Birth Story
This was my third time doing this—but somehow, it felt like my first time getting it right. After a second birth that moved so fast it left me shaken and scared of what could happen next, I went into this one bracing myself—for chaos, for panic, for not making it to the hospital in time. Instead, everything slowed down just enough. Every piece fell into place. And for the first time, I felt present for it all.
Something I had never experienced before was prodromal labor which felt like false labor that I experienced on and off for about a week. On several different occasions throughout the week I gave birth, I began timing contractions and intensity for hours on end until they ultimately just… stopped. What a mind game!
Finally on Friday morning, I went to my 8am OB appointment and asked for the first time for a cervical check. I was 4 cm and we decided to do a membrane sweep since it was the day before my due date.
I was crampy for the rest of the day and had a bloody show signaling that my cervix was responding to the sweep. Finally around 8pm I started feeling like contractions were beginning but the timing was inconsistent- similar to what I had already been experiencing with my false alarms.
My mom decided to come over to spend the night with the boys in case anything happened overnight. I decided to try to sleep in case things picked up. At 10:30 I was awaken from my sleep with contractions- a good sign that this was the real deal! We packed the bags and started the roughly 20 minute drive to the hospital. I started to get nervous because I didn’t feel any contractions on the ride there… Was this another false alarm when we arrived I was taken to the interview room where my vitals were taken along with all of my intake information. From there on triage for my first cervical check, it was just after 11 o’clock. To my surprise, I was still 4 to 5 cm! The nurse let me know that she would come back in an hour to see what kind of change we saw. Just after 12, Another check and I was hovering right at 5 cm. Contractions were picking up at this point, but the doctor didn’t want me to stay until I showed that there was progression. I started to get nervous here because I was having contractions and at this point they’ve been going on for much longer than I had experienced before if I were to go home, how would I be able to tell any difference? Obviously, it’s not like I would be performing cervical checks myself ( lol ). She decided to check again in another hour this time I had homework to walk the halls for about 45 minutes to an hour to see if we could encourage progression so up I went while Patrick went down to get a snack (because we were in for a long night) I started walking the halls. At about 2 AM the nurse came in and I had made it to the 6 cm mark (PRAISE BE!) which meant I could be admitted.
At this at this point, it was 2:15 AM when we were admitted I kept walking and had a protein bar working through contractions… Today would be my baby’s birthday! Around 330 I requested my epidural which arrived about an hour later. With both of my previous babies, I got the epidural when I was further along and I couldn’t really feel it nor do I remember the experience of getting it. This time it was relatively early and things were calm so I felt the epidural more than I remember in the past. Around 515 a nurse came to check in and told me some side effects of feelings that can sometimes happen mostly revolving around blood pressure after getting an epidural. She asked me how I felt and I said fine. She left the room within minutes, I got dizzy, lightheaded, nauseous so we called the nurse back and I started throwing up! Obviously, I was mostly freaked out from this. They sat me up and everything of course was fine within minutes.
We tried some position changes and administrate Pitocin after this to get things moving because shocking news I was still at 6 cm from 6 to 6:45 AM. I had a little nap. Then it was shift changed. We had a new nurse come in and a new doctor on call at 7:10. The new doctor and I discussed options and we decided to break my water to encourage the baby to descend putting more pressure on the cervix to hopefully get things moving. I must say this epidural was solid because I did not feel a thing which is exactly what I wanted.
At 10 AM I started feeling the emotional shift started crying which I had read was a sign that it was go time! On the monitor, I could see how intense the contractions had gotten even though I couldn’t feel them. Another cervical check and we are at 10 cm! Because I was emotionally asked for a few minutes to cry, which was mostly just out of fear and exhaustion. Baby girl was born at 10:49 after three pushes.
This is the dream, birth and delivery that I had hoped for and wish everyone can experience!
