My Birth Story

As a precaution, this really is a story about birth. The birth of my first daughter. It’s not very censored so if you are easily grossed out maybe don’t read. Also, this was the most significant day of my life so this is a long story. Sorry.

My alarm goes off at 6:30am for work and I get up to turn it off and my water breaks. So here I am standing in my bedroom with stuff dripping down my legs…. Romeo was still sleeping so I woke him up and told him that I thought my water had broken. He said “okay, let me know…” and fell back asleep. We both sleep pretty hard so this is an expected reaction. I went to the bathroom and leaked even more. Now I was about 90% certain my water had broken. Don’t judge me for having doubt… after you are pregnant for that long it seems unreal when it is finally time for birth. I woke Romeo up again and told him that I was pretty sure my water had broken. He said “okay, do you need to call the hospital?” I told him that I was going to take a shower first and then I’d call.

I wasn’t having any contractions so I decided to just relax and take my time getting ready to go to the hospital. My midwife had told me that in cases like mine where your water breaks and you have no contractions that you have a few hours before you have to be at the hospital, so I was in no rush.

While I took a shower I decided 100% that my water had broken. I was like a faucet. A faucet of gross, slimy, baby fluid. It took me a while to get dressed since I thought it pointless to put on pants while I was leaking all over the place. Finally I decided to put on a dress and put a giant maxi pad in my undies to catch the remaining grossness. Romeo was still in bed so I told him that he needed to get ready so we could go to the hospital. This statement put a bit of fire under his ass and he got showered and ready to go.

We got to the hospital around 10am and told them that my water had broken. They got us up to a room and got me set up in the bed and told me that they were going to test me to see if my water did, in fact, break. I told them that I knew it did but they wanted to do the test anyway. This test consists of putting a strip of some special paper on your hoo-ha and if it turns a certain color then your water has broken. The nurse did the test and it didn’t come up positive. I insisted that my water had broken. The nurse said they would do a swab test but that it could have been discharge or urine. I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t have come to the hospital for discharge or pee…. So they stick a giant q-tip up there and take it away for their test. About 15 minutes later my midwife walked in and said that my water was, in fact, broken. I know. I told you all that. You didn’t believe me and had to do tests.

I still didn’t have any contractions so they sent me walking around the hospital. They told me that if I still wasn’t progressing by 1pm that they would give me pitocin. So I walked and walked and walked and walked. I had to convince Romeo to get some lunch. He was very dedicated and didn’t want to eat if I couldn’t (did I mention that you can’t eat anything other than popsicles while in labor? Horrible) but there was no reason he had to be hungry. Plus, I didn’t want any chance of him passing out. The midwife checked me again at 1pm and decided that I needed pitocin. I was told that I was “way too happy to be in labor.” Whoops. My bad. Didn’t know I was supposed to be a bitch.

So the IV was put in and pitocin was started. And I was sent walking again. The problem was that now that I was all hooked up I couldn’t leave the maternity ward. So I walked in circles. Around and around and around and around and around. I have that place memorized. I finally started having regular contractions after a few minutes. As time went on (and as they upped and upped the pitocin) my contractions got stronger and stronger. They wanted me to keep walking for at least an hour. This whole time I was starving. The nurse in my Centering Pregnancy group told me that if I was hungry then I wasn’t in real labor. Let me tell you friends, this is a lie. I was hungry the whole time.

Finally I had to ask them if I could sit down. Not only were my contractions getting intense but I had been walking practically nonstop since 10am. I’m pretty sure I would have been tired at that point even without the contractions and being 9 months pregnant. This was about 4pm. I rocked in the rocking chair and that helped with the contractions and keeping my mind occupied. And I rocked and rocked and rocked and rocked. The pain started getting to me and I had them give me IV pain medication twice. When they first shoot it in there it is amazing. It helped me rest and relax a little. But the first dose only helped for about half an hour and you can only have one dose per hour. The second dose only helped for about 15 minutes. I didn’t get any more after that since it would help for less time with each additional dose.

