Birth Story

My last day of work was planned for the 28th of October. In a festive spirit, our office decided to dress up for Halloween. Keeping to my economic-friendly costume beliefs, I threw on Ryan's uniform and went as a Soccer Ref. Since it was my last day, the office threw a fun pot-luck lunch with tons of delicious treats. The best part, though, was the fact that we spent an hour playing charades...only the best game ever. As per usual, I ended up yelling, jumping, and laughing the whole time. My coworkers and I jokingly talked about how all this fun would surely send me into labor.

On the drive home, I started feeling contractions. I wasn't too worried, because I had been having pretty regular Braxton-Hicks every evening for the past two weeks. After Dinner, I was still feeling contractions, so Ryan and I decided to start timing them. Using a timer on Ryan's Ipod, we started the count. After an hour, I was still having regular contractions, lasting a minute, every 1-3 minutes. According to my midwife, I was allowed to go into the hospital at this point. Instead, I decided to move around and see if this truly was the real deal. I was scared to be a false alarm, and to be sadly sent home. Also, at this point, the contractions were far from painful.

In order to move around, I decided to vacuum the house. That kept me busy for about a half an hour. I wasn't timing anything at this point, but I could feel them still being present. I sat down again for another hour and found that the contractions still indicated that I should go into the hospital. In an attempt to stall, I told Ryan that we should put our bags by the door, and go to bed. My thought was that if the contractions continued and were strong enough to wake me up, it would be worth going in. At this time, It was about 11:00. When I was brushing my teeth for bed, I finally started feeling pelvic pain. Finally, I was willing to acknowledge that we should go in. Above is our last self portrait taken on our way out the door.

We were excited to find out if we had a boy or girl!

1. 

We finally left the house at 11:45pm. The hospital was only three miles away, and there was absolutely no traffic. Since it was after 8:00, we had been warned that we would have to enter through the ER. Thankfully, it was a slow night, and the ER waiting room was completely empty. After being buzzed through to Labor and Delivery, we were greeted by two tired nurses. We approached them and told them that "we believed that I was in labor due to my regular contractions." They both stared at us rather blankly until one of them flat out said "you don't look like you are in labor." To this Ryan replied "she had an extremely high pain tolerance." They agreed to check me into Triage and to see if my report held any merit.

After I changed into my hospital garb, the nurse checked me for dilatation. Being checked, while having contractions, was quite the painful experience. The last time that my midwife checked me was on Wednesday, and I was sitting pretty at 1.5cm. At the hospital, I was at 3! The nurse also said that the baby was extremely low and she could feel my water bulge. In order to get admitted, she said I would have to make progress in the next hour. She was fairly confident that I would get admitted, but recommended that we spend the next hour walking the halls. As soon as she gave us the go-ahead, Ryan and I took off turbo-walking the halls. Ryan was a wonderful support, and forced me to walk through all of my contractions. This resulted in me making quite the face as I breathed and walked through the pain. When we neared an hour, I decided to keep walking instead of having the nurse check me, due to the fear of getting checked again. Around the hour and a half mark, the nurse insisted on checking me. Ouch..once again...but I was ecstatic when she announced I was five centimeters and would get officially checked in! When she asked about pain management, I told her I would love an epidural.

We transferred to the Labor and Delivery suite and Ryan went down to bring up our bags. The nurse meanwhile told me that she put in the order for an IV and epidural. While we we walking over to our new room, a lady on a gurney was wheeled into the Labor wing. Our nurse informed us that she was brought via ambulance from over an hour away and she "didn't even know if she was pregnant." A half hour later we hear two bloodcurdling screams and a baby start crying...Well...I guess she was pregnant. An hour following that, I am still having pretty intense contractions, and we have yet to see an IV or an anesthesiologist. Ryan went on a hunt for the drugs, and found out the delay was due to the fact that the two nurses were both tied up dealing with the unexpected birth down the hall. 

