Greta's Birth Story

It all started last Sunday (a week ago?! Yikes, where does the time go) right around dinner time. I started feeling contractions as we ate and started timing them. They came every 23 minutes. Then at 9 pm they started coming around every 14 minutes. They weren't painful, just consistent. I really didn't think they could lead to much so I took a shower and went to bed. As soon as I laid down at 11:50 they started coming every 7 minutes. Still not very painful but I could definitely feel them. I still didn't think "this is it" but I did get up and go blow dry my hair. Went and laid down again to time them. Still coming every 7 minutes. It was now 1:30 in the morning. Decided to get up and call the birthing center. Talked to a nurse, told her we were about 45 minutes away and she said to start making my way in there. I still wasn't convinced since every image I've ever seen of a woman in labor was the Hollywood version of the panting, hunched over, severely in pain woman. Definitely not me. So I laid down again to time them. Now it's 2:30 in the morning. They are coming every 6 minutes apart, kind of painful. I really didn't want to wake my Mom up and have her come over to the house to watch Wesley if they were just going to send me home. You have to be 4 cm dilated for the Birthing Center to admit you. So I woke Sean up and told him I'm driving myself in and if they admit me (still thought it was a fat chance) I'll call and have my Mom head over and for Sean to head in.

The drive in wasn't bad. I had about about six contractions that were definitely painful along the way but I was in control and wasn't a danger to other drivers. Not that there were other drivers on the road at 3am. Got to my destination and signed in. A nurse took me back and checked me out, I was 4cm dilated. Yea, I could stay!





I called my Mom and Sean. At that point it was 3:45 and they were putting in my IV so that I could get the antibiotics needed since I'm Group B Strep positive. Contractions were now every 5 minutes apart. Still not horribly painful but I did need to concentrate during them. Nurse came back in around 5am to check me and I was 5 cm dilated. She said they would most likely break my water in the next hour. I remembered how quickly contractions picked up after they break your water so I asked for the epidural first. I think I could have easily got to 6 or 7cm without the epidural but thought "what the hay?". I figure if I'm going to get one why wait until the really painful contractions appear? So around 6am I got my epidural and then my doctor came in around 7am to break my water. The nurse said I was a "stretchy 6" at that point and all but guaranteed me it would be quick from then on out. She was wrong, another hour goes by without any change. They decide to speed things up with a little Pitocin. So around 8:30am I got some Pitocin added to my IV. And speed things up it did! I started feeling a lot of pressure in lower back about an hour later. Nurse checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push. Of course they had to page my doctor so we waited around for half an hour. The pressure was so strong that I had to lay on my side with my legs closed. The nurse said if I had my legs open the baby would come on her own. I have to add that the epidural was perfect. I didn't feel the pain of the contractions but I still felt when they started and ended. Also that pressure really made it easy to push, knowing when and where to push. Finally the doctor made her way in and got prepared. Three pushes later little Greta was born at 10:49 am on September 21st weighing in at a whopping 8 pounds 11 ounces.







The doctor commented on how perfectly round her little head was. Most babies are born with little cone heads because of the time spent in the birth canal during pushing. Little Greta came so fast she never got the chance at a cone head. The down side to all of this is that while it was an easy delivery she never got the pressure needed in the birth canal to push the fluid out of her lungs. So she had a decent amount of fluid that had to be suctioned out of her lungs after she was born. That was kind of hard to watch. We had to watch her pretty close those first 24 hours to make sure there were no adverse reactions. Luckily she's had clear lungs ever since.





It was truly a wonderful birthing experience. Like I had mentioned in a previous post, it was so much different than being induced with Wesley. So much better. I feel very blessed to have two healthy happy children.