A Baby Story

I love reading ladies’ labor stories so I wanted to share mine in case anyone is interested in the dirty details.

It all started on Thursday, June 3^rd. It was the big moving day. After a night of packing, we woke up at 7:00. Jeff went to school and I (against my mother’s advice) started loading up two cars with boxes while he was gone. I was so anxious to get everything in the apartment and settled before the baby came. I kept telling Jeff I was a ticking time bomb. We were just praying I didn’t go into labor until we at least had all our stuff in our new apartment.

We had a lot of help moving everything in. By 8:00 that night I was exhausted and ready for bed. I started feeling my stomach tighten and there was a little bit of pain with it, but I didn’t think they were real contractions. We did time them and they were about 10 minutes apart. I had Braxton Hicks contractions very regularly throughout my whole pregnancy so I just thought it was the same old Braxton Hicks. I went to bed.

At 4:00 in the morning I woke up to my water breaking. It was only a small amount of water, so I convinced myself it couldn’t have been my water breaking. I paced around the living room for about 40 minutes in denial and frequently leaking. I finally decided to call the hospital. I told them I wasn’t sure if my water broke or not. The nurse on the phone was like, “Well, come in and we can check it out. You know, sometimes pregnant ladies pee their pants and think their water broke.” That made me think it really was all in my head and I shouldn’t even be going to the hospital. I woke Jeff up anyway and we headed out the door.

As I got out of the car I started getting contractions. And my little waterfall was becoming a bit more constant. I still didn’t think I was in labor. We went to get checked in and I said, “Hi, I just called.” The nurse said, “Oh. You’re the one who thinks your water broke. Come with me.” I could tell they get this a lot. I could also tell they did not think I was in labor either. The nurse helping me asked me a bunch of questions and then did a little test to see if the fluid I was leaking was amniotic fluid. She seemed as shocked as I was to see that it was. They admitted me and started me on Pitocin.

When I got to the hospital I was dilated 3 centimeters and 90% effaced. I was feeling contractions but they were not near as bad as I expected them to be. I had heard I wasn’t able to get an epidural until I was at least 5 centimeters dilated because the epidurals can slow down labor. I asked the nurse if that was true and she said, “Nope. Just say the word and we’ll get you the epidural.” Awesome.

Time was flying by and my contractions still didn’t hurt too bad. I decided to hold off a little bit on the epidural because I didn’t feel like I really deserved it yet. I have watched all these videos of women giving birth and they looked like they were in so much pain. I wasn’t even getting close to that point. I was anxious for 9:00 to roll around so I could watch Regis and Kelly. My contractions started getting pretty painful halfway through Regis and Kelly and the anesthesiologist was in my room before the show was over. So I probably only had about 20 minutes of very painful contractions.

I have always told people that the two things I was most scared of about having a baby were the IV and the epidural. I was pretty calm for the IV because I was in shock I was finally really about to have a baby. And the epidural was a piece of cake. It was just three little pricks and it was done. Then I was home free. I took a nap, called some people, sucked on some flavored ice. I felt like I was at a spa. They checked me after I got my epidural and I was already 7 cm. Three hours of relaxing and I was “complete” so they started getting me ready to push.

I started pushing at about 2:00. It was weird. I couldn’t feel what I was doing. And I knew I wasn’t doing it right. The nurse kept pretending I was doing great but after an hour of pushing and no change, I started thinking the baby would never come. Turns out Eli’s head was tilted weird. When the doctors checked his position, they felt his ear instead of the crown of his head. I don’t know how he managed to wedge himself down that way, but he did.

They had me push from all angles to try and get him to move. They ended up having my doctor come in for the last hour of pushing to see if he could get the ball rolling. My epidural was wearing off a little bit so I was able to better feel how I needed to push. In between contractions my doctor asked, “So Sarah, is this the hardest thing you’ve ever done?” And I said, “No. Running a half marathon was harder than this.” And it really was! As I was going on two hours of pushing, I still thought the half marathons were harder than having a baby. My doctor thought I was crazy.

After two and a half hours of pushing, Eli Thomas Excell was born at 4:32. When he came out he wasn’t crying and I knew that wasn’t a good sign. He was grunting and his nostrils were flaring so he was given straight to the respiratory team. One of the first things I said after I had him was, “I could do that again.” My doctor was in shock and later told the nurses to remind me I shouldn’t get pregnant for at least six weeks. Don’t worry doctor, I could and I will do it again, but I’m not in a hurry to pop out baby number 2.

I got to hold Eli for about two minutes and then they rushed him back to the nursery to put him on oxygen. He looked pretty sad when I held him so I wanted them to take him and get him breathing the right way. He spent the first night in the nursery and just before bed the second night he was finally completely off oxygen and was able to sleep in our room.

We were supposed to go home on Sunday morning but the nurses forgot to check Eli’s Bilirubin levels on Saturday. We found out Eli had Jaundice and would need to be under lights. We spent all day Sunday watching Eli tan. After a long and stressful hospital stay, we were finally discharged Sunday night with a little light bed for Eli to stay in for the first two days he was home.

We were thrilled to find out last Wednesday that Eli’s Jaundice is gone, his breathing is good and he’s a normal, healthy little baby. We love the little guy and highly recommend having kids.

The morals of the story: The best way to induce labor is to move apartments when you’re full term, and if you can run a half marathon, you can definitely have a baby.