Medic Mama Log: Day 0, The Beginning
This is a long one. And it will be boring if you're not interested in my labor story. You've been warned!
Looking back, I realize I may not have been as completely unprepared as I felt at the time. It was December 22nd, 2017, I was 36 weeks pregnant and about to enjoy dinner and a movie (LOTR... what what!) with my mom who was in town from northern CA for Christmas. She had just brought me a homemade burger (trying to get that iron up) when it felt like I had suddenly peed my pants. Now, this is not an unusual thing, to pee yourself when you're preggo. This felt different though. After some internal debating, I mention it to my mom. Following some investigating, I found that my water had broken. Now, my husband was at work an hour away and I wasn't due for a about 4 weeks. Not to mention everyone is always like, "oh your first baby will take forever to come, you won't go fast, she won't come early." But I figured I should probably call him and let him know. The conversation went as follows:
Mr C: Hellooo?
Me: Hello my love... do you have a minute?
Mr C: Yeah we're just cleaning up dinner, what's up?
Looking back, I realize I may not have been as completely unprepared as I felt at the time. It was December 22nd, 2017, I was 36 weeks pregnant and about to enjoy dinner and a movie (LOTR... what what!) with my mom who was in town from northern CA for Christmas. She had just brought me a homemade burger (trying to get that iron up) when it felt like I had suddenly peed my pants. Now, this is not an unusual thing, to pee yourself when you're preggo. This felt different though. After some internal debating, I mention it to my mom. Following some investigating, I found that my water had broken. Now, my husband was at work an hour away and I wasn't due for a about 4 weeks. Not to mention everyone is always like, "oh your first baby will take forever to come, you won't go fast, she won't come early." But I figured I should probably call him and let him know. The conversation went as follows:
Mr C: Hellooo?
Me: Hello my love... do you have a minute?
Mr C: Yeah we're just cleaning up dinner, what's up?
Me: I don't want to alarm you, but I think my water broke...
Mr C: Really???
Me: *describes it*
Mr C: Should I come home now?
Me: No, don't rush, this will probably take a while and I haven't even started having contractions yet.
We get off the phone and I'm talking with my mom when I start to get really crampy. Like the worst period cramps ever. Mom says those are contractions. So I'm like, ok cool, it's starting. I call the husband back and he says, my chief said to just come home so I'm on my way, see you in an hour. At this point, I'm still chillin'. Sure the intensity is amping up but it was nothing major.
Now, silly silly silly me had been considering going natural with this birth... But then the contractions start picking up. What was a 10 second cramp every 10 minutes became a minute long contraction every 5 minutes... Mr C came home to find me sitting on an exercise ball in the living room doing some breathing exercises. He had been thinking we still had some time, until he walked in the door. So we loaded all of our crap up (there's a lot of crap "they" say to take with you), loaded me up and off we went. Our birth hospital was about 35-45 minutes away. During that drive, contractions became about 90 seconds long spaced out every 2-3 minutes.
We get to the hospital, park, and head upstairs to labor and delivery. At this point it's around 8pm or so. We are greeted by some stressed out nurses and what appears to be a very full house. After waiting for what felt like hours (because that's what contractions do... they slow time down), we got into the triage/intake room. They check me (awkward...) and inform me I'm only 2cm. I was like, you've got to be kidding me! Of course, these nurses all said, oh you've got time, it's your first baby, blah blah blah.
I told Mr C, my contractions aren't ever stopping... go tell them that (like they really care... honestly... they're professionals at this, what I have to say is nothing they haven't heard before). Anyhoo, the OB comes in and offers pain meds. Awesome. We start with IV meds first. The first one did nothing. The second one made me loopy but I still felt everything. At this moment, we've been at the hospital for maybe 75 minutes and it's been 45 minutes since they last checked me. They come in and say they have a delivery room ready but before we go, want to check me again. Surprise, I'm at 5cm now. We get to the delivery room, I ask for an epidural and BOOM. I get one. Now that, my friends, is probably the best decision I made all night. It. Felt. Wonderful. They went to check me again and since I was still loopy from the meds and now completely pain free from the glorious epidural, I sleepily reminded them that my legs were dead weight so they would have to lift them. It had been 45 min since my last check. To everyone's surprise, I was now 10cm dilated. Yay. But the baby hadn't dropped into the birth canal yet, so we had to keep waiting.
