It was 2 o'clock in the morning on the 4th of July when I awoke with aching contractions. They didn't feel like the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd been having lately. These were different and I knew right away that it meant something. Perhaps I was progressing now a little further than the 1cm the doctor had noted I'd dilated to at my last appointment that past Friday on the 1st. It was a little exciting, but I didn't think it could mean any more than that. I was positive this baby would be late. I was a late baby myself and I figured it being my first, that she would probably take after me.
Just the day before, my in-laws flew in from California to spend a week with us, hoping to catch the birth while they were here, of course. The baby wasn't even due until July 8th, so I thought they were coming too early and didn't think they would make it. We all went out to dinner to a Thai restaurant the evening they got here. I didn't realize that would be the last time I'd eat for a good 24 hours or more! While Mike's parents went back to their hotel to sleep, his brother and him decided to go see a movie while I stayed behind. I was exhausted after that long day of getting ready for them to come. I had done nothing but laundry all day long, cleaning house, folding and putting away baby clothes in the nursery that were piled everywhere. I didn't want the in-laws thinking we were unprepared when our baby was due any day. It was the night before the 4th and the neighborhood was alive with fireworks whistling, snapping & booming late into the night. I was having some fairly tight contractions, too, though they were more of the same Braxton Hicks ones I'd been having a lot of, so I didn't think much of them and got myself a cup of raspberry leaf "mother-to-be" tea while I went online for a bit and then decided to head to bed around 10:30ish.
The guys didn't get home until after midnight, and I was asleep by then. It wasn't until close to 2am that I awoke with the painful contractions. They felt exactly like menstrual cramps, and only got more intense as the night went on. I tried to wake up Mike after I had been feeling them occur pretty regularly several times in a row, and he just turned over muttering "sorry" as he drifted right back to sleep, thinking I was just waking him up because he was snoring. It was difficult, but I finally got him awake enough to inform him that I was having some pretty intense contractions and that we should count them. In our birthing class, we were informed that when your contractions are 5 minutes apart for an hour, you should go to the hospital. Well, mine were pretty irregular, but still frequent until about 3am. So, we kept counting them and discovered that by 4am, I'd been having the contractions every 5 minutes for a full hour, but for some reason I wasn't convinced this meant I was in labor, so I continued to count them for another hour just to be sure. By 5am, they were still 5 minutes apart, sometimes less. I got up to use the bathroom and that's when I convinced myself something was up because of the streaks of blood I discovered--another clue to labor we'd learned in the class to watch for. With a rush of adrenaline, I walked back into the bedroom to my husband and told him ever so calmly that it was show time.
I have to give Mike some credit. He was way calmer about all this than I ever thought he'd be. As if he'd done it a million times, he nodded, got up and gave the hospital a call while I jumped in the shower. I'd be darned if I was going to go into labor with un-shaved legs! Mike's brother was asleep on the couch when we left for the hospital. We informed him we'd likely be back soon, since if I wasn't actually in labor, or not advanced enough, we'd be sent home. I was certain this would be the case and expected to be back in time to start making the food for the 4th of July BBQ we were going to host in our yard that day. But I called my mom anyway to inform her we were headed to the hospital just in case.
At the hospital, the nurse on duty checked my cervix and put me on the monitor to see if I was in true labor or not. I was still only 1cm dilated and 30% effaced, but my contractions were now just 2 minutes apart. She was positive I was definitely in labor so she wasn't going to send me home until the doctor came to check me. He didn't come until closer to 9am. I was able to walk the halls with Mike to try and bring on further dilation and effacement, and then spend some relaxing time in the birthing suite jacuzzi, which was wonderful. I would have spent the whole time in there if I didn't turn into a prune! Of course our families showed up fairly early that morning and hung out in the family waiting area right outside the suite all day.
When the doctor finally came to check me after several hours, he found I was just 1.5cm. It was then brought to my attention that I could easily carry on like this, unchanged, for a good 20+ hours, as it was not uncommon for first deliveries to be so prolonged. Given the fact that I had already labored for so many hours without much progress, he told me I had a choice to let him break my water to help me progress faster, or just continue on as I was and see what happens. Scared that I was going to labor unchanged for another 20 hours, I accepted his suggestion to break my water, and he did it. It wasn't painful in the least, just slightly uncomfortable with him shoving his hand up inside me for a moment, then a gush of warm and continuously leaky fluid. I was later told that just after this, the doctor went outside the room and informed our family that we'd definitely have a baby by dinner time that night!
