I’ll preface this whole birth story with a few things. First, since my labors with Kennedy and Adrienne were both quick (6.5 and 4.5 hours respectively), my doctor suggested heading to the hospital as soon as labor started this time. Second, it’s worth sharing that my OB had offered to sweep my membranes at any of my final appointments. I opted out at 37 weeks since the girls hadn’t gone back to school yet, but was contemplating if I would at the 38 week appointment on Wednesday, January 11. I was texting with Lindsay and a friend late afternoon and early evening on Sunday, January 8, to get feedback on what they thought. Ultimately, I decided not to do it. This was my final pregnancy so I was going to enjoy having baby brother to myself and feeling his movements, get a little further from the holidays, and who knows — maybe he’d be born on my birthday! I texted them around 7pm that I wouldn’t do it…. And then things happened on their own at 10pm. Typical third child behavior!
I’d been having Braxton Hicks pretty much daily for a while, often several times per day. Just this overall tightness on my whole belly, and I’d take friends’ hands and let them feel. It was starting to get painful just because it was so dang tight and my belly was feeling much bigger. Nelson and I were watching Sunday Night Football, and I was doing laundry and some other odds and ends. It was around 10pm. I felt a couple Braxton Hicks, but then realized they came right after each other, which wasn’t the norm. I decided to open a contraction timer app to see if there was any consistency to them. While I did that, I quickly finished getting things cleaned up and organized. Sure enough, there was a consistency to them: three minutes apart, lasting about a minute each. I didn’t want to say anything to Nelson yet (I don’t know why I always keep him in the dark haha), but he saw a grid open on my phone as I was unloading the dishwasher and gave me a super wide-eyed look. I told him I wasn’t sure if that’s what it was because it felt different this time. While I remember it feeling much like period cramps, at least with Kennedy, this really was just super tight. The only difference from Braxton Hicks was that it was very low on my belly. Nelson made a comment about, “I was just about to get ready for bed.” Because, you know, he’d be doing a lot of work. I burst into tears because I didn’t want to go into labor just yet. I had decided I wanted to stay pregnant longer, and I was taking Kennedy to an indoor play place with a friend the next day. I’d been a lot more emotional about spending quality time with the girls since I knew things would be harder once baby brother was born, so I was devastated to not be able to take her on this play date the following day.
I decided to go ahead and call Lindsay (we talked about her being in the delivery room, again) to let her know. I called her at 10:55pm and asked if she was getting ready for bed. She said she was about to, so I told her to maybe hold off. I also started crying to her about the ruined plans with Kennedy the following day. She told me, “Holly, I don’t think Kennedy’s going to mind because she’ll be so excited about her new baby brother.” I told Lindsay I’d let her know when we were headed to the hospital so she could leave, too. I then called my mom and asked her if she’d packed that bag we had talked about yet. She said she hadn’t, but knew why I was asking and said she would be right over. While we waited, I put the final things in my bag and tidied up a few other things around the house. I called the emergency line for my OB’s office and let them know I was in labor. They told me the on-call OB, Dr. Gutierrez, would call me back. Nelson had decided he would stay at home with the girls overnight, so he had very little to pack. I was surprised how quickly my mom got there (she said she literally threw things in her bag, hangers still on and all), but unfortunately she forgot some of her medication so had to hurry home. Mind you I was still timing contractions and they were still three minutes apart, lasting about a minute. They weren’t super painful, but Nelson said at this point I was starting to wince. He was concerned about a car baby, so we went ahead and called our neighbor, Heidi, to come sit at the house until my mom got back. Her phone kept ringing and I was afraid she was sleeping, but her husband answered and said he’d let her know I was in labor. Evidently she was in the shower and he burst in the bathroom, “Get out! Holly’s in labor and you need to get over there!” Had I known I would’ve told her nevermind, but she got there quickly and Nelson and I pulled out!
