Tag: hospital birth

On Wednesday June 12, 2019 I had my 40 week appointment at 9am, I went in feeling like I would be pregnant forever and ever. At my request, my midwife performed a cervical check and membrane sweep. I had opted out at every appointment before then because I truly wanted to wait until baby was ready to try and get anything going as far as labor. I was 3 centimeters dilated but my midwife always reminds me that “your cervix is not a crystal ball!”.

I waddled home at 11am and gave everyone the report but prefaced that I didn’t feel like he was coming in the next few days. We definitely had the weekend at least.

Following my appointment, I was randomly crampy throughout the day but nothing substantial. Worked a full day, ate a hearty dinner of grilled kielbasa sandwiches and put Winnie down for what I did not know would be her last night as an only child. *cue tears*

I worked for another few hours since it was Wednesday, mind you! At our company there is a running joke that Wednesdays are “work hard” as a precursor to our Thursday morning staff meetings. I did have a few consistent contractions while putting Winnie down and working but nothing to get excited about.

Around 11pm, I got ready for bed and had a few fairly painful contractions. I had to breathe through them but chalked it up to being fatigued. I tried to go to bed but was restless, my contractions started having a rhythm but at that time I was still not timing them. I then had a couple that I had to concentrate and breathe through, my hypnobirthing practice was key here. Then I started shaking uncontrollably and could not lay still any longer. I got up, chugged a cup of water and took a hot shower to try and slow things down. It was around 1am at this point. I kept contracting in the shower but was no longer shaking so I got out to lay down and start timing them and see what all this fuss was about. As soon as I laid down to time them I couldn’t even get through the first two in a row, I had to get back in the shower to deal with the intensity. After awhile in the shower, I told Brett he needed to call someone to come over and that I felt like we would need to go to the hospital pretty soon. His parents live about 20 minutes away plus both his brother and sister were in town visiting.

Brett called his brother (didn’t answer), called his sister who answered and woke up Brett’s mom and brother. Meanwhile we packed the last minute bag items and I got dressed. My brother-in-law came over super quickly (I think it was around 2am?) and we literally left when he came in, I had one contraction in the kitchen and felt super nauseous so we grabbed some plastic bags just in case. I had another contraction when I got into the car, had two or three on the drive which is about 7 minutes. As I’m looking back at timing, these were all so close together and very intense!

We got into the hospital parking lot and were able to park on the 3rd floor, labor and delivery is on the 4th floor but the walkover path from the parking garage to the hospital is on the 2nd floor. I had a contraction as I got out and threw up afterwards. Glad I brought a plastic bag! I joked that I wished we could order the epidural from the parking lot.

We made the long walk to the labor and delivery floor, I had contractions along the way so it was a slow trek. We got to the check-in desk and I couldn’t even finish the sign-in sheet. I could not talk through contractions at this point. It was about 3am.

The first nurse we encountered had curly hair, was super sweet and very attentive. She was already telling me that I was doing great managing through contractions which was exactly what I needed to hear because by this point, I was having a tough time staying grounded. She asked me to go to the bathroom to empty my bladder and it was so hard to even sit on the toilet. Standing, swaying and vocalizing was the only way I could get through the contractions. We got to the triage room and I couldn’t bring myself to sit down, I asked if she could put my monitors on standing up (bless her!). So she shimmied the monitors on but I had to sit down for a cervical check. It was so uncomfortable to sit, felt almost physically impossible, and the actual check was extremely painful. Hallelujah, I was at 7cm stretched to 8cm already! Brett and I looked at each other in shock, I wanted to cry I was so happy that I was able to stay home and labor on my own so long. The nurse asked about pain management and I asked for an epidural pronto, but I first asked her if I was in active labor. She replied with a resounding “uhhh YES!”.

She took us to our labor room and I was hooked up to fluids while we waited for anesthesia. Contractions were intense and I felt nauseous at the end of each one. The anesthesiologist came in pretty quickly and started preparing, I had a few contractions while sitting on the bed waiting for him to start and with the last one before he actually started – my water broke! It was the weirdest sensation, like a pop and flood of fluid in the middle of a super intense contraction where baby was moving all around. I said “OH, my water just broke!” and the nurses replied with “Awesome!” and grabbed big pads to put under me to catch the fluid and check color. It was clear, good sign! The epidural went in without incident. The anesthesiologist was a senior resident and seemed very calm and precise.

He let me know it would take about 15 minutes to kick in and inside I was panicking because I knew that meant at least 5 more contractions before I felt relief. Little did I know, it wouldn’t kick in until I was complete and ready to push!

At this point, I’m going through the transition phase of labor while laying in bed which was the most difficult part of the whole labor journey. I could cope much better when I could stand, brace myself on something and then sway. Another nurse called in for a check because she said she noticed I was bearing down with the last couple contractions and thought I may be ready to push. She was absolutely right! I couldn’t believe it. It happened so quickly! My epidural still wasn’t working so anesthesiologist came back and said we could wait or he could go in and do it again, but assured me it was perfect placement. I said I did not want another since it was time to push anyway. Axel was still a bit higher up than they’d like though so we waited through a couple contractions and then started trying to get him to move down by doing practice pushes.

At 4am the epidural FINALLY kicked in when I started pushing which I’m sure affected my efficiency but I was so thankful to be able to relax a bit, as weird as that sounds! So the next 2 hours we turned on some music, pushed with each contraction, and chatted with the nurses. It was such a calm and happy environment. 

After an hour and a half of pushing, Brett and I started to get a little discouraged but I tried to stay positive. We switched up the music to something more upbeat. I tilted my pelvis in a different way and sat back a little more so I could really curve around the baby to push. With those small adjustments, something changed. I felt A LOT more pressure and the nurse started calling people in, I knew it was getting close but truly couldn’t believe this was happening!

The nurses and doctor started telling me that this was the point of no return, Baby was coming out vaginally. Up until that point, I still had that fear in the back of mind that this could end in another c-section. When they assured me that baby was coming NOW it really gave me motivation. I moved him down more and more with each contraction. They had me cough to “lock” him in place and I felt so much pressure it was unreal. Then with one final push his head came out, then his body and he was immediately put on my chest. He was squishy, wonderful and looked just like Winnie.

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To this day, that is still the best moment I’ve ever experienced in my life. 6:16am on June 13, 2019, if I close my eyes I can go right back to that moment and exactly how everything looked, sounded, smelled. I was crying the happiest tears and was so shocked at what had just happened!

My body did it, Axel was here (all 8 pounds 11 ounces!) and we brought him earth-side.