Our Son Asher's Birth Story - Part 1

After all the trouble we had getting pregnant (you can read that story here), I had a relatively easy and uneventful 9 months of pregnancy. However, I did start having Braxton Hicks contractions as early as about 22 weeks. Around 32 weeks, they were happening pretty regularly, especially in the evenings. Since I’d never had a baby before, I wasn’t sure what the difference would be between true labor contractions and Braxton Hicks. One night, they started happening regularly enough for me to time them, so I got nervous that I was having preterm labor. I contacted my midwife, Kristi (who is AMAZING!), and she had me come into her office so they could monitor me and run some tests. The test confirmed that, while I was contracting a lot, the contractions weren’t changing my cervix, i.e. I wasn’t truly in labor. She also ran a Fetal Fibronectin test, which if negative means I am NOT likely to deliver within the next 2 weeks. Mine was negative. As excited as I was to meet our babe, I was very happy that he wasn’t going to surprise us with an early arrival.

Toward the end of June, we had the talented Valerie MacMahon take these maternity photos for us. I am so thankful to have these pictures to look back on the incredible feat that my body accomplished; growing a beautiful baby boy.

I took the two weeks prior to my due date (which was July 26th) off of work. After the first week, I was starting to get a little stir crazy and antsy to meet our babe, not to mention uncomfortable! In an effort to encourage labor to begin, Brian and I went on walks frequently, and I bounced on the birth ball while watching TV.

July 18, 2019

A week before my due date Kristi, did one last ultrasound check to verify baby was head down (she said my stomach was SO tight that she couldn’t easily feel baby’s position). After the ultrasound, which did confirm he was in the perfect position for delivery, Kristi told me she would be surprised if I made it to my due date. I’m not entirely sure what made her say that, if it was how often I was contracting and baby’s size and position vs. my size, or just pure intuition, but regardless her comment made me smile knowing I potentially didn’t have much longer to wait to meet our precious babe.

July 20th, 2019

The following Saturday evening we decided to go on a last minute date night to see the new Lion King in theaters. On the way to the movie I started feeling cramps and had mild contractions. We were going to the movie with our friends, Trent and Lauren, and at this point decided it was best to meet them there rather than drive together, in case we ended up needing to leave the movie early. About halfway through the movie, the contractions were getting a little more intense, and so we started timing them. They were about every 8-10 minutes apart. We stayed put, knowing that we still had a ways to go if this was labor starting. The movie was a great distraction for me and I would squeeze Brian’s hand whenever I had a contraction, more out of excitement than pain.

After the movie, we shared with our friends that we thought labor might be starting, but even as we stood around chatting, I noticed the contractions had slowed. By the time we arrived home around 11:30, they had pretty much stopped.

July 21st, 2019

Around 3:20am I woke up in the middle of the night feeling pretty uncomfortable and had to go to the bathroom. I wiped, and noticed a light pink tinge on the toilet paper. My heart started pounding and I smiled in excitement knowing spotting was a sign labor was getting close. I also started to feel cramps and contractions again. I made a note on my phone, knowing I wanted to keep track of our labor timeline and thinking that things were getting started. I tried laying back down to get rest, but the adrenaline and discomfort was keeping me from sleep. The contractions came off and on until about 7 or 8 in the morning and were feeling more painful than Braxton Hicks. I texted Kristi around 10:30 in the morning to let her know about the spotting and contractions. She responded by saying “labor is coming”. We stayed home from church and I tried to get a bit more sleep. We also went for a couple of walks to try to get things moving. The light spotting continued throughout the day, but once again the contractions had slowed.

Later in the afternoon I went to the bathroom and saw what was either my mucous plug or bloody show. I also noticed more brown or pink tinged discharge on my pad. I was a little concerned that it wasn’t just spotting, but could also be my water leaking. I knew that when your water breaks it can either be a gush or a slow leak. Around 11pm I texted Kristi again letting her know about my concerns, and she gave me a call. She said it could be my water, and that I would need to go to the hospital to confirm, but if I wasn’t sure, usually time will tell because the water will continue to leak out in gushes. I decided to wait and see, not wanting to go to the hospital in the middle of the night if we didn’t have to, especially if it was a false alarm.

July 22nd, 2019

Around 1am I woke up to some pretty painful contractions. I decided there was no hope to continue sleeping so I went out into the living room. After going through a few contractions on my own, I decided to wake up Brian. I felt I needed his support, although looking back, I probably should have let him sleep so that at least one of us was rested. The contractions continued irregularly until about 9am and then stopped. I didn’t have any more of the pink/brown spotting overnight and so I texted Kristi in the morning and let her know I didn’t think it was my water. She told me to try and get some rest, so I did my best to lay down for a nap.

