I have been wanting to write this blog for 4 months now, but honestly… what is time with a newborn?! Anyway, I want to tell you all about my birthing experience as a first-time mom. From the good parts to the not so good parts, and everything in between. There’s a lot that people tell you about giving birth, but there is SO MUCH that nobody talks about. So here I am, to share my experience. So, warnings, I will be specific so if you’re not interested or don’t want to know… I suggest you skip this post. However, if you’re pregnant or trying, ever been pregnant, or know someone that may be pregnant, or if you’re just curious- keep on reading!
So, first things first, WHAT THE HECK DOES A CONTRACTION FEEL LIKE?! Am I having contractions? Is that just gas? Did the baby move weird? Literally all these things were going through my head. As my due date came and went (November 15th), I realized… I had no idea what a contraction would feel like. I did some research and read some articles, but nobody who had given birth ever really told me. So, on the morning of November 18th, 2020 I woke up (8am-ish) to what felt like a little period cramp, which I chalked up to being gas. As the day progressed, I kept getting the feeling, but nothing consistent. Around came 5p (husband was working late by the way) and the feeling definitely got stronger and more frequent, so are these contractions?! As I was nowhere near ready to give birth at my most recent appointment, and my induction had been scheduled, I honestly did not think the baby was going to make an appearance on her own. 7p came and my husband was done working, I told him about my pain, and he decided to start tracking. Slowly but surely, the pain increased. Around 11:15p he said it was time to go. I thought differently. I was honestly just more concerned with getting there (30ish minute drive) just to be turned away. At 11:30 my husband finally said, “we’re going”. The car was already packed up… so I grabbed my pillow, kissed my dog (and took the last “family of 3” photo), and we headed out.
We got to the hospital around midnight (so technically 11/19 now). They took my vitals, then sent us to a room in triage. Apparently, my blood pressure was slightly high- which was pretty unusual for me, the only other time it was slightly high was my 40week appointment, and the nurse just thought it was a bad read and meant to take it again. Once the nurse came into the room, she asked me about my blood pressure, hooked me up to monitor my contractions, then checked my cervix. Sure enough… I was only 1cm dilated 🤦🏼♀️, I was positive they were going to send me home. She left for a while and then came back to review my contraction readings. My contractions were only a minute apart! Which again, is abnormal for the amount I was dilated. Between the blood pressure and the contractions, they decided to admit me. At this point they got me prepped to get us to a room. I got a COVID test, they took some blood, and the placed an IV into my hand. Now throughout this pregnancy I was poked and prodded numerous times, so honestly wasn’t fazed by much of that… but the IV in my hand just didn’t feel “right”. I told my husband and once the nurse came back in, he said something (thankfully), she looked at it and thought it was fine but decided to flush it out with saline… once she did that my hand literally started to blow up. As expected, the IV was inserted wrong and they needed to move it- and now I had a blown-up hand on top of everything else.
Once we finally got settled into our room, we decided to do some laps in the hall hoping to speed things up… it was about 2a at this point. We were up all night! Around 6a, I sent my husband to get some food for himself – it had already been a long night and literally nothing was really happening. My contractions were still coming in strong at about 1-minute apart, giving me little to no breaks and I was still not dilating. Around 7:30a, they decided it was time to induce me and break my water to help the process. At this point, I also needed some meds for the pain, and they gave me some fentanyl. When they broke my water, they realized it wasn’t water… it was meconium. The baby decided she needed to go, and just relieved herself inside of me. Because of this, they had to schedule the NICU unit to be in the room during delivery (whenever that came) to make sure the baby was ok and breathing- not stressful at all. This also caused another slew of issues.
