Miles' Birth Story

My best friend Brooke recently posted the birth story of her sweetie daughter Alison, and I thought that would be a great idea to do on Miles' first birthday. Well, his birth story--not Alison's because that just wouldn't make any sense. Personally I love to read birth stories, but I'm sure some people are weirded out by them, so don't feel obligated to read it if you don't want to.

And can I just add that I can't believe my BABY is a year old already?!

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At my OB appointment two weeks before my due date, I was 3cm dilated and the nurse practitioner said my mucus plug was gone. She said I’d go into labor anytime. Everything I planned, I had to tack on, “As long as the baby’s not here.” One week before my due date I was 5cm dilated and still no baby. “No way will you make it to your due date or your appointment next week,” I was told. Imagine my surprise when, in fact, I did make it to my next appointment, the day before my due date. At that appointment they were concerned about how big the baby would be since Will was 9lbs 2oz and born three days before my due date. They wanted to schedule an induction for early the next week, but I wanted it earlier since that was getting close to Thanksgiving. The nurse stripped my membranes to see if that would start moving things along.

I started having a few mild contractions on the way home from the doctor’s appointment. John had gone with me in case they wanted to admit me right then, given how dilated I was the week before. Will had stayed at my friend Jen’s house during the appointment. The contractions kept up pretty regularly, ever 8-10 minutes. I called Jen to see if she’d mind Will staying there a little longer. The contractions started to slow down and then stop, so John went in to work, and I went and picked up Will. The rest of the day was more of that--have a few contractions at regular time intervals, then nothing. Although, as the day progressed I got more and more uncomfortable and just didn’t feel quite right. We were about to sit down to dinner, and I told John, “I’m going to have my mom come get Will...I just don’t feel right and would rather him not be here tonight.” Our plan had been that if we had to go to the hospital right away, Will would go to Jen's and my mom would get him there, but we figured might as well cut out the middle man and just have her come get him since it seemed things might be progressing. The only thing that was comfortable was being in the shower or sitting on my exercise ball.

We ate dinner, and my mom showed up to get Will around 7:00. They left, and I told John I thought I’d get back in the shower. At this point I’d been having regular contractions for probably close to two hours and they were about seven minutes apart. My doctor had said to head to the hospital when they got to be 5-7 minutes apart since I was already so far dilated. We went upstairs, and I turned on the shower and then changed my mind and said why didn’t we head to the hospital then. I figured the worst that would happen would be they’d send me home. By the time we got back downstairs, the contractions were regularly five minutes apart.
I called a couple friends to tell them we were on our way to the hospital. We left our house around 7:15, we were sitting at the admitting desk around 7:45. When I was admitted to OB Triage, the nurse checked and said I was 5-6cm dilated. I was surprised I wasn’t more since I’d been 5cm that morning and having contractions off and on all day. She said she could go ahead and admit me or I could walk around for an hour to try and speed things up or I could go home and come back later. I knew the last one wasn’t an option since my contractions were more like 3-4 minutes apart then and getting stronger. I said I’d go ahead and walk, she told me she’d come back with a gown for me. This was around 8:15.

I could hear some commotion going on outside my little pod/cubicle/”room” and overhead talk about someone only being 24 weeks along and in labor and needing an emergency c-section. Needless to say, it was awhile before the nurse came back. I had really wanted a natural childbirth, but by that point the contractions were so strong I said to John, “Forget natural childbirth--I don’t have anything to prove! I want drugs!” I decided I’d go ahead and be admitted so I could have an epidural and be more comfortable. At this point I was being pretty vocal during the contractions-—moaning, screaming, etc.—-because it made them seem a little easier to manage instead of trying to be quiet through them. When the nurse came back I told her to forget walking, I wanted to be admitted. It was awhile again before someone came back and when she did, she said, “You must be the one in labor.” Apparently I was a bit loud. ;) They checked to see if there was a room available for me and started to move me. I remember it feeling so good laying there being rushed down the hallway with the cool air; I had been so hot in the OB Triage area. John would rub ice on my neck which helped a little, but taking sips of ice water made me feel nauseated.

By the time I got in the L&D room, the contractions were more like two minutes apart and really strong. This was about 8:45 I think. The nurse checked me, and I was 8cm by that point. I told her I wanted an epidural, she said I’d need to have a whole bag of IV fluid before I could get one. It took forever to get the IV in because the other nurse kept messing up on it. I literally had blood running down my arm because she couldn't get it right. Like I wasn't in enough pain at that point?! I knew since I was at 8cm my chances of having an epidural were getting slimmer and slimmer. A little after 9:00, my water broke. It was strange to me that it took that long to break since with Will that's what kicked off my labor. And with Will it was just a little drip at first and then got to be more and more, but with Miles it all came gushing out at once. The contractions were horrible—-I was literally screaming through each one. The nurse would rub my back which irritated me, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I didn’t say anything. I had read a ton of information on natural childbirth, but at that point it had all flown out the window and all I could remember was to breathe and be vocal during contractions, so that's what I did. And watched the IV bag to see how much was left!

Around 9:15 my doctor came in to see how I was doing. I had my eyes closed most of the time, so when I opened them he was checking my vitals and Miles’ on the monitor next to my bed. The next thing I knew (or so it seemed), he was back and in scrubs. I knew at that point there was no chance whatsoever that I was getting an epidural or drugs of any sort. He told me that when I felt the urge to push to go ahead with it. I had a couple contractions where I did feel like pushing, but I didn’t feel ready for it yet. I needed to psych myself up for birthing a baby without any drugs. Finally I told him I was ready and started pushing.

They had me count to ten three times during each contraction. It hurt SO MUCH. I was so motivated to get Miles out as soon as I could. I heard the doctor tell John that his head was out, and before I knew it they were all telling me to look because Miles was coming out. I pushed through three contractions, that was it. Miles was born at 9:36 PM. Everyone’s reaction when they first saw him (nurses and my doctor) was, “Wow, this is a big baby!” I anxiously waited to find out how big he was-—10 pounds 2 ounces!! They were right. Forget having a newborn-—I gave birth to a two month old! A friend of mine has the same OB, and when she had her appointment with him a few days later she mentioned I was her friend and he told her my labor was four minutes (I knew it was short, but I didn’t realize it was THAT short!) and he was rather impressed I pushed out a 10 pound baby without drugs.

Even though I had decided during labor I wanted drugs, I was so glad it hadn’t worked out. I felt great afterwards, way better than I did after having an epidural with Will. I just couldn’t believe how fast Miles came. I called my mom a few minutes after he was born, and she didn’t believe me at first that he was here already. She’d just seen me 2.5 hours prior! I was so hyped up on adrenaline I couldn’t even think about going to sleep until about 1:00, even though John conked out as soon as we were in the Couplet Care room around midnight.