I woke up from my nap around 11am and went to the restroom. I noticed more fluid and this time it had a tan-ish pink tinge. I had a feeling this time that it could be amniotic fluid and felt it was time to get checked. I called Kristi and explained what I saw, and she agreed I should go to labor and delivery triage to check if my water had broke. Brian and I got the dogs situated and finished packing our bags before heading to the hospital. To my disappointment, I noticed that my contractions once again slowed and I maybe only felt one or two during the twenty minute drive to the hospital.

After arriving at the hospital we made our way to labor and delivery triage. There was nobody else in the waiting room and they took me back right away. The nurse asked some questions and then explained that she would do a test (basically inserting a Q-tip up near my cervix to soak up whatever liquid might be leaking out and then sending that Q-tip for testing) to determine if the fluid was amniotic fluid. While we waited for the results, Brian and I expressed our doubts that it really was my water leaking, but we both felt it was better to be safe and check. We started a round of Words With Friends, but barely got through a couple of turns before the nurse came back around 1pm. She told us the unexpected news that the test results came back positive! I was leaking amniotic fluid and most likely my water had broke the previous day when I first started noticing the brown/pink tinged liquid. We estimated we were going on 18 or so hours since my water broke, and so Kristi arrived to discuss induction. We were most definitely not leaving the hospital without a baby!

Since my water had broken, I had an increased risk of infection, and so Kristi explained that she would not be doing any cervical checks for dilation throughout my labor to try and avoid introducing bacteria to the cervix. My first thought was, how are they going to know when it’s time for me to push, or that I am even progressing? She went on to explain that based on her experience with hundreds (if not thousands) of laboring women over the years, she would know based on my behavior when baby is ready to come out.

Initially they gave me two options for induction: Misoprostal (“Miso”), a synthetic prostaglandin taken in pill form and used to induce contractions, or Pitocin, the synthetic form of oxytocin, given intravenously. I heard stories about Pitocin and was extremely weary of it. I desired to labor naturally, and feared that having Pitocin would make an epidural inevitable. I eagerly chose the Misprostal option, hoping that meant I could avoid Pitocin altogether. I took the first dose around 1:30 in the afternoon and they monitored my contractions for an hour (although at that point I was having very few small contractions). After monitoring me, they transferred us to the labor and delivery room (which was huge!) and after getting settled in, Brian and I decided to walk down to the cafeteria to get some food, since we hadn’t had lunch yet.

The first few hours in the hospital were exciting as we knew it wouldn’t be long before we met our baby boy. The contractions were fairly mild and manageable, but by 3pm I was definitely feeling them. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law brought us dinner around 5:30 or 6pm and my contractions stayed consistent while I tried to eat some food and visit with them for a bit. Around this time, the nurse also hooked me up to be monitored again so they could evaluate if the contractions were doing what they needed them to do. While hooked up to the monitor, my contractions were getting more intense, and I would have to remind myself to breathe through them.

Around 7pm our new nurse, Natalya, came in and introduced herself. She explained that my contractions were coming too close together, and that they would not be able to give me another dose of Misoprosal. Rather, instead, they needed to start Pitocin. I was very confused by this, thinking that by opting for the Miso option, I would be able to avoid Pitocin altogether. I expressed my confusion to the nurse and she was very sympathetic, and said Kristi would be in shortly to talk to me about it.

When Kristi arrived, she explained that Pitocin is the most effective way to help labor progress at this point. The Miso hadn’t quite done what they needed it to do (and I came to understand later that they are not able to give another dose of it if contractions are coming closer than 4 minutes apart.). She sensed my hesitancy toward Pitocin and asked me to talk through that with her. This was something I really appreciated about her. She took the time to hear my concerns, and responded to them in a way that gave me validation, but also assurance. Ultimately, I trusted her judgement and experience, and this made my confidence grow. Part of the assurance she gave me is that they would start the Pitocin at a very low dose, and only increase it slowly, as they deemed necessary.

My nurse Natalya also helped with my reservations. I expressed my fear that having Pitocin would make an epidural inevitable. Natalya told me that with one of her babies, she had to be induced with Pitocin and still had a natural labor. She told me that yes it would be hard, but that I am fully capable of doing it and she would be there to help me through it. This instilled so much confidence. Knowing other women had labored naturally with Pitocin gave me an “if they can do it, I can do it,” mentality and increased my determination to stick to my plan.

By 9pm I was hooked up to an I.V. administering the Pitocin and had a bluetooth monitor taped to my belly monitoring both my contractions and the baby’s heart rate. Pitocin requires continuous monitoring and I was so thankful that they had the bluetooth monitor so that I could more easily move around without too many wires to worry about.

This is when things really started to get interesting…to be continued…