Category: Pregnancy

It all began at about 7 am on Wednesday, September 9th. Mike had gotten up to get ready for work and had just headed downstairs for breakfast. I decided to get up to pee (for probably the 17th time of the night). As I sat up, I felt a little jab in the center of my stomach and remember thinking to myself ‘hmmm… that was a weird kick’ but I carried on and thought nothing of it.

I used the restroom in my sleepy stupor and then started making my way to the sink to wash my hands. As I walked across the room, I felt liquid continuing to emerge. This woke me up a bit more. Did my water just break? Or was I still peeing? 😂 I sat back on the toilet in utter confusion and didn’t know what to do. I tried hollering for Mike, but being all the way downstairs, he couldn’t hear me. I then tried asking our Echo Dot to make an announcement, but that was too far from the bathroom to hear me. I sat for a minute more wondering what to do. Luckily I had my postpartum bathroom kits all prepped and ready, so I put on one of the adult diapers, along with my shorts, and went to the top of the stairs to call down to Mike.

When I finally got his attention (I didn’t want to yell too loud to freak him out 😂), he responded back with a very irritated “What?” I told him that I thought my water may have just broken, and also asked why he sounded so annoyed. He said something along the lines of I usually bug him with something dumb early in the morning (LOL). I guess this was important enough to interrupt his breakfast and morning routine.

I’m pretty sure I told him he should still go to work. I was so unsure if this was actually my water that broke, or if I just peed myself. It was so hard to tell! It wasn’t a huge gush and seemed to kind of stop, so I really didn’t know. I didn’t want to be that girl that goes to the hospital just for peeing herself. He didn’t like this idea, and texted him boss to let him know that I was in labor.

I decided to jump in the shower just in case this was the real deal; I wanted to be clean. Post shower, I put another little diaper back on and blow dried then straightened my hair. I didn’t want to look like a wild lioness in labor/at the hospital. Once I was ‘ready’ I called the on-call line at my OB office to see what they wanted me to do. I was instructed to come on in to see if it was indeed my water.

At this point I was feeling absolutely nothing else out of the ordinary – not a single contraction. This worried me because once the water breaks, you are essentially on the clock to get baby out within about 24 hours.

I went downstairs to make a little breakfast – my usual of scrambled eggs with spinach and black olives, along with an English muffin with peanut butter. My appetite was almost non-existent so I don’t think I actually ate much, but wanted to at least get some protein in before heading to the hospital.

As I ate, Mike ran around the house grabbing the last few things we needed, and packing up the car with all of our goodies.

Every time I would stand up after sitting, more liquid would come out, so by this point, I was pretty sure it was my water. Let me tell you – it’s such an odd feeling to continually feel a warm, and uncontrollable trickle.

By about 9:15 am we were ready to go, and said our goodbyes to the dogs. We hit the road for the very last time as a family of 2, and it was so surreal. Were we actually going to the hospital to have our baby?!

We arrived by 9:30 am and made our way up to Labor & Delivery. Mike took the opportunity to make a dad joke upon checking in and gave the nurse a chuckle… After signing a few forms, we were put into a triage room to check on baby, and test my fluid. Sure enough, my water was leaking and I was dilated to 3 cm and 80% effaced. We were told we were staying to have a baby!

We were escorted into our official labor & delivery room to settle in for the big event. Of course, little Miss Vivian decided she wanted to arrive on the random snowy September day, so our mountain view room that I was so excited about just had views of a cloudy, gray day, but that’s okay.

The care team decided they wanted to begin the induction process to get the contractions going. At noon, the pitocin had started, and still I had no signs of any contractions (that I could feel at least). Mike had brought his Nintendo Switch, so I sat in the bed playing Mario Kart to pass some time. The nurses came in about every 15 minutes to turn the medicine up, and advised they would check my progress again after about 4 hours.

At around 1 pm, the contractions were picking up and I had to stop playing Mario Kart. I really had to focus on breathing each time a contraction came. They got stronger and stronger, and seemed to be really close together. By about 2:30 pm they were getting unbearable so I decided to call the nurse in to discuss some pain management options. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get the epidural or not, so she offered to check my progress so I could see how far along I was if that would help make my decision. This nurse thought I was all ready to go, though it seemed a little quick of a progression, so she grabbed the nurse who checked me that morning to see what she thought. Turns out I was closer to 7cm. I decided to go for the epidural at this point as I figured it could be hours more before baby would come, and I didn’t know how much more of this pain I could take.

The anesthesiologist came in fairly quickly to get working on the epidural. The contractions were coming in hot while he was attempting to get it in. It was not the most pleasant experience… Everyone always makes it seem like the epidural is immediate relief. This was not the case for me. At first it didn’t seem to be helping at all. It finally started to kick in, but only on the right side. Now I was feeling the contractions in just one spot on the left-hand-side, and because it was so focused to that one spot, they felt 1,000 times worse. He administered some additional medication, and finally the feeling subsided and I could relax.

At this point, a second nurse came into the room because baby girls heartbeat dropped just a bit and they wanted to put the internal monitor in to keep a better eye on her heart rate. When they attempted this, they realized that she was ready to come out and it was time to push. It was now about 3:15 pm or so. Everyone was in position, and pushing was under way. It was such an odd sensation to be exerting so much energy to push, yet not being able to feel your efforts. I had no idea of I was doing the right thing, but they assured me that she was making her way down.

The nurses would tell me when a contraction was beginning so I could take a big deep breath in, and then push for the count of 10. The breaks in between pushing were very welcomed to catch my breath. I remember seeing the clock on the wall being shortly after 3:25 pm during a pushing break. I decided to aim for a 3:33 pm birth because how cool would that be? A 9/9 baby at 3:33 pm? Contractions slowed for just a moment and then at 3:32 pm another one came, but unfortunately baby didn’t make her way out during that push. Oh well – just a silly little goal. Just minutes later, at 3:39 pm she made her debut as our tiny little peanut. She was placed right onto my chest for snuggles and it was the best feeling. I couldn’t believe I did it!

The first hour of her life was a bit of a blur as nurses made sure she was doing well settling into life on the outside. I held her as the placenta was delivered and I was sewed up from the slight snip. After the first hour of cuddles they took her measurements. She weighed in at 5 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 19 inches long. We were expecting a tall baby, but she is a perfect, petite little nugget!

I am extremely grateful for a quick delivery that went very smoothly and to have a beautiful, healthy baby girl. I am also grateful that the experience is in the past. I think it’s safe to say that those contractions are the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life, and I can’t even begin to describe how they feel, but they are so very worth it to meet a precious bundle of joy.

We are so looking forward to sharing our journey into parenthood.

Laugh Often – Rachel