I am a little late in posting this but here is Joshua's birth story.
It was my due date and no sign of baby…yet. I was already freaking out about having to be induced. My doctor even had me schedule one just in case. It was about 4:15 PM at the grocery store. I had just got done replying to my sister, Brooke’s, daily text, “Any baby yet?” when the mild cramps started. Nothing major and they weren’t coming at regular intervals. It was a Friday which, for the last 5 years has been our date night. I was too tired to go out so we had date night at home. Daniel picked up Pei Wei on the way home from work and we ate and watched a movie. Wild, I know! We said the same thing we had been saying the last few Fridays, “this could be our last date night before Joshua comes.” Little did we know, we were right. The cramping continued throughout the night but again, nothing major at all. I thought it was just Braxton Hicks though my doula told me she thought it was only a matter of hours before I went into labor. I was texting a friend and she told me, “You better get some rest because come 2 am you will be in the thick of things.” Again, I thought it was just Braxton Hicks. We finished the movie and went to bed at around 10pm. Of course it was right when I laid down to go to sleep that the cramping got a little more intense and consistent. I wasn’t convinced this was real labor. I didn’t bother to wake Daniel because there wasn’t really anything he could do and I was handling them okay on my own. After about 2 hours of this I decided to get in the bath tub. I did that twice. It was around this time I woke Daniel up to start timing the contractions. By this time I could barely talk to tell him to start timing. Still not sure if this was real labor. I never wanted to be one of those crazy pregnant women who shows up to the hospital convinced she is in labor only to be sent home. We had planned on laboring at home as long as we could. My doula, who I had been in contact with via texting the whole time, kept offering to come over but I felt like we had a pretty good handle on things. By about 3 am it was intense, I couldn’t talk and they were coming very close together. I still wondered if this was actual labor (this was my first time, I had no idea what to expect). I figured we had better get to the hospital because the last thing I wanted was to be answering questions and filling out paper work if the pain was only going to get worse. Daniel finished the last minute packing. This was one of those times where my obsessive list making came in handy.
I made Daniel drive very, very slowly because the slightest bump made things worse. At one point I made him stop in the middle of the road during a contraction. Good thing there aren’t many drivers out on the road that time of the night, err morning.
When we got to the hospital Daniel dropped me off at the front where my doula was waiting for me. When we walked into the hospital they asked for my name and I couldn’t answer right away because I was having a contraction. As I stood there hunched over the counter my amazing doula started putting pressure on my hips. WOW! That felt great.
When we got to the nurses’ station they asked what was going on. I told them how long contractions where and how far apart. They said, “go ahead and send her to triage.” When we got to triage, the nurse checked me and announced, “you are 6 centimeters. We need to get you straight to labor and delivery.” WHEW, so I actually WAS in labor and I wasn’t going to be sent home.
When we got to L&D my amazingly wonderful nurse got the birthing tub all ready for me. Something I totally thought I would want. But once we got in the room, I plopped down on the birthing ball and there I sat hunched over on to the bed and did not want to move. I had terrible, horrible, no good, very bad back labor and my doula told me she had some great positions for me to try but I did NOT want to move. Moving made the pain worse. I thought I would be so active during labor because after all, all the books about going natural say to move around. Well, the ball worked for me. During the 3 or 4 hours we spent in L&D I had constant pressure applied to my back by either my doula or Daniel. Looking back I feel a little bad for them. They couldn’t press hard enough. Their poor hands. But they were an amazing team and made the back labor a little more bearable for me.
During the end I felt like lying on my side would feel good. I think I felt like I would be able to rest. I was only on my side for a little bit when it came time to push. They wanted me on my back to push but that wasn’t happening. That was WAY too painful. I was told, “you can’t push yet the doctor is not here.” WHAT?! I have seen that happen on TV but are you kidding me? Had this been my 2nd baby I probably would have pushed anyway. But honestly, the sensation was so weird and I was a little scared to push. FINALLY the doctor came. I was 9.5 centimeters and she had to break my water to get me to 10 centimeters. At some point I was forced to lie on my back. That was excruciating pain. Pushing was the hardest part for me. Daniel and the nurse where pulling my knees into my chest and I countered by pushing my knees down with my hands yelling, “that hurts!” I was not good at pushing. I couldn’t push for as long as they wanted me to in one breath. They were slowly counting to ten and all I could think was “get-there-faster.” But 30 minutes later and he was out. What a moment! I just couldn’t believe it.
People often ask my thoughts on going natural. I am happy I chose that route. Don’t get me wrong, it was not easy and I thought several times during labor “it is adoption from here on out. There is NO WAY I am doing this ever again, drugs or no drugs.” But here we are 13 weeks later and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat just the way I did!
