Saturday, July 25, 2020
Anyone remember that show on TLC called A Baby Story? Oh my gosh. It was one of my faves when I was younger! Now I love reading and hearing friends and fellow blogger's birth stories. It always fascinates me how different each one is!

Interested in hearing about my first two? You can read Hunter's birth story here and Brody's here!

When I tell you guys I was anxious for this birth, I was so anxious. I think between already having two little guys and the pandemic, it was high. So naturally, when 40 weeks came and went, it was through the roof. I was nervous that Ant would be at work and wouldn't be able to answer the phone, or my mom would be busy or the boys wouldn't get ready fast enough. Literally, every scenario I could think of.

On, June 15th (three days over due), I started having some super mild contractions in the morning. Just hardening of the tummy. No biggie. My mom asked if I wanted to go for a walk around 3 but we settled for a drive around town, where my contractions started getting more intense throughout the drive, but they were all over the place. 10 minutes, two minutes, five minutes apart. Apparently, that's my MO because they've never been consistent in any of my pregnancies. Ever. I think we drove until Ant got home and by then they had slowed down. My mom took the boys to her house for the night, just in case, but at that point, I thought I was in prodromal labor which is like, pre-early labor and can last awhile before yo go into actual labor.

Ant and I ate and watched a few episodes of The Order and went to bed around 11. My contractions had actually stopped so I fell asleep pretty quickly. Around 1 in the morning, I woke up to contractions but more intense. I tried walking around our bedroom for awhile before waking Ant up. They were still all over the place but at this point, I was so annoyed that I told Ant that we should go in, if anything to figure out what the hell was going on. Naturally, Ant hadn't packed, so I waited for him to do that, meanwhile, my bag was pretty bare and I ended up forgetting my camera.

We arrived at the hospital around 2:45AM, and a nurse met us in the lobby with a wheelchair. She said she had watched us in the parking lot and that we were the seventh pregnant couple to come in tonight and that the maternity ward was packed. She wheeled us up to the labor and delivery floor and we checked in at 2:59AM.

At that point, the contractions had picked up, about every two minutes. A sweet nurse checked to see how dilated I was and to my dismay, I was only 2 cms. TWO! With the boys, I didn't even go into the hospital until 6 and 7 cms. I was so bummed, disappointed and confused. I asked why my contractions were so close and hard and she said maybe I was dehydrated and hooked me up to an IV and said in the mean time, she'd call my doctor to see if he could figure out why they were coming so fast at such a small dilation. Within 30 minutes, the contractions suddenly got more intense and she checked me again. 5 CM! Right after she checked me, I stood up to move around a little. A few minutes later, I felt an insane need to push. I didn't even get that cool IG picture where you hold your belly and give a thumbs up. The nurse goes, "Don't try to push. Your water hasn't broken."...and then my water broke and my body started to push all on its own. She started to yell at me, "Don't push standing up! Lay down, lay down!" The hospital doctor walked in (the on-call doctor was called as well) and was amazing. She was super calm and went, "When you're ready to push, you push. You decide when you're ready."


Within three pushes, Sienna Berkley was born! Crazy, right? Sienna was born at 4:10AM, weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces and 19 inches long! We didn't even realize at the time that Sienna was dark purple and  born in what they call "respiratory distress". They think she passed some meconium (a baby's first poop) while being born and even though she got to lay on my chest for a few minutes, they ended up taking her to the other side of the room to be checked out and be given oxygen while I got stitches for a small tear. Everything ended up being fine and her coloring went back to normal soon after and they handed her back to us.


WAS ANYTHING DIFFERENT BECAUSE OF THE PANDEMIC?

When we walked in, they checked our temps and while we weren't asked to, we came in wearing our masks. I took mine off when we got into the room but Ant kept his on. A nurse casually mentioned we should keep ours on at all times but no one else asked or enforced it the rest of the time we were there.

Because labor came on so quickly and I gave birth so fast, I wasn't tested for Covid until after I gave birth. Honestly, I'm not sure what that would've changed but I appreciated that they waited until after. The videos I've seen of people having it done definitely freaked me out, but it wasn't horrible. The long q-tip they used was wet which was probably the worst part for me. I did end up having a nose bleed but I kind of expected it? I tested negative. Anthony wasn't tested at all.

Even though our hospital didn't have any current Covid cases, we couldn't wait to leave and asked to be discharged after 24 hours, which they okay'd. 

We were supposed to leave the next day at 11AM but the hospital's pediatrician forgot to sign Sienna's discharge papers for us to go home so we had to wait for another to come at 6PM - 7 hours later. Things happen, I get it, but the other pediatricians at the hospital refused to sign her off or even come look at her. When I asked if we could discharge ourselves and just bring her to our own pediatrician (which I understand maybe you can't do that), a nurse told us I could discharge myself but Sienna would have to stay at the hospital. Like, what? For those seven hours, we never saw a nurse or doctor again until the pediatrician came in to sign her out for us to leave. Super weird.

Ready to finally go home!

For those who gave birth recently, what was your experience like?