Melody's Birth Story

This post contains "real" birth language. If you are sensitive to this then don't read it!

I think I am finally ready to tell miss Melody's birth story! I don't know why I haven't written this down yet but better late than never! It has been two years since she was born so the details are a little fuzzy now.

My pregnancy with Melody was pretty uncomfortable. I was working up until the last month of my pregnancy, which was a fairly labor intensive job. I had horrible nausea for most of my pregnancy with her as well.

I had an O.B. with her pregnancy and I did like him but being a first time mom, I felt he wasn't very informative. I read "What to Expect When You're Expecting" but nothing else. That was all I had to go on as far as birthing knowledge. I didn't think I needed a birth plan. I took the hospital's "birth class". I was just very uninformed of my choices and how to birth.

As it got closer to my due date (which was January 20th), I was getting more and more anxious. I didn't know what labor would feel like. How would I know when to go to the hospital? How painful would the contractions be?

On January 8th, a Sunday, at around 11:00pm I woke up to pee (for the 5th time!) and was having some cramping feelings. I had been slowly losing my mucous plug since the Friday before. So I stayed up to see if the contractions were coming in regular time intervals. They weren't extremely painful but I could definitely feel them. I ended up waking up my husband about a half hour later so he could help me time them. They were coming anywhere from 7 to 4 minutes apart. I figured we should go to the hospital "just to be safe". When we arrived at the hospital, they hooked me up to monitors to check the contractions and also checked my cervix. I was only a 2 and after about an hour of monitoring the contractions slowed and stopped. They sent me home.

The next day my doctor had me come in to be checked since I had gone to the hospital the night before. At this point I had started having the small contractions again but when I went in to see my doctor I was still only dilated to a 2. He scheduled an induction for Friday but didn't think I would last that long. I went home and decided to eat and just rest. The contractions were getting worse and worse but they weren't coming in regular time intervals. My husband spent hours just timing them with no consistency. I was in horrible pain and was so confused as to why this was so much more painful than I was expecting! Around 8pm I decided to get in the hot shower. The warm water on my lower back felt amazing! I didn't want to get out of the shower but the hot water ran out. My mother in law came over and she helped rub my back for a bit during some of the contractions. ( I didn't figure out until later I was having back labor!)

I decided we needed to go to the hospital again about 2am. But I was also not looking forward to the drive there and didn't want to be told to go home again being in that much pain. I actually don't remember much of the ride to the hospital. I think I had white knuckles when we arrived. I was trying to relax but the contractions were too intense. Now I know I keep saying how painful they were, but to put it in perspective, I had been meditating for a couple years and I COULD NOT relax! I thought I would have been at least a little prepared!

We walked up to the maternity ward (yes, walked!) and they hooked me up again. Mind you my contractions still weren't regular. When they checked I was still at a 2 but they decided to admit me. This is where things are a little foggy. I remember being in my room and having to go to the bathroom. While I was in there I had a few contractions and then my bloody show. After that I was at a 4. The anesthesiologist came in finally and gave me my epidural. It wasn't on a drip though, he had to come in every three hours to manually add more medicine. My mom, dad, mother in law, and husband were watching tv while I dozed in and out for a few hours.

Apparently I wasn't "progressing quickly enough" and was stuck at a 9 so they gave me some pitocin. A little bit after this the nurse came in and started stretching me out. (prepping me to push) My family left the room except my mom and husband. They had me start pushing but I wasn't feeling very much pressure. This was probably about 9am Tuesday morning the 10th. I was pushing and pushing and pushing and it really didn't feel like anything was happening. I was just feeling more and more pain since my epidural was almost worn off and the anesthesiologist went in to do a c-section and wouldn't be back. After two hours of this my doctor FINALLY came in. I pushed for a while longer and she wasn't moving out from under my pelvic bone. My doctor tried the suction but it kept popping off. So he said he could try the forceps.

Apparently the forceps aren't used very often these days because he asked if the medical students could come in to watch him. When you have been in labor for almost 36 hours and pushing for 2 hours, you could care less about 15 strangers looking at your baby being born! I just wanted her out! So after 2 episiotomies, Melody Page was born via forceps. It was 11:07am January 10th, 2012. She was a completely healthy 6lb 9oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

She came out face to the side which I guess is why she was stuck under my pelvic bone. Luckily throughout the whole time pushing her heart rate was beautiful. Otherwise I'm sure more intervention may have been necessary.

She was so beautiful! I was so in love with her right away! It's so cliche but it really is an indescribably feeling of overwhelming love.