The birth of my first born practically plays out like an episode of a sitcom. Everything I read said that waters don’t usually break like you see on TV. There was a good chance I would need to have my waters broken or that they would merely be a small leak. No one tells you your waters are going to break while you’re driving yourself to the Apple store.
I was 39 weeks and finishing up my last Friday in the office.
I was set to begin working from home that coming Monday until the baby came. I said goodbye to coworkers and then I drove about 15 minutes away to an outdoor shopping mall where I was to meet my husband at the Apple store and then we would go have dinner (likely our last nice dinner at a restaurant, just the two of us for a long time).
As I was driving, I felt a small gush, I thought I may have peed myself. I went to the Apple store and asked to the use their restroom, I felt more sensations that felt like gushes. I went back on the sales floor to meet my husband, and said, “I think we have to go to the hospital”.
Once at the hospital they confirmed my waters had indeed broken and they set me up in a room.
I should note, even though I was about a week out from my due date, I had not packed a hospital bag. My husband was tasked with driving back to our house, about 35 minutes away, to collect all of my belongings and also all of the items I had purchased for the baby; baby book, going home outfit, receiving blankets, etc. Not having packed a bag meant he had to try and figure out which clothes of mine would fit me. He didn’t pack a bag. He packed an entire basket full of things. He did get all of the items needed for baby and he managed to pick some articles of clothing for me that fit (well enough) for me to wear to go home.
Things seemed like they were progressing super-fast that Friday night, until they weren’t.
I was contracting for a few hours but then they stopped and I fell asleep. The nurses let me sleep and then Saturday morning they decided I should get a dose of Pitocin to kick things into motion. It worked really well. The contractions came back in full force and I started dilating. By noon I asked for an epidural.
The Pitocin was stopped since I was progressing so well and then everything came to screeching halt once again. It wouldn’t be until 4PM that I would finally be dilatated 10cm.
I started pushing. And pushing. And pushing. No real progress was being made. I was pushing for so long that the nurses and doctors changed shifts. In the middle of active labor my doctor who had been there since the night before, left. I pushed with the second doctor for another 2 hours. After four hours of total pushing, and over 24 hours since I had arrived at the hospital, my daughter was born.
-Kristen,
