**First I want to warn you that this wasn't proof read or anything and was written in chunks here and there when I have had the time. Newborn life is BUSY. So there may be spelling and grammar mistakes here but I just wanted to get this up because a lot of people keep asking if I will share our story, so here it goes..
On 2/21 I started feeling a little crappy, almost a hungover type of feeling so I told my husband I was going to lie down and see if I feel better. Well he came back to check on me and so I sat up and the baby was in such a weird position in my belly and I pointed it out to Matt. My belly looked kind of crazy and lopsided the way he was positioned in there. He was like, "Woah yeah that does look crazy." Within a minute of us saying that I felt a gush like I peed my pants. I was sitting down so it didn't seem too bad but I looked at him and said, "Um, honey I think my water just broke." He just said "What?" I stood up and then it just flowed out and we both just looked at each other like well here we go! It was definitely my water breaking so we didn't question it at all. Luckily we had already pretty much had our bags packed and ready to go other than a few things. This happened almost right at 4pm on that Sunday.
I then texted my doctor to let him know and asked him if we need to rush because I wanted to just take a shower and clean up before. He told me to just shower and grab our stuff and then get down there. So we did just that. We both showered and grabbed any last minute things we wanted and sort of took our time getting out the door because I wasn't even having any contractions or anything yet. A lot of people said they wish they waited a little longer to go to the hospital so we didn't want to be there any longer than really needed.
We get to the hospital, check in and they bring us to the initial room where they check your vitals, dilation etc. I'm still only 1cm dilated which I already had been for about a week or so. They check everything else out on me and baby and all looks good so then they move us to a labor and delivery room. Once we get in there I get all hooked up to the IV, etc. and they let us know that they're going to start Pitocin to get my contractions started and to encourage dilation. When your water breaks prior to going into labor they like you to deliver in 24hrs typically to avoid any kind of infection.
At first I could start to feel the contractions but they weren't anything too crazy yet. I believe it had been about 2 hours since starting pitocin when they checked again and I was between a 2 and 3cm dilated. They then said they were going to increase the Pitocin a little bit. After a bit the contractions were coming on full force. They checked again and I was about 4-5cm dilated but my contractions were very close together. (I didn't realize they don't really like your contractions to be too closet together either.) Then we continued to let my body and the Pitocin do its thing. I was at the point where the contractions were getting very strong and I had to really breathe through them to get through it. It's definitely a pain you don't expect to be so strong but we were hanging in there. The fact that you get breaks in between is what really keeps you going because you know that you just get through it and get a little break before the next one comes.
They checked me again about 2 hours from the last check and I was still only about 5 cm dilated but my contractions were very close together now and babies heart wasn't liking them very much. When I was having the contractions we could hear and see his little heart dropping out of the ideal healthy range with each contraction. I really wanted to give birth with no epidural because I'm really not a fan of being numb and I've also heard that if they mess it up you can be in some pain for years. I know most of the time it goes just fine but for me it just wasn't worth it when I could just push through it. Well as they say you have to go in with a birth plan but just know that things can change. They knew I didn't want to get the epidural but explained to me that the contractions were putting some strain on baby and if I didn't continue to dilate it can put too much stress on him. My body was basically fighting back the contractions and wasn't able to relax and let me dilate anymore because I couldn't relax enough through them.
My nurse, who was absolutely amazing explained that once we do the epidural things will move FAST and we can get him out safely. She didn't push me to do it at all but really helped educate me and let us make the decision. She stepped out so Matt and I could talk and we decided we would go ahead and get it so we can get our little guy out of there. She came back in and they ordered the epidural and I think it only took about 20 minutes before he came in and inserted it into my back. After about 30 minutes I felt it start to kick in. I could feel the pressure of the contractions but the pain from them started to disappear. My legs did go pretty numb which I really didn't want but thankfully he gave me a lighter version where I was still able to move my toes and feet so it didn't freak me out quite as bad.
My nurse then checked my dilation again and sure enough I was like 7-8cm dilated and things started to move fast! This was great news because that's exactly what we needed to happen. I then moved fairly quickly to 9cm after that. The last cm took a little longer and just had. slight area that hadn't fully dilated but we were SO CLOSE. We did a couple practice pushes to see if things were getting close enough to get him out. He was almost ready to come out but we noticed when I pushed his heart dropped LOW every time and so we called the doctor to head to the hospital and knew we needed to get him out as soon as possible. Each time his heart slowed they flipped me on different sides and positions to make sure he wasn't on the cord and get his heartbeat back up again.
This worked almost every time until after one push his heart rate wasn't coming back up. About 10 people rushed into the room and they had me on oxygen, which really freaked me out already because I'm claustrophobic. They really started moving me all around and doing everything they could to get babies heart back up. Once they finally did we stopped everything and they gave me a shot to stop my contractions all together to give the baby a break. From then it was about an hour and a half of waiting and Matt and I both took a small nap because we were exhausted and it was probably around 5:30am at this point. Once doctor got there they woke me up and started getting me back to having contractions so we could start pushing.
We did our first couple pushes to see how close we were. We found out that baby was face up which they typically prefer them to be the other way around so my doctor was using his hands to help move his shoulders and try to get him turned over. After seeing how those pushes went he let me know that we would need to do a vacuum assist because we needed to get him out quickly with as few pushes as possible to avoid putting any more stress on babies heart.
He then let me know we would need to do an episiotomy to be able to use the vacuum and avoid tearing. Definitely not ideal, but I didn't really care at this point I just wanted baby to be safe and healthy. After he made the cut we did a couple more pushes with the vacuum and baby started to make his way out. Doctor told me to reach down to feel his head and I immediately started bawling my eyes out. It was such a surreal moment. Almost 10 months loving him in my belly he was finally really here. There is no way to explain the emotion that comes over you. We did another couple pushes and his head was now completely out. Doc asked if I wanted to help pull the baby out and I said yes because um why wouldn't I want to. I thought it was so cool that he let me do that. So we got him out and I pulled him up on my chest. I just hugged him and bawled my eyes out. There he was, my perfect little baby boy. I just kept looking down at him in awe. They then grabbed him to clean him up a little and let dad cut the cord which was also pretty cool.
While they took baby over to clean him up it was time for me to keep pushing. Thankfully from doing reading and talking to others I knew that you had to still get the placenta out, which would be gnarly if you weren't expecting that after you think you're done lol. So we pushed a little more and the placenta was out. Our doctor showed it to us and explained what it does and all of the different parts which was actually pretty cool. Crazy to see what helped grow your little baby the whole time they were in there.
Next it was time to be stitched up. Thankfully because of the epidural it wasn't painful but I definitely felt the pressure of the pulling and tugging while he was stitching me up which was pretty strange. I tried to just look over at our little guy and focus on him and taking it all in. Finally they cleaned us both all up and we were ready to move into the postpartum room. We got to soak in all of the snuggles, breastfeeding and just getting to bond with our new bundle of joy. We got all of the tests needed and were released 24hrs after we gave birth because he passed all of his tests which was great. Going home was THE BEST feeling ever. We were all so much happier and relaxed because you're comfortable again and you don't have someone coming in and checking on you or baby every 20 minutes.
That about sums up our story, I may have forgotten a few things here and there but if anyone has any questions or anything I'd be happy to share! I will hopefully be following up with a postpartum experience post soon as well when I can find the time. Thank you all for taking the time to read our birth story.