Calvin was born at 4:11 am on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, a full eight days after his due date. Everyone’s labor and delivery story is so unique, and I loved reading posts and watching videos of other mom’s experiences while I was pregnant, so I thought I would add my own to the mix.
Pregnancy and birth are a wild ride, no matter who you are, in my opinion. Especially if it’s your first. You don’t know what’s going to happen, your body doesn’t know what’s going to happen, heck, you don’t even know when anything is going to happen. You just have to trust your doctor and your body and know that your baby will come out at some point.
GOING OVERDUE
Calvin was due on Monday, January 27, 2020. That was my original due date, my 40 week mark, and all of my ultrasounds during pregnancy gave my doctor no reason to move it any later than that. I was honestly ready to have him once I hit about 38 weeks. I was exhausted, stretched to my limit, and we’d just made it through all of the holiday season, so I had nothing else going on besides work until the baby arrived.
I was on to weekly visits by this point, so each week I went in to see my doctor and she told me to be patient. The baby would come when he/she was ready (we didn’t find out the gender until the birth). I also wasn’t dilated or effacing each week. When she checked my progress at 37 weeks, I was 90% effaced and 1 cm dilated. That didn’t change until I was 41 weeks along (but I’ll get to that).
I continued going to work as normal. When I was about 36 weeks along, I switched from working “the back” as a medical assistant (going into rooms and assisting with exams and procedures) and switched to working “the front”, checking people in, managing paperwork, and answering the phones. I simply wasn’t able to be on my feet for full four hour clinic shifts anymore. My last day of work was my due date, and I remember people coming in for their appointments, checking in with me, and asking “OH WOW, when are you due???” and I would smile and say “Today.” It was pretty humorous to me at the time.
I went in for another weekly checkup the day after my due date (Tuesday, January 28). I was still at 1 cm at 90%, but because I was now overdue, my doctor wanted me to have a non-stress test (NST) every three days until the baby arrived. She wanted the baby monitored, but didn’t want to force him/her to come before either of us were ready. We scheduled the NST’s and she scheduled an induction appointment on the evening of my 41 week mark.
For an NST, you have two monitors wrapped around your belly. One monitors any contractions in your uterus, and the other monitors the baby’s heartbeat. You wear these monitors for roughly 20 minutes. In those 20 minutes, the machine prints out a record of contraction and heart rate. The doctor uses this information to make sure that the baby is still doing well and tolerating any contractions in the uterus. An NST is also a part of a BPP (biophysical profile) that the doctor may perform if your fundal height doesn’t measure as expected. A BPP is scarier than it sounds and just involves an extra ultrasound to measure growth and amniotic fluid, as well as the 20 minute NST. (For the record, I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. This description comes only from a background of someone who had both a BPP and several NST’s. Do not take this as medical advice or as fact. It is only my singular, personal experience. If you have questions or concerns, please consult your personal physician).
Once I stopped working and had that Tuesday doctor’s appointment, I pretty much spent that whole week napping, bouncing on a exercise ball, and cleaning. I knew that if I didn’t go into labor on my own, that I would be induced on Monday/Tuesday and that the baby would be born sometime between Tuesday night and Thursday morning.
I had another NST on Friday (40 weeks + 4 days). The results were good, but I still hadn’t progressed, despite my hours of walking laps in the park and bouncing on my ball.
My final NST was on Monday (41 weeks) and I was scheduled to go in to start my induction at 8 p.m. The plan was for me to go in at 8 and they would start me on a medication to soften my cervix and encourage it to dilate, then I would start pitocin for contractions around 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning. After the NST, my doctor came in and checked me one final time. It was about 3:15 p.m. and I had miraculously dilated to 2 cm from the 1 cm I had been stuck at for a month, and that extra centimeter gave my doctor the room to do a membrane stretch and sweep. That certainly wasn’t comfortable, but I was planning on being in labor all the next day, so it didn’t bother me too much. My doctor told me to enjoy my afternoon and that she would see me that night at the hospital.
GOING INTO LABOR
We left the doctor’s office and headed to Walmart. The weather was horrible that day, so we had brought our hospital bags with us and were planning on hanging out at my in-law’s until the induction, because it was so much closer to the hospital.
We walked around Walmart for 45 minutes or so, grabbing some snacks for Colter to eat during labor because we were planning on it taking a while. I felt some minor cramping, but nothing that I was concerned about. I got a lot of sympathetic looks slowly waddling around the store in my stretched t-shirt.
