On September 23, 2013, I welcomed my son Tristan Daniel S. into the world at 4:29 AM. He weighed 7lbs 1oz and was 20in long. I went into Labor and Delivery on September 22nd at 3 something that evening. But, was disappointed to find out my cervix had not changed from my last visit. Despite being in pre-labor for over two weeks and stuck at 3cm, I didn’t take the option to walk for an hour. Instead, my husband and I went to the store for a Subway sandwich and cookies, followed by going to the park down from the hospital and walking (not really).
After experiencing intense contractions, I couldn’t walk anymore. I couldn’t move my legs at all. so, I walked for about 5 minutes and got back in the car to eat. Upon returning to the hospital at 5:30, I was checked and found to be dilated to 5cm. While happy to finally be progressing in my labor, I also felt emotional knowing my mother wasn’t there with me and that this was my first child. Nonetheless, the excitement of finally meeting my little one after nine months of anticipation kept me going.
I did get an epidural because I could only imagine how the contractions would be at 8cm and I was only at 5. After 30 minutes I couldn’t feel anything and they were the best feeling ever. I was very tired being that I didn’t sleep at all the night before and could sleep now.
Once I made it to 8cm my contractions started to die down and I didn’t dilate for over 3 hours. They gave me some Pitocin to speed up the process. My little one was very stubborn, he didn’t want to come After 30 minutes passed I dilated to 9cm and it took me forever to get to 10cm. The nurse came in to stretch my cervix and the doctor also broke my water. It felt so weird feeling all the water come out.
At 3:00 the nurse came into the room and told me it was time to push. I looked over at my husband his eyes were wide and red. We both have been up for over 24 hours waiting on our bundle of joy. The pushing wasn’t hard at all. I do remember my husband not holding my leg. So It seemed like I was pushing for nothing. I pushed for an hour before my doctor came in for delivery.
Once he got everything ready I pushed for another 30 minutes until I heard the sound of him crying at 4:29 am. The moment was pure bliss as they placed him on my chest I see touch his face and talked to him for the first time. Seeing the excitement on my husband’s face as he went to cut the cord made me feel complete.
Once the room was cleared and it was just my little family we got to bond and it was an amazing feeling. I couldn’t help but stare at him. I didn’t really get to walk around and hold him that much unless he was feeding because my epidural didn’t wear off until my last day there. My mother wasn’t able to be there but she made sure we were on Skype the whole time. She helped me through the pushing and contractions. I can now say all the sickness and contractions were well worth my little man