Mila's Birth Story

It was Monday, February 25th. Josh and I were preparing for the induction the next morning. We spent the day packing last minute things, figuring out how we were going to get to the hospital in the aftermath of the approaching winter storm and even bought a washer and dryer to save ourselves a million trips to the laundromat with dirty cloth diapers. We were both excited, I was getting a little nervous. I was about to make dinner and the phone rang. It was a nurse from the hospital. She told us that the staff was worried about us making it to the hospital safely the next morning and offered us two new options: come in for a stress test that night and reschedule the induction for a later date or be induced that night. I put my hand over the phone and asked Josh what he wanted to do. He told me it was my decision. With my heart in my throat and the thought of holding our daughter a day early in my mind, I told her we would be coming in after dinner.



We jammed food in our mouths, washed all of the dishes so we wouldn't come home to an entire house smelling like fish, jumped in the car and headed to the hospital. Because it was later in the evening, we were told to register in the emergency room. When we got there though, it seemed like there were a million people waiting in line. We turned around and just headed up to labor and delivery anyway. The nurses were expecting us and took us to our delivery room. The room was really nice and had a HUGE tub (that I didn't get to use).
We immediately got down to business. I undressed, whipped that sexy hospital gown on and had Josh take pictures. The nurse came back in and had me sit on the bed so she could start my iv. I hate ivs and I'm sure the nurse's problem with finding my vein and blowing one out and having to flush it with saline was because of this fact. When she finally placed it and put tape over it, she began to ask me a million questions. I couldn't even tell you what those questions were. I was getting more anxious and excited. After the questions were answered and liquids were hooked up to the iv, my midwife came in and inserted 1/4 of the cytotec suppository. At first, it didn't feel like anything. After about three hours, I was having pretty bad back labor but nothing too serious. An hour after that, I felt like I could barely breathe due to my back pain. Mila was not happy with the contractions and I had to wear an oxygen mask the majority of the night to keep her satisfied. Baby girl did not want to come out. The nurses and midwife kept commenting on how they've never seen such a small dose of cytotec work so fast on a first time mom.
Early on Tuesday morning, I finally received fentanyl and slept for a few hours. Eventually the pain of contractions outweighed the medicine and the midwife told me I could have my epidural any time. I got it right away. Josh propped me up on the bed. The anesthesiologist was talking the whole time, explaining the procedure as she did it. I thought it would be a lot more painful than it was, I barely felt it at all. Just a prick and a few minutes later, my legs were tingly all over. I slept for hours after that. Around 2:00 pm, the nurse and midwife came in to check how dilated and thinned out I was. At that point I was 9.5 cm dilated, 100% effaced and at a +1 station. The midwife told me she could actually see Mila's head but that I still had half a centimeter to go yet. She popped my water to see if that would help move things along. About half an hour later, she told me that I could try to push Mila through the last half centimeter. To everyone's surprise, I was able to and the midwife ordered Josh to hold one leg while the nurse grabbed the other. I pushed for an hour, through the worst pain I have ever felt and was holding my baby girl at 4:00 pm sharp! They placed her on my chest while Dad cut her cord and with both hands, she held both of my index fingers. She was whisked away and cleaned and measured and weighed and dressed and then returned back to us. We stared at her and then at each other in awe. She was finally here! The look of adoration on Josh's face and finally holding my little girl in my arms are moments I will never forget.

Mila Jade (8 lbs, 20 in)