Well, I didn't make it to 40 weeks! Elliana decided to make her presence on 06.06.2013 - 6 days before her due date. At 10 pm on June 05 my water broke. I was sleeping and woke up to a sensation that felt like I was peeing my pants .... but I could tell it wasn't pee. I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom (as fast as a 9 month preggo lady can run!), and sure enough it just kept on coming and was definitely not pee! I called Labor and Delivery, and the RN instructed me to come in. She said 'come with your bags and plan to stay.' Josh grabbed our bags, put the car seat in the car, and off we drove to the hospital. Since I work at the hospital, and know a lot of the employees through the job I do, sure enough the security guard at the door was my first encounter with an employee - 'hey, hey! It's time? You're gonna have a baby?' .... Embarrassing since I had a towel between my legs since I was still leaking, but hey - they are excited for us so I just have to keep that in mind! We arrived just before the RN shift change. We were placed in a Labor and Delivery room, and lots of questions were asked. As I was talking to the RN's in walks my midwife!!!!!!!!!!! It is so rare to be able to get your own provider to be present at your birth, so I was SO excited!! My midwife advised that she would not be checking me because of risk of introducing infection since my water had broken. I wasn't having contractions that I was able to recognize, so she said that likely they would have to induce labor. I had the option to take the pill to induce at that moment, or wait it out. I opted to wait it out. She said that if at 6 am I hadn't started having contractions, they would need to induce. I called my mom and told her not to bother coming down because I wasn't going to be checked again until 6 am. I wanted her to be able to have her rest because I anticipated a long labor. While I was on the phone with her, I had two contractions. Small, not painful. My mom opted to come in right then to be with us. My mom arrived just past 12:30 am. By the time she arrived, I was having
small, regular contractions, but no pain. At 2:30 am, we asked the midwife to
check me; she said I was 3 cm. I
continued to have regular contractions… My mom and Josh took turns getting me
through the contractions. At 6 am I started having super intense contractions
and had the feeling like I just had to push. The RN told me I couldn’t push, so Josh worked with me on my
breathing through my contractions.
He got me through it. For
all of the contractions, I had my eyes closed grabbing my mom or Josh’s hand,
and as they got more intense, I just grabbed the side rail of the bed. I didn’t
want to walk, I didn’t want to take a warm shower, and I didn’t want to move at
all from my side! I had to rotate
back and forth from the left to the right side because my side would start to
hurt, but other than that I wanted to remain stationary and just be silent
through the pain in my own space. The RN’s were very supportive of my decision
not to have any pain medications.
They offered, but when I declined they did not push it. I appreciate their suport in me wanting to have a natural birth. When my intense contractions came, I
asked my mom to call for a nurse – I asked to be checked again. The midwife gave the RN the go ahead to
check me again. At 6 am I was 8 cm
dilated. This shocked everyone. The
RN called for the midwife. By the
time the midwife arrived I was pleading to push. She checked me again at 6:30 am and I was 10 plus 2. They
rushed to set up the room for delivery. After the bed was ready, they asked me to start
pushing. It felt like such a
relief to push. An hour later at 7:33 am, our
sweet Elliana Jolene was born.
7 lbs 2 oz, 20 inches long.
The advice I got prior to having a baby was always: get lots of rest because you're in for no sleep once the baby comes. What no one told me was - it doesn't matter. I can stay up all night and all day just staring at my little baby.
