And Then There Were.. : Early Arrivals

Miss Tegan Mae's Birth Story

It's hard to believe I already have a one week old.

When I was pregnant, a week couldn't go by fast enough.

Now I'm just dying for it to slow down!

This blog is going to include the details leading up to, as well as, the birth of my daughter.

I won't be getting too detailed, but as most know, birth (although a quite amazing thing) is not the prettiest thing.

It all started on Tuesday August 20th.

I was going about my day as I normally would..

Woke up, scarfed down a couple bowls of cereal, and tried to figure out how I

was going to pass the time.

The day before, I had gone in for a prenatal massage and I was so thankful because I actually ended up getting about 10 hours of good uninterrupted sleep that night.

Because I was actually feeling pretty good, I decided to bake!

It was a great way to waste time, avoid spending money, and little did I know my

pumpkin crumb cake was going to be a lifesaver upon coming home

from the hospital.

At around 6:00 pm that evening, Randy and I were getting ready to eat some dinner,

when I felt this weird trickle.

It was very slight, but definitely not normal.

Embarrassed, I thought to myself, "Oh my gosh, did I just pee?"

I went to the restroom, assessed the situation, and just thought okay that was weird.

Well 10 minutes later it happened again.

This time I was even more perplexed.

Within 30 minutes, I knew something was up because these little "trickles" just kept happening.

I was texting my girlfriend and asking for her opinion, researching online to see if I had suddenly developed a new pregnancy symptom of incontinence or how to tell

if I was in fact leaking amniotic fluid.

I decided I would take a shower just in case something

was happening and then evaluated the situation for the next couple hours.

I was determined that I was not going to be that overly anxious

first time mom who makes a billion trips to labor and delivery, only to be sent right back home.

Plus, how embarrassing would that have been if they were like,

"Uh sorry hun, but you did indeed just pee yourself."

Hey, it happens I guess?! I read plenty of stories about women who went into L&D

thinking it was time, but really they just couldn't control their bladder!

It also didn't help that I had no other signs of labor at that time.

Finally at about 8:45 pm, I made the call that we should go into L&D just to be safe.

It hadn't quite hit Randy that this could be it because:

1) I was way too calm; he was sure that the day I went into labor it was going

to be complete chaos and stress, and

2) he was not thrilled with the idea of potentially going in for nothing considering he needed to be up at 4 am for work the next morning.

When we got to the hospital around 9:00 pm,

right away they had me strip down and change into a gown.

To my surprise my nurse (Tracey) kept telling me,

"Well it sounds to me like you are leaking amniotic fluid."

I guess in my mind I was still in denial and thought everyone else was thinking to themselves, "Oh great, another first time mom who thinks "it is time"."

The first thing they did was perform a swab test to detect the presence of amniotic fluid.

Generally it takes about 10 minutes for the results to appear, but about two minutes

later, I did indeed pop up positive for a a leak.

With no other questions asked, I was immediately admitted to the hospital.

Randy and I kind of glanced at each other, smiled, and without hesitation fastened our seat belts for what was about to come.

Things got "real" really fast at that moment.

Since I had yet to be "checked", the on-call doctor for my doctors office wanted to know what my status was as far as labor progression.

The nurse came in to do the check and it turns out I was nowhere near being in labor.

WONDERFUL.

I could just see the look in my nurses eyes. She wanted better news to tell me,

but the truth was Tegan was so high she couldn't even feel her head

nor had she even come close to "dropping".

She was considered -5 station and I think just to be nice, the nurse told me I was

maybe 1 cm dilated.

Without much choice, it looked as though I was going to have to be induced

and I was schedule to start pitocin around midnight.

Since the nurse couldn't verify if Tegan was still head down or not, we had to have

an ultrasound tech come in to determine her positioning, as well as how much

amniotic fluid I still had remaining.

At first I was excited to have the ultrasound and see baby girl,

but then once he was performing it, she was so squished up inside it was kinda scary looking!

We were able to determine that she was indeed head down, as well as sunny side up!

OH JOY!

As if labor wasn't going to be painful enough going all natural, now I not only get to have pitocin, but I also get to push out a baby who is face up! ;)

I had about one hour to get on my hands and knees and try to get this little girl to flip

so she would be face down. Unfortunately, there isn't

any way to determine if this technique works

until come push time.

It was still worth a shot in my opinion, so I gave it a go

(and yes, in my case, it did work!!)

