Birth Story Part One: The Tale of Ronan Rook

I was a couple days overdue when I went in for my weekly checkup at my docs office. No one could believe I was still pregnant. I dropped at 35 weeks, his head was so low, one of the docs thought he was breech, and I was dilating more and more by the week. "Keep active," people said. "Eat eggplant, drink raspberry tea, have sex, jump up and down." Nothing was working. Thanks for the advice, but that kid was not gonna come out on his own.

Enter Dr. Bowers, Queen of Awesome. We went in and got some questions answered. How big is baby, do you think? Seven five, not much bigger than that. How much longer will I be pregnant? We can induce you, if you want. I was thinking about getting my membranes stripped first and see if that kick starts things. Sure, we can do that if you want.

I realize now I should've mentioned I had other questions about doing that, but while checking my dilation, she went ahead and got it done.

I heard getting your membranes stripped was no pleasant ride down the rainbow of dreams, so I prepared myself for some pain, but was excited for what the day could bring now.

Also, we went ahead and set our inducement date to be the next morning, just in case stripping my membranes didn't work.

Almost immediately leaving the doctors office, I started having contractions. They continued in intensity and duration slowly. But because of all the false alarms I'd had (three...not cool), it wasn't until that evening that I decided to go to the hospital, knowing I would not be able to sleep with my contractions.

The verdict when I got there? I still was not in labor. Dilated to almost 5, effaced at 80%, but still not "in labor." They didn't send me home since I was going to be induced the next morning anyway, but they did call good ole Dr. Bowers to see what she wanted to do. Twenty minutes later, she shows up and says, "Alright, let's get this party started."

I got an epidural before they broke my water. Nurse Wendi said I did a really good job, especially for how nervous I was. Go me! The anesthesiologist thought he was funny and kept making jokes about how he was fresh out of medical school and had never stuck anyone before me. Hah. Hah.

After that, I couldn't help but think of all the horror stories women had told me about how their epidural hadn't fully worked or wore off almost completely by the time the baby came. I kept updating nurse Wendi about how it was working. "Just to let you know, I feel tingles in my left leg, but none in my right leg." "My left leg is almost completely numb, but I can still feel and move my right leg." They brought the anesthesiologist back in and he adjusted the needle in my back. Things started evening out nicely after that and I was blissfully numb from the midsection down.

And a good thing, too, cuz after they broke my water and started the pitocin, I went from being dilated to almost five to seven in the next hour or so. That started at about 2am. They told me to get some rest while the contractions continued, but every so often, nurse Wendi would come in to check on baby's heart rate and my contractions. "Everything looks great," she said. "Baby's heart rate is really really good. It looks like he's excited to come out."

Around 5am, nurse Wendi said I was almost a ten, so she asked me to push twice and bam, I was fully dilated and she began prepping the room for me to start the pushing. "This is it," I thought as she handed me a bag to puke into. Goodbye, red popsicle. Hello, baby...