Birth Story – our daughter

Let’s start with some back story before I start the birth story – our daughter. Our daughter’s original due date was May 5 but she was born on April 20. She was full gestation but just barely, something like 37 weeks and 2 days I think. We didn’t find out the sex before hand. As my Mom says, it’s one of the true surprises left in life. I’m so glad it was a surprise and I highly recommend it!

PS…I did not have a blog back then so there are no hospital pictures. I mean who wants to see me looking exhausted anyways? But there are a few birth photos towards the end.

Birth Story – Our Daughter

Let’s get to the birth story shall we? It was around 2:30am and I went to go to the bathroom. I’m headed back to bed and right before I get into bed – my water breaks. Like movie-water-breaking, gushing-down-my-leg onto the floor in a puddle. I run to the toilet and sit down because I keep leaking. I’m there for a minute because it’s just keeps coming.

Quick tangent. I always knew my water was going to break. My mom’s water broke with both my sister and myself and for some reason, the only instinct I had for my entire pregnancy was that my water would break. I had no other intincts like: what the baby’s sex was or if they’d have hair. All I knew was that my water was going to break.

So I walk back to my bed stand to get my phone to call my husband. He wasn’t home because he had just started a new job and was still at work! They had a show at the theatre that night – so I called him. I just said something like, ‘Hi honey, looks like we’re having a baby today, my water just broke.’ And he totally freaked out. He’s like, what, oh my gosh, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. OK I’m leaving now!

I, on the other hand was super calm. I have no idea why. After we hung up I started adding the last minute items to be hospital bag, per my list. You know I had a list y’all! I’ll try to do a blog post one day with it. Anyways, it took me a while because my water just kept leaking. I’d have to walk back into the bathroom like a hundred times and yes I went through a bunch of pads too. I just kept leaking.

Arriving at the Hospital

By the time my husband arrived, about 30 minutes, I was ready to go. The leaking had subsided mostly but I was still worried so I brought a towel to sit on in the car. When he did arrive, he was still full of nervous energy. We hoped in the car and headed to the hospital. Luckily, it was only seven minutes away.

We arrive at the hospital around 3:30am and I can barely feel, what I think, is a contraction while we’re checking in. My husband realizes what day it is and laughs, it’s 4/20 and we still have a long day ahead of us so I figured well, that’s going to be the baby’s birthday! Also, it’s Easter. Which means there is no one in the hospital, because no one schedules to have a baby on a holiday. So I had extra attention and didn’t have to wait on anything. I highly recommend it.

So we’re checking in and everyone is asking us what the baby’s sex is and we say it’s a surprise. All of the nurses were super excited because it’s like seeing a pregnant unicorn. One of our nurses was so excited it was a surprise, that she came back after her shift was over to see what sex the baby was.

Just a head’s up they test you to see if your water has really broken because your water breaking it not a common thing. Once they established my water really did break, in to the labor room we go. We were very fortunate to have a private room with lots of space, including a little chair and cushioned sofa area for my husband to sleep.

Birth Plan

Here’s what my birth plan was before I went into labor – no epidural, vaginal birth. I mean, that’s about as far as I had gotten. And at first I’m doing really good. I’m laboring really well using breathing techniques and my husband is putting pressure on my lower back to relieve the pain. My labor was really only in my lower back at the time. But hours passed by and I wasn’t progressing. I’m not dilating anymore, nothing is happening. Plus they start to lose the baby’s heartbeat when I am leaning over the bed laboring during each contraction. Now, I don’t think the baby was in any danger I just think the monitor that was strapped around my belly kept moving during those contractions.

So I’m told by the nurse they are going to induce me. I ask to wait a little longer and they agree. Now at this point I’ve never spoken to my doctor or seen her. So I’m a little confused as to why they want to induce me when your water breaking is a natural induction. I do know though, that typically most hospitals want your baby out within 24 hours of your water breaking because of the risk of infection. That’s what I was told in my baby classes, we’re not here to debate anything guys. You do you.

I think another hour or two goes by and they come back in and say they’re going to induce me. I was like wait, hold on, let’s talk about this. But there was no talking, a nurse just walked in and put the pitocin in my IV. I was confused and upset. I didn’t fully understand what was happening and no one was making it super clear to me. We’re first-time parents so just explain what and why and I’ll be cool.

