Well, she arrived 11/20/15 at 2:28am weighing 7lb 4oz, and she made quite an entrance!
I had a lot of Braxton Hicks during my pregnancy, and as my due date got closer, they began to get stronger. When the doctor checked me at 39 weeks, I was 3cm, 80%. I had made sure to not get my hopes up about anything, so I was really pleased to hear that all the contractions were doing something. The following week I was 4 cm dilated. When I was 40+ weeks, I had an appt for an NST. The baby looked great on the monitor, it showed I was having contractions about every 7 minutes, and I was 5cm dilated. But as my doctor said, she could tell by my demeanor that I just wasn't in active labor yet. Surely it would be soon though....
Two days later, I finally had a contraction that felt different. I woke up at 12:15am Friday to painful contractions that were 5 minutes apart. They were still tolerable so I just stayed in bed, breathed through them, and waited to make sure they were going to stay this time. After about an hour, I woke up my husband and told him it was time to go. In the short period of time when he was getting the last minute items and putting our bags in the car, the contractions became very intense and close together. We got in the car and just turned the corner off our street when I hit what I'm sure was transition. I remember saying, "I CANNOT do this!". A few minutes later we were getting on the highway when I said, "I'm pushing, but I'm not trying to!". The contractions felt like they were just pushing down on their own.
I had my husband call the L&D unit to tell them what was happening and that we were on our way. When we arrived, my husband very quickly wheeled me up to the unit and into a room. I immediately got in bed on my knees with my upper body draped backwards over the raised head of the bed. One of the nurses checked me, and I was complete. At this point there was a flurry of activity going on behind me, and as you would imagine, I was far from relaxed. My husband was able to help me slow down my breathing and relax my body. Then I was able to just let the contractions do the pushing instead of resisting it. At 2:28am, she was born, and I flipped around in the bed, picked her up, and put her on my chest!
It was kind of a whirlwind, and we'll probably leave a little sooner next time! But we couldn't be more in love!
Comments