Birth Story | Welcome Yael
I never considered writing out my birth story until it actually happened. I’ve always read fellow mamas stories, but always felt that no matter how much I read, or how many ideas I put into my head about what birth would actually look like or feel like, I would never actually know until I experienced it myself. No two births the same, I typically navigate life thinking, I dont really want to know other experiences because it might affect my own if I have any preconceived ideas.
Since giving birth, I have told this story countless times already and I want to share with you today. I am amazed at what the female body is capable of, and how nothing can truly prepare you for the process that is giving birth. I think people are so interested because its always so different and you are bringing literal life into this world— the act of birth is a miracle.
It started Thursday July 4th.
From the moment I could feel her kicks and hiccups, she was sitting so low in my pelvis I knew there was no way we would make it to 40 weeks. The week before delivery, I was finally starting to feel some Braxton Hicks contractions and I knew my body was getting ready for her arrival! I could sense it. Every time someone had asked me my due date I always responded “July 26! but probably a little earlier!”. I knew she wouldn’t stay in there that long.
July 4th, my husband and I both had the day off, so we spent the day walking downtown to the parade, cuddling lol, resting, just taking it easy. I was beginning to feel a little beat after the first half of the day, needing to kick my legs up the wall (I didnt typically feel this drained until the end of the day so it felt strange). Into the evening, I was beginning to feel crampy, like poop cramps or period cramps, a sharp pain in my low abdomen that I used to feel on those blessed days 1 and 2 of my period. When we headed to bed, I noticed a rhythm had started with the timing of these cramps. I began to track and I soon realized that it was happening every 5-7 minutes for a minute long each time. I could breathe through each one, could still walk and talk, but the pattern of them had me thinking I was ready to rock, so we packed up and headed to the hospital. We were always told the 5-1-1 rule was the sign! 5 minutes apart, 1 minute in length, 1 hour duration at least.
Earlier in the week at our OB appt I was 60% effaced and 1cm dilated, I had also lost my mucus plug the day before that. We knew my body was starting to get ready and it could be a matter of days or weeks. We arrived at the hospital at 2am Friday, I was 80% effaced and 2cm dilated. The midwife said she needed me to come back when I was red in the face and couldn’t walk or talk through the contractions. She said this was likely false labor as baby was only 37 weeks 3 days.
We left sad that we weren’t meeting our babe yet, and a little scared that we didn’t know how long I would be contracting. We got home around 6a, and managed to sleep for a couple hours. Late Friday morning, I felt pretty normal, just light cramping, but nothing in sequence.
We walked downtown and during I began to contract again, same intensity as the night before. Nothing overbearing, just needed to slow and breathe through it. A few hours later, the intensity began to grow, they began coming anywhere from 3-7 minutes. We kept tracking, and after no sleep, showering, breathing, all the labor relief tricks we knew, at 4a the Saturday morning decided we needed to go back to the hospital. Surely, this was it!
When we arrived I was STILL 80% thinned and only 2cm dilated. They did an ultrasound to check baby out, we found out she was face up, occiput posterier which is harder for baby to move through the pelvis. This was why I hadn’t been continuing to dilate. I was so exhausted having only slept a handful of restless hours the prior two days. The midwife said “go home take 2 benedryl, and a Tylenol and try to get some sleep. If this is false labor is will fizzle out, or you could be contracting like this for 2 more weeks.”
Defeated, worn out, and hopeless we left the hospital to return home. I took the medicine and was able to doze, still contracting. I would wake up during the bad ones, but the drowsiness from the benedryl put me back to sleep. This went on for around 4 hours.
We woke up around 10:30a on Saturday. In my delirium I had continued to track contractions and they were still happening every 5-7 minutes. I tried to kick my legs up the wall, take baths, showers, all the things to help stop if it was false labor. I couldn’t keep up physically. Towards the evening, the actual pain of the contraction was significantly worse, it would come on and I felt helpless, like I couldn’t escape the pain. I would come down to my hands and knees, cat cow, sway side to side, hug the yoga ball and rock, ryan was pushing my hips inward from behind each time to find mild relief. We called the nurses station 2 different times through the night to see if we should go in or not, and because we had already been in twice they kept recommending the same things, get in the shower, take Tylenol, etc.
