Presley's Birth Story

Ahh it feels so nice to be back behind this white space and communicating with the outside world! Presley and I are finally getting in some sort of a groove over here and for that I am so grateful - I will have a whole other post on post partum soon. Let's just say...it's no joke!

On Monday, August 18th around 9pm David and I headed to the hospital because I was having contractions about 2-3 minutes apart. They weren't particularly painful but they were coming regularly so I decided to call into my doctor who told me to head to the hospital. When we checked in I was at 2.5 centimeters which really didn't mean much as I had been at 2.5 for 2 weeks. They decided to keep me for 45 minutes while they monitored me. After 45 minutes the contractions were still close together so thy had me walk around to try and get labor actively started.

After being at the hospital until midnight with no further dilation they decided to let me go home. At first I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep but surprisingly when I got home I slept like a baby (which is an ironic figure of speech)! Turns out that was for the best as it would be my last night of good sleep for some time.

When we got discharged the nurse said sometimes false labor is brought on by dehydration so we chalked it up to that and made sure I was well hydrated the next day. I also had a doctor's appointment the next morning and they said if I was dilated more at the appointment they would admit me. Well at 10am I was still at 2.5 and all day the next day I had maybe a total of four contractions all day long so I figured it wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

That evening I climbed into bed and was just browsing on my phone when I heard and felt a rather large "pop". I immediately stood up thinking that my water had broke but there was nothing. I decided to head over to the bathroom. It was here that I discovered the pop was me losing my mucus plug and almost as soon as I realized that the contractions hit me like a ton of bricks.

Not wanting another false alarm David was convinced I was still under hydrated. So he drew me a bath and filled my camelback. I couldn't stay in the bath for long as my contractions were getting stronger and stronger. After sitting on the bathroom floor for over an hour David tried to get me to lay down in bed so he could rub my back. So reluctantly I left the safety of the bathroom and attempted to lay down. As soon as I was in bed I began to feel sick and ran to the bathroom. Which is where all the contents of my camelback came roaring out of me. It was also at this point that my water decided to break!

So it was decided we were headed to the hospital again. Luckily we only live about two miles from it! When we got to the parking lot I could barely exit the car, I was doubling over from the pain from the contractions; which in comparison to the previous nights contractions were a joke! Riding up the elevator seemed like it was taking forever and when we finally arrived on the labor and delivery floor I could hardly step out of the elevator.

We checked in at 1:30 and the nurse asked me to disrobe, which I couldn't do, the pain was blinding. I also proceeded to get sick again in a barf bag - lovely.

When they came to check me I was told I was at a 3. She asked me my level of pain and I said "10! I want the epidural NOW!" Smart decision making on my part :)

Once the anesthesiologist administered the most perfect epidural. (I could feel my legs and toes but no contractions) I was able to go to sleep and when the nurse came in again at 4am I was already at a 5. Awesome - back to sleep I went. When they came back in at 6am I was surprisingly at 10!

We were so shocked at how quickly I accelerated we hadn't even called David's parents yet who had a two hour drive ahead of them! She said at 8am we are going to begin pushing, so I started making the call to my parents to let them know Presley was well on her way!

Turns out little miss was more than ready to have a birthday party. We began pushing at 8:22 and Presley came into this world at 8:57am!

A perfectly happy and healthy baby and just like that our little family of three became a family of four.

 Savannah Guthrie I am not...