A [very long] birth story.

I've been working on this for a few weeks, but every time I sit down to finish it, I can't. The thing is, I'm not sure how accurate the time is on everything. Brian is able to help me remember a lot of it, but some of it just blends together. That happens when you're in excruciating pain.

It is long, and I'm not sure that anyone will ever read it except for me. I just wanted to have it written down, so years down the road I can share with my sweet girl how we first met.

Anyway, here is how I think it went down:

Sunday, December 11: Our day was pretty normal..we slept in, skipped church and hung out around the house. We took a trip over to camp in the afternoon, and I told my boss that I would be seeing him in the morning. I was already scheduled to be induced on Friday, the 16th.. and I knew for sure this baby wasn't going to come on her own. Brian's parents came by that afternoon and I made one of our favorite meals for dinner. I painted a pinterest inspired mirror, baked cookies and cleaned our entire house top to bottom. I sent my aunt (who was on baby stand by) a text that said "Unfortunately, it looks like I'll be going into work tomorrow.. no baby anytime soon."

1:00 AM - I woke up and felt more contractions. These felt a little different, since I had some pain in my back with them. They were impossible to time and all over the place. I couldn't sit in bed, so I got up to see if I could keep them going or if they would become more regular. I bounced on an exercise ball for a little bit, and somewhere in there Brian got up to see what was going on. I told him what I was feeling, and he encouraged me to call triage, just in case. Hayleigh was posterior at my last appointment, so they told me I may not feel labor in the front and that back labor can be kind of hard to decipher.

2:30 AM - I call into Triage, because the pain in my back is getting a little stronger. I still can't time it, as it doesn't come and go in waves.. it is just sort of there. The midwife on call was Heather, and she told me she couldn't tell me if it were actually real labor or not, but to call back when I couldn't talk through contractions or if things became more intense.

3:00 AM - I give up on the ball and decide to take a shower. I knew that I wouldn't be able to go back to bed right away, so I figured I would shower for work now. After showering, I still wasn't all that tired so I went ahead and dried and straightened my hair (I'm so glad that I did!). Sometime soon after, I finally crawled back into bed and fell asleep.

6:00 AM - I am dead asleep and awake to what feels like a warm tide rushing out of me. That's right, my water broke while I was sleeping. I had recently heard that only 15% of women actually go into labor with their water breaking, so I never actually thought that mine would rupture on its own. I woke Brian up immediately and he just nauchalauntly said "okay." I nudged him again and said "Brian seriously, my water just broke and it is everywhere. Please go get me a towel." He was definitely awake then. I wasn't having contractions at this point, and I remember standing there cold and in shock for a few moments, water collecting on the floor. I called my aunt to tell her I would in fact not be going into work and that sometime within the next 24 hours, I was going to have me a baby.

6:45ish - We leave to go to the hospital after I call into Triage and talk to Heather. On the ride there, I notice that Sara is online, so I chat with her on facebook the whole way there. Brian and I drove in silence and I noted to Sara that this was the weirdest car ride of my life. I was excited yes, but layered with that was nausea and nervousness. On the way there, my contractions definitely picked up and by the time I got to triage they were about 5-6 minutes apart and painful. I also told Sara that I was praying for a shift change, because I did not like Heather on the phone.

Sara also sends me a message that says "mark my words, she will be here by 10:00 (AM)."

7:30ish - We arrive at triage and I am happy because my midwife, Jane is now the one on call. We loved having Jane for our prenatal care, and I was so excited that she would get to deliver Hayleigh. Jane took us back to our triage room and I changed into a gown. Since my water had broken, they had to examine some of my amniotic fluid to make sure it was clear, and it was. They hooked me up to machines and she let me know that I was having contractions about every 4 minutes or so. She gave me the option of laboring back at home, but since we live an hour away, I opted to stay.

Sitting in Triage waiting for our room. 