There goes the Birth Plan

So once that happens I start feeling really intense contractions. Which is what pitocin is known for. I try my best to hang in there and push through the pain but I was just went from 0 to 60 so quickly I couldn’t. So I turned to my husband, crying, and said I’m so sorry but I need an epidural. And he said, are you kidding me? Don’t be sorry – you do whatever you want!

So we ordered an epidural, and because it was a holiday, it took like 5-10 minutes for the guy to arrive. I was nervous because the only thing you hear about epidurals is how much they hurt and how they’re so bad for everyone. Well it didn’t hurt for me! I barely felt anything, he was a crazy pro. And within 10 minutes all the pain was gone. I asked the nurses if I could go to sleep and she said yes, we’ll wake you up when it’s time to push.

Nap Time

I mean, this is awesome! I’m basically taking a nap while my body progresses and once I wake up I’ll be pushing out my child. I think it’s hilarious. So my husband and I both got to rest some. I honestly have no idea how long we slept because this entire birthing experience felt like it was three hours long – it went by really quickly for me.

So the nurse wakes up and tells me it’s time to push. Cool. But once I do wake up I notice something weird. Whatever dose of epidural they gave me was too much. I could not feel like a thing from the hips down. My legs were invisible, I was super numb. Was it creepy and a little scary? Yes! I’m thinking how am I supposed to push a baby out if I can’t feel anything!? But I remain calm because there is no turning back.

Time to Push

The doctor and nurses come in, preps everything, and tells me it’s time to push. So how does one push out a baby when you’ve never done it and you can’t feel your vagina?! Well, you listen to the medical staff as they describe where your pushing comes from on your body and you just try your best to push in the area they’re describing. It is super, super, super weird. After several different explanations I figured it out. And after, I don’t know, five to ten minutes out pops a baby! Again, I have no idea how long this took, I was very tired and again it just seemed to all go by so quickly.

The nurse, who is just as excited as us, screams it’s a girl! We’re totally freaking excited. I mean, if I’m being honest, I did secretly want a girl. But also we’re not super surprised because the majority of folks swore it was a girl so we were already in that mind set.

So right before 1pm our baby girl entered the world. That’s approximately an eleven hour labor.

She’s Here

They do all the things they do with newborns, she passes the Apgar test and after that – they put her in my arms. Luckily, our hospital has a golden hour where no one is allowed to come into the room for an hour. So we took advantage.

She was beautiful and tiny – six pounds and some ounces. But the poor girl’s nose was super crooked. It looked like someone had punched her nose in the womb. We joke about it now. For some reason I wasn’t worried because I’m of the mindset that all newborns look odd. Plus the doctors and nurses reassured us that more-than-likely her nose will go straight within a week or so. And it did.

After the golden hour our families start to arrive. They move us to the recovery room and then we’re on our way to figuring out how to be parents! That night we were so tired. We opted to have the baby be in the room with us the entire time, which meant little sleep. I’m still trying to figure out how to breastfeed and wake every time she does. It was tiring and a blur. Plus my epidural took sometime until that night to completely wear off!

Oh yes! We didn’t know what her name was going to be, well it was between two names. We did not, however, have a middle name picked out. So the lady comes in to get her birth certificate ready and we ask her to come back in an hour so we can figure it out. Luckily, we both agreed on the first name, then quickly had to figure out a middle name too.

We had the option to stay 48 hours, but no thank you. I like my bed. So we were discharged 24 hours after giving birth and headed home to figure out what how to be parents. Look how tired I was!

My Thoughts

Would I do anything differently? Of course! I would have asked them to fully explain why I was being induced so I would be completely on board. And I would have asked them to start me off on a super lower dosage of the epidural so I could have felt a little something and be more involved in the pushing part.

But, it’s all done and over with. And overall it was a very chill experience. And now she’s a healthy, happy, smart five year old so I’m fine with everything – alhamdulillah.

How about the little man? Here’s is his birth story.

If you have any questions please let me know and drop a comment below!

Also, if you want to see all the fun baby registry gift bags when I registered for my son’s baby shower head here. And if you need baby shower inspiration you can check out my son’s woodland themed baby shower. Lastly, you can take a look around my son’s nursery too. A lot of the furniture in his room was hers because it was gender neutral. I know, none of this was from my daughter – sorry C.