Luna’s birth story is completely and I mean COMPLETELY different than Rosie’s in so many ways. So, let’s start from the first contraction, shall we?
Me on my due date… no Luna yet!
I started feeling real contractions the night of May 28th (40 weeks + 4 days). They were not horribly painful but they were different than the braxton hicks contractions I was feeling for a few weeks prior. I told my husband that night that I thought we were finally getting close.
So, I woke up around 5:00 am the next morning and didn’t feel much else going on “down there” so I told my husband to go to work but stay close to his phone and stay close to home if possible (he works at two different locations) because I was unsure how quickly things could change. Around 10:30 am the contractions were still inconsistent but stronger and about 20-45 minutes apart so I called the advice nurse.
She confirmed that I was going into active labor but to labor at home until my contractions were 5-7 minutes apart for an hour. So, I went out to lunch with my husband and mother-in-law and we also went to the store to get food to grill that night. The contractions were getting stronger and closer together.
Fast forward to 8:00 pm.
I started timing them because they were starting to get closer and closer together. Once Rosie went to bed we decided to pack up the hospital bag and start driving to Chris’ grandmother’s house because if the hospital turned us away, at least we were close enough to the hospital.
Mind you, the hospital was about 45 minutes from our house and only 5 minutes from her house. So, we got in the car and I called the advice nurse to get the ball rolling.
When the nurse picked up the phone I started explaining my situation. She let me know that the two close hospitals ( I say close but really they were 45 minutes away) were completely full earlier that day. Therefore, they could still be full so she put me on hold to find out.
Unfortunately, they were both still full and she told me my three options were two hospitals in DC (over an hour away) or Stafford (two hours away). Meanwhile, I kept having contractions throughout this phone conversation and I could barely think straight. My husband was furious about the whole situation.
We ended up picking one of the DC hospitals after going back and forth, looking at YELP reviews, etc. However, the nurse at the hospital we picked mentioned that she suggested we go to the other DC Hospital due to the fact that I was bleeding throughout the day and she felt that hospital was better suited for that situation (what does that even mean?!). Honestly, at that point, I just wanted an epidural and didn’t care who was going to give it to me.
One hour and twenty minutes later…
We arrive at the hospital. However, finding the emergency entrance was damn near impossible. We drove around to three different entrances only to find out they were locked. We even asked a nurse and she didn’t know where the emergency entrance was. WHAT THE HECK. At this point, I was telling Chris to run stop signs and just find me the entrance. Finally, we got a hold of someone who was able to tell us where to go. He drove me right up front, ran inside and got someone to bring me a wheelchair. At this point, I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes and they hurt bad.
Since I did not pre-register at this hospital they were nice enough to let me lay down on a bed while they registered me. A doctor came in and checked my cervix. I was 7 centimeters dilated. I kept remembering the horror stories I heard… “if you hit 8 centimeters you cannot get an epidural.”
Here’s the thing… with Rosie, I had a 4th-degree tear which means I literally tore hole to hole. Isn’t that lovely? Therefore, I was freaking out about having another 4th-degree tear with no epidural. Can you say OUCH!?! I was also Group B Strep positive (with both kids) so I had to get an IV drip with antibiotics and had to wait until my lab work came back before I could get the epidural.
This was all happening around 11:30 pm.
Then.. just a few doors down we kept hearing this blood-curdling scream.
The nurse let us know that the lady we were hearing decided to do a natural birth. Chris and I just looked at each other and could not believe how loud she was! Poor thing. However, if this was the first time I was giving birth I would have F R E A K E D O U T. This lasted for about 10 minutes.
Even the nurses were saying that she was scaring other people on the floor.
All of a sudden, during each contraction I felt the urge to push. I was freaking out and told Chris to get a doctor or nurse because I felt as though she was coming. Luckily, the lab work came back almost instantly after that and the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural.
I was in so much pain.
My husband had to leave the room so I squeezed the nurses hand through each contraction while I got the epidural. I can’t remember but I think this was around 12:30 or 1:00 am and the epidural kicked in completely about 1:30 am.
Luna’s heart rate dropped a bit so they turned me from my back onto my side for a few minutes. Then onto my other side and gave me an oxygen mask. Since that did not help much they asked me if I could get on all fours so I did.
A few minutes later Chris came back in and saw a lot of nurses surrounding me while I was on all fours with an oxygen mask… of course that freaked him out. OOPS!
Just after 2:00 am it was time to push!
I pushed for 20 minutes, had an episiotomy and out Luna came!
The doctor let me know she had the cord around her neck but they were able to remove it instantly and we heard a beautiful cry!
She arrived on May 30th at 2:26 am weighing 7lbs. 7oz. and 20″ tall.
It was so amazing to actually get to hold Luna on my chest and do skin to skin. I never got to do that with Rosie as she went straight to the NICU after I got to hold her for about 10 seconds.
This was a wild and crazy experience but I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, amazing nurses and doctors and especially thankful for a healthy baby girl!
Pink Newborn Baby Wrap was purchased here
Baby Headband was found on Etsy
Felt Letter Board is from Letter Folk
There are two funny parts to the story.
- I was scheduled to be induced on May 31st. If Luna waited one more day I would’ve been at the hospital I was meant to be at all along
- I went into labor on a full moon. Many people think I named our daughter Luna because of the moon… we didn’t. We just loved that name!
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