Whew! It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog but I am happy to be back. My last baby related post was February 2021, before we knew our little nugget was a boy and now he’s here. Man how time flies. Around the 3rd trimester, we bought a new house and life has been a whirlwind since. As you could imagine, it didn’t slowed down one bit since he’s been born which is why I am just now getting around to sharing our birth story. I always loved reading about other people’s birth experiences, and especially now that I’ve had my own. But mostly, I never want to forget a detail about one of the most special days of our lives.
Colt Matthew Bennett was born on August 29th, 2021 at 9:35pm. As I write this, he is 5 months old and quite simply the joy of our lives. Before I dive in to the specifics, I wanted to give a little back story and details in case you weren’t following along with us on my Instagram in real time.
Let’s back up a bit…
At 28.5 weeks, I had an elective 3D ultrasound where the technician mentioned that he was transverse. I had mentioned it at my doctor’s appointment the following week and the midwife scheduled a growth ultrasound. It seemed standard practice at the time, but after talking to some friends, I believe they only did it to confirm he was head down which he was. I had the growth ultrasound at 31 weeks and everything looked perfect but he was measuring a little ahead (a week and a day) and was in the 86th percentile, making him 4lb 7oz at the time. Because he was on the larger size, my doctor wanted to do a follow up growth scan at 35 weeks. At that point he was 6lbs 13oz and in the 73rd percentile.
We know growth scans can be inaccurate, but my doctor mentioned the possibility of an induction around the 39ish week mark if we felt it was a good idea based on his size and how things were progressing. That being said, it wasn’t pushed on me at all, and she felt like I wouldn’t have a problem. I opted not to do the early induction.
My advice to all moms to be is to assume baby will be late and be pleasantly surprised if they’re early. I kept that attitude for most of my pregnancy but then at 35 weeks I started experiencing some indicators that my body was getting ready for labor and I began to think he would come early. Major TMI coming here so that’s your warning. I started losing my mucus plug at 35 weeks and continued losing it over the next couple weeks. I felt him drop significantly around 37-38 weeks and I started having a lot more contractions.
Given the potential “concern” over his size, my doctor was on board with all the natural ways to encourage him out a little early. I had been bouncing on a yoga ball and eating dates since 34 weeks and eventually did primrose oil as well. I had a membrane sweep at 38.5 weeks that I felt confident would work. It didn’t. A few days after the sweep, I had some light spotting and a whole evening with contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart but they never got painful and then went away overnight. Needless to say, it was a major mind game towards the end of pregnancy and I was over it.
At my 39 week appointment, I saw the midwife instead of my doctor. I was supposed to get another membrane sweep but for reasons that are still unclear, the midwife was unable to do it. I was totally defeated and in tears that my “last chance” to encourage him out on his own couldn’t happen. I haphazardly scheduled an induction for 40 weeks and 3 days if he hadn’t arrived on his own by then.
Later that night I texted my doctor about the issue with the sweep and she let me know that she wasn’t in the office because she was waiting on COVID results but felt confident they would be negative. At 39 weeks, 5 days, my doctor let me know she was COVID positive and wouldn’t be available for the induction I had just scheduled. I was a wreck.
Thankfully I have the best doctor in the entire world. She talked with me about all of my options and if I could and should move my induction date for when she would be back, given he was measuring large. She was so patient and understanding with my fears and all my questions
Ultimately, I made the decision to reschedule my induction for 40 weeks, 6 days which was her first day back. I know it sounds like only a 3 day difference but when you’ve been certain you’d go in to labor on your own for a month, it’s really daunting to willingly reschedule and simultaneously hope that the baby you’ve been trying to encourage out, will stay in for another week. Not to mention hoping your decision doesn’t result in a baby too big to push out and therefore end in a C section. It was a hard decision and a mind game I wouldn’t wish on anyone. The end of pregnancy was my first test at relinquishing control… not a big fan.
Whew okay now you’re all caught up on the weeks leading up to the big day!
Induction Day!
I was due on August 22nd but baby stayed put and I went in to be induced with my doctor on Saturday, August 28th, 2021. I still can’t believe I went that far overdue. As much as I would have liked to experience spontaneous labor, I could not have asked for a smoother induction and delivery.
I checked in and filled out paperwork at 1:15pm. They didn’t have a delivery room available for me right away, so they got me set up with monitors in a triage room at 2pm. I was still 2cm and 70% effaced from my last cervical check the Tuesday before. I received my first round of Cytotec at 3:45pm and moved to a delivery room at 4.
