My Birth Story
By: Melissa Sedlacek
Tags: Birthstory, C Section, Birth, Pregnancy, Baby

Melissa in labor at the hospital.

Since my post, “My Pregnancy Story,” I’ve had requests to tell my birth story. At first, I was so excited by the requests, but as time went on, I started to get cold feet about blogging about it. Sure, I’ve talked about it more times than I can count, but something about writing it makes it real. Once the cold feet had set in, I was tempted just to ignore the requests and continue writing about the other topics that I had in mind. However, over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen so many other mothers open up about their birth stories, that I felt I HAD to tell mine.

So, without further ado, my birth story…

THE BEGINNING

My due date was initially set for the beginning of April. However, that day came and went without any signs of labor on the horizon. The following days were extremely nerve-wracking because I suddenly felt like a ticking timebomb!

Despite my growing anxiousness, I was also relieved in a way, because I was so not ready to give birth. You see, I have this terrible habit of ignoring things that make me anxious. The idea of me giving birth sent my anxiety over the edge whenever I thought about it. So, for my whole pregnancy, I completely ignored this massive event in hopes that my anxiety would stay low. This turned out to be a crazy bad idea because when the final days approached, I was definitely underprepared and extremely anxious.

My doctor scheduled me to be induced one week after my due date, which fell on a Sunday. I was told to check into the hospital at 7:30 pm that day. The whole morning, I was busy nesting and packing my hospital bag. In the afternoon, I decided to video-chat my best friend, who lives in Chicago. The whole time we were chatting, I kept saying how unprepared I was for labor and delivery. I was so preoccupied talking to her that I barely even touched my dinner (which was a small bowl of mac n’ cheese). After I hung up my video call, I stood up to go back to the bedroom and get dressed for the hospital. However, before I could even reach the bedroom, my water broke! I was confused at first because it didn’t happen like I expected it to. I ended up calling my doctor, and he told me to head into the hospital early so that they could check me out.

With new plans in order, I decided to try and finish the few chores that I had left. While switching over a load of laundry to the dryer, my husband urgently came into the room. He was in disbelief that I was actually doing chores when we were supposed to be heading to the hospital. I didn’t think it was such a big deal that I was finishing up cleaning before we headed out. He eventually managed to pile me into the car, but I was furious at him for not letting me finish what I had started (irrational, I know, but it’s true).

A screenshot of a Snapchat post that my husband, Nathaniel, posted when we first arrived at the hospital.

At the Hospital

Once we arrived at the hospital, the nursing staff checked me in and helped me get settled into the room that I was assigned. At first, I was the only one in the delivery unit, so I had the attention of every nurse that was on shift. The beginning wasn’t bad. I was having steady contractions at that point! The nurses then started me on some medicine to help move the labor along since I wasn’t really dilated yet. Once the doctor examined me, he concluded that they couldn’t tell if my water had really broken or not since everything seemed fine at that point. After a couple of hours, I opted for an epidural since the pain was starting to increase. When the medicine finally kicked in, I fell asleep.

The Next Morning

The following morning, I woke up and learned that during the night, my baby’s heart rate dropped. So, to help this, they stopped my inducement medication. Once the medicine was stopped, my labor also ceased to progress. Suddenly, I wasn’t contracting, and I wasn’t dilating. It was like all of those hours before had never happened.

However, once my baby’s heart rate picked back up, the nurses were able to restart my medicine, which helped to kind of bring the labor process back on. This time, however, my contractions were irregular, and I still wasn’t dilating. Another doctor ended up coming in to break my water to see if that would help move my labor along. She stated that my water might’ve broken at home, but it could have resealed itself.

I was honestly getting kind of frustrated. I had been in the hospital since the night before, and I had barely progressed since we had checked in. In the beginning, when my contractions were regular and consistent, I had honestly thought it was going to be a rather quick labor. Well, the joke was on me.

Later That Day

Nathaniel left in the afternoon to grab lunch in the hospital’s cafeteria since my parents had arrived and were keeping me company. I was busy talking to my mother and watching TV. However, as time went on, I started to feel pain. At first, the pain I was feeling was dull, but it quickly escalated. In a matter of a couple of minutes, I went from perfectly healthy to excruciatingly pained. I called the nurses in, and they ended up giving me more medicine to help ease the pain. At this point, I was exhausted since I had been laboring for almost 24 hours at that point.

Around 6:00 pm, the doctor came in and told me that I should consider having a c-section since I had barely made any improvements all day. I wasn’t a fan of this alternative since I was terrified of the idea of having a major operation while fully awake. I also wanted to be able to immediately hold my baby and experience everything that so many mothers had already told me about. Once I explained my wishes to my doctor, she said that since nothing was medically wrong, it was okay for me to labor longer to see if anything would change.

THE FINAL HOURS

After I had decided that I wanted to continue to labor, I really started to try and speed up the process. I took advantage of everything they had to offer that could potentially help me. I alternated between sleeping and adjusting positions for half of the night.

