Tessa's Birth Story

Here's her complete birth story, with the details, but nothing too graphic since it's written to her, so if you're interested in the details, here you go...

Tuesday, October 21st began like any other day. Mommy got in the shower that morning and thought she might have passed her mucous plug, which is something that helped keep you in my tummy. Nothing strange happened the rest of the day, until 2:30pm when I went to the bathroom, and I was pretty sure if I hadn’t passed the plug that morning, I definitely had just then. Again, nothing really seemed different. I didn’t say anything to anyone because I had read that it can still be days or weeks before a woman goes into labor once she passes her plug. At 4:30pm I went to the bathroom in preparation for leaving for work and I was pretty sure I had begun the ‘bloody show’. I left work as usual, at 5:00pm. I no sooner got down the road and was getting on the expressway when I had my first contraction. Before this I had no idea what to expect a contraction to be like, but I knew as soon as I had it that it was indeed a contraction.
Since I had not had any ‘false labor’ yet, I was not convinced yet that I was in true labor. I had a few more contractions on the way home, but they were all very mild and short and didn’t last long. That first hour, between 5:00pm and 6:00pm, I had 5-6 contractions. I knew that if this was indeed true labor that I would have to wait to go to the hospital until my contractions were 1 min or more long, 5 mins or less apart, and occurring at this frequency for at least an hour. So again, I was in no hurry and not too concerned. I went to the bathroom shortly after getting home and had more of the ‘show’ which did start to make me a little nervous. I knew it was probably normal but blood scares me, especially when I’m pregnant.
Your dad happened to call me while I was in the bathroom and I know I had at least on contraction while I was on the phone with him, but he didn’t know. To be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention to what he was saying since I was preoccupied with what was going on with me. I thought he was going to be home soon so I wasn’t going to say anything until he got home, but then he said something about going to do a side job. I knew there was a pretty good chance I was in real labor since the contractions hadn’t gone away and I still had the ‘show’, so I asked your dad if he had to go do that job tonight. He immediately knew something was wrong and I told him the events of the afternoon. He pretty much freaked out and told me he’d be home in 20 mins. I told him he didn’t need to rush since we’d still have a while before we needed to get to the hospital, but I’d be willing to bet he drove like a crazy man all the way home.
Since I knew I had some time before we needed to get to the hospital and that if I was indeed in labor I would probably be up for quite a while, I fixed myself some dinner – eggs & toast. I was continuing to have contractions that were slowly getting closer together and maybe a little bit longer. About the time I sat down to eat my dinner, your dad got home and sat down to eat something too. I even bothered to cut my nails when I was done eating so that way they wouldn’t be too long and poke you. We knew too that we would want to shower before we left since it could be a while before we could get another one, so after dinner was over, we went to get a shower.
Your dad was, understandably, very nervous about the prospect of me going into labor, even though he had had enough waiting for you to arrive, so he was being kind of silly. As I was getting ready to get in the shower, your dad said something funny that made me laugh, and I told him not to make me laugh and that I was having a contraction. Then I ‘leaked’ a little bit on the floor in the bathroom and he started freaking out and throwing toilet paper at me. That made me laugh even more. It was pretty funny, and I’m sure we’ll be laughing about this for years to come. While in the shower I reviewed some things with your dad about the labor that I wanted to make sure he remembered to either do himself or things he needed to make sure I did. I wanted to make sure things went as smoothly as possible.
Since the contractions were not stopping, getting stronger and closer together, I decided I wanted to spend the remainder of my time at home in bed. I’m not sure exactly what time we had gotten in bed, but at 7:40pm the contractions began at the interval and frequency we were waiting for, so at 8:40pm, your dad got up to call the hospital and tell them we were coming. We got our things together, got in daddy’s truck, and headed to the hospital.
When we got up to the maternity floor, they sent me into a room where they could monitor my contractions and both of our heartbeats. My nurse’s name was Sherri and my doctor, Dr. Bradfield, just happened to be on call that night until 7:00am the next day. I was thankful for that and hopeful I’d give birth before he left. The nurse checked me after a little while and I was 3-4 cm and your head was already quite a ways down. At my last 3 doctors appointments I had only been 1 cm (the last appt was the previous Thursday) but your head was low and continued to drop. Sherri said I was definitely staying, and I was thankful for that because I was afraid they might send me home if labor hadn’t progressed far enough. By this time it was about 10:00pm, they got my room ready, and daddy went outside to get our stuff and call friends and family to let them know that we would be having a baby soon.
The time I spent in labor felt like it went pretty fast once I got into the labor and delivery room. Daddy stayed with me the whole time. Mamaw Lynn, Aunt Tina and Angie came in and out some. I had decided a long time ago, long before I was ever pregnant, that I did not want any drugs or medications to relieve the pain of labor, so to cope with the pain, I just breathed through the contractions while your dad rubbed my back or just laid in bed with me. The nurses left me alone, as requested, and only came in once or twice to check on me and you.
