Let me preface this by saying that my firstborn was induced, so this delivery was a completely different experience for me.
With my firstborn, my water broke, but no contractions ever came. After almost 8 hours of no progress, we went to the doctor and confirmed that my water had indeed broken, and there was still no sign of contractions.
Sadly, that meant Pitocin. Horrible experience for me.
Pitocin contractions are no joke. They are intense and give you no room for any breaks. I opted for an epidural because, in this case, it was impossible for me to relax my body and let things progress, and our baby boy’s heart rate was dropping.
After the epidural, I progressed quickly, and before I knew it, it was time to push.
I pushed for two hours. Our little guy was stuck, but finally, with one final prayer, we welcomed him into this world and escaped an emergency C-section. If you guys would like a more detailed birth blog on my first born please let me know in the comments below!
My second was an entirely different experience.
He came fast, and he came completely natural.
This is going to be a long one because I want to be able to share every detail with you guys. I personally am fascinated by birth stories and love to hear all the details.
It All Started With Mild Contractions
I started having very mild, intermittent contractions at 2 a.m. on Friday, July 31st. They were not super close together, but they never stopped.
I decided to post my symptoms in a Mom Facebook group, and people had me convinced that it was prodromal labor.
Prodromal labor is a type of real, often painful contraction in late pregnancy that mimics early labor. Unlike active labor, these contractions do not grow longer, stronger, or closer together, and they do not cause the cervix to dilate. Some women may experience this for days before they go into true labor.
Around 7:30 a.m., I was restless and decided to get out of bed. I started walking around and making sure our guest room and nursery were ready, just in case I was in true labor.
At this point, the contractions picked up. They still felt like mild period cramps, and they were every 8–10 minutes apart.
After about two hours, they didn’t get any stronger and didn’t get any closer together, so I decided to get some rest while I could.
Around 10:30 a.m., I went down for a nap since I didn’t really get much sleep.
My nap seemed to slow things down. My contractions went from a consistency of every 8 minutes to one every 30 minutes.
The contractions felt like weak period cramps, so I believed it was, in fact, prodromal labor since the contractions did not grow longer, stronger, or closer together but were actually beginning to slow down.
I took about a two-hour nap and got up around 1 p.m. since my husband had to head into work.
Since the contractions had slowed down after my nap, we did not think I would go into labor while he was off at work.
I also had a little blood-tinted mucus at this point, which doctors refer to as “bloody show,” but since it was so light, I didn’t think much of it.
Little did we know that the fun was just getting started.
Things Start Picking Up
I had about an hour of nothing, and then around 2 p.m., the fun started.
I started getting more frequent contractions again that were slightly more intense compared to my earlier contractions. Once again, they were ranging anywhere from 8–12minutes apart.
I also passed some of my mucus plug around this point.
This is when I knew things were starting to get serious, but I was still in disbelief.
At 3:50 p.m., I reached out to my husband and told him he should probably head home.
At this point, my contractions were coming and going in waves. I would have stretches where contractions would come every 4–5 minutes, lasting about 40 seconds.
After about four continuous longer contractions in a row, they would decrease to about every 6–10 minutes and would last, on average, 50 seconds.
These contractions felt like more intense period cramps, and I started feeling them in my back and thighs.
Between 4:20 p.m. and 6 p.m., I had a little bit of a break. The contractions felt intense, but they were more spread out, averaging around every 10 minutes, although they were lasting around a minute.
At about 6:20 p.m., things got really intense, really fast.
Contractions started getting super close together—3–5 minutes apart—and lasted anywhere from 45 seconds to 1.5 minutes.
Not long after, I told my husband I wanted to head to the hospital.
I started to cry and immediately threw up, and proceeded to pee myself right before a contraction.
Labor really has a way of humbling you.
My husband proceeded to make a phone call so that our sitter would start heading over for our toddler. He also proceeded to start packing his hospital bag and getting last-minute things together.
I could have killed him at this point if I wasn’t preoccupied at the time.
In his mind, he still thought he had an entire week since my official due date was August 8th.
At this point, I decided to hop in the shower and let the hot water alleviate some of my contractions while my husband ran around getting things ready.