After Walmart, we headed to the in-laws. The plan was to hang out for a bit, leave at 6:30, head to Chick-fil-A for my final meal before labor, then make it to L&D at 8:00 to check in.
We chatted with Colter’s siblings for a while, then decided to play some MarioKart and Super Smash Bros to kill some time. Around 6:00 I started feeling weird, so I suggested to Colter that maybe we should leave now, rather than at 6:30. We grabbed our stuff and headed out.
Just because I was feeling a little off didn’t mean that I didn’t still want my Chick-fil-A nuggets, and we still went through the drive through. As we were waiting in line for our food, I started timing the cramps that I was getting. I was having 90 second contractions every 2 to 4 minutes, consistently. We got our food, and I scarfed mine down in between contractions.
We arrived at the hospital at about 7:20 p.m. Walked up to L&D where I picked up the phone to have them let me in and said, “Hi, my name is Jaycee. I am scheduled to be induced at 8, but I’m pretty sure that I’m in labor.” The nurse on the other end said that she could let me back, but because I was 30 minutes early for my appointment, they didn’t have a room ready for me yet and that I would have to wait in the waiting room. We went in and sat down with a family that was waiting to hear news about another mom in labor. I sat on the edge of the bench, steadily breathing through contractions while I waited for them to call me over.
At about 7:40 they had a room ready for me. Since I was either in labor or about to be induced, I skipped triage and went straight to my L&D room. The nurse assigned to me had a student with her, so they came in, introduced themselves, and gave me a gown to change into. Once I was changed, the nurse checked to see how my cervix was doing. When she said that I was 100% effaced and 4 cm dilated, I nearly cried. I was so happy. They contacted my doctor and she gave the okay for me to continue to labor naturally and that I would only receive pitocin if my labor stalled and it was distressing my baby.
LABOR
For the first three hours or so, I just coped with contractions on my own. I practiced focusing on my breathing and releasing tension as I exhaled. I swayed and paced around my room and went for a couple of slow laps around the floor. My goal was to go as long as possible without an epidural, and to give birth without medication if possible. I was super thirsty, but hospital policy is nothing besides ice chips and popsicles while in active labor. My personal doctor recommended eating and drinking if I felt like it to keep my energy up, so I had a few popsicles and drink sips of water while the nurses were out of the room. I was checked again at 10:00 p.m. and had progressed to 5 cm dilation.
My family and photographer arrived around 8:30 to support me. We chatted, they walked with me, and we watched Disney+ while I labored. I remember laughing and that it was nice to have distraction from the contractions. I also remember that I was shaking uncontrollably. Not so much that I couldn’t walk, but my hands, arms, legs, and buttcheeks were just quivering and shaky constantly. I remember finding it hilarious at the time.
After my doctor arrived, she had me moved into the room with the birthing tub so that I could use it if I wanted to. I was all for it, because I was hoping it would help me postpone the epidural. My doctor really encouraged me to move around when I could, to change positions frequently, listen to my body, and to relax and picture each contraction steadily moving my baby farther down the birth canal.
Because of the way Calvin was positioned, I was having 2-3 contractions in a row, without any pause to break between them. Just as one contraction would start to taper off, another would start. So, rather than feeling 2-3 contractions lasting about a minute each, it felt like I was having one long three minute contraction.
At around 1 o’clock in the morning, my doctor and I decided that she would check my progress again and possibly break my water if I hadn’t dilated past a 5. As soon as she made the lightest of contact with my cervix, my water broke. I had borderline polyhydramnios, meaning I had a lot of amniotic fluid inside of me. I felt a huge gush of warm liquid come out of me, and the pressure of the water release actually moved Calvin farther down in the birth canal and his head effectively “corked” me back up. My doctor checked to make sure the umbilical cord hadn’t become trapped between his head and my cervix, and we were good to go.
The next two hours are pretty fuzzy. Once my water broke, my contractions got a lot more intense, more painful, and longer. They also changed location. For the first seven hours of my labor, the contractions had all been in front of me, like a thick belt of pain below my belly and between my hips. After my water broke, the pain extended all the way around me. I felt the contractions in my belly, hips, sides, back, and the tops of my thighs. I also started having 4-5 strong contractions without a pause or break, so I would have contraction pain for 6-9 minutes straight, then have about a 45-90 second break before the next set came on.
