i had my doula on one side holding one leg i had garrett on one side holding
the other leg you just don't know what labor is like until you do it
hey guys this is my crazy five and a half hour birth story preceded by a couple weeks
of false labor birth story i'm a first time mom i have obviously never given birth before
and i was absolutely shocked that it went that quickly that it was so smooth it was nothing
like i had envisioned or planned for really in any way it was a magical wonderful empowering
experience so i want to share it because i know a lot of people out there go past their due date
have to be induced that's what happened to me i really did not want any interventions
or medicalization of this birth however that's not what happened ultimately but at the end of it
i actually think it was the perfect birth experience for me so let me share a little bit
about that just in case any mamas out there are about to give birth and wanting some reassurance
for me it began on the monday of my 39th week i woke up early in the morning i was having some
really minor contractions and so naturally in my mind i thought this is it this is the beginning
it's gonna happen i didn't actually know that labor could start and then stop i read all the
[ __ ] books i've looked at the apps not once did anyone mention that labor could just stop
so i was totally unprepared for it to just stop 12 hours later like just completely and totally stop
this was really messing with me mentally because i had always watched these birthing videos where
people you know had this moment at home where they were like oh it's beginning and then
they would continue to have the signs that one has when they're going into labor until
heading to the hospital and then they would have their birth story it wasn't happening
that way for me i was having false labor it stopped it took another week again for it
to start up again in between that time i had an appointment with my ob who checked and no
dilation but things were at least softening so i was like okay it wasn't for nothing
when i went back in to get checked again the following week it was a couple days past my
due date and um they hooked me up to a non-stress test monitor and also a contraction monitor and it
was measuring what looked like contractions at the time so i was like oh my gosh okay now this is it
but it wasn't so 24 hours of those very mild contractions where my whole uterus would harden
but then it wasn't that painful sweetie it stopped again i have to say my mental state with all of
this start and stop labor was pretty rough it was hard for me to understand why it was happening
and what had happened i really didn't want the induction basically so every day that passed
going past my due date it became clearer and clearer that i was probably going to
need this induction having an induction means that you're going to be hooked up to monitors
there's just a lot more things that have to happen like i couldn't labor in a bathtub like i wanted
to i couldn't do much of the labor at home like i wanted to or in fact any of it at home it was the
beginning of me understanding that birth plans are just plans and that almost no one gets the
exact birth that they envision or plan i've been doing hypnobirthing leading up to this i've been
doing like coloring all these things like powerful mantras and i just had this idea in my head of how
it would go and so i really had to make peace with the fact that that's not what was going to happen
if i had this induction i know that some people will go beyond 41 weeks but i agreed with my ob
that it would be better for us to do it at the 41 week mark there's so many rabbit holes you can go
down reading about why people induce when they do and um you know the pros and cons of it so i
won't get into that here but for safety reasons we decided to induce at 41 weeks i actually had
a really lovely kind of last you know evening with my partner garrett in the sunday leading up to the
induction we just spent the day hanging out as you know the last day as it just being the two of us
it was kind of nice actually to be able to have a calm drive to the hospital and to kind of have
a plan and know what was going to happen in a way looking back at that having it be so calm leading
up to the hospital and the birth was really a blessing so then once we got there we checked
in it was 8 p.m we started the cytotec which is a cervical ripener at nine still completely closed
no dilation but i was softening so four hours later we did another round i did start to have
contractions and so they didn't want to do another round of that they wanted to start me on pitocin
now mind you i'm completely hooked up to monitors i've been sleeping most of the night so
no big deal i didn't really need to move around or anything then they ordered breakfast for me
it arrived and they decided to start the pitocin drip just on a level one i think it goes up to 30
right away like immediately i start to have very regular contractions i'm talking every
single minute i couldn't even eat breakfast i was like you guys i don't know if this is right i went
from like zero to 100 real quick so the nurse took a look she was like okay that's you know i agree
so we turned off the pitocin and the contractions continued like i was in full on labor it didn't
take long for me to really be in the throes of it the hypno birthing went out the window there was
no way that i could i tried to put it in my ears but i was just like this is too much i can't focus
on anything um what really helped was just to be bent over the bed and to have either garrett or
my doula pushing on me you know when the pitocin started we texted the doula and she was like okay
it usually takes most people a couple hours to get going and that's what the nurses had assumed to
but it didn't like i just went immediately so i tried to kind of handle it for about an
hour and then i was finally like you know what i think i might want that epidural
and i was worried about it because last i heard i wasn't dilated at all and i felt like you're
supposed to wait but everyone was encouraging that i do what i need to do to manage my pain
and so i did out to get it even though i thought i wouldn't
i have to say it was the best decision and i'm really glad that i did because all i wanted
to do was lay down on the bed at this point it was about 11 30 so my contractions had started
right around 8 a.m and this was about 11 30 now that i got the epidural and i was relaxed and um
finally i was like okay enough for the nurse to check how dilated i was she checked and as
she checked my water broke and she was just like i can't believe it you're fully dilated
it was amazing to hear that i couldn't believe that i had basically done the whole labor without
the epidural like i had gone straight basically into transition and i was about to give birth
so we gave him about 30 more minutes to descend i could feel the pressure that's something i was
worried about with the epidural that i wouldn't know when to push but i totally still felt
the pressure and i totally knew when to push pretty soon my doctor was called she came in
and we started pushing that was probably one of the toughest parts of the whole thing just
because like that pressure is really something you just don't know what labor is like until you
do it so i started to push and the nurse was just amazing she was there coaching me i had my doula
on one side holding one leg i had garrett on one side holding the other leg i had pictured
me like maybe in a squatting position or you know really anything but on my back to do the delivery
but then by the time that that's where we were at that's kind of the place that i wanted to be
and kind of felt the most effective pushing as well once the water broke there was some
meconium in the water so there was some concern that maybe he had aspirated that
they had a respiratory therapist come in they had a bunch of people at the ready just in case there
were any problems and that was why specifically i did want to give birth out of hospital because i
just wanted full support in case there was ever any emergency or we needed anything
so i was glad to have that although the room just kind of flooded with people which was a lot
so at that point i finally did the hypnobirth thing i was like garrett please give me my
headphones so i put it in and i listened to the track about waves of pushing and
that like got me through the end of it so in about an hour i pushed him out and he was born
and that was such a beautiful moment everything was fine he's totally healthy we didn't need the
respiratory therapist he bounced right away that was my crazy quick five and a half hour
birth story as a first-time mom i had been really worried about this induction because you hear so
many horror stories but when it came down to it it was totally fine it was actually wonderful and
beautiful i'm so lucky that my labor was only five hours and i'm just really glad that this guy's
here now fully baked in the 97th percentile for height my eight pound two ounce baby
he came right on time