I left my 39 week appointment with the expectation of receiving a phone call in the next few days to schedule my induction. This was my 3rd pregnancy and the 2nd time I had gestational diabetes. I’ve gotten induced every single time so I knew what to expect. I didn’t expect waking up the next morning at 4:30am with contractions that felt like cramping. I got excited thinking that I could possible be going into labor on my own, which i was hoping for. After a few contractions i got up and started walking around. After 10 minutes I started timing them. They were about 2 minutes apart but they weren’t painful, they felt like cramping. They would last around 30 seconds.
Around 5am I woke up my husband and told him I’ve been having contractions. He jumped up and said let’s go! At first I was hesitant to go because although they were 2 min apart I wasn’t in as much pain as I would expect and it was only 30 min of contractions. I didn’t want to go to the hospital only to be sent home. He quickly reminded me that we still have to drop off the kids at his parents house before we get to the hospital. He asked how I was feeling and I told him I feel good but as soon as I said that I ran to the bathroom and started throwing up. All of a sudden I wasn’t feeling too good. He got the kids ready and said ok let’s go but at this point I couldn’t walk or talk through my contractions. He called his dad at 5:22am and told him we are on the way!
I finally made it to the car after stopping with each contraction and waiting for it to go away but I couldn’t sit down all the way because it felt very uncomfortable so I was holding myself up a little. My body started pushing with each contraction and I was just breathing through it thinking we should probably go straight to the hospital but I knew we needed to drop the kids off. We got to my in-laws dropped them off and headed to the hospital, which was only a few min away from their house.
We finally pulled up and I got to the entrance. They rolled me out a wheel chair and told me I needed to sit down. I couldn’t sit down because I felt so much pressure there that I held myself up as my husband rolled me to the elevator. One of the staff members came up to the elevators and asked if we needed help finding our floor and as soon as he asked my water broke right there in the elevator. I got up to my floor and nurses ran to come assist me to my room.
I stood up and my body continued to push on its own with each contraction. The on call doctor wasn’t there yet so the laborist was in the room with me. I finally made it into the bed and the laborist asked me to get on my back and pull my legs back. I told him I couldn’t. My body was frozen. He told me the baby was coming and i need to push. I finally was able to get into position with the help of my husband and with one big yell I pushed and my daughter was born. 5:47am. Less than an hour and a half from my first contraction. I was in shock of how fast everything happened.
My first birth with no epidural was nothing like I expected. It was intense and super fast. I was so proud of myself for delivering naturally since that was always a fear of mine.
What is one piece of advice you want to share with new moms?
You were made for this! You are stronger than you think.
What is one thing you wish you could have told yourself?
I didn’t expect to give birth so fast! I would listen to my body more. My body was telling me it’s time to give birth but since everything happened so fast I was in denial that I was about to deliver.