Just like every pregnancy is different, every mom’s labor and delivery story is different. And I’m here to share mine!
Two Days Before
Normal Day
It was a Friday — another normal day of maternity leave for me, counting down the days until baby girl arrived. The day consisted of napping, nesting, and waiting for my husband to get off of work.
I wasn’t showing any signs of going into labor. I had declined the membrane sweep at my 38 week appointment, as I knew I still had a few weeks to go. However, my brain was more concerned with getting to 40 weeks and still not being in labor — going down the rabbit hole of what induction techniques would be used, etc. Ironically, I was hoping to deliver in July (original due date was end of June), as I didn’t want another June baby in the family.
As a sidebar, between our two families there are 5 immediate family member birthdays (including my husband), 2 very close friend birthdays, Father’s Day, and our wedding anniversary in the month of June. June was an extremely busy month for our family — we have events almost every weekend that month!
While I was uncomfortable during week 39, I was still managing ok, yet I definitely complained about being ready to give birth. My husband and I were on the phone with my mother-in-law on this Friday and she had (somewhat) joked about eating a big dinner this weekend so that I could go into labor…little did we know, that would become reality!
Kick Counting
Starting in the third trimester, you start to count baby’s kicks. This helps monitor baby and establish a baseline for normal activity, which can help detect any potential issues early. It’s recommended to choose a consistent time when counting kicks, be in a comfortable position when counting and use a tool to help track kicks (such as the Count the Kicks app, which I used).
I don’t remember when I felt my daughter’s first kick in my belly, but she was always pretty active during the day and I would feel her every day, multiple times a day. On this Friday, I noticed that something didn’t seem just right — she wasn’t as active as she normally was. I typically counted her kicks in the morning, but when I didn’t really feel any kicks that morning, I decided to try again in the afternoon.
My husband and I were playing video games with friends around 6:00pm when I couldn’t shake the feeling that something could be wrong. I hadn’t really felt her kicks throughout the day and I was getting worried. We made up an excuse to our friends to hop offline and go to the doctor — I think we told them we were going to McDonald’s for dinner (I don’t know why we chose that excuse). But we didn’t want to worry anyone until we knew, so we kept it to ourselves. We didn’t even tell our immediate family that we were going to the hospital.
Hospital Visit
I called my healthcare provider ahead of time to explain my situation and ask what I should do. They recommended that I try counting kicks one more time, trying a different position. I was still concerned, so we decided to go to the hospital to be safe.
We arrived at the hospital around 8:30pm and I was checked in to triage. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor to check on the baby. Everything was fine in the end, and it turned out that I was even having contractions (that I didn’t feel). I am thankful that I trusted my gut and went in, even though nothing ended up being wrong — it’s always better to go in and double check.
One Day Before
Italian Food Craving
Saturday — there was nothing special about this day, as my husband and I just laid low around the house. We had my parents over for dinner that night, as my mom offered to bake home-made lasagna.
I was definitely in the mood for Italian food when my mom had offered to make lasagna for us. Previously, I debated trying “The Prego Pizza” from Skipolini’s. This pizza is “known” to be labor inducing; however, I have heard that is just a myth, and I still wasn’t 100% ready to go into labor (ha!).
Dinner with Parents
My parents came over around 5:00pm, and it was then that I realized I was not in the mood for lasagna (pregnancy cravings/ aversions are real!). However, I was still in the mood for Italian food—so I Doordashed The Old Spaghetti Factory and got spinach and cheese ravioli for myself (while my parents and husband ate the lasagna).
As some background, I am Italian, and grew up in a household that cooks spaghetti & meatballs for Christmas dinner. Now, I like all Italian food, but my go-to choice is spaghetti (either with meatballs – depending on the restaurant, as I have high standards for meatballs – or meat sauce). For some reason, on this night, I was in the mood for spinach and cheese ravioli in red sauce (something that I never order, as I prefer animal protein with my pasta).
The spinach and cheese ravioli was delicious, and very filling. My parents didn’t stay over too late, as my husband and I called it an early night. We went to bed a little bit earlier than normal as we were planning to wake up at 6:00am for the Spain Grand Prix on Sunday.
Morning Of
Water Broke
At this point in my pregnancy, I was getting up at least once, if not twice, in the middle of the night to pee. I woke up at 5:30am thinking I should get up to pee and then I would debate falling back asleep as the Grand Prix was going to start at 6:00am. As I woke up, I rolled onto my back, and as I laid there I felt a pop in my pelvic region. It felt like a water balloon popped inside of me — it was such a weird feeling, and one that I had never experienced before. And thankfully none of it got into our bed.
Only a small percentage of women (~15% or less) have their water break before going into labor. As I was not sure what was happening, I first ran to the toilet immediately, and then called Kaiser to tell them (I think) my water broke. They told me to come straight to the hospital.
