Nati's Birth Story

After reading Lauren's breastfeeding story, I realized I hadn't really finished writing my birth story. I have bits and pieces of it in places, so here it is from start to finish.

December 19th –
I started having contractions around 2:00 am (they woke me out of a sound sleep)- averaging about 10 minutes apart. Around 4:30 am, Mike got up and we started seriously timing them. They were averaging about 5 - 7 minutes and about 1 min long by that point and they hurt!!
During this time I did a few loads of laundry, cleaned the bedroom, etc...

Lost my mucus plug around 5:00 am - wow, that was weird. It was like 2 HUGE blood clots. And they looked like blood clots too. Really red and full of blood. When I wiped, it was really really bloody too. Everything I had heard said "blood tinged". This was not tinged!!!!

After the 2nd part of the plug, the bleeding stopped, then about an hour later, started trickling again. Went ahead and called the doc on call who was an ASS. I told him there was a decent amount of blood and I was concerned. He said "how much blood". I said "like when I'm on my period - a heavy flow". And he said "ok.... so... how much??!!" UGH! He was getting annoyed that I couldn't convey exactly how much. So he told me that with the contractions being that close together, to come on in and get evaluated. (Looking back on it, that particular ASS of a doctor was the one who called me ON THE PHONE to give me the bad results of Nati's ultrasound at 20 weeks). That was about 6:15 am or so.

Mike left to take Christian and AJ to their grandparents house (they were leaving that afternoon to head to North Carolina to be with their Mom for Christmas), He got back, we finished packing our bags and headed to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 9:00 am or so. They hooked me up to the monitor and said I was definitely contracting and in labor, but was only 1 cm dilated, but 90% effaced. Even though they were 5 minutes apart and very intense, my lack of dilation and because my water hadn’t broken, they sent me home. We left there around 11:00 am with the nurses guessing they’d see me later that night.

We stopped by Cracker barrel for lunch – I could barely eat. I must have been a sight! I was doing my breathing and clutching my belly the whole time! Got home and I camped out on the couch.

Around 6:00 pm, the pain started getting REALLY REALLY bad so we headed back to the hospital. I was 5 cm at that point and they took it as a good sign that I progressed so quickly. My water broke almost immediately after we got set up in the room. They gave me the epidural and we waited. Mom and Dad showed up and waited as well. Periodic checks throughout the night showed my progress had slowed considerably (due to the epi, I'm sure). I remember sincerely thanking everyone who came in the room to check on me. I used my “yes ma’am”s and apologized whenever I felt I was inconveniencing anyone. Mom and Mike kept laughing at me. None of us slept worth a crap, and by early morning Dad had to leave to head to work.


December 20th
Around 3:00 am or so (??), they had determined that my contractions weren’t making any progress, so they turned off epidural and gave me Pitocin to help speed things along. Around 6:00 am, I was barely 10 cm and was allowed to start pushing (the whole time saying “yes ma’am” and “please” and “thank you” – it was rather comical. The nurses said I was the most polite woman in labor they’d seen!). Mike was counting me through the pushes – and at one point he had to take a break to go to the bathroom. I could hear him counting loudly from the bathroom for me (I love that man).

My hemrroids were horrible. There was one nurse who’s job was to put pressure on my bum to keep them from getting worse – poor nurse. At one point the doctor came in and said he didn’t really like the progress that was being made, and that Natalie’s heartbeats were dropping during my contractions. If she didn’t come out soon, I’d be getting a c-section. For a few moments I gave up hope – I remember I said “I can’t do this” and came SOOOOO close to asking for the c-section. Remember, I’d been in labor since 2 am the day before – 31 hours and the epi had been turned off). Mike helped me through it and about ½ hour later Natalie was starting to crown. She had started coming out sunny-side up and they had to turn her as she was crowning. I remember I only screamed once, it was as the push just before her head came out. I felt a strong pain in my pelvis. Looking back on it, it was the point when my pubic bone seperated. I was in intense pain for WEEKS after. At 9:33 am, Natalie Joyce came screaming into the world.

They cleaned her off quickly and brought her back to me and I started nursing her right away. Neither one of us knew what we were doing, but we made it happen anyway. I'm so thankful that my husband had the camera right after the birth and happened to get photos of me nursing Nati for the first time. I cherish those photos.

I was terribly bloated from pushing and probably from labor in general. The bloating took about 2 weeks to subside. I had burst blood vessels in my eyes from pushing so hard – but at the time I was pushing I didn’t care – I wanted her OUT! I couldn’t focus on anything without closing one eye and oh… my tushy. Ouchie.

It was all worth it though when they placed her in my arms. That first moment when she looked at me and I held her I was completely in love. This little person that poked me tirelessly during the past nine months was here and I finally had a face to the love I’d had in my heart. She was perfect.