Sadie's Birth Story

It all started with Ben falling out of bed. About 3 am, I heard Ben screaming, so I jumped out of bed and ran into his room. After I got him back in his bed, I tried laying down, but started to feel pretty strong contractions that were coming exactly 10 minutes apart. I watched tv and walked around for about an hour, then decided to call my MIL to come down and watch Ben, since I had a feeling this was it. While we waited for her to get to the house we both took showers and, because I'm a little OCD, I packaged 2 baby carriers I needed to ship out. LOL!! DH was like “you're in labor, people will understand”. No, no, I NEEDED to get them out on time. :-)

So we ended up getting to the hospital a little before 6 am, they take me through all the medical questions they need to ask me (this fact will be important later), I'm 4 cm dilated, and they hook me to the machines for an hour. At around 7 am, they tell me to get up and walk around and they will check me in another hour and see how I've progressed. At this point we had also called the doula and she arrives. So we wander around the halls and overhear the nurses making comments like “room number X is starting to make noise, so maybe we'll have a room soon”. So, yeah, apparently I picked a GREAT night to go into labor. We got the impression that all the rooms were full and my doula (who was absolutely fantastic) talks to them and finds out that in addition to their being a lot deliveries that night, they also had several c sections planned that were starting to arrive too. So we wander around and every time I had a contraction, I would lean on the handrail and Brandon and/or the doula would get behind me and literally put all their weight on my lower back (ok, more like my butt, it was so weird) for counter pressure (it worked out really well). And my lovely DH, in all his smart ass glory comments in the MIDDLE of a contraction, “this is how you make babies, not get them out”. It probably WAS pretty entertaining to see a 6'2”, 280 lb guy putting all his weight on me from behind. We also got to experience this lovely “screamer” in one of the rooms who was SO LOUD. She was screaming “God no, oh no, IT HURTS!!”, etc, etc........ Then the doctor walks out and comments to the nurse “she's only 6 cm” and I just busted out laughing. I think she was later drugged, because she was then surprisingly quiet. LOL!!

So 8 am, 8:30 am comes and goes and I finally tell the doula that I really think I need to get to a room. She runs to the desk to find the nurse and we get back to my bed in the triage room. The midwife comes and checks me and I am 8 cm and she's “we need to get you to a room”. So we finally get to a labor room about 8:50 am and the contractions are coming one on top of the other. As I'm trying to get through them still using the same method of leaning on a counter and having them push on my butt, the nurse is spouting out all these medical history questions (yeah, those same ones that I had just answered!) and trying to get an IV in all at the same time. “Do you have a living will? Are you an organ donor? Have you ever been exposed to MRSA? DAMN lady, I'm having a baby here....... So my last few contractions end up over near the window since they now have me hooked up to the machines and after one of the contractions I throw myself against the window yelling “thank god it's January I'm so hot”. Everyone in the room is hysterical and I have to admit, it was probably pretty funny.

So I hit the point where I know I need to push so they take me over to the bed. The nurses and midwife were so awesome and let me take my time (so different than with Ben where after 2 pushes they got impatient and started freaking out). I remember maybe 4 sets of pushes? Not too bad at all. And here is the totally awesome part:

She came out INSIDE the amniotic sac with the membranes fully intact!!!

The sac only broke as you saw her waist. Everyone was in shock and commenting how rare it is to see and how cool it is. I could see a little of what was going on because there was a tv right across me on the wall, but I could only really see a shape, not what it actually was. Brandon said she looked like a little alien inside a water balloon and it was the coolest thing. I actually wish someone else had been in there with me to get a picture because the whole thing amazes me.

I ended up needing one stitch along my old scar and another stitch on the other side. But can you believe that by the next day, I can't even feel it when I go to the bathroom?!? The midwife took her time and did an amazing job at stitching me up, because I hurt with Ben for a LONG time!

Breastfeeding is going really well and my milk came in really fast this time around (the second day already). In general, this labor seemed so much easier than Ben (and I thought his had been fairly easy). She's a little smaller than Ben was, but honestly, I think the fact that L & D was so full and I had to walk around for so long really made all the difference. Everyone kind of left me alone, probably thinking I'd be there for awhile. My doula was such a huge help and I highly recommend looking into one if you're interested in a natural birth. I did panic a little during transition and she was so fabulous at helping me relax again and just focus on letting my body take over. Sadie is so sweet and she is absolutely mesmerized when Ben is near her. Ben calls her “my little girl” and is already protective of her. When we got home, our dog Lexi was sniffing her car seat and Ben got all upset telling me “Lexi shouldn't be that close”. LOL!!