TLC’s “A Birth Story,” anyone? Don’t worry, there are no videos here.
Let me start by saying that each and every mom is a rock star - no matter what kind of labor and delivery. We all know that every experience is different. For me, labor and delivery was quick.
To quickly recap, my pregnancy went smoothly; however, my doctors were watching Baby Beard’s growth closely. He was growing steadily - albeit on the small side - but his stomach growth percentiles were dropping each time we went to the doctor. When we reached just about 38 weeks, the doctor recommended that we induce labor because Baby Beard would get more of the nutrients he needed on the outside. The waiting game was over, and we had a plan for Baby Beard’s arrival.
I was expecting a call from the hospital later in the evening on Wednesday, September 16, but to our surprise we got a phone call right at 5 pm. My husband (Chris) and I rushed to get the last few things ready and in the car, and headed to the hospital in the middle of rush hour traffic. But, not before grabbing my least meal at Chick-fil-a (of course!) before what I thought would be hours and hours of labor.
I was admitted to the hospital at around 7 pm, and measured 2 cm and 50% effaced. Everything from there went smoothly and calmly. First step was a cervical ripening (to soften and make the area favorable) - aka I couldn’t pee for 2 hours. You try telling a pregnant woman she has to wait that long to pee. Not fun.
At about midnight, I was offered ambium. I figured it worth taking so that I could get some sleep before the laboring ahead...I quickly fell asleep until I started to feel some slight contractions, which felt like some menstrual cramps, around 2 am. I dozed off and on until my water broke at 4 am. Now, my doctor had told me that she would likely have to break my water for me later on that day. I paged the nurse and to all of our surprises, my water broke and I was 3 cm.
Chris called my mom and she arrived at 5:30 am. At that time, contractions were progressively getting stronger and I was at 5 cm. For my “birth plan,” I was intending to see how things progressed to determine whether or not I wanted an epidural. Well, things had gotten super painful really quickly, and I couldn’t imagine going through hours and hours of it, so I requested an epidural.
Admittedly, timing is a bit blurry but not long later I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. After voicing this to my mom and Chris, they got the nurse to check me again. Low and behold, Baby Beard was ready to come out! And, this meant no epidural or any pain reliever of any sort. Within minutes my room went from being empty to having all the necessary folks for birth - except for my doctor.
Everything seemed to keep moving at a fast pace from there. No woman is joking when she tells you that you’ll feel an urge to push. Of course, my timing was around shift change. While my doctor had anticipated delivering my baby later on that day (since first time labors typically last a while), the ‘on call’ doc was on her way. I tried to hold off from pushing like the nurses said, but remember that comment I made earlier about a pregnant woman not peeing for 2 hours? Well, that was nothing compared to preventing myself from pushing.
Even though the ‘on call’ doctor was on her way, the nurses called “any OB in the house” over the loud speaker. Baby Beard was not messing around. Literally minutes before he made his arrival, the doctor arrived. I pushed 3 times, heard Chris say that the baby has brown hair, pushed 2 more times and sweet Keegan James Beard was born.
Just like that - Chris and I officially became parents.
Keegan’s stats:
Birth time: 7:01 am
Weight: 5 pounds, 12 ounces
Length: 19.5 inches
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