3. Hour. Labor 🤯

I am blessed to have a sleepy, happy baby on my hands right now so I don’t have to wait long to tell my birth story! It’s a long one so I’ll separate it into ***night before*** and ***day of*** parts.

Beckett Reed was born in a flash of lightening around 4:50 am this morning 6/9/18. He weighed in at 7 lbs and 20.5 inches long.

******NIGHT BEFORE BIRTH******

I was 38+2 yesterday and had my weekly BPP ultrasound and OB appointment. At my appointment, baby looked awesome on the US. I was scheduled for an induction for gestational diabetes this coming Wednesday so I asked the dr all about it and what I could do to try to induce labor at home before then to avoid an induction. He stretched my cervix but did not do a sweep of my membrane since I was only at a 2 for dilation.

Later that evening my husband and I did the deed since is heard that the prostaglandins in sperm can help you get closer to labor. Well, it had been a LONG time since we had done anything because I broke my leg around 34 weeks pregnant and had to have surgery to repair the damage. Needless to say, there were plenty of prostaglandins to get things going, haha.

After we did the deed I went to relax in the tub. I was having some period like cramps but they were so inconsistent that I didn’t figure they’d amount to anything. I went to bed and managed to sleep for about an hour before the cramps were strong enough that they woke me up.

********DAY OF BIRTH**********

I started timing my contractions and they were already 5 minutes apart and had become consistent. I decided I’d only time them for 30 minutes since my first baby was born pretty quickly (I was at a 6 when I got to the hospital with him, and he was born 7 hours later)

I woke up my husband and we drove the 15 minute drive to the hospital. On the way there between contractions I jokingly said I hoped that I didn’t get there at an 8 this time and immediately have the baby. Well, after checking in at triage I got my cervix checked and I was at a 7 😬 They said they need to move fast to get my epidural done because I was progressing so quickly.

They took my blood and ran it to the lab for testing so I could get my epidural. Apparently they have to make sure your platelet count is good before they can do anything so you don’t bleed out trying to get the epidural.

They moved me down the hall to a delivery room. My contractions were getting much stronger by this point. My labs didn’t end up coming back in time because about an hour after being admitted to the hospital I had a horrendous contraction that seemed to last forever and blew the roof off of every other contraction I’d had. That was the one where I screamed and my water broke.

I knew I was in trouble then and wouldn’t be getting my epidural 😭 As soon as my water broke I told my husband the contractions were going to start hitting closer together and harder. Before I could finish my sentence, another one hit me and I started saying I had to push.

The nurses had stepped out to get the dr. When they came back in they got me into delivery position, checked me, I was at a 10 and they said the baby’s head was right there. No time for any pain medicine or epidurals at all.

Y’all my world was shattered. An epidural was literally the ONLY thing on my birth plan. I was terrified, absolutely horrified at the idea of giving birth naturally. I just couldn’t fathom the pain and assumed I was going to hemorrhage and bleed out. The dr saw the panic in my face and tried to calm me down but I was at a point of no return.

I couldn’t control my body, the urge to push was so strong. My mind was saying HECK NO there’s still time, get me my epidural...but on the next contraction I was pushing 😭 Literally no control over it. The only way I can describe it is to say that the urge to push was like the urge to keep vomiting or heaving after you start to throw up. It’s just something that keeps happening even if you try to stop it.

The dr was trying to reign me back in and after the first push I felt the baby come down the birth canal and his head come out. The dr put his hand on top of me and baby’s head and told me to stop but it was like one long contraction and I split it into two pushes. The second push I felt a lot of bumpy parts coming out of me so I assume it was the shoulders and the rest of the body following. It was so strange. Then delivering the placenta 🤢 After it came out I said omg gross. It felt like a huge blood clot!

It was all a blur but only 9 minutes after my water broke, our son was born naturally without any pain management. He came out in two pushes one hour after getting to the hospital. Miraculously I had no tearing at all and didn’t need any stitches. I did have a lot more blood than they were happy with so they had to come in and put 4 pills into my hiney that stopped the heavy bleeding problem.

My contractions started at 1:45am and he was born at 4:50am a whopping 3 hours of labor.

Never have I ever had so much pain. My husband told me later that I screamed the F word pretty loudly. Yeah, I have no recollection of that 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

Anyways, if you’re still with me...next time around I will have a camper set up in the hospital parking lot starting at 38 weeks so I’m here and ready! I NEVER EVER wanted to do a natural birth and it still seems a little bit like a nightmare. But every time I look into this little boys face I fall more in love.

He has slept great, nursed like a champ and barely made a peep. Here’s to hoping his delivery is the least calm thing he ever does!

Last bump picture. 38+2 @ L&D;

3 short (but oh so very long) hours later

Meeting brother

Snuggling mommy