I guess my birth story really starts about a week before Erin arrives. Pre-term labor was the last thing I was ever expecting. I went to almost 42 weeks with John and nothing in my pregnancy with her indicated that I would be at risk for pre-term labor. Everything was checking out fine. No high blood pressure, no gestational diabetes, everything was measuring the way it was supposed to and I had no concerns. I also found the experience of pre-term labor quite interesting. This is because prior to it I wasn’t sure if I could trust my body. I knew I could vaginally deliver a baby despite crappy circumstances but since I was induced with J due to low fluid I wasn’t sure if I would know what labor would feel like! Well…I now know that I could pick it out quite easily!
So back to the preterm labor. I noticed something weird going on the evening of February 20th. I went to the bathroom and noticed a little bit of blood. Not much but considering I had not done anything that would have aggravated my cervix I was concerned. I sent a text to N and told her what was going on and told her that I was having some cramping too. It was ranging from mildly uncomfortable to mildly painful in just enough of a way that I wanted to curl up to make it stop. Think bad period cramp. They got worse when I lifted things. I talked to N a bit and she told me to try some rescue remedy, take a hot shower and take a benedryl and try to get some rest and if they didn’t go away to give her a call. Well…I managed to fall asleep mostly but the contractions kept waking me up. But I was so tired that I just kept falling back to sleep between them. The morning of the 21st I had N call me because I went to the bathroom and had a big wad of bloody show. She told me I needed to go to the hospital and she would call them and let them know I was on my way.
John had just left for work so I called him and told him to come home because I needed to go to the hospital. I got to maternity around 8:45am and they hooked me up to the monitors. I knew one of the nurses working and it made me feel better to have her around until Dr. Marks came up to check me. When he got upstairs and checked me we were both pretty stunned. I was 3-4cm and 75% effaced. My heart dropped into my stomach. We thought that I was just having some uterine irritability and was maybe just a little dilated. So Dr. Marks said he would need to call around to one of the hospitals in the area (which means all of VT or NH in this case!) that has a NICU to see where there was bed space. In the mean time since I was 33w 6d they gave me a shot of steroids for the baby. I was then shipped down to Dartmouth via ambulance. The nurse I know came with me. It was SO weird to ride in an ambulance strapped to a gurney! When I got to Dartmouth they checked me again. My cervix had thinned out to 90% effaced but I didn’t dilate anymore. Dartmouth was fairly uneventful and the residents were pretty shitty but like last time the nurses were great! I even spent some of my time teaching one of them to knit (and she was a natural!)! While I was there I was on modified bed rest. I was allowed to shower and use the bathroom but the rest of the time I was to stay in bed. During my time at Dartmouth I got the second half of the steroid dose, my contractions slowed down and eventually stopped. It was here during an ultrasound that I learned that I was having a little girl. I knew she was a girl all along but I guess I didn’t want to jinx it! I also learned she was measuring a bit big. A week or so ahead. The doctor told me that I might want to get checked for GD again but I wasn’t concerned- I just knew that this baby was going to be bigger than her brother.
After 2 days at Dartmouth my contractions stopped and I had not progressed any further so they sent me home (a Sunday) and told me not to do anything strenuous. Yeah….impossible with an almost 30lb toddler but I did my best. I had no to super infrequent contractions for a couple of days but then things started to pick up again. I had infrequent but uncomfortable contractions for a couple of days but nothing close enough to warrant going back to the hospital. On the 26th I put in a call to the hospital and the OB on call (Dr. Sauter) wrote me a prescription for nifedapine. It didn’t really do anything for me and after like 3 or 4 days of fairly regular contracting I was sore and tired and I felt like baby was getting tired too. She was still moving enough but I could just feel her getting tired.
Wednesday the 27th I was feeling OK. The contractions slowed down even though they had not stopped. I ran a bunch of errands, had lunch with a friend, and cooked dinner that night. Later in the evening the contractions were back. That night I was laying in bed getting pretty uncomfortable. I was vaguely timing them and they were at least every 3-5 mins apart. I was at the point where one would come I would breathe myself through it and just wait for the next one. Around 12:30am on Thursday I woke John up and told him I needed to call the hospital because I didn’t think this was supposed to be happening especially since I was on medication that was supposed to slow/stop the contractions. He was groggy and half asleep and asked me couldn’t this wait until the morning. I told him NO it couldn’t! They told me to come on in and I left my house around 1:30 am to drive myself to the hospital.
