birth story - team green & I didn't know I was in labor (PIP)

talitha712 · January 2012

This past Friday and Saturday I had been having BH off and on. They would get regular (5-20 minutes apart) then fizzle out. Sunday they were even more infrequent, so I had resigned myself to waiting. I had been 3cm and 80% at my appointment Thursday, so I was excited thinking it would happen soon even though my EDD was 1/7.

Monday 1/2 I only noticed the occasional BH. Nothing painful, nothing consistent, and they kept stopping. I also had a little bit of dull cramping off and on, but I'd had that for a while so didn't think much of it.

At 5:30 DH and I were getting ready to head out to dinner when I felt a pop and a gush. I told DH I thought my water had just broken, so I called my doc who told me to come on in and get checked. DH and I took our time finishing up packing since we figured we had tons of time since I wasn't in any pain or having regular contractions.

We got in the car and stopped at Panera on the way to the hospital because I was hungry. It was in the car that those dull cramps started becoming more painful and regular, to the point that I couldn't talk through them and just had to concentrate on breathing.

DH and I got to the hospital at 6:30. The nurse checked me and not only had my water broken but I was already dilated to 8cm and 100% effaced! At this point, I'd only been having painful contractions for maybe a half hour. The next 45 minutes or so were a whirlwind of getting moved from triage to a l&d room, signing papers, and nurses firing questions at me from both sides. I got the epidural pretty quickly as well.

After that we had some down time, which was nice since everything else had happened so fast. I needed time to process the fact that we were having a baby now DH and I watched some movies and just hung out. The epi was amazing - I couldn't feel a thing. By 9:30 I was 10cm and they let me labor down for an hour to get the baby down a little further before pushing.

At 10:40 I started pushing. I pushed for 3 hours, and the mirror was great motivation for the last 45 minutes to an hour because I could see the baby's head right there. DH, the nurse, and the doctor were so calm and so encouraging. We'd be talking, a contraction would start and I'd push for three counts of 10, then we'd pick our conversation right back up. The whole delivery process was so much calmer than I had thought it would be. At 1:31am on 1/3 our baby came out and DH got to tell me that it was a girl! Eleanor Ruth weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She has a FULL head of dark hair and is perfect.

We are heading home from the hospital this afternoon. BF is going okay, but it's definitely a learning process. I had a 2nd degree tear, which has also felt better each day. DH and I are both exhausted, but so in love with our little girl.