The Labor Story
On Monday, October 5th, around 9:00pm, we tucked
Axel into bed and I felt the need to re-cap to him what was going to happen if
I went into labor in the middle of the night.
I explained what was in his bag, what he would need to grab and what he
would need to do. Then after tucking him
in, I went into nervous panic mode. I
was shaking and talking to Christian and telling him… “This is so real! She can be here any moment and I am terrified
of the labor process and the changes. We
are going to be great parents, but I am still so nervous!” Yes, that’s right… out of nowhere, I was on
super charge nerves and was feeling every emotion possible. Christian talked calmly to me and let me know
that I got no sleep the night before and I was probably just so tired and just
needed to rest. I agreed and decided I
would call it a night early.
At 9:37pm, I was reading in bed and felt a small gush of
liquid come out of me! It was small, but
I had just peed so clearly it had to be something right?? Went to the restroom, confirmed it wasn’t
urine and then called Christian to our room to let him know what was going
on. We decided since it was a small
gush, it probably meant nothing but we would call his parents to give them a
heads up and let them know I may go into labor that very night. As soon as Christian got off the phone, a
HUGE gush came out of me, soaking the towel I was laying on completely! I ran to the bathroom with Christian and we
both just stared at each other for about 5 seconds like “uhh… this is it!” and
then both started laughing hysterically.
I wasn’t feeling any contractions or anything so we took our sweet time
getting ready. I took a shower,
Christian showered, I packed up the last minute things needed like toothbrushes
and phone chargers and then woke Axel up finally. Throughout this ‘getting ready’ process more
and more gushes of water would come and send me into a nervous giggle fit each
time. I remember my Dr telling me that I
needed to go to hospital within a certain amount of time from my water breaking
so at about 11:15, we headed to the hospital (which is about 35mins away) to
meet Christian’s parents. They were
meeting us there so they could pick up Axel and keep him for us. At this time, I still have no contractions
whatsoever and I am just excited that we are finally going to meet our little
princess!
11:50pm – We arrived at the hospital, passed Axel off and
got up to the maternity ward. I finally
felt my first contraction by this point but it was subtle and manageable. I left a lovely trail of water drops for
anyone who may have needed to know exactly where I had gone in the hospital. I
think I apologized to the nurses like 50 times.
Oh nurses… there were a lot that helped us and a handful that were
awful. Which brings me to nurse one…
awful! As she was helping me sit onto the bed so she can check me another gush
of water came out and she jumped back and said “oh thanks a lot, you got it on
my shoes!” I chuckled at first thinking
it was a joke and then looked at her face and quickly realized it wasn’t. I
apologized and got into bed to get examined by her. Yeah… she got sweet revenge while doing
that. I believe she stuck her entire arm
inside me and gave Aria a high five. She
actually told me that my cervix was really far back and it was making it hard
for her to feel anything. So she did it
again… equally as painful. Turns out… I
was at 0/0 (0 centimeters and 0% effaced).
WHAT?! But my water broke! I
thought that meant I for sure had progress of some kind. The only thing I could think of at that point
was 1. Please get me away from Miss Sunshine here and 2. 0/0 means I would have
a looong labor process in the hospital.
Ugh! Anyway, they got me into my
labor room and around 12:30am my contractions started on their own and were
pretty unpleasant and regular right off the bat. The contractions being unpleasant was to be
expected.
My new nurse was introduced to us and she got to check me
next. She too said that she was having a
difficult time because I had a “posterior cervix” that was hard to reach. So it was concluded that all these exams were
going to be SO painful. She agreed that
I was at 0/0 and let me know when I got to 3 is when I would be able have an
epidural if needed. She vanished at that
point and only came in the room if a monitor needed to be adjusted. Around 4am, my contractions were very strong
and very close together. Christian was
the best labor coach for me. He had me
breathe with him, he rubbed my head, he held my hand and for a brief moment, I
focused on him and saw the pain in his eyes.
He is a typical guy that wants to fix things. I bring him a problem, he fixes it. I get hurt, he fixes it and this one he
couldn’t fix and it was hurting him. I
feel absolutely guilty looking back on this because at one point I remember
telling him “please help me. Make it
stop.” And he could literally do nothing for me. After the labor, I apologized for doing that
to him at least 10 times. I still feel
so bad. It wasn’t a fair thing for me to
say, but at least I wasn’t doing it with malice. I was having a moment of weakness.
There was a machine that Christian sat by that showed him
the severity of my contractions. He was
noticing that there was no more “down time” between them and I wasn’t able to
get a release from the pain. At 5:45, he
took it upon himself to call the nurse and ask that she check me again to see
if I could get the epidural. She came,
she checked. That was the MOST PAINFUL
moment ever! Worse than the previous
times and on top of that… a super big contraction hit. That one literally made me cry. The nurse couldn’t tell still just how far
along I was so she guessed I was 3 cm dilated and ordered the epidural for
me. She mentioned once the epidural took
effect, she could check again and be clearer on the progress. Around 6am, the anesthesiologist, came in my
room and if I wasn’t contracting so badly, I may have hugged him. He did his thing and about 20 minutes later,
I was finally able to relax. Woo
hoo! This is where the fun really begins
people!
So my nurse comes in and checks me again. Says “Umm… I think you’re at a 3, but I don’t
think I feel her head. I am going to get
another nurse in here to check just because I am not really sure what I am
feeling.” Umm… ok? So nurse 2 comes in, does her exam and I am
thankful I am numb during this entire process.
