The Birth Story

I wrote this out a looong time ago, and I figured some of you would be interested...so here it is!  *If you are male, you may not enjoy this...

On that Saturday, I went to the grocery store around 11am and got groceries.  I thought I felt some pressure, but nothing that I had never felt before.  When I got back around noon, I got in to the shower as Taylor was getting ready to go in to work for a few hours to catch up on some things before induction the next Wednesday.  I commented to him, “I think I might be having contractions, but I’m not sure.”  He asked if he should still go, and I said, "oh definitely, I’m sure it’s nothing.”  I was only 38w, 5 days.  Natalie, after all, didn’t come until being induced at 41.5 weeks! 

Once I got out of the shower, around 1, I started paying more attention to the crampy, pressured feeling in my abdomen.  As this was occurring regularly, I said to Taylor, yep, these must be contractions – but still go to work!  Really, people have contractions all the time.  He left but told me to keep track of them. 

I sat down on the couch at 1:20 and started keeping track of my contractions, figuring I could pay attention better if I sat down.  Here’s what my log ended up looking like:

1:20

1:35

1:46

1:54

2:03

2:07

2:11

2:14

2:18

2:23

2:28

2:33

2:37

2:40

At first, I didn’t believe how close together they became so quickly.  I think that I was in complete denial that I was in real labor, which helped me to deal with the pain. They weren’t that painful until around 2. At 2pm, I called Taylor and told him he’d better plan on not staying very long, just in case I did go in to "real" labor.  Meanwhile, Natalie had woken up from her nap, and I was making dessert for our barbecue later that day.  She and I were working on dessert when the contractions became more and more painful.  I started thinking, “I’d better pack a bag, just in case.”  I was packing my bag as I was in labor!  At 2:10, I contacted a friend in town whose daughter is the same age as Natalie, telling her I may be crazy, but I might need her to take Natalie for the night.  At 2:20, I texted Taylor, “COME HOME!”  I was starting to lose my denial and starting to panic a little bit.  I remember that when I suddenly started sweating profusely, I thought, “Oh…oh my.  I think this it.”

Natalie could tell I was in pain and was becoming very upset, probably because she of my unresponsiveness.  She cried and cried, and I meanwhile tried to just muddle through in order to get her things packed, my things packed, and deal with the pain. It was so crazy!  Why had I not packed my bag earlier? 

Taylor got home around 2:35 and zoomed in to action.  Our friends arrived shortly after that and took Natalie, who was happy to go with them.  We jumped in the car around 2:45 and headed to OSU Medical Center.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope with the immense pain in the car, not being able to move or change positions.  Taylor went way over the speed limit on the highway and contemplated stopping at a closer hospital in order to get me in!  We arrived at OSU around 3:15 and Taylor parked the car illegally in front of the building.  He got me in a wheelchair and rushed me upstairs to Labor and Delivery.  I was in the midst of the transition phase and was in agony, but quietly so.  The receptionist was eerily calm even as Taylor said, “We are having a baby!”  I think they thought, “That’s what they all say.”

They wheeled us to triage slowly with this very calm male nurse, who asked me questions like, “How are you today?”  He checked me and realized I was already 7cm.  At that point everything went crazy! Suddenly I was a “stat” situation, as I was both in active labor and Julia’s heart rate was all over the place.  They zoomed me in to the labor and delivery room, and a horde of people descended in to the room.  C-section tools were brought in as a precaution, due to the nature of Julia’s heart condition.  There were a few people asking me stupid questions like, “What brings you here today?”  (mostly residents), while the nurses actually took my cues and were like, This girl is having a baby now!  I was in horrible pain and saying all kinds of incoherent things like, “I can’t do this!  This is too hard!”  Taylor asked for an epidural ASAP, but they looked at him like, I don’t think that’s going to happen!  Luckily I didn’t really take that in.  Taylor told them he needed to run down and repark the car, and they said, you can’t leave; she is having this baby!  A medical student reparked it for us, thankfully.

After some puking and emotional freaking out, the transition stage passed, and I felt a little better.  The contractions were still brutal, but they were further apart, so I had more time to get myself together.  They checked me again and I was so close to 10cm.  They almost waited a little longer before breaking my water, but then when they saw that Julia’s heart rate was still so variable, they went ahead and broke my water and told me to push.  I screamed with the first push, as I was so scared about what this would be like with no pain medication.  Once that contraction was over, the nurse coached me on more effective ways of pushing (“no screaming!”) which was extremely helpful.  I was able to get myself together and focus.  On the next contraction, I concentrated all my effort on just getting this thing done!  I held my breath and pushed with all my might, and suddenly I felt her head pop out and my belly go somewhat slack.  I thought I was done, but they reminded me I had to keep pushing to get her shoulders out.  So disappointed that I still had pain to go through, but I did it – and she was born at 4:59pm, after pushing through only 2 contractions.  Not even 2 hours after we arrived at the hospital.  The nurses confirmed that I’d had back labor, as I often complained about my back pain while laboring.

Petechiae bloomed all over my face and shoulders a few hours after delivery.  Apparently I had pushed hard!  Taylor was so proud of me, and he had been such an excellent encourager and advocate.  He couldn’t believe how awesome I did.  I couldn’t, either – and I was so thankful for such a short labor. 

Julia was tiny and pretty purple.  She needed an oxygen mask, but her Apgar scores were actually pretty good - a 7 and an 8.  They took her away fairly quickly but let us have about 10 minutes together while they held the oxygen mask to her little face.  Everything had happened so quickly, and so much differently than I had anticipated, that I didn't really have time to think.  This, in hindsight, was a good thing.

 

Julia did spend 8 days in the NICU, but I don't want to dwell on that.  Suffice it to say, it was brutally emotional and I don't know how people do it for weeks and months.  It was hard on us, but many people experience far more ups and downs than we did - she was mostly in the NICU for monitoring and never had to be isolated or intubated for breathing.  She did have a feeding tube for about 36 hours, but this wasn't as difficult as I'd expected...all I cared about was her getting enough to eat, whether it was breast milk, formula, whatever.  

 We decided to buy Natalie's love with this kitchen.  It seemed to work.  :)

Yes, I wore the same clothes MANY days in a row while in the hospital.

Finally home!  What a journey we have begun.