Hannah's Birth Story - Part Two

About a week after my cerclage removal, I was starting to get impatient. I had never been pregnant passed 36.5 weeks! I was uncomfortable and ready to get this baby out. I tried workout videos that women swore put them into labor.

Nada.

Taken the day before labor!

When I was just shy of 39 weeks, I had a moment of weakness. My OB had done a cervical check at 38 weeks, swept my membranes (OW!), and forced my dilation from a wimpy 1cm to 2cm. It's pretty common for women with cerclages to need to be induced. The cervix gets confused after being sewn shut and has a hard time remembering that it's time to open now! I was terrified of an induction and potentially having an induction lead to a C-section....so I took matters into my own hands. I am not proud of this and definitely do not recommend it.

Have you heard of the midwives brew?  It's a concoction of apricot nectar, almond butter, lemon verbena tea, and a teeny amount of castor oil. It isn't pleasant to drink, but the recipe swears that the other ingredients in the mixture will counter balance the laxative nature of the castor oil, and you essentially won't poop your brains out.

Incorrect.

I drank the mixture at 6 PM on June 18th.  At approximately 6:30 PM I began having excessive bowel movements. At 6:33 PM I was begging God to make the poop stop streaming out of me. At 6:35 PM I was praying that this would not work and that I would not go into labor because my ass was on fire. I had SO MUCH regret. It's comical to look back on. After my stomach seemed to finally be too empty to continue pooping, I decided I needed to shower and then lay down. I felt gross and depleted. My stomach hurt. Not contractions...just felt like a really bad stomach ache.

Around 10:30 PM, I went to the living room to ask Steve to come lay down with me since I was feeling so awful. Right after we laid down, I felt an INTENSE contraction. I pulled out my phone and started timing on a contraction app. Two minutes later, another really hard contraction ripped through my body. Then another. The app dinged an alarm and said to head to the hospital ASAP. This was not a drill. Steve called his parents to hurry over and watch the boys (they were in bed sleeping, none the wiser), while I kept timing contractions. I decided to go get in the van with a towel in case my water broke on the way to the hospital. While waiting, the contractions seemed to blur together with no end and no beginning. I was 1000% sure that if we did not leave at that moment, this baby would be born in our garage. I started to feel crazy pressure bearing down and couldn't even sit on my booty. She was ready to come out.

We left the house at about 10:45 PM and hurried to the closest hospital. I told Steve to just get us ANYWHERE with a medical professional because we didn't have time to make it 30 min away to our normal delivery hospital. As we were pulling into view of the hospital, I started to feel the urge to push. I WAS TERRIFIED.  I did not want to have this baby in the car! We peeled into the ER parking lot and Steve rushed out to grab a wheelchair. I was convinced that if I walked, she would just slip right out of me. Steve handed me over to an ER nurse and ran to park the car. The nurse saw me leaning in the wheelchair, unable to put pressure on butt and she knew we were in a time crunch. She got me up to the Labor and Delivery ward lickety split and I hopped out of the wheelchair and immediately yanked my clothes off, desperate to get naked and on the bed in time to push.

I shared my sense of urgency with the nurses, that my body had begun bearing down to push on the wheelchair ride up to the room and they rushed to get materials out and ready and rush a dr to the room.

The strongest surge pulsed through me. My body began involuntarily pushing. I screamed at the staff that she was coming RIGHT NOW. Laying on my side half twisted, I grabbed the side bedrail and let my body get to work. POP. My bag broke in that initial first push. Fluid poured out of me. I felt huge relief of pressure momentarily. Baby girl's head had been trying to push through to make her entrance with the bag still in tack.  The doctor makes it to the room in time to introduce herself and get in position.  Steve runs in the room from parking the car just in the nick of time. I briefly sighed in relief, then prepared as my body tensed for another final push. She was here. 11:25 PM, 6 pounds 11 ounces of healthy baby girl.