Feeling lost? Catch up here:
Ariana’s birth story | part 1
Ariana’s birth story | part 2
3:00pm
My sisters and Andre made the two hour trek from Greenville, SC even though I told them that I would call if/when we went to the hospital. At the nurse’s suggestion, I had taken a warm bath and it had really relieved the pressure in my back.
But in my mind, that wasn’t a good thing because I needed that pain in order to meet the newly-named Ariana. I had spent the morning on the living room couch. When I got out of the bathtub, I was in much more pain than before I got in. I could barely make it to the bed.
And that was pretty sure that this was it.
Kaitlyn and Kenzie witnessed me writhing on the bed in pain. I hardly remember anything from this stage except that I wanted pressure against my feet every time I had a contraction so they did that. {I also remember asking them at the end of the day, “You’re never having kids, are you?” I can’t imagine that was a pleasant sight to see.}
4:00pm
When I’m in a lot of pain, I vomit and labor was no different. David had trashbags there to minimize the mess. Laying in bed, on top of old beach towels (just in case), vomiting into a trash bag, the just in case happened.
It made perfect sense for my water to break but that didn’t stop my question. “My water just broke. Right? My water just broke? That’s what that was?” Because if anyone ever tells you that your water breaking isn’t the weirdest feeling ever, they’re lying.
We kicked it into high gear. Earlier in the day, when I was in a mild amount of pain, I had put on yoga pants, a striped long-sleeved tshirt, my hair was in a ponytail and I had put on just a touch of makeup. I wasn’t glamorous but I was dressed as if I was running to the grocery store on a Saturday morning. Ha!
And then the pain was nearly unbearable after the warm bath, so there was none of this look halfway decent thing going on. I told David to give me one of his big tee shirts to wear, my ginormous sweats that never go out of the house and I’m not even sure I ever put on shoes.
As the pregnancy had progressed and my tee shirts no longer fit me, I had gotten in the habit of stealing his. Every time he would see me wearing one of his shirts, he would say, “Don’t mess that one up. It’s one of my favorites.” To put it in perspective for you, this is a man with 30498204 Carolina tee shirts. I’d always roll my eyes at him.
So when I asked for one while I was in labor, I expected to get the don’t mess it up instructions from him. And actually, it would have been fair game at that point but apparently he’s smarter than that. My sisters still laugh about my he won’t give me a good one comment which was quickly followed by oh, this one is so soft.
5:00pm
These things were running through my head as we prepared to get from the bedroom to the truck:
1. Now that my water has broken, they don’t like for you to go more than 24 hours. We get to meet her soon!
2. I’m probably 4cm and I can’t take this pain anymore. I’m getting the epidural when we get there. And we need to get there ASAP. This is the worst thing ever.
3. David can’t leave me. And he’ll have to go park the truck when we get there. I’ll get stuck with some crazy nurse. AND HE CANNOT LEAVE ME. I won’t survive.
David was so encouraging when I voiced that I was going to get an epidural. My plan for months had been to go med free if possible. This was not possible.
to be continued…
Continue to Ariana’s birth story | part 4
