Per request here is my birth story. It was a bit of a whirlwind, so there aren't many emotions to describe because I didn't have time to feel them.
Just know that I didn't get to sleep until 3am that night, because my adrenalin rush was so high.
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For me it started Thursday June 11th. At 10am I had my doctor’s appointment. I was interested to see if I had dilated any more, because the previous 3 visits I had dilated to a 2, then a 3, then a 3.5. When she checked me I was dilated to 4cm and about 70% effaced. She said it was too early to induce because she didn’t want the baby to have respiratory problems. But she did stretch out my cervix to see if it would get the prostaglandins producing.
I headed to a funeral where I saw my mother and my sister, and told both of them that I thought something was happening, but didn't know for sure. The contractions were noticeable, but they still just felt like the Braxton-Hicks contractions I had been having the previous months, just more often and they didn’t go away.
Well, the contractions continued all day, something they hadn’t done before. So that night, Matt and I were driving across town and I figured, ‘Hey, let’s time them just for fun.’ Some were 5 minutes apart, some were 8, some were 10 or more. So we figure, definitely not regular. I’ve heard of women where this went on for weeks, so I figure no rush. They continued all night and I figured if I could sleep, then it wasn’t labor. And I slept great.
The next morning, Friday June 12th, I got up and made the Mint Oreo Truffles for Matt’s work picnic. I felt a few contractions, but not very many. I went ahead and went to work. I called my mother on the way to see what her thoughts were, and she said, it sounds like you’ve got something going on, but it could still be days. I thought days would be more likely because I was really hoping to have the baby early, which of course would mean that I wouldn’t… because of Murphy’s Law.
At work, they contractions continued. I felt that these contractions were more of all over as opposed to the Braxton-Hicks contractions where sometimes it felt like only part of my uterus would be contracting, not the whole thing.
Well, after completing a few tasks, and cleaning off my desk (just in case). I decided that if I was in labor, I definitely did NOT want to be at work. So at 12:15ish I left work and headed to Matt’s department’s picnic.
There I ate a hamburger (something I was amazed that sounded good, because I have thrown up every non-restaurant hamburger that I have eaten this whole pregnancy), well only half of a hamburger, because the homemade pizza was far more phenomenal that I expected…. so I ate 2 pieces of that instead.
After hanging out for about 30 minutes, the contractions felt a little stronger, but still not painful, just uncomfortable. I tried to fake it and act pleasantly happy, but they were strong enough, that I wanted to go home. I told Matt that if this continued, I’d want to go to the hospital tonight. He said, “Great!” So I headed home, but Matt stayed and played volleyball for a little bit longer.
On the way home, just after 2pm, I called my mom to see what she thought. Not sure what all powerful knowledge I expected her to have that she didn’t have that morning, but it somehow made me feel better. She again agreed that my body was getting ready, but it could still be hours or days… there is just no way to know. At this point I wanted to be hopeful, but didn’t want to get my hopes up. I was excited, but didn’t want to expect too much.
When I got home I logged on to work and finished up a few things. My co-worker had a family event, so I kinda ran out of things to do, because most of my tasks in the last few weeks were just to support her. So…. I started roughly timing the contractions. They were kinda seemed like they were 5 minutes apart. So I was grateful when Matt got home before 3pm so he could help time them.
I told him, let’s start timing these. Well, he didn’t have a stop watch and figuring out the seconds and the minutes between the contractions was becoming a pain, so he decided to write a stop watch program really quick. (Yes a computer program... we really are that geeky) Again, roughly timing contractions while he wrote his program, they seemed to be about 5 minutes apart, not exactly, but about.
After about 15 minutes he got the program working, he realized he needed to document how far apart they were, so he opened up Excel and realized that Excel can just add the times for him… so he set that up. During this time we discussed we should probably get the rest of the stuff hospital bag together, because we probably were going to go to the hospital that evening regardless, if for no other reason than just a sanity check. We were also planning to take the dogs over to Lindsey’s on our way to the hospital.
