Scarlett's Birth Story

It was about 6:45pm on Thursday, September 15th. I was taking a bath and watching HGTV's "Design Star" on hulu. I was very relaxed and even managed to shave my legs (an amazing accomplishment for me in general, let alone me at 40 weeks pregnant). I started feeling a little overheated so I got out and decided to finish my little show in bed. As I lay there, I felt a bubbling feeling in my lower abdomen followed by a strong cramp. I had been having some minor cramping for awhile but this one felt different. I stood up and felt myself leak a bit. Wetting myself a little upon standing was also common for me so I didn't think much of it. When I went to the bathroom, I saw that I was slowly leaking greenish fluid. I frantically called for Jordan knowing that my water had broken and more than likely the green stuff was meconium--baby poop. I was so excited and shocked that I was shaking, but I was also a little scared because I learned that when a baby has a bowel movement in the womb, she can breathe it in and infect her lungs and the problems only begin from there. Luckily, we live so close to the hospital that we didn't even bring anything with us and we just started walking over there. I got in my gown and the moment I got into the hospital bed, the rest of my amniotic fluid gushed everywhere. The nurse reassured me that the meconium was thin and that our baby would be just fine.

I was immediately dilated to a two and 50% effaced when the day before, my cervix was barely softening and I wasn't even close to dilating; but babies come when they are supposed to. I was told that when I was dilated to a four or five I could get an epidural, which I was very much looking forward to. Contractions are very hard to explain. For me, they felt like menstrual cramps that would slowly increase in intensity and then climax to an excruciatingly sharp, breathtaking pain and slowly diminish into blissful nothingness. As my labor started progressing, though, the contractions were getting unbearably close together. After the pain of one contraction would peak, it would only get about half way down before going right back up again into another full contraction. I started shaking and was losing control over my breathing. It wasn't time for the epidural so they gave me an IV medication to take the edge off while I waited. It. Was. Amazing. The contractions were still painful, but the peaks were manageable and I felt a deep sense of euphoria between each contraction. It's probably a good thing that I don't know what it was that they gave me, or I would find myself some more.

At about midnight, I was finally at a five, and I was more than ready for my epidural. I was expecting the pain to disappear, to get a break, and possibly a quick nap before having to push. Unfortunately, the pain was only relieved on my left side. I could still feel every contraction on my right side and I was not very happy about it. We think the epidural was too low because the only place I really felt pain free was in the birth canal, which I was very grateful for (since I ended up tearing a bit), but I was getting so tired and since I was expecting a break and didn't get it, I was EXTRA bummed. At about 2:30 am, it was time to push. At this point, I was thrashing around in pain, but pushing unexpectedly and amazingly takes the pain away. It's like you are channelling the pain and pushing it right out. I was loving pushing! Until about an hour later. Then I was tired of pushing. Because it was way more painful not to push, I was pushing with every contraction, but I was only getting about a minute break between each one and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I started panicking because I felt like I couldn't breathe, my blood sugar was getting too low, and I cannot even describe how exhausted I was. Apparently I am (was) really tight "down there." I would push the baby down really far, but the moment I would stop pushing, she would get launched right back up. I started begging for them to knock me out and just take her. Instead, they gave me a squatting bar, the meanest idea in the world. They wanted gravity to help get her out since she kept getting sucked back up, so they put a bar at the end of the bed, and I hung on it while I pushed. So there I was, doing pull-ups while pushing. I am getting so tired just remembering how hard that was. They finally pulled out the vacuum--my bestest friend. It was like a little suction cup they stuck on the baby's head and they pulled as I pushed. That helped get her down far enough that she wasn't going back up and after 10 hours of labor, two hours of pushing, she was finally out. Everything was in slow motion after that. I sat there, stunned at the immediate pain relief and feeling of ecstasy that flowed through my body. I waited for the cry, the cry that always comes when a baby is born. But it never came. She just opened her eyes and looked around. It was as if she had been spiritually prepared for this moment and she was taking it all in. She has maintained that same calm, sweet, content temperament and we are so blessed to have her!

Stats: 7lbs 11oz, 21 3/4 inches, 4:46