The Birth Story

My birth story is pretty picture-perfect...no screaming, pain, or interventions. I went into the hospital at 10am (they were too full in the morning and my induction got pushed back from 7am), and we had to wait around another 2 hours before they started me on the IV. Dr. Cook broke my water around the same time as I got on the IV, and I was hooked up to the pit drip by 1pm. And then I just laid there and waited, and slept, and waited some more.

I was dilated to a 3 and effaced 60% when I arrived at the hospital (which hadn't changed from two weeks ago), and by 2:30pm I was just at a 4. Dr. Cook came back at 6:30pm to check me again, and I was really disappointed to hear that I was only at a 5. Dr. Cook said, "Well, it looks like nothing's going to happen until after midnight. She'll probably arrive closer to 2am." I said, "But Dr. Cook, I don't want to have this baby on the 13th! I want to have her on 3-12-12!!!" He just kind of shrugged and said it probably wouldn't happen.

Well, as most of you know, I am an over-achiever. An hour later I was talking to my mom and complaining of how nauseated I felt, and I was beginning to shake. My mom said, "It sounds to me like you're in transition." I said, "No, that's not possible. I was just at a 5 at 6:30." My mom said, "Okay, but it sounds like transition to me. I would have the nurse check you."

So I told the nurse I was feeling super nauseated, and she didn't check me. Nope, instead she gave me anti-nausea medication. Seems kind of weird now that I think about it, but I was pretty convinced I wasn't progressing very fast at the time so I wasn't too worried about it.

Around 8pm I received a text message from my friend Yvonne that said SHE was in labor as her water had just broken. She wasn't due for 4 more weeks, and so I called her immediately to see how she was doing. As we were talking on the phone, her being in labor and me being in labor, I suddenly got this very intense pain in my lower left back. It hurt like crazy! I called Greg over and asked him to roll me to the other side because my legs were numb and I couldn't move myself. He rolled me, and the pain was worse. So I asked him to roll me back to the other side, and again intense pain and no relief. I finally said to Yvonne, "I need to go call the nurse. I'm having some crazy unexplained lower back pain." I hung up, paged the nurse, and she came in a minute later. When I told her about my back pain, her face showed total surprise. She checked me, and I was at a 10 and the baby was at +2 station and ready to come out!

The problem was that Dr. Cook was delivering another baby, and so I had to wait about 15 minutes. Thank goodness that epidural was working because without it I imagine I would have been extremely uncomfortable and angry at having to wait. But I didn't feel an intense urge to push, and other than the back pain, which I tried to relieve by laying on my wallet, I was feeling okay.

Dr. Cook arrived in the room at 8:40pm. He walked in and said, "Wow, you were really serious about having this baby on the 12th, weren't you?" I said, "I told you I didn't want to have her on the 13th. And you should probably know, I'm an over-achiever." I had been bragging earlier to the nurse (which by the way, my first nurse Karen was AWESOME and I loved her, but the second nurse who took over at 7pm was not my favorite, especially seeing as how she didn't even check me when I was feeling nauseated) that I was a woodwind player and had extra strong abdominal muscles. She looked at me like I was crazy. When Dr. Cook had me all prepped to push he said, "Now I imagine you've got really strong diaphragm muscles," knowing I was an oboist because his son had played oboe in high school. I said, "Just you wait, Dr. Cook!" He laughed and didn't believe me.

The first push came, and as soon as I pushed Dr. Cook was a believer in those oboe diaphragm muscles! He said, "This baby is coming!" I pushed through about 4 contractions, and she was born. She would have been born even faster, but her heart rate dropped and he pushed her back up until she stabilized before I did the final pushing. Let me put this in perspective...Dr. Cook arrived in the room at 8:40pm and still had to do prep. Julia was born at 8:54pm. Yeah, I did not push for very long at all. Of course, it also helps when your baby is so freaking tiny and has a head in the 5th percentile!

Seriously, labor and delivery was a piece of cake. It was a very good birth experience and was much better and easier than I expected. I couldn't believe how disgusting Julia looked when she first came out, and how quickly she looked beautiful afterwards! I was worried I was going to have a blue, slimy baby for life. I had my immediate skin to skin contact, and about 15 minutes afterwards when they had cleaned her off, I breastfed her for the first time. It was a very surreal experience, and it took a few hours for me to truly comprehend this little baby was mine.

My recovery has been amazing as well. I've had no pain and have felt physically normal in a very short amount of time. Now emotionally normal is another story, but I'll save that for another post! :)