Once again, we were on our way to the hospital to have a baby around 11:30pm (same as with Adrienne) so luckily there was no traffic. I could tell Nelson was flying and saw the speedometer read 85mph. Definitely unlike Nelson. I told him he didn’t have to go that fast, I felt fine, so he slowed down a bit so we didn’t die on our way to the hospital :) We pulled up shortly before midnight and took the obligatory last pictures outside with Lindsay, and then went inside to get checked in. Lindsay had to stay in the lobby until I was officially admitted, so Nelson and I went into the L&D unit and were directed to a triage room. I got into a gown and they strapped all of the monitors on me, and then checked me and I was 5cm (I was 3cm the previous Thursday at my appointment), so I was officially in labor and getting admitted. At one point, I got the return call from Dr. Gutierrez, but had to break it to her that I was already in triage, so she was just like, “Oh! I’ll see you soon then!”
This will come up again later, but the triage nurse was going through her routine list of questions and asked, if I ended up needing a C-section, did I want my tubes tied? I answered, “No,” to which Nelson made a little noise. I told him I was done, this was our last baby, but I hadn’t thought about getting my tubes tied and that was a big decision. It kind of caught me off guard when she asked it, so I wasn’t ready to commit to that right then. The nurse just stood there while we sorted it out haha, and then resumed her questions. I then called Lindsay and let her know which room she could head to!
My L&D nurse, Hailey, was so nice. I really loved her. One of the first things she asked was if I wanted the epidural. I told her I did, but I still wasn’t in terrible pain yet and I worried that getting it too soon could cause labor to slow a bit, so wanted to hold off as long as possible. She said we should get everything done necessary in order to get it, and then once I’m ready, all she has to do is call the anesthesiologist. So we settled into room 15 for a long night and started to hang out. I felt bad that this was slower and it was already getting into the middle of the night, especially because Ben was going out of town at 6am so it was throwing a wrench into Lindsay’s schedule, but she reassured me that it was no big deal and she wasn’t going anywhere.
As the minutes and hours started to pass, we were all getting the giggles and slightly delirious (or maybe it was just me). I had to use the restroom several times, and at one point I told Lindsay and Nelson to let Hailey know I was in the restroom; I didn’t leave. And then I just started laughing so hard because I was like, “Where would I go???” I laughed until tears were running down my face. The contractions still weren’t terrible, so I started walking back and forth in the room to move. Sure enough, that started moving things along and it was getting more painful. But they were still only three minutes apart. I wasn’t sure if I was really ready for the epidural (could I withstand more?), so I kept asking Nelson and Lindsay what they thought. They always laughed and were like, “I don’t know, it’s your decision!” So it kind of became the running joke for the whole night that I would poll the audience and ask their opinion on things. We’d always start laughing and at one point I told Hailey, “I just want this to be entertaining for everybody involved.” She laughed and said it definitely was.
I finally decided to get the epidural around 3am (I think?). I was concerned how it would feel because I wasn’t in terrible pain and there was still the time between contractions where I felt fine. With both girls, by the time I got the epidural, my contractions were back-to-back and I felt absolutely nothing happening behind me. And yeah, it wasn’t great this time around. When she put whatever goes into my back in, my left leg did a reflex twitch and it just felt off. I told her I wasn’t sure it was centered, and she said it did look centered, but she could try it again or we could move on and see if it numbs me evenly. Because it wasn’t comfortable going in and I didn’t want to feel that again, I said we could just move on. She put the bolus of the epidural in and then we waited for it to take full effect. I told her I could really feel it in my left leg, and I could feel it in the right, it just wasn’t as strong. She said she wasn’t worried about that so long as it worked in the belly correctly. The anesthesiologist stayed in my room the whole time and chatted and made sure everything was working properly before she left. And it was at the time! My belly was mostly numb and I felt good. After she left, Hailey checked me and I was 7cm, so she suggested putting the peanut ball between my legs and laying on each side for about an hour.
