..Isla's "Birth Story"

October 2, 2018

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I was initially hesitant about doing this post (more on that here) but after doing a quick instagram poll asking if I should write about Isla's birth story, 97% of you (if you follow me on that social media channel) said you would be interested in reading about it so here we go.

My friends and coworkers could tell you that one of my biggest worries about the whole birthing process was the unknown, not the pain. You know this huge life changing event is going to happen  to you within a few weeks but you don't know when or how or where. It could strike you at any time,  which for a person as obsessed with organization as I am (I start to pack for trips months in advance sometimes), is like a form of torture. I feared more than anything else that my water would break in that dramatic movie fashion while on my morning metro commute and being that passenger that is the reason the whole train needs to deboard (if you are a metro rider you know that is like, the WORST). My friends, coworkers, and Dr. assured me that while your water breaking can happen it's almost never like in the movies and only takes place 10% of the time so not to worry. Most women experience contractions first and their water breaks or even has to be broken later on at the hospital, etc. 

My due date was September 4th and it came and went while I felt zero signs of baby. The next day I had my 40 week appointment with my Dr. and she confirmed that I had made no progress since my 39th week appointment and the we should go ahead and plan an induction date. Since they don't do inductions on the weekend it was going to be on September 11th. I wasn't thrilled about the date but was even more bummed that I would have to possibly stay pregnant for six more days. At this point I wasn't able to sleep and was just over it. Each day feels like an eternity after your 40th week. I went home in a funk but made my peace with it. I then got a call a few hours later from my Dr.'s office that they would actually not be able to induce me until the 13th of September. THIRTEENTH?! I had a full-on hormonal, tearful, breakdown. I then consulted all my mom friends and the entire internet about what you do to induce labor and proceeded to do all the things. I bought dates, pineapple, spicy food (ate all of them at once), and got to walking.

Since I literally did all the things I can't say for sure which one did the trick but less than 12 hours later on September 6th at 6:30AM I was awoken from my sleep by a strong baby kick followed by a "pop." I immediately knew that my water was breaking and jumped out of bed to avoid the splash getting on my sheets or rug (priorities). Homegirl busted the the door open. The water came gushing out (sorry if that's TMI but it's the truth, you may want to stop reading here because it get's worse) in dramatic movie style fashion (the way I feared it would). I screamed for my husband to get up and grab a towel, I was shaking and in shock. I then called my Dr. and since the water was slightly dark they had me come in right away. I was so happy I had packed up everything I needed in a suitcase that was ready to roll away and didn't have to think about anything else but getting there. Mike quickly took the dog out, I attempted to rinse off, and we headed out the door. 

The thing about your water breaking dramatically that no one tells you is that it just KEEPS BREAKING. Like, there was a waterfall coming out of me THE WHOLE WAY to the hospital. I left a river of water throughout the lobby and into my hospital room. It was not my fav and definitely not how I imagined the start of having my baby. I was also so worried the whole time I couldn't think about anything else but hearing her heartbeat so when they finally hooked me up to the monitor and I knew she was okay, only then did I register what was actually happening. There was some meconium in the womb which was what made it dark so she was fine but they decided to start me on Petocin to get things moving along instead of waiting for things to happen on their own. My Dr. said she expected the baby to come sometime on the 7th (the next day) so I should settle in and get comfortable.

Somehow it was now 9:30AM even though this all felt like the blink of an eye to me. I began feeling contractions but they were pretty tame. The drugs were doing their job. I for some reason thought you either had to be close to giving birth or in serious pain to get the epidural so I decided to try and wait an hour before asking for it (LOL). I made it to about 10:15AM, I was only 3cm dilated but I was already ready for some relief. I am someone who doesn't like even getting my blood drawn so I didn't love the idea of it and screamed so loudly when they put it in that I probably scared off the other patients but it was worth it because after that I didn't feel much until about 2:30PM. This stretch was pretty pleasant. I watched some TV, unpacked my iHome so I could listen to some playlists I had put together for the occasion, and ate some ice pops. I was able to tell when the contractions were happening but they weren't too painful until the early afternoon. Things got pretty intense after that, FAST.  I asked the nurse to check on things down there and to both our surprise I was 10cm at 3:30PM. Now we just had to wait for the baby to come down. 

Not going to lie the next couple of hours were a little rough, my contractions were strong enough that I was still pretty uncomfortable but by 5PM I was ready to push. Did the first couple of rounds in sets of three but the Dr. realized that my contractions were so long I could actually fit in four pushes so we did that the next couple of times (this was literally the hardest my body had ever done anything in my life) and she was out by 5:43PM. Born into the world to the song "Thinkin Bout You" by Frank Ocean (my playlist was still going). Crazy to think that it was just under twelve hours from my water breaking to me holding her in my arms. It was the wildest experience of my life! The whole time we spent at the hospital are all blurred together for me and feel like a dream I had except I really did get to take home a sweet little angel baby!

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xx E.