I finally get my IV and have to wait for the entire bag to drain before they could do the epidural. It was at this point, that Barbara, my mother in law, made it to the hospital. We were so happy to see her safe. She had been driving for three and a half hours in the middle of the night in order to make it to the birth. Also en-route was my sister an her entire family who were also making a four hour dive in the dark. Finally my IV fluids were drained and the nurse anesthetist was given the word that we were ready for action. The nurse set me up on the side of the bed and coached me in the proper leaning technique. Upon entering the room the NA announced that this "was his first epidural EVER at this hospital." AWESOME! Not exactly what I wanted to hear while I was hunched over praying for relief. Luckily, since he was new, he didn't follow the rule that stated only one family member was allowed in the room during the time of the procedure. Both Ryan and Barbara were there the entire time. It was true, the only painful part of the epidural was the Lidocaine...it felt like a burning pinch. After stating how I had the perfect long and lean spine for him to work with, he proceeded to get blood in the catheter of his first attempt. Bummer...round two worked out well though. After he established that the second one was doing the job, he felt free to share that the mistake he made in the first attempt had only happened twice before in his entire career. Excellent...I was making the record books all over the place for this guy. Right after my epidural, the nurse checked me...I was at seven centimeters!

Shortly after I received my epidural, my sister Chelsie arrived and sent her family off to wait/sleep at our house. To entertain our guests, Ryan did a reenactment of my attempt to walk through the contractions. He named it the Egor. We were all laughing and enjoying our time together. Unfortunately, the epidural lowered the baby's heart rate and I had to breath in oxygen. Also, the nurse had me lay on my side and rotate every 5-10 minutes in order to simulate walking. About an hour later I progressed to a nine. When my midwife came in at around 7am, I was back down to an 8, so they decided to break my water. After this, they told me that they would check me a gain only if I felt pressure low in my pelvis. We all took the next couple of hours and slept, which was the best decision at that point.

Chelsie and Barb plotting out their vantage points for the delivery.

The moment after I was told I would be allowed to push

At around 10:30, everyone was still sleeping, but a nurse came in to check on my vitals. I whispered to her that I was feeling pressure, so she decided to check me. As soon as she checked, she announced that the baby was in the correct position and that I would be ready to push! All three of my cheerleaders popped up off their makeshift beds at that point and rushed to my side. The nurse just started chuckling and told them all that we had time, and instructed all of them to take a bathroom break now, since they had to set everything up. The room was almost instantly transformed into the birthing suite. Before anyone else came in, the nurse coached me in pushing for the delivery. I got in a couple of practice pushes before the other nurses and my midwife rolled in. One of the nurses swooped up my camera and took amazing pictures throughout the entire birth. Those pictures are priceless.

For the next forty minutes, I pushed according to the guidance and encouragement of my midwife and family. It may have lasted forty minutes, but it felt like ten.Throughout the process, my midwife was rubbing me with warm oil in an attempt for me not to tear. When our little one was part way out, they even put some in his hair, to make a little curl! About halfway through, I was able to reach down and feel his little head. It was wonderfully encouraging. While I was pushing I will always remember how Chelsie was whimpering on my left, telling me how beautiful our baby was, while on my right, Barbara was pushing with gusto, encouraging me to get the baby out. Ryan was pretty silent the whole time, until the baby was born. He got to be the one that announced that "We had a boy."(As per request to the hospital staff)

As soon as I saw our baby, I was instantly in love. He had the most intricate face of a little boy. In all the time that we hoped, prayed, and dreamed about our child, I was never able to fathom such a beautiful baby. After Ryan cut the cord, Liam was placed directly on my chest. I spent that entire time crying and staring in wonder at the little man that we had created together.

They cleaned him up and recorded his weight while I was being stitched up(I ended up having an episiotomy). My father and brother-in-law had arrived right before I started pushing. They chose to wait outside the door, but were able to see Liam get cleaned up shortly after he was born. 

 

After Liam got cleaned, I was able to spend an hour feeding and cuddling with him. When he was taken off to the nursery for more checks, Ryan was able to go with him. This resulted in my favorite picture from one of my favorite days. These two hold my heart.