Again, as I was waking up frequently in the middle of the night to pee, my husband was used to me getting out of bed often during the night. Once I sat down on the toilet and pulled my underwear down, I called out my husband’s name (in a calm, steady, yet firm voice). He popped out of bed SO fast (much faster than when I was telling him we were pregnant — refer to my ‘The Road to Pregnancy’ blog post for that funny story).
To the Hospital
We already had our hospital bag prepared, so we got dressed, packed the car and headed to the hospital. On our way to the hospital, the Spain Grand Prix was starting, so I turned it on on my phone to watch. At this time, I wasn’t feeling any contractions; my only symptom of labor was my water breaking.
At the hospital, I got checked into triage and hooked up to all of the monitors. They took a sample swab to test that it was in fact my water breaking, and not just me peeing myself. Again, I was having contractions, but I still wasn’t feeling them yet. Next, they did a cervical check (which was much more painful than I was expecting) and confirmed that I was 3cm dilated. As such, I was officially admitted and transferred to labor and delivery.
Day Of
Contractions
I got into my labor and delivery room around 7:00am. I was hooked up to a fetal monitor to track baby’s heart rate and my contractions. The IV insertion took me by surprise, as I got very light headed and temporarily blacked out for a second. Everything was ok, as I hydrated with water and put a damp towel on my forehead.
At this point I still wasn’t feeling any contractions, so to help kickstart contractions the doctor started me on Pitocin (a common drug used for inducing labor). Sometime around 11:00am I started to feel some contractions. As the doctor said I could get the epidural at any time, I told her that I would get it once available (took ~1 hour to get all set up).
I don’t recall how quickly (or slowly) the contractions went by during that time, but I do recall squeezing my husband’s hand as they happened. It’s funny because I didn’t know what a contraction was going to feel like. I think I expected it to be a wave over my entire abdomen down to my pelvis, but for me I felt it primarily in my pelvic region. It felt like a very very severe period cramp.
Epidural
A little after 12:00pm I got the epidural. At this point I was 5cm dilated. They put you in a position where you have to lean forward at a certain angle. The injection didn’t hurt; however, it took a while for the epidural to kick in. The doctor came back to check on me after 15/30/45 minutes, but I still wasn’t feeling any relief. She increased the dosage slightly, but didn’t want to increase it too much as my contractions would only get worse and I didn’t want to max out so early on.
Since I got an epidural, I also had to get a catheter put in. I had never had a catheter put in before, so once it was put in place I asked the nurse if I would be able to start peeing. Her (and my husband’s) response was that I already was peeing – I just couldn’t feel it.
I also learned this is similar on the other end. At some point after the epidural was placed I had smelled a fart in the room. I turned to my husband and asked if he farted. His response was “Me?!?!” Turns out it was me – I was the one farting but I didn’t know it because I couldn’t feel it.
Finally after about an hour/ hour and a half after epidural placement, the epidural kicked in and I was feeling good. I was told to get some rest (while I could), so I decided to take a nap. I woke up from my nap 2 hours later and was somehow at almost 10cm dilated. And I was still feeling good from the epidural.
Cervical Check
The midwife came in to check my cervix at this point. When my cervix was checked earlier in the morning, it was a bit painful, so when the midwife asked if her resident could also do a check (for learning purposes), I politely declined as I didn’t want to go through the pain twice. However, I did not factor in that I was on an epidural, so I didn’t even feel when my cervix was checked. In hindsight, I should have let the resident also check me since there was no associated pain.
It was almost 4:00pm and I was confirmed to be 10cm, so I was allowed to start pushing. The nurse got me into position by putting my legs up in the stirrups (I couldn’t move my legs myself because they were completely numb from the epidural).
There was a television in our room, placed on the wall directly in front of my bed. The U.S. men’s soccer team was playing Bolivia in the Copa America tournament, so my husband turned on the game. This turned out to be a perfect distraction for me while I was in the process of pushing. I’m not sure how long the game stayed on the television, as eventually I was unable to focus on the game.
Pushing
The first time I was asked to push, I questioned the nurse (and my husband) “Am I pushing?” I could not really feel that I was pushing because I was so numb down there. It felt like pressure when I was pushing, but not a full pushing type of feeling. Part of me felt that I should be feeling something so that I could properly push. The other part of me was thankful that I wasn’t feeling anything, as I knew it would only be more painful.
I don’t recall when my contractions became more frequent, but the nurse would tell me when to push and I would push. It was just the nurse, my husband and I in the room. It wasn’t until baby girl’s heart rate wasn’t recovering as quickly as my contractions when the nurse clicked some button and 5-6 other doctors came running into the room.
