A Birth Story or The Longest Blog Post in History

 

I believe it all went down on Monday night, the eleventh of March. Now, I really can't be quite sure since I was 89.6% sure my contractions were just bad gas and I commenced to sleep through several HOURS of them (crazy crazy crazy). Husbandy and I went for a walk. The air was crisp and was a perfect temperature for a 9 month pregnant lady carrying a load of roughly 7 pounds and swollen extremities (me. I'm talking about me.) Towards the end I had to pee pretty badly, you know how it goes... and my lower back was in a lot of pain. I ended up stretching it out before falling asleep that night hoping to alleviate the pain.
Now. I am not quite sure what time contractions started, but I remember Prince Charming had left for work and it was still dark outside (at least I think he had already left). That pin points the time somewhere between 6-8 am on Tuesday morning. I would wake up in lots of pain but it would go away so I fell back asleep. This happened several times and at around 10:00 I finally got my butt out of bed and tried to go to the bathroom. After all, that's what those pains were, right?! Well, nothing came out but the pain would come and go.
In between jobs, Prince Charming called me and while we chatted I had a couple of these painful episodes and had to stop talking and just breathe through it.

-"I think you are having contractions, honey."
"I don't think so, I just think its bad gas."

-"That last one lasted about a minute. Are you sure you're not going into labor?"
"I think I'm fine. Don't worry about it. It just hurts, that's all."

-"Are you sure. I think you're going into labor."
"I'm fine but I'll call my mom and ask what she thinks."
"Okaaaayyy. Let me know." He was pretty skeptical at this point.

They were about ten minutes apart but not regular enough for me to worry too much about it. I called my mom and explained what they felt like, had one in the middle of the conversation, had to stop, and she told me that I was almost definitely having contractions. I just had to watch it and time them.

So I did. As I watched the Bachelor season finale and tried to fold some laundry and eat a bowl of cereal. I did converse with Husbandy/Charming via text to let him know what was going on. Here is a copy of our conversation:

Me: 11:13 am
The contractions aren't quite consistent enough. I'll keep you updated though.

Him: 12:07 pm
They are contractions though?

Me: 12:07 pm
Pretty sure. My mom thinks so.

Him: 12:09 pm
Crossing my fingers! Do you still wanting to do it all natural?

Me: 12:10 pm
I'm going to go as far and as long as my body will let me.

Him: 12:43 pm
Copy, are they still happening?

Me: 12:55 pm
Yes. I'm going to call the doctor. They've been on average four minutes apart. I then had one nine minutes after the other but then it went back on track.

This is where I called the doctor's office and after several attempts, I finally got a hold of a nurse. I explained everything that was happening, told her I was 39 weeks on Wednesday, and wondered what I should do. She told me to go to the hospital just to be safe. If they weren't contractions they could just send me home, no biggy, but it sounded like I was in labor.

At 12:59, while Husband was in a meeting giving a presentation, I called and gave the orders to come on home and take me to the hospital. I was still pretty skeptical and was fully expecting them to send me home the moment we got there, but I was with the nurse, better safe than sorry.

I did snag this lovely gem of a picture of me in the car on the way to the hospital. My hair automatically frizzed. I did nothing to make it happen. Apparently labor does that to ya.

We got there around 1:30. When we got into the elevator we hit the button for the fourth floor and right as we're about to go, some lady popped in and slowly picked the button for the third floor. Can I just say that hospitals should really have fast elevators, not ones that move slower than I could waddle?! And can I just say that if you see a woman going into labor, at the hospital, in the elevator, on her way up to Labor and Delivery, take the next elevator woman!!!! The elevator stopped on the third floor, and SUR-FREAKING-PRISE she didn't get off. Instead she looked confused, mumbled to herself and selected a different level. I was a little upset but forgot soon after the next contraction.

When we finally arrived on the fourth floor I took a pit stop to say hello to my best friend The Potty, and came out to find an old friend from an old ward coming to say hello to someone she knew who was just having a baby. She was trying to give me hugs and congratulate us, but I was having one of those pesky contractions and could just give her a smile, a nod, and a thumbs up.

We finally got in, I was dilated 3cm and 80% effaced. I looked up at the nurse and asked "does this mean I'm going to have a baby?"

"Maybe. We'll keep an eye on you and check back in an hour."

It was maybe 15 min when she poked her head back in the door and said, "We're just going to keep you here."

That was the moment I had to get my junk together and center my mind on delivering a baby. It was going to happen soon whether I liked it or not. My contractions quickly became 2 minutes apart and things were moving fast. I took a second to freak out a little but got my head back in the game, because things were going down and mamma was going to be a mamma.

I wasn't too happy that they stole Hubby away from me to do paperwork I had already done several weeks earlier. See above and below for evidence.

