The Longest 26 Hours of My Life--But Also the Best!

After after such a great day with my cuddly boy, I thought it would be a great day to share Nolan's birth story. I had a pretty smooth pregnancy besides the fact that I literally walked with a limp the whole last month of my pregnancy due to lower back/butt pain. Supposedly, your muscles relax for the whole birthing experience, so your muscles around your joints can loosen in preparation for the big day. Let's just say I looked really ridiculous trying to get around. Not only was I gimping everywhere, but I looked like I could topple over at any moment because this little boy was all belly and forcing my balance to go frontwards. D-day was expected to be on October 21st, 2010. I figured that he would be after this date since most first time moms go past their predicted due dates. I had a 2:30 appointment with my doctor on Tuesday, October 19th. My husband decided to go with me since it was just two days before my due date. I was really hoping for some progress at this checkup because I was scared of not progressing and having to get a c-section. I was also going into the whole process with the intention of doing it completely natural with no drugs. I know you are saying...WHAT?!! You are CRAZY! Basically, my birth plan was to go in with an open mind and see what happened. I had never had any type of surgeries or any type of severe pain besides breaking my arm, so I really didn't know what to expect or how much pain I could withstand. I figured women have been popping out babies for ages that I had to at least give it a shot.

Anyhow, I had to wait FOREVER to see my doctor. Here I was a few days from being 40 weeks pregnant having to sit on the patient chair for about an hour half-naked waiting for my doctor. I sat there on the thin tissue paper thinking I really have to pee, but it is such an ordeal to get off this seat and put my work pants/shoes back on. However, it kept getting later and later so I decided to take the plunge and get dressed to waddle my way to the bathroom. As I was washing my hands after I finished, I thought I was feeling a twinge of a menstrual like pain. I walk back to my room and as I open the door to wear my husband was waiting I felt a gush of liquid. I thought crap...I really thought I was done going to the bathroom! Right about then my doctor walks in to do my check, and I tell her about this "gush" and not sure what that was all about. After about a second, she said, "I am pretty sure your water just broke." I'm like are you serious? She said yep pretty sure it did. Next thing I know they tell me my chariot has arrived aka a wheel chair to take me to my hospital room. I asked if we could go home first to get our stuff and my car...you know the actual one with the car seat installed. My husband had met me at my work, and I had ridden with him to the hospital. So here we are without any of these items, and of course my doctor says I have to stay. I'm like this was not part of the plan! I don't want to be at the hospital this early in labor! My husband then runs home to get everything and to call his parents, and I call mine as well. The nurse asks me if I am feeling any contractions, and I say no...and then she informs me I am having them about 1-3 minutes apart. I knew to keep this labor party going that I needed to walk around. I knew from all my research that if you wanted natural child birth you needed to walk around to get gravity on your side. I quickly learned that hospitals are not all about you walking around or really about natural child birth for that matter. They want to tie you to that bed pumped with drugs until that baby pops out. They strap the heart and contraction monitor to my already very uncomfortable belly which by the way is proven not to be needed in labor. You can actually ask for them to just spot check instead of having to wear stupid contraption the whole time. However, when it is your first child you just don't know this type of stuff and the nurses act like the hand of God has told them that this is how it is done no matter what.

When the doctor had checked me at 4pm I was only 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. She wanted me to be rechecked at 10pm to see if I had made progress, and if not they would start me on pitocin. This scared the crap out of me because I had heard horror stories of pitocin making the contractions too fast and too severe to be able to continue with a natural child birth. My nurse that I had throughout the night was not the most positive or supportive. You could tell she was not real happy about the whole natural child birth or about me walking around. She actually had to get permission from the head nurse to see if I could walk around because once they start the pitocin they want to monitor you like a hawk. When I wasn't walking around, I also sat on the medicine ball to relieve the pressure. I finally decided to try to lay down at about midnight however I didn't sleep a wink. Not because of contractions but because the stupid nurse came in like every second to check on me! She rechecked me at about 4am, and she sadly informed me that I might be 3cm and 60% effaced. At this point, I was really discouraged about my progress. I knew that once your water breaks they put you on a time clock of when the baby is supposed to be out, therefore bringing back my fears of a c-section. My doctor came in to check me at around 8am with a new nurse as well. What a breath of fresh air this nurse was! I had actually progressed to 100% effaced and still at 3cm dilated. This nurse was very encouraging and said once you get to 4cm it goes very fast. At about noon, my contractions really picked up. At this check, I was at 5cm dilated. This is when the pain really kicked in. I had a breaking down point at around 1:30pm, and I told my husband I didn't know if I could do it. The contractions were coming very fast and strong. I basically just wanted to stop the whole process...I didn't want an epidural but I also didn't want to continue. I think I would have been happy to just going back to being pregnant without labor.

My husband was very supportive and kept telling me I had another check at 2:30pm and that I would be further along. He was a real sport (keep in mind he had just had knee surgery 6 weeks before) because he was helping me breathe through the contractions no matter if I was on the medicine ball or if I was standing and leaning against him. I had him grabbing and massaging my back every time a contraction was starting. We basically stood the whole time because sitting slowed my labor and also was unbearable. At 2:30pm, I had dilated to 7cm. That's when things started to go fast. At 4pm, I felt the need to push so they rechecked me, and I was dilated to 9cm! Luckily my friend, Beth is a labor & delivery nurse at this hospital so she came to help that afternoon. At 4:15pm, I said I can't take it anymore I need to push! She said alright let's check you again. I was now at 9.5 cm and very thin so they said that I could go ahead and start pushing. I couldn't believe it! The moment had arrived! I had made it with no drugs and almost to the finish line. Pushing was the best part of labor because you are actually giving into the contractions and not fighting them. After my first push, the doctor said she could already see his head and it was full of hair! Now one thing I learned is that the doctor and nurses will tell you when you start pushing that you are really close but in reality they know it is going to be a while. For example, my doctor was joking at one point that she almost put her second glove on. Now when you start seeing more nurses around and that the room is getting all prepped you know it is go time. Finally after 2 hours of pushing at 6:42pm on October 20th, 2010, my little biscuit entered the world at 7lbs, 11oz, and 21.25 inches long! When they were pulling him out after his head had crowned, I kept thinking how much is in there?!!! Yes ladies it did hurt when he came out...and that they do call it the ring of fire for a reason. However the actual pushing didn't hurt at all but very exhausting after 2 hours. I was so thrilled that he had finally arrived and that I was able to do it naturally. He was perfect in every way and so worth it! I am so glad I had him natural because I felt like having no drugs in my system allowed me to heal very quickly. I bounced back after a few days and also lost all my baby weight in no time. I also contribute the weight loss to breast feeding and the lack of time to eat! I'm so thankful for a safe delivery and a beautiful baby boy!