PREFACE
I am a first-time mom. Hopefully you find this story to be honest and entertaining. Sure, I could have just given you the straight facts, but where's the fun in that? Anyway, enjoy!
For some reason, I fully expected Z to arrive before her due date (July 31st). Maybe I was just hopeful that she would come early because I was so OVER being pregnant. Needless to say, when July 31st came and went, I became increasingly impatient. Every night in July I had gone to bed thinking, "hopefully she comes tomorrow." August 1st was no different. I went to bed around 11:30pm. At 12:23am, Xavier came into the bedroom to get ready for bed and at that exact moment I woke up out of a dead sleep. I looked at him wide-eyed, "I think my water just broke," I said. I'm not sure why I said, "I think," because it's pretty freaking hard to mistake the uncontrollable gushing of fluid for anything else.
I climbed out of bed and of course gravity brought about more gushing. Xavier and I stood there laughing at the sound of amniotic fluid splashing on the hardwood, which of course only intensified the gushing. Leave it to us to find amusement in anything. Xavier called his parents and my parents and his best friend, of course. "It's happening," he told them.
We had recently moved an hour and a half away from the hospital, but my parents' house was the perfect halfway point. By about 2:00am, we were dressed, packed, and en route to my parents' house, where we would stay until my contractions got closer. On our way there, a bear almost ran into our car! I later discovered that it was actually a black dog, but he was charged right at the passenger's side and gave us a fright -- *cue another amniotic fluid gush.* We arrived at my parents' house around 2:45am and the waiting game commenced. Around 8:00am, it was time to head to the hospital. When we arrived around 9:00am, I was about 2 cm dilated. I had already been at 2 cm for about 2 weeks, so this was somewhat disappointing to hear. I was hoping that things had moved a little further along since my water broke.
Our birthing suite had Netflix, so I watched NCIS, which was part of the inspiration for Zia's name. (If you've ever watched NCIS, you know that Ziva is a total badass.) After a few hours, my contractions were getting stronger, but honestly it wasn't much different from my menstrual cramps. I've always had very painful periods. I stood and swayed through the contractions, focusing on my breathing. My mind was set on a natural delivery.
Around 5:00pm, my doctor came to check on me. I was "only 5 cm" dilated, so he wanted to start me on a Pitocin drip to speed things along. He told me about the "increased risk of infection" 24 hours after your water breaks, which scared me. (In hindsight, I should have refused Pitocin because it made labor so much more unpleasant.) They started me on a Pitocin drip around 5:20pm. About a hour later, labor had become the most painful waiting game of my life. Pitocin labor is a different kind of beast. With Pitocin, the contractions are longer, stronger, and closer together than natural contractions. As an added bonus, your uterus never completely relaxes with Pitocin so there is not much relief between contractions. With that said, I'm relying on Xavier's memory from this point forward because I must have blocked out the details.
By 8:30pm, I was 8 cm dilated. It was somewhere around this time that I remember feeling like giving up, but an hour later, it was time to push. I pushed for about 20 minutes before it became evident that Zia was "sunny-side up." This meant that she was facing my belly instead of my back, which could cause her head to wedge against my pubic bone. With a quick episiotomy and one more push, Z had arrived! (For those who don't know -- an episiotomy in simple terms: they slice your gooch). We made it through, free of pain meds.
Zia Monae Johnson
8/2/22 9:57pm
7lbs 13.5oz 17.5in
Giving birth was the most empowering thing I have ever experienced. I was (and still am) in awe that such a gorgeous, tiny human came out of my vagina. A natural birth was so rewarding because I felt great immediately after and had the mental clarity to thoroughly enjoy my first moments with Zia. It was a rough pregnancy, but it was so worth it to be holding our healthy little girl. Forever grateful for our little Z. ❤️
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