the birth story.

Someone once told me that God is kind to mothers and gives them a certain amount of amnesia to help them forget labor and the early sleepless nights. Otherwise, no one would ever have a second child.

I completely believe that.

I was absolutely terrified to be induced. Turns out I knew what I was talking about. But my doctor was sure that it was best for the baby to go ahead and get her out.

We went in Thursday at 3:00 pm to get started. I had pre-registered so it didn't take long to get us upstairs to Labor & Delivery. Once we got to the floor, the nurses had Mr. Perfect and my parents, who had ridden up to the hospital with us, wait in the waiting room while they got me set up. I got put in a room and got hooked up to the fetal monitor. At about 5:00 pm, the nurse came in and inserted the Cervadil. I had been told that there was a possibility that this would start labor, but not always. Before they inserted the Cervadil, they checked to see where my progress was at and I had dilated to a 1 and was 80% effaced. I was pretty proud of myself for getting there on my own. Silly me. I thought that was going to make this go faster!

When I got there, I was already having mild contractions. I could see them on the monitor but they weren't even impressive enough for me to feel. About 4 hours after the Cervadil, they picked up a bit more, but I was still feeling great. I had dinner that night and a good 'ol time with some friends who came by to visit. I even got an up close show of a woman in labor. The audio part anyway. Her screaming almost made me back out of giving birth. Every one thought my face was hysterical. Sure they did. They weren't about to have to push out a bowling ball.

About 9:30 pm, the nurse brought me an Ambien and I was out less than an hour later. My last good night of sleep for a while...

The next morning my nurse came by at 4:00 am to wake us up. The Cervadil was removed and I was able to take a shower and "empty" out my system. If you've been in labor you know what that is. If not, well I'm a Southern lady and I'm keeping some details to myself... I was feeling pretty good at this point. At 5:00 am they started my pitocin. The nurse that checked me at that point, said I was dilated to 1.5 but was only effaced to about 50%. What?! How does a person go backwards on effacement?!

A few hours after they started the Pitocin, my contractions were really starting to pick up. My nurse, Tiffany, was awesome. Well, most of the time. By 9:00 am, my contractions were pretty intense. They were upping the Pitocin about every 30 minutes. She gave me some i.v pain meds and i.v Phenergen for nausea. I was out in 20 seconds. This girl cannot hold her pain meds. I vaguely remember Tiffany coming back in and telling me that I would get my epidural at noon, but pretty much the whole morning is a blur. That medication knocked this girl out.

I never got my epidural at noon. I got checked again about 2:00 pm and was only at 1.5 cm and about 80% effaced. I was so frustrated. And getting very worn out. My Pitocin kept getting upped and my body was literally getting racked by contractions. I tried every labor position known to man to get my body to relax and dilate. I hung on to Mr. Perfect, got on my hands and knees, and even did the stupid ball. Nada.

About 6:00 pm my doctor, Dr. S, came by and checked me. Said I was between a 1.5 and a 2 and only about 60% effaced.

Are you kidding me?!

He told me that they wouldn't be able to give me an epidural until I got to a 3. So he wanted to stop the labor in a few hours since I wasn't making any progress and start again the next morning. I was so upset. It had already been such a long day. My back hurt from back labor, I was exhausted from contractions, hungry, and frustrated with my progress.

Sometime after his visit my night nurse, Therese, came in and turned off my Pitocin. Right away the extreme contractions stopped. I was so sore and so tired. They said they were going to bring me something to help me sleep and then we would start again at six in the morning.

About nine or so that night, my contractions peaked again. Therese came in and got all excited about how she was convinced I would have that baby that night. Not cool to tell a pregnant lady that unless you can make sure its going to happen. She checked me and said I was about a 2 maybe a 2.5. She also told me that every time you got checked, your results were all just dependent on the size of that person's fingers. Didn't make me feel any better.

I got up to use the bathroom and noticed that I'd lost my mucus plug. Once again, Therese got all excited. Really made me feel like my baby was on the way. Stupid.

That night (Friday) was horrible. I went in to full on labor on my own. I started vomiting, which led to dry heaving, and having contractions measuring at the least a 120 on the monitor. I finally got some pain and nausea medicine, but it honestly didn't touch it. My stomach would not settle down and my contractions were coming about every minute.

Then they slowed down again. I kid you not. My body went limp and I passed out. I was asleep in no time. Then at 5:00 am, Therese came and woke me up again to get it started all over.

I was able to take a shower, but honestly, I had no energy. I was terrified that come time, I wouldn't even be able to push. My poor husband was exhausted and was having a hard time watching me go through all that. But he was amazing. I seriously couldn't have done it without him.

Therese came in at 6:00 am and got my Pitocin started again. She barely had it going when my body started contracting off the charts again. I was given pain meds again, but once again, they barely touched the pain. At 7:00 am, my nurse switched to a lady named Gina. Oh how I love Gina. She gave me more pain meds that knocked me out. However, I woke up every 2 minutes with my contractions. I was miserable. When she checked me, she got that I was a 2 and about 90% effaced. My Pitocin level was still ridiculously low, but my body was responding with extremely strong contractions.