I will say that the hot water helped as my contractions continued to get more intense.
From 6:42 p.m. onward, I did not have a contraction more than 5 minutes apart. In fact, most were around 4 minutes apart.
Around 7:40 p.m., contractions yet again started getting even more intense.
I needed my husband to apply counter pressure to be able to get through the contractions.
Luckily, our sitter arrived at 8 p.m.
Our sitter, who happens to be my husband’s aunt, lives a half hour away, and since no one was expecting my labor to progress so quickly, she wasn’t ready when we called her to head over.
Because of this delay, I did end up laboring at home longer than I had originally planned.
I expressed to my husband that I didn’t think I would make it.
I’m not sure if he understood what I meant at the time, but he encouraged me that I could, in fact, do it.
The Drive to the Hospital
We then departed for our 32-minute drive shortly after 8 p.m.
I told my husband to put on worship music, and thankfully, it kept me grounded on that excruciating ride to the hospital.
I relaxed my body and let the contractions take control. I knew fighting them would just make it worse.
I focused on the music and how every contraction brought me one step closer to our son.
I started to feel my body wanting to start pushing.
I was praying I would be able to hold off until we got into the hospital. I really wanted to avoid having my baby in the car.
We finally got to the hospital at 8:43 p.m.
I was in so much pain at this point that I was telling my husband I wanted an epidural.
We made it 10 steps out of the car before I had another powerful contraction, and I had to stop walking.
As soon as the contraction was done, I practically ran to the front desk of the emergency room.
We checked in quickly, and an L&D nurse was called down to escort us.
We waited for about 10 minutes for the nurse to finally come and ask if I needed a wheelchair. I guess she could see how much pain I was in.
The nurse decided to take us right into a delivery room, skipping triage entirely because she said I looked like I was in a lot of pain.
As soon as we made it into the room, I was given a gown to change into, and a couple of minutes later, I was checked to see how dilated I was.
My nurse seemed very surprised and unsure after checking me and brought another nurse in to double-check.
She explained that she could not feel my cervix at all and was feeling what she believed to be my water sac.
Turns out, I was complete.
10 cm dilated. Completely effaced. And baby was in position.
My water broke on my next contraction, and then a bunch of doctors and nurses rushed into the room.
It was at this point that I realized I was going to have the baby naturally.
My chances for an epidural were out the window.
The baby was coming, and fast.
There Was No Turning Back
I had a wonderful midwife coach me into a more comfortable labor position.
I started off in a hands-and-knees position and started pushing whenever I got the urge.
The pressure was intense with every contraction.
My husband applying counter pressure seemed like the only thing keeping me from collapsing.
People always tell you how natural birth is super intense but so beautiful and rewarding, but no one warned me that it would feel like your asshole is getting split in half!
After a couple of contractions and some pushing, I was encouraged to get into a different position if I felt tired.
My thighs were beginning to ache, so we moved into a side-lying position.
Once I started pushing in this position, I realized I could not set my leg back down between contractions because baby was so far down that it caused pain to bring my legs together.
A couple of contractions and intense pushing later is when I started feeling the ring of fire.
And oh boy, is that one of the most intense feelings I’ve ever felt in my life.
9:53 p.m.
At 9:53 p.m., we welcomed our beautiful baby boy into the world, and I had never in my life felt such an incredible amount of relief.
As soon as our little guy was out, the pain, the pressure, the sensation of being split in two—it was all completely gone.
The intense contractions once again turned into mild period cramps as my body worked on delivering the placenta next.
And I could not have been more relieved that it was all finally over.
From the time I started pushing to the time baby boy was in my arms, roughly about 30 minutes had passed.
It truly was a beautiful and intense experience for me, and I’m glad I was able to experience it at least once in my life.
I am so incredibly proud of myself for accomplishing such an amazing feat, but I could also understand why some women would never want to have such an experience.
It really does require so much strength and willpower, and an incredible support team to get you through labor.
And somehow, after all of that pain, all of those contractions, and all of the chaos, the moment they put your baby in your arms makes every second worth it.
Our little guy was finally here.
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