My Birth Story

My Birth Story 

My birth story is something I was so excited to write about.  One, I would read countless birth stories on Pinterest and Google to help me mentally prepare myself.  Secondly, this get’s to walk me through memory lane of the best day of my life.

This is not your typical birth story

Ok so yes, there were the labor pains and the whole delivery process.  But how it all begins is so full of ridiculous events.  Let’s talk about the ups and downs, tears and laughter.

How it started

My due date was February 6, 2016.  The Thursday before that (Feb 4, 2016) I noticed signs of losing the mucus plug (still not my favorite pregnancy term).  This was exciting because from all my research, once you lose that, it’s close to baby time!

Almost immediately I noticed fluids leaking but they weren’t clear so I didn’t think it was my water breaking. It was a slow but consistent loss of fluids.  My husband and I were at my parents for dinner, so I went to the kitchen and told my mom.  As a mom of two herself, I figured she would have a better understanding of what was happening…

She agreed with me that it was a little odd for it to be my water.  That gave me the reassurance I needed to just carry on with my day.  As the hours went on I noticed it wasn’t stopping and I needed to start using pads.

At this point, my parents suggested we just monitor the leaking fluid.  They lived a lot closer to the hospital then we did, so they suggested we just spend the night in case.  My husband and I go home to grab all our hospital stuff and bring everything we need to spend the night.  So, off we go to collect our belongings, hospital bags, car seat, etc…

The fluid leaking was not letting up

That night I got zero sleep at all because I was up ALL night changing pads and noticing this fluid leaking was not letting up at all.  It still wasn’t a clear color so I was a little concerned.  The next morning, my mom suggested I call the hospital and see if I should be concerned.

When the nurses heard that my due date was the next day and that the leaking fluid wasn’t clear, they asked that I come in for testing.  At this point, I have a huge gut feeling this is the last moment my husband and I would just be us two.  I felt like the next time we were home would be with our daughter.

We get our bags and think we are headed to the hospital…

We go outside to jump in our vehicle to get to the hospital and our car is nowhere to be found…Instant panic…  We scour the street and in disbelief realize our car was STOLEN.  That’s right!!

Our car seat is gone, hospital bags with all our new baby gear, blankets, wraps, clothes, snacks, etc…  The saddest and most devastating part was that I had put my wedding rings in my hospital bag.  My hands had got so swollen I couldn’t wear them.  I was so looking forward to sliding them back on after delivery.

Somehow we needed to get to the hospital 

I had to get to the hospital.  By now, the leaking is picking up.  Frantically, I call my sister who was working I told her she needed to come and pick us up and take us to the hospital immediately.  She got to us in about 20 minutes which was record time!

While in the assessment room getting checked, we quickly find out that my water had broke almost two days ago.

The fluids weren’t clear because the baby had pooped.  With all of these events and the fact that my due date was now the next day, we had no choice but to have an induction.

Excited and nervous were the feelings rapidly going through me.  I had done so much research on inductions and was feeling pretty good with it, but I was aware of how hard and fast labor can come on.

With all the vehicle chaos and stress going on, I just thought, whatever is going to happen is going to happen and I can’t control it, so just relax!

First things first, FOOD!

I was prepared for everything, natural, epidural, c-section.  I had a birth plan but was prepared to throw it all out the window if I had too!  In the case of an epidural, I knew I needed to eat ahead of time.  The nurses graciously waited and got things set up while I made sure to stuff my face with as much food as I could ahead of time.

Chaos is all around

There we were in my private room where I would labor and deliver our baby girl just eating and watching the chaos around me.  My sister is on the phone to my parents telling them they would need to go buy a car seat and bring it to the hospital as we had no vehicle anymore.  Meanwhile, my husband is in the other corner of the room on the phone to the police.  He’s trying to figure out what is going on with our vehicle and where it even went, the damage is done, etc…

Here’s the funny thing, I don’t do overly well with needles so I typically need some distraction to help me not pay attention to what is happening (pregnancy did help with this issue, you just after a while get used to it).  The nurses were having a hard time getting the IV in my arm.  They kept taking the needle out and trying again and again.  Now I am on the verge of passing out.  Both my sister and my husband were still on there phone calls, but I finally hear my sister yell at my husband, ” Wes, Asia is going to pass out!!”

