My Birthing Story: Emily Edition

This is my favorite picture of our little Emily's birth. I ALMOST cried when I first held her, but held back the tears and stuck with grinning from ear to ear as a new mommy.

 It all started at one of my weekly doctor check-ups. Our little Emily hadn't been moving very much for the past two days, and I was a long two weeks past due, so the doctor hooked up the fetal monitor and left me for a while to monitor her kicks. At this time, Jaime was at school so I was just chillin in the room hoping that this baby would come really soon! After being monitored, Dr Owens came in and said “well, it sure seems like she wants to come out, so let's send you to the hospital!”

I was so excited!! Being pregnant was not fun anymore, and I wanted to meet my baby already. Dr Owens told me to go home, get what I needed, and that I would be called when the hospital was ready for me to come in. Since it was going to take a few hours and I was worried I wouldn't be fed until after Emily came, Jaime got home from school and took me to Wendy's. We ate, went home, still hadn't been called, and called the doctor asking if we could just go in (which he said to go for it).

We got to the hospital all pre-registered and I was brought up in a wheel chair to my nice and cozy room at about 8pm. Our nurses name was Holly. She was this super adorable little blonde nurse.

The doctor got there at about 10pm and popped my water. Can you say VERY messy? I didn't was to be induced, so they told me they would wait until morning to see if labor started. And it did! I was very happy that it started on its own. Once labor started hurting I was very upset because I was required to stay in bed so the baby could be monitored. There was absolutely no way to help the pain while lying on my back in the bed. I tried sitting on my birthing ball and standing, but the monitor wouldn't read so I was stuck. And very frustrated. I finally said screw it, took off the monitor and took a shower which was incredible. I did not want it to end, but was only allowed to be off the monitor for an hour so that was that.

After the incredible shower, I had to go back to the bed and I just couldn't handle the pain anymore in that position. I was having back labor, and had to have Jaime push down on my lower back really hard just to handle the pain. I was given some light meds which were fantastic, but only lasted for an hour for each dose, so after three doses I said “well, so much for not getting an epidural!”

All I'm going to say is holy cow, the epidural was my absolute best friend in this world. Once it kicked in, there was absolutely no pain whatsoever. It was fantastic. Just incredible. I was all smiles after that! I even got a nice nap or two (I got more sleep than Jaime that night)! I had to make sure I stayed on my left side though because the monitor wouldn't read if I layed on my right side. Fine by me as long as the pain was gone.

The next morning, Jaime kept asking if I would have the nurse check my progress, but I didn't want to be disappointed with the progression since I didn't feel any pressure from the baby, so I kept putting it off. At about 12pm, I finally gave in and asked the nurse to check me for Jaime. Right when I rolled from my side to my back I felt the wave of pressure! The nurse checked me and I was 10 cm, at a +2, meaning she was already sticking out! Holly (the nurse) said she saw black hair too!

Before I started birthing, Holly wanted to check to see if I could still push because my legs were so numb that I couldn't lift them myself and some people can't push well. I gave a few practice pushes for her and she said I was a great pusher. Finally the doctors and a few more nurses came in and it was time to push! The nurses and Dr. Owens were joking with me and we all were laughing. One of the nurses looked at me and said “they gave you the good stuff, this isn't how birthing is supposed to be!”. We waited and chatted between contractions which the monitor had to tell us since I really couldn't feel much going on. I don't really remember what we talked about except that one of the nursing was calling the Dr: Dr Dino and saying “here comes the Dino baby!”. During one of the contractions, the nurse said something funny while the doctor was having me push to 10 seconds and I started laughing! I told her there wasn't any way I could push to ten with them saying funny things! I really did get the good stuff!

After pushing for 15 minutes and getting an episiotomy, Emily arrived! She came out with a loud squeal! Dr. Owens said “she has a set of lungs on her!”, and they put her on my chest. The first thing I was was “Hi Emily” and she immediately stopped crying. I was so happy that she recognized my voice so I just kept talking to her. It was so magical.

While I was enfatuated, the nurses convinced Jaime to cut the umbilical cord which caused this hilarious expression

I remember thinking she was so beautiful. Even the doctor and nurses mentioned how pretty she was. Her, and her full head of raven black hair. Jaime and I were hopelessly in love.

Looking back, potato indeed!!

-Chantel M.

How was birthing with or without an epidural for you? Feel free to comment!