For those of you unaware, the reason for my hiatus is due to the fact that our daughter Avery was born!! She was born on August 26th at 9:50pm weighing 6lbs 15ozs and 19inches long.
This is the first time since she was born where I have received more than 4 hours of sleep and had enough energy to dust off the computer and start typing again.
I figured I’d bore you all with my long and drawn out birth story. Mainly because labor/delivery and everything about it is not what you see on TV AT ALL. Labor doesn’t come on instantly right when your water breaks and you usually don’t start pushing right when you get to the hospital. I know, it’s a bummer. So let me break down my experience for you.
Saturday August 25th Jon and I ran a bunch of errands and made an insane Whole Foods trip (I say insane because we dropped more money than what I made in a week working three jobs in Keene, though that’s not saying much) in order to prepare for Avery’s arrival as her due date of 9/4 was drawing near. That evening we had dinner with his parent’s as Jon and his dad set up Avery’s crib.
The entire night I was feeling pretty well but my stomach just felt heavy and I had a lot of pressure in the bottom of my pelvis. I just assumed it’s because of the immense amount of weight I had gained during the pregnancy and my non existent stomach muscles could no longer bare that weight.
As Jon and I laid in bed that night I told him my lower back was hurting (assuming this was also due to my ever growing body mass) and if he could massage it for a bit. At this point in the pregnancy I had not asked for much. I think I squeezed one foot massage and this lower back massage out of my husband. Looking back I would have maybe asked for a few more. This pregnancy was way too easy on him. Next time around I’ll remember that. After my massage I passed out pretty much instantly.
Next morning around 6am I woke up suddenly with the worst Charlie Horse in the entire world. I jumped around like an idiot in the bedroom, managing not to wake up my husband, and ran to the living room to lie on the couch. Not sure if this started up my labor but at this point, I felt some cramps in my lower stomach. I thought that there is no way these are contractions because this is my first pregnancy and I’d be a week early which normally doesn’t happen. Well, thank you Red Raspberry Leaf Tea as this is exactly what they were. The best way to describe a contraction is a period cramp. At first they are just fun and games as you smile and breathe a little bit through each one. They gradually become the feeling of someone cutting your stomach open with a dull butter knife and pulling out your insides but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I called my mom and let her know what was happening and she was awesome enough to drop everything, and come up to Maine. I went to the bedroom to let Jon know what was happening at around 8am and to tell him that my contractions were about 20 minutes apart. We laid in bed for a bit talking and getting excited for what was happening.
I’m going to fast forward as from about 6am until almost 12pm was just a bunch of contractions and walking around breathing and attempting to smile through all of them. Yes, I did manage to shower, shave and put on makeup as that's how neurotic I am and labor wasn't going to screw up my morning routine. At around noon my mom was in Maine and we sat down out on the patio to have a nice lunch that Jon made for us. At this point I started to get back contractions. I have heard about this but HOLY SHIT. I never thought they would actually hurt as bad as they did. I just kept walking around deeply breathing hoping that I wouldn’t pass out from the pain. Yes, normal people would probably go to the hospital at this point but I’ve heard horror stories of people going to the hospital early and being sent home and since our hospital is about 45 minutes away I said no flipping way we are making two trips. I’d rather birth Avery in the car on the way there then have to play the back and forth game and gas is way too expensive at the moment... So, my awesome husband just kept calling the midwife to let her know of my status. She said that it was probably false labor and to hang tight. Whelp, at around 2pm my water broke. Jon didn’t believe me since I told him it was just a trickle. He just assumed it was me peeing my pants as that was a daily incident in the Levesque house hold. I knew that since it wasn’t accompanied by a sneeze that it was definitely my water breaking.
At this point, we called the midwife and decided to head in to the hospital. The way to the hospital sucked. My contractions were getting more intense and all I could do was grab the “Oh Shit Handle” and pray that she stay put until we made it. Once we got to the hospital I hobbled my butt up in to the triage room where they checked to see how far I was. They said I was 5cm dilated. I thought, “Sweet, half way there.” As most of you may know, 10 cm is fully dilated and when they tell you to push. But I knew that 8cm was when you started to feel the most pain and I was truly hoping that I had already passed that hurdle. Not so much.
We were escorted to our room where I changed into my bathing suit so that I could jump in the shower to see if that would help my labor pains. Well, I’m going to be honest, for me, nothing really “helped” my labor pains. I wanted to literally die. I just kept breathing and holding on to whatever was near me for dear life. I’m going to throw out there that I suck at dealing with pain, so maybe this isn’t too bad for most people but for me, this was my own personal hell.
When my midwife came in she checked me and told me that I was dilated 6cm. Are you flipping kidding me!? I made it only 1 cm and felt that much pain. I seriously wanted to just lay down and forfeit. Side note, everyone in that room was told not to mention or even utter the word “epidural” in my presence. Everyone received the birth plan which was for me to give birth in the tub naturally. If I received an epidural, I would have not been able to move and that scared me more than anything so I didn’t even think about asking, at least at this moment.
Finally they told me that I could get into the birthing tub. While in the tub I went through the transition period which is literally the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life. Not only did I have contractions in my stomach but back contractions at the same time. I hung on to the back of that tub and wanted to throw myself over it, hoping to break something in order to not feel this pain. At this point, I asked my midwife if she could give me a sterile water injection in the back to help with the back contractions. This is a midwifery holistic hippie kind of practice so I thought, why not? If it’s going to help the back pain then maybe I should try it. WORST DECISION OF MY LIFE!!! Two nurses have to do the injections as apparently it is that painful that if they did it one at a time the patient wouldn’t be able to handle it since they have to give four. GOOD TO KNOW AFTER THE FACT! I literally screamed the most horrific scream there ever was and probably scared the shit out of every pregnant woman in that hospital. I would not recommend anyone do that ever. Not only did it not take away my pain but it was ]as painful as labor itself.
Fast forward. After telling the entire room that I couldn’t do it any longer and staring my poor husband in the eyes, begging him to make it stop, my midwife gave me an insane pep talk and told me that I’m way too far along to do anything and that it was time to push.
Pushing is an entirely different kind of pain. Many people told me its more “pressure” than “pain.” Well, I don’t know what they are smoking but it’s just as much pain if not more in just a different area of the body. I actively pushed for about an hour. Not so bad for a first time mom. I think the main thing I was scared about, besides having a human life come out of me, was having a bowel movement in the tub while 5 people watched it float around. This did not happen and I’m completely shocked as that’s just something that would normally happen to me. But before I knew it, she was out before anything else could come out of me. She was the littlest, cutest, hairiest baby you ever did see. I was so happy. As she laid on my chest I just counted all her fingers and toes and was ecstatic that they were all accounted for.
I had to get out of the tub quickly as I had to birth the placenta which is something you can’t do in the water... So, not at all disgusting and awkward, had to get out of the tub, waddle my butt to the near by bed to take care of that. This wasn’t as bad as I thought, but then again after giving birth naturally, nothing is that bad anymore.
All in all, she is beautiful, healthy, has an insane amount of hair and we are so thankful. The hospital was awesome, my mom and husband were amazing. And I’m just so happy that I was able to do it the way I wanted even though after going through it I will pass no judgment on anyone that gets an epidural, narcotics, whatever it is they need to do to get through it. I was lucky enough as a first time mom to labor and deliver in less than 24 hours (red raspberry tea, I’m telling you!!) and with absolutely no complications. Just heed my warning, DO NOT get sterile water injections. You will live to regret it…
Here is our little nugget. We couldn’t be happier.