All eyes are on me now 

Finally, the IV goes in, I’m feeling a lot better and am now hooked up to the Pitocin.  While were waiting for labor to kick in, we found out our car had been broken into.  Police informed us the windows were smashed out, so they had taken it to the impound for safety reasons.

Everything was stolen in it, hospital bags and all, EXCEPT for our car seat.  They also reminded us that our insurance had JUST expired.  We would have to renew it before we could even get the car taken from the impound over to the auto body shop to fix the damage.

Apparently, in my final days of pregnancy, the pregnancy brain got the best of me and I forgot to renew the insurance.  It was just nightmare after nightmare.  We finally learned to just laugh at the gong show this had become and focus on getting this baby out safely.

Pitocin kicked in and contractions were coming on strong

At 8 pm Friday night, my contractions went from ZERO to SIXTY exactly like all the articles had stated.  At this point, I had been induced now for about 7 hours.  I went from easily breathing through them, to gripping onto my husband’s waste so tight trying to catch a breath.  My contractions weren’t letting up or giving me any break to even breathe.

The nurses came in to check me and see how dilated I was…  I thought that for sure I would have to be at least 5cm dilated!

Wrong, try 1 cm dilated still

Feeling super discouraged and worried how much I could handle the pain, I looked at my husband and told him I needed the epidural.  He informed the nurses of my decision, and to my surprise, five minutes later the anesthesiologist was there and ready to give me the epidural.

It was a very quick process, rather painless I’d say.  I felt a weird prick in the “lower part” of my body and I mentioned it to the anesthesiologist and they said that was very weird.  To be safe, they redid the epidural quick right then and there and I didn’t think anything of it…

The instant relief was heaven

It was instant relief for me.  I was numb everywhere and although the nurses don’t allow food with an epidural, they would allow as many popsicles as I wanted.  To me, this was heaven.  I was now peacefully contracting with absolutely no feeling or idea, laying in bed comfy eating popsicles.  That’s how the entire rest of my labor went.

Whenever I started feeling pressure or a little bit of pain, I would ask the nurse to give me another dose of whatever it is that’s in the epidural and it would take the edge right off.

At about 7 am Saturday morning (Feb 6 – yes her due date) I started feeling that “sensation to poop.”  Any mother who has labored knows exactly what I am talking about. My body felt like it naturally wanted to just start pushing.  The nurse checked me and sure enough, I was about 9cm dilated.

The nurse said the four best words, “You can start pushing”

I pushed for two and a half hours and at 9:49 am Saturday, February 6, 2016, our daughter was born.  Our perfectly punctual daughter.  Little Miss Adalynn Aliyah Crawford, 8lbs 80z (big baby girl) and 21 inches long.  It was the best moment of our life.  So incredibly emotional and hearts full of love!!

We rode that high for a while and boy did we struggle that night trying to learn the ropes of breastfeeding and newborn life, etc… but we did what every new parent does and made the best of it.

Everything set in the next day

I was determined to get dismissed from the hospital ASAP and just get home (fun fact: it was the super bowl!!). Everyone wanted to be in the comfort of our own home for some football and newborn cuddles.  But that’s not what happened.  As the nurses were checking on the baby and me, I couldn’t get past the fact that my head was POUNDING. 

Losing the ability to concentrate, I asked for ice for my head and just started balling my eyes out.  With zero clues as to what was happening, I was experiencing the most excruciating head pain.  I chalked it up to two hours of pushing.

Long story short it turns out I had a post-dural headache due to the anesthesiologist puncturing the wrong space.  Nurses and doctors suggested I stay at the hospital for another day to be monitored.  I was so determined to just get home still and be in my bed.

Without being able to be dismissed, my husband and dad decided a super bowl party would just have to happen in my hospital room.  While I rested, my parents, husband, and sister filled up the bathtub in our private room with ice and beer and we had a super bowl party right there.

Trying to power through, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was still feeling super rough.  Later that night the doctors left it up to me to make a decision.

Do I stay or do I go?

I felt like maybe if I just got into the comfort of my home, everything would be better.  So, I was dismissed from the hospital at 8 pm Sunday evening (just the next day after delivering).  We walked away with our beautiful daughter and as much pain as my head was in, I couldn’t help but just feel so proud of what we just had accomplished!

Truly a beautiful moment and my own birth story.

If you want to read further on my post-dural recovery and what happened a few days after being home, read here:

[pt_view id=”ffca8cfebx”]

Xo, Asia