March baby 6 days late - birth story!

Guess I’m joining the April group!

My little guy was due 3/26. I had a scheduled induction for 4/2. Last night I was feeling really annoyed that I was still pregnant so I said screw it, Dreamtheather is in town tonight, let’s go to a concert (it is a seated concert). I had some pink discharge in the afternoon but it was not a sign as far as I was concerned, put on a of and went to the show. It was awesome! But during I felt some contractions, nothing consistent at all and they didn’t hurt very bad. I had some pink in the pad.

We parked 6 floors up in the parking garage and didn’t realize there was an elevator so I climbed down and up those stairs.

As soon as I got home I went to the bathroom, and pink water came out of me. Just a little at first, but I hopped a little and more came out. Soon enough it was leaking with each word and laugh and movement. My husband and I were super frazzled and excited and got the bags together, fed the pets, and I decided we should just go to the hospital because I was already getting some contractions.

In the car we were laughing all thrilled about how this had happened and I got a bad contraction...suddenly I was like “omg I’m scared...”

We made it to the hospital and checked in to L&D. Put us in a triage room and when I got into the gown there was so much dripping out of me that the lady said “let’s just put you in a delivery room”. The contractions were really hurting and I began to feel pretty scared. I had to wait for one to pass to even walk to the room. When we got in there it hit me that I’d have to have a baby in that room!

They checked me, 3cm. Contractions went from 5 minutes apart to 3-4 minutes apart, crazy since they only started 30 minutes before. They specifically hurt my whole lower back, like a shark was clamping in my pelvis, and lots of pressure in my butt. I asked for the epidural right away and they said I had to go through an IV bag first so I had enough fluids to not drop in blood pressure. That was really the hardest part, most painful, kudos if you do unmedicated because I was dying. My husband rubbed my back when contractions came but my biggest thing was feeling sick when they came, out of control feeling. No way I could sit would help but lying back hurt worse. Breathing didn’t help and I was annoyed with the nurse trying to tell me how.

Finally epidural man arrives, and they say he’s quick. My husband had to leave the room. They had my hunch over a pillow and I hastily signed some consent form, and it didn’t really hurt except for the “bee sting” of it going in. Whatever, hook me up!!

Unfortunately it took a lot to get that epidural the way I wanted. It immediately took effect but it wasn’t strong enough. My legs felt more antsy than anything and I could move them so I just spent all the time squirming before I finally asked for a boost. I also had pain in my contractions although they weren’t the panic pain I had before. I told the nurse, how the hell do people sleep through these? I’m so uncomfortable. They boosted me 4 times before the epidural guy returned and gave me another dose, thank goodness that did the trick. Suddenly my legs were totally immobile and it was funny when they had to flip me because I was a mega dead weight. My leg slid off the bed once and that felt weird. But now all I felt was mega butt/vagina pressure which I managed to sleep through for a few hours. I probably got 2 hours of broken sleep and then it was morning so I was ready to go. The butt pressure was getting to be like...I’m gonna poop. They checked me and I was at 9. And hour later my doctor arrives and I start asking if I can push because the contractions were so pushy feeling. I was at a 9.5 ish and they just said ok, let’s do it. My husband was all groggy from sleep and was like “woah, this is happening now?”

I was pretty excited until we got started. Omg pushing is hard! Too much being told to me at once. Knees to chest, curl inward, deep breath and hold it, poop with all your might for 10 seconds. It’s harder than it sounds. Three pushes each contraction and I felt like puking afterwards due to squishing my belly and holding my breath, seriously I hated the holding breath part. They wanted me to close my eyes and i kept getting fixated on a mirror they had on the ceiling. We started to see a vague purple thing in the opening of my vagina and they’re like “that’s the head!” And I think both me and my husband were like...why is it purple and so small? But we didn’t speak it. I was sooo mad because every set of pushes it would show the purple head a little and then after the contraction the head would go back and hide. I thought i wasn’t making any progress even though everyone else said I did. Finally I was close enough for the doc to come in and suddenly the room was filled with people. I wasn’t so sure that this would be happening any time soon, but there were ladies with a big thing of hot water and a big blue plastic thing under me and I had a mild panic attack about my doc bringing out scissors, I was like “what are those for???” And she’s like “to clip the cord”. Phew. Now I’m in the stirrups like a movie but I seriously don’t feel like it’s gonna happen. The pushes SUCK now, I can get his head half out and that’s that ring of fire people talk about but I thought that was just as baby is coming out! Not the 9 pushes leading up to and including baby coming out. I was yelling “get him OUT” when I should have been holding my breath and the nurse scolded me. Between pushes his head just kinda remained there and it burned the whole time. The worst was getting three hard pushes and burning the whole time just to fail getting him out that round and going back to waiting in pain for the best one. Finally I have just had enough of this and do the whole “get him out” yelling thing and that round of pushes I threw in one more, eyes squeezed shut. I peeked at the mirror and it looked like his head was out. Then my doctor kinda just reached in and yanked out the rest of him. The nurse said “look at your baby!” And I looked from the mirror to right in front of me and bam, there he was.

They put him on me and wiped him off and my first thought was how soft and floppy he is. It was a really intense distracting thing. I wanted to focus on so much: screaming baby in me, husband tearing up so cutely, my doctor pulling goop out of me and tugging the placenta out (none of that stuff hurt but it helped to have the baby and commotion). I bounced between cherishing the moment with my husband, unbelieving about the baby, and asking my doc about the damage. She said it’s a 2nd borderline 1st degree tear and it wasn’t bad at all, stitched it up. Meanwhile my baby has a piercing scream holy crap! They took him to weigh him and stuff and my husband followed and they cleaned up my bed and stuff. When they brought him back to me I managed to get him to latch so I guess that’s good. Then they moved us all to a recovery room. And here I am.

April 1st!! Cute birthday, can’t even be mad he was 6 days late. He’s 8lbs 2oz! It’s a boy, named Damien! 10 hours of labor, 2 of which was pushing.

I’m a first time mom and labor was hard but not once was i out of control. All my nurses were so nice and got me anti-nausea meds and upped my epidural and moved me when I felt uncomfortable. I never really read into labor stories or took a birthing class and just went for it. Everything worked out great, no pitocin, epidural worked and it wore off right after labor and I feel fine. 2nd degree tear feels stingy but ok. Peeing feels ok so far. No hemorrhaging or forceps I or any complications at all the whole pregnancy. I did not even throw up once a day in my pregnancy all the way through the end. My baby is doing great! Not bragging, just putting a positive normal experience out there to give other young first time moms a peace of mind story I guess.