I started off laying on my right side, which was a big mistake. We all tried to get some rest (I couldn’t turn my mind off, but Lindsay and Nelson at least got some sleep) as I laid there for about 45 minutes before Hailey came and switched me to my left side. The reason starting on my right was a mistake was because being on my left side when I was further along in labor meant my epidural was draining more to the left side and not taking much effect on the right… when labor was getting more painful. I had clicked the little button the max number of times to give myself more of the epidural, and it wasn’t making a dent. When the time was up, around 5:30am, the right side of my belly was in SO much pain with each contraction. The one plus was that they were, you guessed it, three minutes apart, so I got a good break between each one. But I was having to really breathe through them and I remember my eyes tearing up at one point because of the pain. Hailey wanted to check me first and she believed I was at 10cm, but it was just hard to confirm because baby brother’s head was right there and also my water was bulging. She gave me two options: she could call Dr. Gutierrez and I could start pushing; or she could call the anesthesiologist to come back and fix the epidural. I opted for the latter.
The anesthesiologist came back and gave me another bolus of the medication, and then had me lay on my right side to make sure it really took effect on the side that was painful. And it totally worked! It was now roughly 6:15am. The downside was that I had so much medication in me, my left side was literally dead. It was the weirdest feeling, it was so heavy and numb and just wow. But my right was good to go, so Hailey gave me two options, again: she could call Dr. Gutierrez and I could start pushing; or she said my OB would be there around 7am if I wanted to wait for him. Dr. Cowan didn’t deliver either of the girls and we always joked about this being his last time, that I didn’t want him to be 0-3, so I decided to wait. After all, my epidural was working and we were just relaxing at this point. And baby brother was doing just fine and not in any distress, so they were more than comfortable letting me make these decisions (and I was very grateful for it!). She mentioned that some of the doctors keep their on-call phones on at all times, but Cowan didn’t. But they would get a message to him so he could come up as soon as he got to the office. It was around this time, while I was just hanging out on my right side, that I felt a weird popping sensation and my upper right leg felt a little warmer. I let Hailey know I thought my water broke and she peeked under the blanket and confirmed that, yes, it broke.
Another funny part: while we waited for Dr. Cowan, Hailey started reading through the legal stuff for delivery and had me initial some papers. At one point, she was talking about if I started bleeding and had to be taken to the OR and certain measures had to be taken, blah blah blah, including hysterectomy. Because of the conversation about not getting my tubes tied and Nelson’s reaction, I looked at him and went, “Heeeeey!!!” Lindsay started laughing and Hailey looked confused. I explained why I made that comment and Lindsay responded, “Holly, you realize that’s like if you’re dying and they need to save your life.” I’m telling you, I was so tired and delirious at that point.
Unfortunately the shift change was at 7am, so Hailey introduced me to Lauren, her replacement. I felt so bad that she had been with us for the whole night only to pass me off right before the fun began. But Lauren was also sweet (how could an L&D nurse not be?!) and ready to start her shift with a baby being born! Dr. Cowan got there around 7:15am and was excited this was happening and he was there for it. We were chatting about how the night went while he got all of his tools and everything set up, his gown on, and all prepared for a delivery. He instructed me to go ahead and get my legs up so we could take a look. I remember there was no way I could move by myself, so my nurse (and I think Nelson?) had to help move them into position. Dr. Cowan took one look and, I can’t remember exactly how he phrased it, said something to the effect of, “Oh, this won’t take long.” I wondered what he meant so quickly told Nelson to get the mirror. And let me tell you, having someone position the mirror so you can see what’s happening down there while not trying to see for themselves is very difficult haha. He said he saw Adrienne being born, he was fine not seeing another (insert eyeroll here). But WOW — baby brother’s head was right there.
Lindsay started by taking a picture and the timestamp reads 7:29am. She then overheard Dr. Cowan say something like, “Let’s go ahead and try a push,” so she quickly moved it to video mode and started filming. I’m not even sure I was having a contraction, but he told me to push so I did and then, all of a sudden, the head just popped out. The nurse was shocked and Dr. Cowan was so proud haha. And then, without pushing again, he just guided baby brother’s body out. It was a very weird sensation because I could feel it, but only internally, and I subconsciously made an audible sign / groan noise. The time was 7:29am, and Forrest Wan Chang was here. All 7lb 6oz and 20.5” of him. My longest labor, my easiest delivery.
