He just turned one – Ély’s birth story

Ély just turned one! My baby, my tiny little baby, is now 1 year old.

It went by so quickly.

For the occasion, I felt like remembering the day I gave birth to him. Because everyone loves a good birth story. Should I say mom’s love to hear one another’s birth story. Here is mine!

If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, head over to this blog post to read more about the dream I had when I first got pregnant with Ély.

It all happened during the night of July 30^thto July 31^st. At the beginning of the night, I felt something pop inside of me, but I went back to bed thinking it sounded just like when I broke my water when giving birth to Téo. Haha! I was so chill about giving birth for the second time.

At about 1h AM on July 31st, 2017, I woke up for the second time, but this time I felt like I needed to pee, I made my way to the bathroom. I got off of the bed, with my large 39 weeks pregnant stomach and by the time I sat down on the toilet, the pressure it created made a lot of liquid come out. Like a lot of fluid. It’s at that moment I understood work had started, my waters had broken.

I woke up my partner and we made our way to the hospital.

ONCE ARRIVED AT THE HOSPITAL

Once we arrived at the hospital, the doctor gave us a room and confirmed my water had broken. Luckily, we were welcomed by the same doctor as to when I gave birth to Téo. #Awesome

As I naturally have a group B streptococcus (nothing dangerous, a lot of moms have that, google it to find out more ;)) I had a solute installed to protect the baby. It was at that moment that the chaos began (every birth story has its ups and its downs).

THE FIRST INCIDENT

The nurse tried to insert my solute 5 times, before succeeding. 5 times!!! And just so you know, I have really good veins, they often call me out for having “large veins”! All that happened while having contractions… it was not a good start!

By the time they got me ready in my bed, both my forearms were blue.

Following that, they left me on my own to let the work progress. Just like when I first gave birth, the first stage of early labor has always been super long for me. For Téo, it lasted 30 hours. Yes! You read that right. I was suffering for 30 long hours, while my body was very slowly getting at it. In Ély’s case, it lasted 10 hours. It was as if my body was getting ready for what was ahead of us and when it felt ready, then we moved on to the next phase. But I was already so exhausted! In my case, active labor usually lasted around 2 to 3 hours and then the baby was out.

MY LONG EARLY LABOR STAGE

My early labor stage lasted until 10h30 AM the next day. I would dilate about 1cm every 2 hours and my cervix took even loooooooonger to efface.

Around 12h, things started to slow down and I was already so tired, that I ask for the epidural.

It arrived at 12h30.

At that point, my cervix was effaced at 5, about 80%.

By the time the anesthesiologist got everything installed in my back, it was 13h. It was now time to relax and let my body do the work.

***Isn’t there anything worse during labor than to lie on your back while being unable to move. It hurts so much, it’s the worst. ***

There I was lying on my back and enduring every phoquing contraction coming my way, knowing that soon I would be relieved.

But it never happened.

THE SECOND INCIDENT

Half an hour after I received the epidural, I was still in pain. I was in so much pain and I still couldn’t move.

The doctor concluded that the epidural was not working, he injected a new dose, thinking the previous one was too weak for me. At that point, they told me I should soon be relieved.

THE THIRD INCIDENT

But still nothing…

During all that time, my work was still progressing and there I was unable to move, lying on my back with a phoquing incompetent epidural. Talking about it brings back so many bad memories.

I was exhausted, I couldn’t handle it anymore.

They called back the anesthesiologist, desperately trying to relieve me from the pain one way or another. They told me that the drug they were going to give me was the real deal!

They used the epidural tube to insert the new drug. I waited… And… NOTHING HAPPENED. It was not working, I could still feel every phoquing thing.

It was hurting so much, I wanted to die. I know you’re all thinking the same thing, that it hurts to give birth. The problem here is that I was minded that my pain would be relieved at some point. And I wasn’t, it was hurting deeply, as I have never been prepared for so much pain.

I was bawling my eyes out, I was praying (haha! Yes, I prayed) for my sufferings to end, as I was there lying on the bed unable to move.

It was 14h30.

At that moment the anesthesiologist decided to investigate what was wrong with my epidural.

THE FOURTH INCIDENT

When he took off the plastic band-aid that was holding the epidural in place, some liquid leaked out. That’s when they realized that the epidural was either defective or misplaced.

They concluded, that I did not receive any drug.

They reinstalled a second epidural (!!!! – it really hurts when they insert the epidural, and it hurts, even more, when your contractions are super strong.)

My labor kept on progressing, but I didn’t know where I was at that point, as it was hurting so much I didn’t feel like asking the doctor for an update.

Finally, 15 minutes later, with an all-new epidural inserted, I started to feel the magical effect of this well know medicine. Haha #CloudNine

At that moment, the doctor looked at the progress I had made.

My cervix was effaced at 100% and I was dilated at 10!!

FINALLY!

Not too long after I started feeling better – and that I felt like myself again – I felt like something was pushing up my back.

That was the sign I had been waiting for!

They prepared me and 5 minutes later I was meeting my wonderful little baby for the first time.

I quickly brought Ély to my breast to breastfeed him as it’s very important to me.

That was Ély’s eventful birth story!

I always like to know more about your birth story, how was it? Did anything happen?