Emma is here! Birth Story Long

englishviola · January 2010

I liked reading these, so here's my birth story.

Emma Josephina Elizabeth was born on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 1:25 am. She was 6 lbs 11 oz and 21 in long. Despite her dramatic entrance into the world, she is completely healthy and happy!

"When the fruit is ready, it will fall off the vine," says a Chinese proverb I found while endlessly googling "natural birth induction methods" earlier this week. It pretty much sums up Emma's birth experience.

**Warning: Birth Story: Detailed!!**

I was on modified bedrest from 32 - 37 weeks due to preterm labor. As I neared 39 weeks on Tuesday, and still no baby, the time I spend on bedrest was taunting me. I had had contractions on and off for weeks, was walking around 2-3 cm dilated and 0 station, and generally pretty uncomfortable. Finally, I made an appointment for acupuncture Monday the 11th. I noticed an increase in cramps afterward, but no real contractions, and when I went through my day Tuesday, including an OB appt with no change, I was starting to get depressed and wonder if I would ever go into labor.

Tuesday after dinner I started walking up and down the stairs in an attempt to get the baby to keep moving down. She did feel really low, and I was getting tired, so around 8 I settled in for a boring evening of The Office reruns. Around 9 I realized I was having contractions, so I started timing them. Hooray! They were all less than 10 minutes apart. At 10 pm, they were closer to 5 minutes apart and not super-painful, but definitely distracting. I couldn't give Jim and Pam my full attention. I started feeling a lot of pelvic pressure, but again, I wasn't sure, so I called Kim, my doula, and told her I thought we should go to the hospital. I then called my mom and she said she would come over to stay with DS, but it would take her about 45 minutes. I said no problem, and went back to watching the Office.

Around 10:30, the contractions started getting more uncomfortable -- again, not unbearable, just more intense. I asked DH to get the car packed so we'd be ready to go when my mom got there. The last three contractions I had at home I definitely had to breathe through.

When we got to the hospital around midnight, they weren't sure whether they wanted to keep me b/c I was only about 3.5 cm dilated and contracting "only" every 6-7 minutes. Kim, DH, and I walked the halls for about 45 minutes. During this time, I had maybe 5? contractions, but they were suddenly more intense. At 1 am, my water broke in the hallway -- kind of ew, by the way -- and we walked back to triage. They would have to keep me!

At 1:10, between increasingly rough contractions, I was checked and only a 4. I had really wanted to use natural forms of pain relief and forego the epidural, but when I stood up after being checked, I suddenly panicked and felt I couldn't handle it. I asked for a room and to get the epi immediately. I could see the nurse give me the side-eye at asking for an epi at only 4 cm. I felt like my pelvis was ripping apart. I realize now that I felt this way because I was in transition.

All of a sudden, I felt my body completely curl in on itself and I thought I was going be sick. I told the nurse I thought I was going to have a BM, and then all hell broke loose.

"Get on the bed -- NOW!" she screamed at me. I was standing next to the bed and there was no way I could lay on the bed. The nurse and DH hoisted me up and I was on my hands and knees facing the back of the bed. "DON'T PUSH!!!!!" she yelled, and then we were off -- DH and the nurse, running down the hallway out of triage to a delivery room. As we went around a corner, DH ran the bed into a wall, and I felt Emma's head come out! The minute we landed in the room, the rest of her body fell out onto the bed. The doctor, who was maybe 10' away in triage, didn't make it. Little Emma delivered herself at 1:25 am, just 15 minutes after I was determined to be 4 cm dilated.

She cried and pinked up immediately, and is perfectly healthy, happy, and strong. DH and I were pretty much in shock at this point -- just 15 minutes earlier we were thinking about what songs on our labor playlist to listen to.