Up all night, 6a Sunday came around and I began contracting every 2-3 minutes, an hour later I was at 1-3 minutes, the moment I was able to stand up and move on from one contraction, another one started and the pain was taking my breath away. I had barely slept in three days, hadn’t eaten in two, and the pain was becoming unbearable. I told Ryan whether this was real labor or not, I needed to go to the hospital because I had nothing left inside me. I needed some kind of pain relief because I could not do this for 2 more weeks, it was debilitating.
We got to the hospital around 9:30a (3rd times a charm!) as we came in I was dropping down into contraction, the nurses brought me into the triage room, midwife came in to check me, and through a contraction she says—
“Your 90% effaced and 7cm dilated!!!!! you’re having your baby today!!!!”
Ryan and I both lost it. AT LAST! We knew what was happening and we knew the pain would be over soon and not in weeks but that day!
At this point I decided to get an epidural. I planned on having a natural birth, but in that moment I knew I physically could not make it, especially not knowing how long I’d continue to labor or how long I would need to push. I had nothing left in me. I am so grateful I choose to get the epidural because it brought me back into the present for birth. I didn’t have to be knocked out by the pain, I was able to be all in and use what energy I had to push.
Within 20 minutes of getting to the hospital, they got the epidural in and within 5 minutes, I felt pain relief I had not felt in days. An hour later, I was 100% effaced and 8cm, they broke my water to get things moving a little faster.
The epidural takes the pain away, but not the pressure, and let me tell you— theres PRESSURE! As I continued to contract closer and closer, the pressure felt like the biggest poop of my life. But you don’t want to push! It was the weirdest sensation! Around 3p, the pressure during contractions became so great that I was having to close my eyes and breathe through it intentionally— I knew it was time to push. The nurse walked me through the motions of what to do in pushing, after a few rounds of pushing, she said “okay hold back now!” calling the doctor in immediately because baby was beginning to crown!
30 minutes later, Ryan caught our sweet babe, put her right on my chest, cut the cord, and we basked in the first hour of life quietly as a family. The release once her head came out was unlike anything I could ever explain. After months of pressure, and days of intense contracting, anything else that I could feel wouldn’t be half as bad now that I felt that relief.
Yael Vera Monte
7/7/19 3:30p
6 pounds 2 ounces
18.5 in
During the never ending days of laboring, I kept having the thought “who on earth would do this more than once.” But just a few hours after delivering, I had a very clear moment where all that I had endured seemed so small when I was holding my sweet babe. It was not unbearable. It was not completely unmanageable. I have had several moments since where I know I could do it all over again. For the longest time I had such a bad taste in my mouth for epidurals. Always having the thought that my body was made for this! I would never take the drugs!! But when things don’t go as planned (and they typically don’t in this space), I cant imagine having done it without after laboring for three days. I am so grateful for modern medicine. I felt the worst pain of my life, and at the edge, I was able to say yes, able to bring myself back to my body through the relief that the epidural provided me. I was coherent and found new strength to get her out.
Birth is wild. Its strange at the surface but you gain such an incredible reverence for the human body and its capabilities. Its amazing that she came out and she already knew me, she already knew my voice. And that the body produces different stages of breastmilk that she needs depending on the day. Amazing that feeding her helps push jaundice out of her body. I am in awe of being a woman in this time. What a remarkable gift.
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I am so grateful for the team of people who took care of us at Saint Joes. Our experience there was truly all encompassing, thorough, and it could not have been better. They have an incredible team of people who make sure you feel ready to enter real world with your babe, covering everything from breastfeeding to PPD to insurance and everything in between. I wouldn’t have changed a single thing.
xo,
