hey all! i had the baby! hahaha. it was so crazy! if you have been following me on Facebook or instagram, then you may have seen some posts that said i was having lots of braxton hicks and even had some false labor events a few times where i had legit contractions in the night, but by morning they had fizzled out and went away. i had a feeling that i may have several early labor situations before i went into actual labor. so, the last few days of my pregnancy were really rough. haha, i say really rough but it wasn't that bad, i guess. i was just so so so tired, exhausted, my body was so heavy and sore, i had so many symptoms like heartburn, sciatica, back pain, etc....i outlined allll of those symptoms in a previous blog post. i literally would wake up in the morning and feel so dang tired and achy and uncomfortable. i would go through the day thinking "how on earth can i go one more day like this? this is inhumane". haha, everyday just felt so impossible. thank goodness that my in laws were here to help with the kids! so the day after my due date, i felt extremely exhausted and low energy that day. i did some bouncing on my yoga ball and stretching and some poses to make sure baby was in the correct position for birth. i really didn't do much that day, i just felt sooooo tired. my mother in law and hubby were both predicting that i would go into labor that night. i kind of felt the same way. also because i was so irritable. i had just read an article a few days before that right before a woman goes into labor, her progesterone level decreases, similar to right before a woman's menstrual period starts, and the result is PMS like symptoms including irritability. so i was wondering if that was what was going on with me that day.
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last photo before going into labor, 40 weeks plus one day, the afternoon before i went into labor
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anyway, we had dinner and did the bedtime routine as normal, i had my bedtime snack, i threw a couple of last minute things in my hospital bag just in case, and went to sleep around 10pm or so. i woke up at 11:55pm because i had a contraction. i continued to have a few more contractions and they felt more purposeful this time around. after a bit i decided to time them. after an hour or so, i was having regular contractions but they were about 13-15 minutes apart. around 2am it became clear i was having real contractions this time and as they became more intense i had to labor on my yoga ball. hubby was awake at this point, and i told him that i would just monitor my progress and to lay down and get some sleep. the contractions were still 10-13 minutes apart, but were becoming more intense. after another 30 minutes, the frequency of my contractions was still pretty random; 10 minutes, 13 minutes, 6 minutes, 8 minutes, 14 minutes, like that. i actually remember thinking, when the contraction was over, how good it felt. haha, the reprieve between contractions was such a welcome break, and it was so nice to lay back down on my bed for 10 minutes and rest. i actually kind of fell asleep in between contractions at that point. but they were definitely becoming more intense, and i was starting to feel sweaty. i woke hubby up and asked him to call the consulting nurse to let them know we were going to come in and to see what they think. while he was on the phone, i had to use the bathroom and the next contraction i had left me shaky, sweaty and nauseous. i knew that my labor was progressing at this point and no matter what the nurse said i knew we would start to head to the hospital. we were traveling to swedish hospital on first hill in seattle, which is about a 35 minute drive with absolutely no traffic. i knew that i didn't want to have very many hard contractions in the car and definitely we wanted to avoid rush hour traffic. the consulting nurse agreed that we should come in and they would notify the midwife. at this point my mother in law was awake and told us to go in as well. she stayed with me rubbing my back while hubby packed a few last minute things in our bags, got dressed and started packing everything into the car. in the 10 minutes it took him to do this, i got dressed, too, and had 5 back to back contractions that were pretty intense. it was crazy, in a matter of minutes the frequency and intensity of the contractions increased exponentially. it happened so fast. in my head i thought "oh shit" because i thought i was probably in or close to being in transition at this point. we said bye to my MIL and got into the car. i texted my parents to let them know we were leaving for the hospital. it was 3:36am.
we pulled onto the main street and hubby realized we forgot the damn carseat, it was in the other car, and asked if we should turn around. i said we probably shouldn't just in case it came down to minutes at the end. for the next 10 minutes, i had several contractions but i was breathing through them well. then all of a sudden it shifted, we were about halfway to the hospital, and it was much more intense, and my body innately started grunting through the contractions and i could feel the baby dropping down. i lowered the back of the seat so that i could be semi-lying down and i spent every ounce of energy i had on visualizing the baby NOT coming down the birth canal. it was like the opposite of the hypnobirthing tracks i was listening to. haha, instead of opening up like a lotus flower i was clamping down like a venus fly trap, haha. i did NOT want to give birth in the car! i had another couple super intense contractions, grunting through them, praying that we could make it to the hospital. at one point i opened one eye and saw the james street exit, the exit to the hospital, and said thank God!!!!! hubby asked if we should just head to the emergency entrance and i said yes.
right as he was pulling into the emergency entrance i had a contraction that my body was pushing through. i was trying not to push, but if you have ever had such a strong urge to push while in labor, it's almost impossible not to. hubby ran in and grabbed an attendant who brought a wheelchair for me. i somehow stood up and plopped myself on the chair and he immediately ran me through the hospital to labor and delivery. at this time hubby went to go park the car and would meet me upstairs. i continued to have contractions and my body continued to push during them, the waves getting closer and closer together. by the time we made it to L&D triage, i was sure i was going to give birth right then. the nurse insisted on checking me, so i had to move from the wheelchair to the bed. say wha? i somehow managed it between contractions. the nurse asked me to try as hard as i could to stop pushing so that she could check my cervix. i did my best, and a second later she said, "oh yea, you're complete" and within a second a bunch of nurses were around me, the rails on the bed went up and they were running the bed through the hallway to a L&D room, one of the nurses shouting at triage to page the midwife asap.
