ORION’S BIRTH STORY

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - DUE DATE

No signs of labor at all.

Thursday, January 30, 2020

In the middle of the day, I went for many walks and started having slight Braxton Hicks contractions around 2pm until 11pm that night off and on. I was slightly wet throughout the day too.

Friday, January 31, 2020

Around 1pm, I lost some of my mucus plug.

Saturday, February 1, 2020

No signs of labor all day. At 9:30pm, I realized I was wet through to my leggings. I told Ben, and he suggested we call our doula to see what we should do. I had no intentions of going to the hospital to deliver the baby that night. I likely wouldn’t have told anyone either if Ben wasn’t around. Our doula picked up our call and said we needed to get to the hospital immediately because it was likely that my water bad broken on Thursday. Most hospitals require you to deliver the baby within 24 hours of your water breaking to prevent infection. I was clearly past that time frame, but I wasn’t having any contractions. We loaded the car with our packed bags, and started driving to the hospital. On the way, I called my sister in law, Lindsey, and told her what was happening. I asked her to confirm if I would likely get induced with Pitocin when I arrived because I didn’t have any contractions. She told us to turn around and go have sex before arriving at the hospital. She was serious. It is supposed to be one of the best ways to induce labor naturally. So, we turned around. At this point, I still didn’t have any contractions and thought I was about to have at least 14-17 hours of labor because that is the average, so we stopped at Taco Bell on our way back to the hospital for my last meal. The hospital doesn’t let you eat after you’ve checked in.

We walked into the hospital at 11pm and explained that my water may have broken, and we needed to be checked to confirm. I had called the hospital after talking to the doula, so they were ready for us. The nurse hooked up a monitor on my belly to track contractions and the baby’s heart rate. As soon as I was hooked up, I could see 1 minute long contractions about every 3 minutes, but I still couldn’t feel them for the first 5 minutes on the monitor. After watching the chart spike with every contraction, I either realized what the contraction was or the sex put me into labor at exactly the right time. The doctor on call came in and checked me and took a swab to confirm if my water had actually broke. He said I was only 1cm dilated, 50% effaced, and still at a +2 station. This was exactly where I was 5 days earlier at my OB appointment. The test came back positive that the wetness was amniotic fluid, so they were keeping me. At that point, I was prepared to get some sort of medication to start labor because of the length of time. The doctor came back into the room and said that because my contractions were so frequent and long that he was happy to let my body labor naturally until 4am when they would check me again for progress. He did warn me that if I still wasn’t showing any progress at 4am, that they would need to give me Pitocin to speed up labor.

Sunday, February 2,2020

At 5 til midnight, we checked into our delivery room and prepared for labor. I had practiced and envisioned early stage and active labor throughout the whole pregnancy. I was planning on walking, bouncing on a ball, taking a bath, and relaxing on my side to ease any pain or tension, but since my water had already broke, they required me to be on the monitor - which meant that the only walking I was allowed to do was back and forth to the restroom. Again, I thought I was going to be in labor for another 15 hours, so I made the decision to try to sleep some to save up my energy. For the next 3 hours, I pretty much slept the entire time. At hour 3, the contractions were getting slightly stronger, so Ben would watch the monitor and apply pressure to my sacrum to counter the pain of each contraction. I worked amazingly, and I was able to sleep for another hour until 4am. Like clockwork, a new doctor came in at 4am and checked me. I was at 3cm, 100% effaced, and at a 0 station. I threw a strong fist into the air, pumped that I had shown so much progress in the last 4 hours. The doctor awarded me another 2 hours of sleep and no medication and said she would check me again at 6am. I settled back into the bed for another 15-30 minutes, and suddenly I had the hardest contraction yet, and my water fully broke. It felt like a ballon had popped inside me and water was pouring out.

From this moment on, my contractions got more and more intense. I would have 3-4 back to back contractions with no break in the middle. Ben continued to rub my back, help me to the restroom, and encourage me with songs from my labor playlist. I was in full on active labor at this point and not slowing down at all. I labored on my side until around 6am when I was checked again. I was at 8cm this time and the baby was moving down quickly. The last 2 hours of labor were the worst. I threw up twice to make my belly feel better, and I went back and forth to the toilet 4-5 times to relieve pressure. At that point, the paint was still manageable, but then the nurse came in and said I was no longer allowed to lay on my side because the baby’s heart rate was spiking too much with every contraction. After that, I moved positions after every contraction and leaned on Ben entirely to withstand every surge.

I felt like I needed to poop again, but the nurse told me that was just the baby’s head and I wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom because I wasn’t fully dilated. They were afraid I was going to push the baby out too early. The nurse checked me this time and said, “we need the doctor, she’s ready to start pushing.” I got so excited that we were close to meeting our baby and the pain would soon be gone. I was told to push, but I really didn’t feel like my body was ready to push, so I gave a half hearted, tiny push to appease the doctor. My doula and nurses all said, “that was a good practice push, but we’ll need you to push harder next time.” I didn’t say anything and kept breathing. The nurse checked me again and told me that I still had a little bit of my cervix left so I needed to stop pushing. I still felt like I needed to poop, so I was miserable at this point trying not to push at all - even in my rectum. Thankfully, the nurse only made me do this for about 10 minutes and then said I could push slightly to get through each contraction. This completely changed each contraction. I felt so much better that I could push just a little bit and then breathe through the rest. 5 minutes later, I was actually ready to push. The doctor came in, and I beared down. I was actually ready to push this time, so I gave it all I could. 7 minutes later and 3 rounds of pushing, Orion came out in one big push. I finally opened my eyes to see Ben holding a little baby and say with tears in his eyes, “It’s a boy!” Ben laid Orion on my chest, and I stared at this wide eyed little boy with astonishment.

He’s everything we didn’t know we wanted and more.