When the contractions would finally let up for a moment, I remember feeling like I was waking up. Like I had been in a semiconscious, foggy, pain state, and I was just regaining my grip on reality. I was also doing my best to relax, meditate, and to release as much tension from my body as possible. Once the contractions started again I would lay my head back, close my eyes, and start praying that I would make it through each contraction and that the baby was handling them well. I also vaguely remember that when a new one would start I would kind of scream-moan involuntarily.
After those two hours (around 3:15 a.m.) Colter was strongly encouraging me to get an epidural. I told him that I was more scared of an epidural than I was of this labor. Heather (my doctor) came in to check on me, and I asked her to check my progress. I was sure that the last two hours of unmedicated hell had gotten me at least a centimeter.
Nope. I was still at a 5. I know now that this was likely because I hadn’t moved or changed position much over the last two hours, but hearing that I hadn’t made progress was the push I needed to get the epidural.
The anesthesiologist I had was amazing. He was good natured, kind, informative, and super supportive. He congratulated me on making it as far as I had on my own and thanked me for giving him the opportunity to help me have my baby. The epidural took about ten minutes for him to place and that ten minutes was rough. I had to sit on the edge of the bed with my legs hanging off, curled over my belly, trying to get my shoulders as close to my knees as possible, and I had to hold absolutely still. I had 5-6 contractions in that position and it was agonizing. The epidural placement itself didn’t hurt, just felt like someone was kneading their fist into my spine for a few minutes.
Once the epidural was placed, I sat up, had enough time for the words “I am going to puke” to leave my mouth, and then I vomited. My nurses were insanely fast handing me a blue vomit bag. I threw up my dinner and then felt loads better. (Colter says that me puking was the worst part of my labor for him. He says he was prepared for blood, fluid, screaming, crying, pushing, pain, all of that, but that he was not prepared for me to puke. It made him start to dry heave and he had to take a minute in the hallway to compose himself.)
For me, the epidural worked fabulously. I was completely numb from my ribs to the middle of my thighs, but I could still somewhat feel my knees and my feet. The pain from my contractions was totally gone and I felt like I could breathe again. The nurse checked me as soon as the epidural was in place and I was still at 5 cm.
Once the epidural was placed, things got a little weird with the baby. They suddenly weren’t getting a very good reading on his heart and the nurses were concerned. They kept turning me from side to side and even helped me onto my hands and knees for a few minutes. They also put me on oxygen to help bump his levels up. My doctor was asleep in an on call room (she had worked clinic all day and it was now 3:45 in morning and had a booked clinic the next day too).
Once she came in she pretty much told everyone to calm down and checked my cervix again. In the twelve minutes since the epidural had been placed i had progressed from 5 cm to 9 cm! The bad readings were due to the super fast labor progression and the fact that my baby had dropped so far down the birth canal, that the sensors weren’t positioned properly anymore. They took about ten minutes to get the bed ready for me to push and by the time we were all positioned, I was at a 10 and ready to go!
THE BIRTH
I pushed for 14 minutes total. When Calvin was crowning I actually got to reach down and feel the top of his head with my hand. They offered me a mirror, which I refused because I was a little freaked out, but now I wish that I had said yes.
Once Cal finally made his appearance at 4:11 a.m. on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, a second gush of amniotic fluid accompanied him and one of the nurses yelled out, “IT’S A BOY!!!” They waited for a minute for the cord to stop pulsing (per my request) and then Colter cut the cord and Calvin was placed on my chest. And boy, was he bright red and angry. I got my uninterrupted Golden Hour of skin-to-skin contact with him and he screamed and yelled for the first 40 minutes of it. Every time he would start to quiet down, if someone started softly talking to him he would started a hollering again! I couldn’t even get him to breastfeed during that time because he was so intent on letting us all know that he did not enjoying being birthed at all.
After the Golden Hour, I let the nurses take him and weigh and measure him. He was 21 1/4 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 14 oz. I had second degree tears requiring stitches and only had my epidural placed and active for about 40 minutes. Our immediate family came in to peek at him real quick, and everyone was gone to get a couple hours of sleep by about 6 a.m. They moved us to the postpartum wing, I even was able to move myself from the wheelchair to the bed because my epidural was already wearing off.
So, in summary, I went into labor at 41 weeks, 90 minutes before my appointment to be induced. I labored for just under 10 hours, had an epidural for the last 40 minutes of my labor, went from a 5 to a 9 in twelve minutes, and pushed for fourteen minutes to get my little guy here!
We were in the hospital for one additional night before they discharged both of us and we took our little boy home.
BARREL OF MERRELL'S 
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