A Birthing Story

One would think after having two kids already, the third time would be the charm. But with about a month left in my pregnancy and just like the first two times, that small sense of fear and unknowing is starting to creep its way back into my world.

The first time I was pregnant, I pretty much feared labor and deliver from the time the doctor said "You're pregnant" up until my water broke. Once my water broke, this sense of calm came over me. During my pregnancy, I experienced pain like I had never experienced before. I was unable to walk without assistance and thought I was having a miscarriage. I called my doctor to let him know what was going on and he thought some Tylenol would ease the pain. This is not Tylenol pain - you need to see me RIGHT NOW, I demanded. It turned out that I had uterine fibroids. From the fourth month on, the fibroids gave me problems here and there but nothing like when they were first discovered. I had four, one of which was the size of a grapefruit.

When I was about 36 weeks pregnant, I moved into a new apartment. It was a little further away from everyone but it was the best price with the best size and was just over the bridge. At the time, my son's father and I were not together so I was (mentally) preparing myself for single parenthood. He was also about to move to LA for 8 months so it was truly just going to be me and the baby. Fortunately, I could be in downtown DC in 10 minutes without traffic and had a great support system of friends.

The following week, I went to a movie premier with one of my girlfriends to see a great new Denzel Washington movie called Antoine Fisher. Throughout the movie I complained about the Braxton Hicks contractions I was having. "If these are just the practice contractions, I can only imagine what the real ones feel like!" Since I was working as a contractor on different document review projects, I had had a three week break from work and had a job interview the next day for a small project. I was determined to work as long as I could even at 37 weeks of pregnancy. I remember those Braxton-Hicks kicking my butt throughout the interview and thought it was great practice for "labor day" to endure them. That night night, one of my girlfriends and I had a long, deep conversation about the future and what I thought was in store for me. She was great at asking questions you may not have thought about but probably should. We were on the phone for hours until I finally felt the need to sleep off these Braxton-Hicks things.

There was one problem though. I couldn't sleep. Everytime I nodded off, a contraction would wake me up and I would take another trip to the bathroom. This was really challenging especially since I had just moved and had not gotten the bed set up yet. The mattress was on the floor and for someone who's nine months pregnant, you know how difficult it is to get up from those low positions. Around 2a.m. I broke down and called my doctor. I told him what had been going on. He told me that I could possibly be in labor if I had consistant contractions and bloody show in my urine. Ohmygoodness! I did have bloody show in my urine! Am I really about to have a baby??? I'm alone. I'm by myself. I just moved into this great apartment and still have to unpack boxes. It's winter in DC and there's snow on the ground. I can't be going into labor right now.

Needless to say, I tried to get as much rest as I possibly could that night. I napped in between the contractions and was pretty much in denial until 6am. At exactly 6 am, another contraction woke me up out of my sleep and submitted into a position leaving me on all fours followed by a gush of water. Right there in the middle of my mattress. My water broke and a since of calm and excitement came over me. An exact three weeks before my due date, my water broke. I called my mom who was living in Charlotte at the time. She was nervous as a bee. Then I called my local girlfriend, mom of two who insisted I had to go to the hospital. I thought I could just wait it out awhile until the contractions got closer but she insisted that because my water broke, I needed to get to the hospital ASAP! I still hadn't worked out my "plan". How was I going to get to the hospital? What should I pack in that infamous bag? I was so ill prepared.

Luckily, I had one girlfriend who lived within 10 minutes of me. She could take me to the hospital on her way to work. She got to my house before I could throw anything in a bag and within minutes we were off to George Washington Hospital in DC. Surprisingly the contractions were bearable. After all, I had been contracting for two days and didn't know it. I was dropped off in front and she went to go park the car. She wanted to make sure I was all checked in before she went off to work. She ended up staying with me a couple of hours.

Slowly, the party grew until I had about 10 people in my room. It was a great labor and delivery room. It was big, new, and I was the only one in there (in addition to about 10 of my closest friends and 1 auntie). The hospital had just opened this wing not even a month prior and was updated with all the latest and greatest equipment. My son's father finally strolled in close to noon. No need to rush. I'm only about to give birth to your childe. (We've reconciled since and are on baby #3 now.)

So I checked in to the hospital about 7:30 am and doctor told me I could start pushing around 5PM. The in between time was a straight party. Epidurals are your friend. I could deliver a boy once a day with an epidural. I was thankful I had all these people there with me throughout the day. They made the experience so much fun. So endearing. Something that none of us will ever forget. The most exciting part of it all was that I didn't know what I was having. I wanted to save that for the delivery so there was anticipation over whether or not it was a boy or girl. Everyone had cell phones going on when the pushing started so that if you weren't one of the 10 there, you could still feel like a part of it. I remember one girlfriend walking back and forth with a wet towel. She later told me it was nothing nice going on down south. She was just trying to keep busy from fainting. My other girlfriend who helped deliver another baby, was coach my son's father on how to coach meet. It was totally cute. Total chaos. Total me. I couldn't imagine it any differently.

And then at 5:28pm, with the help of a vacuum, a childe was born. And I screamed louder than I ever screamed in my life because he tore me private part like it was paper. An excruciating 5 minutes later, someone FINALLY informed me it was a boy. Little did I know they had to medically tend to him immediately which is why everyone was so slow to respond to my question, "What did I have?!??! What did I have?!??!!"

Once the doctor stopped him from turning blue and checked out all vitals, I was able to hold and nurse my brand new baby boy. It was such a surreal experience being a first time mom. Carrying this baby inside me for nine months. Getting connected to him in the womb and finally getting to meet him and hold him in my arms. And now, I'm four weeks away from another (unknown sex) baby. I'm praying this one will stay in the oven as long as possible. My daughter came 5 days before her due date. Maybe I'll share that birthing story with you next time, altough that one was less chaotic. Actually, it may be rather boring to talk about which was no indication of things to come. Never a dull moment when my baby girl is around.

What's your birthing story?