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Around 3am on Wednesday, May 15, I woke up feeling some
light contractions. I had been feeling contractions on and off for a few weeks,
so this was nothing new. I was in and out of sleep for about an hour before I decided
the contractions were getting more intense and I needed to get up and move
around a bit to relieve the discomfort. I went out to the living room and
focused on relaxing through them, ate a small snack and sipped some water. At
this point, I wasn’t convinced that it was real labor but I was preparing, just
in case. Around 4:30, Andre came out to the living room and asked what was
going on. I told him I was having contractions but not to get his hopes up
because I thought they would fade off. About 5:45, they were coming every 3
minutes or so and lasting close to 45 seconds each. This meant I was in active
labor, but I was still in denial because I didn’t want to get excited if it was
nothing. Plus, I was easily able to breath through each contraction and I
thought they would be a lot stronger if I was really in active labor. But I
trusted my body and decided that it was time to call my parents to come stay
with Jordi. (My parents have been here in Virginia staying at an Airbnb.) By
now it was 6am and we decided to start packing up any last minute things and
head to the hospital, which was a 35-40 minute drive away. My parents got to
our apartment around 6:30 and Andre and I left just a few minutes later. I had
a contraction outside, on the way to the car, but once I got in the car, my
contractions slowed down a lot. I was only having a contraction once every 8
minutes or so and I started doubting that going to the hospital was the right
choice. We kept going anyway and arrived at the hospital around 7:10. As soon
as I got out of the car, my contractions picked back up again. We got to the
waiting room and waited to be taken back. While in the waiting room, I was
having consistent, strong contractions but was able to manage them with my
breathing and wasn’t feeling like I needed to rush anything. Finally, after
about 15 minutes, they took us back to a room. I don’t think anyone believed I
was very far along in my labor because no one seemed to be in a rush. After
answering a million annoying questions and being asked to sit on the bed to
monitor the baby for 30 minutes (which never ended up happening by the way, haha!),
I said I was feeling a lot of pressure down there and they decided to stop
asking questions and check me. To everyone’s surprise, even my own, I was
almost fully dilated. They called my doctor and started prepping for delivery.
After 2 contractions with lots of pressure, I said out loud that I felt like I
needed to start pushing. There was one nurse in the room at the time and then
within seconds, my doctor ran in, as well as several other nurses. At this
point I was still sitting with my back up against the bed and I knew I didn’t
want to deliver in that position. I said I wanted to move to the foot of the
bed and have Andre sit behind me to support me. Before the next contraction, I
was able to move to the end of the bed, but the urge to push came on quickly
and Andre was just to my side, holding me up awkwardly. That urge left and we
had about 10 seconds before the next contraction came. He jumped on the bed
behind me, supported my arms and back and Benjamin was born within a minute at 8:21am!
It happened so incredibly fast, I think it caught everyone
off guard, even me and Andre. Just an hour prior, I was still not fully
convinced that it was real labor, haha! The incredible thing is that the
contractions never felt as strong as I had expected them to, and I think that’s
why I never really believed that this was it, until it was really go time. I
was so relaxed and in control that the intensity of labor never got all that
intense. Not anywhere near what I was expecting at least. It wasn’t until I
started feeling so much pressure down there that I started losing some control
and feeling like it was too much. The last two contractions, where I could feel
him coming out, is when things got crazy. All of my breathing and relaxation
got thrown out the window and my body just took over. The feeling was so
intense and my body was in so much shock that I had this paralyzing, numbing
feeling run all the way up my body, into my neck, arms and hands. It felt as
though it was impossible to control anything. I was almost just whimpering
through it rather than putting force anywhere. Once they started telling me to
bear down and focus my breathing and energy on pushing, I was able to use my
brain and actually think about it. Finally, I was feeling like I was making
progress and after the longest few seconds of my life, his head was out, and
with one more push, his body was out. I immediately got to hold him and felt so
much relief. I couldn’t believe I had actually done it! It took a few minutes
for my body to calm down. The tingling that had run up through my body finally
started to dissipate and my legs eventually stopped shaking. I had a second-degree
tear and needed some numbing and stitches. He had pooped inside during delivery
so they had to take him away for a few minutes just to make sure he hadn’t
ingested any of it. Once they were able to give him back to me, he started
nursing almost immediately. After a lot of blood loss, they had to pump me with
Pitocin to speed up the process of my uterus shrinking. They had to push on my
belly and force out several large blood clots, which was not fun at all. After
a couple hours, we were able to bring Jordi in to meet his new baby brother!
Thinking back, it all feels like a dream. It happened so
quickly and the fact that I only felt like I was in labor for a couple hours
just blows my mind. From the first contraction to delivery, was about 5 hours,
but for the first 3 hours, I didn’t even know if it was real. I’ve heard
stories of women who have fast labors and deliveries and I always envied them.
Now I’m one of them and I’m still in awe of it! And that I was
able to do it the way I have worked so hard for for the last few months.
Natural childbirth isn't easy, but it is an incredible experience that proves how powerful and amazing women truly are. Experiencing it for myself has taught me that I am strong and capable and I can do anything I set my mind to. I have never felt so proud of myself!
