Claire's Birth Story

One week ago tonight we welcomed Claire into the world.  I want to write down the story of what happened that night before I forget some of the details.

It began around 5pm on April 30th.  I had just woken up from a nap, Blake took a late nap that day so we were all trying to get some extra sleep knowing the baby could come any day now.  Once I got up I started to have the feeling that something was starting to happen.  It only took me about 10-15 minutes to realize that I had started having contractions.  Ben and his sister Julia were planning on going to the store to get ingredients for dinner, I told them they could go but go fast because the contractions had started and I wasn't sure how quickly they would pick up.  Luckily Blake was still asleep so I didn't have to entertain him while dealing with the contractions.  They rushed to the store and when they returned the contractions were coming regularly and were already lasting 35-45 seconds.  I started to get the feeling that we were going to be leaving for the hospital sooner that I thought.  There wasn't any time to fix dinner so we all sat down and ate leftovers and I had some frozen pizza because for some reason that sounded better than leftover mexican food.  I was timing the contractions while trying to eat something, it was around 7pm and they were getting closer to a minute in length now and they were coming every 4-6 minutes.  I was starting to freak out a little knowing we would be leaving soon.  We quickly went over with Julia everything Blake would need for bedtime and the next morning.  Luckily I had written down some "how to take care of Blake notes" a few days earlier in case we had to leave in a hurry.  Blake was distracted watching "Go Diego Go" so I said goodnight to him, trying not to totally start crying, and we headed for the door.  I knew next time he saw me we would have the baby with us and I was scared what his reaction was going to be.  I had a lot of guilt knowing he wasn't going to be the only baby anymore.

We arrived at the hospital around 8:30pm and went right up to labor and delivery.  I don't think they realized how much pain I was having already when I arrived because I didn't come in screaming and making a scene.  The pain was manageable at that point but I was glad we had arrived so that I could get checked in and hopefully get some drugs in the near future.  The nurse checked to see how dilated I was and she told me I was only 1.5cm!  I thought for sure that had to be wrong, 1.5cm?  This wasn't my first time in labor and based on the pain I was having I thought for sure I would be at least 3 or 4cm by now.  She told us that they would monitor my progress for the next hour or so and see if anything changes.  Then she said something I never expected, "if nothing changes in an hour or so we will probably have to send you home."  I immediately started to have a million thoughts rushing through my mind.  Send me home?  There was no way I was leaving this hospital, I would go to the parking lot maybe but I was not leaving that hospital.  So then I also realized that drugs were not coming my way in the near future.  The pain was getting worse and I felt like there was no end in sight.  I tried to find some position that was tolerable  but nothing was working so I got out of the bed and decided to get onto the floor.  The nurse thought this was strange but she had no idea the level of pain I was experiencing.  I could only think of my prenatal yoga class and began doing some of the positions I learned in class.  I quickly began to feel very ill and threw up on the floor.  The nurse gave me the smallest container I have ever seen to puke in, I knew that wasn't going to work so I just threw up all over the floor.  I was pretty mad at the nurse at this point so I didn't really care that I had made a huge mess.  I thought for sure that she would realize that I was having serious contractions and was probably in transitional labor and she should check me again.  I had to be at least 6 or 7cm by then.  My hopes were crushed when she didn't rush to check how dilated I was.  I was hunched over in pain thinking about what my options were at that point.  I knew I wasn't getting drugs soon and I was in so much pain I wanted to suggest a C-section just to make it all stop.  The contractions continued and I just tried to deal with it the best way I knew how.  Finally the nurse decided to check me again.  I'm not exactly sure what time it was but it had to be around 10:15pm. I managed to get myself back up onto the bed, I think my only motivation was the thought that drugs would follow once she checked me.  She checked how dilated I was but didn't say anything at first.  Ben said her face turned almost white and she threw off her glove and ran out of the room.  The only thing she said was "well you're definitely not going home!".  All of the sudden she came back and started setting up tables and lights and told us that my doctor was on her way.  I had a bad feeling that I wasn't going to get any drugs at this point.  She said I was about 8.5cm dilated!  So basically I went from 1.5 to 8.5 in less than 2 hours.  I wasn't really shocked by this but obviously she didn't have a clue how fast I was going through labor.  I asked her again, "does that mean I can get my drugs now?", I thought I might as well ask even though I didn't want to hear the response.  She told me I would have to wait for the doctor to get there and make that decision.  Great, so after all that I finally proved I am worthy of drugs and now I have to wait longer?  I held on and at least had some hope at this point that my doctor would be there soon.  I started to feel intense pressure and told the nurse I felt like I had to push.  She freaked out a little and was telling me to breathe and that my doctor was almost there.  Finally I saw my doctor's face and a rush of relief passed over me.  I asked her what my options were at that point.  The doctor said "you can get the drugs or you can push and we can have this baby".  I asked if it would be fast if I decided to push and she said yes so I said ok lets have the baby.  I only had to push three times and the baby came out.  It was 10:38pm, only two hours from when we arrived at the hospital and the baby was born.  I was in total shock once the whole thing was over, I couldn't believe what had just happened.  Did I just do that?  Is that even possible?  I never thought I would be someone to deliver a baby without drugs.  It was a feeling of great accomplishment for some reason and made me realize that sometimes you have more will power than you think.  It took me a few seconds to realize that they had told us that it was a girl.  I was so caught up in everything that had just happened I forgot that I was waiting for another surprise, to find out the sex of the baby.  We were so happy to welcome our little baby girl into the world.  It is a day we will never forget.