Ollie's Story (the labor)

September 11 2013

At 6am I woke up to David's alarm clock going off for work. After he hit snooze and fell back to sleep,   I was trying to do the same when all of a sudden I felt a kick real low in my stomach - which was weird because at this stage in my pregnancy (I was 40 weeks and 3 days) he didn't kick because he was too big, I just felt movements like an elbow nudge or a squirm. Immediately after the kick I felt and heard a pop in my stomach and my water broke! I was so excited because I knew this meant I was having our baby today! 

I woke up David then and told him the good news. We decided he would go to work while I showered and finished packing our hospital bags - after all, women, especially with their first baby, are usually in labor for hours and hours, if not days. While I was in the shower I felt a real strong pain really low, like the worst cramp you could imagine. I thought OUCH, here comes pre-labor! I knew I was in for it if this was just the beginning. After I showered I called the hospital to let them know my water broke. She told me to take my time and come in sometime today to get assessed (when your water breaks you need to go to the hospital within 24 hours because the baby could get an infection). After the phone call the pain kept on going and then coming back and it was getting worse quickly. David was just about to leave for work and I told him I thought we should go to the hospital now, because honestly I was already in a lot of pain. I was trying to tell him a few last minute things to pack but the pain was getting so bad I couldn't really concentrate or talk. My brother-in-law James was taking us to the hospital and when he saw me, him and his wife were like, this is nothing, you haven't even had contractions yet (the pain was still really low and not in my stomach). I felt like such a wimp! How was I gonna last?

In the car ride to the hospital the pain was intensifying fast. I couldn't sit still. I kept squirming and taking my seat belt on and off and couldn't talk through the pain. It was bad. James decided to time the pain, and it went from 4 minutes apart to 2 1/2 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart, all within a 20min car ride to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital sometime after 8am. We went in to let them know I was here and I couldn't even tell them my name, and then I started throwing up right there in reception. At this point I was thinking If they tell me I'm not even dilated I will die!

I went in the room to get checked out. They first checked baby's heart beat, asked me some questions - this took sometime since I kept having to stop, turn on my side, and breathe through the pain. I also threw up one more time. Then I had the biggest urge to start pushing. It's a crazy feeling when your body takes over and starts acting on its on accord. At this point I almost freaked out because I hadn't even been assessed yet, I was in an incredible amount of pain, and I was thinking I needed to push! So the midwife finally checked me out and I was 9cm dilated. As soon as she said that, the urge to push came again and very strong. I said I need the epidural right now! The midwife said I couldn't have an epidural because by the time I got it, the baby would be out. OKAY now I was freaking out. The pain was insane and I knew I had to start pushing and I wouldn't have any relief - I didn't think I could do it. But luckily, I realized I was about to lose it and it would get me no where and I calmed myself down (I had to do this a lot throughout my labor), just for a second before I yelled out I have to push. They quickly wheeled the bed to the birthing suite and I was pushing along the way.

Half an hour later, at 9:34am, the sweetest and cutest baby boy was welcomed into the world and we called him Oliver James Allen. He weighed 9 pounds and was 21.8 inches long. He was perfect. As soon as they laid him on my chest everything else just faded away. It was just Ollie and me and David in this perfect little bubble. David and I just sat there staring in awe at this boy who was our son. He was SO cute and just snuggled right on my chest and stopped crying within 10 seconds. He was so lovely. In such a surreal moment I was completely overwhelmed with so much gratitude and joy and love.