Hour after hour, they checked my progress, only to find it relatively unchanged. I was definitely experiencing more intense contractions as the day went on, but nothing I did seemed to be helping. I walked and walked with Mike out in the hallway, but the contractions were so difficult to get through, I wanted to fall on the floor to finish them, so we went back to the suite and I tried the birthing ball. What I found interesting was that the nurses assigned to me didn't help me labor at all. They left that job to my "birthing coach", Mike. If I needed something, they'd get it for me, but they didn't help me. My mom came in several times to be with me when Mike needed a break to eat or get a little nap. It was very strange how fast the hours went by. When 1pm rolled around, I was checked again and left completely discouraged to find I had only dilated to 2cm in a near 12 hour period! At this point, my doctor ordered that the nurse start me on Pitocin to speed up my contractions and get me dilating. Knowing this would cause more intense pain, I finally broke down and decided to accept the epidural my nurse had been pushing on me for the last several hours. She told me that since I was so tired and had been up all night, the epidural would help me get some much needed rest for the delivery and I could progress faster if I was relaxed. I was so tired, and I believed her. I was really having trouble relaxing through the contractions as they seemingly took over my entire body. Once I accepted the epidural and had resorted to the idea that I would soon be pain free, we were informed that the anesthesiologist who could administer it was currently in surgery doing a c-section on another patient and I would have to wait for another hour or so before he could come! I honestly don't know where I found the strength to do it, but I did--probably because there was really no other choice. I was now in bed, being constantly monitored and just curled up on my side, closed my eyes and tried to shut out the rest of the world until he got here.
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| Before Epidural |
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| After Epidural |
After the anesthesiologist finally came and administered the epidural into my spine, it was a whole different experience! It was 2pm and I had been in labor for exactly 12 hours when he showed up. It took a few minutes before it came, but sweet relief finally hit me and I felt like I could breathe normally again instead of using all the labor breathing techniques from the birthing class. It was wonderful except for one tiny little thing: it only numbed one side of my body. The other half was left only partially numbed, but I didn't complain. All I needed was a little edge off and I could function. With the relief, I was able to sleep some. Even though I could still feel the contractions, the felt more like the practice contractions I'd been feeling over the past several weeks of pregnancy, and those were just tightenings of the uterus, nothing more. Now, the hours went by much quicker, and every hour I was checked, I was a centimeter further dilated. It was kinda funny how the centimeters matched the hour, too. Like at 2pm, I was 2cm, etc. It went on like that all the way until after 8pm when I started to feel a lot more pain on my right side that was suddenly unaffected by the epidural. At that time, I had just about every kind of wire and tube hooked up to my body and I felt like I was in the ICU or something. It was such a different picture of labor than the one I had imagined for so long. The painful contractions were back, I was shaking uncontrollably and there was nothing we could do about it except move on because when they checked me, I was completely dilated!
When the nurse called the doctor and told me it was time to push, I was shocked. Nothing prepared me for that moment. I was resigning to the silent idea that I would probably end up in the operating room because of how long my labor was taking. Once the water is broken, there is a 24 hour window to deliver, and doctors won't let you go any further without taking action to get the baby out safe before infection sets in. But by some miracle, after 9 years of trying to conceive, 9 months of pregnancy and 19 hours of labor, I was actually at the end! It was time to meet my baby! I was thinking about all the birth stories I had watched on Discovery Health and TLC, etc, and could not believe that I had reached that point. Nothing prepared me for the experience better than watching all those shows because they had taught me how exactly you are supposed to push during delivery. My doctor and nurse were impressed that for a first timer, I was able to push so well and deliver so quickly. From the time that I started pushing, I delivered in under 20 minutes, and it was surprisingly the easiest part of the whole 19 hour labor period! Even though I was in intense pain (on my right side), pushing through it completely masked the pain. The moment she came out, I'd like to note, was also incredible. Not just because she was coming out, finally, but because the feeling I had when she did was one I'm sure I can't describe, but it was absolutely amazing! I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me and I could suddenly breathe again. Perhaps it was because exactly that had just happened! I was overjoyed and exhausted and completely awed all in one. I'm not sure any moment in my life can top that feeling. Even though the hospital staff, Mike and both our moms were there, to me, it was just me and this little tiny baby they just plopped onto my chest. Everything else was just a blur.
My daughter Sabina Grace was born at 9:05pm on the 4th of July, she was 19.5" & weighed 6lbs 1oz. After the birth, we watched the city fireworks go off from our hospital room window. It was literally the best day of my life. Even after the heartache from years of trying to become a parent, then all the morning sickness, uncomfortableness & trials of pregnancy, and then hours of the most intense pain you've ever felt and will ever feel in your life, it's all worth it! And yes, I'm betting I would do it all again.