My doctor allows moms to eat while in labor so Matt went and got us dinner! Around 6pm, the nurses let me off the monitors because his numbers were “picture perfect.” Literally the best thing you can tell a pregnant mom. I saw my doctor at 7:15pm and she did a membrane sweep. At that point, I “could be stretched to 3cm” which for anyone pregnant right now, this is your warning… that does not mean you actually are 3cm. I got my 2nd round of Cytotec at 8:15pm and then another at 12:30am. I started having some more consistent contractions then too.
We did our best to sleep but like they say, its near impossible. I remember it feeling like I would somehow miss if I progressed by sleeping, though logically I knew that wasn’t the case. Matt and I got a couple broken hours each.
I got a 4th round of Cytotec at 4:15am and had a cervical check with no change. By 8:30am on August 29thcontractions were getting more uncomfortable but still very manageable. At 10am I received another dose of Cytotec and had another cervical check where they said I was 2cm. I burst into tears. How could I have gone backwards? I didn’t, of course. She explained that “stretched to 3cm” doesn’t mean 3cm and everyone’s fingers are different.
I was feeling defeated at this point and terrified that things wouldn’t end up progressing at all. I wasn’t sure why my induction experience seemed so different from others I had heard of and watched on YouTube. I had yet to have Pitocin and there was no talk of it any time soon. Ultimately we learned that at that point, Pitocin would cause more pain without creating much actual progress. And it seems my doctor isn’t gung-ho to break your water unnecessarily which I was completely on board with since it can increase your risk for infection if it’s broken for too long.
I was let off the monitors again at 11am and started bouncing on a yoga ball. Contractions picked up pain-wise seemingly out of nowhere around 12pm and got significantly worse over the next hour.
I had heard that sometimes when you get an epidural too soon, it can stall labor. Because things had been so slow up until that point, I was nervous to get one right when it seemed things were picking up. I attempted fentanyl instead around 1pm. It just barely took the edge off for 30 minutes or less.
At 2:30pm, my nurse told us I was experiencing “piggyback contractions.” NOT FUN. She explained that as soon as the contraction would peak, it would begin to come down for a few seconds like a normal contraction but instead of going all the way down, it would start back up again. It was almost like 2 contractions back-to-back with no break.
At this point, I no longer cared if labor slowed down, I was getting that epidural stat. I called for my nurse and she pushed fluids and got me set up for my epidural within 45 minutes. I could have kissed her.
Most women I spoke to before labor would try to explain what contractions felt like but couldn’t really give a definitive explanation. I understand that now. It is certainly the most pain I’ve ever been in, but in a way I can’t really explain. The best I can do is say, it’s kind of like a Charlie horse in your entire midsection. I went from uncomfortable but manageable to absolutely needing an epidural in a matter of 2.5 hours or so.
Epidural time
I got the epidural at around 3:20pm. My plan was always to get an epidural. I had no reservations about it and truly wanted the most enjoyable experience I could have. I was afraid that drug free, if I could even do it, would result in sort of traumatic feelings around labor and delivery. I didn’t want that for me or Matt.
Of course I was interested to know what contractions felt like, but in my mind, there’s no medal for doing it without pain meds. My only regret is I wish I had skipped the fentanyl and gotten the epidural sooner.
To all of you that have done it natural, whew. We are not built the same. That is wild and you are a rockstar sister.
Warning: Scary sounding epidural experience ahead
While my epidural experience ultimately ended up being a positive one, it was a little dicey there for a few minutes. It didn’t hurt at all. Even the numbing shot was easy breezy. Sitting still through contractions was most definitely the hard part. Not to mention scary, because ya know… giant needle in your spine.
The part that I could have done without was what sounded like incompetency from the anesthesiologists. For whatever reason, I had three people in my room for mine. Before administering it, the doctor went over all the waivers and information. Amidst that, he said that I would be able to get up and walk around. I stopped and questioned him, knowing that couldn’t possibly be right. Looking back, this should have been my first clue to request someone else. You absolutely cannot walk with an epidural, nor did I want to.
First, they told me to get into position. Butt sitting level on the bed, hunched over etc. The female anesthetist asked me to scoot a little more to get level and then asked me if I felt more level. I said, “um well I felt level before you told me to scoot so you tell me.” Not a great start. Then the male anesthetist who was going to be the one giving the epidural begins putting the sticky paper on my back and from behind me I hear the female tell him, “well you just broke the sterile field.” I learned later that he never redid the sticky paper.