COVID Labor -_- 
We had the BEST nurses 
At this point between the intensified contractions, breaking my water, little to no sleep… I was in a lot of pain. I decided it was time for an epidural. Now, I know this is another touchy subject for some and bless those mamas that decide not to have one, seriously you all have some crazy super mom powers. For me, I literally went in completely undecided and open on if I was going to get one. Also, which one?? My overall goal was to go as long as possible without it, and that’s exactly what I did. At the point that I made the decision, I truly felt it was necessary. The fact that I wasn’t dilating could have also been due to my body not being able to relax- the epidural was going to help me do just that. I originally hoped to get a walking epidural, so that I wasn’t tied to my bed… but at this point that wasn’t really an option. The anesthesiologist came in to go over everything with me and prepare me, I was ready. Once the epidural was in place, I was hoping for some quick relief… that sadly did not happen. The anesthesiologist came back and couldn’t figure out why it was not working (which I was internally slightly freaking out about), she tried a few things then informed me she may have to redo it. She then decided to pump quite a bit extra into me, and I finallyyyy started to feel it, or not feel it. I was finally able to nap! This was all around 10a.
Someone else napped too 🙂 
As they moved me around and gave me a peanut ball to sit in different positions, my blood pressure decided to take a dive. They needed to give me some ephedrine to hopefully increase it. While this was all going on, they determined the baby couldn’t quite handle all of it. Her heart rate kept dropping. They decided around 12p that they needed to place a uterine catheter inside me to better monitor the baby as well as the strength of my contractions. They then discussed possible options to move forward, including possible c-section if baby wouldn’t stabilize. At around 2p, we decided to try option number 1, which was an amnio infusion. They needed to put water back inside my uterus to help support the baby. This helped significantly! At about 3:30p, I was finally dilated about 7cm, fully effaced, and baby was sitting at a 0. My pain was minimal but was feeling lots of pressure… was looking good for a natural birth! They were still slightly concerned my umbilical cord may be a problem, but they kept their eye on it.
And since I know you are all curious… yes, yes I did poop myself! Oddly though, not when you would think I would. And to be honest, if it wasn’t for my oh so amazing husband, I probably would have never known. As they were moving me around to different positions after my epidural, I thought I smelt something… but to be honest, I had no idea what my body was doing at that point. My amazing nurses came in to move me, and when they moved the blanket sure enough, there was poop. They were sooo nice about it! Literally did not even tell me, just cleaned it up and moved me to a new position. Clearly, they deal with that a lot. But of course, as soon as they left the room, my husband informed me of what happened. At that point I honestly could care less, but I do have a running joke with my best friend about pooping ourselves- so I have now lost. I also did not poop while pushing, which surprised me. Instead, my baby decided to poop IN me…
From there, things started to escalate rather quickly. Around 5p, I spiked a slight fever, they believe from the meconium issue earlier in the day. They placed me on antibiotics to try and get my temp back down. At 5:30p I was fully dilated, and baby was at a +1! It was GO time!! The pushing began shortly after that. Within a few pushes baby girls head was already showing, with a full head of hair! (Which I couldn’t resist touching the hair on her head!) My midwife came back in, got everything ready and the final pushes occurred. At 6:40p my beautiful baby girl arrived! And yes, I shot her out like a lemon seed 🙊 I didn’t hear the “ok easy push this time” … oops. However, she came out and cried! So, the NICU was happily dismissed. They put her on my chest and at that very moment my whole life changed. They cleaned her up, measured her, for her prints and let daddy hold her. At 7:20p she was able to latch and start breastfeeding, shortly after we were taken up to our room.
With ALL that said, just goes to show you really never know what your birth is going to be like. I was healthy all through my pregnancy and still had my fair share of issue. But the most important thing was that my baby girl arrived healthy. I will also note to all you ladies trying to choose a doctor… my doctor did not touch me once. She stood next to my midwife as she did everything. My midwife was also calling all the shots throughout the day, so my advice… make sure you like your midwife, the doctor honestly doesn’t really matter. I also got super lucky with some amazing nurses!
Astrid Jean made her arrival November 19, 2020 at 6:40p. She was 20 inches long, weighing in at 7lbs 11oz with a full head of hair.
