30 minute labor! Didn't Make it to the hospital!

jallen5225

This birth story is long overdue as my LO will be one in 2 months

My first son was born in June 2014 and I had a pretty quick labor for a FTM. I was 4 centimeters 80% effaced at my 36 week checkup and delivered  at 38 weeks and my entire labor was 3 hours from start to finish.

Fast-forward a year later, pregnant with son #2. At 35 weeks I found out that I was already 4 centimeters and 80% effaced. At 36 weeks I was still 4 centimeters and 100% effaced.

At 38W 0d, I was up late as the Eagles were playing the Cowboys on a Sunday night and they went into OT. I remember writing on fb that the stress of the game was going to put me into labor. Within an hour of writing that status my son was here. The Eagles won and I went to bed around 12:15am and my back was hurting but I thought nothing of it being 9 months pregnant and having a 27lb 17 month old. I put a heating pad on and tried to fall asleep. At 12:30 I had my first contraction and it lasted over a min. It woke my DH up and we started getting ready to go to the hospital. My DH called my Aunt to come watch our son and my mom to meet us at the hospital (phone calls made at 12:31 and 12:32am. My contractions were 2 mins apart lasting 1 minute each.

I told my husband that I didn't know if I was going to make it as we waited for my Aunt to come over. I was pacing our living room and I felt like I had to go to the bathroom so I went into our powder room and by the time I got my pants to my ankles my baby's head broke my water and my knees buckled and gave out. I opened the door and shouted to DH that the baby was coming. He asked if he should call 911. His first call to 911 was at 12:54am.

Dispatch said they were sending an ambulance and asked if he could see the baby's head. He said no and they said to call back if the situation changed. My Aunt arrived and I remember seeing her shocked face as she walked in to me laying on the hallway floor with my pants around my ankles (I can laugh at it now). Since my Aunt had arrived DH ran outside to help direct the ambulance since most of the houses in my neighborhood look the same and it was dark. The next contraction my son's head was out. My Aunt yelled for DH and he ran back inside and in the very next contraction DH was able to hook his fingers under the baby's shoulders and DH pulled and I pushed and almost too easily our son was born. DH put our baby onto my chest and I swiped out the fluid in his mouth and he started crying. DH called 911 a second time at 1:02am. We waited impatiently for the ambulance to arrive. The dispatcher instructed DH to use shoe string to tie off the umbilical cord and dry him off using towels.

Once they arrive they cut the cord, loaded us onto a stretcher, wrapped us in warming blankets, and loaded us into the ambulance. I think we hit every pothole on the way to the hospital. We entered through the ER to cheers from nurses. Oddly that calmed my nerves because now I could be happy that my son was here in my arms instead of being terrified. I remember being wheeled out of the ambulance and down a short hallway past my mom and sister looking on with shocked expressions. They took my son to the NICU and DH stayed with the baby. They wheeled me up to labor and delivery and started Pitocin to get my contractions going again because I still had not delivered the placenta. Because it had been over an hour by this point since I delivered the doctor told me that my body was starting to try to heal itself around the placenta and I developed a substantial amount of blood clots. The nurse had to push on my stomach to the point of instant bruising to get the clots to come out. The pain from that was worst than the pain from the contractions or delivery.

About an hour after that LO's temp was back to normal and we were reunited. When filling out the paperwork the nurses had us take our best guess as to the time LO was born. We had to check DH phone logs to come up with a time so our best guess is 1:00am. 30 minutes from start to finish!

I'm terrified for baby #3....

SaphireSweetie88

Thanks for sharing!

mnajib92

Thanks for this.  It was interesting to read about

melonmug

Oh my! I'm nervous about this! My first labor was about two hours from start to finish. I really had no symptoms leading up to labor, and then my water broke. I immediately started having contractions that were about a minute-a minute and a half apart. We fortunately made it to the hospital just in time. I'm hoping we make it with baby #2!

AMCsquared

OMG this story is amazing 

peregrinefalconx

Wow. Crazy! Congrats. LO will enjoy hearing about that one all his life!

mill1020

Oh my gosh, wow!  

kingdommom

Whew! I'm worried about my third one. I had fairly quick labors (except I needed a vacuum for my first and ended up with an emergency c-section with my second). But my Mom's third was also born unexpectedly at home and my sister's third was born an hour after getting to the hospital. I also know someone who had her third 5 minutes after getting to the birth center (and he was 11 lbs!!).