From there he administered the numbing shot, then began getting the epidural itself ready. While I’m hunched over Matt trying not to move, I hear the female chiming in telling him to put the epidural between this number and this number. I am not a doctor and I couldn’t tell you the numbers now, but it’s safe to assume she was referring to vertebrae. I feel him tapping my back, counting up my spine. He stops at a point and says “okay here.” Now, I’m going to use random numbers for example’s sake. She said between 13 & 14, when he stopped and said “okay here”, she said “no that’s 8.” Enter pure panic.
Matt immediately turns around and starts questioning them to our nurse. Our nurse reassures us, “I promise he’s good. He just did a perfect epidural in the next room over.” The miscounting between the 2 doctors continues while the 3rd just stands there? I guess?
At this point I’m looking at Matt absolutely terrified, giving him the eyes like, “should we stop him right now?” Matt asks the nurse again if we should be trusting these people with my spine.
She said, he was perfectly fine and confident in the other room. That he did it entirely by himself in there and that this female anesthetist likes to do things her way which is why she is telling him how she would do it. I assumed epidurals would be a pretty textbook situation but apparently there’s more wiggle room for administering than I knew.
The whole experience felt like it took forever but right as we were about to pull out and make him stop, the nurse leaned over and said, “oh he’s almost done.” It took about 15-20 minutes for the epidural to fully kick in but when it did, man I was in heaven. While my experience was momentarily terrifying, and Matt rubbed my feet questioning if I could feel them for the rest of my labor, I would 10/10 recommend an epidural to everyone.
It doesn’t seem to be the case for everyone, but I could not feel a thing. It was the best and I hope my epidurals with future babies are the same. Cervical checks were a breeze and I took advantage of that catheter by sucking down water like it was my job. It was the first time in months that I could drink as much water as I wanted and not have to pee a million times. I think I even said something like “I could be in labor for days now.”
Active labor
Within 10 minutes of my epidural, they checked me and I was 4cm and 90% effaced. My doctor texted me and said “You’re in active labor!!!” Finally I thought.
I got another cervical check at 5:20pm and was 5cm. Apparently instead of being one of the people that epidurals stall their labor, it was just what I needed to relax and help me progress. I was so relieved. At this point, Matt and I hadn’t really slept much through the day as it was the most pain I had been in. I catnapped for about an hour until they started Pitocin at 6:20pm.
Our nurse told us that my next cervical check would be done by the new nurse after shift change at 7pm. When we met the new nurse, she said that because I had just been checked at 5:20pm that she wouldn’t be doing one but to let her know if I was experiencing any pressure. She located a peanut ball and got me situated on that. At this point she said she was confident I was having a baby that night. I almost didn’t believe her because things had been so slow but I was hopeful she was right.
I tried to rest but the peanut ball wasn’t super comfortable and therefore not conducive to much sleep but I did doze in and out for the next hour or so. At about 8:30pm I started feeling contractions again on my lower right side. Though definitely not unbearable, I pressed my epidural button for the first time. My legs were SO numb and I didn’t want them any more numb but I was more worried that the pain would come back and/or the epidural would wear off before it came time to push. At this point, I also started to get itchy, a common side effect to the epidural. It wasn’t terrible if I distracted myself but as soon as I started itching a little, it got worse so I forced myself to stop.
8:45pm
My nurse came in to check on me and asked if I was experiencing any pressure. I wasn’t at all. She did another cervical check and when she was done she didn’t say anything right away. I panicked for a moment thinking I hadn’t made any progress. Boy was I wrong. She said, “okay well you’re 9.5cm and he’s very low so we are going to call your doctor in and get ready to start pushing.”
They sat me up in the throne position while we waited for my doctor and Matt sent out the update text to our families and friends.
The whole pregnancy, it slowly gets more and more real that you’re going to have a tiny little human in 10 months. There are milestones that stick out that make it feel real. For me it was the gender, deciding a name, baby kicks, 3D ultrasounds, and of course the afternoon we checked ourselves into the hospital. But even through all of that, it’s hard to wrap your head around it until the moment they say it’s time to push. Looking back, I wish I would have been more excited in the moment but I internally freaked out a little.
