Braelynn Fiona // Monroeville, PA // Birth Story – Part 1

[So – I’ve had several people ask to hear Braelynn’s birth story & inspired by Kristen Leigh & Jessica Shae (who happened to both be my wedding photographers) and their writing their birth stories on their blogs – I decided to go ahead and publish my story. Happy reading!]

I assumed that baby girl would be late.

That’s what happens with most first babies, right? I mean, I would have loved for her to come early, but I just figured she would probably be late. And I was okay with that. So okay, in fact, that I didn’t even completely pack my hospital bag or finish [*cough* I mean start] writing my birth plan until January 21 – which turned out to be just 4 days before she was born. Funny story: I had typed out my birth plan, but didn’t actually print it until we were leaving the house for the hospital!

I was in no hurry.

Don’t get me wrong: I was uncomfortable and not sleeping well and felt like an elephant who had just swallowed a hippo. But I wasn’t freaking out “when-would-she-come” like I saw so many first time Moms on Facebook doing. Probably because, I was thinking I had at least another 10+ days of being pregnant before baby would arrive.

I had been feeling a lot of pelvic pressure for several weeks. I was waiting on people to tell me that I had “dropped”, but no one did. I figured my family wouldn’t be able to tell as much, since they saw me every day. But I was really hoping that Melanie – the lady I was babysitting for 2 days a week – would notice. I hadn’t seen her in over a week [she had been working late or out of town the last few times I’d been to their house] when I saw her on Thursday, January 22. As we chatted, she commented that “maybe” my belly had dropped, but she couldn’t quite tell. We parted that day and I told her, as long as my doctor appointment went well that night & no baby arrived over the weekend, that I’d be back Tuesday morning to watch Gabe – her 2 year old.

I was truly hoping that my doctor would tell me to lay low when I saw her at my appointment that night [like I mentioned: pelvic pressure] and I wouldn’t have to go back to chasing Gabe that following Tuesday since it was getting more and more challenging. Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely loved my days with Gabe – I was just on the brink of 39 weeks pregnant & it was getting more and more difficult to get up and down from the floor to play cars & superheroes.

As a reward for making it through babysitting a fast-paced toddler 2 days a week for the last 3 months, I stopped at Sheetz on my way home to pick up a free donut from Ellen [she gave me a coupon] and redeem my monthly freebie: a lemonade. How’s that for a reward? Completely free! That’s how I roll.

I went to the doctor that night & she proclaimed that everything looked good. She offered to scrape my membranes – but like I said – I was in no hurry & said “no thank you”. As she went to check the baby’s heartbeat – baby girl moved way up in my belly. For the last few weeks, she had been sitting pretty much in the same place all the time, but as I laid down for Dr. Kalia to check her heartbeat, she jumped way up to the top of my belly. We all laughed because it made my normally evenly round baby-belly have this funny oval shape sticking out at the top. She proceeded to stay in that spot for the next 36 hours. Because of her strange position, it made for a difficult time finding her heartbeat, but after several minutes of patiently searching, Dr. Kalia finally found it.

The next day, Friday, January 23, was spent working on my business. I wrote a blog post, scheduled it to publish Monday, cleaned off my hard-drive, worked on tax stuff – nothing overly exciting. My plan was to write at least one blog post a day & schedule them out so that my blog would continue to be active in the few weeks after I had baby girl – but like I said – I was in no hurry. So, one post a day seemed like an easy schedule.

Saturday morning, Derrick & I woke up and got ready to officially begin house-hunting. We had just gotten the approval letter on our loan the week before and it was time to start looking at houses in person, not just online. As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed something was different. I didn’t really feel any different, but I was definitely passing some sort of discharge. I could only assume it to be my mucus plug [which I didn’t even know existed until we took our birthing class back in December]. I grabbed the book of information they sent home with us and it seemed to fit the description. It also said that you could pass your mucus plug hours, days, or even weeks before labor began. So, I didn’t even tell anyone, because again, I was in no hurry. My due date was still 8 days away and I was still assuming I would go past February 1.

So off to look at houses we went. It was cold and everything was snow-covered. We looked at 4 houses that day. The first 2 were obviously too small, the 3rd needed a lot of work, the 4th was a straight up no. On our way home, we stopped for a late lunch at K-Vays. I had an Italian hoagie – little did I know it would be the last meal I’d eat before baby girl arrived!

Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing – researching more houses, hanging out with the family. I had more “mucus discharge” stuff – so I finally mentioned it to Derrick. I was so nonchalant, “Hey, I think I passed my mucus plug. “Oh? What does that mean?” “Nothing really. The book says labor can still be days or weeks away.” “Oh, okay.” And that was the end of that.

I took a nap and spent the evening in the living room, munching on Doritos [I was too full from lunch for actual food] and talking with my parents.

Derrick & I went to bed around 10:30pm that night. Before we fell asleep, we commented that if we had the baby sometime soon, we could have her home in time to see the Superbowl the following week. Why we were talking about the Superbowl – I have no idea. Neither of us watch football! Then Derrick said, “Well, you aren’t allowed to go into labor between the hours of 5pm and 3am anyway so – goodnight.” When I asked why, he explained because then we’d be up all night & not get any sleep. We laughed about it and went to sleep.