Surprisingly, I was very calm during this time. One doctor came up to me to explain what was happening. We could see on the monitor that my daughter’s heart rate wasn’t coming back up as quickly as my contractions were coming. She told me that there were options (forcep extraction, suction, or last resort, a C-section). However, their first solution was to adjust my position, where I was positioned on my side in the hopes to move baby. And this solved the issue!
Delivery
After that, I was able to go back on my back and continue pushing. My daughter’s heart rate remained steady as I continued to push. Eventually, the midwife came in when I was close to delivering. My husband decided to watch while our daughter was born. As she was crowning, the midwife asked me if I wanted a mirror so I could see. I said “Nope, that’s ok.” At that point, I just wanted to get baby all the way out.
Our daughter was born at 5:30pm on the dot! The timing was amusing as my water broke at 5:30am, so it was a full 12 hours later and she was here! The other part about the timing that is amusing, is that our daughter was born on my husband and my 6 year wedding anniversary. We joke that we no longer have a wedding anniversary since our daughter took it over. She was the best gift we could have asked for on that wedding anniversary. Iron may be the traditional gift on a 6 year wedding anniversary, but I went with a baby instead.
Recovery
My husband cut the umbilical cord and our daughter was placed on my chest for golden hour. During this time I tried breastfeeding for the first time. While recovering with baby girl on my chest, the midwife (and her resident) were sewing me up down there, as I had a 2nd degree tear. As I was still on the epidural, I didn’t feel it.
Around 7:00pm my parents came by with a deli sandwich (one of my biggest food sacrifices during pregnancy – cold deli meat). It was the best turkey sandwich I had ever had! My parents were the first ones to meet our daughter. They didn’t stay too long, as we were going to be moved to recovery floor shortly.
However, first, I needed to prove that I could pee! Once the catheter was taken out, I had to have a pee on my own. It took a while, but finally I was able to pee (thankfully!). We were then transferred to recover around 8:30pm.
Communication
My husband has never been the best texter. He did improve when we were doing long distance in college, but over the years he just hasn’t been good at replying to texts. I’ll admit, I have also gotten worse at texting over the years. However, my husband was a pro at texting on delivery day!
He started an Extended Family group chat which included my parents, his parents, my brother and sister in law, and his sister and brother in law. He sent the first text at 6:30am and did a phenomenal job keeping them up to date throughout the day! I even saved a screenshot of that first text message to keep as a memory.
My husband also did a great job helping to coordinate schedules, as we had to leave our 2 dogs at home. He worked with my parents to have them go pick up the dogs from our house (we had packed up everything the dogs needed beforehand so it was ready to go for my parents).
However, I think the first person who found out I was going into labor was our mutual best friend (best man at our wedding). He is an early riser, so he texted us around 5:30am to see if we wanted to get dubs (playing video games). My response was a selfie of my husband and I on our way to the hospital!
Later that morning, we got a text in our “dubs” group chat asking to play video games (as we had originally made plans that morning to play video games with friends so we could get some “anniversary dubs”). My husband replied to the group chat with a photo of me in the labor & delivery bed stating that we had other plans instead.
In the morning as I waited for contractions to start, I was still using my cell phone, so I also texted my best friends to let them know that I was in labor. I told them I would keep them as up to date as I could. I even went on Instagram and posted a ‘Happy Anniversary’ post to my story (but didn’t disclose anything about being in labor).
Night One
The first night is honestly such a blur. Nurses and doctors were coming in every few hours, so it wasn’t like we got much sleep. I was given pain medication and I continued to try to breastfeed my daughter.
The anesthesiologist came in to check on my epidural recovery, making sure that I got feeling back in my lower half. A lactation consultant came in to assist with breastfeeding. I’m sure there were plenty of other doctors who also came in, but I just can’t recall them all. My husband handled all of the paperwork that we had to fill out related to our daughter being born.
The following morning, my in laws came by with breakfast (coffee and bagels) and they got to meet our daughter. My husband’s sister and her husband came by that evening after work to meet their new niece, and they brought Chick-Fil-A fries and milkshakes. Recommendation: if you’re going to visit new parents in the hospital, you can’t go wrong with bringing food!
As our daughter’s bilirubin test wasn’t in the ideal range on the day she was born, she had to be tested again two days later. While we technically could have been discharged the day after our daughter was born, we decided to stay another night. This allowed me to get further assistance with breastfeeding, as I was struggling early on. It also allowed us to be in the hospital for the second bilirubin test (as even if we went home, we would have had to come back the following morning to get tested).
We were officially discharged 2 days after our daughter was born. We left around noon that day, which allowed us to soak in the last bit of nurses/doctors help in the morning, while also having some day time to adjust when we arrived home. Although, what are days and nights in the newborn phase, as you’re up every 2-3 hours anyways to feed baby 🙂
It was exciting to be home and to be starting this next chapter of our lives with our daughter. She was now officially home <3