I think that if I had, had a cervical check a little earlier and they said I was 7cm or 8cm I would have been more calm, more able to wrap my mind around it. Or if I had felt any of the pressure everyone talks about. But to go from 5cm to 9.5cm in about 3 hours, it was just so much faster than the whole labor experience had been.
That being said, I almost didn’t have time to panic which was probably a positive for me. I had a moment of nerves. A moment of worry, praying that I would have a smooth delivery of a healthy baby I waited so long to meet.
My doctor arrived and our room was set up and ready to go within 10 minutes. She broke my water at 9pm. I could just barely hold my right leg myself and couldn’t hold my left leg at all. Matt didn’t realize just how numb it was until he set my left leg back in the stirrup between pushes and it slid right off like a wet noodle. I had to be told when to push because I couldn’t feel a thing. I think some people may see that as a negative but I think it was great. They told me I was pushing great and I asked them if they were just humoring me because I truly couldn’t tell. I personally didn’t think pushing was difficult. I didn’t get winded or sweaty at all like I’ve seen in movies or heard from other moms. I’d like to attribute that to working out for my entire pregnancy, but who knows.
I started pushing at 9:05pm and our sweet boy was born at 9:35pm.
Warning: Raw birth photos with some blood ahead
They laid our big boy across my stomach while they wiped him down good. He didn’t cry right away and Matt recalls that being one of the most terrifying moments and the longest 30 seconds of his life. I wasn’t worried because no one in the room seemed concerned and he was making little noises that Matt couldn’t hear. It just took a little booty rubbing and he cried out. And then so did I. There was such a rush of emotions but the one that sticks out most from that moment is pure adrenaline.
I loved him immediately, though I had loved him since those two pink lines back in December. All I could think about was that he was really here in my arms, and that he was so warm. I had really just done the thing and it didn’t even hurt. His delivery was magical but it got more amazing to me as the hours and days past. As we fell more and more in love with him.
We did skin to skin for about an hour before they took his measurements. Our “measuring big” baby was 9lb 1oz and 22in long and absolutely perfect. When they said it out loud, I almost didn’t believe it. Though something in my gut told me that his measurements were on track, he felt absolutely huge in my belly, I imagined a mid 8lb baby. Over 9lb didn’t even cross my mind.
After his measurements, he latched right away and ate for over an hour. Thank God for nurses because despite all my research, I had no idea what I was doing and they didn’t even think twice about getting in there to help with breastfeeding, postpartum care, all of it.
I had a 2nd degree tear, a “normal first time mom” tear is what I was told. I experienced the post labor shakes really bad. I had heard of them before but I didn’t know just how intense they would be. After Colt ate, I passed him off to Matt because holding him and clenching so much to control the shaking was making me sore and stiff. Out of nowhere it seemed, when the excitement died down, I got extremely nauseous and thirsty. My doctor gave me Zofran and a ginger ale and thankfully I never got sick. After a couple hours, I got up to pee and got ready to be moved to a new room.
We FaceTimed with family that night, near probably 1am. We were exhausted. If I was wishing for things for the next one, it’d be great if they could make their appearance earlier in the day. It’s so much excitement and exhaustion when your body is used to being ready for bed.
Our hospital stay was tiring but normal. All of his 24 hour testing went well and my postpartum recovery was, thankfully, uneventful. Physically, aside from stitches and the swelling of my lady bits, I felt fine.
The nurses warned us, “the 2nd night is always the hardest” and boy were they right. I tried my best to let Matt sleep so that at least one of us would be more refreshed come time to go home the next day. As expected, Colt clusterfed for the bulk of the night and couldn’t be put down. It was an exhaustion like I had never known. Yet, we made it through somehow.
I finally got to sleep around 5am on 8/31 and got a couple broken hours. We were itching to get out of there that day but as expected, it took forever. We had to wait for the pediatrician to clear Colt and we were on his schedule, not ours. Once we got the all clear from all the doctors, we busted out of there around 4pm!
As they wheeled me through the halls and once we were finally on our way home, I wept. Tears of relief and gratitude absolutely flooded me. I couldn’t help but think how quickly time flew. It seemed like just yesterday I was staring at a barely positive pregnancy test praying for a healthy pregnancy and baby. And now here I was staring at our sweet, perfectly healthy baby, everything I had prayed for, for months. I prayed the whole drive home, absolutely overcome with emotions, and thanked God for the best labor and delivery anyone could ever dream of.
Just like everyone says, it was a love I had never known. And yet 5 months in, it has grown exponentially since that day.
