Long Detailed Birth Story (Pics at the end!)

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Marvel was due Tuesday 11th of September but stayed in and showed no signs of being ready to come out anytime soon.

On Wednesday my midwife preformed a membrane sweep and I immediately started cramping. I cramped all Thursday and by Friday had started losing little bits my of mucus plug.

Saturday morning around 4 am I started having contractions but they weren’t that painful so I went to sleep thinking that by the time I woke up it’d probably have gone away.

Saturday I wake up in pain and I felt like I really needed to use the toilet. I kept trying to poop and quickly realized I was constipated because I hadn’t gone in a week (iron pills 🙄) so I thought it was probably just constipation pain. My fiancé asked me if I was in labour and I was like I don’t know but I don’t think I am I think I just need to poop. Mind you I’m on the toilet doubled over having excruciating waves of pain still not thinking I’m in labour. So after many unsuccessful attempts to poop on my own he convinced me to call the birthing center and ask what laxative I can use. They told me suppositories only so I sent him to the pharmacy while I laid in bed and tried to sleep through the pain.

I used the suppository and 20 mins later I pooped and was expecting sweet relief. Nope. At this point I’m still in denial and I’m like okay I probably just need to go off 2 or 3 more times....maybe I should take another suppository to make sure I get everything out...I’m finding every excuse but that I’m in labour. My fiancé is Googling stuff on the computer and telling me I’m in labour. After pooping 2 more times and having contractions on the toilet I finally admit to myself that I was in labour.

So I go lay on the bed with him and he’s comforting me through my contractions and helping me time them. The timing was inconsistent so we were waiting until they got to 5 mins apart or my water broke.

The birthing center is all the way in Brooklyn and I’m in Harlem so I wasn’t tryna waste cab fare to get out there and be told I’m not dilated enough go walk around, or for my contractions to stop and it be a false alarm. 😩

At this point the pain in increasing and I’m realizing more and more I can’t handle it and I needed an epidural. Unfortunately I can’t have the best of birth worlds so I had to pick either a water birth or an epidural. I went with the epidural y’all. I got in the shower and the water helped out but not enough to change my mind again. I was supposed to live stream my birth but knew the hospital I was going to probably wouldn’t allow that so after my shower I decided to hop on the group to labour with them instead. Timing my contractions with the group made me realize that my contractions had jumped to being 2 mins apart!!! I wasn’t even live streaming for long before I had to log out 😭. While I had been breathing through most of my contractions before I get hit with some that leave me screaming! I’m in sooo much pain. My fiancé called the ambulance and dispatch is tryna talk to me on the phone and ask questions my fiancé could easily answer. 🙄 My aunt miraculously shows up while were waiting for the ambulance and they take us all to the hospital. Can I just say Thank God I went in through an ambulance and not as a walk-in? 🙌🏾 I got admitted right away. I got wheeled passed couples walking the hallway in pain tryna progress and here I was on my way to get my epidural. They put me in a labour and delivery room and took my vitals, hooked me up to the monitors and asked a bazillion questions. One nurse said they looked like dehydration contractions and I wanted to punch her in the face. I asked another nurse how far apart my contractions were then and they were at 2-4 mins apart but she said they were really long. I was only dilated to a 2 but it was good to have confirmation that I wasn’t being a complete wuss about the level of pain I was in. Everyone who came in to check on me kept saying the anesthesiologist is on his way or right outside but he took forever 🙄. I could hear him in the hallway like how are you right outside carrying on a full 15 minute conversation while your patient lays in pain? 🤬

At 7:42 I finally get my epidural put in. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. I’m expecting immediate relief. No such luck. The anesthesiologist said he did a straight not a spinal cause its safer but it would take some time to work. My contractions felt shorter at first but quickly came back hard and fast. After 15 mins the nurse (rude af) told me she can’t deal with this (me screaming in pain) all night and was gonna call him back but I told her he said call him back in an hour if it still isn’t working. She said are you really gonna wait till 9? She called him and he repeated what he said to me and look at me like I was dumb. Like I wasn’t even the one that called you bro chill. I was GBS + so I also had penicillin put in through an IV. Penicillin hurts. It burns. My whole hand was on fire. I was just so uncomfortable. At 8:30 we call the anesthesiologist back and I thought he’d just give me more meds or something. Nope he says he has to reinsert it 😒. After the reinsertion I start feeling my legs go numb immediately, goodbye painful contractions 🙌🏾.

So I’d been progressing well at this point, opening up by 1 every hour. Around 1 am they realized I’m running a fever of 100.7 and they can’t figure out why but its possible I had an infection so they gave me Tylenol. I’m informed my baby will have to go to the NICU immediately after birth because of my fever. My heart dropped. I wanted to do delayed cord clamping, skin to skin and rooming in. All my wishes went right out the window. Then I stopped progressing so they gave me pictocin which I heard make your contractions worse but I had that magic epidural so all was well.

I hadn’t drunk anything since like noon so I was dying of thirst but was only allowed ice chips. I tried to play smart and asked for 2 cups of ice so I could let one melt and drink it 😈. I paid for it in the end because I vomitted 😑.

*8 weeks later and I’m finally finishing writing this so it wont be that detailed anymore 😩. *

All I can remember now is that they came in told me I still had a lip of something (cervix?) to lose and they wanted me to practice pushing to see if I could push past it. After 3 rounds of 3 pushes they said I was doing well, the baby came way down and they were gonna call the doctor. I think I pushed for about 3-4 more rounds and the whole pushing process took only 20 mins 💪🏾. When they told me it was only 20 mins I was like no wayyy. 😱I thought they had told me I was pushing well just to be encouraging lol. I didn’t expect my baby to come out that quickly, I didn’t even have time to tell my fiancé to take pictures 🤦🏾‍♀️. They put him on me for a bit directly after he entered the world and Im not gonna lie I cried a bit. I just couldn’t believe it. They cleaned him up and gave him back to me for about 5 mins before they took him to the NICU. I tore in 2 places, one internal but it wasn’t anything major. Marvel Idris Garnett-Makarevich was born at 7:07 am on the 16th of September 2018. He weighed 7lbs 10oz and was about 20.47” long. I didn’t learn his weight or length until later on and as I’m staring at the discharge paper I’m just now realizing I was told he was an ounce less and an inch more than he was 🤔.

He was supposed to stay in the NICU for observation for 6 hours but spent 3 days (the entire length of our hospital stay) instead. He had problems keeping his body temperature up and of course they couldn’t figure out why so they pumped him full of antibiotics and it seemed to have worked.

If you read this far thanks for reading because I tend to ramble on and on! Here are some pics of my cutie as a reward for your time! :