An hour and a half later, it was 1am. After a few movements from my left to right side and back again (due to some deceleration of the baby's heartbeat), I felt pressure and just knew it was time. The epidural had worn off a bit and I could feel some pain, but it was manageable. Mr C snagged our nurse who suggested some practice pushes and, I shit you not, by the 3rd push she had called the doctor in and by the 5th push baby C was out. Mr C got to deliver his first baby which just so happens was also his own baby.
My entire labor, from water breaking to baby on my chest, was 8 hours... My friends hate this story because all of their labors were 24 hours or longer. It really was a great experience. And the end result is by far worth it.
Mr C: Really???
Me: *describes it*
Mr C: Should I come home now?
Me: No, don't rush, this will probably take a while and I haven't even started having contractions yet.
We get off the phone and I'm talking with my mom when I start to get really crampy. Like the worst period cramps ever. Mom says those are contractions. So I'm like, ok cool, it's starting. I call the husband back and he says, my chief said to just come home so I'm on my way, see you in an hour. At this point, I'm still chillin'. Sure the intensity is amping up but it was nothing major.
Now, silly silly silly me had been considering going natural with this birth... But then the contractions start picking up. What was a 10 second cramp every 10 minutes became a minute long contraction every 5 minutes... Mr C came home to find me sitting on an exercise ball in the living room doing some breathing exercises. He had been thinking we still had some time, until he walked in the door. So we loaded all of our crap up (there's a lot of crap "they" say to take with you), loaded me up and off we went. Our birth hospital was about 35-45 minutes away. During that drive, contractions became about 90 seconds long spaced out every 2-3 minutes.
We get to the hospital, park, and head upstairs to labor and delivery. At this point it's around 8pm or so. We are greeted by some stressed out nurses and what appears to be a very full house. After waiting for what felt like hours (because that's what contractions do... they slow time down), we got into the triage/intake room. They check me (awkward...) and inform me I'm only 2cm. I was like, you've got to be kidding me! Of course, these nurses all said, oh you've got time, it's your first baby, blah blah blah.
I told Mr C, my contractions aren't ever stopping... go tell them that (like they really care... honestly... they're professionals at this, what I have to say is nothing they haven't heard before). Anyhoo, the OB comes in and offers pain meds. Awesome. We start with IV meds first. The first one did nothing. The second one made me loopy but I still felt everything. At this moment, we've been at the hospital for maybe 75 minutes and it's been 45 minutes since they last checked me. They come in and say they have a delivery room ready but before we go, want to check me again. Surprise, I'm at 5cm now. We get to the delivery room, I ask for an epidural and BOOM. I get one. Now that, my friends, is probably the best decision I made all night. It. Felt. Wonderful. They went to check me again and since I was still loopy from the meds and now completely pain free from the glorious epidural, I sleepily reminded them that my legs were dead weight so they would have to lift them. It had been 45 min since my last check. To everyone's surprise, I was now 10cm dilated. Yay. But the baby hadn't dropped into the birth canal yet, so we had to keep waiting.
An hour and a half later, it was 1am. After a few movements from my left to right side and back again (due to some deceleration of the baby's heartbeat), I felt pressure and just knew it was time. The epidural had worn off a bit and I could feel some pain, but it was manageable. Mr C snagged our nurse who suggested some practice pushes and, I shit you not, by the 3rd push she had called the doctor in and by the 5th push baby C was out. Mr C got to deliver his first baby which just so happens was also his own baby.
My entire labor, from water breaking to baby on my chest, was 8 hours... My friends hate this story because all of their labors were 24 hours or longer. It really was a great experience. And the end result is by far worth it.
C had some issues with low blood sugar and because she was technically considered a preemie, we had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. The first few hours after she was born, all I could do was stare at her and think, "wow! That came out of my vagina!" (Poetic, I know). That sums up day 0 and part of day 1. Those first few days are pretty hazy. I blame sleep deprivation and new baby endorphins. 😉
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