My Birthing Story: Part 1 Early labor

DISCLAIMER: I will discuss the aspect of giving birth vaginally within this blog. Please do not use this blog to develop your ideas on how your birth will go or feel less, because you did not have the same birth as me.

Now I must start this blog by saying I am VERY fortunate to have the birthing story I will share with you. Please know that I want to share my story as it’s a part of me and my journey to becoming a mom. It’s a long one, so I broke it down into 3 parts here is part 1 my early labor.

A week before my due date I was curb walking, having orgasms, exercising, taking the stairs when there was that option, and just doing all the tricks that you can find on the internet. On Saturday night, days before my due date, I was determined to get that baby out before I was scheduled to be induced on the coming Tuesday; so, I decided to try the last trick on my list, eating spicy food.

With my husband and in-laws in tow, we headed to a local, delish Mexican restaurant for some street tacos and spicy salsa! We got home after dinner and I showered, got on my yoga ball, and bounced until couldn’t bounce anymore to a labor playlist I made on Spotify. Like I said, I was determined to get this baby out! It wasn’t until around 4 a.m. on Sunday is when I started to cramp up. I thought it was just the Braxton Hicks rearing its ugly head, but something felt different. I noticed that the cramping was starting above my belly button and then down to my pelvis. Trying to ignore it, I went back to sleep until 7 a.m. I tossed and turned in those 3 hours though; it was not a restful sleep.

I was woken up by sharp pains building up in my lower back; I just knew early labor had started. Being the lazy POS that I am in the morning I texted my husband who was just downstairs and let him know… it was happening. He could do nothing at this time, but I didn’t want to panic alone.

Sitting on a pee pad on the yoga ball bouncing and rocking between contractions, I labored at home. I tried to labor sitting backward on the toilet, but it was not for me. I wanted to labor in the shower and I didn’t get there. I wanted to listen to a power playlist while I labor, but instead watched YouTube videos. I wanted to labor at home naturally until my water broke, but I did not. I say all of this because birth/labor in every stage is not something you can plan. I am a big advocate for having what traditionalists call a “birth plan”, but instead I am calling it my laboring wish list. If there is an interest, I can share my templated laboring wish list.

Back to the early labor. It’s now 1 pm and the contractions are following that “magic” 5-1-1 rule:

5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute each, and have been consistent

for at least 1 hour.

We called the hospital and they asked me a bunch of questions gauging the 5-1-1 rule mentioned above. Nonetheless, I ended up going in to have my cervix checked in triage to determine if was far enough along to be admitted. When I was in triage and the obstetrician (OB) checked my cervix, I was barely 1 cm and I was DEVASTATED. I had been in pain for hours now and made no more progress from when I got checked at my 39-week appointment.

My OB could tell that I was in pain and offered to either let me continue laboring there for about an hour and see if I progressed or go home. They had said that the caveat of staying could be that labor could slow down because you are not in the comfort of your own home and that would drag out the process. If I were to go home, they said to wait till the pain gets worse and the contractions are 2-3 minutes apart then call and come back in.

My husband and I decided to stay for an hour and see. We were put in a labor and recovery room and this is where we had to make some decisions. Contractions were still coming but I was not progressing and if I am being honest, I was not comfortable just hanging out in my regular clothes in a hospital room. We were there for about a half hour and decided to go home.

I want to take a break to say that by this time it is 3 p.m. and I haven’t had anything to eat since the street tacos. While my husband and I waited in that room we got HUNGRY and I was uncomfortable in that setting so we decided to head home and grab some food on the way. When we got home labor went from 0 to 60 really damn fast and the nausea kicked in,

needless to say, I don’t eat much of the food we got.

I started laboring in my back and just 3 hours later we were heading back to the hospital with a puke bucket in hand. We were met at the emergency room by two paramedics with a wheelchair ready to bring me up to the room where we would meet our peanut and be staying for the next few days.

A few things I learned about early labor:

• Time does not exist, there is no schedule for early labor.

• Your water doesn’t break when you go into labor, the movies have it all wrong.

• Have a list of phone numbers/people for your support person to contact that you are in labor; trying to text/call everyone was really annoying in between contractions.

• Eat BEFORE you really get into it.