Almost 4 months later and I am sitting down to write down Brielle's birth story. Sadly, I had to go back to old Facebook posts and text messages to piece together the day.
My maternity leave started on Friday September 11th since my due date was on Monday. I actually wanted to work until the day I went into labor to save my sick time, but my administrators told me my substitute was starting on Monday. I had been having some weird pains that last week of work. When I went to my last check up before my due date, I was at 4cm and 80% effaced. When I had Bailey, I was admitted to the hospital by that point. I found it crazy I was still walking around, let alone working and going to school. Thursday night in class I started to have some contractions, but they stopped before they got consistent.
Saturday morning I remember having energy and feeling great. I also felt like the baby would be here pretty soon. In the early afternoon I started to have some mild contractions so I decided to email my professor to let him know that I probably wouldn't be to class on Tuesday. I was texting and calling Wes telling him that I think he should come home early because I was scared to go into labor being alone with the two girls. Thankfully he got off a bit early to help with girls because I was starting to have painful contractions. When he got home, he made the girls dinner and I ate toast because I knew I needed SOMEthing in my belly. it was about 6:30 at this point and the contractions were super inconsistent, but extremely painful and it was hard to talk and walk through them. I kept saying "This is it, we have to go." but then I would feel good and felt silly for thinking it was time. Living 30 minutes from the hospital I wanted to make sure I got there in time though. It was a lot of back and forth of "Do we load up all the girls and go?" "What if it is a false alarm?". I decided to load up the car with the girls things I had packed while Wes and the girls were inside finishing dinner, getting dresses and running around in a bit of a panic mode. As I loaded up the last of the stuff I had a bad contraction and thought for sure baby was coming right then and there in my garage. I went inside and pretty much told Wes to get everyone in the car, we were leaving. My brother thankfully was on alert and was headed to meet us at the hospital so he could take the girls.
On the car ride I had 3 good contractions, which would make them about 10 minutes apart. I remember telling Wes that I should have brought my Biology book so I could get some homework done. I am pretty sure he thought I was a bit crazy for thinking about that at that time. We got to the hospital about 7:30 and we said our goodbyes to the girls and handed over our key to the car. Uncle Spidey and Aunt Heidi were having a sleep over with the girls. We went up to Labor and Delivery and we told them that I thought I was in labor, but it was still inconsistent so I just wanted to check to see. In my mind, we were going home that night to wait it out.
The nurse checked me at 8:20 and I was now 5 cm and the contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart. It looked like I was staying. I guess I didn't get my bloodwork done when I was first pregnant, because there was a big issue with finding the results. They needed those results, so I had to have two different people come in to draw my blood. I don't even think all the results came back before I had Brielle. Ooops.
The nurse asked if I wanted any medications and I said that I didn't, wanted to do this med free again. The nurse had asked if I wanted my water to be broken or not, I had said I would rather everything happen on it's own. I stayed at 5 cm for the next hour, so she thought maybe we should break my water. I told her I wanted to wait since it had only been an hour.
At about 10:15 contractions started picking up and now were 3-4 minutes apart and pretty intense. The nurse was pretty impressed with how well I was getting through them. I remember laying there watching America Ninja Warrior and trying to focus on that and my breathing. No, not the crazy breathing they show you in movies. I was more trying to take calm breathes in and out and relax my body. The more my body tensed up and tried to resist the pain, the more it hurt. The nurse checked me since I felt a lot more pressure. I was now about 8cm and she said she didn't think we needed to break my water and the doctor would come in to talk to me. I am not sure why she was set on breaking my water in the first place, I am assuming because the hospital was packed and they were trying to get us in and out. I kept telling the nurse that once my water breaks I get the urge to push instantly. I don't think she fully believed me.
The doctor came in at 10:50 and introduced herself. She confirmed I was 8 cm and 100% effaced (at 10:52). For some reason she broke my water without talking to me about it, I think the nurse had not told her I decided to wait on that. Instantly after breaking my water I dilated to a 10 and I got a huge urge to push. The dr. had said it was time for baby to come. Nurses were running around getting everything ready for the delivery. They didn't expect the everything to happen that fast, apparently they didn't believe me!
At that point I was in a bit of shock because I had JUST met the doctor minutes before. I thought we had a bit more time. We had only been there for a little over 2 hours and I had figured we would deliver after midnight. A contraction came and my body was trying to push, I was trying to not to since the doctor and nurses weren't finished setting up yet. When the next contraction came I pushed and Brielle's head was out. The doctor asked if I wanted to touch her head and my response was "No, just get her out!". I pushed again and out she came out at 11:05, which was 15 minutes after the doctor came walking into my room for the first time to introduce herself. The first words out of my mouth were something like "Wow that was fast!" and "I never want to do that again".
The hardest part of delivering Brielle was after the birth. I just want to be left alone and cuddle with my baby and I am getting poked, tugged, pushed on, etc. I also get cold and have horrible shakes after delivering, so it was hard for me to hold Brielle for a bit because I was shaking so bad.
Around midnight or soon after the nurse rolled me out of the delivery room which was right next to the front desk where I checked in a few hours prior. The nurse who checked us in was still sitting in the same spot and when she saw me she said "Congratulations, that was fast!"
