My Birthing Story

While we were still in the hospital, I had Tre work with the nurses to get the exact times of all the "events", because I knew I would want to document this and it's true (unbelievably so) that once John Henry was laid on my chest after delivery, I instantly forgot everything we had just gone through. A lot of people have asked for the story, too, so I hope it's not too much information and you enjoy it.

My water broke at 2:30am on Friday, November 12th, 2010. I was in a deep sleep when a crampy feeling woke me up and I heard a pop (yep, I literally heard my water break). I rolled over, took the 5 steps to the bathroom and to spare you the exact details, I'll just tell you that there was no mess at all. I called out to Tre and said, "I think my water just broke!". I was so excited and so much adrenaline started pumping that I think I might have even been shaking. Since it only happens in about 15% of women, I never expected my water to break. You see it in the movies all the time and wonder what it would be like and now I know. I feel pretty lucky that I got to experience it and even better that it wasn't a disaster.

After all the classes we took, neither one of us could remember exactly when we needed to head to the hospital, so we called and they told us to come as soon as we could, but to take time to shower and eat a good breakfast. So, we packed "the bag" (no, we didn't have it packed - oops, but I did have a list written out), took a shower, fed the cat and headed out. We stopped at Studio Diner for breakfast. I wasn't having any contractions/pain, so we took our time and enjoyed it. Tre had a bacon, cheddar, avocado omelet and I had a avocado, cheddar, mushroom, black olive omelet. The food was really good...a perfect "last meal" - ha ha. I remember our instructor telling us in class not to drink orange juice before labor, so I ordered a large apple juice (or as Tre described it "a quart of apple juice"), but it was SO cold in the diner that I didn't get to finish it before we left. I wanted to hang out and relax a little bit longer before we headed to the hospital, but away we went before I got frost bite on my flip flopped toes.

I checked into Triage at about 5:30am. I was a fingertip (same as I was 2 days before at my dr appt), they confirmed that my water broke and then said "Congratulations, you're gonna have a baby today!". I was so excited! At 7:30am I was admitted to labor and delivery. At 9:30am, my doctor came to check on me. He was getting ready to leave town for the weekend (of course, right?). Tre and I were out walking the halls "trying to get labor started" and when he found us, he took us back to my room and sat us down for a chat. At this point it had been 7 hours since my water broke and I was having no signs of labor. After some tears (because my plan of natural labor just went out the door), I started Pitocin at 10:15am. The pitocin kicked in right away and after laboring for almost 7 hours and I was still only a fingertip.

The nurses had been telling me that there were things I could take the manage the pain and at 5:30pm I finally gave in and starting on Fentanyl. I was starting to fade and it was the recharge that I needed. I labored for another 8 hours and then they almost insisted that I get an epidural so I could get some rest. I shed a few more tears, but I was exhausted and I probably wouldn't have been able to push John Henry out if I didn't get some sleep. So at 1:30am (Saturday), I got the Epidural. My nurse and I had a small celebration afterwards, because she checked my progress and I had gotten to 4cm "on my own" before the epidural. 7 1/2 hours later, at 9:00am, I was 10cm and started pushing. John Henry was born at 10:29 with the help of forceps (32 hours after my water broke)

As I said at beginning, it truly is amazing how once they put that little baby on your chest, you can forget all the pain you just went through (22 1/2 hours of labor). For Tre it was a "really long day". It was a long day for me, too, but it was an awesome experience. I think about it and wonder if there is a more intimate time that a husband and wife will spend together. I definitely treasure it. And of course, not only was the experience awesome, we have a healthy baby boy who is such a joy.