My Birth Experience
Hey all,
Aili Anne finally made her way into the world and we could not be more in love! Of course this Type A mama’s girl came exactly on her due date (which I thought was hilarious but also amazing)! She shares her birthday with her big cousin London Mackenzie which was my and L’s mom (my cousin)’s goal! I figured it was super cool having the due date of L’s birthday but really though Aili would never actually come on her due date naturally (because they never do) but she did! A lot of people have asked me about my birth experience so I decided to make a post about it to share with you all. CAUTION: Its gonna get personal so if this is TMI for you, don’t read further. It’s also a little lengthy but I couldn’t leave things out!
I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions off and on since about 36-37 weeks, but nothing significant. The first time I felt them I was driving to work and thought to myself “I feel like I’m going to start my period” but obviously was super pregnant so that wasn’t true. They came irregularly until I got to work. That day at work was particularly stressful and I remember writing down the times I felt them and then realized an hour later they had come every 8 minutes for about 40 minutes or so almost to the dot. That made me panic a bit but they had subsided when I stopped, took a breath and drank some water. That’s when I learned these were my first Braxton Hicks contractions. After that I got them randomly but never in consistent pattern like that. I was pretty good at staying hydrated so I didn’t have too much of an issue with that piece of solving the Braxton Hicks puzzle. However, putting my feet up and staying away from stress was kind of laughable advice for an oncology nurse. I am really bad at not getting stressed and feel like sometimes I barely have time to go pee or eat an actual meal let alone put my feet up. But I made an effort to try. And probably did a total of ten times my whole pregnancy hah.
The Tuesday before my due date I saw the doctor and they said I was 1 cm and 40% effaced. They asked if I wanted them to strip my membranes (basically they shove their fingers around and swipe in the cervix) and I said yes. It was uncomfortable, but I wanted progress. Wednesday came and I was at work and went the bathroom. I was greeted by a surprise, my mucous plug! (Yuck). That got me super excited, and definitely meant progress. But then I was discouraged when I read you could lose your plug at any point and it can grow back if you aren’t really in labor. Saturday I woke up and felt cramping again. I drank some water, went to the bathroom and went to back to sleep. A few hours later in the wee hours of Sunday morning (mid time change may I add) I started to feel consistent contractions that woke me up from my sleep. When people asked me to describe them I tell them it was basically like tightening of my belly plus sharp stabbing cramping in my lower abdomen. Enough that it made me wake up but not what I would consider severe or even moderate. So I tried to go back to sleep and tracked them when I would wake up from them. They were coming about every 20-30 minutes. Throughout the morning they got to be about 12-20 minutes. I got up and took a shower and told Madi and my mom that I was having them but way too far apart to even consider going in. Plus my water hadn’t broken yet so no reason to rush. We had a leisurely day but I was pretty frustrated because they contractions would get closer together and be like 8 minutes apart for an hour then go back to 12 minutes apart for two hours. I walked and walked and finally gave up on the idea that she was coming anytime soon.
As soon as I texted our friends and cancelled them to come to help with Nike, thirty minutes later I started having what I would call pretty moderate contractions. But they were still 8-10 minutes apart. So I sat on the couch with my little hot pack for my back and had a very sleepless night of these too far apart contractions. About 7:30am I woke my mom up and told her to get get Madi and tell him the contractions we’re consistent about 6 minutes apart and getting more and more painful and intense. Madi walked Nike, we got everything together, and we headed out the door. I was so nervous that they were going to send me home when we got there because my water hadn’t broken yet but had a gut feeling that I shouldn’t wait too much longer to go in. Our drive was uneventful. There was no screaming at Madi to go faster or anything like the movies, more like me just getting really quiet and trying to focus to breathe through the pain.
