A birth story
and the things I am adding to my fantasy shopping carts when scrolling the internet and feeding a newborn at all hours!
I love reading and hearing birth stories! One of the kindest things you can do for a new mom is listen to her birth story (if she wants to tell it!) So, in honor of two weeks with our beautiful Willa, I am sharing the story of her birth. Before I get into it - this was an extremely positive experience! I know not everyone has such a positive experience, and I truly wish that wasn’t the case. But, if you are preparing for labor & delivery - hopefully this experience is one that will help you feel excited about the birthing process! That said, if you aren’t into birth stories, you might skip this one!
This whole pregnancy, I’d had a feeling that this baby would come well past my due date. Despite that inkling, I was feeling very impatient when 40 weeks rolled around. Partially because there was a weird heat wave for the end of May and the temperatures were in the 90s (very uncomfortable to be highly pregnant during that type of weather) and also because I was just having a hard time relaxing or taking advantage of the last few days before a newborn entered our family. At 39 weeks and 5 days, I had an OB appointment and opted to have my cervix checked. This is always a fraught decision for me because whatever the check yields - it doesn’t mean much for how soon the baby is coming. In my case, learning that I was only 1cm dilated (you need to get to 10 and you start at 0cm), was a little discouraging to hear. But again, it doesn’t necessarily mean much! What was extra discouraging was that I would go through the process of scheduling an induction as a backup plan if I didn’t go into labor naturally by ~41 weeks.
I’m not sure why an induction makes me so nervous! I have never really had a birth plan except for have a healthy baby as quickly and safely as possible, and I am well-educated on the various interventions that might be required to make that possible. But I think I feel a little disappointment that my body isn’t getting things started on my own. And, just a little nervous that I would have to have some additional interventions, and likely spend more time in the hospital. I left the doctors appointment aligned with the plan - on one hand, having a date/time assigned to when you’re heading to the hospital makes the logistics much easier!, but also determined to go into labor on my own within the next 12 days.
I went about my last week of pregnancy doing what I could - lots of walking, curb walking, squats, spicy food when I could tolerate it (sent my heartburn into overdrive!), resting as much as I could and getting small projects done around our house. I cajoled my husband into re-seeding a portion of our backyard and spent an afternoon raking up old burnt-out grass, re-seeding and fertilizing and watering our lawn.
Unfortunately, none of this prompted any signs that were visible to me in terms of labor starting anytime soon. At my next OB appointment I passed on the cervical check because I felt like no matter what I wouldn’t feel better with the information. So, I was scheduled for a cervical ripening that coming Sunday evening, with an induction scheduled the following morning (putting me at 41 & 2)
The whole last weekend, ever time I felt a kick I wondered if maybe it was actually a contraction, and spent every night wondering if I would go into labor overnight (noticeable contractions have started overnight with my previous deliveries). But alas, there were no contractions that were going to start right before I was scheduled to go to the hospital, so on Sunday night I went in, as scheduled.
Basically the way this induction process works is that the night before you go in to check how dilated you are and also do a brief check on the baby. If you are 4+cm dilated, and the baby passes the tests they do to monitor its heartbeat, you go home and come back in the morning to start the medical intervention portion of the induction process. If you’re not dilated enough, they want to encourage dilation to prepare your body to better tolerate the pitocin and move more quickly through the induction.
Over the course of the few days leading up to my cervical ripening, I convinced myself I would be plenty dilated. Ten days before I had been 1cm, so in the week and a half that had passed I had to have progressed a few centimeters. I was fully prepared to have a quick cervical check, wait while they monitored the baby’s heart rate for a Non-Stress Test (a test where they monitor the response of the fetal heart rate to movement over a period of time), and then be sent home for one last night. Well - whatever it is they say about missed expectations — I learned I was 1.5cm dilated, so I was, in fact, not going home.
