Birth Story

On Friday we decided to go to Disneyland to see if we could get things going with a lot of walking. Around 7pm I decided to time my contractions which were more like Braxton hicks. The first couple were 10 min apart and for the rest of the hour they were about 7 min apart. I let Pablo know but said I didn’t want to leave because I was worried if we stopped moving they would just go away completely. We stayed and watched fantasmic and while standing for the show they were 3 to 4 min apart but still no pain what so ever. After the show we headed back to the car. During the tram ride I only had 1 and in the car on the ride home they were back to 6 to 7 min apart.

We got home and I put keelin in bed and took a shower and sat down to time them some more. They were about 7 and a half min a part with some closer ones thrown in. At 1am I decided I wanted to sleep and try again Saturday to really get things going. Tierney was moving like crazy and I was having a hard time sleeping; than around 2:30 I started cramping a little. Pablo and I decided to stay down stairs that way we were less likely to wake Keelin up. I was actually able to sleep on the couch and timed some of my contractions here and there, they were 10 to 15 min apart but I kept thinking that I did not remember them hurting that bad with Keelin and I wondered how I was going to handle it when active labor started and they were close together.

At 5:45 keelin woke up so I went upstairs and had her lay in bed with me. I decided to stay awake and time them I thought maybe I was having milder contractions that were not waking me up and more was happening than I realized. I had a contraction at 5:50, 6:05, and 6:20. At that time I thought I was feeling pretty rested and wanted to get things going and decided to work a pressure point to see if that did anything and if not maybe around 7 see about going for a walk. As soon as I started working the pressure point I had a contraction after 2 min, than 4 min, than 2 min and they were so intense and close together that I had to stop and get out of bed. I ran downstairs and thought maybe if I went to the bathroom they would ease up a little in intensity.

While I was in the bathroom the next couple were about 5 min apart and I was thinking maybe we’d leave at 7. I got up and was going to go let Pablo know what was happening but than I had to sit back down because I thought I needed to go again. I sent Pablo a text at 6:46 asking him to get Keelin’s stroller and bag out of the truck and put the hospital bags in. He did not respond and during the next contraction I got the urge to push and started to panic. I started to try and clean myself but I didn’t realize my mucus plug was coming out and the more I tried to get clean the more of a mess I felt like it was making. During the next contraction I stood up and tried to move so that I would not push and it seemed to work. I sat down again still trying to get clean, the next contraction came I stood up and still ended up pushing I really started to panic at this point and than I called out to Pablo who came running. I told him I was pushing and I couldn’t get clean he told me to forget about that and just get dressed and lets go.

When I was in labor with keelin I spent a lot of time in the bathroom and at some point I realized the pressure I was feeling was not from having to go to the bathroom but from her coming down and Pablo thought that was the feeling I was referring to not that my body was actually trying to push her out already. My next contraction standing at the door was ok and I didn’t push, and the first one in the car I didn’t really have to push either. Pablo was trying to keep me clam telling me that we would make it because I hadn’t even lost my mucus plug yet (he didn’t know that was what I was trying to clean up in the bathroom) and my water hadn’t broke and as he said that my water started to leak. I didn’t hear a pop and it wasn’t a big gush just a steady stream. During the next contraction I started pushing again, and with the next one I felt her head coming out and I lifted my butt up so I would not sit on her and told Pablo her head was coming out. Pablo said lets see and started to help me get my pants down, her head had gone back in so at first look there was nothing there but when he looked over again as I was pushing and there was the top of her head and my bag of waters which never fully broke. The light turned green and we pulled into the first parking lot he ran around opened my door helped me get my pants off the rest of the way as I pushed her head out and than the rest of her body. He handed her to me and grabbed her blanket to cover her. I started to rub her back and asking her to breath and when Pablo didn’t hear anything from her he followed her cord up and saw that it was around her neck, he got her untangled and she started to cry. He shut the door and jumped back in the car and finished the last half of our 10 min drive to the hospital.

We called to let them know what had happened and they said to just go to ER. Pablo went inside and told the receptionist that I had just had a baby in the car, she looked at him confused and set a couple of nurses out to me with a wheel chair. When they opened the door and saw me holding the baby they were very surprised and said “oh you’ve already had her” and went back and got me a gurney. We spent 10 or 15 min in the ER and than they took us up to Labor and delivery and got us set up in a room. Tierney latched right away and has had no trouble nursing. The post delivery contraction were super intense the first couple of days, but things seem to be returning to pre-baby status rather quickly and I’ve had very minimal bleeding which has been nice.

Because I was gbs positive I had planned on getting to the hospital early this time and never expected that my contractions would go from 15 min apart to pushing in less than an hour. Also, because I was gbs positive they did blood work on Tierney which showed signs of an infection and Sunday morning they started her on 48 hours of continues IV and 6 doses of antibiotics. Nothing ever grew on the blood culture and I’m still confused as to weather or not she had any infection at all. Spending the extra time in the hospital was no fun, but we are home now and it is definitely an experience we will never forget.

Her birth certificate will have the address of the shopping center as place of birth and Pablo’s signature under delivering physician.