My Birth Story

My due date was April 22nd.  It was around 5pm on April 30th and my midwife called and told me I HAD to go to the hospital NOW to have the stress test that I had missed that morning.  I wasn't feeling very well and really didn't want to go ANYWHERE.  Dan was at work, but the midwife was insistent, so I called him, he came home, and we headed to the hospital for my test.

We arrived at the hospital and they showed me to a room on the maternity ward.  They hooked me up to machines and waited for a good consistent reading.  An hour later they still weren't satisfied.  The babies heart rate was fast and fluctuating.  So, they sent me for an ultrasound.

While I was getting the ultrasound I started feeling achy and sort of crampy, like I was about to have my period.  I mentioned it to the tech and she made sure to tell my nurse.

I headed back to "my" room and they told me that they wanted me to stay the night, just to be safe.  They checked me and I was only 2cm dilated (like I had been all week) so, Dan and I settled in.  They had a big chair that extended into a bed for him to sleep on.  We relaxed, watched TV and ate the pizza that Dan had snuck in.

I didn't get much sleep.  I was feeling kind icky and just watched TV.  Every 10 minutes or so I would feel a cramp so I would put on my headphones and sort of "zone out" to some Adele. 

At around 4:00am a nurse came in to check on me. I didn't know she was there since I was in the midst of one of my "zone outs".

"How long has THIS been going on??" she asked me.  "About an hour or maybe 2... I'm not sure" I said. "Ok, well, let me check you real quick."

I was only 3cm dilated.  Ok, not much of a change. BUT they weren't letting me go home!  Around 8:00 Dan woke up and we decided that he should go home to feed the dogs.  He'd be back in an hour and there was plenty of time.

About 30 minutes after he left the nurse came in to check me again.  "How are you doing?" "Oh fine, a little crampy, but not bad."

She wanted to check me anyway, just to be sure. "Oh my god! I can't find your cervix!" "Well, where did it go?" "You're fully dilated! You could have her any minute!". I said, "Oh no I'm not, my husband's not here, I'm waiting."

She looked at me like I was nuts.  The midwife and the nurse both anxiously paced the room looking out the window. "Is that him??" "Is he wearing a red jacket?" "No." "No" "Oh COME ON DAN HURRY UP!".

Finally, almost 2 hours after he left he came back!  The nurse knew someone who lived near our house and had them go and tell him to get his butt back to the hospital! (Dan is deaf and can't use a phone).

The minute I heard them say "Here he comes!" my body gave a giant push.  He came running in the door to the room and the "fun" really began.  My water hadn't broken yet, so the midwife suggested that we do that.  I was fine with it, it wasn't meds so I wasn't that concerned.

She broke the water and I had my first big contraction.  Dan held one foot and the nurse held the other.  It hurt!  Not the worst pain that I'd ever felt, but it wasn't a tickle.  BUT I also wasn't panicking, I wasn't scared... I just wanted to see her!  So, I had about 10 contractions total.  After each one (except the last one) I promptly fell asleep.  The next contraction would wake me up, I'd smack Dan to get his eyes off the TV (all three of them were watching TV while I slept.  I guess me falling asleep was highly amusing to the floor), have a contraction, push like heck, comment on the show, then fall back to sleep.  

I will admit, for the last 30 minutes or so of labor I did use some colorful language.  My "go to" phrase was something that rhymed with "You Clucker!".  I kept apologizing for swearing and we all laughed about what she would think her name was.

I think the whole labor lasted about 2 hours.  Dani came out face up and weighed 9lbs 10oz.  I needed one stitch.  Minutes after she was born I told Dan that I wanted more kids. So I guess it wasn't that bad!

She was so awake, alert and LOUD!  I held her, Dan held her then they took her for some tests.  Her hearing was fine, she was healthy!  The put her in a little bassinet in my room and told me to ring if I needed anything.

She LOVED that puppy! He came home with us.

So calm! Little Buddha!

That night and the next day I tried to nurse, but I wasn't making much milk.  So, they gave me a bottle and a breast pump.  I would feed her the formula and whatever milk I produced. She was so SLEEPY, she just didn't want to eat.  I told the nurses that I just couldn't wake her up.  They gave me a stern talking to about how I HAD to get her to eat.  "How mean do you expect me to be?? She WON'T wake up enough to eat!"  I went so far as to put ice water on her chest!  Nothing would wake this kid up.  Finally the nurse took her and the discovered that she had jaundice.  Both Dan and I had jaundice when we were born and I guess it's very common with our shared blood type.  So I guess any kid that we have has a pretty good chance of being jaundiced! Good to know!

She got a spot in the Special Care Nursery where they had her under lights like a rotisserie chicken with sunglasses on.  My time at the hospital was up but I asked to stay as long as she did.  Thankfully they weren't that busy, so they had room for me to stay.  I would have thrown a FIT if they had made me leave her there!

After two days in her tanning booth she was finally alert, happy and eating!  She could go home!

You should have seen those cheeks jiggle!