Instead, we made our way to our labor and delivery room and got settled for the night. After the many prep steps that get you ready for a hospital admission and to have a small procedure completed, a midwife came and inserted a cook catheter which would help dilate me overnight. A cook catheter has two small balloons that slowly inflate with saline to put pressure on and naturally dilate the cervix. The insertion process was a little uncomfortable, but once it was in I was totally fine. My husband got us spicy Thai food for dinner as my last ditch attempt to induce labor naturally and then we settled in for the night. I took an ambien to sleep and basically passed out mid sentence, and slept hard! Sometime over the course of the night, the catheter came out (another very weird feeling but not uncomfortable) and I started having mild contractions, but they were irregular and I was sleeping through them. By the time the midwife came in the morning to check me, I was about 5cm dilated!
Around 8 AM I got all set up for the pit - took a shower, walked a little bit and then got a hep lock IV and then the meds started flowing. I spent awhile on a birthing ball trying to encourage the baby to move lower. We watched Platonic (good so far) while waiting for things to get going! In a pretty short amount of time I started having contractions pretty regularly and they started picking up in intensity. By 10AM they were getting very intense and I was ready to know how far away we were from actually getting ready for the baby. I was about 7cm dilated, but still had my waters intact and needed the baby to drop a bit more. From 10:30-11AM the contractions got extremely intense - too intense- they were getting really close together with almost no break in between them so the pit got turned off while we waited for things to slow down a bit to be more tolerable for me and the baby.
By this time, I was seriously contemplating whether / when to get an epidural. I had hoped that things might move fast enough that I would quickly enter active labor and deliver quickly enough that I wouldn’t need the epidural, but after my contractions had gotten so intense (less than 2 minutes apart) I was really struggling with the pain. I managed for awhile by blasting music in my AirPods, bouncing on the labor ball and having my husband put intense pressure on my lower back to try to counter balance the pain from contractions, but it was still tough. I tried a bunch of different positions to make sure we got the baby in the right position (as low as possible!) and to see if any of them would ease some of the pain, but eventually decided I wanted the epidural to help myself relax and feel more at ease going into delivery - which I knew would be soon, but obviously couldn’t predict how soon.
Getting the epidural was an easy process - I barely was aware of the insertion, I was so focused on getting through contractions. The only downside is that I had to be in the hospital bed at that point, but once the epidural kicked in I felt great - totally relaxed and ready!! My nurse had to help me move around a little bit to get into a position that the baby was happy in / the fetal heart rate was where they wanted it to be, but eventually we figured it out.
Within the hour, it was time! There were signs of meconium when they broke my water, which meant that the baby pooped while still in utero. This has happened with all my kids, so it wasn’t surprising, but means that the nursery/pedi team is called into the delivery room to be prepared if there are any complications for the baby related to that. So, it meant that my delivery room was pretty full! With a couple pushes through two big contractions, our baby was out. My husband cut the cord, and we learned we had a beautiful baby girl!
We spent the next couple hours recovering in labor & delivery. As my epidural quickly wore off I got to experience the extreme delight that is uterine contractions after your third birth (apparently they get worse each time!), but other than that we were great and moved right into postpartum. Truly a wonderful birth experience! Every time I have a baby I am completely in awe of the clinicians and hospital staff that take care of mothers & babies everyday. I have often wished that I had chosen a career that would lead me to care for and support patients in this environment on a regular basis; L&D and Postpartum team members are the best! I am so happy that she is here safely, and proud of myself and my body for growing and delivering a beautiful baby girl!
Thank you for sticking around and being patient with me while I soak up the newborn sweetness at home. I have a long maternity leave from work planned, but eventually hope to get back into the grove of writing and sharing more frequently in the coming weeks as I feel more recovered and hopefully start to get a bit more sleep! So many things related to postpartum that I want to talk about and share, and I will get there eventually! For now, I thought I would start with some (many!) of the pieces that I have been perusing during early morning feeding sessions. I will say - my advice if you are the parent up feeding a newborn overnight - listen to an amazing audio book or watch a show instead of scrolling our phone all the time! It’s nice to have something to look forward to when you have to be up at ungodly hours! But if you are going to be on your phone (I do both!), shopping is a great place to be as opposed to endlessly scrolling instagram!
