Birth Story

I never did get to share my birth story, since so much happened in the few weeks after Stevie was born. Luckily mine is short and sweet...

On December 20th, in the middle of the night, I started having labor pains. They lasted about 4 hours and then at 6am, they would suddenly just stop. That happened the next 2 nights also. I kept thinking "Oh here we go!" as my contractions were a steady 10 minutes apart. But 6am on the dot, I would realize it wasn't happening and crawl back into bed.

December 23rd went a little differently. The usual labor pains woke me up at about 1:15am, but it was also accompanied by my water breaking! I was not expecting that! I had a feeling it wouldn't be like the movies and they'd have to break my water in the hospital. But luckily it happened at home and not out in public. Right off the bat, I wasn't feeling any contractions or anything, so I knew I had a little time. I decided to take a quick shower and get something to eat to prepare for the long road ahead. I woke up my husband shortly after and had him finish packing the hospital bag. By the time we were packed and heading out the door it was about 1:45am - and my contractions were like 3 minutes apart!

Holy crap. This was definitely happening.

Soon.

Luckily, the hospital is close by, and by the time I checked in and got to my room, around 2:15am, the contractions were 2 minutes apart and shortly after were a minute apart. Sometimes they were right on top of each other and I wouldn't get a break in between.

Now I should tell you, I had every intention of giving birth naturally. Some would say its crazy and others would say its amazing to go without the drugs. But honestly, once the process started, I was really overwhelmed. I got scared of the pain and not knowing how much more it would hurt. I totally chickened out. They gave me the epidural at like 5am. It never took full effect because of how fast my labor was progressing, but it took the edge off.

At 6am I started pushing and little Stevie arrived at 6:44.

What! My whole labor from start to finish was only 5 and 1/2 hours?! Yeah I know. Kind of awesome. Like I said, short and sweet. The nurses and everyone, including me, were just shocked.

Hey, that's how we roll.