Teddy’s Birth Story

Teddy is my first son, and I had NO IDEA what to expect when it came to labor and postpartum. (I also has no idea if he was a boy or girl.) I had been to the classes, read the books and blogs, watched vlogs, and asked family and friends, but there are so many things that can happen during labor & delivery. This is story of our adventurous Theodore!

During my pregnancy I didn’t have any Braxton Hicks contractions, so when the cramp-like feelings started Saturday mid-afternoon, we knew it was time! The contractions were still mild and sporadic, so we packed up Chester and went to the dog park. We knew he wasn’t going to be getting much exercise after baby came, so we made sure he had a last hurrah.

That night we slept on our pullout couch and watched movies in the living room. I downloaded a contraction timer app on my phone, and meticulously tracked my contractions. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep. Around 5am my contractions were about 1 minute in length, about 4 minutes apart, and had been for about an hour. That meant (according to our class) it was time to call the hospital! Since my water hadn’t yet broken, they said we could come in, but they may send us home. So I woke Michael, took Chester out, and got the house ready to go.

We arrived at L&D around 6am and they checked us in. They said that they’d monitor baby & I for 30 minutes, and if my water didn’t break, they’d send us home. 6:30am came and went, and when the nurses came back they were getting ready to let us go. Then, GUSH! My water broke. We were staying!

Around 7:15am the anesthesiologist came to give me an epidural, and after that things get a bit fuzzy. The meds worked REALLY well, and I couldn’t feel a thing. I drifted in and out of sleep (I had been up all night, remember). Baby’s heart rate was all over the place and kept dropping. They readjusted my position a few times, and at some point they had to inject synthetic amniotic fluid because I had lost so much when my water broke.

A little after 9:30am, I came to just in time to hear the doctor mention prepping the OR for an emergency C-section because baby needed to come out ASAP. They checked my dilation one more time, and I was at 10cm. No C-section needed! It was time to push.

I was still completely numb from the epidural, so I needed a lot of coaching about when to push. Baby’s heart rate was still dropping, so the doctor grabbed the forceps to help pull him out. I don’t remember a lot of Ted’s birth, but I specifically remember thinking, ‘It looks like he is pull starting a lawn mower. I’m so glad I can’t feel that. It looks painful.’

At 10:06am on July 1, 2018, Ted was born. They whisked him over to the baby station in the corner to check that his low heart rate during labor hadn’t caused any problems. Luckily, he was healthy and just had a black eye from the forceps.

I, however, was a different story. They did end up needing that OR after all. I had severe tearing, and needed quite a few stitches. Michael was able to stay in the delivery room and do skin to skin with Ted while I was in the OR. All of this led to a long and arduous healing process, which I was not prepared for. (But that’s a story for a different post.)

So all-in-all 3 hours of active labor, and 30 minutes of pushing (with some help). I have always heard that childbirth is an ordeal; it uses so many muscles and leaves you exhausted. That is not the experience that I had. Honestly, running a half marathon is still the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done. It took me a long time to be okay with that, and not feel like I hadn’t ‘earned’ being a mom. (Silly, I know.) Just know that whatever your journey into motherhood, it is valid. You are a mom.