Liam’s Birth Story

With Liam’s 1st birthday right around the corner, I wanted to share his birth story with you all (better late than never, right?). Looking back through these photos and thinking back through that day gives me allll the feels. I still can’t believe our sweet boy will be 1 next month!

It all started the Friday before my due date on Sunday, September 18th. I packed up my things at work and said to my coworker’s, “I hope I don’t see you on Monday.” as I had said every day that week. One thing was for sure and it was that I was ready to have this baby. Saturday morning started out with a big breakfast at Cracker Barrel and a trip to Home Depot where I insisted we walk a big loop around the store to help get things progressing. Later that afternoon, we had a few family members over to watch football and I remember my sister-in-law asking me how I was feeling and if I had been having any contractions. Sure I’d been having some off and on but they didn’t really hurt so surely they were just Braxton Hicks…or so I thought.
As we sat watching the game, I was exhausted so I excused myself to go upstairs and try to take a nap. As I lay down in our dark, quiet room, I suddenly started noticing all of my contractions were much more frequent than I had originally thought. I decided this was the perfect time to break out the app I had downloaded to track my contractions and see if they really were coming at a decent rate. Much to my surprise, after timing them for almost an hour, they were coming about 8 minutes apart. Not wanting to make a big deal out of it in the event if were a false alarm, I texted Tyler from upstairs to let him know what was going on. “Don’t freak out but I’m having contractions and they’re about 8 minutes apart.” Of course he ran upstairs to ask if I was ok and see what we needed to do but I just told him I was going to keep laying down and try to rest and see what happened.

Our family left to give us some privacy to see how things progressed. As my contractions reached the 5-1-1 cadence I had engrained in my brain, we called the hospital and they told us to come in to get checked out. This was it! I was finally about to meet my baby!

We left our house around dinner time and called our parents on our way letting them know we were heading in and to stay tuned. I remember sitting in the car taking the same route we took to our first ultrasound appointment and a rush of emotions came over me. I kept thinking how crazy it was we were finally here and, unlike all of our appointments before, this time, we were going to get our ultimate prize.

Unfortunately, after some observation in Labor and Delivery, I wasn’t in “enough” active labor and we were told to go home and get some sleep. “But you’re supposed to come in when you’re contractions are 5-1-1 so if they already are, how will I know to come back?” I asked the doctor. “Trust me, you’ll know.” she said to me.

Once we got home we tried to get some sleep but, after about 30-45 minutes, I was up going back and forth to the bathroom and my contractions were really intense. On one trip back to bed I leaned on the foot of our bed and breathed through a contraction so loud that it woke Tyler up. At first he didn’t know what I was doing but, after a second, he realized that this was the real deal. I told him to call the hospital and tell them we were coming back whether they liked it or not. I went back into the bathroom and my water broke. I vividly remember saying to Tyler from the bathroom, “They can’t send me home now!” This. This was really it.

As I was being wheeled to our Labor and Delivery room, I remember the doctor who had seen me earlier passing me in the hall and saying, “See! I told you you’d know when to come back!” Not what I wanted to hear. I got changed into my gown and told pretty much anyone who entered my room I wanted my epidural. I had always read your contractions were more intense after your water breaks and man was that accurate. I got checked and was still only 4cm so we still had a ways to go. However, I was able to get my epidural relatively quickly. Finally some relief! Now that I was comfortable, I was actually able to relax a bit and rest. The rest of the night/morning was a bit of a blur as they had given me something to help me sleep but I perked up a bit when a very pregnant nurse walked in for the shift change. She told us she was 39 weeks pregnant herself and would be helping me deliver my baby. How on earth was this woman going to help me deliver my baby? She needed to have her baby! But help us she did and thank God for her.

I pushed for an hour or so before she called in another nurse, Martha, (a name I will never forget) whom she referred to as “The Big Guns”. After pushing for another hour and a half and being told for the umpteenth time that my baby was “right there” I was ready to give up and I think the nurses knew I was nearing the end of the rope. Then, as if out of nowhere, appeared the doctor who would deliver our baby. The nurse said to me, “He’s getting geared up and he’s not leaving until we have your baby.” That gave me the extra push I needed to get through the end of my labor. Apparently Liam was stuck and needed a little extra help getting out and within probably 5 minutes, at 12:12pm on September 18, 2016, Liam joined the world, right on his due date. After weighing him, we realized why he had trouble making his grand entrance. Our “little” boy was a whopping 11lbs 6.5oz and 22 inches long! Never did I imagine having such a large baby, nor did my doctor, but he was absolutely perfect.