So it’s been a month and a half since Everett graced us with his presence and I can’t even believe it. Time is just flying.
I had a bit of a crazy labor and delivery experience so I wanted to share that with you all and document it on the blog so I don’t forget it either.
So it all started on June 10th around 2:30 pm. I was sitting on the couch working on some client work for my business Savvy Podcast Agency and Michael was in his office since he was working from home that week.
My back randomly really started to hurt and I couldn’t get comfortable in pretty much any position. It wasn’t completely unbearable but it didn’t feel great either.
After a few minutes of switching up positions trying to find one that was comfortable and failing, I did what any first-time mom would do and called my mom to ask what she thought might be happening.
She said it sounded like it could be the start of labor and I could potentially be experiencing back labor. Then I had Michael look it up and see what our good friend Google had to say.
All signs pointed to that I was experiencing back labor so whenever it got painful, I would hop on the exercise ball and bounce a little bit until the pain subsided a little bit.
I downloaded a contractions app on my phone shortly after coming to the conclusion that I was in back labor. We wanted to start to track my contractions and time them to see how far apart they were so that we could have a better idea on when it would be time to go to the hospital.
I continued to do a little work while the contractions weren’t too bad or too close together over the next few hours and then we ended up ordering Chili’s for dinner that night.
After eating, I packed up the remaining few things in my hospital bag so it was all ready to go when it was time to head to the hospital.
My contractions continued to grow in strength over the next few hours and eventually got to be pretty consistent between 7-10 minutes apart.
During my contractions, it was almost impossible to sit or lay down. As soon as one started, I’d pop up from where I was sitting or laying and start pacing until it subsided so basically I never went to sleep that night.
I called my doctor’s office around 12:30 am to let them know that I was laboring at home and to get her opinion on when I should go to the hospital. I spoke with one of the nurses and she said she’d contact my doctor and have her call me. My doctor called me back around 1:15 am and she said I should start heading towards the hospital if I felt like I was ready.
I was a little afraid to head to the hospital because I had no idea if I was dilated enough and heard stories about people being sent home because they weren’t dilated enough and I didn’t want that to happen to me.
We arrived at the hospital around 2:00 am after almost 12 hours of laboring at home. We waited in the ER waiting room for about 10 minutes for a nurse to take us to the labor and delivery unit.
Once we got to L&D, the nurse had me put on the hospital gown and then she checked to see how dilated I was.
I was expecting her to say 2 maybe 3 cm dilated but was completely shocked when she said I was already 6 cm dilated. Both the nurse and Michael were also shocked that I was already dilated that much since according to her, I was taking the pain like a dang champ.
At that point, she hooked me up to the machines and asked me a ton of questions. During the questions, I remember having contractions throughout them and having trouble answering the questions during the contractions due to the pain.
I then told her that I definitely wanted an epidural so she let the anesthesiologist know. Little did I know that he wouldn’t make it to me for another hour and a half and by that point I had jumped to being 8 cm dilated.
During this time, it was super painful to the point where I actually started throwing up during each contraction so that was really fun. Eventually, it turned to me just dry heaving into a bag that Michael held for me. Super glamorous, I know.
At some point during my crazy contractions, I had the COVID-19 nose swab test. I heard it hurt like hell so I was pretty surprised when it didn’t really hurt much at all. Maybe if I wasn’t having contractions every 3-5 minutes the test would’ve hurt much worse but who knows.
Eventually, the anesthesiologist came to administer the epidural so that I could get some relief. After the epidural was in, I almost felt instant relief. Instead of pain during my contractions, I just felt pressure instead. It still didn’t feel great but it was much better than the pain that came with every contraction pre-epidural.
At this point, they had let my doctor know I was getting close so that she could be there to deliver baby Everett.
A little after I got the epidural, my nurse checked me again and let me know that it was almost go time. My doctor showed up shortly after to check on me. At this point, my water still hadn’t broken so my doctor had to break it on her own.
Then it was time to push and this is where things get a little crazy. I had started to push but every time I pushed, the monitor would indicate that baby E was in distress.
They had me try several different positions (all of them equally uncomfortable) to see if that would help regulate his heart rate.
After a while of trying different positions and seeing if his heart rate would regulate, I had made very little progress and baby E was still in distress every time I pushed so my doctor proposed an emergency c-section.
It turns out the umbilical cord had wrapped around his neck and that’s why he was experiencing such distress each time I went to push.
Since the whole process was such a struggle and I was just ready to get him out of me, I felt so relieved to hear that in less than an hour we’d be meeting our sweet baby boy.
They geared us up for surgery. This part was nuts. They quickly wheeled me to the operating room and transferred me to the operating table and pumped more drugs into me via my epidural.
While they were prepping me for the surgery, Michael was waiting outside to be able to come in. It felt like a lifetime before they were ready for him to come in but it was probably only 10 minutes or less.
I was a little scared and the epidural had made me all shaky so my arms were laid out flat on both sides of me and shaking super bad. Once I saw Michael, I started crying because I was experiencing so many emotions at once.
Shortly after, they started the procedure and within 15 minutes, Everett made his appearance into the world. They held him up so we could see him for a second before taking him over to the station to clean him off, weigh and measure him, and all of that jazz. Once that was complete, then they wrapped him in a blanket and handed him to Michael.
I was way too shaky to hold him during this part but we were able to just hang out there together as a family of three for the first time while they sewed me back up.
To be honest, the experience was a little bit traumatic but at the end of the day, we’re so happy to have a healthy and happy little boy.
Now I want to know, do you enjoy reading other people’s birth stories or no? Oddly enough, I liked reading them even before I was pregnant for some reason. Let me know down in the comments
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