My son David Hyrum was born on 11/22/2015 at 12:39am. He
weighed 7.7lbs and measured 20 inches.
My due date was 11/25/2015 according to the ultrasound tech’s
measurements and 11/29/2015 according to my doctor’s pregnancy wheel/gestation
calendar. So depending on which one you ask I was either 3 days early or 7 days
early.
The day I went into labor, I was planning on going to my
sister, Kristi’s, house 40 minutes away for my niece’s birthday party. When I
woke up that morning everything was normal, but early on I felt like something
was different. I didn’t think I was in labor, but some part of me was feeling
anxious. At one point I was sitting down playing on my computer when I felt a
little “squirt,” I would say, of water. I went to the bathroom to see what was
going on. It was just a small amount of fluid – no odor or color. I thought it
might be my water, so I went back to my computer and searched the internet for
answers.
The internet advised me that I should lay down flat for a
while. After laying down for a while, if I stood up and felt more water, then
that would mean it’s my amniotic fluid. If not, most likely a false alarm. So I
did that and no more water trickled out. So I thought – hmm must be a false
alarm.
My other sister, Kassi, met me at my house so we could
carpool to the birthday together. I told her about what had happened but since
the internet didn’t cause me any alarm and I wasn’t experiencing any
contractions yet, we didn’t really worry about it.
We loaded up all the kids in the car. Because I was still
feeling anxious and since I was so close to my due date, I decided to bring my
packed bags with us. I had packed a bag for myself as well as for my son, Ben.
My sister and husband thought I was crazy when they saw me loading my bags into
the car, and I honestly didn’t think I’d be using them either, but I really don’t
like being caught unprepared. Better safe than sorry!
My sister and I started on our trip and about 10 minutes
into the drive I started feeling contractions. I didn’t know at the time that
they were contractions, but now I do! I just thought I was cramping up a little
bit or experiencing some gas. My sister asked me if it felt like my stomach was
“tight” and I said yes. After it happened several more times, we both realized
that I was having small contractions. I started freaking out. If I was in
labor, I wanted to be close to home. Especially since it was Saturday right
before Thanksgiving so there was a lot of traffic on the road. I’d never gone
into labor naturally before so I had no idea what to expect. I was a bit
hysterical during that car ride.
Remember how I said I liked to be prepared? Well the night
before, I had downloaded a couple “contraction counter” apps on my phone. I
pulled up one of the apps and started timing my contractions. My contractions
continued to grow in intensity as we drove and were pretty consistently spaced.
They were a bit uncomfortable, but not too bad. The app I was using is
programmed in such a way that it calculates the intervals and frequencies of
your contractions for you and alerts you when it’s time to get to the hospital.
Well, about 10 minutes away from Kristi’s house my app told me “get to the
hospital!” I really started to panic when that popped up. My sister was
laughing at me, but she was also extremely supportive the entire drive. Even
though the app had already told me I was in labor and to get to the hospital I
continued to time my contractions once we got to Kristi’s house.
We got to the party in time to see Jetta open some presents
and blow out her candles. I’m pretty sure we had missed some of the games. I
was sitting in her living room trying to calm myself down and focus on timing
my contractions. After about the 4th or 5th alert to “go
to the hospital,” my sisters told me I should call my OBGYN and see what he
thinks.
I called my doctor and explained what was going on. He told
me that, especially with this being my 2nd child and because I was
about an hour away, I should go ahead and head to the hospital. He would meet
me there.
So after being at my sister’s house for maybe 20 minutes, we
got back in the car and headed to the hospital. I called Doug as we drove to
let him know I was in labor and was heading to the hospital. He was pretty
shocked when I told him.
I got to the hospital, they were expecting me, they observed
me for about an hour I was 100% effaced when I got to the hospital and about
3cm dilated. I believe it was about 6:30pm or so at this point. They hooked me
up to the belly monitors and got an IV started (still the worst part of labor,
in my opinion). They checked me every so often, and every time told me thing were
moving right along and I kept dilating more and more. At some point between 3
and 5cm they offered to have the anesthesiologist come in and give me an
epidural since he was available and of course, I said yes because I’m not a hippie
like you other crazy mommas out there. (haha just kidding! I love you ladies!
More power to ya.) Eventually, right around midnight I felt the urge to push. I
called the nurses in and sure enough, I was ready to go. They got my bed all
cleaned up and prepped and called the doctor in to deliver the baby.
He came in, told me to push. I pushed. The head was out. I
pushed 2 more times and his whole body was out. They said I pushed for 39
seconds. No tearing, didn’t even break a sweat. It was amazing! I couldn’t
believe it.
After everything was said and done, I learned that David’s
head had been so far down on my cervix that they had to work a little bit to
break my amniotic sac and when they did, it was just a trickle not a gush.
(which is partly why I think I felt the trickle earlier in the day. I think my
sac had technically broken already but his head was covering up the hole so it
couldn’t come out.) They also told me the cord had been wrapped around his neck
and so he had come out pretty blue/purple, but he pinked right back up as soon
as they got the cord away.
All in all, the pregnancy itself was a breeze (other than
the serious back pain) and the labor went perfectly. Now I have this perfect
little boy in my arms every day who coos and smiles and smells so sweet. I don’t
know why my children are so much cooler than everyone else’s children, but I
mean – they have good genes, so it makes sense I suppose. J
Happy belated day of birth David Doodle!
