I am one of the lucky ones. I had such a great birth experience. Moms-to-be out there will probably agree that it’s crazy how many horror stories you hear once people learn you’re pregnant. As if there isn’t enough anxiety around giving birth for the first time! Well – spoiler alert, my experience was amazing and I only hope to be lucky enough to do it all over again.
It was a Thursday morning, around 6:30 a.m. and I was thinking about getting ready for work. As I lay there scrolling through my Insta feed, I suddenly felt a gush of water as if I’d wet the bed. It was happening! Two weeks before my due date! I felt no pain and calmly said to Neil “Now don’t freak out, but my water just broke.”
We called our hospital and they told us “You’re going to have a baby today!” and instructed us to come on in that morning. We packed up the hospital bag – but not before I threw my bed sheets in the washing machine. This is one of the last completely OCD moments I allowed myself before beginning life-with-child.
We drove the five minutes to Swedish Medical Center where they had our room waiting for us. Swedish is such an awesome facility – our room was beautifully large and overlooked our Ballard neighborhood. There was a window bench that converted into a bed for Neil, a big screen TV and a private bathroom.
I changed into the cute polka dot hospital gown I’d ordered months before and just sat around answering emails for work. We watched some TV on the iPad and enjoyed that electric anticipation of meeting our baby boy or girl. I was having contractions but they were very far apart and only mildly painful. Through each bout of pain, I breathed very deeply with my hands on my stomach, constantly thinking about getting as much oxygen to my baby as possible. As each contraction started to wind down, I would get my heartbeat back to normal very quickly with small exercises like stepping from side to side or pacing back and forth. Breathing regularly, I was able to feel completely relaxed before the next contraction began (an awesome technique I learned at Bodies for Birth prenatal exercise classes). This constant pattern of ramp up and ramp down made the pain so manageable!
The doctor examined me and realized my waters had only partially broken so she manually broke the rest for me. That’s when shit got real. The contractions suddenly came hard and fast. The pain was intense so they gave me some drugs intravenously. It felt like I’d just slammed two martinis. I was immediately pain free and comfortable and actually fell asleep for about 40 minutes. When I woke up, the contractions were making me more uncomfortable than anything else so the nurse suggested we head to the hot tub. I was only in there for about seven minutes before I felt like I needed to push.
We shuffled our way back into my room where they administered the epidural. It was a doddle. I barely felt the needle, it was like a trickle of icewater running down my back. In no time at all I was numb from the waist down. My doc reentered to check on my progress and told me I could start pushing.
I didn’t feel pain, it was more like discomfort and a very mild cramp when a contraction came on. I was completely lucid, chatting with Neil and the doctor between pushes. Neil did what he does best and cracked jokes the entire time (including a request for painkillers after having to hold my “tree trunk of a leg” up for hours on end!!)
About 90 minutes of pushing later, Finnegan’s head popped out. Just a mass of black hair. I thought I would NEVER want to experience the visual of a human exiting my body but I surprised myself by actually asking for a mirror. Within two hours he was completely out. Neil exclaimed “Hey!!! It’s a boy!!!”
They plonked Finnegan directly onto my chest where he cried just a little bit. He kept lifting his little head up in a pecking motion trying to find my nipple. He latched on pretty much immediately. It’s so incredible to me that a human, only seconds old, knows exactly what to do to find his food source.
I’ll never forget how I felt in those precious hours following Finn’s delivery. It was a cocktail of happiness, relief, love, pride and excitement. I was proud of what my body had accomplished. I felt so comfortable and strong. I could not wait to get home and start life as a family of three.
Because Finn was born just before 10 p.m. on the Thursday, Swedish allowed us to stay all of Friday and check out Saturday morning. This was an invaluable time and I am forever grateful for everything the nurses taught us during our stay. We spent most of the time holding Finn on our chests for some skin-to-skin cuddle time. I got into the swing of breastfeeding and we even received visitors to meet our tiny little human. Our friends stopped by in batches to bring us breakfast, lunch and dinner. Those visits seriously kept us going through the lack of sleep!
On Friday night, a lovely nurse named Anne came in and showed us how to properly bathe a newborn. In our delirium, we didn’t even think to take pictures but luckily, unbeknownst to us, Anne grabbed our camera and captured the whole evening.
Neil was a natural dad from the second Finn arrived. He had read the books (I didn’t), he practiced and quickly mastered the art of the swaddle (unlike me). There was nothing more wonderful than watching my partner of eight years just jump into “parent” mode with such confidence and skill.
By mid-morning on Saturday, Finnegan was home sweet home. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience bringing our first baby into the world. I love Finnegan’s birth story and I’ll remember every detail of it forever.
