LopezAlonso: Isabel's birth story PIP

lopezalonso · March 2014

Last Wednesday evening, at 40w3d, I decided that I would be staying up all night watching TV because I knew that once LO came along I wouldn't be able to do so. I said goodnight to DH and got comfortable on the living room couch at around 10:00pm. At 11:00pm I felt a pop and gush of water. My immediate thought was, "It's happening!" I ran to the bathroom and sat on the toilet and with every movement more and more liquid gushed out. I called my doctor and he said to head over to the hospital. Well, I had heard that labor takes a while so I decided to take a shower and wash my hair. No less than 15 minutes later I started having contractions. I did not feel my belly get tight but I did feel the pain. I started timing the contractions and I was getting 45 second to 60 second contractions every 2 minutes. I thought I must be timing it wrong because there was no way I had gone from nothing to active labor. Well... the pain got less and less tolerable so I finished blow drying my hair in between contractions and at 12:30am I told DH we had to go.

We got to the hospital 20 minutes later. The pains had only gotten stronger and stronger. I initially thought I would try to get through labor without the epidural but by the time I got to the hospital I was 4cm and he contractions were spiking -- I just couldn't do it. I asked for the epidural. It couldn't come quick enough. The anesthesiologist finally came and it was uncomfortable but after it kicked in, I felt so much better. Two hours later my OB checked me again and I was at 7cm! I was told that I would be pushing in no time. Well, at 5AM we started pushing. It wasn't so bad at first and I though, "Hey, I can do this!" I pushed for a total of 2 hours and was pretty tired near the end. I was lucky to have a great nurse and doctor that coached me through the entire thing. DH was pretty shell shocked. One thing that surprised me was that the epidural did not numb you entirely for the pushing. I felt so much! Especially when she was crowning. That. was. the. worst. I even yelled out, "It hurts" and my doctor said, "You have to push!" So I did. I then saw him put out his tools and snip -- oh no, episiotomy. Her little head came out soon after and I felt the warmth of it against my thigh. The rest of her body came out pretty quick and she was immediately placed on top me. It was such a beautiful moment. I just couldn't believe that, that tiny person came out of me!!

my OB stitched me up and I was eventually transferred to the recovery room. There was a lot of blood at first but it has slowed down quite a bit now and I haven't had any really bad pain. I took one percocet right after labor and after that just ibuprofen. I couldn't sleep the first few nights at the hospital because I was afraid she would stop breathing. One week later I feel a lot more confident in my ability to look after her but I am still pretty exhausted. Good luck to everyone still waiting for their outside babies!