The Birth

"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world."

~ John 16:21

Well, I'm not sure I've completely forgotten the anguish part, but it is waning. Labor was quite an experience. I took the classes, read the articles and books about what to expect, but when it finally came, I don't think I was truly ready for it. I hadn't had any contractions, no Braxton Hicks...nothing - and here I was 4 days past my due date. And then it came - I went from nothing to OMG, this is labor! It came on so quickly, and yet lasted so long. Spoiler alert - there is a happy ending to this story...a beautiful baby boy that came 28 hours after contractions had started.

Tuesday, January 18th

5AM: Awoke with what I could only describe as stomach pains and figured, hmm, these may be contractions. But, maybe I just had an upset stomach? Tried to get some rest but told David I wondered if I was starting labor. The pains were much closer together than what I figured the start of contractions would be though, so perhaps this was Braxton Hicks? Oh well, I guess we'd have to wait until my 10:45am appointment with the doctor to find out.

10:30AM: Headed to the doctor's office for my appointment. Had still been having relatively "mild pains" every 2-4 minutes the entire morning. Hadn't eaten anything but a cracker. Was hoping the doctor would tell us something about what was going on. Was this labor? Was I even dilated? Prior to this appointment I had been almost 70% effaced, but no dilation. Surely, these pains meant I was a bit further along. Doctor's check showed I was almost 100% effaced, but only a finger tip dilated. He did think that perhaps it would happen in the next couple days though.

I left a bit confused and worried, because the contractions kept coming every couple minutes and I wasn't sure I could handle this for a couple days!!! If this was false labor it better stop soon because it was really starting to hurt. I mean, where were the 5-10 minute apart contractions?...I thought that's how things usually got started. Oh well, no such luck.

2:20PM: Had been timing my contractions for an hour and they were still an average of about 2.5 minutes apart and were very uncomfortable. David was starting to worry at this point - wondering if this was normal. Called the doctor's office and got permission to go to the hospital. I honestly felt elated!

3:00PM: Arrived at the hospital and got checked in. They put me on a monitor and did a check. I was now 1.5 cm dilated. Good - at least some progress in the last 4-5 hours, but slow going. The nurse could tell I was very uncomfortable and she guessed I would be admitted and sent to labor and delivery shortly. I was having a lot of pain with each contraction, still coming about 2 minutes apart. I was feeling it mostly in my back and down my thighs (sciatic nerve perhaps?). They wanted me to try to walk around, but I just couldn't with the thigh pain being so intense. I did sit up as much as possible though.

5:00PM: I think around this time (times from this point on become a bit of a

blur) we got moved to the labor and delivery room. My mom was on her way and my friend Sonja dropped by to see me as well. It was nice to have a little distraction between contractions, which continued to be close together and very painful in my hips and thighs.

Since my contractions had started 10 hours ago, and at last check I was only about 2cm dilated, I was beginning to get very concerned about my ability to handle labor long term without an epidural. I was never against an epidural, but I had initially hoped to wait until I was about 5cm. But at this point, with the slowness of the progression, that would be around midnight at the earliest - meaning I'd have had contractions about 2 minutes apart for 18 hours. I wanted to get to at least 3 cm, so I waited a little longer and got a shot to assist with some pain relief. The shot really didn't help do anything much but relax me a little more in between contractions.

6:30ish? Mom arrives. David I think was the most happy to see her...Sonja as well (Sonja told me after the fact that she felt like if my mom hadn't come she would have had to stay to assist David, who was having a hard time watching me in pain and not being able to do anything about it.)

8ish? I was at 3cm at this point and the doctor and everyone agreed the best course was the epidural. Otherwise I was going to wear myself out. The anesthesiologist was contacted, but the nurse told us that an emergency

pregnancy situation had just come in and therefore there would be a delay.

9ish? No anesthesiologist yet. The nurse asked if I would like another shot while we were waiting. Those of you who know me well know I HATE needles, but at this point, I would have taken 100 shots. I was really struggling through contractions...the thigh pain was beyond intense and nothing seemed to work - no position, no breathing pattern, nothing. But I continued to breathe well through them as much as possible.

10-11ish? Finally, the anesthesiologist got to me!! I've never been more excited to see a man with a large needle in my life. I had no issue with the epidural at all...no fear...no pain during it's administration. In a couple minutes I could tell it was working. Pain level was now at 0, when it had been about an 8. Whew, now I could rest. I tried to get some sleep, as did my mom and David. I honestly think the epidural meant as much to them (and their hands that I had been squeezing the life out of) as it did to me!

Wednesday, January 19th

Middle of the night - I have no idea what time it was but at some point I awoke and realized I was feeling a little bit of thigh pain again. By the time I got the nurse and told her, the contractions had come back full force. I don't know why, but somehow I missed the part where epidurals wear off and they need to come in and re-dose. The anesthesiologist was called again, and luckily it was only around 10-15 minutes before he got in.

Wee morning hours - Here we go again...epidural was wearing off. I had to get through some intense contractions and then the doctor came in to re-dose me. I did have a panic attack shortly after this re-dose, however. After the first two doses, I could still feel my legs and have some control over them. But after this third dose, I went to roll on my side and realized I couldn't control my legs at all. Something about that just really bothered me and I started to get upset. My mom tried to talk me down and David went to get the nurse and between the two of them, I luckily got myself together. I think the emotion of the last 24 hours of labor was just really starting to get to me.

Around 7am? - I think it was around this time that the doctor came and checked me and said I was about 9cm. They broke my water at this point and said it shouldn't be long until we'd be pushing. I continued to try to rest.

9am? Dr. Bernstein (one of my favorite doctors from the practice - yay!) arrived and the baby was at +1 position. It was time to push. Part of me was excited, but the other was so nervous. I was so so tired and worried that I couldn't do it. They say first time moms sometimes have to push for 2 hours or more and I just didn't think I had that in me. I was even more nervous as I started because I could tell the nurse wasn't happy with my pushing initially. It didn't help that at about this time, once again, the epidural wore off. But then again, it may have helped after all, because I started to really push and only about 20 minutes from the start, the nurse called the doctor saying I was close.

My mindset at the time was one of disbelief. I was still almost in a panic because I just wasn't believing I was close. It was going to be another hour, I just knew it - no matter what they said.

9:37am - But, all of a sudden, there he was - a healthy baby boy - 8.46lbs, 21.5 inches long. (The nurse told me afterward that I was one of the best pushers...who knew!!)

David started crying (I don't think I had any tears left) and they laid him on my chest. I was so happy to see him - he was perfect! Hallelujah! It was over. I was so so tired from the past 28 hours. I just remember asking everyone if he was okay and seeing David hold him and bathe him. His APGAR scores were great...9 and 9.5 and he was so darn cute.

Despite a long long labor, it was a very healthy labor. I didn't have any interventions like Pitocin and there was never a time when the baby was stressed. While I would wish for a shorter labor next time, I certainly can't complain since there were absolutely no complications whatsoever.

Jackson is doing great. When we brought him home he was a bit jaundiced, but he's fine now... eating well, sleeping pretty well too. Mom is getting some rest and enjoying being home with her little man. Dad is over the moon and so so helpful with everything. The puppies are doing wonderful with him as well. They just want to lick him and be near him. We couldn't ask for more! David and I feel so blessed to have this beautiful gift from God - our firstborn son.