At 12:30 am, they started me on the pitocin and my nurse (Judith) told me to try and get some rest.

Pish.. fat chance!

Although I did try, lets be realistic, I was about to have a baby!

While Randy got some shut eye, I tossed and turned, checked my FB, checked my instagram, tossed some more, went on my pregnancy app, and finally at 2:00 am, I felt my first real contraction.

They weren't consistent at this point, but it did mean things were progressing.

By 4:00 am my contractions were starting to become more consistent and were strong enough that I needed to focus on breathing through them.

I text my sister Danielle and told her she better head over as things were picking up.

Randy had just awoke and I updated him on my progress throughout the night.

At 5:30 am I asked to be checked again as I was starting to have some pretty

good pressure throughout my hips, back and lower region.

It turns out I was now 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. My nurse was very thrilled

with my progress thus far.

As things continued to intensify, breathing through my contractions got harder and harder.

It didn't help that I was also starting to feel nauseous.

My sister Danielle and Randy continued to try and coach me through each contraction.

Randy let me squeeze the crap out of his hand, and while I held Danielle's hand as well, I tried not to take it out on her too.

By 6:30 am I was 5 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and -2 station.

I could definitely feel the intensity of her dropping and my pelvic bones separating.

At 7:45 am my doctor stopped in to check on me.

I was 6 cm (almost 7), 90% effaced and at 0 station.

By this point I could barely take the contractions.

As my contractions continued to intensify, I started having them one on top of the other.

I was maybe getting 15-30 seconds between some of them,

which was definitely not enough time to recover.

I called the nurse in and asked how much longer I had to be on the pitocin

and begged for them to turn it off.

My nurse (Shanon), who was AMAZING, cut my dose in half

and drew up a bath for me to see if that would help bring down the intensity of the contractions.

While I really didn't want to move or get in a bath, I was diminishing and

getting more and more ready to throw in the towel.

I was starting to feel defeat and wasn't sure I could do this all natural.

I kept saying, "Why am I doing this without meds? What is wrong with me?" or "I don't think I can do this much longer."

Randy, my sister Danielle, and my nurse Shanon were such huge support.

They kept encouraging me and telling me I could do this, but always reminded me that the pain meds were there if I absolutely needed.

They never tried to push them on me and instead tried to take my mind off that aspect

and comforted me, reminding me to breathe.

While in the tub, my contractions did not ease up whatsoever; but I was able to relax a little more when

I did get the slight brake between some of my contractions.

They were so erratic at this point.

Sometimes I would get them one on top of the other, and other times

I would get a minute or two between them.

I was getting an increased urge to push, so my nurse checked me again and this time I was 8 cm dialted and 100 effaced.

It was 8:00 am and my nurse wanted me out of the tub because

she knew it was going to be "go time" soon.

After waiting it out through another set of contractions, I moved back to the bed and by about 8:45 it was time to get this baby out.

I guess for a lot of people they say with pushing comes relief.

Well, I found absolutely no relief in pushing.

Pushing was hard. It was intense. And I almost threw up multiple times.

It was even harder when my Dr. was no where to be found and I had to try and relax myself

through two sets of contractions.

I knew I could have pushed her out through those, but my nurse was sweating bullets and kept

telling me to hold off on pushing and to try and relax and breathe.

It was during my third set of contractions that I didn't care anymore.

I was pushing this baby out with or without my doctor there.

My nurse had already called for someone to get the on-call doctor, in which I think I may have whined and said, "I want my doctor."

And it was just as I was getting ready to push Tegan's head out, that my Doctor did end up swooping in, barely had her gloves on, and delivered the rest of my daughter.

I pushed for all of about 30 minutes

(which every minute was excruciatingly painful)

and at 9:13 am, miss Tegan Mae made her debut.

She is absolutely perfect and I couldn't be happier about how my whole experience at Legacy went.

I had amazing nurses, Tegan had amazing nurses, my doctor was amazing,

and the delivery all in all went as smooth as one could as for.

Everyone truly made me feel special and wouldn't stop ranting and raving about

my decision of going all natural and sticking through with it.

Since that day, Tegan has been nothing but perfect.

She hardly cries and has done everything exactly how it should be done.

She has had no issues with latching, she eats like a champ, she sleeps all the time, and she has been gaining her weight back (and more I'm sure!)

She barley whimpered when getting her shots or having her blood drawn.