We arrived at Duke around 9:00am and of course the joint commission came AND was making rounds on the L&D floor, so when we first arrived we had to wait about twenty to thirty minutes to be brought back even though I was the only one in the OB Triage waiting room. We headed back around 9:30am and the nurse was super nice. I changed into a gown and they put on the monitors for the baby and a pulse ox and BP cuff for me. “let’s see if you’re contracting” the resident said. I think I literally would have cried right there if they would have told me what I was experiencing wasn’t contractions lol! Sure enough I was contracting now at about 4-5 minutes apart. They checked me and I was 4cms dilated and 70% effaced. The magic words to get me admitted to the hospital and get this baby train rolling! My nurse started an IV and they did an EKG because of my heart history. Baby girl was having decels so I had to turn on my side and that helped. We moved over to L&D and got settled. Because of joint commission our nursing assignment kept changing but the nurse we ended up with was awesome!! She got me back on the monitors and asked if I wanted an epidural. She said that I was progressing well but if she had to bet she didn’t think the baby was coming before the end of her shift at 7pm. Also because of my heart history there was a good chance that I would have to get one if my heart rate continued to rise during contractions. Since I had already been laboring for over 24 hours at this point but REALLY laboring for over 12, and possibly would have to get one later anyway, I decided to get he epidural. The procedure wasn’t bad at all and worked well. The only problem? They use betadine and since I am allergic to fish I did get itchy all over but no really bad hives. I did tell them about the allergy and they said they really prefer to use betadine and can give Benadryl if I really needed it for the itching/hives so I agreed only because I didn’t want to mess up the sterility of the procedure and some hives are 200x better than an infection in your spine! However when my nurse came to insert the foley I kindly asked for chlorhexidine instead of the betadine. Nobody wants itching down there when you’re about to push out a baby! She gave me a ball thing to put between my legs to help with dilation and I rested for a bit. Things from here moved very quickly. Around 2pm the OB came in to check me and said I was 8cms and asked if I was ready to get moving and we agreed to having him break my water. SO MUCH FLUID! My nurse explained that things were moving faster than they had originally anticipated and that the baby would probably be here rather soon. She told me I would start to feel pressure lower and it would be constant right when the baby was coming. By 3:30 I was feeling so much rectal and vaginal pressure so my nurse called in the doctor and he said “yep she’s ready to push! I will be back shortly”. At 3:45 I told her the pressure was constant and I felt like I needed to push. She asked me to try and breathe through it for fifteen minutes if I could to make sure when it was go time that she was as far down on her own and I didn’t have to waste energy pushing. After five minutes I couldn’t wait anymore, I wanted to push her out! The nurse grabbed one leg and my mom grabbed the other with Madi behind me holding my hand and encouraging me the whole way.
We pushed for about thirty minutes and Aili came into the world! When they put her on my chest I literally couldn’t believe it. How was this thing inside of me seconds ago?! Aili hung out on my chest for an hour and the little cutie opened her eyes about thirty seconds out of the womb, it was amazing! My mom cut the cord and they delivered the placenta. They took Aili to weigh, measure height and listen to her. After that Madi got to hold her. Around 6:30 my nurse came back in with another nurse. They had taken out the foley in the middle of pushing so my nurse asked if I was ready to try and go to the bathroom. I said yes and said I could walk since all of the feeling in my legs had come back a while before that. I walked to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and got SO dizzy. I told my nurse that I was dizzy and that’s the last thing I remember. I woke up to my mom, a sea of nurses and a concerned Madi who was still holding Aili. They asked if I could talk and I shook my head no and went out again. When I woke up the second time they asked me if I could talk again and I said yes but that I was so dizzy still. They got me on the lift equipment and rolled me back to bed. My vitals were fine at this point and my heart was also fine. They attributed it to not eating for 24 hours and blood loss but said this happens and not to worry. I was pale as a ghost and so sweaty but after some apple juice and pretzels started to feel a little better.
They made me stay in L&D until about 9pm and then we moved over to the mother baby unit. I still felt pretty dizzy so I got some real food, subway of course! The beautiful turkey sandwich I had been waiting for for about nine months hah! I wasn’t really hungry but made myself eat half of it and took some sips of sprite. Everything from then went really well. I finally regained strength and was able to get up and down to the bathroom with the nurse overnight. I hated being that person calling for help to the bathroom with Madi right in the room, but the nurse told me it wasn’t a request I had to call for help and that they didn’t want me to pass out again alone with Madi. So I took them up on it and agreed to call them the first three times. After that I felt better and Madi, Aili and I had a great first night and got some well needed rest.
My birth experience was great at Duke and I couldn’t have been happier with my team! Every nurse I had from triage to discharge was so helpful and fantastic to work with! My attending was also amazing and so encouraging. I never felt like I couldn’t say what I wanted or that no one listened to me. Although I wasn’t the person to come in with the five page birth plan, I did have requests that they really helped see through. I am so glad that my mom was there to help and while many people told me that I would want just Madi and I in the room for her arrival, I would never change my mom being there for anything and Madi agreed! I was so happy that things went so well (and so quick by the time I went in!). Our little precious girl is finally here! Now we’re back at home and trying to figure out a routine for our new big adjustment to our lives (and sleep schedule) but this baby girl is a CHAMP y’all. She’s doing so well!
Thanks for keeping up with us,
- Olivia :)
