My daughter almost birthed herself

Finally took the time to write my birth story, 2 weeks later lol.

My due date was October 4th & of course I was told if I didn’t go into labor by then I’d be induced the following week which I didn’t want to do. So once October came I started walking & drinking ginger tea (no sex, it was WAY too painful) I’m pretty impatient so when I didn’t get immediate results I was slightly upset lol.

Anyways, my maternity leave was scheduled to start on the 4th. So on the 3rd I was at work counting down until the end of my shift because I was so ready to take a break from working. My lunch was scheduled for 5:30 pm. Around 5 pm I felt a small gush of liquid leave my body & I instantly started to get a little nervous. I went to the bathroom & saw my panties were wet so I knew I wasn’t imagining things.

I decided to actually use the bathroom while I was there & when I wiped I discovered I had lost my mucus plug. I began to kinda panic internally because I’m starting to think my water broke. I leave work early, go home, & call the hospital to see what I should do. They tell me to come in & they’ll check to see if my water really did break.

I get to the hospital & they have this thin strip of paper that’s supposed to turn green when it touches my water. The nurse tried rubbing it against the pad I put on earlier but got nothing. She then says she has to go inside of me, & she cannot use any type of gel because it would affect the test strip.

That. Shit. Hurt.

Like I said before, sex was painful at that time & having her put half her hand in there was even worse. & the paper still didn’t change. So she said she’d wait an hour & try again. Still nothing. So they sent me home & told me to come back when I either have contractions or a more steady leak of fluid.

I get home & try to relax/go to sleep. This was around 8 or 9. At some point I start having contractions but I don’t remember when. They started in my lower back & would move up to the front. Around 4 am my water actually broke. I went to the bathroom to change my pad & I also looked over the app I was using to time my contractions & noticed they lasted about a minute & were about 5 minutes apart. So after some thought & another contraction I decided I should go back to the hospital.

The nurse couldn’t get a sample from my pad again 🙄 (damn it why is the always brand so absorbent) so she has to go inside again but praise God the strip turned green this time. So I get an IV & they move me to a labor room.

Now things get interesting.

I went the first 10 hours of labor without any medicine. After that I opted for a pain medicine via IV because the pain was so bad I almost couldn’t breathe. Once they started that I was in & out of sleep for a few hours until I woke up to terrible back pain at which point I requested the epidural, & they also gave me some pitocin to speed things up.

Oh sweet relief. Modern medicine is amazing. I felt nothing.

I have no idea what time it was at this point but I think it was sometime in the evening (or maybe afternoon, idk I was pretty ‘high’ from the medicine lol) but anyway, one of the nurses decided to check my cervix. Low & behold I was a whopping 1 cm dilated. & I stayed that way until about 12-1 am October 5th, one of the nurses checked me again & actually spread my cervix to 3cm. At that point my family had all left because we all thought she wasn’t going to come anytime soon. Around 2 am my fiancé also left to grab some clothes & I decided to take a nap.

At 3 am a nurse came in to adjust the monitor for my baby’s heart. After having trouble finding it she decided to check me. Smart woman. I don’t think she got her whole finger inside when she said, “Oh, she’s right there.”

Me: What? Like right where? What do you mean?

Nurse 1: Did you have family that you wanted to call?

Me: Yea but they all live about 15-20 minutes away.

N1: Okay that’s fine I think we’ll be able to wait.

So I start texting everyone & 3 other nurses come in.

N2: Bear down for me

Me: .... Like push?

N2: Yea

So I push for not even 5 minutes, & at 3:06 am I give birth to my daughter, with only 4 nurses in the room. My doctor was doing a C-Section at the time. My fiancé & his mom walk in like 3 minutes later. & my mom shows up 5 minutes after that.

Everyone was shocked she came when she did & felt bad for leaving but I honestly don’t care that I gave birth alone. I really just felt bad for them because they missed it.

But anyways, here’s my daughter, Mekhia Alexis Smith. 6 lbs. & 15 oz. 21 inches long. Last 2 pics is her at 2 weeks old. 💞