My Birth Story – Leia

Every woman who has given birth has their own, unique birth story.  Here is mine.

During pregnancy, you have approximately 8-10 months to do a lot of thinking and do a lot of preparing.  If you are like me, you also do a lot of reading and researching.  You think through whether you will be having a boy or a girl, what their nursery will look like, what you’ll name them, how you will tell your friends and family, etc…  You also think through how you want you labor and delivery to go – who will be in the room with you, do you want an epidural, do you want to go completely natural, what if you end up needing a C-section, do you want to use a mirror to see the birth, etc…  For me, I was dead set that I was going to have a completely natural birth (as long as no complications presented itself).  TRUST ME, never plan on being dead set on anything when it comes to your birth plan.  Around 36 weeks, I ended up having to go to Labor and Delivery to monitor my baby when I was concerned of decreased movement.  That morning, a woman in the room next to me was giving birth ‘naturally’.  Let’s just say in that very moment, I decided I was going to have an epidural.  You had to hear her screams of pain — man oh man!

My pregnancy was considered ‘high risk’ and I had to be monitored by a high risk doctor on top on my regular OB doctor.  While it was more stressful and added a lot of additional time to my already hectic schedule, I knew I would do anything to protect my baby.  I always live by the “better safe than sorry” approach, so I did whatever I had to for my baby.  My ‘high risk’ label was given to me due to my high blood pressure.  They told me I likely had high blood pressure before I got pregnant and I just never knew.  During my entire pregnancy, I worked a full time corporate job (thankfully my boss was supportive of my pregnancy needs).  Honestly though, I don’t understand how so many women do it.  Working full time and being pregnant, especially during the third trimester, is so hard on you mentally, physically and emotionally.  I wanted and did cry many days when I got home from work (sometimes during work).  You are so exhausted by the time you get home you neglect your normal house work, friends and family.  You just don’t feel like doing anything some days.

Every pregnancy, every woman, every baby is going to be different.  Always expect the unexpected, as ‘they’ say.  For me, my first and third trimesters were the most challenging (especially being a first time mom).  First trimester because I was so nauseous all the time, was getting used to being pregnant and my appetite was challenging.  Third trimester was definitely the HARDEST overall though!  I imagine this is likely true for most women.  It was so exhausting.  I was always so sore all over and I could never sleep well.  The last month or two of my pregnancy I was having two doctor’s appointments every week.  Seeing multiple doctors, and them not always being on the same page was especially frustrating.  The second trimester was literately the best one for me.  That’s when I had the most energy and probably accumulated the most sleep.  Towards the end, you start counting down the days until you get to meet your sweet little baby.  Not just because you get to hold your precious baby, but so you can be done being pregnant.

On my 38 week check in appointment (which coincidentally happened to be exactly 38 weeks gestation), my OB came into the room and said ‘I think we’re going to have this baby today’.  I had had a false alarm about two weeks prior to this appointment and wasn’t sure if she was serious or not.  She was.  My husband thought we discussed it so nonchalantly that it seemed as if we were making plans to go on a date.  She was going to go ahead and induce me since my blood pressure was getting and staying in the ‘uncomfortable’ zone.  She didn’t want me to go on too much further and risk mine or the baby’s life.  Of course I agreed.  We decided to meet for a lunch ‘date’ at the hospital to get the ball rolling.  My doctor happened to be the on call doctor at the hospital for that day/night and the following day.

My husband and I had just enough time to go get an early lunch and grab whatever we were going to need during our stay in the hospital.  We ended up at the hospital around 12:30pm and waited for my doctor to come along and induce me.  Around 1:15pm she showed up and they put a Foley Bulb inside of me.  They told me it usually takes around 12 hours for the bulb to ‘do it’s thing’ and get me dilated to around 3-4 centimeters.  Mine only ended up needing about 6 hours.  After the bulb was removed, they started giving me Pitocin to get my contractions going.  I went through contractions throughout the evening, wondering when I would be able to get my epidural.  Around 11pm (I believe 6 centimeters dilated), the anesthesiologist came into my room to administer my epidural.  I was both scared and happy at the same time.  They informed me the whole process would take about an hour.  She did her thing and told me I should start feeling relief with the next half hour.  I did, but unfortunately, that relief only lasted for around four hours.  Around 4am, my nurse came into my room and asked why I was in pain and moaning.  I told her it was because I could feel everything.  She said that she would order more pain relief medication for my IV bag.  Let’s just say she forgot to do that.  From 4am until I gave birth I felt EVERYTHING, literately EVERYTHING.  She came back into the room at 6am and again asked why I was in so much pain.  Again, I told her that I could feel everything.  She decided it was time to go ahead and check to see how much I was dialated.  She checked and said, ‘no wonder, the head is right there and you’re ready to go…’.  I had the most intense pressure to push.  I honestly didn’t know in that moment if I would be able to prevent myself from doing so or not.  She advised me she would go track down my doctor and let her know my status and find out the next steps.  She came back into the room about 20 minutes later and told me I would have to wait because my doctor was at the end of doing a C-section.  Being told to wait, in that moment, is terrible (awful, concerning, emotional – you fill in the blank).  In unbearable pain, I waited it out as I was told.  Around 6:50am, my nurse said she was going to help me start pushing while we waited on my doctor.  I started pushing and my doctor showed up around 7:05am and got ready to help deliver my baby.  I was very fortunate to have my OB be the doctor to deliver my baby.  I pushed and pushed and pushed until 7:26am when my sweet, little angel was born.  I ended up getting a fever during my pushing and had to be given oxygen and a cold compress to help get me through it.  Once my baby was born my husband didn’t get a chance to clip her cord like we had planned (again, expect the unexpected).  My doctor had to quickly cut it so Leia’s doctor could check her out and make sure everything was okay with our baby.  Luckily, everything was and my husband was there with her the whole time.  I was so blessed to have my husband with me the entire time and that he cared to be there.  After being checked out, Leia’s doctor handed her to me and I got to hold my baby for the first time (talk about an emotional experience).

When they say childbirth is painful, that is no exaggeration.  It was definitely the most painful thing that has ever happened to me.  Even though it was so very painful, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in this world.  I got to have my precious baby girl because of it.  My husband and I became the happiest couple the day our daughter was born.  Seeing the love your husband has for their child/ren is literately the best feeling in the world.  My husband and I hope to have at least one more child within the next year or two.  We want Leia to have a sibling like we were both fortunate to have (he has two sisters and I have two sisters and one brother).

If I could get through my childbirth experience, you can do it to!  Women were built for this – it is absolutely incredible.

I would love to hear your birth story, please share in the comments.  😉