Scarlett Mia’s Birth Story

When I was pregnant, especially in the third trimester, I would read stories like these daily. I watched YouTube videos about labor and delivery, and read tons of blog posts to (what I thought would) prepare myself for my own experience. Although I can now look back and confidentially say that nothing could have prepared me for what would happen on 4/19/18, I also know how much I needed these stories to get me through the end of my pregnancy. Many birth stories start like this – and mine is no exception – I’m currently running on about a week of close to no sleep, dealing with a pounding headache, rushing to get this all written in between feedings, emotionally overwhelmed and exhausted, and entirely on cloud 9 feeling a happiness that I never knew existed.

I was 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant and feeling very ready and impatient to meet my baby. I was still going to work and vouched that I would work up until the day I gave birth mostly because sitting home staring at the clock seemed way more miserable. I was starting to second guess this though… It was about 3PM on Tuesday 4/17 and I had wrapped up most of my meetings for the day. I went to the bathroom (in the office) and something seemed off. I had definitely either peed in my pants or broke my water. I never felt a gush or anything like that, but something just felt… wet… down there! I quickly ran back to my office, shut the door and frantically called my doctor. I told her I was sure I was just being paranoid, but asked if it was possible that my water had broken. She told me I wasn’t being paranoid at all and to take my time but head to the hospital at some point. Later that evening Jason and I went to the hospital, we didn’t take any bags. After waiting around for a while, I was taken into a triage room and examined by a doctor who told me that I did not break my water and wasn’t even dilated a little, so I could head home.

 

Coincidentally, I had a scheduled appointment with my doctor the following morning that I decided to keep. To be honest, I was thoroughly examined the night before and really only kept the appointment because my sister was going to the same doctor at the same time and I knew she was so excited to see the baby on the ultrasound! Jason wasn’t supposed to come to the appointment but decided to tag along because he had a slow morning at work. The three of us piled into the small exam room, my doctor took out the ultrasound machine and within 30 seconds told me that she was pretty sure I did have a high leak in my amniotic sac and that they’d have to induce me that day!! We were NOT expecting to hear this given the hospital’s assessment of me the night before. She called the hospital to tell them we’d be heading over, and that she wanted them to induce me when I arrived. Although I was not in labor, once your water breaks, the baby is at risk of infection if she doesn’t come out within a certain time frame.

 

I headed home to finish packing my hospital bag and take a shower. Since I was almost two full weeks early, I still had a bunch of things to pack. I also was in desperate need of a manicure so ran to Duane Reade to pick up some nail polish to throw into my bag (is that ridiculous or what?!) Jason met me at home and we packed up the back of a cab with our hospital bags and a car seat and told the driver to take us to the hospital! I had butterflies in my stomach and remember feeling like each red light was lasting hours.

 

Once at the hospital we waited for about 30 minutes before we were taken to a birthing suite. The room was really spacious, had big windows, and had a little bassinet type thing for the baby just to the left of my bed. Seeing that made me so excited. I was pretty quickly given an IV with some fluids and Pitocin to start inducing labor.  It was about 1PM and my doctor had warned me that because I wasn’t dilated at all, it could take a full 24 hours from when we start to get the baby out so I decided to get comfortable. Some close family came to keep us company, I did my nails (through mild contractions!) and we all hung out having a good time. About an hour later the nurse asked me what I was thinking re: an epidural and I told her my “plan” had always been to have one. She told me that with Pitocin, contractions could get strong very quickly and suggested I get on the “queue” to meet with the anesthesiologist because the floor was busy and she assumed there would be about an hour wait. Fun fact (I asked) and the hospital we were at delivers on average 20 babies a day! Within 10 minutes the anesthesiologist came in to discuss what the epidural process would be like. This was the part I was most scared of. Despite the hospital being so busy, there was actually no wait for the epidural. I told the doctor I was not feeling a lot of pain yet so she asked me if I would be disappointed if I never felt a full contraction. When I said no (I know some people will disagree with this, but I didn’t care to feel pain) so she told me it would be best to just get the epidural over with and enjoy the rest of the night.

 

The epidural really didn’t hurt (promise), and I was a little nervous about it. The “worst” part was the shot they give you to numb your back and it felt no worse then getting a shot of Novocain in your mouth at the dentist. The only other weird part was the first sensations of feeling your legs go numb. My instinct was to ask the doctor to lower the epidural because I hate the feeling of losing control… but I got used to it. I did not feel loopy or nauseous at all from it. The next 8 hours were a total nonevent. My family left, and Jason and I hung out talking about how excited we both were and tried to watch movies. We both had way too much adrenaline to get through much, though. At 10PM my doctor came in to check on me. Dilating from 0 – 5(ish) takes the longest, and as you progress through labor, it gets faster, so I was fully prepared to only be at a 2 or 3 at best. To both of our surprise I was at a 5 and the doctor said she would be back at 1AM to check me again. The only eventful thing that happened over the next three hours was Jason eating a chicken Milanese that my parents dropped off for him and me being SO jealous because I hadn’t eaten anything since 7AM. I kept having him feed me ice chips to give myself the sensation of eating but that didn’t help much. I was starving.

