Emily's Birth Story

On my due date, we went out for a delicious dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I was a little disappointed because I hadn’t had the baby yet. Around 10:20 PM, we went to bed and about 10 minutes later, I started feeling horrible pains in my mid-section. I went to the bathroom thinking I had food poisoning. About an hour later, I took a shower, hoping that would soothe the pain. That didn’t help so I woke up my husband and told him to take me to the hospital. He didn’t believe that I was in labor because my water hadn’t broken yet. I told him, “I don’t care! I need drugs! It hurts!” After a few minutes of listening to me whine, he finally got dressed and grabbed his keys.

We got to the hospital and I told the nurse that I thought I was in labor and I was in pain. I changed into a gown and they put me into a bed behind a curtain. I started whining more about the pain while my husband went to find the nurse to get me some drugs. She told him that she'd be right there.

When she finally came back, she checked me and told me I was five centimeters, and then asked me if I had thought about pain medication. We decided on an epidural after she described the options. She told me I would get it as soon as I got into my room.

When I got into my room, the nurse hooked me up to machines and informed me that the doctor would be there soon to give me my medication. When I finally got my epidural, it worked right away. Around eight centimeters, the doctor told my husband and me to rest up for the big time. The nurse told me to press the call button when I needed her. It felt so nice to relax.

Shortly after, the baby's heartbeat started to slow down, so the nurses came rushing in. They told me to roll on to one side. The heartbeat went back to normal when I did this but a couple minutes later, it slowed down again, so the nurse had me roll onto my other side. Then suddenly, the heartbeat started dropping drastically. The nurse told me that I might have to have a C-section. I really didn't want one, but of course, I would do it if it meant saving my baby's life. I signed the papers, and then I started shaking like crazy. The nurse told me that it was normal because my body was going through drastic changes.

I was fully dilated when the doctor finally arrived, and he told me I could try to deliver naturally. They turned off my epidural because I couldn't feel anything to know when to push through a contraction. Even long after the medication was turned off, I still felt no pain. The hardest part was taking deep breaths. It felt like I was running and running and couldn't catch my breath. I remembered once my mom told me that being pregnant was like training for a marathon. I realized that I hadn't trained hard enough.

Finally, at 4:02 AM on July 26, 2007, my baby, Emily Jacqueline, came into the world. She was four hours late from arriving on her due date! She weighed eight pounds, three ounces, and was 20½ inches long. When I heard her first cries, I started crying too. The nurse asked, “Why are you crying? You did such a good job. You're going to make me cry.” The birth of my daughter was a beautiful moment.