It’s a boy!
It’s a new chapter in our lives! Our baby arrived on January 19…exactly two weeks early! Here is the condensed version of the birth story! If you want more details, you’ll have to ask me in person :) Also some photos from the hospital. We didn’t get a photographer but Riley did a great job of getting some shots after all of the action calmed down :)
A little before 5 am on Saturday morning, I went to the bathroom as normal and went back to bed. I hadn’t fully fallen back to sleep when suddenly I feel my water break! I got up and went back to the bathroom to check and yep, it was definitely my water. So, I woke riley up and said “uh, I’m leaking” haha! He brushed it off and said it probably wasn’t anything. But I had already started having pretty intense contractions so I told him “no, this is it!” So he quickly got up and told me to call the doctor while he started packing his bag. I told the on call nurse what was happening and she said “how soon can you get to the hospital?” So we rushed to gather as much as we could think to pack. Luckily I already had most of my stuff packed. We were at the hospital by 6 am!
For the record, I knew all along that this baby was going to come early! I just had a feeling. Even the day before, I knew we needed to be prepared because I felt like it was coming any day.
Throughout my pregnancy, we always heard that it never happens like in the movies. Well, this happened just like in the movies! My water broke, I started having intense contractions, we rushed to the hospital, and two and a half hours later, he was here! It was such a whirlwind! Honestly, it happened exactly how I always hoped it would but I knew not to plan on anything!
I told the nurses I didn’t want any pain medicine and I didn’t want to be offered it. But I would let myself ask for it if I got to that point. Everything was a big rush. When we got to the hospital, I was at 4 cm. I was breathing through my contractions pretty well but they were definitely painful! In our delivery room, I labored on a yoga ball while they filled the bath tub. I bounced and swayed while Riley applied counter pressure to my back and hips. Our nurse would check the baby every once in a while as I bounced. The contractions started to get so intense. I was shaky and shivering. After a little while, I thought to myself that I couldn’t do this for hours and hours without pain meds. I also kept thinking that I just wanted to lay down and take a nap! So every time a contraction came, I said I couldn’t do it and that I wanted the epidural! I wasn’t breathing very well anymore and just wanted it to end! I was thinking this is the worst thing ever, why does it have to happen this way?! The nurses and Riley were really encouraging and kept telling me I was doing so good and was so close! The bath still wasn’t filled up (it really took forever to fill up!) and by the time it was, I knew it wouldn’t help me to calm down.
Since I started asking for the epidural, the doctor came in to check me again and I was at 8 cm! So close! It was going to be 30 minutes before I could even get the epidural and I thought I couldn’t wait that long! Also that it would be too late! Yep, soon after the doctor checked me, I felt so much pressure and had an intense urge to push. Oh, don’t forget that I was screaming at this point too! They told me I couldn’t push yet but I yelled that I had to and that the baby was coming!! So they brought the doctor back in and sure enough, I was at 10 cm!
Everyone got into position and I started pushing. Gosh, I thought the contractions were bad, but at this point, I couldn’t even feel them any more! This was a whole new pain that was so incredibly intense. I couldn’t stop screaming and my nurse yelled at me that I had to stop haha! I thought she was crazy! But it was true, when I held my breath during a push instead of screaming, I made way more progress. Riley was holding on to me on my right side and was saying I was so close and that he could see it! After the second push, I couldn’t believe that the baby wasn’t out yet haha. But one more push (five minutes and three rounds of pushing total) and the baby was here! Riley said “it’s a boy!” as they held him up and brought him to my chest. I couldn’t believe it! I thought for sure it was going to be a girl. and all that hair! who was this baby?! It was so shocking! he was so warm and squishy and purple. It was the weirdest thing to have him in my arms! You always see this moment on tv or on other people’s instagram posts but this was actually happening to me!
Once the doctor was finished with everything, it was just me and Riley and our baby and our nurse Vicki :) it was peaceful and calm. I was still reeling from the pain but so glad it was over. we kept saying how we couldn’t believe that it happened so fast. and that I did it completely unmedicated! We spent the whole day just staring at him. It was a sweet couple of days. We loved our hospital and our nurses. I didn’t want to leave!
My goal this year is to catch up on my blog and post way more often! Especially because I know I’ll be taking a billion pictures now that our baby is here, I need somewhere for them to live other than our archives!