All of the sudden the contraction I was having got painful. I got down on my knees and leaned over the automan, and starting rocking my hips and breathing deeper. Well, wouldn’t you know the next contraction was 3.5 minutes later. When Matt told me this, I said, “We gotta go now.” So between a few contractions I grabbed the items on my last minute list, and the car seat. (We still had not figured out how to put the car seat in the car, so we just threw it in the trunk.)
Well, of course in our one car garage home, the truck was on the driveway, so I had a contraction, Matt jumped in the truck, I jumped in the Jetta, we swapped cars, and just in time because the next contraction came when I was moving to the passenger seat. The we headed to the hospital.
On the way I called Lindsey to tell her that we were not bringing the dogs over, because all of the sudden my contractions kicked in, and we were rushing to the hospital. Then I called my mom to tell her we were headed to the hospital, and I was consumed with emotion. Shock, excitement, nervousness, anticipation and lots of love were all inside of me. But I didn’t want to let these emotions to the surface. I wanted to maintain control of myself and keep logically thinking. And if I let emotions out, they would burst out like opening the flood gates of a dam. And I didn't think I'd be able to gain control of myself if I let that happen.
We got to the hospital at about 4pm, I walked in the door and the first thing she asked was, “Are you ok to walk?” I said yes, because I knew I could. She took our information, and sent us straight to a room, instead to triage for assessment (no one told us why, maybe I just looked like I was in labor, I’m not sure).
While Matt went to go park the car and bring our bags into the room, the nurse had me change into a hospital gown, and then lie on the bed and started asking me questions about my pregnancy. Then she checked my cervix to see how far along I was. She estimated that I was 5-6cm. Then said that my doctor just finished delivering a baby, and so she would be in shortly to check on me.
This whole time I kept waiting for someone to tell me that I really wasn’t in labor, and that I should go home. Because no one ever just said, "Yes you are in labor, and you should stay at the hospital." I know the fact that I was dilating and wearing a hospital gown should have been a clue, but I still just hadn’t heard the words, “You are in labor.” So it still didn’t feel like it was really happening.
About 20 minutes later my doctor came in and checked my cervix, I had dilated to 7cm. Then she broke my water, it just felt like warm water coming out of me. I think at this point I finally thought, well, I guess I am staying here at the hospital. But I still didn’t realize that I was full fledge into labor; I just simply thought that I had started labor. My doctor told me that she had some paperwork, and probably wouldn’t deliver me, unless I went in the next hour. But she still requested to be kept in contact for the next little bit.
Well, the contractions continually got stronger. I couldn’t believe the pain. All I could do is grab the side rails of the bed and try to breathe through it. The times when Matt was there, it helped much more. Still was really hard, but just having him there meant a lot to me. The times he wasn’t next to me was because he was calling my family, or getting me ice chips, or something else helpful.
At one point I got nauseous, and thankfully Matt listened and found garbage can. Because a few contractions later, I leaned over the bed, shoved his legs out of the way and grabbed for the garbage can. Apparently it smelled horrid, because he asked the nurses to change the bag very quickly. But the nurses were quite proud of me that I actually got it into the garbage can.
Well, as the pain got more intense I knew I could not do this for hours… it hurt just way too much. And I STILL thought I was just starting labor. So I told Matt I wanted the epidural. Being the good husband that he was, he kept double checking with me, since I so desperately wanted to do this without the pain medication. But at this point, they wouldn’t let me out of the bed, and so I just had to lie there in pain, no rocking, no movement or lamaze techniques to help me deal with it. I asked for a birthing ball, but they were taking too long to bring it. The nurse double checked with me whether or not I wanted the epidural, and I kinda wavered again. So she said, let me check you. I was dilated to 8cm at this point. I mentioned that if I was progressing this quickly there may not be time for an epidural, and my nurse said, “I’m glad you realize that.” But still, could I really be progressing THAT fast? I surely thought, no.
At this point my nurse called the doctor to let her know how quickly I was progressing, and to find out how much time the doctor wanted before they called her for delivery. The doctor said she was 10 minutes out, so have me do a practice push and then call her.
