Baby Chili Is Here! — My Labor and Delivery Story

Over the past two weeks, I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging…to finally welcome into the world my baby boy “Chili!  So many emotions have filled my heart upon meeting this amazingly angelic creature – beginning with immense love.  I never imagined how much I could love someone until I met him.  He is truly a blessing in my life and I can’t believe that it all happened so fast.

My Labor and Delivery Story

It was about 1 am Friday night, when after just falling asleep, I felt a gush of water down my legs – yeah not quite what I expected considering the statistic cited by experts which claims that “less than 10% of water breakages occur naturally”.  But when it happened I knew it was time…but was just not quite ready!

After scurrying off to the bathroom, I remember two things crossing my mind.  First, where in the world was my husband (who I later discovered was spending time in his man cave!!) and why wasn’t I feeling any real contractions then?!

Three hours later, we were checked into the hospital waiting to get some Pitocin to induce contractions.  Although my birth plan definitely included an Epidural request, I wanted to test my tolerance for the labor pains and experience I had heard so much about.  Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t going for a medal or anything, I just wanted to see how it felt before succumbing to pain relief (I was used to chronic pain already, so figured what the hell?).

Luckily, it wasn’t too bad initially: contractions gradually kicked in and some lower back pain ensued.  At that point, I was about 1-2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, with my pain level at about a 4 on a scale of 1-10.  As the hours went by, and the Pitocin levels increased, the pain was becoming less tolerable but it wasn’t quite what I expected (i.e. Charlie-horse type cramps all over my stomach)…it was more of an intense lower abdominal cramp, with severe lower back pain and the feeling as though I needed to make a bowel movement.

Several more hours passed, and the intensity grew.  I kept complaining to my nurse about the urge to poop, but wasn’t quite sure.  She quickly reassured me that these were typical symptoms of labor…so I did my breathing exercises we had practiced in the birthing class.  The funny thing was, none of those “techniques” really mattered…what mattered then, was simply that I could breath deeply at my own pace, to whatever helped me cope with the pain.  And even though the nurse kept applauding my quiet/effective breathing techniques, I didn’t really think I was doing anything other than trying to get through the pain.

About 14 hours into labor and waiting for my pain level to reach a 9, I gave in to the Epidural (that needle inserted into several areas of my back was a process in itself!).   Shortly after, the doctor finally came in for another check-up to reveal I was 5 cm dilated and 100% effaced, but then kept pressing down on my abdomen as if needing to investigate further.  I knew something was up at that point, especially once he asked, “When was the last time you had an ultrasound?”

To make a long story short, the new ultrasound revealed that baby wasn’t exactly in the position doctors had mentioned weeks earlier…he was breech :(.  I was flooded with emotions knowing that I had to get a cesarean section — nervousness and fear filled my heart.  I was hoping to avoid a c-section due to the complications involved and my lack of research (I was convinced a natural birth would be possible after hearing that the baby was head down and in labor position less than a month earlier).

However, once the c word was uttered, the process was actually much faster than I expected…the nurses prepped me for the operation at 4:30 pm and by 5:09 pm our precious baby was delivered!  Everything happened so fast and I can’t wait to watch my little bundle of joy grow :)!