It was around 5 am and I woke up in pain. This wasn’t new to me, as I was used to the early morning contractions during the later part of my third trimester. This was my 40th week and 5th day, I felt as though I was well overdue and just counting down at that point. The pain felt like intense period cramping. Usually, when this happened I would try to sleep it off or walk around until the contractions wore out, but this time this type of pain hit differently. It was so painful that I would give out a little moan here and there after each contraction. I didn’t think much of it as false labor had happened so many times at this point, I was scheduled and ready for an induced birth for the following day.
As I sat up on the bed I felt the urge to go and pee as I usually did. This time it was unusual because I saw blood. it was pink. blood, it looked like it was entangled with mucus. I had read about the “bloody show” and the mucus plug. So when I saw the bloody discharge I was a wee bit excited that it might just be what I thought it was. But I mean, I have never had this experience before and the thought of myself being in labor could be a fragment of my imagination, especially because just three days ago my cervix was checked and I was only 1cm dilated. After a little internal argument with myself, I grabbed my phone and quickly went down the Google rabbit hole. After a few minutes of endless searches to no real conclusion, I called out to my husband and told him I had seen blood. He woke up in the same semi-excitement I had, and now I had a rabbit hole Googling companion. Finally, after we both got tired of reading, we agreed to call the OBGYN. During this whole time I had been timing my extensively painful contractions. Unfortunately, it had no real rhythm to the timing, very spontaneous and similar to the other days where I had the false labors. The Doctor said that if the pain intensifies or if the contractions get closer together I should consider coming in, but as for the blood it could just be as a result of the cervix checks. I took it in good faith but the pain was just really bad.
I tried to force myself to sleep, it was difficult but I think after drinking some tea, taking a shower and trying to do my morning routine, I was able to squeeze in a 1hour nap. My husband called work to tell them I could possibly be in labor, so he wanted to work from home for the day, they granted his request as he needed to be close by in case of the need to go to the hospital. I woke up after the hour and was having the same spontaneous contractions leading me to give out loader moans from pain (In retrospect, the pain was becoming more intense, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe I was in true labor). I eagerly listened to the birthing stories my mother had to share to try and mentally trace if there were any correlations to what I was going through.
At around 3pm the pain was so bad I couldn’t take it anymore. I was due for an OBGYN check up that day but I called with the intention of canceling due to the pain, but first I wanted to find out from the doctor or midwife if I should still come in or head to the hospital. I was still bleeding and in more pain than ever, the only problem was the spontaneity of the timing of the contractions. The Doctor told me to go straight to the hospital since the bleeding was still continuing. As we were packing to go I started feeling strong urges to poop. I would run to the toilet and have no poop (my mother said it was at that point she knew I was in labor).
My husband, my mother, and myself tried our best to remember the map out of the hospital from the virtual tour. We remember that there were blue big sculptured balls at the entrance. We finally parked and headed inside. It was cold and the weather was not friendly. After every two steps, I would have a contraction, give out a random moan and stop in the middle of the road. This happened all the way up until we entered the hospital. My husband quickly rushed to grab a wheelchair for me and hurriedly pushed me in as both he and my mother put on the hospital bands they received from the administrator. As my husband pushed me towards the elevator a lady walking with others shouted ” Oh! that’s my work colleague”, she came to me and wished me luck and asked if baby was coming, I smiled and said “I hope so”. Then she said she would keep me in her prayers. When we got in the elevator, my disoriented self couldn’t for the life of me remember who that was, I was even asking my husband if it was the mid wife at the OBGYN (I figured it was my work colleague only about 15 minutes after the encounter, then laughed it off as I suffered another contraction at the Triage).
The nurse at the triage checked me the first time and said her fingers were too short so she had to call in the midwife who inserted her fingers for another painful cervix check, at that point I was 5cm dilated. That was a huge surprise given that only a few days ago I was 1cm dilated. The nurse then had to put in my drip, she couldn’t find my vein, after she poked me twice I requested for another nurse, after the third try she conceded and called over another nurse for assistance.I asked the nurse if I would leave the hospital, she said no, that I would be transferred to labor and delivery. I screamed all the way into that room as the nurses around congratulated me for not coming in as soon as labor started (little did they know that I only figured out I was in labor like 5 minutes ago. hahah jokes on them). I screamed so hard one time as I walked in front of a delivery room holding the rails that the two individuals who opened their door to exit, decided to head back inside their room.
When I got to the labor and delivery room, there was just two things on my mind, I needed to use the bathroom. I just wanted to pee and poop. However, the nurses were concerned about the pooping part and wanted to check my cervix again. I refused and told them I just want to pee. they allowed me to pee under supervision and offered to check it again when I was done, I refused again just in time for the second thing that was on my mind to walk through those doors: the anesthetist! Yes, Yes Yes! I was ready for my epidural! I sat up extra still as they inserted the epidural. They then told me they would have to insert a cataract to dispose of the urine. I agreed, and the nurse did the insertion, and checked my cervix dilation which at this point was 6cm. To be honest almost everything the nurse did after the epidural was inserted, felt fine… I mean I had experienced the worst of pain EVER so everything else from that point was smooth sailing.
I was lucky that just before I got to the hospital, I had ate rice, stew and chicken at home because I wasn’t allowed to eat anything once the epidural went in. The only food I was offered was Ice lollies. I chose the Italian lemon and Italian cherry flavor, they were both pretty good, I guess. I believe the ice might have tasted extra nice because of how hungry I felt.
Whiles we waited for my cervix to dilate to 10cm, Hubby and I watched a Netflix movie on his phone as mom slept on the couch. The nurse came in for periodic cervix checks. On one of those checks we handed her my birth plan, this was extremely helpful to her because she could have many answers to questions without having to ask me. Once I got to the 9.5cm mark after 2 hours we had not moved much further along. This was low-key annoying because I was so anxious to get the whole birthing process over and done with, at about the third hour still at 9.5cm the nurse called in the midwife to break my water. After she broke my water and they checked my cervix, I was at about 9.8cm. we waited for another hour and not much was happening so the nurse said she would just push that part out of the way – which she did. After that was done she told me I was ready to push.
At this point we were hitting the 10 hour mark since we had came to the hospital. Another nurse came in and got the place all cleaned up and sterilized, ready for baby’s arrival. I started pushing on their direction, the pushing was more like a pooping push. the nurses encouraged me to the point I was fearful that it was just flattery. I requested for a large standing mirror to see what was going on down there to engage and to encourage myself because I could literally see the progress I was making. At this point my husband and mother each held one of my legs talking me through the process. a funny thing happened about one hour into the birthing process, my mother said she was going to drink water, and never returned, (When asked why she left, she said that she couldn’t stand to see me in pain and so stepped aside to pray).
It took about 1hour and 30 minutes to push the baby out, the most painful part of the natural birthing process was the crowning of the baby’s head. Once he came out, it was just beautiful! They placed him directly on my chest, as my husband cut the thick umbilical cord. Baby came in at 5:57am basically 24 hours after my first contraction. One surprise which was utterly painful, however, helpful to the healing process, was when the nurse would push on my stomach to drain the excess blood out. The nurse pushed on my stomach every 30 minutes during the Golden 2 hours, while I enjoyed skin to skin with my baby.
After the two hours, they weighed him where he came in at 7.38 lb and 20 inches. He then received his vaccines due, and after that, we were transferred to the postpartum room where my family and myself prayed to Thank God for a safe delivery.
