So it turns out that was the bloody show. The next morning, I woke up and finally felt the difference between labor contractions and braxton hicks. The contractions weren’t too painful at that point, and still irregular, so I tried to go about my day as usual. By mid afternoon, it was uncomfortable enough that I decided to skip my boss’s birthday party, and just watched Netflix with my husband. By evening, the contractions were painful enough that I just wanted to go to the hospital and be done with it — but couldn’t justify it, since they were still very irregular. I tried laying on my side for a while, tried going to sleep, even tried taking a bath. Nothing helped the pain, though it does seem that something made the contractions more regular.
I decided around 10pm that contractions were regular and close enough together to go to the hospital, so we packed our things and called my doctor, and headed out. We checked in at 11, and I was at about 4cm dilated. Around midnight, I asked for IV pain meds, which turned out to not do much for the pain, but rather just helped me to relax despite the pain. Unfortunately, the second round of that didn’t do anything for me at all, but by then my water sac was bulging, and I was dilated to about an 8 or 9. I tried to deal with the pain, but ended up asking my doctor to break my water for me. That definitely helped, having the pressure relieved a bit.
Then it was time to push. I must have pushed for half an hour at least, though it didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere with it despite them saying they could see the head. I felt blocked, so when the doctor suggested an episiotomy, I decided to go for it. Just a few pushes after that, and my baby girl was finally on the outside.
Born at 3:48am, 9lbs 1oz, and 21 inches long. Straight, golden blonde hair (slight tint of red in the sunlight); dark blue eyes (for now); long fingers and long toes; and a large birthmark (mostly) under her hair. Everything looks perfect, except the birthmark might be cause for concern since it’s pigmented, so they want me to bring her to a dermatologist soon. But she’s my rainbow baby, and she’s perfect to me.
