MY UNMEDICATED BIRTH STORY

My contractions came out of nowhere. At first, I thought they were just Braxton hicks because they were barely noticeable, were sporadic and didn’t last long at all. All this started at 11:30pm on December 21st. I texted my mom so that she would be ready just in case anything were to happen so she could come and stay with Ella and I was going to try to get some sleep. I never could lay down. I was thinking about all the things I could do to 'get ready' for the hospital since I actually had time so that's what I did.

By midnight on the 22nd, I was timing the contractions because they were getting stronger. When I started timing them, they were already four and five minutes apart and almost a minute long. I don’t think I was going to be able to follow the 5-1-1 rule by letting them go on for an hour before deciding to do anything so I called my mom around 12:30am and asked her to head over. We live about 45 minutes away from each other so I ended up waiting an hour anyway. I took a shower and got dressed. By the time my mom got to our house at 1:30am, I was feeling contractions pretty heavily about two and three minutes apart. Brandon gathered everything from the car for my mom to have for Ella.

We left our house right before 2am arriving at the hospital around 2:20am. I was wheeled to the front desk where a lady began to ask me a ton of questions while Brandon was parking the car. I was undergoing so much pain but she finally contacted someone to come and get me after she asked if I was ready to push. I said “I’m getting there.”

I finally got a room right before 3am and my delivery team asked if I wanted an epidural. I debated because I really wanted to not have to have it but I was in so much pain and decided to get it. My team told me I had to get labs done before they can give me an epidural so I quickly got in the bed and got hooked up to everything and waited on labs to collect my blood to attempt it. They checked me to see how far I was dilated. I was at 6cm. 

I remember needing to pee shortly after hopping in bed and my nurse asked if I was okay to use a bed pan and I was. However, I didn’t realize my nurse was going to stare me down while I tried to pee. I never could go - haha!

The contractions were getting stronger and stronger and the pain was unbelievable. Brandon was great trying to soothe me but poor thing never knows what to do. Him just being there was all I needed.

​My delivery team checked me again and told me I wouldn’t have time for an epidural and that it was time to have a baby. I almost cried but I was so focused on breathing and not passing out that I just went with it because I was ready to get this baby out of me. They had to break my water since it never broke on its own. I started pushing around 3:50am and Riley arrived at 3:57am. She weighed in at 8lbs 12oz.

It was a very quick delivery and even though it was only a total of almost four hours, the laboring felt like it was never going to end when I was in that hospital bed just waiting. I swelled quite a bit from pushing her out so quickly and endured a second degree tear so that’s been real fun to deal with but we are so happy to have our Riley-Bug on the outside now.

The rest of our hospital stay was super nice despite being sore from the swelling/stitching and dealing with the same hip pain I’ve had throughout my pregnancy. Luckily, we got in a recovery room fairly quickly so we could get some well-needed sleep. Brandon had a chair that pulled out into a bed. My nurses were amazing and we actually got to sleep quite a bit during the rest of our stay. The food was surprisingly good too! Brandon got a guest try for less than $7 each time we ordered and it came with quite a bit of food. While we loved being catered on, we wanted to be in the comfort of our own home and bed again. We were able to checkout the afternoon of the 23rd and bring Riley home.

Ella stayed with my mom the first night we got home so we could navigate this newborn stage again but watching Ella meet her little sister was so pure and sweet. She has been so gentle with Riley and loves her so much already. I can’t wait to watch their bond as Riley continues to grow.

Now, we get to navigate parenthood with two under two and I am so excited to begin this new adventure. God has blessed us big time with these two girls. I can't wait to watch their bond as they grow up together.