Lillian's Birth Story

I found out I was pregnant with my second child just before Christmas. My pregnancy was very uneventful and went very smoothly. When I was 38 weeks, I mentioned to the doctor that I was tired of being pregnant. Since my first baby was induced because of low amniotic fluid, we scheduled an induction the following Tuesday.

When we got to the hospital the day of the induction, I was two centimeters already and they started me on a Pitocin drip. I had some mild cramping, but my husband and I were able to take a two-hour nap! When the doctor came in at 3 PM, I had only dilated to three centimeters, so she broke my water to get things moving.

Two hours later, the contractions were hard enough that I asked for an epidural. I had only progressed two more centimeters and the doctor told me it would probably take a while and I should get some rest.

Forty-five minutes later, I was surprised with the worst pain in my life. I screamed at my husband, who was asleep, to check the monitor to see if it was a contraction. He looked and said it wasn’t. I yelled back to him that it was! He called the nurse.

I could barely breathe and get a hold of myself. The nurse ran in, checked me, and said that I was fully dilated and ready to push! I thought the woman was crazy! She told me she would get the anesthesiologist in to up the epidural, and everyone began running around. The anesthesiologist arrived and gave me a booster shot but it did nothing. The nurse was trying to get me to do breathing techniques and then my doctor came in and said, “Erica, you’ve got to start pushing.” I kept saying, “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!” Everyone in the room said, “Yes you can,” at the same time, which was a little weird. I started doing the breathing exercises and all of a sudden a calm feeling came over me and I started pushing.

After only five minutes of pushing, my daughter, Lillian, was born at 6:36 PM on August 22, 2006.

When I look back, I am so glad I was able to feel everything. It was the most amazing and beautiful thing I have ever experienced. And if I ever have a third, I think I’ll just try going natural the whole way!