Juliette Vera's Birth Story (literally, it's long hehe)

irunpink · #1 August 20th, 2012, 02:14 PM

Wednesday around 2 AM, I started having contractions; I'd been very restless all night, actually. At 3 AM I went to the bathroom and saw the bloody show, and felt a pop but it wasn't my water...though I thought it was. The contractions lasted until 6 AM, then they stopped when I decided to get out of bed and work on breakfast, dinner, and laundry.

I was convinced these pains were just typical BH contractions because they stopped and there wasn't much happening until around 5:30.

Jose, my dh, was going to stay home, but I told him to go in; I wanted him to really be able to enjoy being home when the baby arrived and not have to worry about work piling up. So he left. All day, I felt a little different, but I figured my body was just gearing up. I called the doctor at around 5, after talking to my mom about what I was experiencing (thinking my water broke), and she wanted me to go to L and D and get checked out. I thought both the doctor and my mom were just being overly cautious. I wasn't even planning on taking my hospital bag.

Jose came home around 6:30/7ish or so to take me to the hospital. He also felt we should bring our bags and the car seat. He was convinced I was in labor. At this point, I was getting contractions again, but they were only coming every 6 to 10 minutes; I still wasn't so sure.

BUT I still didn't want to get all the bags down from the car when we arrived at the hospital. Jose was so sure we'd be admitted; I thought they'd send us home until at least midnight. My first labor WAS about 26 hours long. I was hoping for something under 20 hours with this one. I thought that was a reasonable expectation.

We take the elevator up to L and D and the doctor on call is paged. Apparently, I was already 3-4 cm and 70% effaced. The day before at my appointment, I was barely 1.5 cm and my cervix was very posterior, so you can see why I felt it'd still be some time before Juliette made her grand entrance.

The doctor wanted me to be examined again in an hour, just to see how things were progressing. We walked the floor and that did some good. I was admitted after being told I'd hit 4.5 cm and that my cervix was finally cooperating! Yay, body!

I was reaching the next stage when I decided to jump in the shower. The hot water was amazing and helped so much. I stayed in there until my skin was nearly blistered from the hot water lol. This labor was moving so quickly that before I was under the influence of any medication, and during this active second stage of labor, I was already talking about having another one!

I dismissed that thought at around 5 cm. The pain was nauseating and radiating down my back and legs. I decided it was epidural time. I was shaking and things were moving fast; this was it! I thought I still had at least another 4 hours of labor ahead of me, though. I was also dreading another tear and an overwhelming transition--all from a previous bad experience with what seemed to be a never-ending labor, hence the decision to get the epi.

Surprisingly, in under 2 hours, I'd gone from 5-10 cm! The nurses weren't even going to check me, but I pressed the little red call button when I suddenly felt like something was coming out of me on its own. That something was actually SOMEONE I'd been eager to meet for 38 weeks and 4 days

...

Juliette Vera arrived about 20 minutes later, at 12:59 AM on August 16th. She entered the world warm and wonderful, weighing 7 lbs 1 oz and measuring 19 1/2 inches long.

I actually got to hold my new baby girl and inhale her delicious newborn scent! Yummy, better than cupcakes! There weren't any nurses or doctors there to rush her off to the NICU. I got to experience that wonderfully euphoric feeling that comes with holding a tiny new life.