I'm not going to lie. I was bawling my eyes out. Mr. Perfect and I walked around and tried all the labor positions again. I couldn't get any relief. By this point, my body was exhausted. I think I told Mr. Perfect multiple times that there was no way I could do this. I was about ready to give up and beg for a c-section. I just wanted my baby out. And I was absolutely terrified that I wasn't going to have the energy to push.

Gina came in about 8:45 am and checked me. I thought my insides were splitting in half. I literally screamed at her to "Get out" multiple times and almost climbed off the table. She looked at Mr. Perfect and told him that she was going to call my doctor, that this was ridiculous, and that she felt like she was torturing me. So she went out in the hall while I was puking my guts out in the bathroom, and called my doctor. We could hear her. She asked him if he was planning on me having a baby today. He must have said yes, because she told him, "Great. Then order her an epidural or I'm sending her home, because I'm just torturing this poor girl".

Three minutes later, a savior walked in. A man with an epidural.

It took three minutes and I had sweet, sweet relief. Instantly my body went numb. I could still feel a lot of pressure on my right side, but I felt a million times better.

Dr. S showed up about 30 minutes later and broke my water. I didn't even feel it. I just felt a huge gush and then nothing. Apparently, that was all my body needed because I was dilated to a 5 1/2 about an hour and a half later. I could feel so much pressure in my bottom area. It was like I could literally feel the baby moving down.

An hour later, Gina came in and checked me again. She looked at me in shock and told me I was ready to push. I wasn't surprised. I'd been saying for 30 minutes that I could feel the baby and I felt like I needed to push. She told me to give a test push, so I did, all while Mr. Perfect is kicking family and friends out of the room. It all happened so quick.

Gina went and called the doc who said he was on his way. She came back in and had me start pushing again. I pushed for a while with her, and then Dr. S came in. He checked me and told Gina that I had a lot of pushing ahead of me and to call him later. She told him that she didn't think it would take me long to get the baby down and that she thought he would be better off sticking around. He left anyway. Pissed her off.

About 20 minutes later, she called him back in there. She left just Mr. Perfect with me while I was pushing. He was terrified I was going to deliver the baby with just him around. Poor boy! When Dr. S got back in there, he tried to leave again, and Gina was furious. She made me push while he sat there and they could see the baby. I think Dr. S was a bit embarrassed as he asked for his delivery clothes.

Labor = not fun. I pushed for 45 minutes. I literally thought I would collapse before I got her out. I kept getting her to crown but could not get her head out, so I had to have a 4th degree episiotomy. Basically they cut all the way through my rectal muscle. I didn't care. I couldn't feel that. I felt the burning and the pain though. I even screamed at my doctor, whose been doing this for years, that he didn't understand how bad this hurt. Yea, I'm a peach during delivery.

Finally, after 45 minutes, Dr. S threw this screaming bundle of arms and legs on my stomach. I was in shock. She was here. And she was perfect. I got to hold her for a second before she was whisked off to get measured and weighed. Mr. Perfect went with her while I got cleaned up. They saved my placenta and everything so they were real careful while delivering the afterbirth to not mess it up at all. After I got my 40 something stitches, they brought my sweet angel back to see me. We were able to try our hand at nursing and then they let our family come in and meet her. I was exhausted, I barely even remember them coming in.

The rest of the day was spent getting to know my angel. Our hospital encourages rooming in, so the baby stays with the parents the whole time. Baby Girl had so many people coming to see her. She's so loved. I immediately sent my parents out for K*rystals which I downed in about 2 minutes. Our first night together was awesome. Mr. Perfect handled Baby Girl most of the time, because I was spent.

We spent the next day trying to recover. My body took a real beating during labor and I was having some complications that I was trying to deal with. Baby Girl came back as a different blood type than me which predisposes her to jaundice, so she was set up under the lights. She had to spend the majority of the day under the lights and she hated it. That night, we sent her to the nursery at about 1 am. I had to get some sleep and we couldn't sleep with that light in our room. She had to have a few rounds of blood drawn anyway, so we let them keep her for about 5 hours. It almost killed me to watch her get wheeled out of our room. It's actually about to make me cry right now.

Some how she was given some bad formula in the nursery and she came back to us in a mood. She screamed for hours. Her pediatrician reamed out the nursery staff, but we had a rough day with her tummy. Made me feel even worse about sending her down there.

Finally, on April 5th we took her home. And honestly? Her labor and delivery is all a blur. She was so worth every second of it, and I would totally go through it all again to get her. Of course, its going to be a long while before I'll be able to psych myself in to delivering another one.

Turns out that the amount of fluid I had was hindering the delivery. Baby Girl was never going to be able to move down with all the fluid, and my body couldn't break my water on its own. If they hadn't broken down and broke my water, I swear I would still be in labor. I thank Gina for sticking up to my doctor and getting things started. I love that woman.

So that's her birth story. Kudos to you if you're still reading. And honestly?


Totally worth it.