Birth Story • Welcome Baby Annabelle

This is a long overdue birth story. Towards the last month of my pregnancy, the contractions were more painful and more frequent than any of my other pregnancies. The pain would come and go so I never felt the urgency to ever head to the hospital.

I knew I wanted to induce the baby. But I found out that the state now requires all inductions to happen beginning at 39 weeks not 38 weeks as previous years. I thought the baby could wait. Boy, was I wrong.

02/18/13
That night I was in complete pain. The contractions were taking a toll on my body. I was in bed at 9PM trying to breathe through the pain. The contractions were all over the place: 9 mins apart, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, 30 minutes…

I would fall asleep just to be woken up with a gut wrenching contraction. Somehow I made it through the night and I was pain free at 7 AM on 02/19/13.

When I woke up, I felt I needed to be at the hospital. But after eating a hearty breakfast, I felt a lot better so I decided to just wait since the next day was my doctor’s appointment anyway. Besides, I still had a lot of baby nesting stuff to do.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning, washing, and getting more stuff for the baby. I was so tired by bedtime that I was out in minutes.

02/20/13
It was 2AM when I felt a pop! and some wetness. I shot up, awake and a bit frantic. I woke up my husband ‘My water broke!’

He shot up ‘What? Now?’

I ran to the bathroom to change and added an overnight sanitary pad in case of more wetness (there was so much more).

I called my mom and she rushed over in minutes. I quickly asked her to make me some food. I wanted to have energy for the birth.

After eating the earliest breakfast I ever had, we headed to the hospital. Checking into the hospital at 3AM was the most awkward thing I ever done. I remember no one was there except 2 cops and 2 admin nurses. I said ‘My water broke!’ Everyone was just staring at me until someone got me a wheelchair and pushed me to Labor & Delivery.

The contractions were now about 8 minutes apart.

A nurse came to my room and told me put on my gown and got me settled on the bed. She asked me the usual questions:

When’s your due date?
Did your water break?
What color was it?
How far apart are your contractions?

Then she check my dilation. With a surprised gasped, she said ‘You’re 8cm dilated!’

No wonder these contractions were painful!

Almost instantaneously, a rush of nurses came in. The on call doctor was beeped and told to come immediately.
My nurse was asking personal health info.

In between my contractions a nurse would take my blood pressure, set my IV while another nurse asked me to sign hospital documents – initial here, sign there. I would stop and clutch the side of my bed through the contractions while the nurse quietly said, ‘Well sign here after that contraction. It just says that if you require a blood transfusion ….’ I really don’t remember what I signed.

I kept thinking, ‘Oh My God I Need to Push! Where’s the Doctor?’

It was like the nurse heard me. She told me, ‘Tell me when you need to push.’

I blurted, ‘I need to push now.’

All she did was turn me on to my left side and said, ‘Ok, wait for doctor. Lay on your side with your legs closed.’

I looked around the room. 2 nurses were by the baby clean up area. 2 nurses were standing by me still asking me to sign and inputting data into a computer. 2 other nurses were flanked on both sides of the bed with tools.

I kept telling my nurse ‘I need to push.’ She kept saying ‘The doctor is almost here.’

When I thought I couldn’t wait any longer, the doctor walked in putting on her scrubs. She looked at me and asked you’re ready to push. Before I could answer, my nurse said, ‘oh yes, she kept telling everyone so for a while now.’

The doctor got in position, checked my dilation, ‘Oh you are really ready. Your bladder is full so it helped to block the baby.’

I then thought to myself ‘Oh god, they’re going to make me go pee now!?!?’

Luckily I didn’t have to and the doctor took care of it with a catheter. I pushed and about the 4th push, I saw my baby girl.

She seemed so small. I didn’t remember babies being so small. I guess I’m so used to my 5 and 3 yr olds.

After laboring, there’s this rush and I’m just overcome with this euphoria. My body was no longer stretched to its limits. My mental state was no longer stressed with ‘what ifs.’

Would I go for a fourth pregnancy? I don’t know. This third child put a lot strain on me physically. I do want a little boy but it’s not in the cards, I’m already more than happy with my three girls. They’re a handful but beautifully well rounded. They’re more than I can ask for.

Helen