One year ago today, at 3:00 am, I woke up to my first contraction. A short 3 hours later, our sweet Tess entered this world. Since my first baby was born, we have moved so we now live about 30 minutes from the hospital. In the weeks leading up to my due date, my husband John kept worrying I was going to have the baby in the car on the way to the hospital. I just laughed it off, but he insisted we have towels in the car just in case. Luckily we didn’t need them, but it was a little too close for comfort.
I went 6 days past my due date with my first baby, Ava. The night before she was born, we had Rusted Sun pizza with our good friends Nick and Lauren. I went into labor the very next morning, so we all joked it was having pizza together that put me into labor. I was 5 days past due this time, so I decided to give it another shot. We ordered Rusted Sun takeout and invited Nick and Lauren over for dinner. I went to bed feeling fine, but by three in the morning I was having contractions. It’s the pizza, I’m tellin ya! After about an hour and a half of contractions, I knew it was time to go to the hospital. We called a friend to come stay at our house while Ava slept. Thank heavens for good friends that will come in the middle of the night! By the time our friend arrived, I was really in pain. It was about 5:00 am when we were in the car and on our way. I called my dad and told him we were headed to the hospital, because he had a 2.5 hour drive to get here. Then I called the delivery room to warn them we were on our way. Apparently I sounded too calm, because they were not prepared for me when I got there, haha. At 5:30 John and I checked in at the emergency room and then took the elevator to Labor and Delivery on the second floor. Once I got out of the elevator and took a few steps, another contraction hit and I slumped against the wall. Once it passed, I made it through the doors and into the delivery room. The contractions were so bad at this point, I told John I didn’t think I could do it and I might need an epidural. The nurse heard me and said, lets get you in a gown and see how far along you are and then we can decide.
With my first baby I had an epidural pretty early in labor. I was not happy with how my labor and delivery went. Ava ended up inhaling fluid, was immediately wisked away to the nursery and spent her first week of life in the NICU. I was so looking forward to snuggling my newborn skin to skin and I didn’t get to experience that. After some research, it sounded like what happened to Ava was more common with mothers that received epidurals. I decided I was going to have my second baby without one. If I heard myself say that when I was in labor with my first baby, I would have called myself insane! I prepared by reading a book about the Bradley Method. Basically, it teaches you how to relax through contractions and be coached through all the stages of labor and birth by your husband. If you think I’m a crazy person, that’s fine. I agree with you. I don’t think I could have had my first baby without an epidural. Labor was long and I pushed for 2.5 hours.
I got into my lovely backless gown and into bed. The nurse checked me and said, “Oh honey, you are at a 10. It’t time to have a baby.” There were no sweeter words than those. I thought I still had hours of labor! I knew if I was that close I could do it. (Looking back, I should have know how far along I was but with all the contractions it’s hard to recognize the signs). They called the doctor. I still have no idea how she made it there so fast. I was wanting to push when there were just two nurses with me. They told me not to push, but if I had to they could deliver the baby. The doctor rushed in, sat down and I started pushing. It took one contraction and three pushes and our beautiful little girl was born at 5:52 am. A short 22 minutes after arriving at the hospital! She was perfect and healthy. The nurses put her on my chest and I cuddled that sweet baby for two hours. It was pure heaven! I called my dad to let him know she was here and to see where he was. He was just running back in his house to grab his jacket haha. He thought he had all day and was just taking his sweet time packing! After all the cuddling, John took her over to the scale. She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. He got to hold her while I walked to the bathroom, got cleaned up and dressed and then we both walked with her to the nursery to bath her and let the nurses do their thing. That was huge perk of no epidural, I could walk immediately after having her. I got to be in the nursery and take pictures to my hearts content while John bathed her and the nurse stamped her footprints! I was just soaking up every detail of the whole process that I missed out on the first time around. While we were in the nursery, my dad showed up and then shortly after my sister-in-law brought Ava to meet the baby. It was such a beautiful day! John and I were thrilled she was so healthy and it was so nice to be able to take her home the very next day.
Happy Birthday Tess baby, you are so loved!
(A special thanks to my husband John for being an amazing birth coach/photographer)
