Esther's Birth Story

I had someone ask me if I was going to share Esther's birth story. I also want to be able to remember the details around Esther's birth, so I have to write them down or I will forget! Here they are.

I had been for a week or two been wondering when our little one would come. I knew I was dilated and baby had dropped, so I was in suspense. At my last two appointments, the midwife was surprised I hadn't delivered.

On the day before my due date, I woke up at 2:30 and went to the bathroom. I came back to bed and it felt like I peed myself. I figured baby was just kicking since it was just a little squirt. This same thing happened a few times so I went back to the bathroom to try to empty my bladder. I changed, and climbed back into bed. The same thing started happening again.

I got back up and got my phone. I went to sit on the toilet and was looking online about if water breaking could be little gushes or if it was always a gush. I heard so much about people thinking their water broke when it really didn't.

I wasn't really sure what was going on with me. I didn't really believe it was my water. I started getting a little bloody show and this made me a little more worried. About 3:30, I climbed into bed and touched my husband. Thankfully, he woke up since he is a deep sleeper. I explained what was going on to him.

Because nothing was happening, I didn't really want to go to the hospital. My husband had these fears about delivering the baby at home and I think he thought the little one was coming. We decided to get ready and head to the hospital just in case.

Before we left, I ate a small bowl of oatmeal, but my body was nervous about the fact that this might actually be the beginning of delivery.

We made it to the hospital and my husband called off work for the day. I still was feeling great. We got upstairs to labor and delivery and they hooked me up to a monitor and checked to see if my water had broke. The test showed that in fact it had. They checked me at this point and I was only 2.5 cm dilated. I had only gained a half a centimeter in the last week.

We sat in the hospital room. I was having contractions, but not any more than I had had over the last 2 weeks. They allowed me to eat some jello and drink some apple juice.

About 6, the midwife came in and suggested that they start me on a low dose of pitocin. I really did not want this to happen and tried to convince them not to give it to me. They said my body was not doing anything and they needed to get labor going.

They got me hooked up and contractions started hitting me almost immediately. I asked about being able to get up and go to the bathroom. They said I needed unhooked but that my husband could do that. He did unhook me straight from the iv pump. The nurse was so confused. My husband told her that they didn't have movable iv towers in the er. She told him the next time to unplug me from the wall.

I wanted to try to go all natural, and the contractions were getting strong. I had heard that when you get to the point that you don't think you can do it any more that it is almost over. I thought I was to that point. The nurse came in and decided to check me about 11, and I was only to 3.5 cm. I thought man I have a long ways to go and I already think I am dying.

She recommended the epidural. I was still dragging my feet, but I wasn't sure that I could go on like this for several more hours. I finally agreed to the epidural and they hit me up with nubain until they could get all the fluids in me. I was knocked out and loopy at that point. I would sleep until I had another contraction.

The epidural was put in and explained that I would feel pressure but not pain. The pain did leave after about three contractions.

I am not sure what time, but it didn't seem too long and I hit 10 cm. Maybe a few hours. Time wasn't dragging at this point.

I thought I was feeling some pressure to push. The nurse checked and head had really moved, but not ready for me to push yet. I stayed at this point and lost any desire to push.

Eventually when the midwife was done in the office, she came over to the hospital around 6. She came in and said we are going to have this baby. I still had no desire to push.

They got everything ready and had me start pushing. I was really having a hard time because I couldn't figure out where I was pushing. They assured me I was pushing right, but I had no feeling. My right leg was completely numb.

We were talking about this baby being stubborn. My husband, the nurse, and I all thought boy. The midwife thought girl The midwife said she never looks to see what gender the baby is.

After 45 minutes, baby finally made their appearance. The midwife stuck the baby on my chest. Eventually she said, dad, what did you have? He looked and said it was a girl. We were a little shocked.

Our first family photo.

The next little bit seemed like a blur. They cleaned up Esther, made sure she was doing ok, all those normal after birth things.

Esther weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces, was 19.5 inches long, ans was born at 6:47 pm.

They brought me in chicken noodle soup to let me eat and apple juice to drink. I was glad to get something in my belly.

After a little while, the nurse started getting concerned about how much I was bleeding and clotting. They hooked the pitocin back up, and I got to stay on that for the next 24 hours. They were trying to induce cramping to try to get the clotting to stop.

Daddy got to give me my first bath. 

Unfortunately, this did not help so they gave me this series of medication that they kept giving me for the next day to help with cramping. This medication did not do enough either. They started pushing on my uterus to get it to shrink. Talk about painful and gross. My husband told me later how big some of the clots were. Glad I wasn't not aware of that at this time.

We decided as it was about 9 or so at this point that we should start having family come back to see Esther so that they could go home. They started coming back in twos since that was all that was allowed back in the room at the time.

My bleeding still wasn't controlled, so they hit me up with a shot of this strong medication. This med made me super nauseous. Up came that chicken noodle soup that I had.

Around 11, they finally let us leave labor and delivery. We got in our room and semi settled. They came in every hour that night to push on my uterus and check the bleeding. Not fun!

We settled in to being a family of three. Labor didn't go as I envisioned, but at the end of the day we were very thankful to have a healthy little girl.