Push.

Disclaimer: The following contains drawn-out details of our labor/delivery with E. Consider yourself warned.

We were 6 days overdue and eagerly awaiting our little girl’s arrival. I had felt a few Braxton Hicks contractions throughout the last couple months of pregnancy, but I woke up at 3 am on Thursday, and knew something was different. I sat awake for about an hour before deciding to soak in the tub for a while.  I used a stopwatch to start timing contractions. About an hour later, I noticed some consistency in the durations, so it was time to wake The Mister up.

We continued to time the contractions for another hour or so. After consulting our book from the hospital, we found that every one of our “criteria” was just not quite a match for calling in to have the baby. At about 5:30 am, we called in and asked what we should do. The nurse said, “Sounds like early labor….but since you have an appointment this morning, just wait and come in then.”

Our appointment was scheduled for 10:00 that morning.  It was really fun to try to relax/sleep for 5 hours when all we could think was “BABY!!” I ate a peanut butter sandwich in the middle of the night and cereal and a deviled egg for breakfast.

When we arrived at the hospital, our midwife let us know that I was dilated 5-6 cm.  I was disappointed – hoping for 7-8. But the midwife said, “That’s good!” and gave us two options: Go home and come back later or check in now. We didn’t even have to talk it over. We were ready to start this party.

We were checked in within minutes and got hooked up to the NST monitors. Everything looked great – loved hearing that! We watched some TV, and I ordered a chef salad for lunch. (Sadly, it ended up being about the size of my thumbnail and half made of cheese.)

I was soon given the green light to sit in the whirlpool – stayed until the midwife came into the room later in the afternoon. She broke my water to move things along. After that, I headed back to the whirlpool – and that’s where I stayed until, like, 7 pm.

The contractions were intense, even under water. Things had progressed pretty steadily while I sat in the tub, but I didn’t realize it. During the transition phase, I thought I couldn’t handle it anymore without the epidural. I got out of the tub and found out I was dilated 9 cm. Awesome! I was thrilled. Thought I still had a long road ahead. Being 9 cm, I knew it would be fine to move forward without the epidural. (Lesson learned: Next time, I won’t be so “married” to the whirlpool. And will asked to get checked more often.)

Our midwife came in the room, and she told me I should push a little so they could reposition Baber’s head. The Mister and I both thought I would do a couple pushes and then wait, but the midwife never told me to stop pushing. So, to our surprise...30 minutes later, (at 7:29 pm) our girl arrived!

It was the most amazing experience. Ever.

At the time, it felt like a long day. Looking back, the time flew by.

We are so thankful that God held us close and kept us all safe and healthy. He gave me a great, encouraging partner and a wonderful team of midwives and caregivers.

I’m so blessed to have the gift of giving birth. Really, I liked it. Such a privilege. Such a miracle. Can’t wait to do it again! 

Seriously.