arrived to the hospital. I waddled into triage and they got me all checked in. The nurses in triage confirmed my bag of waters had broken and I was 5-6cm; I was getting admitted. The nurses asked if I could walk or if I wanted a wheelchair, after the car ride down I was not sitting again, so I walked up to my room. I surprised a couple of people as I had a contraction on the elevator ride up. My contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart and were lasting at least a minute. They asked about medications and epidurals and since I didn’t say they were completely out of the ballpark they wanted to put an IV in, just in case.

I Should Have Never Gotten In Bed

While they worked on the IV they asked me to sit in bed (hindsight, I should have never gotten in bed). I sat in bed while they worked on the IV and that’s when the back contractions hit. Never in all my life had I experienced such pain, and with the contractions as close as they were there was very little recoup time. I tried breathing, I rolled back and forth in the bed, I had my husband massaging my back, but nothing was helping. On the verge of tears I broke and begged for an epidural. My husband asked if I was sure (as he was supposed to, per my orders) and I confirmed I wanted an epidural that I couldn’t take much more of this. The anesthesiologist came in and I sat up on the edge of the bed, the contractions weren’t so bad then, but I didn’t think twice about it. The epidural was quick and painless, the pain was gone but I would still feel the pressure of each contraction. The OB on call came to check on me at one point and chuckled that I looked like I should be on the beach, not in labor, I looked so relaxed. I dozed for a little while and around 4pm they checked and I was at 10cm. Time to start pushing! At 4:10 I started pushing. They offered to place a mirror so I could see the head crown, I accepted. I was able to reach down and feel her head as it started to crown. C’mon, we’re so close! At 4:45pm my little girl entered this world and was placed in my arms.

susan2

Susan and Makayla

Congrats, You’re A Mom!