Could be that it was my 3rd baby, or the fact that she was almost 10 pounds, or both, but my body was trying to get this baby out starting at like 36 weeks. I usually start having contractions around 20 weeks with my pregnancies, which happened again, but around 35 ish weeks they started getting BAD. Anytime I would walk they would start and they would hurt!!
At my 36 week appt I was dilated to a 1. My body has never dilated on its own before until I was actually in labor, so I was SO excited. All while my midwife tried to convince me it meant nothing telling me she was probably at a 1 (😂) I was still convinced she would come early. The week went on and I continued to have super bad contractions every day. At my 37 week appt I was at a 3! A 3! I again was convinced she was coming any day. When I was pregnant with Ella my water broke and labor started fast and I was a 3 when they admitted me to the hospital. So this was a big deal. So I waited and waited. Couldn’t really do much the last couple weeks because anytime I would walk my contractions would start and would be 2-3 min apart.
I knew at my 38 week appointment they would strip my membranes, so I went in at 38 weeks and told them to do it as hard as they could. And that, they did. 😳 I was now at a 4! People get epidurals at a 4 and here I am walking around NOT in labor at a 4. At my appt I asked if the membrane stripping didn’t work (which I was sure it would, how could it not when I was at a 4 AND contracting) if I could come back in a couple days to have them do it again. She agreed, but also said I would probably have my baby by then. I set up an appointment anyways for Thursday (it was Monday at this point)
So I go home still having to attempt to take care of 2 other kids, while I am literally dying trying to get around my house. My contractions would come throughout the day but every night at 5 on the dot they would get super strong. They would start happening every 2 min, even if I was laying down. They would hurt SO bad. And they would stay like this for 3-4 hours and then everything would stop. This happened Every. Single. Day. My body was so sore and so wrecked from this. If I hadn’t had a baby before I would probably have already gone into the hospital not knowing they would just send me home. I was in prodromal labor for weeks. And these weren’t Braxton Hicks where they weren’t doing anything. My body was dilating and then it would STOP.
Thursday came for my appointment to get my membranes stripped AGAIN. Which by the way, is SO painful, and worse than labor in my opinion 😂 but I also have never done it naturally..so I could be being dramatic. Still. I go in again and beg them to do it as hard as possible to put me into labor. They agreed, and said they would probably see me at the hospital that evening! Spoiler alert. DIDNT HAPPEN. The weekend came and went. Every sign of labor was happening for me except the actual labor! My mom flew into town that weekend to stay with us, and would try to convince me to go to the hospital every evening, but I did not want to go and get sent home. That would kill me 😂.
Monday came, I had another appointment. 39 week appointment. I was finally seeing my actual OB who is literally an actual angel on earth so I was coming up with a plan to have him put me into labor right then and there in the office. I was making lists of all the reasons I needed to be sent to the hospital (I actually had a fairly good list of reasons, because I had quite a few medical issues this pregnancy), and if my list didn’t work, then my plan was to tell him if he didn’t break my water right now, then I would go home and try to do it myself. I was SURE that would convince him. You know, because doctors love to be threatened. But I was so done being pregnant and I tend to get a little crazy at the end (see Jackson’s birth story 😂). So I drive to my appointment. Bags are packed, because I AM going to the hospital right after I see him.
I get checked in, get into the room, and he knocks and says “you’re still pregnant?!” Joking of course, but I literally just break down in tears begging him to put me into labor right then and there. He hadn’t even fully walked into the room yet. My whole script went out the window 😂 I begged him to break my water and he, being the angel he is, agreed to try. He felt so bad for me, and hugged me, and told me he was going to do what he could to help me. I knew as soon as my water broke I would have the baby within hours. That was the only thing holding everything back. He came back in with a nurse and laid out extra pads all over the floor and said that he was stripping my membranes but he might accidentally break my water in the process and smiled. Well, turns out your water bag is actually super thick and pretty hard to break without the right tools. Which he didn’t have. But OH he tried. And it was painful. So I sat up and said “Now what? I can not do this any longer” I had explained what was happening to me every night so he told me he was on call Wednesday and if I came into the hospital that he would admit me immediately and we would have this baby! But..that was still 2 days away. So I asked what would happen if I went to the hospital that day? He told me to go in as soon as my contractions started. Not to tell the nurses I knew they would stop in a few hours. They would see I was having contractions, and they would see I was dilated to a 5 now. (Yes a 5. How is the baby even still in there when you’re at a 5.) and they would probably admit me! So that was it. That was happening. The plan had been set. I headed home with terrible contractions because he has stripped my membranes for the 3rd time in a week 🤦🏽♀️ and decided to wait a little before we went in. I told Tyson and he of course needed a nap before we could go in. You know, for all the work he was about to do. I finished packing the bags and woke him up and said we were leaving now. The contractions were consistent and painful. I was just hoping they didn’t stop before I got there!
We headed to the hospital around 5:30 and went to triage. I was at a 5 and only in pain when I was standing and walking. They monitored my contractions for a little and then told me to walk (around the triage room because you aren’t allowed in the halls because of covid 🙄) for 45 minutes and if I’ve progressed at all then they would keep me. I was like oh no!! They’re going to know I’m faking it! That’s a lot of pressure, especially when you know you aren’t actually in real labor yet. So I walked around the room as much as I could for those 45 minutes in constant pain. Literally trying to run and jump. My contractions were on top of each other just how they had been the last couple WEEKS anytime I would walk. But I did NOT want to get sent home!! I knew if they would just break my water the baby would probably come flying out, but they won’t do that until you’re admitted. So after 45 minutes my midwife who I love, came in and I pled my case. She told the nurse if I had dilated to atleast 5 1/2 then she would keep me, and if not she would try to talk to the charge nurse and convince her to let me stay. I was trying to make a good argument since I was strep b positive I needed enough time to get antibiotics in before the baby came and I was already dilated so much they should probably keep me, right? Right. So the nurse checked me and said “uhh I guess I could call that a 5 1/2?” YES! Yes you can. I was staying!! So they came in and got my IV going and wheeled me down to my room!
