Wilbur's Birth Story

Just so you are warned, this is going to be long!

On April 13th, I had a Dr's appointment, and they informed me that Wilbur could come at anytime. Mind you, I wasn't due until June 1st, a little under 2 months away. They didn't give me a reason behind saying that, but I was excited. I instantly went home and packed my hospital bags, convinced that Wilbur would be born soon.

He wasn't, I still had 5 weeks to wait, which seemed to drag by. I was having Braxton Hicks numerous times a day, I could barely sleep, and I was so excited to meet my little man. I had had a couple times when I thought I was in labor, but it was just the BH, added with the Dr telling me he could come anytime.

On May 18th, I started having contractions that were more the BH's, but after my few false alarms, I didn't want to go to the hospital quite yet. Ken called in to work because he was convinced, this was it. Around 8 that night, when they hadn't gone away yet, we went to the hospital. They hooked me up to all those fun monitors, and said yes, I was having contractions, and yes, they were only 5 minutes apart and yes, I was dilated a bit more than I was at my appointment, (I was 4cm), but you are only 38 weeks, so there is nothing we can do to speed things up, if you were 39 weeks or 5cm, we could speed this up.

I walked around for about an hour, and only made it to a 4.5, so I was sent home. Ken, my family, and I were convinced that we would be back at the hospital later that night. We went home, and went to bed, and woke up at home the next morning. I had contractions every 5 or so minutes all day Saturday and Sunday. Everyone that I had, I kept wondering if it would be the start of real labor.

Sunday we went to church, out to lunch, shopping, and back to church. When we got home that night, we had pizza with some friends. Before we went to bed, Ken and I watched a movie, and I went to bed. Before I went to bed I toyed with the idea of taking the sleeping pill they had given me at the hospital Friday night. I had Ken look up to see if it was truly safe to take while pregnant, and it wasn't, so I just fell asleep.

Monday morning at 2, I woke up to a contraction that was different, and more painful than the ones I had had previously. I tried to catch some sleep, and I dozed off and on until 3:30, when I got up to go to the bathroom. I decided to take a bath to see if that helped at all. While in the tub, I read through my Above Rubies magazines.

After I got out of the tub, I tried to lay down and sleep again, and it didn't work, so I got up to take a shower. I tried to wake up Ken to tell him, but he was really tired, so I let him keep sleeping. After my shower I laid down on the couch, and finally Ken woke up to check on me. He got another tub ready for me, while asking if I wanted to call the on call doctor and go to the hospital. I told him I wanted to wait until 8 when the doctors office opened so I could go in to the office instead of the hospital.

At 8, I called the doctors, and they said to come on in. We left at about 9, and made it to the doctors at 9:30, where I went through the normal routine. When I was checked, I was 7 cm, and I remember looking at Ken and telling him, I got this. I knew I could go through with my drug-free birth plan. We went right over to the hospital, where Ken dropped me off at the door.

We got up to Labor and Delivery, and got the monitors on and all hooked up. The nurse checked me and I was 7.5 cm. I was told it was a midwife who would be the doctor on call that day, and that was exciting to me, I knew out of all the doctors on call, a midwife would be most open to my birth plan.

The nurse came in a gave me a hep lock, just in case I needed an IV for any reason. She had to try twice, because the first time I had a contraction, and I tensed up a bit, so she missed. Around this time, the midwife came in to check me, and I was 8cm. She said she would in around noon, and possibly break my water, depending on Wilbur's heart rate.

During the hour of waiting until noon, I slept off and on in between my contractions, which stayed 5 minutes apart throughout my whole labor, for which I am beyond thankful. Right before the midwife came in, my water broke, which again, I am thankful it broke on its on. When the midwife came in, I knew I was ready to start pushing, and after only 30 minutes of pushing (which I have heard is quite short for a first time mom) Wilbur was born, fussing only a little bit. He was born at 12:33, only 2 hours after arriving at the hospital.

They put him right up on my chest, and as soon as I started talking to him, he calmed right down, and just snuggled right up. He started nursing about 30 minutes after he was born, and was an instant champ. I am so grateful for such a short labor, and for him taking to nursing right away. I am also grateful that I was able to have such an easy birth, that followed my whole birth plan.