Our beautiful little girl, Kennedy Rose, decided to join us a couple of weeks early, on June 18th, 2022. When I was pregnant, especially since it was my first time, I always liked to hear other people’s birth stories. This labor and delivery was so much quicker and smoother than I ever expected, but I will go ahead and share even though it will be a pretty short story.
I was really hoping to go into labor naturally and not have to be induced, and I was lucky enough for that to happen. At about 1:30am on Saturday, June 18th, I got up to pee (as you do a million times a night during the third trimester) and my water actually broke. At my OB appointment that Wednesday, I had been dilated to 3cm so we knew it could be any day, but we still were so shocked that it was actually happening 11 days early. I had been having some cramping for a couple of days, but right after my water broke I started to have contractions. They weren’t consistent at all, but were already less than 5 minutes apart sometimes and lasting around 30 seconds if I remember right. I had an app on my phone to track contractions, but things were happening so quickly I couldn’t really use it much. I woke Brent up (not an easy task) and had him call the hospital. Even though we live less than 10 minutes from the hospital, it still was about 2:30 by the time we got there. By the time they checked how much I was dilated, I was at 3cm.
As far as my birth plan, I really didn’t have much in mind. I knew that I wanted to get an epidural, but I didn’t want to get it immediately. I did want to wait until I felt like the contractions were too much before getting it, because I didn’t want to end up having the epidural for 18 hours or something. This was actually a harder decision than I expected, since the contractions were not consistently that intense. Sometimes they weren’t that bad, but I did have a few that were really hard to breathe through. A few hours in (around 5:30 maybe?), I got the epidural and was at 5cm. Getting the epidural was something I was nervous about, and I did have a contraction right as they were putting it in, so that was not a fun experience. But once the epidural was in, it didn’t take long before I couldn’t feel any of the contractions.
After the epidural was in, we had a little bit of a break where we got to rest and I watched an episode or two of Gilmore Girls. Right before the nurses changed shifts (around 7:00 I think), they checked me again and were shocked that I was already pretty much at 10cm. I think this was only an hour or so after getting the epidural. They knew I wanted to labor down so that hopefully I wouldn’t be pushing for hours, but it wasn’t long before we had to start pushing because baby’s heart rate was being affected by the contractions. I’m not sure how long I was pushing, but I think it was only an hour or less. By 8:34am, she was already here! It was such a crazy experience, and I think Brent and Kennedy and I were all in shock the whole time.
Another thing I was really nervous about (and I think every first time mom is nervous about) was tearing. Of course I didn’t feel anything at the time since I had the epidural, but I was nervous about healing over the next few weeks. I know I had a second degree tear, and it took like 20 minutes for them to stitch me up, but I didn’t ask any details so I’m not sure other than that. But I will say, healing has not been that bad. The first week or so was really the worst of it, and the pain has been very manageable with ibuprofen, Dermoplast, and all of the postpartum kit from FridaMom. Now that we are two and a half weeks out, I am almost feeling back to normal. It’s really crazy how quickly everything heals.
That’s pretty much the whole story! It was much quicker and less complicated than I always worried it would be. With my anxiety, I always think that things are going to be more difficult than they end up being. But even the nurses were in shock with how quickly this went, especially since it’s our first baby. Honestly, it just has me worried for how quick future labors could be since this one was so fast! The labor and delivery is probably the part I remember the best. The next couple of days in the hospital were such a blur because we were so tired and there were so many people in and out of the room. We met with multiple lactation consultants because we were having trouble with latching and staying awake while feeding. By the time we were checking out, honestly we were just excited to be going home and weren’t too intimidated to be parents. I think the part I was most nervous about was just breastfeeding and my milk coming in. Everything has been going much smoother since being home though as far as that goes.
I’m sure I left out details, so leave a comment below or reach out on Instagram with any questions or additional details you would like to know! It was such a crazy experience, but we are loving being parents to our beautiful little girl so far.
