My Birth Story

This is the version of my birth story that I posted on Babycenter.com:

Baby's Name: Julian Germanicus Augustus Rossi

Date of Birth: 5/2/2011

Original Due Date: 5/6/2011

Weeks Pregnant: 39 weeks 4 days

Baby's Weight: 8lbs 2 oz

Baby's Height: 20.5 inches

Total labor time from start to finish: 12.5 hours.

Your Birth Story:

On Saturday I started having Braxton Hicks contractions fairly frequently until about 2am when they just stopped. They weren't painful at all, but I had a feeling that true labor might be imminent. At my doctor's appt just a few days earlier I was a mere fingertip dilated, pretty soft, posterior cervix, and baby's head was sitting very low. None of these things gave us any indication of when he would be born. On Sunday I only experienced one or two BHs, so I assumed I would make it at least to my due date, if not beyond.

Monday early morning (around midnight) I was woken up by some mild contractions that I knew were not your typical BH. The bottom part of my abdomen felt crampy, like a menstrual cramp would feel, and my lower back felt some discomfort. I started timing the contractions around 2am and they were 10-15 minutes apart.  By around 4 maybe they were about 5-10 minutes apart. I was still in denial that I was actually in labor (because I HATE getting my hopes up!), but I texted my mom, and a couple of my best friends just to let them know this might be it! Meanwhile, I let my husband sleep because he had a final on Monday at 8am!

At 5:40 a.m. my husband awoke to find me in the living room, trying to rest and manage my contractions. They weren’t too bad at that point, so I didn’t need his help yet with coaching. He went about his business getting things in order, put the car seat and my bag in the car, ate breakfast, got the guest room ready for my mom, etc.

Around 7 we went for a walk, which felt great! (I HIGHLY suggest laboring upright for as long as you can handle it!) I had a few contractions on the walk and had to hold on to my husband during them. Around 8 I had  a piece of toast and some strawberries but threw them up shortly after. I tried to drink some water and diluted gatorade, but also threw those things up. No more food for me! I just tried to sip on water as much as possible so as not to get dehydrated. By 9 a.m. my contractions were about 1 ½ to 3 minutes apart and I though I still didn’t want to go to the hospital, I felt like it was time. They were getting my painful and I definitely needed to use my husband as support. (I would hang from him and make low moans whenever I had them). At 9:30am we headed out and let my mom know. (She had a 2 ½ hour drive). We literally live 2 minutes from the hospital (I could see our apartment complex from my post partum room!) so the drive over wasn’t so bad. (So I labored at home for 9 ½ hours and left for the hospital only after my contractions were 1 1/2 to 3 minutes apart!)

When we got to the valet parking area I jumped out of the car and vomited in the street, meanwhile, there were people just a few feet away from me eating…oops! Hopefully they understand that a woman in labor just can’t control those things!) We checked in (and even though I was preregistered, check in time was a pain! Trying to listed to instructions and sign papers while having a contractions is not my cup of tea, and having the lady be rude about it made me even more mad…)

I went to triage where I gave the nurse my birth plan (natural, unmedicated – which of course they thought I was crazy, but thankfully respected ALL of my wishes!!) I was 4 cm dilated and 100 percent effaced! WHOO HOO! They took me to my L&D room where I continued to labor with just my husband. They were barely able to monitor me because I moved around SO much. I didn’t have the IV plugged in or anything, it was just inserted into my arm just in case. I COULD NOT labor in bed lying down. I had to be either pacing in my room, leaning against a wall moving my hips back and forth, or hanging on my husband. I hardly had any rest from my contractions and was having terrible back labor. They kept asking me if I wanted pain meds but I continued to refuse. They also kept trying to get me lie down, take my temperature and blood pressure, etc while I was having contractions and I pretty much ignored them and just did my thing. Jordan was GREAT at basically keeping them away. After a while they pretty much left me alone because they realized I was not going to do things their way, lol. It was great being able to labor with just my husband.

Because I wasn’t really being monitored, they didn’t know where I was at with my contractions. I just knew they seemed to come one on top of the other and for about an hour they were almost unbearable. I couldn’t have gotten through the pain without my husband! I told him he makes a wonderful doula, haha! I held onto him like my life depended on it through each contraction – I’m surprised he doesn’t have bruises! At one point I even bit his shoulder….not hard though.  To manage the pain, I had to moan very loudly! VERY loudly….but I made sure I didn’t scream because I know that makes it worse. I’m not gonna lie, the pain during transition was the most pain I had ever felt in my life, but I hung on! Eventually I ended up lying on my side on the bed when I started having pushing contractions. I got up once and realized that I had finally lost my mucus plug and there was a big bloody show. I layed back down throughout those pushing contractions and had to yell as loud as I could into the pillow. (The nurses were trying to tell me how to breath – in through my nose and out through my mouth; I tried it once and hated how it felt, so I just kept continuing on with my method of moaning/yelling into the pillow through the contractions, which felt WAY better).

At that point my husband told the nursed I was needing to push and could they PLEASE check my cervix?? When they checked me all they would feel was my bulging bag of waters! I went from 4 to 10 cm in about 2 hours. I had wanted to push while using the squat bar, but at that moment all I could think about was pushing my baby out. They rolled me over to my back and propped me up a bit (not as high as I would have liked, but I was too delusional to think straight! My husband mentioned the squat bar, but it was kind of too late.) I started pushing before my OB got there, but she made it in time to catch the baby. My mom and little showed up in time to help as well. My mom held one leg while my husband held the other. I pushed when I felt the urge and did so for about 20 minutes. My water broke during the pushing stage. Pushing was a crazy intense feeling! It didn’t burn, but it didn’t feel good either. To get through it I imagined pushing out the biggest poo in the world! Haha. I also was just in the mindset that my baby’s head needed to get out and I needed to make that happen! Pushing without drugs gives you a natural high, btw. I felt incredibly euphoric! My mom and sister said I was pretty funny….

Like I said, pushing lasted about 20 minutes and out came my baby boy! It’s like they all say, once the head is out, the pain is gone and then the body just slides on out. I had my eyes closed the entire time except for when his body was coming out – Watching that was an incredibly amazing thing!! My OB immediately put him to my chest where he screamed and screamed.  I was able to birth the placenta naturally a few minutes later – it felt really good when that slipped out; all warm and squishy. I had a 2nd degree tear which seemed to take a zillion stitches! I got shot up with some Novocain, but was still able to feel her stitching sometimes, but it wasn’t bad. I refused the pitocin, so they massaged my fundus to make sure I didn’t have any hemorrhaging. Everything worked out PERFECTLY! We didn’t have a single problem and I was able to have a completely natural and drug free labor and delivery. My baby boy got a 9/10 on his APGAR test and has not had a single thing wrong with him. He didn’t nurse well the first 24 hours because he just wanted to sleep, but it wasn’t a problem. Now all he wants to do is nurse!

Considering how small my belly was, everyone was shocked at how big he ended up being! I am totally in love with my dark-haired little boy. He is a gift from God and my husband and I couldn’t be happier! I’m back home now recovering – feeling really good. The stitches really aren’t that bad,.

***So that’s the story I posted on babycenter.com. I had zero pain meds, no pitocin, no IV, no problems! They respected all of my wishes (though they thought I was crazy). All in all I feel like I had a very positive experience. Jordan keeps saying that I could have easily had our baby at home, especially considering there were zero complications. I agree, so next time we will research going to do a birthing center or a homebirth with a midwife. I’m recovering SUPER well. I only have very minimal discomfort from the tearing.***