Early Morning the Next Day

To my surprise, I actually dilated quite a bit since I had last talked to the doctor. Around 12:00 am, I was told that I was about 8 centimeters dilated. However, I was also told that I had contracted an infection, which put me in a time crunch to get my baby out before the infection could possibly spread to him.

Around 2:00 am, I was able to start to push. My first couple of pushes were great! The nurse was impressed that I still had strength despite being in labor for so long. I asked the nurse if I could possibly wait a little bit longer before pushing again to see if my baby would drop further down so that I didn’t have to push for so long. She agreed that that sounded like a good idea and came back to check on me after a while.

However, things took a sharp turn once I began to push again.

Plans Change

Once I began pushing again, it was soon discovered that my baby was going into distress. With every push, his heart rate would drastically drop (from 150 beats per minute to 40 beats per minute). This discovery terrified me and broke my heart. I was so scared that my baby was in danger, and I was also sad because I knew that my labor plan wasn’t going to be coming true.

After discussing things over with my husband, we decided that I would have a c-section. Although I desperately wanted to avoid this, I knew that it had to happen. By this point, I was exhausted and in a lot of pain. I was fully dilated and had been in labor for 37 hours at this point! My medicine had worn off, and I was feeling everything. However, before I could be operated on, I had to wait for new medication to numb me.

The time that I spent waiting for the anesthesiologist was probably the longest hour of my entire life. I was in a tremendous amount of pain, with my body telling me that pushing would help! However, despite my body signally me otherwise, I knew that I couldn’t push without possibly injuring my baby. So, for that whole hour, I had to ride out my contractions without moving a muscle. I almost felt like I was being tortured by the contractions because I barely had any break in between each one, and they were so powerful and lasted so long each time.

I had never felt so much pain in my entire life that lasted for so long, with no relief. I was sobbing into my pillow as I waited for my medicine. At this point, my mother had come back into the room, and I cried into her shoulder. I was so scared and so hurt. At that moment, I felt like a little girl again who was crying into her mother in hopes that she would make everything feel okay again. Although I had been crying on and off throughout the whole labor, I finally truly broke down. I cried for the pain, for the hurt, for the loss of a dream, and for an unknown future.

Finally, after what felt like forever, I received the medicine that I needed to go into surgery.

The C-Section

Once in the operating room, everything happened so fast. I was prepped and strapped to the table. The curtain went up above my stomach. Nathaniel washed and changed into the scrubs that the hospital gave to him. Before I knew it, the surgery was happening. I felt intense tugging and pulling as the doctor and nurses worked on me.

By now, the infection really started to affect me. While I was on the table, I began getting intense chills and felt insanely nauseous. This didn’t help the fact that the pain medicine that I had received wasn’t working well.

However, all of this suddenly seemed irrelevant once I heard the cry of my baby boy, Isaac. It was so loud and beautiful compared to the intense silence that had previously filled the room. Nathaniel was able to go and see Isaac get his checkup while I was getting put back together. I was so happy for this moment but was also sad since I spent it alone on the table as they continued to operate on me.

Nathaniel holding our son, Isaac, for the first time in the operating room.

Once Isaac was cleaned up and his stats were recorded, Nathaniel brought him over to me, and I was able to kiss his little head. He was so perfect and beautiful, but I was so tired and sick. After I was stitched up, the doctor and nurses moved me back onto my bed and placed my son by my side. I couldn’t believe that he was finally here after all of this time! I so desperately wanted to enjoy this moment, but I was drained, and my shakes from the fever were intensifying.

Melissa holding her son, Isaac, for the first time.

When we arrived back to our room in the labor ward, Nathaniel took a picture of Isaac and me together to send to my family. Despite the happy moment, I couldn’t bond with my son immediately, because my fever became so severe that I could no longer hold him. I honestly don’t remember what happened after that, but Nathaniel tells me that nurses came in and covered me in a pile of blankets because I was shivering so severely from the high temperature that I was running.

Melissa in the recovery unit with her son, Isaac.

Once I recovered, I was finally able to actually hold my baby! Not only that, but I was able to eat and drink, which I hadn’t done since I had eaten the mac n’ cheese at my house before we left for the hospital! The recovery took awhile since I had to fight off the infection, but I was able to bond with Isaac and enjoy the assistance that the hospital gave my family during our stay in the recovery unit.

PARTING THOUGHTS

My labor was rough. It didn’t go how I expected it to go, either. What I just wrote is 100% accurate to how I felt during that time. However, looking back at it, I know how blessed I am that both Isaac and I came out of the whole experience alive! At my six-week postpartum checkup, my doctor told me that the infection that I had contracted during labor had actually traveled through the umbilical cord and was just about to enter Isaac. If we would have waited any longer, who knows what could’ve happened to him! This whole experience made me a stronger woman and showed me what true love and support is. It may have taken 39 hours, but my labor was definitely worth it!

Do you have a birth story you would like to share? Comment below!