I woke up and looked at my phone: it was 12:39pm. I thought I needed to go to the bathroom – typical – and as I shifted to move to get out of bed, I froze. This was definitely a different feeling. I felt like I had a bubble between my legs & if I moved, I knew it was going to pop. My only assumption was that my water was about to break and all I could think was that I was going to soak the bed. But it hadn’t broken yet, so I just laid there for a moment, completely still. I knew it was just a matter of time though, so I began to try to wake Derrick. I said his name, touched his arm a few times before he finally responded. “I think my water is about to break.” “What?” he was still half asleep – it hadn’t registered what I had just said. I repeated it. “Are you sure?” “Umm, I don’t know what else this could be.” “Shouldn’t you get to the bathroom?” “I’m afraid to move. I know that as soon as I do, it’s coming.”

Somewhere in the middle, the light beside my bed got turned on and I can only imagine how big my eyes were. It hadn’t really sunk in that this was the beginnings of labor. I still hadn’t felt any contractions – I’d never even experienced any fake ones. After a few more moments, I knew I had to get up. As soon as I moved, I could feel it coming. For an extra second, I danced through our bedroom, trying to get to the door, trying to hold it back, still utterly unsure of what to do.

Somehow I made it into the bathroom before I put a puddle on the floor. Once I was in the bathroom, there was no holding it back. At the time, it felt like so much liquid – warm & sticky. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d peed my pants, but it was definitely the same feeling! A moment later, Derrick appeared, eyes wide. “Are you sure that was your water breaking? What do we do now?”

We hadn’t talked too much about me going into labor via my water breaking, especially since in birthing class, they told us the percentage of women who start labor that way is small. In my mind, I assumed I would just begin having contractions & my plan was to labor as long as I could at home. In my mind, I had this fantasy of making chocolate chip cookies – I knew I needed something to do to keep me busy through the “laboring at home” process & I figured that would be so fun! But my water breaking changed all of that. No laboring at home we had been told. If your water breaks – come to the hospital. The barrier is gone & the risk of infection creeping up to baby is suddenly a possibility that wasn’t there before.

I told Derrick to wake my Mom and call the doctor to give them the heads up. I was still sticky & wet and all I wanted was to be clean. Knowing it was probably something the doctor would say no to – I jumped in the shower anyway. I just had to wash the sticky off. Two minutes later, Derrick was poking his head in the shower, “Your Mom says to get out of the shower – bad idea.” “I know! I just had to rinse my legs off! I’m all sticky!”

As I was getting out, I could hear Derrick on the phone with the doctor: “Hold on, I’ll just let you talk to her,” and with that I was handed the phone. She introduced herself as the doctor on call and asked if I was sure my water broke. I responded, “If that wasn’t my water breaking, than we have bigger problems because my stomach just burst or something.” She asked if I was having any contractions and just then I had my first “twinge”. “I think I might have just started feeling something, but I’m not sure.” “Okay, why don’t we wait a few hours and see what happens. Try to get some rest. If you begin feeling contractions, time them. If you have any other changes or concerns, call me back. Otherwise, I’ll call you around 3am to check to see how you are doing.”

I was so happy! They were going to let me labor at home for a little while! YES!

So, we lined the bed with towels [because who knew? Even after you water “breaks” there is still a lot more to come and you just keep leaking!] and we attempted to go back to sleep.

Sleeping at this point was completely futile for me. It was finally beginning to sink in – we were going to be meeting our baby girl some time in the next 24 hours [since they told us in birthing class – after your water breaks, even if labor doesn’t kick start into action, they will push you to deliver within 24 hours before your risk of infection gets too high]. So, I tried to sleep. Derrick fell back asleep but I was pretty sure my Mom wouldn’t be sleeping anymore that night either, but I was determined to try. I may have gotten a few moments of rest, but I’m not really sure. That “twinge” I had felt while on the phone with the doctor was back. I kept feeling it every once in a while and around 1:30am [since I definitely wasn’t sleeping now] I figured that I should start timing them. My contractions were very mild, but had a beginning and a end – lasting on average around 45 seconds, every 5-6 minutes. Since this was my first experience with contractions [I never experienced Braxton Hicks], I practiced my breathing and had no problem handling them while lying in bed.

After a little while, I remembered reading that it’s easier to deal with contractions anywhere but in bed – so I got up. No surprise, my Mom was awake and out in the living room. We chatted and I walked around. My contractions were still coming, but still not very regular – or maybe I was just a little “un-practiced” at being able to tell exactly when one began and one ended.

Eventually, we got closer to 3am. The doctor called back & I reported that I was doing well and having mild contractions. I was so hoping that she would say to continue on at home for another few hours – but no. She explained that she had pulled my file & noticed I was GBS positive – so I needed to come in ASAP to get antibiotics started. BOO. I reluctantly agreed and we began to prep to leave for the hospital. I made sure Derrick grabbed all the right bags and began the process of putting my shoes on. Unknown to me, but my Mom was “running” through the house, waking up Ellen, Amy, Emma & Stephen [she let Ruby & my Dad sleep]. Suddenly, everyone was in the living room! Derrick was still loading the car & putting down a thick layer of towels for me to sit on [especially since we were taking my parent’s brand new car – literally – they had just bought it less than a week prior]. I was in no hurry to leave and was kind of bummed I couldn’t continue the process at home, but I was thankful for the few hours I’d been allowed to stay.

Before we left, everyone gathered around & Amy prayed for us and the baby & then, we hit the road.

Since it was about 3:15am, there was no traffic to get to Forbes Hospital. Mom was driving and Derrick was in the back seat – overall there was a sense of excitement – our baby was coming!

.. stay tuned for Part 2!!