The next few hours were rather uneventful and more of a blur. We called my mom who joined us in the room and took some pretty awesome pictures. The contractions hurt and all, but I was all like, "oh yeah. I can do this. Even if it gets a bit more intense, I've got this natural birth thing down." I was pretty confident.

I was falling more in love with Prince Charming with every painful blow to the uterus. 

 Hubby and I attempted to play Bannagrams (I was kicking his trash by the by) and we played some music to try to help. They attached one of those heart rate monitors to his head because the belly band kept sliding off and I wanted to move to help with the contractions. I REALLY wanted a birthing ball (exercise ball really) but some chick had laid claim to the one ball the hospital had, so that was disappointing. Me Madre called me Padre to bring me one, so he was kind enough to go and actually buy one. Around 6:00 they brought the doctor (but not THE Doctor) in to break my water. I was warned things would get a little more intense, but I just thought "fools. I can do this" as I was shaking in my boots.

That was when crap hit the fan. And no. Not literally. Boy, was "a little more intense" an understatement. It was like going from a 5.5 on the Richter scale to an 8.9. I've been in a 5.5 earthquake. It's scary and a little jarring, but supposedly it's supposed to get 10 times worse with each number. I'm only assuming and 8.9 would be crazy crazy. I lasted about an hour. I was crying and having the hardest time relaxing. My contractions were too close together that I wasn't able to recenter and focus. I just couldn't relax. So, I caved and got that thing that freaks me out... the epidural. dun dun dun. I guess I'm just not that strong. As they were putting the epidural in, my dad showed up with the ball all pumped and ready to go. Unfortunately, with the epidural, I can't get out of bed, so it was quickly deflated (if you want to hear a funny story, ask my dad to tell his side of the story... awkward!) I was able to get some rest before 9:00pm when they came in and said I was 10cm dilated. No pushing yet though. They wanted me to 'rest and descend'. So I tried to fall asleep.

9:00pm was the start of a new adventure. With the nurses, Charming, and Mommy by my side, I started pushing. By this time, the epidural had worn off enough that I could feel the contractions and I could tell when I needed to push. It also meant I could feel all the other stuff too, which was... fun. There was a time when my contractions were just coming and coming and they wouldn't stop coming. I was pushing with each one. I remember something going on and the nurses had to give me some oxygen and a little shot to the tush. They were talking about where my doctor was, that she was in Springville, and that the hospital doctor could come in. I was just thinking, "Awesome, this baby is coming faster than I thought!" but reality was that baby's heartbeat had dropped and they were getting the doctor ready for an emergency C-Section. Luckily, the oxygen and the shot worked and we didn't have to go through that.

I remember Hubby telling me he could see his head. I remember him telling me that our baby had hair. It just made me more determined to get him out so I could hold and see him. I pushed and pushed as hard as I could. It made me nauseous and was completely exhausting. I was hungry and tired, but I wanted to finally meet our little one, so I pushed with a vengeance. 

When I first saw him, I never thought anything could be so beautiful. He was absolutely perfect. More beautiful than I ever imagined. I couldn't believe that baby came out of me and had my DNA, he was too beautiful for that. I started crying. It had been such a long road and we had done it. He was finally here.

Then I said, "why isn't he crying?" It took him a couple of seconds to take his first breath and the nurse rushed him away to clean out his lungs and to clean him up. I watched as hubby and my mom oohed and awed at him from across the room. They stitched me up and I sat there concentrating on not feeling that needle and the bigger pain of not holding my newborn. I was so jealous of those two and felt so alone as my new doctor lady friend got real close and personal with me and my lady parts. It was somewhere in there that I said, "he's definitely a Bennett" to which Prince Charming readily agreed.

I remember when Adam took our little bundle of joy in his arms, tears in his eyes, and handed him to me for the first time. Oh. My. Goodness. Heaven had just touched a small pocket of the world and enveloped me in it. I held him with shaky arms from pure exhaustion and lack of food. He was so beautiful and I could hardly hold him, but my mama strength was there and I wasn't going to let him go. I held him close to me and melted into the moment, a ray of sunshine and happiness beaming from my insides. It sounds to hippy and starchildish but its the only way I can describe it. It was night outside and dark in our room, but there was a brightness to the moment. There is a bond between my son and I that I cannot explain, but I feel like I'm beginning to understand what God was doing when he created the world. He didn't do it for all the bad things to happen just because, God made the earth and put people in it so they could experience that joy and happiness that's there when a family is made. That happiness that was felt on our wedding day was just the start and I'm beginning to see that that moment of birth is just another part of that. There is so much more to this world than me and Adam, there is Bennett and our future children and that encompasses a whole other world entirely.

Now, here are some pictures of those first moments, because sometimes words cannot capture it the way that images do.

 

Heaven. No?