Then I’m not really sure what happened, but at some point I progressed to 9cm, and my nurse asked if I wanted the squatting bar, and I said yes. At first they didn’t put down the foot of the bed, so it was kinda tricky. But after a few contractions they put the foot of the bed down, and it made it way easier to pull myself up to the bar. I used the bar as Lamaze class had taught me. I pulled up on it, as soon as I felt a contraction starting, and then laid back down on the bed in between. I told the nurse that I didn’t need the epidural any more I just wanted to get this over with, and I felt I was progressing quickly. She agreed and told me that I was doing amazing. I told her she better not tell everybody that.
The nurse checked me and I was 9.5cm, and she told me to let her know if I felt like I needed to poop. Well, she had amazing timing because the next contraction I had that sensation, not strong, but slight. She checked me again, and said I just had a little bit of a lip of my cervix left. When the next contraction came she told me not to push, but the contraction pushed on its own. I tried not to, but the pushing urge is really strong. Well, after that contraction pushed for me, she checked me again, and I had gotten rid of the lip. She told me I could go ahead and do a practice push, but that was awkward cuz I didn’t do it with the contraction. She said I did just fine, and that we could go ahead and push with the contractions. Pushing really wasn’t that hard… it came pretty naturally, and it felt like my body did a lot of the work involuntarily. Then they called the doctor to tell her to go ahead and come.
They went ahead and removed the squatting bar, and then had me lay down, and put my legs up. Matt had my right leg, and a nurse had my left. Well, I was pushing with the contractions, and about all I could comprehend was ‘wow, that hurts’. So I just kept saying out loud, “Ow, ow, ow.” In the mean time, I had a cheering section Matt kept saying, “Oh wow!” “And you’re doing great!” (but mostly just “Oh wow!”). Then the nurse just kept saying, “The burning sensation is normal. The burning sensation is normal.” Which I was grateful for, because then I knew something wasn’t wrong, and I just continued to push as much as I could.
Well, I felt like I was making progress, but really had no idea. They asked if I wanted to touch his head, and I said “No!” I’m glad they didn’t push that, because I really had no desire, I just wanted to be done pushing.
Then all of the sudden, it felt like a relief of pressure… like something came out, and then I felt more slide out of my body. I knew in the moment that my baby was here. My heart leaped, and my eyes looked for him immediately. The nurses were holding him up in front of me, and I could touch him. But the cord was wrapped around the waist, so they had to get that untwisted, and they put him on my chest. The funny part is that they put him facing away from me, so I couldn’t even see his face. But all I could do was kiss his vernix covered head. Then someone asked me what I thought, and through the tears I told them I couldn’t see his face. So they turned him for me. I just held him, so happy that he was here, and so loving and adorable.
At that point my doctor walked in the room, and everyone told her she missed it. Well, apparently from the time they called the doctor to the time she walked in the room it was 8 minutes. So I was only pushing for about 10 minutes.
They took the baby and got him all cleaned up, and Matt went over to that side of the room and took care of the baby and took pictures. They weighed him and he weighed 6lbs 13oz, and was 19in long, and his official birth time was 5:52pm (less than 2 hours after I got to the hospital).
The doctor sat down and delivered my placenta… which just popped out, I didn’t have to do anything for that. Then I asked if I tore, and they said yes. I asked how bad, and they said it wasn’t too bad, and that it was about the most common tear. She then spent about 30-45 minutes stitching me up, because I tore diagonal and it was hard to piece together. My parents showed up at this point, and I just didn’t care who was in the room, so I said for them to come in. My mom came and held my hand while I got stitched up.
As soon as the doctor was done, and they put the bed back together, and handed the baby to me so that I could nurse.
This whole time everyone was asking what his name was. So Matt and I realized we needed to pick between the two names we had decided on months ago. He came over and asked what I thought. I told him that the name I have been thinking for the last 4 months was Reid. It is just the name that would pop into my mind each time I would think of the baby. But I didn’t know what Matt was thinking, I was so happy that he agreed. And we named him Reid Matthew.
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Here are a few pictures:
Just got cleaned up.
Later that night
1 week old , 7lbs 2oz
