I can’t believe it’s already been a month since Jolie was born. While the last few weeks have been a blur (thank goodness for pictures to capture the memories during this time), I remember every single detail about her birth like it was yesterday. I feel like this is the kind of thing you just never forget?
If you didn’t already know, I found out I was pregnant when I was already 20 weeks along. Crazy I know! I wrote a post all about it if you want to read it all about it here!
Anyway, I’m going to back up just a few days to Tuesday, I had a routine appointment with my midwife and everything looked good! She talked to me about due date approaching, if I thought about getting induced etc. I knew I wanted to go into labor naturally and did not want to get induced if I didn’t have to. She also talked to me about a membrane sweep and the possibility of that helping things along, I was so uncomfortable and ready to have this baby I said yes. So so so painful! I don’t even think it did anything because I didn’t have her until 4 days later.
Fast forward to Friday, my due date. I had a very relaxing and restful day at home, I had just worked the day before and didn’t have any plans. I remember walking around the house those last couple weeks just waiting for something to happen, like it could happen any second! That afternoon I had made some date squares (iykyk) and had one after dinner. I usually shower at night and when I went to use the bathroom, there was a biiig gush. In my head I knew that was my water breaking but also I was like hmm I’ve never peed like that before (haha!)
I typed up the time in my notes and walked out to James who was sitting in the living room. I didn’t even say anything when he looked up at me, he just closed his laptop and stood up. Then I could barely get the words out and told him, “uhmmm I think my water just broke.” He started packing up everything in the car and getting things ready and I called my midwife on call and she told me to come in. Since she said I could wait it out a little since I wasn’t having any contractions yet I decided to take a shower since I knew it was the last good shower I would have for awhile.
After that I laid around with the dogs and waited for my sister to come over since she’d be watching them while we were at the hospital. James was getting impatient with me and was pacing around the house telling me we really needed to head to the hospital.
We finally left and on the way there I remember having 3 contractions about 6 minutes apart. Took my breath away but not too bad (yet). He wanted to drop me off but I told him we could just park in the garage and walk to the L&D unit. We finally got roomed in triage around 9:50pm and by that point I was sure my water had broken. The nurse said she had to check with a litmus paper but said she doesn’t even know why she’s checking because she knew it had broken. Then she checked me and I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. Got my IV, some fluids going and waiting for a room.
Around midnight, we got to the room and my contractions were getting pretty frequent and a lot more intense. I could barely breathe through them. Someone told me that when they got really bad, to focus on one item in the room until it was over and that really seemed to help! My midwife ordered pitocin to be started since my water had broken and she didn’t want me to go too long without having her.
By 1am I was ready for my epidural. I remember having the shakes so bad, which they told me was completely normal. I was having the worst back labor with my contractions, they could not get my pain under control. The nurse was giving me as many boluses as she could and even called the anesthesiologist back in to adjust the dosage. Finally, around 2am the contractions were much more bearable, felt them but it was more pressure than anything. At this time I was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced. The nurse got me in a side lying position with a peanut and told me she’d come back to check me in an hour.
When she came back at 330am, I was complete and at 0 station. She had another nurse come in to check because she could not believe I had progressed that fast. The sweetest older nurse came in and asked me if I was ready to have a baby. I was SHOCKED and ready but not ready!
They paged my midwife and got everything ready in the room. I started pushing around 4:20am and pushed for an hour. All I thought about the whole time was about how I was about to meet her, I was so excited! She was born at 5:22am. The craziest and scariest part was she had a nuchal cord and a true knot, I almost started crying when she told me about this!
I’ll never forget when I first took her. Holding her and finally seeing her was the best feeling in the world. The amount of love I had for her in that moment was SO much.
Jolie was on my chest doing skin to skin and I remember I started to get very dizzy and everything started getting black and I told my midwife who was standing beside me they needed to get her off and something wasn’t right. James held her until I was feeling more like myself and could see again.
When they checked my blood pressure it was 60/30’s, so they gave me multiple fluid boluses and medications to bring it up. I was told I had lost a lot of blood and was still losing a lot of blood, so I was also given medications to help with that.
One of the nurses I had that morning was making us laugh because she was so obsessed with Jolie’s blood sugar. So I kept trying to get her to latch but it wasn’t until a couple hours later when I was roomed on the mother/baby floor when that nurse stayed with me and helped me.
I’m so thankful for the lactation consultants and nurses I had during my stay that made my breastfeeding journey start off right! It was so difficult, one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
I noticed my right leg was still completely numb, whereas my left leg was completely back to normal. I told my nurse, and it wasn’t until the next day that a neurology consult was placed. Apparently during labor I pressed a peroneal nerve in my knee during labor. This made my recovery a lot slower because I had the hardest time walking around (numb leg PLUS pain from delivery).
We were discharged home about 2 days later and it felt so good to be back home! In our own space, my own bed, back to tater and peanut. It was quite the adjustment, but much better than being in the hospital.
Everyone experiences childbirth differently and everyone has their own postpartum experience. Navigating through newborn days is also so different for everyone! Give yourself grace and know you are doing the best that you can.
Okay I’ll stop typing before I bore you! I always liked reading others’ experiences and I wanted to write this up to read later when she is older. So so in love with our sweet girl, she has stolen our hearts already!”