Caleb's Birth Story

I think I had the world's easiest pregnancy, labor, and delivery. I only had nausea for about four weeks in the 1st trimester, but nothing after that. Everything went perfectly the entire time.

As Andrew was leaving for work on the morning of Tuesday, September 16th exactly 1 week before my due date, he said, "Don't call me today unless you're in labor." Apparently every time I called for the past several weeks, he'd think it was time. Later that day I started feeling a little bit of pain while walking around after having lunch. Of course, I called my mom for advice, and of course, she insisted that I call the doctor. They sent me to the hospital just to be safe. So I called Andrew and the first words out of my mouth were, "I'm not in labor." I told him to take his time, but that I needed to go to the hospital. About an hour later after he arrived home we headed to the hospital and ended up spending 3 hours there as they monitored my blood pressure, baby's heartrate, and my contractions. Like I said, everything had been great my entire pregnancy. My blood pressure is always low pregnant or not, but that night while they were monitoring me in triage the readings were all over the place (high, low, normal). After a round of bloodwork, the doctor on call thought that it showed some signs of pre-eclamsia. I had an internal exam and was 1cm dialated. Since I had no other signs of PE, they sent me home and told me to come back the next morning for further monitoring and testing.

That night, I went home thinking that it would still be at least a week before we'd be meeting our baby. Andrew and I both woke up at 4:00, and couldn't go back to sleep. Ordinarily, we would have just laid in bed, but for some reason, we both decided to get up and get our day started. I sent Andrew to work and asked his parents to take me to the hospital as I was sure this would be an uneventful day.

8:00am - We arrived at the hospital and , I was again admitted to the triage area with more high bp readings. The new doctor on call decided it was best to start me on the prostaglandin gels to get my cervix ready in case induction was needed. I was told that they do three rounds of the gel with two hours in between. You are monitored for an hour after they administer it and then can walk around for an hour. Most people go home at the end of this.

Around 9:00am - I was given the first dose, and at that point I was still 1cm dialated. I felt regular contractions, but nothing was painful. I called Andrew and told him that I'd be there for the day and probably heading home at the end, but that I'd like him to come be with me. I was worried that I'd go quickly just like my mom and grandmother had. I didn't want him to miss things if they progressed super fast. A girl could hope! He said he'd leave work around lunch time. After an hour with that gel, I was feeling fine. I got up to walk around, but felt ridiculous walking the halls of labor and delivery alone so I just went back to lay in bed and eat the lunch that they had ordered for me.

12:30pm - Andrew arrived!

1:00pm - The second round of the gel was administered. At that point I was 2cm, 70% effaced. During this time is when I'd say I really started labor. I was having pretty strong contractions that were somewhat irregular. They were coming at least every three to five minutes, but at times they'd be right on top of one another. Andrew kept reminding me to breathe slowly, but I was definitely in quite a bit of pain. I kept telling him I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it without the epidural, but he really reassured me and reminded me why I didn't want it. I had been adament about it my whole pregnancy.

2:00pm - At the end of my 1 hour of monitoring, I was 4.5cm and 80% effaced. We walked a bit, but it was hard getting strong contractions in the hallway, and I was afraid that my water would break in the hallway so again I went back to bed.

2:30pm - I was right, my water broke while I was laying there, and they said I'd be admitted and would be leaving with a baby. At that point I was still in the triage area with everyone else able to hear me labor through my contractions. More darn nurses came to take more blood from me. Hello, I'm having this baby and he'll probably be here before the bloodwork comes back. My contractions were right on top of each other, so I got some nice bruises from tensing up while the nurse was taking blood.

3:40pm - FINALLY, after an hour of waiting our delivery room was ready. They had me walk the hall down to the delivery room. I had one contraction in the hallway on the way there. Then three really strong contracions right on top of each other between the time I walked in the door of the delivery room to the time I got to the bed. This was when they decided that I needed to sign all the paperwork...in case of an epidural, baby's picture on the website/in the paper. Let's just say the first paper I signed looked somewhat like my signature. The rest....just a scribble.

3:45pm - I told the nurse I felt like I needed to use the bathroom and she told me I could go, but not to push too hard. Yeah, that was the end of that! So, she said to get settled in the bed and the nurses would check my progress. The doctor showed up just then so she ended up doing the checking. I was hoping I'd be at least 6 or 7cm. She looked at me and said, "You're going to push on the next contraction." I looked right back at her and said, "I'm having the baby now?" She told me I was 9.5cm, and yes we were having this baby now! I felt so unprepared to push. I had no idea what I was doing, and in "drunk on pain" state, I kept asking the nurses how I was doing. Of course, they kept telling me I was doing great. I didn't believe them thinking, "It's their job to say that." At one point, the doctor said she needed to leave to check on another patient. I was afraid the baby would be born before she got back, so on the next push I gave it my all. She didn't leave!

4:25pm - Caleb was born! A total of about 4-4.5 hours after the start of my labor. The doctor turned him around and said, "What is it mom?" I said, "It's a boy!" Apparently Andrew saw the boy parts as soon as he came out. The doctor placed him on my chest, and it was love at first sight. I immediately started calling him Caleb. It was important to me since we hadn't know if he would be a boy or a girl, we never used the names while I was pregnant. Andrew cut the cord, which he hadn't been sure about before.

So, I never even got an IV because it all happened so fast. I ended up with an episiotomy, but no tearing and everything healed well. I was able to nurse him right away in the delivery room, and he's been doing with it great ever since. The most painful part of the contractions for me was the fact that I felt like I wasn't in control of my body. Pushing, although it was very tiring, actually felt good.