Wyatt's Birth Story

To say I was surprised at the way Wyatt came into the world would be an understatement.  It was the craziest thing that has ever happened to me and pretty much the opposite of what I was expecting, which was more like happened when I delivered Quentin (that story is here).

Sunday, March 24 I started experiencing contractions.  I was surprised because I never had any contractions before I was induced with Quentin, but I didn't think it meant anything since lots of people say they have contractions months before they go into labor.  These contractions were pretty painful and started to go into my back just like when I was in labor with Quentin.  They weren't, however consistent and never got closer together than 10 minutes or lasted more than 45-55 seconds.  They kept me up a lot Sunday and Monday night, but weren't too bad on Monday.

Tuesday, March 26 they seemed to be a little more intense and I felt kind of sick and was making frequent trips to the bathroom.  I went to Smith's to pick up some milk and hurried out of there in case I started feeling too bad to get home.  I was wondering if I should cancel my baby shower that night, but really didn't want to.  Albert came home from work at 3:00 PM and then went to bed at 4:00 PM since he was due to work that night and I needed him to take care of Quentin while I was at my baby shower that evening.

At 4:15 PM I called my mom and told her the situation. She said that when she was pregnant with my sister she had regular contractions and then they stopped and she didn't have her for another two weeks.  I didn't meet any of the conditions that were on my paper saying when I should call the midwife so I felt safe that I would be having the baby anytime soon and didn't want to go to the hospital unless I was really in labor. 

A little before 5:30 PM I stood up to make Quentin another peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner and felt some leaking that I thought could be my water breaking.  Since it wasn't a lot of fluid I figured it could be due to loss of badder control although this time it seemed different.  When I went to the bathroom to investigate I noticed that I lost my mucus plug.  I decided to wait and see if I had anymore leaking before deciding whether or not I needed to go to the hospital.  The contractions had gotten worse, but not terrible.

I went upstairs and told Albert and he called his sister to see what she thought.  She said that she lost her mucus plus two weeks before she gave birth, but didn't have regular contractions until about 30 minutes before giving birth. The contractions seemed to be getting closer together so I told Albert to call the after hours number to the midwife and see what they said.  I started to time the contractions again since I knew they would ask me how close they were and they were about 2.5-3 minutes apart and were lasting longer 1-2 minutes. 

At 5:52 PM the midwife called back and told us to come in so I had Albert call my friend Nicole who was throwing my baby shower and offered to watch Quentin in the unlikely case I went into labor before my parents or in-laws were here.  At 5:56 PM she said she would come and get Quentin.  In the meantime Albert was running around like crazy trying to get everything together and I was trying to cope with the ever intensifying contractions.  

Nicole came and got him and I went and got into the car.  Albert came in and out of the house a couple times and finally I couldn't take it anymore and yelled "get in the freaking car!" He did and almost ran a couple red lights on the way there.  I was in a lot of pain and holding onto the handle while trying to breath through the contractions and feeling a lot of pressure in my pelvis.  On the way I felt more leaking and knew my water had broke.

At 6:18 PM we pulled up to the hospital and I was in mid-contraction and couldn't get out so Albert went to the hospital to get a wheel chair.  Meanwhile I was puking in the parking lot.  It was pretty obvious between me shaking and puking I was in transition.  Albert came back and drove the car to the front of the hospital where security was waiting with a wheel chair.  

They took me up to Labor & Delivery on the 2nd floor and Albert had to fill out some information.  They wheeled me past triage and down to my room at the end of the hall.  I changed my clothes into the gown before getting onto the bed.  

At 6:30 PM Albert texted my mom to tell her we were at the hospital when we were checked in and our room.  They put the baby heart monitor on my belly and checked my cervix, I was dialated to 8 cm at 6:40 PM.  I asked if there was time for an epidural and they said probably not, but maybe I could have an IV, which never happened.

I was in a ton of pain and was grabbing onto the rail yelling.  I had a strong urge to push.  It was very instinctual and animalistic, my body just took over.  Since the midwife wasn't there yet they were telling me to take deep long breaths, which was really hard to do, but it did slow things down and I felt a little more in control.  

I heard them say that the midwife on call pulled up in the parking lot.  She ran down the hall and checked to see if my water had broke and then I heard someone say "let her do her thing."  It was so different than when I had Quentin when they had to tell me when to start pushing and for how long.  I was screaming and pushing, it was nuts.  I could feel everything.  They made me slow down so they could put down mats to catch the blood.

At 6:48 PM little Wyatt Charles was born weighing 6 lbs 11 oz, 20.5 in long.  Albert was able to cut the cord this time which was pretty cool.  Since I didn't have any epidural or IV or anything I felt very alert and was aware of everything after I gave birth. It took me about a half an hour to stop shaking.  I was in shock about the whole thing for awhile.  I finally saw the midwife while she delivered the after birth and sewed me up, I hadn't even looked at her while I was delivering the baby.  I only had a first degree tear this time instead of a second one like I did with Quentin.  

I don't know if I would want to deliver again like that because I felt really out of control, but it turned out well and the recovery has been much better.  Maybe if I knew it was only going to last a couple hours like it did this time :)

Quentin couldn't go up to the hospital room because of the restrictions they put on due to the flu epidemic. Wyatt had a lot of mucus in his stomach because he came out so fast he didn't get squeezed enough while going through the birth canal.  They nurse sucked it out and he started eating a lot better after that.  We had to stay the full 48 hours because I tested positive for strep B but didn't have time to take any of the antibiotics before delivery.

The hospital we went to is very small and we were the only ones on in L&D until our last day.  They were very nice, but they weren't as organized as they were in Virginia so it was good that I had already had a baby before.