8:00 AM - I meet our nurse, Marie and she takes us up to our room. We get settled in and she encourages me to order some breakfast, since I wasn't put on a restricted diet and I wasn't in hard labor yet. My contractions were still only about 4 minutes apart and they weren't extremely painful. I took her advice and ate a delicious veggie omelet while Brian and I just sat there waiting for things to happen.

10:00 AM - My two aunts show up for support and let us know they will be waiting down the hall until Hayleigh is born so that they can meet her. They brought us some gifts and spent time talking with us for a little while. I decide that instead of sitting in my room, that I want to go walk the halls and try to speed things along. I do this for an hour or so and my contractions pick up a lot.

12:00 PM - 3:30 PM - My family grabbed Brian some lunch from Subway and I ordered a chicken sandwich from room service, since I still was allowed to eat at this point. After that my nurse suggested that I get in the tub, since I wanted to do most of my labor there. I spent the majority of this time in the tub, where a nurse would come in and monitor the baby every 30 minutes. Brian sat by my side the whole time, constantly encouraging me and telling me how good of a job I was doing. This was crucial, because by 3:30, my contractions were coming about every minute and lasting for just as long.

3:30 PM - My midwife comes in and decides that since my contractions are strong and close together, that they will finally check my cervix. When she does this, she tells me that I am at about 7-8 centimeters and that they were going to prepare the room for delivery. They even bring in a nursing student, excited to experience a natural child birth. I get out of the tub and when I do, the intensity of my contractions is magnified. They were painful in the tub, but what I am feeling outside of the tub is intolerable. I just remember standing at the end of my bed with my arms around Brian's shoulders and moaning in pain, my face buried in his shoulder. Once the room is ready, they let me know they will be back in an hour to check me again.

4:30 PM - My midwife comes back in and lets me know that I am at 9 cm with only a small lip of cervix to clear. I have to wait for this to clear before I can start pushing, so she encourages me to try different laboring positions to see if I can get it to clear. Since my back pain is very intense, she offers sterile water injections that we talked about during my prenatal care. She's prepared me that they are painful, like a strong bee sting she says.. but they are supposed to take away my back labor and help Hayleigh to flip. I agree to them and let me tell you.. they were the devil. I screamed the most blood curdling scream, so much so that my family could hear me in the waiting room. Those things were painful and I am not sure I could accept them again. The good news is, they did help with the back labor.

10:30 PM - Yes, I am still in labor.. with contractions about every 30-45 seconds and lasting about a minute. That small lip of cervix has not budged and that nursing student hoping to see a natural labor has been long gone. My midwife comes in to bid me goodnight, as she is getting off shift. Before she does, she sits on the birthing ball and gets close to my bed. She looks at me and tells me that she is not sure how much longer this could go on. She tells me it could be minutes, or hours. All this time, she's been wonderful. She's been in my room between other deliveries, she's offered me aromatherapy, counter pressure massages and helped me get back into the tub. I am out of energy and crying so hard at this point..and I begin to beg for an epidural. Somewhere in here I begin to feel the urge to push, so I lay in my bed and just push during my contractions. Getting an epidural was not in my birth plan, but I knew I needed to do something. If I wanted to bring this baby into this world, I needed to give myself some rest.

11:00 PM - God shows up. I mean, the anesthesiologist. At that point, I considered them the same. She was supposed to go to the room next door first, but the nurses had failed to hook up my neighbors IV yet. She said I was screaming louder, so she decided to come set up me first. I could have hugged her. Did you know that people with scoliosis have a hard time getting an epidural to set? I didn't until they tried three times to get a successful epidural. I looked at Brian throughout this whole process, since he had to help me stay completely still during these strong contractions. I just kept thinking, "the only alternative is to shoot me if this does not work." I could not keep going in this much pain. Thankfully, the third try worked and in 10 minutes or less I was in a state of euphoria.