On the way there I was starving and since it was late I figured they wouldn’t feed me so I stopped at Cumberland Farms and grabbed a sausage egg and cheese breakfast sandwich and ate it on my way there.
On the way there I was starving and since it was late I figured they wouldn’t feed me so I stopped at Cumberland Farms and grabbed a sausage egg and cheese breakfast sandwich and ate it on my way there.
When I got there Dr. Sauter came in and checked me again. I almost shit myself when he told me I was 7cm and totally thinned out. I was 34w 6d. Technically Littleton doesn’t deliver until 35w but they weren’t about to try to send me anywhere! I called John to tell him to call our babysitter and get J ready to go to her house. Sadly, we ended up fighting about this because he was still groggy and half asleep and he is terrible when he is over tired and woken up. He did eventually apologize and got himself up and got him and J together. He got there at 6am. Anyway, I called N and told her what was going on and she got to the hospital around 3 or 3:30am. I was monitored for a while and given a dose of antibiotics then let off of the IV. My nurse (who was AAAAAAAHMAZING!) helped me run a bath so I could relax. My contractions were sort of sporadic and not overly painful although some of them were certainly uncomfortable. I was just chatting and laughing with N and sort of resting and just hanging out. John showed up at 6am and I just sat around chatting with them having some contractions but nothing particularly strong. Eventually my OB came and checked me. 9cm. He told me that breaking my water would get things rocking and that IF I wanted him to (and that it was totally up to me) then to have the nurses give him a call. At that point I declined. I was really trying to hold out because of the baby being early but looking back…9cm- yeah um…no holding back! I hung out some more and kept feeling like I had to move my bowels. When I told N she said I probably had a bulging bag of waters. Around 8:30 am I made up my mind to stop goofing around and have Dr. Marks come up and break my water. Before he got there I told N I am going to laugh my ass off if I’m 10cm. Well…there was a little bit of laughing. Dr. Marks got there about 10 minutes later to check me and break my water. Sure enough I was 10cm with a bulging bag. Dr. Marks broke my water and sat down quietly on the edge of the bed. He said to just do my thing. It was shortly after my water was broken that things got real. The contractions started coming more frequently and felt different than before. But unlike when I had J I didn’t really have an urge to push. I just knew that I had to push and so I pushed with each contraction. I definitely wimped out a bit when I could feel myself starting to tear. (It turns out that I tore right where I was cut last time. Bastards.) This little girl hurt WAY worse than her brother and at one point I asked if “you could just please take her out!”. Yeah, not happening! Dr. Marks told me when she was crowning and said “she has lots of blonde hair!” and asked if I wanted to reach down and touch her (this was something I stated in my birth plan that I wanted) but I was feeling too overwhelmed and declined. Dr. Marks just basically just sat at the edge of my bed and waited for me to push the baby out. No directed pushing. Just lovely encouraging words while I did my thing and listened to my body. After 20 minutes of pushing my baby was born! She was plopped directly onto my stomach and it was like having a memory. She felt exactly how she should. Warm, wet and perfect! She has apgars of 9 and 9 which was a huge relief to me since I didn’t know what would happen. We were covered up and allowed to snuggle while Dr. Marks waited for her cord to stop pulsing before cutting it. Shortly after, my placenta arrived with a plop and I got to take a look at it before we put it away.
Baby girl came out rooting and sucking her fists so while we were left alone to bond she latched on and took some good sucks. I was already amazed with this little girl who had no name. We spent the morning tossing name ideas back and forth but nothing I originally loved seemed to fit her. John went outside for a bit and when he came back in he said “I’m not trying to monopolize naming our kids but what about Erin?” I sat there for a minute and then told him “you know, I don’t hate it. Let me think about it.” Our hospital stay was mostly uneventful and at two days old Baby Girl was named Erin Grace. <3