the next several minutes were a blur, but i remember them asking me to roll onto the other bed (why do i have to keep moving from one bed to another? didn't they know how freaking impossible this was?!), i again somehow rolled onto the other bed, and then like 5 nurses were on me; one was trying to insert a heplock for the IV, another was checking my vitals, another was preparing delivery stuff, another was holding the fetal heart rate monitor to my belly. at this time i was pushing pretty continuously as the contractions were on top of each other, i had no break. and because of this, i wasn't on top of my breath, i was panting and not breathing effectively. so when they checked the baby's heart rate it was low, too low. they told me they had to hook me up to oxygen and that i needed to get up on my hands and knees. one nurse was nurse was holding the oxygen mask to my face. that's right when hubby came in the room and it freaked him out--the urgency of the nurses and the fact that i had to have oxygen. the nurse encouraged me to take some really deep, centering breaths. it's almost like i forgot how to do that, so i was glad she was coaching me to slow down my breath. also, getting up on my hands and kneed seemed like the most insurmountable task at that point. it took an extreme effort, but one of the nurses helped me up on all fours, i guess it was a better position for the baby to get more oxygen and also to push the baby out quicker. the midwives made it in at that point and told me that i needed to push the baby out right then since her heart rate was low. i was already pushing, so that wasn't going to be an issue, haha. i remember thinking, i have to do this now for my baby. i also remember thinking, can they just somehow cut me open and pull the baby out, hahaha, this is how irrational my mind was right then. but we were so close, so i pulled energy from every part of my body and focused it on pushing out my baby. i could feel her coming down, my water broke which felt like such a relief and in my head i thought ok the baby is going to come out now. there were basically no breaks, the contractions were still right on top of each other and i was pushing constantly, one push after the other. the nurses and midwives were encouraging me, telling me i was doing it, i was pushing well. after my water broke, i pushed again and she was crowning. i pushed again and her head came out. then i pushed her shoulders out, and she kind of plopped out onto the bed. hallelujah! i looked back and saw her on the bed and the midwife rubbing her vigorously with a towel. hubby asked why she wasn't crying yet. it had only been about 30 seconds. she took a big breath and started crying. one of the nurses helped me turn and lay down on my back and they placed the baby on my chest. she was here!!!!!!!! this whole process from when i got into the L&D room to when she was born was all of 5 minutes or so. definitely less than 10.
so again, we left the house at 3:36am. she was born at 4:17am. so that's about 41 minutes? from the time we left until she was born. and my labor started around midnight, so a little over 4 hours in total. haha, not bad! for comparison, Z's labor was about 14 hours and ava's was just under 6 hours. all of the labors and births were so different from one another.
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whaaaaaaat/??!!!! did that just happen?!
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anyway, the baby is on my chest, hubby sits down in a chair next to me, looks at the baby, looks at me and said "what the hell was that???" and we started stress laughing. the whole ordeal was so intense, and so fast! baby did great, her apgars were 8 and 9, which is a score they give at one and five minutes past birth to assess the immediate health of the baby. after the umbilical cord stopped pulsing, hubby cut it, and the nurses and midwives starting getting me all fixed up and cleaned up and i latched the baby on and started nursing at the same time. at this point i started shaking really bad, uncontrollably. they said it was adrenaline coursing through my body since i had just had such an intense delivery. after some time the midwife was done with the stitches (i had a mild second degree tear). i passed the baby off to hubby so that i could change position and get situated and then started nursing the baby again and ordered some breakfast.
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sweet chunky baby, she was a full pound more than the other two kids but the same length as zabih
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after we ate we were transferred to a postpartum room, they hooked us up with a deluxe room, haha, which was great because it was bigger and had a murphy bed for hubby rather than an uncomfortable vinyl reclining chair. and we had a cool view of pioneer square. and we had the best nurse. those L&D nurses are amazing! if you get a good one, it makes the experience so wonderful.
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she came in like a wrecking ball! hahahaha
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so for the rest of our time in the hospital we just practiced nursing, ate food, and got to know each other. because i had gestational diabetes they had to check the baby's blood sugar in between feeds to make sure that her blood glucose levels were above a certain level. when i had this with ava, we struggled with this a little bit because we had to have 3 good readings in a row and we would get 2 and then a low one and have to start all over again. but roya (this baby #3) was a champ at nursing and her blood sugar levels were great every time. so that went well. we spent one night in the hospital and that was a rough one. by this time roya was starting to get frustrated at the breast, probably because my milk wasn't in yet and we were all sleepy and everything is new. i was struggling to get her latched on. oh, and hubby had gone back home to pick up the carseat that we forgot at home, so i was on my own for a few hours. anyway, it was hard to get the baby to latch on and eventually i had to start using a nipple shield. i used that with both of the other kids for awhile, too. it really helped us get breastfeeding going. we saw a lactation consultant briefly while we were there, i just wanted to ask a few questions since i felt pretty confident in nursing already. we saw the pediatric doctor, and the midwife, got baby's hearing checked and all the other tests and stuff that they do in the first couple days. we went home in the afternoon the next day.
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in the wonderful newborn bubble of happiness
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the first night after baby roya was born and for the next couple of days i kept recounting the experience in my head over and over. this birth experience was so different from the others. it was so so so intense. almost too intense. but i am super thankful that it really went well, didn't last forever, and didn't end in interventions that i wanted to avoid. and that both of us are heathy.
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soaking it all in
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so that's it! i'll be writing more about postpartum stuff and more about baby roya in other posts when i can!
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| kinda looks like me in this photo |
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| roya's first bath shortly before heading home |
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