Megan's Speedy Arrival

For some reason new moms like to exchange all the gory details of their birth stories. Ours is one for the books, that's for sure. And definitely something I won't soon forget.

Monday, June 8th, I was having some contractions throughout the afternoon. I timed them when I could and they were about 12-16 minutes apart, but not really strong and weren't lasting for long. Because I wasn't really experiencing any abdominal cramping along with the contractions, I had kind of written them off as more Braxton Hicks contractions.

Throughout the evening things didn't really change, so we decided to go to bed early in case things changed over night.

By about 9pm, the contractions were averaging 9 minutes apart and getting more intense and accompanied by cramping. We called Labor and Assessment at the hospital and asked when we should come in. Their answer was when the contractions are less than 4 minutes apart.

I tried to rest, daddy stayed up and we measured again a few hours later. Contractions were now more like 6-8 minutes apart. I don't think there was any rest after that. Contractions started to get stronger and stronger and definitely were starting to hurt. By 1am, the contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. I got into the shower and by the time I was out, I could barely function through them. I needed help getting dressed and thankfully daddy got me out the door and into the car.

The car ride to the hospital is only about 10 minutes in which time my contractions were coming on every 2 minutes. We pulled up at Emergency at 2:25am and security wheeled me to Labor and Assessment. I no more than got to the room and was changing out of my clothes when my water broke. The triage nurse did an internal and I was 9+cm dilated and fully effaced. This baby was ready to be born!

After a quick panic that I was too far along to get any drugs, I was transported to the delivery room. By this point contractions were coming one on top of the last and getting much worse. When the labor nurse found out I was 9+cm and fully effaced they wanted me to try a couple of pushes. Baby was right there, and I was probably only 10 minutes from delivering.

Because I was already way more than 5cm dilated I couldn't have an epidural. Luckily I still had the option of an intrathecal which is the same drug that is used in an epidural, given as a one time shot in the back instead of being administered through an IV.

By now it was 3:05am and thankfully those meds took effect right away and took just about all the sensation of the contractions away. I could still feel them, but it was so minor. The meds helped slow things down a bit and bought us a little time for me to relax a bit and most importantly, wait for the doctor.

At 3:30am I started pushing through the contractions. This was a piece of cake after what I had already endured before even getting to the hospital. It was only a few pushes and her head was right there. I pushed for about 30 minutes and then we slowed things down again as we waited for the doctor. Once she was in the room, it was only a couple more pushes and Megan Hope was born at 4:34am on June 9th.

We couldn't believe what a peanut she was. 6lbs 1oz and 19in with a full head of dark hair.

I never in a million years imagined that I would go through labor nearly drug-free. Apparently my pain tolerance is way higher than I ever expected. Who knew I had it in me?