My patience was wearing thin and I found myself wondering and wondering – when is this baby going to come? I was at 38 weeks and hadn’t felt any contractions yet, but something told me my baby was coming soon. We had just set our date to be induced in 9 days. With my pregnancy being high risk (due to autoimmune diseases) we didn’t want to risk me carrying to 40 weeks where the risk of preeclampsia was even higher.
Two days later, I woke up with a sense of urgency – which meant lots of orders being barked at my husband. Get the car packed! Where are the hospital bags? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE NOT PACKED YET?!
As we were packing the car, my husband says in a tight voice – Chelsi, you’re soaked. I’m bringing you to the hospital right now!
See, the Tuesday before, I stood up to go to the restroom and felt like I had peed on myself. It was a small amount, so we didn’t think much of it. Coupled with the fact that my OBGYN and our high-risk doctors saw me three days after the incident, we were sure my water hadn’t broken. Then, Friday night, I lost my mucus plug. Saturday and Sunday I monitored things but because I never felt any contractions, I figured it still wasn’t time.
So, finally, we pack the car, call my nurse, and head to labor and delivery.
Oops, My Bad
David dropped me off at the hospital entrance so I could get started on checking in while he parked the car. I informed the nurse of the past week of events and she instantly scolded me. Ma’am! You should have had this baby last week! Well, how was I supposed to know? I’ve never done this before on this wasn’t in the birth plan nor the pamphlet!
We got checked in and decided to wait until the morning to be induced. So we settled in, informed all of our people, and did our best to get some rest on our last night as a family of two.
Laboring
I was induced at 1:45 a.m. At the time, I was dilated to a 1. Whatever remained of my waters officially broke around 4:30 a.m. 7 hours after being induced, I was not progressing – still at 1 cm, but my contractions had gotten to a level where there were no more techniques to bring me comfort. It was epidural time! At 8:58 my epidural was put in and I took a glorious 2-hour nap. By 11:22 a.m., I was dilated to a 6. One more nap and I woke up at 12:45 at a 9 – it was go time!
Note: Right about this time, the nurses were finished prepping the space for delivery. David saw the CLEARLY adult-sized diapers and asked Did she put these diapers in here for you or for the baby?
Meeting Sariah
After 18 minutes of pushing, our little Munchkin came blasting into the world at 1:42 p.m. at 7 lbs 5 oz 21 inches. All I saw was this precious tiny human with a mass of hair and I was instantly weeping. It felt like my life was complete in that moment but also like I was just experiencing the beginning of the best life had for me.
