for those of you interested in the birth story
it's a little bit lengthy, but i wanted to make sure i got it all down for my own personal records
enjoy!
I, like most pregnant women I imagine, always envisioned how and when I
would go into labor. For the most part I imagined myself feeling mild
contractions, getting progressively worse throughout the day, and then finally
telling Nick when the pain was bad enough and the contractions were close
enough that we needed to go to the hospital.
Right? Isn’t that what happens with most people? The stories I have
heard from friends who have had babies are slightly different variations of
this idea, so I thought that’s how I would be. But I was wrong!
Tuesday November 6th was Election Day. I had a good day at
work, stopped by the polls around 6pm to cast my vote and came home. Everything
was normal. I had a good night’s rest and only got up once in the middle of the
night to pee! Score!
I woke up LATE (lame) for work Wednesday November 7th and
when I went to pee, I felt the tiniest little *GUSH*. Well, I had had this
happen before and they told me it was just pee and totally normal so I didn’t
think anything of it. I took a quick shower and grabbed breakfast. Before I
left I felt another little *GUSH* which had me thinking “hmmmm” but still not
too worried and then I even had a contraction.
Before this contraction I had never felt one before, not even any
Braxton hick contractions…so I really didn’t know what a contraction was
supposed to feel like. Everyone kept telling me that it would feel like bad
period cramping, so that’s what I looked for.
In this moment I had a serious problem on my hands. Is this a
contraction? Am I going into labor? Is it false labor? If I don’t leave right
now for work I’m going to be REALLY late. Do I chance driving all the way out
to San Tan Valley if I’m really in labor? I didn’t want to bail on my employers
if I wasn’t truly going into labor and “cry wolf”.
I determined that I felt ok. I woke up Nick saying “My water might have
broken…I might be having contractions…but I’m going to be late for work. Stay
by your phone so I can keep you posted”
10 minutes down the road and I still felt fine. 15 minutes down the
road I started having more contractions that were becoming more and more
painful. I thought, “I should start timing these” and I kept driving. 20
minutes down the road I felt another *gush* and at this point I was pretty sure
my water had broken. Contractions were coming every 5 minutes and were lasting
about 1 minute. I finally decided to pull into a QT in Queen Creek and call
someone. At this point the pain was UNBELIEVABLE!
Nick wasn’t answering his phone and the only person I could get a hold
of was my dad. He told me to stay at the QT and have Nick drive out to queen
creek to get me. I thought “there is no way I’m going to sit here and wait
40-50 minutes while Nick gets dressed and gets out here and then another 30
minutes to the hospital” I couldn’t get a hold of Nick anyway.
I called my work and told them what was going on and then called my
mother-in-law so she could go wake up my husband to meet me at the hospital and
I started to drive back towards mesa. At this point my contractions were
painful, but I could still drive. My plan was that if they got too bad I could
always park my car on the side of the road and call an ambulance if necessary.
I was still timing my contractions and now 25 minutes away from the
hospital they were 2 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute. I started to panic a
little bit knowing how close that was. My mom finally called me back and said
she was going to call my Dr and meet me at the hospital.
I got myself to the hospital, but now I was frustrated with the idea
that I had to park my car and walk myself up to the hospital. I saw a parking
space not too far from the entrance and thought it was a distance I could
handle. I got out my car and my water just poured out of me. It really does
feel like you peed your pants, lol.
I hobbled my way to the front entrance where I told the nice ladies
that my water had broken. They hurried me into a wheelchair and wheeled me into
a tiny check in room. The lady was asking me all sorts of annoying questions. I
wanted to say, “um, can you speed this up a little? I’m kind of in the most
severe of pains at the moment!”
They got me into a triage room and asked me to change into a robe.
Still more water was just flowing and flowing out, I could hardly move from
pain. They checked my cervix and I was 100% effaced and 4 cm. Then they started
asking me the same annoying questions as the lady before.
I was definitely begging for my epidural at this point. I have so much
respect for women who choose to go through labor without an epidural because
that pain was too excruciating for me to bear. They finally wheeled me into the
room to get my epidural and the nurse anesthetist did AMAZING! I felt it go in,
but not painful at all. It also might have had to do with the fact that I was
already in so much pain…
Once the epidural hit, I was golden. I could still move my legs and
feel lots of pressure, but the racking contraction pains were gone and it was
amazing. I was checked again and now I was at 9 ½ cm dilated. The nurse seemed
surprised that I had progressed so quickly and told me we were going to start
pushing.
I started pushing at 11:20am and at 12:40pm our baby boy was born. Very
fast, I know! My mom was in labor for 32 hours with me and then she had to have
a c section anyway, so I feel very lucky everything went so smoothly for me.
It was such an amazing feeling to go through all of the pain, the pushing,
and the work and have a child in my arms at the end of it. Babies are such a
miracle and I still can’t get over the fact that I have created life and that I
have been entrusted with one of our Heavenly Father’s spirit children.
We love our baby boy, and even though this first week home was…hard, it
has been so worth it. Being a mother is the best thing in the world
