My Birth Story
First off, I want to share that every labor is different. I was blessed with a beautiful, positive birth story, and I wanted to put that out there so you can decide if you want to continue reading!
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Ok, so I had my beautiful baby girl, Joelle, at 39.4 weeks. We had an appointment earlier that week at 39.2 weeks and were so anxious to meet her that we discussed an elective induction with my doctor. We decided to be put on the hospital’s induction list, so whenever they called us, we would be ready to go have a baby! I was not dilated, my cervix was very posterior, and there were no signs of labor. We consulted with him and concluded that this was a good decision. It was Wednesday. He mentioned that it doesn’t happen right away and is very dependent on the hospital’s capacity that day. He also mentioned he would be out of town that upcoming weekend and that if I went into labor naturally without him there, I would get the on-call doctor. I wasn’t too nervous about it; it was just like, really? Of course!
WAITING & PREPARING
With that in mind, we were excited and anxious to maybe get an induction call. We hung out on Thursday and Friday as usual, just lounged around, enjoyed our free time, and did lots of curb walking and working out! On Thursday evening, we went to the movies, and I noticed a bit of mucus and blood when I went to the restroom. I was shocked because I hadn’t seen any changes prior to that! So we just went home and left it at that. On Friday morning, we grabbed coffee and went to the park, where I curb walked for about 20 minutes while Ryan played with the dog. Two hours later, nothing happened, so we went to work out at noon. I told Ryan we should go now, just in case we needed the evening free and couldn’t go later. We did the workout, which included overhead squats and jump rope. I hadn’t done much jumping throughout the pregnancy except at the beginning, but I thought, why not try some version of jumping today? So I did 4 rounds of 50 jumping jacks without using my hands. After the workout, we went home to eat some steak. I felt like I should eat a lot of protein for energy "just in case."
During lunch, at about 2:30 p.m., I felt what I thought might be a contraction. It lasted for about a minute and was different from anything I had felt before. Then one more came about 10 minutes later. When I went to the restroom, I lost my mucus plug and was so excited because it was the first sign of something happening! I knew you could lose it days or weeks before labor, so I didn’t read too much into it. The contractions kept coming, and after about 30 minutes, I decided I should probably time them. They started to get a little intense, and I had one really strong contraction, and then some blood. After that, I told Ryan we should get showered and ready to head to the hospital within the next few hours. We planned to leave around 7 p.m. on Friday night.
We started getting all of our bags in the car. I showered, did my hair, and snacked, and so did Ryan. We left at about 7 p.m. After having about 5 contractions that were about 3 minutes apart, I started to get nervous. The ride to the hospital was the worst! But thankfully, I didn’t have any contractions during the drive. At that time, they were coming 8 minutes apart, so I wondered if they would even admit me. There’s a Chick-fil-A nearby, so we decided to stop and grab some dinner. As Ryan was ordering in the drive-thru, I had a contraction, and he told the young worker, “When you’re older and have a wife, this is what it looks like to be in labor.” 😂
I was mid-contraction and so embarrassed, hahaha.
CHECKING IN & GETTING ADMITTED
Anyway, we got to the hospital and checked into triage, where they assess whether to keep you or not. They checked my cervix, hooked me up to monitors to check contractions, and see if I was in labor. I was 3 cm dilated, and my cervix was still posterior. They said my contractions were not consistent, so they asked me to walk around intensely for 45 minutes, and they would recheck. Well, intensely is not what we did. We did squats, lunges, and speed walking around the L&D floor. I’ll share this video of us doing so 😂 I was having contractions during them, and it actually felt good to walk or squat during a contraction.
After 45 minutes, we went back. There wasn’t much change in dilation, but contractions had increased in consistency, and I had my "bloody show" and lost more mucus. The on-call doctor happened to be at the hospital at that time, so she came to check on me and decided to keep me as I was in early labor. She said, “Let’s get this baby out!” So we got checked in and admitted to a room about 11 p.m.
THE BIG MOMENT
I remember the walk from triage to the L&D room was so intense. I was in so much pain at about 3-4 cm dilated. My amazing nurse, Claire, asked if I wanted the epidural now. I said absolutely, lol. I didn’t want the doctor to get busy elsewhere, and I would have to wait. So we got the epidural, and I was shocked at how well it worked! Honestly, the epidural was not painful at all. It was much easier than I expected. The pain started to ease almost immediately, and my legs started to numb up. After about 10 minutes, I was a new person—relaxed but also immobile.
My family jumped on flights as soon as my contractions were consistent and made it to the hospital at about 11 pm. They stayed for a bit then went home to sleep, one of my sisters stayed with me and Ryan all night at the hospital.
Things continued to progress, but I won’t go into all the details. If you want more specifics, email me or let me know on Instagram. Lol.
So, this was around 10:30 p.m. My nurse got me settled in, and I dozed in and out of little 10-minute naps all night, mostly awake, though. At about 2 a.m., she came in, and I was 5 cm dilated. She asked if I wanted some Pitocin to speed things up a bit, and I said yes, absolutely! By around 4 a.m., I was about 8 cm dilated. By 6 a.m., I was 9 cm, and the doctor came in around 7 a.m. and said I was fully ready, but the baby was in a position that made it a little harder for her to get out. They put me in a specific position with a peanut ball for 20 minutes, then came back, and it was time to push.
MEETING JOELLE
I pushed for 12 minutes, and my beautiful baby girl was born at 7:33 a.m. Ryan and my sister Bianca were in the delivery room with me. Ryan got to cut the umbilical cord, it was really beautiful. My sister prayed over Joelle soon after she was born and it was a special moment. She caught a video of her actually being born which I am so grateful to have! We got to hold and love on her, and then about 30-40 minutes later, we were moved to the recovery room, where we spent the next day and a half! Pushing with an epidural is an interesting feeling because you can’t really feel how hard or if you are even pushing at all! But they kept saying I was doing a good job, so I guess I did something right, lol. So at the end I labored for 16 hours and pushed for 12 minutes! And we went into labor naturally at 39.4 weeks :)
It truly was such a beautiful night. I was blessed with amazing nurses who were attentive and strong since I couldn’t move a muscle with the epidural, lol.
Here's a cool video recapping some of the moments!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-eTHquJKfN/?hl=en
Make sure to follow along on my instagram for the continuous journey of me and my newborn. I love to share and hope it can help a soon to be mama!