Around 6pm I asked them if I could get an epidural. I had contraction in my back and legs and the ones in my legs got to me. I couldn't handle lying in bed with them cramping like that. They checked my dilation and I was at 4cm so they let me go ahead and get it. By the time the anesthesiologist got there I was hurting A LOT. They checked me again and I was around 7cm so they proceeded. He put in the epidural and asked me how I felt. I said there was no change. So he pulled it out and put it back in. Yeah. That was fun. I loved when you put the needle in my back. Go ahead and do it again. This time it helped the cramps in one leg and that was it. So they put in a booster and it helped with the other leg. I still had pain, pressure, and cramping in the rest of my body but the anesthesiologist had no other suggestions and I was left to fend for myself. Apparently the epidural just didn’t work on my body the way it was supposed to. Even the midwife told me (numerous times) that I labored like a woman who never got an epidural.

Then they checked my dilation and I was over 9cm. The midwife said that I should be ready to push within a few contractions and she was right. After just a couple contractions I said I wanted to push. She told me to wait, checked me and I was at 10cm so I was ready to go. I started pushing and pushed and pushed and pushed. We did a few different positions, some helpful, some not so helpful.

After 4 hours of pushing the midwife told me that I was this close to having her out of there and she thought if she did an episiotomy that she would be out within a few pushes. YES. Go for it. I was completely and utterly exhausted at this point. Seriously… I hadn’t eaten since dinner the night before, I had walked for hours, I had pushed for 4 hours, was dealing with being 9 months pregnant, and I was in pain. I was nodding off (in spite of the pain) in between pushes. So when she gave me this option I was more than on board. Before this point I was more than afraid of having my vagina cut and sewed back together. But now it seemed like the best idea ever.

She did give me some local anesthesia so I wouldn’t feel the episiotomy and when they realized that I could more than feel the needles they knew that my epidural had done pretty much nothing. If you aren’t aware, you shouldn’t feel a needle being stuck into your lady-ness if you have had an epidural. Anyway… So she cut me and I pushed and she told me the head was coming out. I pushed again and she said the head was all the way out and to wait a moment before pushing so she could clear the baby’s nose and mouth. She told me to push just a little and I did and felt the biggest relief of pressure you could ever imagine and there was my baby.

I couldn’t believe that she was finally out in the world. The midwife laid her on my chest and I was in love. It’s a wave of emotion that I had never gotten close to feeling before. Romeo and I both kissed her and knew our lives would never be the same. Everything now rotated around this tiny little lady.

Through this entire ordeal Romeo was the best labor partner I could have wished for. He was extremely supportive and did everything and anything he could to help. He rubbed my back, held my hand, let me use his arm as a brace when pushing, and so much more. Not once did he get upset or snap at me no matter how I acted toward him.

After we got to hold our little girl for a moment we knew the name we wanted to go with. Quorra Noelle. Then I worked on breastfeeding. She latched like a pro but was just as tired as I was so she didn’t do any sucking. We worked on it for a few minutes before deciding that she was going to do anything else right then. Romeo was able to take some pictures of her as the nurses took her to go get cleaned up, weighed, measured, and whatnot. Quorra weight 6lb 9oz and was 18½in long. She was perfect and beautiful.

I wasn’t done with the birthing process just yet. I had to push out the placenta. I didn’t really have any more contractions and pushed just a couple times and the midwife pulled it out by the umbilical cord. No, I didn’t look. Gross. Then she sewed me up and cleaned me up. She also took out the catheter, which I hadn’t even known she put in. Yeah… birth is not pretty. It’s a good thing an amazing little person comes out of it all. Otherwise no one would do it. Ever. The nurse helped me up and took me to the bathroom. She showed me how to squirt my goodies with the squirt bottle and what to expect and how to take care of my poor, swollen, stitched-up lady parts. They got my bed cleaned up and laid me back down and Romeo came over with Quorra.

We hung out for a couple minutes to calm down and get acclimated and told the nurses to send in the family members and friends. Everyone was ecstatic to meet the new member of the family. Quorra stole each one of their hearts.

Quorra was a lot of work but she is definitely worth it. I can’t imagine my life without this little girl. She is my heart and soul. She is an amazing gift from God and I adore every moment with her.

 Quorra on her daddy's chest

Super adorable, right??

PS - don't steal pictures of my daughter