Short story
I woke up at 1:15 to use the bathroom. At 1:45 I woke up E because I could not get back to sleep and was feeling ‘odd’. I started to feel cramping and at 2:02 decided to document how frequently they came. We left for the hospital at 3:00 ish. We were checked in at 3:15. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to 10 centimeters. My water broke around 3:35. The doctor arrived and I pushed through 4 contractions. Everly Ruth was born at 3:53! 38 minutes from hospital check in to the birth of our perfect daughter.
Long Story
Everly Ruth has the best birth story…ever (ok, so I am a little biased because it is mine)! Late night I was feeling minor cramping in my back. Really, it was super light and I couldn’t tell if it was contractions or just a sore back from having a gigantic belly. I went to bed at 10:30.
I woke up early morning at 1:15 to use the restroom. I laid back in bed and just couldn’t get comfortable. I kept feeling like I had to pee. I got up again, and again, and again. Finally at 1:45 I woke up E and told him I was feeling uncomfortable, I couldn’t really lie down and I kept feeling like I had to pee but never could. Getting up and down was starting to get annoying since moving this big body was becoming more of a challenge each dayJ Then I started to really feel some tight cramping in my lower abdomen. The pains felt just like menstrual cramps and at first were not very painful but continued to increase in severity rapidly with each one. At 2:02 I told E I wanted to start documenting the timing between cramps and see how quickly they were coming. They were every 2-3 minutes, which seemed so close together that I thought for sure something was off. I thought, there is no way I am having real contractions this close this fast…it must be Braxton Hicks or some other weird cramping. The contractions started very low and the pain increased in a line up towards my belly button, with the height of the discomfort just under my belly button (which was sort of nice because I knew when I started to feel it I had a second to prepare for the more painful part). I decided to take a shower just in case we ended up going to the hospital. In the 8 minute shower I had 4 contractions. I got back to the bedroom and told E we definitely had to go to the hospital and asap…he had started to doze off again, so it took a couple minutes to get in the car. We said good bye to the little kids and told Mom that we were off to the hospital. We are so lucky that she and Teenager were visiting this weekend!!! The first 4 minutes of the drive I did not have any contractions and I thought for sure it was a false alarm. I told E I would be so embarrassed if they sent us home from the hospital…then I tried to remember all of my girlfriends who went to the hospital and got turned away and figured it was better to go and check than to stay home. It would be ok either way.
The contractions kicked up again and continued to come hot and heavy every 2 minutes. I am so lucky that my contractions are not terribly painful, they literally felt like really strong period cramps and were so specifically located directly in the center of my stomach from my lower abdomen to just below my belly button. We only hit one red light on the 10 minute drive and I had to tell Teenager to try not to have to stop and start up too fast. I had a contraction trying to get out of the car. I had a contraction in the elevator. I had a contraction in the waiting room…I saw the nurse in the corner of my eye and I couldn’t walk for a minute and made her and E wait til the contraction was over (again, in my head I thought, I hope I am not standing here bent over looking like an over dramatic pregnant mom and they are going to send me home!).
Here is the list of contraction times, I just think this is sort of cool to have it documented.
2:08, 2:10, 2:14, 2:17, 2:19, 2:22, 2:24, 2:27, 2:30, 2:32, 2:35, 2:37, 2:39, 2:41, 2:44
2:47, 2:49, 2:51, 2:53, 2:55
2:58 We had just gotten in the car and the fact that it took 4 minutes to have another contraction made me think that this was not real labor-glad we didn’t turn around!
3:02
3:05
3:07 E was sweet enough to continue to write them down when we got to the hospital
3:09 This one, I was trying to get out of the car
3:11 This one, we were going up the elevator
3:14 This one, the nurse was waiting for us to check into L & D
I checked in at 3:15 and everything below happened in the next 38 minutes.
She checked me in, I went to the restroom and changed into a couture gown (psych, I mean super unflattering hospital gown that I could not tie by myself, and E got a good laugh out of having to help me!) I laid down and the nurse checked me. In my head, I was really hoping to be dilated to a 6, but thought realistically I may be at a 2. I took a long time to dilate with Teenager. She looked shocked and said, “You have a nice bulging bag of water!” I said I had no idea what that meant and asked if I was dilated at all. She said I was dilated to a 10! A 10!
She and the other two nurses could not believe it and then things really started to go quickly. They called to another nurse to call the doctor in now, that made me really feel like things were going fast. They don’t usually call the doctor til the last possible minute or time to push. A nurse ran to E and got all of our paper work done, although I swear, I pre-registered ten weeks ago! A nurse came in to put an iv in my arm, and I was not too thrilled to be getting stuck. She tried and missed, and my vital signs went all wonky. After she pulled out, they normalized again, but i was not having any more of that. I told them that E was the only person i was going to let try again. E did it perfect, and talked me through it (since having my port inserted for chemo, and having the guidewire break off, i have had issues with catheters going into my veins) and kept me grounded. Another nurse started getting the baby station ready. Another nurse brought in all of the delivery stuff-crib, linens, disposable wet mats. My nurse was describing what would probably happen next. There were two options. 1-my water would break and the baby would drop immediately and I would want to start pushing. 2. My water would break and my cervix would sort of close up and I would have to dilate a little bit again. I asked if an epidural was possible and she said no in the first case, maybe in the second case. We didn’t have much time to talk about it because about 4 minutes, 2 contractions later, my water broke (around 3:40am). All hubbub broke loose because there was meconium in it. Two more nursery nurses ran in since there might be complications with the meconium.
The doctor arrived a minute later and I started to have the urge to push. E was great, getting me water and talking to me about getting to meet our baby soon. My doctor said I could start pushing. I pushed 2 to 3 times through 3 contractions. Everly’s heart rate dropped and the doctor called for a vacuum. She told me that the baby needed to come out on the next contraction (maybe she didn’t really say that, but that is the impression that I got). I pushed 4 times on the last contraction and there she was! Her legs were crossed and E and I were so anxious to know if she was a girl or a boy. E said he saw her face first and he knew she was a girl. From my angle all I could see was torso and crossed legs. I was so excited to learn that I had another daughter! She went to the nurses at the baby station to make sure she did not ingest any meconium. She was quiet for a short while (it felt like forever to me), but finally gave a healthy cry. Her apgar at 1 minute was a 5 and went up to a 8 at 4 minutes. I got to hold her first and she is absolutely beautiful!
E was such a phenomenal rock during this entire, rushed process. We barely had time to think and everything just happened at once. We are so thrilled to be home and start our life as a family of 6!
