Our Birth Story

At 10 days overdue, on the morning of the 14th, Mark and I went to see my obstetrician.

As our little one was not coming on her own, the doctor decided it would be best to induce me.

She examined me and stated that my cervix was still closed, so I should go to the hospital to get the induction started.

I knew once I was in the hospital I wouldn't be able to eat, so we asked if we could go for a bite prior to going in.

She thought that would be ok... so off we went to one of our favorites, The Lazy Loaf and Kettle. I ordered a chocolate filled croissant thinking surely this was the best thing to get me through labor! Haha!

It was an odd feeling going to the hospital, calmly checking in and heading up to labor and delivery without a sense of labor.

At 12:00 pm we were admitted into triage, history taken, and examined by the nurses and doctors there.

After checking me, they said I was starting to dilate! Things were really happening! I guess this was our little girl's her perfect timing!

They wanted to move things along, so we decided to go ahead with the balloon catheter dilation. Because my cervix was tilted there was a bit of trouble placing the balloon. This was excruciating! Mark held my hand... and I did my best to breathe through it, but tears escaped me. After a couple attempts, and a lot of blood the balloon was in place. Cramping and contractions followed almost immediately.

I remember thinking to myself, "How am I going to do this?"

This was painful. Very painful.

I was scared for the pain that I knew would only worsen.

With the complications from the insertion, they wanted to keep me in the hospital. We were admitted to antepartum where I was assigned a room with another patient. Here, I would wait until a room became available for me in the labor and delivery unit.

As the balloon did its job, my contractions became regular. They came about every 4 minutes and lasted up to two minutes in length. I laid on my side, grasping the hand rails on my bed. Mark helped me breathe through each contraction and also put pressure onto my lower back as they came and went in waves.

They examined me a few times and at 4:00 pm my doctor said the catheter was ready to come out. I was told I was three centimeters and now ready to go up to labor and delivery.

Unfortunately, there were no rooms! So we had to wait.

As we waited my contractions dulled. I felt as though I was regressing. I didn't want to take drugs to bring the labor on again, so we tried everything we could to try and keep things going. We walked the hallways, did the stairs, and tried lots of different laboring positions.

Finally after all our efforts, disappointingly, my contractions stopped.

At this point I was discouraged.

With perfect timing, we got a visitor to distract me. Jessica came in and the three of us had a visit. We all laughed and enjoyed each other's company anticipating what would happen next. Mostly, Mark and Jess indulged in my delicious goodie bag of snacks I had prepared! After a couple hours Jessica was on her way home... cell phone in hand ready to hear any news when it happened!

During this time we also received lots of texts and calls from family and friends. We felt so loved and supported and felt excited by all the anticipation our little one was creating!

It was getting quite late when Mark was told he would have to go home for the night as visitors were not allowed to stay the night in the antepartum unit.

I cried.

I could not imagine being here, alone, at this point.

I remember sending a text to Shauna and immediately she responded telling me she would pray we would get a laboring room...soon.

And as an answer to prayer, within a short time frame, we did. The nurse told Mark not to leave and that we would be going upstairs shortly.

So at 12:00 midnight up we went and into a big beautiful birthing suite on the labor and delivery unit.

It all seemed so real again.

There was all the equipment for laboring and also a tiny bassinette in the corner, awaiting the arrival of our baby.

I was put back onto the monitor and my nurse assessed me and our little one.

My nurse was gentle and sweet... everything I could have dreamed of. She was supportive of my labor goals and caring in her approach. She explained everything thoroughly and was attentive to my questions and concerns.

Soon, the doctor came in to break my water. Again at my side, Mark held my hand and coached me through it. Everything went smoothly for this procedure.

What an odd sensation... and yup... painful too.

Because my contractions had stopped they wanted to start the syntocinon drip to induce labor again.

I was reluctant to start the drip as I had heard it would bring on stronger and non-stop contractions compared to most natural laboring courses. So we negotiated that if labor didn't start in an hour I would consent to the syntocinon.

So off we went, walking the hallways and trying different laboring positions again.

Disappointingly we had no luck getting them going on our own, so they started an IV and began administering the syntocinon.

As Mark had a little rest in his lazyboy, slowly the contractions started again. My nurse was excellent as she helped me work on my breathing though these first milder contractions.

Soon, they were worsening. Mark came back to my side and helped by holding a heat pack on my back and massaging through the waves of labor. They were becoming stronger and more frequent.

They checked me and I could not believe that after all this time and with all this pain I was only 4 centimeters.

At this time my nurse went on break and another nurse took her place. She was awful. She was non-supportive, condescending and lacked any compassion towards me.

I decided at this time to try the laughing gas. As hard as I tried to breath in some relief, it would not work. The nurse was so rude to me saying I wasn't doing it right and that my face was too small for the mask. It was Mark, my welder husband, who had to eventually point out she had not turned the gas on!

I used the gas, tried different positions and fought as hard as I could through my increasing contractions.

After my nurse came back from break I was having excruciating contractions. I could feel myself losing the ability to think straight and focus.

The pain was really taking over.

When they checked me again I was still only 4 centimeters, but almost fully effaced.

I know it seemed silly but because the number hadn't changed I felt discouraged. I felt like all that pain and very little progress just didn't make sense!

I battled in my mind if I was ready for an epidural. A few times I thought yes, but then held off.

I had always been told that there would be a break between contractions but for me there wasn't. I would get through one, only to face another. They were back to back and then soon overlapping.

Finally at 6 am and after almost 5 hours of hard active labor I decided that yes... I wanted the epidural.

Now.

The anesthesiologist was called and he administered my epidural. As I sat on the side of the bed, I clung to Mark's waist fighting to stay still through the contractions. My nurse held me as well and coached me through the procedure.

The drug was administered and contractions continued... but only on my right side.

So weird.

The anesthesiologist was called back again and the administration was adjusted.

Finally.

Relief.

At this point I felt rest and actually fell asleep.

As the nursing shift changed I met my new nurse. She was amazing as well. She helped Mark and I through the contractions I could still feel, even with the epidural, and started explaining what would come next.

She also kept a very close eye on my monitoring. Baby's heart rate was slowly dropping and so they wanted to watch it closely.

When they checked me again I was 9 centimeters.

What!!?! I was almost there!

I felt affirmed of my decision to have the epidural. I knew that because my body was finally able to relax, it did what it needed to do.

I felt rested, well as rested as could be expected, and was and now was ready to deliver our baby.

Time to start pushing.

As I had stopped the epidural, I could really start to feel again what was happening. My nurse coached me with my pushing. When to push, how hard to push and where to push.

With Mark by my side I pushed through each contraction.

Wow! Sooo much pain! But I kept going.

The nurse was excited when she could see hair! She showed us what she could see... dark hair and a lot of it!

It was a little bit of encouragement right when I needed it!

I was filled with anticipation and pushed even harder.

All the sudden there was a bit of panic in the room. Our little girl's heart rate was not recovering after contractions and pushing. Soon the room was full. There were 4 nurses, 2 residents, 3 neonatal team members, the attending obstetrician and two others who I don't remember what their role was. With Mark and I, that gave the room a total of 14!

They started the vacuum to change the angle of our little ones head and then removed it.

Then with two more contractions I pushed her out all on my own!

I felt very successful and proud of my pushing. I really gave it all I had.

After pushing for total of only 37 minutes, at 12:02 pm...


Our beautiful daughter was placed on my chest.

Tears of joy flooded our eyes.

She was finally here.

She was warm in my arms.

She was perfect...

 and she was ours.