Unplanned Natural Birth

Let me preface this by saying I am pretty long winded but I am going to try to keep it short and simple…

A little background: This was my 2nd baby. I have an 8 year old stepdaughter and a 3 year old. My last delivery was long and drawn out…at 5 days overdue, 16.5 hours in the hospital and difficulty dilating, I finally gave birth to my first little girl, June Ann.

I didn’t expect this labor and delivery to be much different. I had everything kind of planned out. I wanted to stay at home as long as I could, call my sister (who is 3 hours away) have her in the delivery room with me to take pictures of the action, get my epidural and I really wanted to use the mirror this time and watch the birth.

Everything seemed to be going great, I was already beginning to dilate (2 cm at 38 weeks), so I was getting excited that I might get to “walk right in” to the epidural. At 39 weeks, my doctors told me that I would probably be going anytime because I was thinning out nicely and just pushing that 4 cm mark. At 40 weeks, not much more progress, so I was very disappointed as I entered into the 41st week of my pregnancy.

As I left the office, they set one last appointment for me the following Monday, April 18, to be checked again and possibly set an induction date. I DID NOT want to make it that far but all my efforts to get her out seemed fruitless. My stepdaughter Maddie plays softball and her opening tournament games were scheduled for Saturday April 16th, but it was raining so they rescheduled for Sunday afternoon. I woke up on Sunday morning around 7am with what seemed to be light contractions (not really any stronger than the Braxton-Hicks ones I had been having) but I did notice that they were about 4 minutes apart. I woke up my husband Randy, and we started timing them using my contraction timer app. on my phone. They were about 4-5 mins apart but not nearly strong enough. So I told Randy that it was nothing to change our schedule over and we continued to get ready for church and the afternoons ballgames. After church, we rushed home and ate lunch, changed into our ball shirts and headed to the tournament about 25 mins away. The contractions were still about 4 minutes apart but not any stronger. We watched Maddie’s team win the first game and then we were going to wait around the park for an hour until her next game began. I noticed that my contractions were starting to last a little longer and had a little more pressure, so I told Randy we might need to skip the second game and go and get checked at the hospital. At this point, I was sure that even after they checked me I would be sent home. On the way to the hospital my contractions got a LOT stronger. By the time we walked in, I was having to stop and breathe through them. As the nurse at the women’s center checked me, she said I was still at a 4 and she was pretty sure I was just in the early stage labor.

Time check: 4:00 pm.
She told me to walk around the hospital for about 30 -45 mins and she would check me again and then decide if I needed to be admitted. At this point, we hadn’t told anyone we were even at the hospital because we thought they were gonna send me back home. As we walked, my contractions got really strong. I stopped about every 3 mins and used my breathing techniques with little relief. We had only been walking about 20 mins and I told my husband that we needed to get back to the Women’s Center ASAP. I also told him that with pain this intense, they better not send me home. I sat down and after what seemed like an hour (actually about 5 mins), the nurse checked me again and said I was at 5 cm, so they were going to keep me and she left to get the stuff to hook up my IV.

Time check: 5:30 pm.
My contractions were getting really strong and I hoped she was going to walk back in with the IV and the epidural. Randy started calling our families so that my sister and his mom would be able to make it. I know they probably thought I was dying in the background because I was growling through the contractions and all the pressure.

Time Check: 5:45 pm
My nurse walked back in with the IV equipment and I was having a contraction. When it was over she said that she was going to recheck me really quick because that seemed really strong. As she checked me, I can vividly remember the look of shock on her face. Randy was on the phone with his mom and she looked up and told him to tell her not to rush because she wasn’t going to make it. We both kinda stopped. She said I had already dilated to 8 cm and would probably have a baby with in 30 mins. I quickly asked when the anesthesiologist was going to be there with my epidural. She looked away and whispered that there wasn’t enough time for the epidural. WHAT?!?! No, No, No this wasn’t the plan…no epidural and my sister wasn’t going to make it in time….my nurse left to call the doctor and I looked at Randy and began to panic. I told him there was no way I could do this and he needed to help me. He assured me that I could do it and it was gonna be fine. Each contraction got stronger and I got a lot little louder. I know that the poor girl next to me thought I had a demon coming out or something. My doctor came in with my nurse and they assured me that I was going to be really glad that I had her naturally. I just shook my head not believing them as another contraction started. I kept telling them I felt something coming out. So she checked to see if my water had broke but it hadn’t. My doctor then broke my water and a huge amount of pressure was relieved.

Time Check: 6:10 pm
The contractions were fierce by this point. I was begging for any kind of pain meds they could give me but they said I didn’t have time. I had finally made it to 10 cm and they moved the stirrups out so I could begin pushing. My mom walked in to the delivery room right as I was getting into the stirrups. I told her to lose the jacket we were having this baby now. I kept feeling the urge to go number 2 and I was scared to death that I might actually do that during this process ( I know that it is completely natural and lots of people do it but it mortifies me to even think about it). I told my doctor that and he assured me that it was not poop but a baby. The first time I pushed was killer and I guess instinctually I closed my legs. My nurse calmly told me to not do that because they couldn’t get the baby out if I was in the way. The next push was a little worse and afterwards I told Randy I was done. Cut her out. I cannot push anymore. It was too hard. He quickly looked up at me and said I had to push one more time because her head was sticking out. One more push and out came my beautiful baby girl, Carlie Elizabeth. All the pain and pressure was almost immediately gone. She was covered in merconium, so they moved her to the warmer to clean her up and then sent her back to me. She weighed 8lbs 3oz and was 21 inches long. She was born at 6:26 pm. Perfect.

Within two hours, I was up walking around. My body had never felt better. I did not intend to have a natural birth but am so glad that that is how it ended up. My recovery time was a lot quicker and I felt more awake to enjoy her first minutes. My plan fell through in every possible way. No epidural, no action shots (thank goodness we took our camera to the ballgame or we may not have had it at all), and no mirror, but I had the joy of giving natural birth quickly and as a bonus, I wasn’t in labor long enough to mess up my hair and makeup that bad…haha.
Nanette

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