09/28/2024
Birth story part 2 ✨✨
The nurse monitored my contractions and agreed they were indicative of labor. She asked me to walk around for 30 mins to see if my cervix would make some changes. She explained sometimes the cervix can dilate and then recoil / close up. Movement would help open the cervix up. So Matt and I went for a walk. We talked about what name we wanted, he helped me stretch and move through contractions. We had a little bit of a “date” in the hospital hallway. I remember being annoyed I had to do all of this as I was positive the nurse just didn’t measure my cervix properly lol and Matt kept me out of my head and got me refocused.
When I went back in, I was 5cm dilated, admitted and prepped for a night of labor.
As always, my labor ended up longer than I expected. I was in active labor for about 10 hours. I had an epidural, lots of peanut ball time and tons of movement (yes, even with an epidural!) I actually asked the anesthesiologist for a low dose epidural and explained how I wanted to move around and change positions etc and it was done totally perfectly. Highly recommend this if you’re wanting an epidural but still want to feel contractions a bit and move.
Once I felt some tailbone pressure I alerted my nurse and she had my doctor come in to check my cervix. My doctor said “don’t push or laugh too hard because her head is right here! And I have to get my gloves on!”
Ten minutes later, Lila was birthed. I pushed through 3 contractions in total. I used my breath to guide her out and worked with my body, not against it.
This was my first birth with a different doctor in the group. I wasn’t nervous but I didn’t know what to expect this time. I was curious if she was loud and encouraging, commanding and in charge. Instead, to my delight she was poised and insanely calm. It was just Matt, myself, my doctor and my nurse in the room when I had Lila. My doctor barely said much while I pushed and she would lightly squeeze my knees between contractions, telling me how great I was doing. My nurse held one hand and Matt held the other. I never felt so secure and protected during a birth than I did that day. I was really at such peace.