She too determines I am “probably about a 3, but that’s not the head. There are little bumps.” The 2 nurses stare at each other for a good
30 seconds with a deer in the headlights look and all I am thinking is…. Is it
a baby!? Is it an alien? Why is there no head and what are the bumps?! Nurse 2 recommends they call the OB on call
to come and take a look. At 6:30, in
walks the on call Dr. She checks me and
says…get this… I am really at 7cm dilated.
So let’s side note this real quick:
from 12:30-6:00 I had gone from 0-7, my nurse never checked and thought
I was at a 3? At that moment, I
realized, there are issues going on. If
nurses can’t get this right and they are feeling ‘bumps’, something is wrong. Ok. Back to the Dr. She too, says she doesn’t feel the baby’s
head. She isn’t sure what she feels so
she gets an ultrasound machine. Turns
out, Aria is head down, but she was in a C shape, face down and hand above head
(just like in all her ultrasound pictures).
They think the little bumps they were feeling were her hand. Once the on
call Dr saw how Aria was positioned, she called my Dr to let him know. At 6:50 she comes in my room and says my Dr
will be there shortly and that I am to be prepped for a C-section.
At 7:05am my Dr arrived and let me know what was going to
happen and spoke about the dangers of delivering a baby in Aria’s
position. Then he turned around and in a
nice way demanded that the nurses get moving asap. Yeah… he got them going. Lol Within just a
few minutes, I was being wheeled back to the OR room. Now I feel totally guilty admitting this but
in the few minutes that I was being prepped, I dozed off. That wouldn’t be a problem except for the
fact that I was not really wanting to wake up.
Here we are, my baby is minutes from arriving and all I am doing is
sleeping. I was SO tired. Hadn’t slept all night long and barely slept
the night before and for the first time I was relaxed.
Side story to explain
the next bit: Christian watched a
comedian tell a C-section joke one time.
It went something like this. The
comedian told a story about the time his wife had to have a C-section. He thought at one point the Dr had told him
to go over there and he ended up looking over the curtain. He looked in horror as he saw his wife
“disemboweled”. As he returned to his
wife’s head, in shock, he comforted her by saying how beautiful their child
was. Then, in a dramatic whisper, he
told her “You’re going to die.”
Once the prepping was almost done, I opened up my eyes and
looked up at Christian and whispered “you’re gonna die” in the same dramatic
tone as the comedian and we both went into a fit of laughter. The Dr and nurses were a bit confused by what
was so funny, but I couldn’t help but break the nervousness somehow.At 7:23am, I heard the most beautiful cry letting me know my baby girl was finally here. That woke me up! I was SO happy!! Dr showed me the baby and… Holy cow! It looked like someone punched her in the face! One of her eyes was swollen completely shut and her eyelid was protruding from her face. I now know that because she was facing down her face was getting banged up as she was dropping lower and lower. Makes me a little sad that we didn’t catch that sooner so she could have been taken out earlier and not have to go through all that. Anyway, back to her arrival. The nurses weighed and measured her at 7lbs 7oz and 19 3/4in. Christian was able to run back and forth to me to give me updates. Once he left with the baby and nurses, I took advantage of the time I was getting put back together to take another nap. I don’t know if that was the best idea though because once I fell asleep, I was dozing off all day long uncontrollably. Literally would fall asleep mid-sentence. Happy to announce, I still haven’t recovered from that night’s lack of sleep. Happy? Yes, because that means I have a healthy baby at home with me that requires all my time and attention.
Recovery
I won’t bore you with all the details since this post is
already long enough. I will say that I
never in my life thought what the recovery would be like for a C-section and I
am sure if I did, I would have been way wrong anyway. It’s the most pain I have ever experienced in
my life. Seriously! I am not saying vaginal deliveries have it
easier. They have their own slew of
messes to deal with… BUT something about having layers of my body (including
nerve ending and muscles) cut through and sewn back together is a traumatizing
experience for my body. I knew that I
would have a longer recovery time but this is nuts and now I know why! Luckily, I know a few people that have had
C-sections and have given me some really great advice on things to do and not
do to help me recover as best and as fast as I can.
Going Home
We came home from the hospital on Thursday, October 8th. As much as I wanted to come home, I now want
to go back. It was great to have so many
hands and experienced people surrounding me and now that I am home, it’s scary. Really it’s been great… Hard, but great. She is a good baby and like most newborns,
sleeps a lot. She just loves snuggling
and sleeping in our arms. Christian is
like a space heater so that is right up her ally. We have had her home for a week now and the
sleep deprivation has become more challenging as the days go by. I am hoping over the next few weeks we will establish
a better routine to help us get through it.
We are absolutely in love with this little girl and she has us wrapped
around her finger. There is hardly a
time when she is not in someone’s arms.
I know… I know… we are creating a monster and will have a difficult time
later because of this. We are just
soaking up all of this time while she is so little and lets us love on her all
day. I am SO grateful for my church
family here. They have been just
absolutely amazing! We have been brought
meals almost every night for the past week and I am constantly being checked on
by someone. I am getting ready to face
being a new mom alone at home all day in the next week and although I am
terrified, these wonderful friends of mine are close by and are willing and
ready to jump in to help. Aria’s 2 week
appointment is also coming up so I will start getting my next post ready so I
can give you more frequent updates. (I also promise more pics on the next post too.)
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