We walked all over Soho and ended up at Union Square where we attended a meditation class before dinner. The iPhone health app logged 10,347 steps that day.
At around 9 pm I started feeling uncomfortable as we sat down to eat dinner (fish) at Village Taverna. We finished eating and I was still feeling funny but the ice cream truck was parked outside so I had to have Van Leeuwen ice cream after dinner. I had honeycomb ice cream, my mom had pistachio, Paolo had earl gray tea. Paolo already messaged our doula, Francie, that I was starting to feel contractions.
Paolo drove us home.
I took a warm epsom salt bath, contractions start to get stronger.
I tried to lie down and sleep but couldn’t.
Started timing contractions.
At midnight, I took another warm salt bath.
Texted Francie.
Called Francie.
Francie came over at around 4am
Paolo called for a Lyft at 5am
Arrived at 83 Gold St at 5:24 AM.
After a while I was checked into triage and was at 6cm dilated. We told them I didn’t want an epidural so I didn’t get one.
Water was already broken but we don’t know when. Most likely when in bath tub.
Paolo and Francie got to accompany me in triage while I was in labor. We camped out in the bathroom since it was more comfortable there. There were other moms in triage who were loud and the bathroom was a lot more quiet. When I had to go back to the triage area I wore noise canceling earphones and sunglasses to dim the harsh hospital lights.
I got on the exercise ball.
I walked around doing lunges, the duck walk, whatever Francie suggested, I did.
At 3pm we finally moved to a labor and delivery room and after some time they administered pitocin. I was already feeling weak after not sleeping all night and a couple of rounds of throwing up. I ate lots of applesauce pouches and drank coconut water.
Labored in bed while Francie and Paolo applied counter pressure on back. This was so helpful.
Started pushing right before 8pm and by around 9pm, the baby appeared.
My doctor said it was one of the most quiet births she attended, I was just trying my best to be as calm as possible. I couldn’t figure out how to breathe my baby down using the method we learned in hypnobirthing class but thankfully, Dr. Hanna and the entire team present were excellent coaches and after what felt both like forever and instantly, I was able to hold her in my arms.
They did the initial checks on the baby then let her latch on for a while. Then more checking by the pediatrician. I got up from the bed and gathered my stuff so we could move to the recovery rooms. They told me to stop walking around and sit on the wheelchair.
We were wheeled into the shared recovery room but I was the first occupant so we had the room to ourselves in the beginning.
Everyone else went home, so for the first time in over a day, it was just me and the baby.
I just kept staring at her, she looked so peaceful.
Expectation vs Reality
I was able to stick to my plan of having an epidural free birth. When it came to receiving pitocin, the medical staff respectfully asked if I wanted it and after thinking it through and checking in with how I was feeling, I felt it was the way to go. The tiniest glitch in the birth came when they had to pause my pitocin because there’s this hospital rule that when both operating rooms are being occupied for C-sections, all the pitocin being administered to the other birthing moms have to be paused because they won’t be able to accommodate another emergency surgery, should anything go wrong.
I think this prolonged my labor but since I was ready to go with the flow of whatever was happening and time distortion during birth was very true for me then, I have no complaints about what happened. Summertime is such a busy season for labor and delivery departments and I just felt lucky to have my support system present and a complication free birth.
As far as birth stories go, mine was relatively easy. I was relaxed and didn’t fear the unknown too much. I really tried my best to get inside my head and retreat within for the worst of the surges. I felt like I prepared enough (and overpacked).
I was right about my pain tolerance, and liked being able to walk after delivery. One of the reasons why I refused to get an epidural was my experience with anesthesia during my two previous knee surgeries. I disliked the feeling of it wearing off. Nobody gets a medal for birthing a certain way but I’m content with how it went for me and happy that I got to make those choices for myself and my baby.
Birthing was the easy part, breastfeeding is a different story. That’s for another post.