I have had the privilege this week to read the birth stories of several of my friends; and now have been inspired to put mine into words as well. I’m pretty sure it was a day I will never forget, but just in case I’ll record the details here.
It started October 6th my due date- I had an appointment with Dr. Bray at 10am. My mom had just flown in the night before and was there with me at the appointment. She had to meet me there since I came from work. When checked I had no signs of progress, wasn’t dilated or effaced or anything. The Dr stripped my membranes to see if he could “get things started”. Then mom and I went out to lunch at Scott’s and I went back to work. I had the easiest job known to man so I figured I’d continue to earn money as long as I could! I made sure I emptied everything out of the office when I left that day.
That night I made fajitas and brought them to the Schneider’s to celebrate the birth of Landon Vernon who had just got home from the hospital that day. I was a bit jealous as I held their little guy in my arms and wondered how long it would be before my son was born (who at the time still did not have a name!)
Mom, Nicholas and I stayed up watching a movie that night and I was feeling increasingly funny. I was having some mild contractions, but nothing serious. Went to bed finally right after midnight. Around 3am I woke up and was definitely having contractions. They were coming strong now and pretty steady, and they weren’t pleasant! So I took a nice long warm bath. I sat in the water for over an hour. I got out of the tub and decided to walk lap around the inside of my apartment in hopes that would spur on the contractions.
October 7th- It was almost 6am before I woke up Nicholas and my mom. I was recording the time between contractions with an app I downloaded on my phone. They were consistently less than 3 minutes apart, and I was having trouble speaking through them. We went to the hospital at 7:30. I was dilated to a 2, but after walking laps around the hospital for an hour with no progress they told me to go home But they gave me a shot of morphine so I could rest, relax, and hopefully let my body get to work without any pain.
I went home and slept. Meanwhile Patty, Nicholas’ mom arrived. Nicholas had called her earlier and she literally took the next flight out of LA. Labored at home, napped, watched a movie, drank some Jamba Juice, Nicholas walked around the complex and argued about names (considering we now realized we were out of time and needed to make a final decision!) I don’t remember exactly what time we went back to the hospital, I think around 6pm. All I remember is feeling extremely uncomfortable as we drove over speed bumps and wishing Nicholas would get there faster. When we arrived they sent me straight to a labor and delivery room.
Labor went on for hours!!! I tried to pass the time in the tub, walking around the hospital, “dancing” with Nicholas, trying to relax, using the birthing ball, etc… nothing really took the pain away. It was so bad I vomited at least twice.
At midnight they checked me and I was only at a 4 or 5 (I’m already forgetting details ) I was devastated. I thought for sure with all that pain, and all that time I would have been further than that. I had been laboring almost 24 hours already and was not hooked up to any pain medication. They of course had several options: pitocin to increase contractions, epidural to take away pain, break my water, or just wait…) I opted to just wait, until 3am when I finally broke and said give me the epidural! I was afraid of having my water broken knowing it would increase the pain instantly and exponentially, and could increase the likelihood of a c-section if things failed to progress.
The epidural was amazing I went from the worst pain of my life to taking a nap I woke up in the morning feeling rested and relaxed. Since I wasn’t in pain I thought it would be nice to pass the time with a movie… however the tv wasn’t hooked up right. When the maintenance man came to fix it he let me know if the baby started coming he was out of there! the time still passed slowly and I wasn’t really progressing.
At noon I was finally fully dilated, but had no urge to push. They offered to break my water, but I was still hoping to do things as naturally as possible. I was hoping Judah would come out on his own. I asked them to turn the epidural down so I could feel when it was time to push.
That urge never came so finally a little after 3:00 we decided to go ahead and start pushing. Oh that was so painful! After pushing for a while he was finally crowning. With his head what felt like half way out the nurse said “Ok, I’m going to go get the dr now” So I waited with a partial head sticking out the most painful minutes of my life. I thought she would never get there! She had a bum foot so she was literally hobbling slowly over to the bed! A few pushes later and out came my beautiful little boy! (born at 4:28pm) They put Judah directly on my chest and he was so slippery! I was not expecting that! But he was beautiful! I was definitely crying. I was just so happy to finally meet him. I was so in love with him already. I instantly forgot about the pain. Even though there was a whole lot of stitching and cleaning up going on down below, I was completely oblivious. Judah had the craziest cone head, but a full head of hair, all 10 fingers and toes, etc… He was perfect
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