The funny thing with labor is that you often have absolutely no clue what to expect. You can have a long, 27-hour labor (like this one) or have a baby a quick, 15 minutes later (like my second’s birth story).
Starting the Birth Story: Playing the Waiting Game
In May 2018, I was due to give birth to my first child. I kept thinking he would come early because I felt SO ready, but my due date of May 5th came and went while I continued to wait.
The next day, I tried to keep myself busy with my sister-in-law, who was in town visiting for the birth. Or at least, that was the plan! We were crossing our fingers that he would come sometime during her trip. I desperately wanted her to be a part of his birth story. We went downtown to do some shopping, grabbed brunch, did A LOT of walking – and tried whatever we could to get my overdue belly to pop.
When we got home from our afternoon out, I felt a trickle of fluid. It honestly felt like I lost control and peed myself a bit. I thought it was weird, but it’s not totally unnatural for fluid to randomly surprise you at 40 weeks pregnant, so I continued on with the day. We went to pick up a pizza, brought it back home, and then the trickle happened again. And again. The third time, I called the hospital and they suggested I come in to have it tested to see if it was amniotic fluid.
Water Breaking – Sort Of
When we checked into the hospital, sure enough my water had broken. Awesome! It turns out that my little guy had a hard kick that caused a “high leak” – meaning my water broke up high and that’s what caused the slow trickle out rather than the big gush you see in the movies. Christian is so adventurous and wild, I’m not surprised that he broke my water himself.
However, because I wasn’t in any kind of labor whatsoever prior to my water breaking, it led to quite a process to finish out the rest of the delivery. I was 1cm dilated when my water broke, so we had a bit of a road ahead of us.
Hurry Up and Wait
After several hours of waiting for things to pick up, I was given Pitocin to kickstart my contractions. After about 8 hours of that, I got an epidural. The good thing about my water breaking early was that I could get an epidural pretty early! The bad thing was that meant we were on a timeline for baby’s arrival. We needed to get the baby out 24 hours after my water broke, but my body wasn’t doing much movement on its own. It was almost as if I needed the process to break my body into giving birth for the first time.
After 24 hours or so (I think?), I finally hit 5cm dilated. Progress! It was still going to be a while. The L&D team advised us to relax, try to get some rest, and they would check back in in a little while. Our dogs had been home alone all day, so we thought it was a good chance for Jordan to run back to let them out. Let me just acknowledge right now what a rookie mistake of ours that was!
But Things Changed… Fast!
Shortly after he left the hospital to head home, things took a rapid turn. I woke up from a nap to find nurses flooding the room and rushing to check on me. The baby’s heart rate had dropped significantly while I was sleeping, and I was 10cm fully dilated.
Ummm…. WHAT?
I went from a 5cm to a 10cm dilation in an hour, and my husband was currently driving on the freeway in the opposite direction of the hospital.
On top of that, because the baby’s heart rate had dropped so much, they began prepping me for an emergency c-section to get him out. They put me on oxygen, slapped a hairnet on, and started suiting up my sister-in-law – and mentally preparing her to be in the operating room with me.
She quickly called my husband to fill him in and get him to turn around. On speakerphone next to the bed, he assured me he would be there soon and gave me words of encouragement that I needed in that scary moment. You can actually see some footage of it in the video below!
The Final Push(es)
The doctor decided to let me try pushing “just to see if it works” before moving into surgery, so push I did. I lightly pushed for probably about 10 minutes before my husband came rushing back into the room and joined me. He stood by my head and held my hands, looked me in the eyes, and helped me breathe. My sister-in-law held my leg, and together with the help of our nurses, we continued to push.
And push… and push…and push. I can still hear the count to 10 in my head as Teen Mom played on the TV in the background (classic, I know).
I pushed for 2 hours straight, and finally, we were getting close. The pain became unbearable so I asked for a re-up on the epidural, but it was too late to give more meds. I felt the ring of fire, I continued pushing, and eventually, we could see some hair coming through.
“He’s beautiful, Liv!” my sister-in-law told me. Hearing that my baby boy was *this* close to me – that he was real and we would soon be together on the outside – was the motivation I needed to keep going.
From Birth Story to Mama
Christian was born at 5:36 pm, 27 hours after my water broke. He had the cord tied around his neck AND tied in a knot, but he was perfectly healthy. Turns out, the ties are what caused his heart-rate to drop during labor. My doctor said he must have been an acrobat in the womb to tie that knot early on (when he had room), which is no surprise given how active Christian is now. His birth story suits him.
My labor and delivery with Christian is one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through, and yet it was the most empowering and rewarding. I had no idea how strong I was until that day, and I had no idea how much I could instantly love someone else until this day.
Of course, I knew I could do hard things. I’ve bounced back from physical recoveries before, but I had no idea I could give life like this.
I felt a connection with Christian throughout my entire pregnancy, but meeting my firstborn in person was a totally different feeling. We went through this huge traumatic experience together, and it was like he knew it. Seeing him look into my eyes for the first time was magical, and I could tell he knew who I was.
He made me a mama. He gave me a new purpose. For that, I am forever thankful.
Christian, mommy loves you so much. I would go through this 27-hour birth story time and time again if it means having you here to make life more beautiful.
Check out the whole labor and delivery vlog below!