My pain med free labor story:

warning: it's long hahaha

I was in the beginning stages of labor for over a week. I would randomly get consistent contractions for an hour or less and they would just stop. On my due date, I had a doctors appointment and I was 3 cm dilated. She stripped my membranes for the second time. She told me if I stayed active my chances of going into labor sooner were high. I went home, bounced on the exercise ball for about an hour and a half then decided to take a nap. I was having random but intense contractions all day but they were never consistent for more than an hour. Later that night, my mom, brother and I went to my aunt's house to visit with my grandparents who were in town from out of state for the birth of my baby. The whole time we were there I was having pretty consistent contractions but just brushed them off as nothing because it had been happening all week and then just stopping. We went home around 9 and I bounced on the ball for another hour or so, having contractions about 7-10 minutes apart the whole time. I decided to drink some water and lay on my side to see if they would go away. I was sleeping out in the living room that night and my mom stayed out there with me just in case anything happened (her room is downstairs). At a little after midnight, the contractions were still consistent and painful, but not unbearable so I woke my mom up and told her I thought I should go in to get checked. I called and told them I was coming and then my mom and I grabbed my bags, went to pick up my grandma and headed to the hospital. We were about 3 miles down the road and I realized I left my glasses at home so we had to turn around to go get them. 😂😒 They put me directly into a room when I got there and had me get changed into a gown then hooked me up to the monitor. Once the monitor showed I was in fact having contractions, one of the nurses checked my cervix. I was 5 cm. They left and came back about 10 minutes later and told me that I could have pain meds any time I wanted now. Thats when I knew it was real and it really hit me. I called my dad and my sister to tell them the baby was coming but I would let them know when things were progressing before they came in. My mom went down to the car and got my bags and my pillow then we walked around the floor a bunch of times. With each contraction, I wrapped my arms around my mom's neck, rested my head on her shoulder and swayed side to side until it passed. Definitely the most relieving thing at that point. My little brother had made me a corn bag that you heat up in the microwave a couple weeks before and I was using it the whole time I was in labor for my back because I had terrible back labor. My dad and sister got to the hospital at around 3am as we were walking the floor. The contractions got more intense so I went back to my room and layed on my side and had my mom rub my back for a bit. I bounced on the ball for a little while but that wasn't helpful to me so I took a jacuzzi bath and let me tell you that is lifesaving! I stayed in there as long as I could until the nurses wanted to monitor and check me again. When they checked me I was a 7. At about 7am my step mom got there with my three younger siblings and about 10 minutes later my papa showed up with my other little brother. The contractions were intense but still very tolerable at this point and I found that lifting the bed a little and leaning forward on it eased the pain a lot. The nurses kept asking me if I wanted any pain meds and I told them no, I wanted to have a med free birth. My sister, who would be in the room for the delivery left the room to go get a drink. My doctor came in at around 7:30 to check me herself so she made everyone except my mom and nana leave the room. She checked and I was a 7 still so she said she would break my water. I was hesitant at first because I didn't want any medical interventions but I decided to let her because I had been stuck at 7 cm for 4 out of the 10 hours I had been in labor. As soon as she broke my water i was immediately in terrible pain so I told the nurses to let my family know they wouldn't able to come back into the room but to send my sister in because that baby was coming soon. About 10 minutes after she broke my water, she checked me again and I was 9.5 cm and almost ready to push. I told her just a few minutes later that I needed to push and she checked me and gave me the okay. I was in such bad pain I couldn't even changed positions from the awkward, one-leg-up, one-leg-down, kind-of-on-my-side position I was in. I pushed in that position for awhile then my doctor told me she needed to break the bed so I had to move. The nurses helped me scoot up the bed and adjust to laying flat on my back. I had one nurse fanning me because I was sweating bullets, one trying to hold the monitors on my belly to keep an eye on the baby, and my doctor sticking her fingers of both hands in me and stretching me out with vitamin E oil to try to prevent tearing. My mom was to the right of me holding my hand and holding a wet washcloth on my head. I kept swatting at my doctors hands and screaming at her not to touch me and pushing the nurses away whenever they put the monitor on me. They last thing you want when you're having a contraction and trying to push is people touching you. 😒 I got so hot while I was pushing that I got totally naked and had someone hold the fan right on me and get me 2 more cold wet washcloths. 😂 I saw the nurses whispering to each other with a concerned look on their faces and my doctor said "we need to get her out right now Taylor, push!" Her heart rate was quickly dropping from the contractions being every minute, causing her stress. That was enough motivation for me, despite the amount of pain that I was in, I needed to get her out. My mom grabbed my leg and one of the nurses grabbed the other. They each grabbed an arm and held me still. I pushed two more times (a total of 27 minutes) and at 8:21am, out came my perfect little girl. Screaming and eyes wide open, looking right up at me the moment she was layed on my chest. 😍 All of the pain was immediately forgotten and so so worth it. I started to hemmhorage so the nurses rushed to put clotting medicine into my IV and my doctor wrapped the umbilical cord around her clamp, told me to push and pulled the placenta out. The plan was for my mom to cut the cord after it stopped pulsing but my doctor was in a hurry because I was bleeding so much and Elliott started to not look good so she cut it herself and immediately started to stitch me up. The vitamin E oil apparently didn't work because I got a third degree tear and needed 30-40 stitches. 😷 It took her about a half hour to stitch me up. Elliott started to turn purple so the nurses took her from me to get her to cry and make sure nothing was wrong. They gave her back just a couple minutes later and we did skin to skin for almost an hour and nursed right away. Everything was perfect from there on out. I would do it over a million times if it meant getting my baby girl. I love her so much, she's my whole world and the one thing in my life I never knew I needed. 💜

#laborday