 

At 1AM I was examined again. And again – we were so surprised – I was basically at a 10, which meant it was time to push!! I didn’t realize this but pushing actually can take a while. First time moms push for an average of an hour. I also didn’t fully realize that you don’t push for an hour straight. A nurse came in and explained to me how the process would work – you take a deep breath in and push as hard as you can for 10 seconds, three times and then rest until the next contraction. I pushed for an hour, which was physically exhausting but not too painful as I was still on the epidural. As we entered the second hour of pushing, the baby had not made any progress descending. My doctor suggested we cut off the epidural so I could push more effectively. Although I typically have a pretty high tolerance for pain, I was so anxious when she said this. The thought of going from virtually no pain to the most pain I’d probably ever feel in my life in a short amount of time (with no energy left) was really scary. She warned me that if I didn’t give this a shot I’d likely need a C-Section so I finally conceded and decided to try.

 

I then pushed for another full hour – this time without the epidural. I started to feel more painful contractions but was so motivated to get the baby out. My doctor warned me that the baby couldn’t handle more than another hour of pushing so if we couldn’t get her out, we’d have to move to a C-Section (which I really didn’t want.) The second hour flew because I was racing against the clock desperately trying to avoid the C-Section. Unfortunately, though, after two full hours of pushing, the baby made almost no progress.

 

Pushing is hard on both the mom and the baby, and my baby’s heart rate was starting to drop so we made the decision after 12 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing to move to a C-Section. From the second I said yes and signed a consent form, it took under 10 minutes for the incision to be made. It amazed me how fast everyone was able to work. Thankfully, Jason was allowed to stand by my side because I really needed him there. There was a big sheet up, so I couldn’t see anything the doctors were doing but I did feel an intense amount of pressure and heard everything they were saying. I was also physically exhausted, and starving! I remember joking to the doctors that all I wanted was a bagel as I was laying on the operating table. I went down for the surgery at around 3:45 and by 3:55 Scarlett was born. I felt a wave of emotion and told Jason to run over to her and make sure she was okay. He had a camera in the room and took a few pictures of her being checked on which he brought over and showed to me immediately (this was the first way I saw her.) I always knew C-Sections were a quick way to get the baby out, but what I did not know was that after the doctors get the baby out, it actually takes a bit of time to finish the procedure. The next hour was a little tough for me because I was dizzy from all the medications, I felt very nauseous, and heard this little baby crying who I couldn’t see and desperately wanted to meet.

 

I remember asking my doctor ten times if she was almost done and she joked back to me “why, do you have an appointment to go to or something!?” I feel so lucky to have had such an amazing doctor and team in the room that morning who comforted me when I was feeling most anxious and afraid. I must have been so annoying trying to chat with them while they were trying to focus on stitching me up and they were all so supportive and kind. My doctor finally said to me “we’re almost done!! You’ll be able to meet your baby very soon” and I just started hysterically crying. The moment they lowered the drape and placed Scarlett in my arms was the single greatest moment in my life. She was 6lbs 7oz, measured 9 ¾ inches long, and was absolutely perfect.

 

 

Jason walked alongside while the doctor’s wheeled me and Scarlett into a recovery room. At first my legs were so numb that I actually felt like they were disconnected from my body but it didn’t take long before I gained sensation back. We enjoyed some time as a new little family while the doctors ran some follow up tests on us. We allowed our immediate family members (who had anxiously been waiting at the hospital since we called them at 1AM to tell them I was pushing!) to visit before we were transferred to a room. The worst part about the C-Section was not being able to get out of bed for 24 hours post the surgery. On the positive, it gave Jason a ton of practice changing diapers! The hospital allowed us to keep the baby in our room the whole time, which we really loved. The only problem was that we had no clue what we were doing. The nurses came in and out and would burp and swaddle her with ease and we were both so nervous every time we picked her up. I obviously made Jason change her into a cute outfit our very first day and the photos are hilarious.

 

I ended up staying in the hospital for a total of three nights and was asked to be discharged a day early because I was feeling great and just wanted to get my baby home! As far as a C-Section recovery goes, I was up walking around way sooner than I expected and walked right out of the hospital with no problems. The worst part for me was going from sitting to standing and visa versa. I also had a ton of fluid retention the first few days I was home and swelling around the incision site, but after only a week, I really started to feel back to myself. Since we’ve been home, we’ve been so lucky to have tons of friends and family visiting and have spent hours on hours just staring at all of Scarlett’s silly faces. It is amazing that I can sit on the couch for hours watching her and never get bored, even though she really doesn’t do much yet! Jason and I couldn’t have prepared ourselves for how much we would love her. Although my birth story was definitely not anywhere close to how I envisioned it or “planned” for, I would do it all over again tomorrow.