Baby boy arrived a day early! Birth story

TDKitty · November 2009

I've mostly been a lurker on the tri boards, but wanted to share our good news and record all this for myself, too . Maxwell Casey was born one day before his due date, Wednesday the 25th, after a 12-hour labor. Just to give you an idea of my "birth plan," I'd fully intended to get to the hospital early on and get an epidural ASAP, as I'm terrified of pain. It didn't exactly work out that way, but all turned out well and I now have such a respect for those who go natural!

I had been feeling a weird pinching around my cervix for a few days, and I now realize I was probably already dilating. My first real contractions were at 9 p.m. Tuesday night. They started at 5 minutes apart! I posted on here asking if it could be labor, because I couldn't believe they started right off so frequent. They were light, though, and I was afraid to rush to L&D and be sent home. So DH went to bed to rest up and I labored and watched TV until 2 a.m., when they really stared to hurt. We called the doctor he said first babies usually take many hours and if I was feeling OK I might not want to rush in (ladies: you know your body! I should have gone in then if I wanted an epi, but I didn't.) By 4 a.m., I was suddenly in agony and insisted we go.

The drive to the hospital was pretty nightmarish, as I started feeling an incredible amount of pressure in my rear and couldn't actually sit. When I got to the hospital, I was begging for drugs but still had to be triaged. To my shock, I was 8 cm already when they checked me. I was admitted immediately, but by the time I was actually in the delivery room, I was going thru transition. Luckily, the doctor was totally understanding that I still wanted the epidural ASAP--I was exhausted and couldn't imagine pushing without it. I FINALLY got it. What an incredible relief. I felt like a new person.

Pushing was awesome after that---DH and I talked and laughed through the whole thing, which involved an hour of laboring down and about 40 minutes of pushing. It was virtually painless and was an incredible experience. Max was born at 9:30 a.m. weighing 8 lbs. 1 oz., 20" long. He's healthy and a good nurser so far! We were doing well enough to leave the hospital yesterday afternoon, so we were home for Thanksgiving.

My memory of the painful stuff is already fading as people say, but it was definitely no joke at the time! Good luck to everyone on a smooth delivery experience!