Welcome Ms. Hollyn Marie 🎀 - Birth Story
Sunday, 10/27/19 was our last day as “just a couple”. We were cleaning the house, doing laundry and mentally getting ready for my induction to take place on Tuesday morning, when my water finally broke at about 5:30PM as I was watching Halloween Baking Championship (overdue 6 days).
I called the hospital and asked how much time I had to get there and the nurse in maternity told me to walk a bit and if the water hadn’t stopped leaking to come in. I decided to hop in the shower (who knew when I could take another one) get ready with makeup and all because I knew there would be a lot of pictures taken (even though I was going into labor) and headed to the hospital with our bags that had been packed for weeks at 7PM.
As soon as we got to the hospital, they placed us in a room to be checked out. They did a test to confirm my water did break, which it did and checked my cervix. I was only 1cm dilated, so the nurse said it was going to be a long night. I stayed in that room for 5 hours laboring until I couldn’t hang and requested the epidural. By this time, it was midnight and I had only dilated to 3cm.
They had me walk to my delivery room and gave me the epidural. I was scared because they said you have to stay as still as possible, but because I was in so much pain, my body was shaking uncontrollably. Thankfully they gave me the epidural without complications. However... time kept passing by so quickly and I could still feel every contraction after an hour. I told the nurse the epidural wasn’t working and may have had a slight panic attack. The anesthesiologist made sure the epidural was dripping fast at 3AM, when I could finally relax and slept for a couple hours.
At 5AM on Monday morning, the nurse woke me up to check my cervix and I was finally fully dilated. They woke me up and told me we were getting ready to have a baby. The nurse had me start pushing and the baby’s head was very low (so low she could see). She then told me to stop so that they could call the doctor to come and deliver.
When Dr. Lee came into the delivery room (6AM), they had me start pushing, but it was difficult because I couldn’t feel anything from the epidural (like, my legs left dead... literally), so I didn’t know physically what I was pushing (only that I was pushing everything out down there). Honestly, if it wasn’t for my husband encouraging me and holding my hand, I think my delivery would’ve been much longer and difficult.
After about 4-5 pushes, there she was! Ms. Hollyn Marie arrived October 28th, 2019 at 6:40AM. Weighing 7lbs 2oz and 20.5” long, she was perfect in every single way 🥰 We were in the hospital for 2 days after delivery before being discharged. The nurses in L&D and Maternity are angels on this planet that absolutely deserve every thank you gift, their paychecks and all the respect on the world. Our team of nurses were god sends and made our life changing experience positive and something I will never forget.
Here are some things I learned about labor and delivery that I did not read in the 1000s of blogs I researched over the past 9 months:
I called the hospital and asked how much time I had to get there and the nurse in maternity told me to walk a bit and if the water hadn’t stopped leaking to come in. I decided to hop in the shower (who knew when I could take another one) get ready with makeup and all because I knew there would be a lot of pictures taken (even though I was going into labor) and headed to the hospital with our bags that had been packed for weeks at 7PM.
As soon as we got to the hospital, they placed us in a room to be checked out. They did a test to confirm my water did break, which it did and checked my cervix. I was only 1cm dilated, so the nurse said it was going to be a long night. I stayed in that room for 5 hours laboring until I couldn’t hang and requested the epidural. By this time, it was midnight and I had only dilated to 3cm.
They had me walk to my delivery room and gave me the epidural. I was scared because they said you have to stay as still as possible, but because I was in so much pain, my body was shaking uncontrollably. Thankfully they gave me the epidural without complications. However... time kept passing by so quickly and I could still feel every contraction after an hour. I told the nurse the epidural wasn’t working and may have had a slight panic attack. The anesthesiologist made sure the epidural was dripping fast at 3AM, when I could finally relax and slept for a couple hours.
At 5AM on Monday morning, the nurse woke me up to check my cervix and I was finally fully dilated. They woke me up and told me we were getting ready to have a baby. The nurse had me start pushing and the baby’s head was very low (so low she could see). She then told me to stop so that they could call the doctor to come and deliver.
When Dr. Lee came into the delivery room (6AM), they had me start pushing, but it was difficult because I couldn’t feel anything from the epidural (like, my legs left dead... literally), so I didn’t know physically what I was pushing (only that I was pushing everything out down there). Honestly, if it wasn’t for my husband encouraging me and holding my hand, I think my delivery would’ve been much longer and difficult.
After about 4-5 pushes, there she was! Ms. Hollyn Marie arrived October 28th, 2019 at 6:40AM. Weighing 7lbs 2oz and 20.5” long, she was perfect in every single way 🥰 We were in the hospital for 2 days after delivery before being discharged. The nurses in L&D and Maternity are angels on this planet that absolutely deserve every thank you gift, their paychecks and all the respect on the world. Our team of nurses were god sends and made our life changing experience positive and something I will never forget.
Here are some things I learned about labor and delivery that I did not read in the 1000s of blogs I researched over the past 9 months:
- When your water breaks, it never stops leaking until you give birth.
- Epidurals are gravity based. IE: if you’re laying on your left side, the right side will hurt
- The nurses in maternity will watch your baby at their station for a couple hours while you catch up on sleep (this was EVERYTHING).
- Babies grow soo fast! By the time we left for home, Hollyn was already getting herself on a feeding, pee and poop schedule (just go with it; it sorts itself out)
- Your milk may come in early and if it does, make sure baby is nursing or you are self expressing right away to avoid engorgement (extremely painful).
And then there were 3 👨👩👧 Feeling beyond blessed and the happiest I have ever felt in my entire life. Below are pictures we took throughout the entire birth process. Can’t wait to share Hollyn’s life experiences with you 💕 - Julie
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