Paisley and Pacifiers : What a weekend...Emily's Birth Story

My biggest fear was not being able to recognize a real contraction vs. a Braxton hick contraction. I feared that because I wouldn’t know the difference, I would arrive at the hospital too late for the epidural and have no choice but to endure the REAL pain of childbirth (or worse: deliver her on the highway).

FALSE ALARM

As a result, I was on high alert starting at week 39 (my water broke with Blake at 39wks). Around 4am Saturday morning, I was rudely awakened by what felt like a terrible period cramp. I was laying on my side in bed, and had to grip the edge of the bed for relief. And then the pain returned in about 15minutes. Since this weird feeling (aka real contractions) were so far apart, I decided not to wake up Brooke until 8am when they were about 12min apart. I called my OB and she said to wait until they were 6-7min apart to come to the hospital. She also warned me that they could slow down and to continue timing them.

We called my sister in law ready to activate our plan for Blake once my contractions sped up. What I didn’t think would happen is that my contractions would stop altogether. I was so disappointed. Not that I wanted to be in pain, but the excitement of meeting my baby girl that day was fading into the distance.

THE REAL DEAL

I went to bed early that night, hoping that I would wake up in a puddle of water (water breaking). That didn’t happen. I woke up at 4am again with even stronger contractions than the day before. This time they were 10min apart. I waited until 6am to wake Brooke up. This was the real deal, my contractions were more intense and not slowing down. We woke Blake up at 7am and drove to my sister in laws who was waiting with cartoons and pancakes – what more could a toddler want?

I called my OB again and he suggested I come to the hospital to be sure my water hadn’t broken/been leaking. The drive to the hospital wasn’t as bad as I imagined. I had 2 bad contractions and just gripped the door and breathed thru them in utter silence.

When we got to the hospital, they confirmed I wasn’t leaking any fluid and that my contractions weren’t close enough to admit me. Here I was again, deflated and in pain. My fear of not knowing a contraction was replaced by being told to go home.

The OB suggested I walk around the maternity floor for an hour to see if my contractions sped up. While walking the floor, I actually felt them slowing down. I didn’t understand what was happening! I thought walking was supposed to bring on labor. I was exhausted and just wanted to lay down. After 50min of walking, we walked back to our room, had a little snack, and tried to rest. As soon as I put my feet up, I felt 2 major contractions. At that point, the OB came into the room to see how dilated I was.

The doctor who was on call was an OB that I had only met once. I met him when I had the stomach bug and he sent me to the hospital to get fluids. I didn’t know him well, and certainly didn’t know his bedside manner or sense of humor. After the vaginal check, he says, “You are 4-5cm dilated, so were going to send you home and have you come back next week.” I literally burst into tears while Brooke is laughing in the chair next to me. My OB had a totally straight face until he realized I was crying and then tried to convince me that they were actually going to admit me and not send me home. What he was saying didn’t really register, and I continued crying. I can laugh about it now, but definitely not the best joke to tell me at the time.

FINALLY ADMITTED TO THE HOSPITAL

I was admitted a little after 9am. It took about 45minutes for the nurses to move me to a delivery room, get an IV started, hook me up to fluids and call the anesthesiologist. Shortly after, I got the glorious epidural and I stopped feeling the pain of the contractions. I was given some Pitocin to speed up contractions, and within the hour they were around 3minutes apart.

Brooke was getting hungry so I told him to go to the cafeteria and eat lunch down there. While he was gone, I started to feel some pressure and minor pain. The nurses must have noticed what was going on and they came into the room to see how I was. I said how I was pushing the epidural button and I wasn’t getting any relief. I asked if I could have more epidural. The nurses said let’s have the OB check you before we do anything.

My OB was in the room within minutes to check me. I was 10cm dilated and he said the baby was ready to come. I started crying again (every time this man sees me I am crying). I was crying because Brooke was downstairs eating and his phone was almost dead. I had my fingers crossed there was just enough juice in his phone to let my call go through. He picked up, and I said, “I am ready to push, get up here!!”

The OB went to put on his scrubs while the nurses set-up the room (i.e. overhead lights, stirrup things for my feet, and lots of other things that go into delivering a baby). Brooke was back and it was go time.

I couldn’t quite feel the pain of the contraction, but I knew they were happening. I pushed when they told me to push and after 3 pushes baby girl was out. The OB even had me reach down to pull baby girl out and onto my chest.

I couldn’t believe how fast everything happened. My baby girl entered the world around 1:30p. I was only in labor for about 5 hours. This was incredibly short given I was in labor for 22 hours with Blake.

After the nurses cleaned her up and took her vitals, she remained on my chest for the next hour, rooting and feeding from the start. Meanwhile, I fell immediately in love with her. We named our baby girl Emily Hope after my maternal grandmother whose middle name was Hope.

And that’s Emily’s birth story, one that I will never ever forget. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend.