I recently had a friend share the birth story of her baby girl. It was so fun to read, and her birth story was so different compared to mine! I also realized that I wish I would have wrote everything about it in a journal or blogged about it sooner, because sadly I have forgotten so much in just the last (almost) three months.
The times I have shared my birth story I always start with the Wednesday before we welcomed our sweet Anistyn. Wednesday was my LAST day of work and the day before Thanksgiving. I scheduled my doctor's appointment that afternoon so I could sneak away from the office earlier. My doctor's appointment went well and I was saddened that I had not progressed from the previous doctor visit. I was 90% effaced and dilated to a 1 1/2. "See you next week," was the worst sentence I had heard all day. Luckily, I never got to the uncomfortable point of wanting to evict Anistyn. I knew that she would make her arrival sooner or later. I called my husband, shared what the doctor had said and asked him to bring home pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Ben took me to dinner that night and granted my wish of gorging myself in yummy treats.
Thursday, Thanksgiving Day came...Ben and I had planned to spend our first married Thanksgiving apart. I didn't feel safe traveling from Sandy to Vernal and I wanted him to spend time with our family. The thought of being three hours away from my doctor literally scared me. At noon we parted ways. He headed to our hometown and I headed to my cousins' home to spend Thanksgiving with them. Thanksgiving + Being Pregnant was the best thing ever. My due date was December 8th and my cousin's wife was due five days after! Picture this...two very pregnant women black Friday shopping. Yes...my first ever Black Friday. After a fun day and evening I went back to our apartment and called my husband. He told me he was going on a horse ride the next day. WHAAAT!? I thought he'd want to come back home to me the next morning...not go on a horse ride!
Friday...I lost my mucous plug that morning. My first instinct is to Google how soon I would have a baby and my second instinct was to call my Mom. I was so excited that my body was doing crazy things. I called my husband to warn him that he should probably go riding somewhere he had phone service in case anything happened. My stomach flip flopped all morning just thinking that we could become parents soon. Wednesday had officially been my last day of work, but I decided to go in for a few hours and help with checks. My good mood was through the roof and it showed. Some of my co-workers could not believe I was at work and some said I wouldn't be having a baby soon. I wrapped up my short day at work and headed home. I had not heard from my husband...his promised two hour ride had turned into eight! I texted..."Hey" "How was the ride?" and finally, "NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU." This is when my evil pregnant woman kicked in. Luckily I got a phone call from family that were coming to Salt Lake and invited me to dinner. I was so delighted to get out of the apartment that evening...instead of having to wait for my husband.
I finally got responses from Ben, and by that point I was so annoyed that I hadn't heard from him sooner. Honestly, this is nothing like me. Keep in mind...that I became an evil pregnant woman that night. Phone call after phone call...and I refused to answer until I received a text message asking if I was mad. YES, I was MAD, but I became FURIOUS when he said he did not feel like driving home that night. WHAAAT!? I can't repeat what I said back, I will just tell y'all that he headed home within the next 10 minutes. Not whipped...intuition. ;)
At dinner I asked my cousins that if my water were to break that if they would let me leave the restaurant and THEN inform an employee that they had a mess to clean up. I also shared with them of how I so badly wanted my labor to start similar to Jennifer Aniston's in Marley & Me. I wanted to wake up in middle of the night and head to the hospital. How fun and memorable would that be!?
I never hit "nesting mode", but as soon as I got home that night I opened my closet doors and started to separate all my maternity clothes from my regular clothes. Little did I know that, that was as much nesting I would get done. Ben walked into our apartment at 10 PM and did not say a word to me. WHAAAT!? He then proceeded to get comfortable on our living room couch. This did not fly with me. As husband and wife we were to never go to sleep apart...no matter how mad we were at each other. I sat still in bed and repeated over and over in my head I'm not going out there, I'm not going out there...and soon found myself bolting out of our bedroom. My argument was pointless and unsuccessful. I went back to bed and cried myself to sleep. Looking back...I can't believe how childish, how crazy and how silly I must have looked to Ben, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
My Marley & Me wish became true at 12:15 AM. I just want to point out that Ben had only been home for TWO hours. I was laying on my side when I felt a gush of fluid between my legs. A gush is the perfect way to describe the feeling of your water breaking. My eyes about popped out of my head and I squeezed my legs together and felt it all over again. I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom, pulled down my panties and realized that my water had broke. I ran out to the living room and told my husband. Needless to say...our fight was over. (To this day I still believe my emotions played a big role on starting my labor.) He hopped right up, our hearts both pumping fast and grabbed all our things to head to the hospital. At this time I felt no contractions and the drive to the hospital was one of the most peaceful and shocking drives of my life.
I was admitted and laying on a hospital bed by 1 AM. I will never forget Ben saying he was so happy to have headed home that night. He kneeled by the hospital bed and we held hands. The most beautiful spirit was felt by his meaningful prayer. Two hours later my family arrived. They had drove three hours in the middle of Winter for the arrival of their first grandbaby. My contractions started to kick in when I was dilated to a two. Contractions are a good pain. I just knew that with each contraction I was closer to meeting our long awaited baby girl. I had never been against having an epidural, but I had always known I wanted to feel strong contractions. I turned side to side, I held onto the bed handle, I curled my toes tight with each contraction. It was so cool! I had dilated to a four when the nurse came in at eight that morning and asked if I was ready for an epidural. She strongly suggested I get it then because the anesthesiologist would be busy with a C-Section. I felt I had felt enough pain and decided it was time. I will never forget the feeling of getting the epidural, but after it kicked in I was AMAZED. I felt absolutely nothing. I was relaxed and ready for labor. I stayed dilated at a four for two more hours. The nurse started me on Oxytocin and cranked it up. Ben and I had not had a wink of sleep for hours. Our visitors stepped out of the room to let us rest. My mind and body were restless. I managed to take a short nap and waited several hours.
Visitors were welcomed back into our room and then I started to feel the need to POOP. Unbelievable pain! I called the nurse in because the pain had started to make me cringe. She explained that it could be the pressure of the baby and sure enough I had dilated to a 10. The moment my Mother walked into the room I felt so overwhelmed. I shut my eyes and covered them with my left hand. My heart throbbing with fear and at the same time with excitement. My husband held my hand, we were about to become parents. They wheeled in the scary table with all the doctor's tools/instruments, whatever they are called, but they looked terrifying! Still covering my eyes and trying to hold tears in the nurse came to my side and asked if I was okay and I told her I would be fine, that I was just a big boob.
Three practice pushes in and I was told to stop, she was SO ready to make her arrival. Ben got to see the head full of hair on one of those pushes and he loudly said (excuse his language), "Holy shit! So much hair!" with the biggest grin I had ever seen. I was so thankful to have had my husband there for sympathy and my mother there for courage. What seemed like an eternity to my family seemed like a short while for me as we waited for the doctor to come into the room to deliver this sweet baby! I pushed, I pushed and it was the easiest delivery. I said, "That's it!? Can I have a Dr. Pepper?" Our miracle was right before our eyes, purple as can be! She was laid on my chest to do skin to skin and my first thought was that she looked like a baby alien.
I loved my little alien more than anything from that moment on. Her cries filled my heart. The sight of my husband covering his eyes and sobbing like a child (sorry, Ben) filled my heart. Pure bliss...pure happiness filled that room, filled our hearts, and continues to fill our lives.
"I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart..." Jeremiah 1:5
Thank you, God.
Anistyn Renee Robinson
November 30, 2013
3:21 PM
7 lbs 1 oz - 20"