So I get set up in my room, still not really in any pain, feeling like I totally tricked everyone into thinking I’m in labor 😂. Tyson goes downstairs to grab our stuff, and get us some food, and I’m just hanging out relaxing. The anastheologist came in to talk to me around 8 about the epidural thinking I wanted it right then. In the middle of talking she goes “you’re at a 5 1/2 right now? Have you been having contractions while we’ve been talking?” I said yes, but that I wasn’t really in any pain anymore and not ready for an epidural yet. Because I was freaked out about getting one when I wasn’t even in any pain yet! She was confused and said most people don’t act like this at a 5 1/2 and are begging for one, so to call her when I was ready and that she was leaving at 10 so if I wanted her to do it (which the nurse not so subtly suggested I want her to do it) to get it done before that!
At around 9 my midwife comes back in and tells me she’s going to come break my water once my 4 hours are up from the antibiotics which would be at about 10:30, and suggested I get my epidural before that. Sooo we called the anesthesiologist back in to do it before she left! I had mentioned to her that my epidurals never work on my left side for some reason, so she suggested getting an epidural and a spinal block and that would for sure numb me on both sides. But she mentioned the spinal block only works for an hour and then it wears off to just the epidural, but that atleast it would give me a solid hour of no pain. So I went ahead and got both done, when I was in little to NO pain 😂 and was totally freaked out. But everything went fine!
10:30 rolls around and my midwife comes in to break my water. She checks me and no progress since I got admitted (well duh, because I wasn’t actually IN labor 😂) I knew nothing was going to happen until my water broke. So they break my water, start another bag of antibiotics, and then we wait. Tyson slept for a while, I was just laying around on my phone not really able to sleep. I was laying on my right side and wasn’t having very close contractions for a while. I think around 12 ish I started to be able to feel my contractions in my left side, so I had my nurse come in to turn me to try and see if they could get my left side numb. I laid there for a little and the pain was only getting worse on my left hip/butt. FINALLY, some pain. I was finally in labor! She left and after like 30 minutes I called her back in because the pain was getting superrrr bad on my left side. She came in and said “I knew you were going to call me in, your contractions went from 10 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart as soon as I turned you to your left side.” She called the anasteologist in to come and try to up my dose to get me some relief, which didn’t really do anything. My left side just doesn’t numb 😭 it was a little after 1am and she checked me again, because I told her I felt like my body was literally pushing the baby out on its own. Welllll, it was. I was at a 10! So she called my midwife and started getting ready to push! We did a couple practice ones, and then waited for the dr! She came in, got all gowned up, and it was go time! I only pushed through maybe 4 contractions before the baby was out! I have to add in the middle of one of my contractions tyson was watching...a little too closely...and was like “is that the baby?!” And my midwife goes “no it’s a puppy” 😂😂 and I started laughing so hard I couldn’t even finish pushing during that one.
Little (big) Charlie came out at 1:38 am (not bad, since I was only actually in labor starting at like 12 😂) and did skin to skin with me for about an hour, when in that time I started hemmoraging, so the nurses started more pitocin (they had already given me one bag to get the placenta out) to help stop the bleeding. That wasn’t working, so they hung another bag, then gave me a giant shot. That wasn’t working well enough. So they hung ANOTHER bag and gave me some pills. All while they were sumo wrestling my stomach for HOURS. It was easily the worst pain I’ve been in and 10x worse than labor. They were pushing SO hard on my stomach constantly. Which they normally do after you have a baby, but since they couldn’t stop my bleeding, they had to keep going and each time they did it got more and more painful 😭
At about 5:30 am my bleeding slowed down a little and they finally felt comfortable enough sending me down to postpartum to “rest”. By the time we got down there, the new nurses came in, went over all my charting, checked me and baby. By the time that was done it was time for a shift change, so more new nurses had to come in and start over. Then they finally left and then breakfast was brought up right after 😂. By this time it was 8:30 and I hadn’t slept for a second. Tyson on the other hand had been napping on and off since we got admitted (he somehow sleeps through anything) the day went on and more people came in and out (pediatrician, hearing screener, nurses, my dr) and I was SO tired. The next night came and I still hadn’t slept at all and was still in a TON of pain from all the medications they gave me to stop the bleeding, it basically made my body still think it was in labor and I was having painful contractions all day and night 😬 The next morning came, and I think I had maybe slept 2 hours total since we checked in Monday night. BUT we were going home. And I had a brand new baby. So I didn’t even care. I get on some sort of weird high when I have babies. And it lasts MONTHS. It’s the best. Babies are the best. Labor is the best. I wish I could do it a million times. 😊
Also, due to covid, we couldn’t have any visitors the whole time we were there, and although I was sort of sad Ella and Jackson couldn’t come visit her in the hospital, it was kind of nice just having it be us 3 in that little room for a couple days. 😊
Having a brand new baby in a quiet hospital room are some of my very favorite memories from all of my babies. It’s such a magical time and I NEVER want to forget any of it.
Charlie Jane Bailey
July 28, 2020
9 lbs. 11 oz
1:38 am
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