As I reached the end of my pregnancy, I found myself reading lots of birth stories to try to prepare myself for any and all possibilities. I had never been to a hospital before for myself, so I was beyond nervous about the whole thing. I was deep down hoping I would need an induction, because I felt like I would have a little more control that way. Of course little Camden had other plans!
At my 38-week appointment, the doctor noted that I wasn’t dilated at all and said that at my 39-week appointment we would go ahead and schedule an induction for shortly after I hit 40 weeks. I was fully planning on having this baby late and needing an induction, just because that was how my mom’s pregnancies went with both my sister and with me.
I had decided to start my maternity leave at 39 weeks, and that first day off I had so much energy and got so much done. Then the next day was a total 180 - I was so tired that I laid on the couch and drifted in and out of sleep for most of the day, I had a terrible lower back ache that wouldn’t go away no matter how I positioned myself, and I had begun spotting. I started thinking maybe this was it, but I was convinced any signs of labor would fizzle out because, again, I thought I would go past my due date.
Then around 6pm I started feeling what felt like mild period cramps. Thinking they may be the start of contractions, I started timing them, remembering my doctor had told me to call the hospital once they were 5 minutes apart, lasted for 1 minute, and continued like this for 1 hour. At first they were about 9 minutes apart and lasted only 20-30 seconds, but over the course of the night they got closer to 7 minutes apart but still only lasted for about 30 seconds each. My husband was working late to try to wrap things up before he was on paternity leave, and I got more and more anxious being home by myself as the contractions got closer together.
The contractions continued at about 7 minutes apart for 30 seconds until my usual bedtime, so I tried to get some sleep. I woke up at 2am and the contractions had gotten much more painful and were lasting closer to a minute long, so I figured it was time to call the hospital. I ended up being on hold for over an hour because all of the on-call doctors were busy in the ER. Once I finally spoke to a doctor, he told me to take a hot shower and to head to the hospital if the shower didn’t slow down my contractions at all. But the shower did slow my contractions, and I was convinced labor was fizzling out. After about another hour they suddenly started coming about 4 minutes apart and lasted a minute each, so we packed up the car and headed to the hospital at 6am.
I got hooked up to the monitors to measure the baby’s heart rate and my contractions in the triage room, but after a few minutes they came in to say they weren’t picking up any contractions. They checked me to be sure and I was actually 5cm dilated and they rushed me into a delivery room.
I told them I wanted the epidural as soon as possible, so they took my blood to get tested and started the IV fluids. As that was happening the baby’s heart rate started dropping, so they turned me on my side. I was super uncomfortable and asked for a pillow to put between my legs, and just as the nurse gave it to me and left the room, I had another contraction and my water broke (weirdest feeling ever - truly felt like a water balloon popping inside of me). After that the contractions got so much more intense and seemed to be happening one on top of the other. The anesthesiologist finally came in to administer the epidural, and I was in so much pain that I was audibly groaning and crying with each contraction. I started panicking because as she was placing the epidural, it felt like my body was pushing - I told the nurse, and apparently they almost stopped giving me the epidural because of it. But they did finish giving it to me, and I felt relief pretty instantly. The doctor came and checked me again since I had said my body felt like pushing, and he said I was around 8.5cm already! They started making preparations for me to push since I had gone from 5-8.5cm so quickly, and suddenly it seemed like there were a million people in the room.
When it was time to start pushing, the doctor told me to push on every other contraction because the baby’s heart rate was still decelerating a lot every time I pushed. I think I pushed through only 3 or 4 contractions, and I’ve never put more effort into anything - I wanted to get him out as quickly as possible so he would be safe. The doctor ended up having to use the vacuum to get him out faster, and later I learned he had given me a partial episiotomy when I began tearing as well. At 9:17am on February 16 (when I was 39 weeks + 3 days), after only 3 hours in the hospital, Camden Edward Kelly was born! They took him over to clean him up and check on his head before giving him to me, so it was a couple minutes before I actually got to hold him. Once they handed him to me, I burst into tears and couldn’t believe he was real. He was 6lb 8oz, 20 inches long, and had a big cone head and bruise from the vacuum that luckily cleared up well. We are so happy and grateful for our beautiful baby boy! The past 12 days have been some of the hardest but happiest days of my life - I think I will write a post about my postpartum experience too once I’m a little further out.