The Welch Life: Birth Story

I have been asked many times about my labor and delivery and without going into too much detail obviously, I thought I would write it down so that #1, I can remember it all and #2, so other people can read about what it was like for me.

My due date was September 1st and as it was drawing nearer to that date, I started doing things to try and jumpstart labor like going on walks and trying to eat lots of pineapple. Unfortunately my heartburn only allowed me to eat just a little bit before I decided that I was about to puke. My due date came and went and I was convinced that I wasn't going to have this baby until at least a week past my due date. I woke up at 7:30 the next morning (September 2nd) with these pains that I was pretty sure were contractions. I thought that they would probably just go away but they weren't going away and I couldn't fall back asleep so I started timing them. They were about 15 minutes apart so I decided to wake up Jordan just to let him know what was going on. We kept timing them for the next 2 or 3 hours and found that they weren't as regular as they were earlier that morning so I figured it was just a false alarm and Jordan went off to work. All throughout the day they kept coming but they were so irregular that I didn't think too much of it. I had a doctors appointment that day and as we were sitting in the office, I noticed that my contractions were starting to get worse and were coming a little bit closer together. The doctor checked me and I was dilated to a 4 and 100% effaced and he decided to go ahead and strip my membranes. I asked him if I would be having the baby that day and he just said "well, it could be tonight or tomorrow or not for another few days." He didn't want to make any promises and have me be disappointed so we decided to go ahead and set up an induction date for that next Friday just in case the baby decided not to come within those couple days. After my appointment, Jordan went back to work and I called my mom and sister to let them know what was going on and that I could possibly be having a baby that day but wasn't 100% sure. After sitting at home for about an hour or 2 after the appointment, my contractions started to get worse and starting coming about 7 minutes apart. I decided to go take a warm bath to help ease the pain (which didn't work at all). When Jordan got home from work about an hour later, my contractions were about 5 minutes apart and I was in a lot of pain. Jordan asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and I was like "no, we need to do our laundry. I'm all out of clean underwear!" About 20 minutes into doing the laundry, I was like "nope, I can't do this anymore. Jordan, we need to go to the hospital."

When we got to the hospital, it was about 8:30 in the evening and they checked me and said I was dilated to a 5 and decided to put me in a room. I was laying there for probably about 10-20 minutes when they asked me if I wanted the epidural. YES PLEASE!!! Contractions are probably the most painful thing in the world. They handed me the form to sign saying that I understood the possible things that could happen if I got the epidural. I didn't even care to read it or anything. I signed it and told them to drug me up haha. It took about 20 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get there. Thank goodness it wasn't any longer because at that point my contractions were probably every minute or two and getting more painful each time. The epidural didn't even hurt or bother me but that was probably because I was in so much pain. Normally I have issues with needles but at that point I didn't even care. It only took a couple minutes for it to kick in. I probably felt only one more contraction and then after that was totally fine. I was pretty high on life for a little while after they gave me the epidural because I was just so happy that I couldn't feel anything anymore. My right leg was completely numb and felt like it weighed 100 pounds but my left leg still had some feeling it so it was weird having one leg numb and the other not so much.

After laying in bed for a little while, the nurses noticed that the baby's heart rate was dropping so they decided to go ahead and turn me over to my side. That seemed to help but after probably 30 minutes of laying on one side, they came in and moved me to my other side because his heart rate was dropping again. They had to move me from side to side the whole time I was there because his heart rate would start dropping again. It freaked me out when that would happen but the nurses were all calm and said that he was just fine.

At about 3 or 4 in the morning, they told me that it was probably time for me to start pushing. I all of a sudden got really scared and told them that I couldn't push. The nurse was very nice and asked me why and I kept telling her that I was afraid it was going to hurt and that I wouldn't be able to do it. She assured me that I wouldn't feel a thing so I went ahead and gave my first push and just like she said, I didn't feel a thing and had no problem doing it. After a couple pushes, there was a knock on the door and the nurse said that my sister had just arrived so she made it just in time for the birth. I had to push on my side because of his heart rate so after a few contractions, the nurses would turn me again to the other side. After I had been pushing for about an hour and a half, my doctor showed up. Funny story about that. One of the nurses had come in a few minutes prior laughing. We asked her what was so funny and she said that she had just gotten off the phone with my doctor and he told her that he had been trying to get up to the hospital for the last 2 hours but couldn't because he was stuck in his garage due to a skunk. He had been sitting there googling ways to get rid of skunks and eventually decided to just make a run for it and walked to the hospital. He couldn't get to his car or his bike because of the skunk. That story definitely lightened the mood and when the doctor finally got there, the nurses were all giving him a hard time telling him that he should've just shot it instead of sitting there for 2 hours googling ways to get rid of it.

After my doctor arrived, I could tell that it was getting close because I could feel a lot of pressure and I just felt like I was always needing to push. I only pushed for about 20 minutes when the doctor got there. When I had finally pushed the baby out, I honestly thought I had gone to the bathroom so I looked down about to be very embarrassed but instead saw that my baby was what I felt. It was so crazy and unreal I honestly felt like I was in a dream when they handed him to me. He actually pooped on his way out of the womb so they cleaned his little booty up a tiny bit before they handed him to me but he had it all over and got it all over me in the process. I'm just glad that he did it on his way out rather than doing it inside me because that would not have been good. After they got him out, they figured out why his heart rate kept dropping. Turns out his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and foot but luckily it wasn't a problem when they got him out. It was so surreal holding him in my arms and I couldn't believe that my pregnancy was finally over and that he was here with me and Jordan. They took him from me after a little while to weigh and measure him. He was so small! He weighed 6 lbs. 1 oz. and was 18 inches long. All of the nurses thought he was premature and I just kept telling them "nope, he's actually a couple days past his due date." He was born on September 3rd at 6:05 in the morning. I was in labor for only about 9 1/2 hours which the nurses were all impressed with. They just kept telling me I was meant to have babies being that my first labor and delivery progressed so fast and wasn't long at all.

The whole labor and delivery process was not nearly as bad as I had expected it to be and would do it again in a heartbeat. It was so amazing to see what 9 months of torture had to offer me. My last trimester of pregnancy was really rough on me and I kept telling Jordan that I never wanted to get pregnant again but after holding Emerson for the first time, it was easy to change my mind and remember why I would want to get pregnant again in the future. Words can't really describe the thoughts and feelings that run through you when they first place your baby in your arms. All I can say is that it was amazing and I couldn't stop looking at him and didn't want to put him down or hand him off to anyone else. Those first few hours right after he was born were amazing and it just felt like a dream the whole time I was there.