Evelyn’s Birth Story

On Thursday June 25, 2015 I had a doctor’s appointment. The second one that week. I had just hit 37 weeks on Monday and my blood pressure had been inching up. The doctor wanted me to come back later in the week so they could keep an eye on it. Sure enough, that Thursday afternoon my blood pressure was high again.

I remember the doctor saying she was on the fence about sending me to the hospital. So she had me lay down for a bit and took my blood pressure one more time. She said if it is still high she was going to send me to the hospital so they can put the monitor on the baby and make sure everything is alright. If it was lower, she just wanted me to go home and rest.

I got a little panic-ey because I was not ready to go to the hospital! I had just finished up my time at work and had a to-do list a mile long for the next two weeks or so that I planned to be home. I tried to relax because I knew this was only going to raise my blood pressure and I did not want to go to the hospital! To my surprise, it was lower.

The doctor told me to take it easy and we scheduled an appointment for me to come back on Monday. She instructed that if I started to feel “off” or if I noticed the baby moving less over the weekend, I should just go to the hospital and get check out. As much as I didn’t want to go I was so worried. Maybe I should just go anyway? They can put the heart rate monitor over my belly, tell me the baby is fine and send me on my merry way.

So when my husband got home from work, we ate dinner and I laid on the couch waiting to count those baby kicks. An hour passed and I hardly felt a thing. We decided to go. I had a bag sort of “packed” so we put it in the car “just in case” and drove the 45 minutes to the hospital.

When we got there they had me change into the gown, put the heart rate monitor on the baby, and took my blood pressure. High. Really high, I guess. The baby was fine, but the nurse called in my doctor and he says, “we’re gonna have you stay”.” At first I didn’t realize he meant stay and have the baby. He started talking about how the baby was fine and that there wasn’t a problem right now, but they wanted to get the baby out before there could be complications. And I was like what? Honestly my first thought was, “Shit! We didn’t even leave the cat food!”

Baby must have heard us talking, because while I was in the intake room hooked up the all the machines, I felt my first little contraction. The nurse said, “did you feel that?” I was so oblivious that I didn’t even know that’s what it was! I hadn’t even had any false contractions before then. I was excited and nervous and scared all at the same time.

I moved to the labor and delivery room and they started me on medication to prepare me to be induced early the next morning. They gave me something to help me sleep and just as soon as we were finally settled and had turned the lights down around 2am, my water broke naturally. Doctor came in to check to see how dilated I was. I can’t remember how far a long I was, but he said “baby is really on her way now, she must have known it was time.”

Contractions started fast and furious. By 6am they were so strong and the nurse asked if I was ready for an epidural. I told her no and then by the time I was about to agree to it, it was too late. It was in my plans to not get one and in the end I was happy I made it through without one, but damn. I was so delirious from the pain and exhaustion and my lips were so freakin’ chapped and my mouth was so dry. At one point I looked at my husband and literally said “I can’t do this anymore.” He of course assured me that I could and continued to feed me ice chips each time I yelled, “ICE!” like a crazy woman.

I was hanging out dilated around 9 cm for what felt like the longest time. I kept wanting them to check because I was sure I needed to start to pushing. I’m pretty sure I yelled some obscenities at this point and told them the baby was coming and I needed the doctor NOW. I just knew I had to push. Thankfully the doctor got there quickly and 35 minutes of pushing later at 11:35 am June 26, 2015, our sweet baby girl, Evelyn Rose made her entrance.

They laid her on my chest, Daddy cut the cord and I remember crying partly because I was so happy and partly because it hurt like hell and I was so glad it was over.

We laid that way for an hour, taking it all in. Baby girl was perfectly healthy 8lbs. 2oz. and 20 inches.

It sure was a whirlwind. I never even brought my hospital bag in because things happened so fast and I didn’t want my husband to leave me to go get it!  If I had to do it again, my labor and delivery necessities would be a hair tie and ChapStick. That’s all I’d need! My lips were not the same for weeks and weeks later.

I did end up back at the doctor’s on Monday.  Except I had a baby in tow and was going to see her Pediatrician instead!

I sure wasn’t prepared but I am a strong believer in that everything happens for a reason. We came home to a messy house and baby room that still had baby shower gifts all over the floor. We couldn’t find half of the things we needed and Daddy took multiple trips to the store daily. But we had a healthy, sweet bundle of joy to love on and that’s all that mattered!