Here's a quick recap of the birth story:
On Sunday April 14, my braxton hicks contractions started to intensify to the point where I thought I might be going into labor. The previous Monday at my doctor appointment I was already 3cm dilated so I thought we were getting close. I went to my appointment on the 15th and I was 4cm! Still not in active labor but contractions that would come every 20 minutes or so and then stop for hours. I left the appointment feeling like I would begin labor soon. On Tuesday morning, I lost my mucus plug and had a bloody show so again I thought it was imminent! I started having even more intense contractions that day but random intervals. On Wednesday I had my friend Rachel take Camden to Gymboree class and I took a nap. The rest of that afternoon I still had even more intense but still random contractions. That night, they started to come every 10 minutes or so and I thought we were really ramping up! Our friends Jenn and Patrick were even prepared to stay the night with Camden if we went to the hospital. I went to bed and everything subsided. This was definitely God's grace to get one final nights' sleep! The next morning I woke and had no signs of labor. I was so bummed and a little confused. I called my friend Sandra and we took the boys to City Hall to run around and decided to walk to Lyfe Kitchen for lunch at 11:00. As we were finishing lunch around 11:45, I felt a small gush of water leak out. It felt very similar to the one I felt when I began labor with Camden so I told Sandra I thought my water was going so I ran to the bathroom. Nothing else came out but I thought it would be best to walk home. As we started walking I began to have extremely intense contractions. Later, Sandra told me I was pretty much running home! Haha! As soon as I got there I sat down on the exercise ball for some relief while Camden was playing an app on my phone. (I had just purchased said app because he was playing it on Sandra's phone while I was in the bathroom at Lyfe and was very upset that I had to take it away to run home!). As soon as I sat down on the ball, water started pouring out! I ran to the loo again and it kept coming so I figured I should call Jenn to come down and watch Cam and call Jared to come home from work! I snatched the phone from Cam (again very sad bc he was playing the new Duck Duck Moose app!) and called Jenn and said come down! I called Jared and luckily he was already walking home because he didn't answer!! By that time it was 12:15. As soon as Jared arrived, my contractions were already 2 minutes apart and gaining intensity quickly. I told him he could eat the rest of my sandwich for lunch real quick, but 2 bites in, I changed my mind and said we better leave. Jenn put Camn down for a nap when we left. We hopped in the car and made the 10 minute drive to the hospital at Kaiser Venice. He dropped me off and somehow I walked up to the hospital and rode the elevator up to the fourth floor stopping along the way for contractions. I checked in and they sent me to a room to be checked. It was about 12:45 when I arrived. I told them my water was going and they checked to make sure. Duh, it was! Jared walked in from the parking garage with the giant exercise ball and I quickly realized we were way past that phase!!
They admitted me to a very large and nice labor room and I was having contractions 1-2 minutes apart and very intense at this point while a dumb nurse was asking me silly questions like what's the name of your pediatrician!! Could she not see I was about to transition!! She said, Oh your contractions are getting really close together! Haha yes, yes, they are. I couldn't even speak to answer her questions. They sent the midwife in to check me around 1:15 after I asked them multiple times. I knew I must have been atleast 6cm at this point. She checked me and I was 7 cm. I was a little disappointed bc it was so intense I didn't think I could make it another 3cm. I asked for an epidural and the midwife and nurse left to go order it. She looked at me and said, you know it will take 30 minutes. I think she knew I wouldn't make it that far. I was hoping I didn't have 30 more minutes either because I really wanted to experience natural birth since I was induced with Cam and wasn't able to.
The only place I was able to manage the contractions was standing up with my arms hanging on Jared's neck the whole time. So as soon as they checked me I hopped right out of bed and got back to that position. A couple minutes after I stood up, I felt an extreme pressure pushing down on me and I yelled "I'm pooping!" I knew it was the baby, but that's all I could get out. Jared ran out of the room because we didn't even know where the call button was for the nurse and no one was in the hall so he started yelling nurse nurse! I was just standing in the room and as soon as he walked back in I looked down and blood was coming out. The nurse ran in and said get back on the bed right now. The next thing I knew, there were 10 people in the room running around and my body was already pushing her out! They said don't push and so I started yelling to stop it! Haha! Like that was gonna happen! Then another lady came in and said don't yell put your chin to your chest! I guess I was supposed to start pushing now. I gave 3 pushes of 3 sets of 10 seconds and I looked down and saw her head! I said is that her head!?? I couldn't believe how fast it was. Then one more push for the body and a final one a few minutes later for the placenta. What a rush!! It was an amazing experience as they put her up on my chest and Jared got to cut the umbilical chord. They took her to clean her off and weigh her and she only cried for a second after she came out and then was happy and quiet laying in the cot. Such a sweet girl from the beginning!
Camden woke up from his nap and Jenn brought him up to see up just an hour and a half after she was born! What an amazing experience to have him there so soon after!!
Hope you enjoyed the birth story!
Here are some newborn photos we had our friend Rachel soon when she was 2 weeks old.
