My SEMI natural birth story!

KHumm · April 2013

So, I planned I delivering natural. My husband and I attended Lamaze classes, watched videos, did our research on the Internet, read books... We thought we were prepared! Nope! Haha I actually went into labor 12 days early on Saturday night before Easter... My water broke at home at 10:10 PM, so we finished gathering up some things and headed to the hospital. We got there around midnight and were told that I was 4 cm! I was happy with that. I had started with contractions on the way to the hospital that were 2 to 3 minutes apart. They were not very painful, but enough to take my breath away! Once I was settled in my room, we got as comfortable as we could and took each contraction one at a time! My sister thought it was funny because I would be having a normal conversation and just stop, breathe through a contraction and then continue on with the conversation! Around 3:00 they became much much stronger. I lasted about an hour before I was wanting the epidural! They asked if I wanted to be checked before to see how much progress I had made, so I did, and I was only at 5 cm! I requested the epidural and, lucky for me, anesthesia was there in 6 minutes and had the epi in me in just 5 minutes! It was amazing! Haha About an hour and a half later, they checked me and I was at 6 to 7 cm! Then about 45 min later I was feeling pressure so they checked me again. I was now 9 cm! Everything was moving along very quickly! My doctor then decided to let me "labor down" so that I wasn't pushing forever! At 10 AM we decided to start prepping to push. I was feeling a ton of pressure! I was feeling like I wanted to push! I felt something wet on my left shoulder... It was the epidural! A plastic piece cracked and the meds were not making it to my back... I could move my leg a without a problem and felt everything! In a sense I was happy because I have always said I wanted to FEEL what it was like for a baby to come out of me! Well, I felt it! Ha I pushed only 3 times through one contraction and she was here! My doctor had to literally run to the room or she would have missed it! I couldn't hold her in any longer! I knew when to push due to the epi failing. It was amazing! I had my baby girl, Maci Lynne, at 11:06 AM on Easter Sunday! I wasn't due until April 11th, so she was definitely a surprise! She was 8 pounds 2 ounces and 21 inches of perfection!!!
The umbilical chord was wrapped around her neck two times, but was loose enough to cut. I had a minor tear that was stitched up. I was up and walking as soon as they were done cleaning me up. I haven't taken anything for pain, except for 2 Aleve! I feel like the epi helped me through the contractions, but God knew I wanted my natural delivery and found a way to give it to me! :

rinne129 · April 2013

What a great story!

I too hope to have a natural birth and am trying to delete the "e word" from my vocabulary completely. Do you think now, looking back, that you could have made it through without? Or was that what you needed to progress a bit