1: Shirt Dress / 2: Doen Saison Dress / 3: Poplin Mini Dress / 4: Pippa Dress / 5: Terry Pants / 6: Oversized Sweatshirt / 7: Hill House Dress / 8: Xirena Blouse / 9: Xirena Dress / 10: High Rise Jeans / 11: White Eyelet Blouse: / 12: Gold Earrings / 13: Good American Bathing Suit / 14: Larroude Slides / 15: Zara Jeans / 16: Align Bike Shorts / 17: Linen-Blend Corset Tank / 18: Linen Shorts / 19: Braided Slides / 20: Pull-on Linen Pants / 21: White Button Up / 22: Linen Blend Vest Shirt / 23: High Waisted Linen Trousers / 24: High-Waisted Linen Shorts / 25: Faherty Jumpsuit / 26: Gingham Blouse
1: Shirt Dress: I have shirt dresses on my mind - forgiving, lightweight enough for the heat and nursing-friendly! This is an extra bonus bc it is extremely friendly on the wallet.
2: Doen Saison Dress: I am thinking about this dress for family photos this summer!
3: Poplin Mini Dress: Another cutie from Doen that looks perfect for so many summer occasions.
4: Pippa Dress: This dress is simple and chic. It could be dressed up or down and worn for so many different occasions!
5: Terry Pants: I guess terry towel clothing is back! These are cute and cozy!
6: Oversized Sweatshirt: I have this sweatshirt in grey and the black is in my cart! Its perfectly oversized!
7: Hill House Dress: Hill House is now available on Shopbop! I love this dress so much!!
8: Xirena Blouse: A great easy, breezy summer blouse. I’m shopping for lots of shirts to wear with shorts this summer to feel like myself and also make nursing as easy as possible.
9: Xirena Dress: my favorite dress, especially if you are pregnant or nursing in a new color way!!
10: High Rise Jeans: another great wear on repeat pair of pants for this summer - will go with everything!
11: White Eyelet Blouse: Can’t stop lusting over white shirts in summertime!
12: Gold Earrings: Dress up any outfit with these fun earrings!
13: Good American Bathing Suit: I’m probably buying a new suit for the summer and I know I want either black or navy. This is at the top of my list!
14: Larroude Slides: everyone has incredible things to say about Larroude shoes — they are made slightly wider than a standard shoe, which makes them fit really well! I love these chic slides!
15: Zara Jeans: I’ve heard great things about these jeans and these are on my list for when I feel like I can tolerate hard pants, but will still need a size or two up!
16: Align Bike Shorts: I’m still wearing my maternity bike shorts, but forsee wanting to shift to a non-maternity pair soon
17: Linen-Blend Corset Tank: I’ve seen this on several people on Instagram and it looks incredibly chic with a pair of jeans!
18: Linen Shorts: a simple pull on pair of shorts to wear on repeat!
19: Braided Slides: How incredible are these sandals??
20: Pull-on Linen Pants: I’m on the hunt for a pair of pull on linen pants to wear with tees, button down shirts, bathing suits, etc.
21: White Button Up: I’ve heard great things about this button up - love the oversized fit and thickness of the fabric!
22: Linen Blend Vest Shirt: This vest-like shirt is so chic!
23: High Waisted Linen Trousers: Another linen pant option I am eyeing - a little more tailored/formal look to these, but at a great price point!
24: High-Waisted Linen Shorts: I just got these shorts and I love them! I sized up and they work great - I will be wearing them constantly!
25: Faherty Jumpsuit: Put on an go this summer — to the pool, beach, a bbq, running errands, whatever!
26: Gingham Blouse: Another awesome button-up blouse for summer!