I had my baby girl! Long birth story w/ epi and lots of pushing! =D

Lucy_Plus_One! · December 2008

About an hour after I fell asleep feeling like I would be eternally pregnant (it was on my EDD) I woke up to go to the bathroom. When I climbed back into bed I felt a tiny pop ?down there? and then a tiny gush of liquid. I immediately thought it was my water breaking and ran to the bathroom. There was so little liquid that I was not super sure it was my water, but I knew it wasn?t pee since I had just gone and it didn?t smell like pee. I was kind of in shock for a while. Put a pad on and wandered around, checked my email, etc. Then I tried laying down on the couch for a minute and getting back up and sure enough? more gushed!

It was 2:45am when I woke DH up and told him my water broke. I called the dr (thinking they would tell me to rest or come in when contractions got close, etc) but they told me to head in. I had had one contraction when my water broke, one 35 min later, and then a couple within 15 min of each other. We finished packing our hospital bag and headed out, arriving to the Labor & Delivery ward at 3:30am. By then my contractions were already 5 min apart and pretty painful. I was getting scared too. I was happy to hear that I was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced with baby at 0 station. I felt like that was good news since I had just started laboring. They gave me an IV w/something minor for pain management and admitted me to a room. About an hour later I was at 4 cm and 100% effaced. I got the epidural and loved it, although it never completely blocked the pain for me? I can not imagine what labor would have been like without it. (Side note: the IV was totally more painful than the epi.. so don't fear that part) I actually signed onto the nest at this point thinking I could keep people posted on the labor, but we couldn't get the connection back after.

At 645 they checked me again and I was bummed when they told me I was still a 4. They talked about giving me pitocin if it took too long for me to dilate more on my own well. They let me go until about 930am, when they decided to check me and shocked the hell out of me and DH when they said I was already a 9cm and almost ready to push!!!

WHOA! By 1045am I was 10cm and ready to go. I was having some pain and bad pressure (obviously) but was seriously dumb enough to be thinking ?wow, I am getting so lucky here.. this isn?t that bad at all!? I started pushing at 10:55am and soon realized that baby was stuck and I couldn?t get her to come out. She was ?right there? for 3 HOURS OF PUSHING. I couldn?t believe the DR let me do it for that long, but I am so glad they did because she did finally come out (with the help of an episiotomy) at 1:49pm. She weighed 8lbs 1 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. She has lots of gorgeous dark brown hair and looks just like her daddy.

Until the 3^rd hour of pushing I think I handled labor pretty well (especially considering that I have the lowest pain tolerance of anyone I know- I have never so much as sprained anything). However, during that 3^rd hour I swear I almost lost my mind. I had been pushing as hard as I could and kept hearing that she was right there about to crown, but she was NOT coming out. What finally worked is that the doctor pretty much made me watch the pushing in a mirror. I refused for a while and then caved. Once I used that, it was only about 20 minutes before she arrived.

Lesson: use whatever tools they offer you.

When Elayna Grace finally came out, her daddy and I both burst into tears. They wiped her off a little and immediately placed her on my chest. She whimpered a bit, but mostly just snuggled up to me and looked at me. It was the most amazing moment of my life. She is beautiful and perfect and I have never imagined love like this. Although I still remember the pain and work of pregnancy and birth, and am currently in a lot of pain from the long pushing stage of labor?s side effects (I can barely stand to sit up with pain meds), I can already see how people decide to do this again. I would do anything for her.

Sleep was a thing from of the past for the first three days. I had slept a total of about 6 hours (all in 15min-40min bits) in a 72 hour period. Luckily, its getting better. For now my husband and I are taking shifts so that the other one can sleep better for a few hours of the day.

I feel like the luckiest person in the world? and wouldn?t change a thing.