At 2:00am, Sherri came in to check on us again and I asked her to examine me to see how far dilated I was. I was now 6 cm, which was good, but that meant I still had 4 more to go. My water had still not broke yet either. Shortly after Sherri left (within a half hour), I got up to go to the bathroom, which I had done a few times already throughout labor, but I kept having to go. The contractions at this point were obviously stronger and becoming much more uncomfortable. I went to the bathroom, but it kept feeling like I had to keep going so I did not want to get off the toilet. It was starting to feel like nothing was helping me to feel better. I wasn’t comfortable on the toilet, but I didn’t want to get up either. My body kept making me want to go to the bathroom, but I didn’t have to. Then I started to feel like I was going to throw up, but couldn’t.
By this point, we had been in the bathroom for at least 20 mins, and all of a sudden while I thought I was just going to poop, we heard what sounded almost like an explosion in the toilet. A bunch of cloudy fluid had just exploded out of my body, but I wasn’t really sure what it was. Your dad told me I had to get off the toilet NOW and he went to get the nurse. Sherri came in and checked me again (it was about 3:00am at this point) and I had already progressed to 7-8 cm. She also confirmed that my water had indeed broken. My water breaking also made the contractions worse, and my body was already trying to push you out but I couldn’t because I had not fully dilated. This next hour was an excruciating hour. The pain of the contractions was nothing compared to having to keep my body from pushing. At this point, I will admit, the thought of something to take the edge off of this discomfort crossed my mind. It was too late for an epidural, which I didn’t want anyway, and any other drug they gave me would have gone into your system which I definitely didn’t want. And since she had told me I was 7-8 cm already, I knew I wasn’t far off and I said that I could make it the rest of the way.
Dr. Bradfield had not been at the hospital the entire time I was in labor, and he apparently was in no hurry to get there, thinking that since this was my first delivery that it would take a while. Since I was having to push, the nurses called him and told him he better get to the hospital NOW. Sherri was now in there with me for almost that whole last hour, and of course your dad was too. They had me change my breathing patterns to help get through the urge to push. It was still awful, but made it a little better. Finally, at 3:30pm or so, they checked me again, I was fully dilated and the lip of the cervix that had been there earlier was finally gone; I could finally start pushing. The doctor was still not at the hospital yet and they called him again to let him know they were going to start letting me push. They also had to give me some oxygen because your heartbeat was starting to waver a bit and they were concerned for your safety.
Finally after a couple pushes Dr. Bradfield arrived. I was beginning to think you were coming whether he was there or not. Since I had done so much reading and research on labor and delivery, I knew how I was supposed to push, but the discomfort I was experiencing at the end had clouded my mind a bit and I had totally forgotten how to push, so Dr. Bradfield and Sherri had to remind me what I was supposed to do. We were finally getting down to business. I can remember everything very clearly. It only took a handful of pushes once Dr. Bradfield got there to deliver you. When your head came out, a gush of the amniotic fluid came out too and made the Dr. jump a bit. I didn’t know what it was. Your body came out pretty easily after that since your head was already out. They put you on my tummy so me and daddy could look at you. I couldn’t believe you were here. When I looked at you it was like I had seen you a thousand times before. They let daddy cut the cord, then had to take you over to the awaiting nurses so you could be checked out. It turns out you pooped inside my belly before delivery so I think they wanted to make sure you were ok.
While the nurses were checking you out your daddy got to see you and talk to you and take pictures of you. Meanwhile Dr. Bradfield was having to stitch mommy up since I had tore a little bit pushing you out. Finally, after what seemed like forever, they brought you over to me so I could see you. I immediately thought you looked just like daddy because you had his eyes. I was surprised your hair wasn’t darker since both me and your dad have dark hair. You were so tiny too. You weighed 6lbs 13oz and were 20.5” long and your official time of birth was 3:58am. I just couldn’t believe you were here. I tried to get you to breastfeed but you didn’t really seem too interested, so we let everybody who was waiting come in and see you for a little bit. You stayed awake the whole time. You were so alert and just looked around at the room and everybody. You weren’t even crying. You hardly cried at all even when you came out. At this point I had been up for 24 hours, but I didn’t care. I was pretty hungry too.
Your birth is something neither me nor your daddy will ever forget. I was already blessed to have such a good pregnancy, but I felt even more grateful now to have had a great labor and delivery and a healthy baby. I could not have gotten through the labor and delivery without the help of your dad and the nurse Sherri. I’m very glad I decided to do things the way we did during labor and delivery. Even though that last hour was pretty rough, I got through it, and in the end having you made everything else not matter.