A Baby Story FSL Style: Part 1

It’s been quiet on the blog for the past week, but I assure you, life has been anything but quiet for us.  Let me start from the beginning.

 

I woke up Saturday morning with a burst of energy.  I buzzed around our bedroom and organized it from top to bottom in 25 minutes flat.  I ripped the sheets off the bed, put fresh ones on. I dusted, vacuumed, washed the windows all at warp speed . . .  it was clear that I was officially in nesting mode.  I thought this happened a week or two before I’d go into labor, so I figured I was right on schedule.  My due date countdown clock was down to 11 days.

I debated on going to prenatal yoga or for a hike in the trails behind our house with my husband.  The leaves in Connecticut started to change, so I opted for the outdoors. It was beautiful out and I had lots of energy, so we  hiked for an hour.

 

 

When we got back, I whipped up a Nutella butter pound cake  (click here for that recipe, trust me, you want it).

 

We went to my grandparents house to visit my cousin, his wife and meet his new son Travis. They live in Florida and it was their first visit up to CT with the new baby.  It was a pretty typical Saturday at Nana & Papa’s.  The guys in one room telling stories and jokes and the girls in the other room chatting away.

 

Mr. FSL and I went out for Saturday date night to a favorite Italian bistro.  We came home, watched a little TV, and talked about how weird it was that pretty soon (we didn’t know how soon!) there would be a third person living in our house.  We went to sleep around 11:00.  At 1:45 I woke up for what would usually be the first of many night time bathroom breaks.  When I went to get back into bed, my water broke.

In our childbirth classes, we were told that only 1 in 10 women would have their water break before their contractions began.  Many women would have to have their water broken for them at the hospital, so I wasn’t expecting this to happen to me at all, never mind it happening in the middle of the night.  I had imagined going into labor by having contractions and I’d be a nice wife and let my husband sleep until I was ready to go to the hospital.

Needless to say, I was caught off guard.  I should have known to expect the unexpected.  I didn’t let my husband sleep.  I was yelling his name as I swiftly waddled back to the bathroom.  He sprang out of bed like bread from a toaster!  I called the doctor and she told me to come to the hospital when my contractions lasted a minute long and were 5 minutes apart for an hour.  The contractions immediately started and we were timing them for an hour.  They were coming between 2 and 3 minutes apart.  We hopped in the car and off we went.

I was sent to triage on the labor and delivery floor.  I was hooked up to fetal monitors and examined.  I was only dilated 1cm which isn’t enough to be admitted.  They told me my contractions were coming in “couplets” or sets of 2.  When one started to go away, another would immediately begin.  Bummer.  I was getting no rest time in between.  The doctor said this was because the baby was “sunny side up”  or posterior.  Babies should be face down.    This was causing me to have back labor and  double contractions.

 

 

They said gravity would help speed up the process, so I was sent to walk around the hospital for two hours and told me to head back to triage to be checked for progress.  After walking around and taking the stairs up and down a few times, I was checked.  I didn’t make any progress.  They sent me home.  I was exhausted and furious.  They told me to eat, sleep if I could, and come back when the pain was unbearable.  Seriously.  I went home and took a hot bath to try to relax my back muscles so I can rest.  I napped for about 10 minutes.  Contractions woke me up.  I waited 2 hours and we were back in the car.  There was no way I was getting sent back home. I needed an epidural stat.  I was getting no rest time to recover between contractions.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up that pace without some kind of pain management intervention.  I did not want a c-section.

 

 

When I was checked, they said I was dilated 3cm.  They would not give me an epidural until I was at least 4cm.  They told me to go walk around again for another 2 hours and come back to be examined.  Were they freakin serious?!  The contractions were coming so strong and so close together that I was vomiting as I was walking around the hospital.  If I were a random person walking by me, I would be afraid of me.  I was crazy.  In the middle of this insane state I was in, my allergies decided to show up.  My nose was completely plugged up.  Like no oxygen at all.  I was unable to breathe through my contractions properly.  This made me very anxious.  I demanded asked Mr. FSL to go find me nasal spray to unclog my nose.  Being the good sport that he is, he ran across a very busy street at warp speed and came to my rescue.  After vomiting and a couple of hours of turning into the exorcist, I practically crawled back into triage.  I was finally admitted and shown to my birthing suite.

 

I was given an IV and signed a bunch of papers.  I had to have one bag of fluids in me before I could get the pain medication.  I was in so much pain that I started to become amazingly focused and fixated on a picture hanging on the wall.  I was in transcendental mode.  I knew the end of the pain was near, I just had to get through the next 20 minutes or so.   The anesthesiologist came in and gave me an epidural.  It didn’t hurt at all, so I was pleasantly surprised.   The contractions became shorter, then less intense.  Finally, they were gone.  It was just a waiting game from there on.  I was terrified to give birth.  My husband, mother, and mother-in-law stayed in the room for a while to distract me. I was shaking from labor, and from being so scared.  The fear of the unknown is worse than anything.

 

 

The midwife came in and told me I was ready to push.  At this time, I was in labor for 21 hours.  Once I was told it was go time, something came over me.  I wasn’t scared anymore.  My fight or flight kicked in.  The adrenaline was pumping and I was excited to meet our baby! My midwife and nurse were amazing.  The delivery was nothing like what I expected…in the best way possible.  It was so casual and relaxed.  Between pushes, we talked like old friends “How did you two meet?” “Where did you honeymoon?”.  Seriously.  We were like BFFs by the time she said “Okay, Mindy, last push! Get ready to meet your baby”….

 Click here to hear part 2 of our birth story.