11:15 PM - I meet my new midwife, Heather. The same Heather that I had told Sara I did not want earlier that morning. She comes in and accesses my cervix and says that she thinks that there has been some progress (since Jane had been examining me before this, she can't be sure), but I still have some cervix to clear. She lets me know that she will give me an hour for it to clear on its own, but if it doesn't, we will have to talk c-section. I am discouraged, and my state of euphoria is quickly replaced by anxiety. Suddenly my anxiety disorder overtook every calm thought in my mind and I began to question everything. I did not want a c-section and I wanted to have my baby..now. I suddenly became scared that my pain was going to come back and every time the nurse came in the room I asked her if it would come back. I am sure that I asked her at least five times. Brian's parents were still at the hospital, but were going to leave since they both had to work in the morning. Before they went, I asked my mother in law if she would please pray with me and she did. We sat there, with my nurse in the room, and just prayed together. Well, she prayed. I cried. We prayed that my body would please do the rest of the work so that I could meet my daughter. We prayed that my pain would stay away and that my anxiety would move on.

12:00 AM - Heather comes back in and lets me know that I am finally a 10 and that I can start pushing when I feel the urge. She left the room, and I let my nurse know I want to start pushing now.. and I do. I push for three counts of ten during every contraction that comes.. which are unfortunately now 5 minutes apart, thanks to the epidural. This does not aid me well, since between contractions, all of the work that I do is basically undone.

12:00 AM - 5:01 AM - Pushing. That's right.. five long hours of intense pushing. My cousin Sally has been in the room since I've started pushing, even though I thought it would just be Brian and I. I've asked her to stay, because she was wonderful to have in the room. She is a nurse, and keeps getting me drinks of water, a cold wash cloth for my head and anything else I need so that Brian can stay right by my side. This is the most time when things are fuzzy for me.. so probably in incorrect order different things happen. Because I have been in labor so long, Hayleigh's heart rate begins to drop and gets too close to mine. They insert a tiny probe into her head so that they can better monitor her heart rate. I also have to keep switching positions every time her heart rate goes down. At one point, I'm given oxygen just to bring her heart rate back up. I end up using oxygen in between contractions, to help give me energy for when I need to push.

For the last three hours of pushing, Heather does not leave my room. She has designed this contraption at the end of my bed with a towel hanging from it for me to pull on during pushing, and it helps my pushes become way more productive. She literally is on the end of my bed coaching me with every single push that I give and she is phenomenal. I can not believe that I didn't want her with me. She wants me to have the birth that I desire and she keeps assuring me that Hayleigh is still doing okay. In fact, she is amazed at how well my baby girl is doing, considering how long of a day it has been for both of us.

Hayleigh keeps turning in the birth canal, which they can see because the probe is at a different location every time they see her head come down and go back up. Heather also realizes that Hayleigh is presenting very low, which is why I have not been able to get her to crown. At this point I am so tired and I just keep saying "I'm not sure that I can do this anymore." Heather says that maybe we could try the vacuum, to assist Hayleigh to come down a bit further and she asks one of the nurses to page OB and have them bring it in just in case. I let her know that I want to push once more, before I say yes to the vacuum, and this time I am able to push for five counts of ten and Hayleigh actually starts to crown. Heather tells me that she is going to give an episiotomy to see if it will help. This is also something that I also did not have in my birth plan, but I agree. I trust her and know that she is trying to give me the birth that I desire. Once the episiotomy is done, Hayleigh does crown with my next set of pushes, but they do not wait for me to push out her shoulders. No vacuum needed.

5:01 AM - Finally my sweet girl is here, but she is quickly taken over to the other side of the room. With all of her rotations in the birth canal, her cord was wrapped around her neck twice. Brian tells me that she was born blue, which I couldn't see while laying flat. As soon as they cut the cord, I hear her cry and it is the sweetest sound. Finally, they bring her to me and it is instant love. I remember just looking at her and marveling over her tiny fingers and her head full of hair.

It was definitely a long day, but we were finally a family of three.. and I was right when I told my aunt that I would have me a baby in the next 24 hours. 23 hours, to be exact.