Birth Story

Dannie and I woke up on the 27th thinking it would be just the two of us all day. We made breakfast and I had started cleaning the house in preparation to be induced the next day. He was actually working from home a bit. Usually, my cleaning consists of what you would see if you came over. As I was cleaning the shower, I noticed I started having some pretty bad cramping on my right side. I figured I was just cleaning too hard and it was my round ligament being pulled. 

Jodi had messaged me that morning asking if she could come over during Malakai's nap. Of course, being my OCD self, I wanted to make sure the cleaning was done before then and that I had showered. She ended up coming by around 2:45 and I made us some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. We really just sat on the couch and chatted. She was asking how I was feeling and we were discussing the items I had ready for Olivia's arrival. As I was sitting on the couch, I heard a small "pop." I never would have thought my water would break naturally or what to expect, so I didn't say anything. I felt like I wet my pants, so I told her I was going to go to the restroom. As I made it to the bathroom door, it kept flowing. At that point, I yelled out the door to Dannie and Jodi. Jodi actually yelled, "Did your water just break?" By that time, Dannie was at the door and I was in shock. I definitely didn't think things would start naturally. At this point, I was trying to control the flow, which was uncontrollable. I changed clothes but ended up just wrapping myself in a towel. We rushed to pack hospital items and get Boomer ready to go to Abuela's.

I felt pretty calm on the way to the hospital. I wasn't feeling any contractions and traffic wasn't really bad, so I knew we would be fine. As we walked into the hospital, one of the volunteers asked if I was in active labor and I replied "No, my water just broke". Just being asked was enough realization that this was real and it was finally happening. At that point, we thought we would have a baby by the end of the day. 

We finally got settled into our room around 5 PM. I changed into my gown and they began checking my vitals and seeing if I was dilated at all. At my last OB appointment, which was a week prior, I had only been 1 cm. Of course, I was still at a 1. By then my midwife had stopped by to check-in. They had decided since I was going to be induced the following day, they would go ahead and start me on Pitocin to try and move things along quicker. I was pretty nervous because I had heard that it makes contractions stronger. 

 

I figured it would be well into the night before anything exciting began happening. Dannie returned to the car and brought in the rest of our bags. We started getting some visitors around 6:30. My parents, Dannie's mom, the Ekker's, Jodi, and Marcella came by. It has just become tradition to visit before baby, and after, with all of us. My mom was planning on staying the night anyway. Since I had last eaten around 2:30, I was beginning to get hungry. I was always used to eating while pregnant, so it took awhile to get used to ice chips. By now, I was just relaxing and making constant trips to the bathroom with all the fluids they were giving me. 

After a few hours, I started feeling some contractions. I am pretty sure around 10 pm I was feeling pretty bad cramps and my nurse offered to give me pain medication to help. They gave me Nubain. I was super nervous to take these because I had never had a positive reaction to pain medication in the past. After the medication, I was able to rest for a little bit. I would say they made me feel a little loopy because I kept falling asleep and having awkward dreams. I would wake up and tell Dannie about them between my laughter. My nurse wanted to see if I was progressing at all and said I was 2 cm. I was pretty disappointed at this point because I knew it had turned into an all night thing. 

Around 1 a.m. contractions started getting more painful, I was still only 2 cm dilated. My nurse had mentioned giving me more Nubain or getting an epidural. She said if I get Nubain again, it may not work as well the 2nd time and it would be about a 45 minute process to get an epidural. I thought about it for awhile and talked it over with Dannie and my mom in-between crying. I finally decided on the epidural. The anesthesiologist and my nurse came in around 2 a.m. They began running through medical history questions and telling me what to expect. My nurse stood in front of me against the edge of the bed and allowed me to lean my head on her chest for support. I felt some pokes and pressure a few times in my back, but nothing like I had worked myself up for. It was no time before I began feeling the epidural. I remember my legs and feet feeling tingly and heavy. 

The epidural allowed me to sleep more. Mom was on the pull-out bed sleeping and Dannie in the chair. They would rotate every once in awhile depending on who needed more rest. They were coming back in at 7 a.m. to check vitals and see if there were any changes. At some point, they had to give me some oxygen because baby's heart rate had dropped some. My midwife, Jackie, came in around 7. At this time, she completely broke my water. By then, I was 4 cm dilated. Baby girl was not allowing us to keep a monitor on her on my belly, so the midwife inserted a monitor on the top of her head, which would give them a better reading. The change in dilation gave me a little hope that I would deliver her soon.

Contractions had picked up some and Dannie was helping me breathe through them while mom had stepped out for a bit. Since they had been so bad, I called my nurse in. She said she didn't think there was any progress and that they couldn't continue checking since my water had been broken for so long. In the thirty minutes mom was out of the room, contractions were so bad I wanted to cry. Mom had said if anything happens to call her. I ended up calling the nurse in because I couldn't stand contractions anymore. She came back in and checked me and was shocked that I was at 10 cm. I couldn't believe what she had said at first because it happened so quickly. I immediately began texting  people to let them know. Dannie called mom and told her and she passed along the news to the waiting room full of visitors.

The nurses and nursery staff began bringing in more equipment to prepare for after-care and birth. My midwife had been called as well. During this time, I was extremely nervous because I was unsure what to expect and what to do. The nurses pretty much walked us through each step. Once our midwife was there, we began a few practice breaths. It was hard for me to breathe consistently at times because I had a cold and was congested the whole time. My mom was on the right side of the bed and Dannie was on the left. My midwife was there as well, as was my awesome nurse and another that was training. 

Everyone was helping me breathe and when it came time to countdown and push they did such an awesome job being supportive. I would take in a deep breath and push for 10 seconds, three different times. By the time the third push came around, it was harder to hold my breath at the beginning. The nurse kept asking if I felt the beginning of a contraction because she had just been watching the monitor and telling me when one was coming.  After a few minutes, I started noticing when they were building up and I needed to push.  After pushing for what seemed like an hour or so, I got really tired and things started slowing down. They ended up calling my doctor, who was 30 minutes away. We all agreed when he came in, he meant business. I remember saying "I can't do this" and he said something along the lines of "Samantha, you can and you will!" Unfortunately, Dannie was unable to cut the cord because it was wrapped around her neck. She was born at 12:17 pm and was 8 lb & 21 3/4 inches. They passed her to me for a second,but I wasn't immediately able to hold her since they were stitching me up. Everyone kept commenting on all the dark, thick hair she had, which I still love to this day. 

The overall experience was not too bad until the horrible contractions in the early morning. By that time, my epidural had begun wearing off and I was feeling more pain. I could feel my legs and move them by this time. I am very thankful that my mom could have been there to go through it with me.  Although it has scarred her for life, it gave me a new love for her. One day, Olivia will learn that her grandma was one of the first people to see her big head of hair. My sweet hubby was there next to me the whole time feeding me those lovely ice chips and telling me how proud he was. He was the first one to hold Olivia and I will forever remember that memory. 

After delivery we were moved to recovery where we were welcomed by lots of family and friends. The next few days were tiring and spent getting to know our little one. We were released on the 30th, but stayed an extra night because Olivia had to stay due to some abnormal labs. We decided to come home on the 31st, but she had to stay an extra week until her CRP levels were stable again. We made daily trips to the hospital twice a day. Once in the early afternoon and again around 9:00 pm. It was the hardest thing for us to leave the hospital without her each time.

The board in my recovery room. 

The day we went to pick her up. We look mega sleepy here.

Going home attire and a tired baby.