Avi’s Birth Story

I just wanted to have this typed up before the details got all blurry.

I turned 39 weeks on Friday Dec 11th which was also J’s birthday and my first trial run of  maternity leave. I took friday off and planned on working monday Dec 14th. I had no idea how much my life would change over that weekend. Friday, J and I went out for a birthday dinner with my parents and then spent the evening watching the Christmas Story b/c it’s J’s fave holiday movie. Saturday was very mellow and we put up our christmas tree  and started getting in the holiday  spirit.

Sunday was like any other sunday, where J and I ran some errands, cleaned the house and he practically begged me to pack my hospital bag. I was pretty sure that I had a whole week ahead of me to get the final touches to the nursery organized and my bag packed, but Jeff was pretty adamant that I do it that morning. Not wanting to fight, I did throw in some stuff in my suitcase and had most of it packed. I was just resting in the afternoon, getting ready to drive my dad to the airport for his flight to DC when I felt a trickle of liquid. I hurriedly checked and it did have some blood. At this point I was sure it wasn’t anything to be concerned b/c I hadn’t had any contractions other than one or two irregular ones in the morning. Jeff insisted I call the OB Triage and they told us to come in.

The entire way over, I was convinced that it was a false alarm because I wasn’t really in any real pain other than random contractions. At the OB, I was joking and laughing while they checked me out and the Doctor said that they weren’t sure if my water had broken but given that I was at 39 weeks and around 3 cms dilated so they were most likely going to admit me. They told me to eat up as they wouldn’t want me eating soon. An hour later the Doctor came and did a cervical check again and said that I was 4 cms dilated but she could feel the bag of waters bulging, so they were thinking that my water was not broken all the way. We had two options to get admitted where they would induce labor or I could go home and be comfy and wait for labor to start on its own. Since I wasn’t really in pain yet and I was sure I didn’t want unnecessary pictocin we decided to go home.

My contractions were a little more intense on the way back, but still bearable. However, once I was home an hour later, the contractions were coming full force. It was unbearable, but I still was in some kind of denial and kept thinking it was early labor, finally they were about five minutes apart and I thought I was going to pass out.  This time checking into the hospital seemed to take twice as long and by the time I was in triage, I couldn’t focus on anything other than the pain. I even threw up everything I had eaten for dinner. The doctor said that I was 7 cm dilated and had to be taken into labor immediately. I had already asked for the epidural, but by the time, they had me hooked to the IVs etc, I was already at 9cm and the anesthesiologists were on their way.  The anesthesiologists arrived and decided they were going to try to put the needle in me with me lying down becasue me sitting up could be bad for the baby since he was already way down. I kept begging them to just stop the pain, even though I was at 10 cms by now and the nurses thought I should just start pushing. After 3 attempts at putting the epidural in, the anesthesiologists said that at this point it wouldn’t make any difference and that I should start pushing. They however did give me a phenelyne a morphine derivative to take the edge off. The next hour was the most painful of my life and I thought I wouldn’t be able to get this baby out of me. Finally, they said they could see the head crown and after three painful pushes, his head was out and my beautiful baby boy was out in the world at 12: 35 pm early Monday morning. I was exhausted and in pain but completely euphoric from having birthed him.

I do think I have a new tolerance for pain now because I never never never thought I would be delivering without an epidural. They stitched up the tearing that I had  and took Avi for his clean up and brought him back to me and he was beautiful! We were allowed to rest for a while and then taken to a recovery room.  I didn’t sleep at all that night because my adrenaline rush was so high but eventually we all settled down.