Now that we’ve been home and adjusting for awhile, I’m here to tell our birth story.

Early labor started for me on the first day of June after I got home from work. I’m wondering if maybe the walking and the heat of working on the third floor of an old building (very poor air conditioning) helped nudge me along. Nothing was too intense yet, but I let my husband know what was going on and we were both more alert.

The next day (Sunday) we went for a walk at a nearby metro park. My contractions were starting to get closer together (4-5 mins apart) at that point but still weren’t incredibly painful, so we went to get lunch to see if they stayed the same after a change in position. Contractions were still coming, but not in a pattern that suggested labor was imminent. We dealt with that pretty much every day from Sunday-Friday.

On the 4th (Tuesday) they wanted me to come in to L&D to be monitored, because I had such a terrible headache that wasn’t getting better after I’d tried every safe option I could think of. I was also lightheaded and dizzy, so they wanted to just keep an eye on me to be on the safe side. My blood pressure was fine, so the worry of pre-eclampsia was dispelled, but the headache just wasn’t getting better. I’ve suffered from migraines since I was 8 years old but luckily during pregnancy my headaches weren’t migraines... until that one. They gave me some medicine and had me drink water while I was there, and eventually we got to go home. It was a long night, since my husband had an awful migraine as well, so neither of us really had restful sleep.

By Friday I thought things were finally getting real. Contractions were painful but only 7-8 mins apart. My husband and I walked around the grocery store and ran a couple errands, ate dinner, got ice cream from the nearby dairy diner (little family run shack that sells ice cream and sandwiches, a common Midwestern thing), and then tried to settle down for the night. Not sure I actually slept at all that night, just tried getting comfortable and breathed/teared up through the contractions.

By around 7:30-8am the next morning the contractions were 4 minutes apart and still very painful. I was feeling really nauseous and couldn’t stand the idea of trying to eat, even though I knew we had a long day ahead of us. I tried a warm shower to see if I was able to get a little relief, but it just didn’t help. Eventually I had my mom come over to help put pressure on my lower back and hips. My mom and husband asked me how much longer I wanted to labor like this at home, and I ended up calling the on-call service to see if I should come in yet or not. They said to come on in, so we got our shoes on and made sure everything was set up in case we weren’t coming home that night.

We got to the hospital around 10:45am. When the nurse checked me in L&D triage, I was 4cm and 90% and they went about trying to get me a room. The nurse who tried placing my IV for bloodwork blew my vein and had to try again, but after she got the blood she needed and had it sent to the lab, they got us a room around 11:30am. At this point my contractions were 1-2 mins apart and quite painful, I barely had a chance to take a breath in between, so I opted for an epidural. Had absolutely no issues with the epidural being placed, and soon I was able to relax.

At this point my water still hadn’t broken, so the nurse ended up having to rupture them manually when I was around 8cm. After that things moved very quickly. When I got to 10cm and was feeling a lot of pressure the nurse asked if I wanted to practice pushing, so she coached me on how to breathe and what to do. My husband was right by my side through everything, and at this point we looked at each other and knew our daughter would be here soon. I listened to my body and pushed when I felt the need, and soon enough the nurse called for the OB. Once she got there, I pushed maybe 6 times before our daughter was born! They placed her on my skin and I was sobbing uncontrollably out of happiness. My husband told me he started tearing up when he saw her open her eyes and look around. Even with the other things going on around us (nurses and OB making sure I was okay, delivering the placenta, etc), it felt like it was just the three of us in the world for a few moments.

From when we got to the hospital to when our daughter was born was less than 6 hours. No complications, no tearing or stitches, only pushed for 40 mins, everything went as well as we could have hoped. For all the worries we all had about my health during pregnancy, everything ended beautifully and safely. We are incredibly lucky.

Our daughter was 20.5 inches and 7lbs 10oz, and took to nursing right away. We are absolutely in awe of her.