Birth stories have become so interesting to me ever since becoming a mom. It’s crazy how everyone has such a different story! Leading up to Lincoln’s birth, I did my best to avoid reading or listening to women’s birth stories. There are so many unknowns and as a first time mom, I wanted to guard myself from any unnecessary fear! But, if you’re reading this, I think you’ll find it more positive than negative! Was it hard? Yes. Was it gross? Yes. But I loved it and I’m honestly excited to do it again.

May 30th, two days before his due date, Lincoln arrived. After a solid 5 hours of sleep and a few strong contractions the night before, my water broke at 3:45 am. It happened literally at the exact same time Jakes alarm started going off for work. I said, “Sorry babe! Call in, because we’re having a baby today!”

The previous Wednesday my dr told me I was 1 cm dilated but we know that doesn’t mean much. I could be walking around for weeks at 1 cm or go in two hours so I wasn’t sure what to expect! When my water broke I wasn’t having any severe contractions yet so we took our time and arrived to the hospital around 5 am. Upon arrival, I was tested for COVID-19, it was negative. Jake wasn’t allowed to enter the building until I was in a hospital room. To my surprise, the nurses said “Uh, sorry we’re actually out of rooms, we had 12 babies born last night so you’ll have to wait here in triage. We don’t know how long it will be.” Then they left me in a small room, hooked up to the machine that was monitoring the baby’s heart rate and my BP. Jake had to wait in the car during this time because #covid. While I was in triage, the contractions got REAL strong. I laid there on the bed, alone in the room, waiting for them to come back and tell me my room was ready. I could hear screaming in the hallway and it sounded like someone was practically giving birth so I assumed the nurses were focused that situation and not me because I was just hanging out in this tiny room, alone for hours. It wasn’t long before my contractions started getting unbearable so I stood up, ripped the cords off me and went in the hall demanding a room and an epidural. They said “We still don’t have a room and we can’t get you an epidural until you’re in a room”. This is when things got nasty. I started throwing up from the pain (which is the worst part of my whole story) and I think this is when they realized, okay this girl needs some pain meds. We FINALLY got in a room about two hours later and Jake was allowed to join me.

As soon as we got settled in, they checked my progress and to my surprise I was already 6 cm dilated. They told me they didn’t think I would have time for an epidural but then I threw up three more times and said “I don’t care, I NEED ONE nowwwww!” Finally they gave me the epidural and 45 min later it kicked in, but it only worked on one side. I could feel the contractions on my right side and with every contraction, Lincoln’s heart rate dropped so they had to keep rearranging me on the bed to get his heart rate back up. Turns out the cord was wrapped around his shoulder or some odd position that was causing the drop in heart rate. After continuing to be in serious pain on my right side, they decided they would try and adjust the epidural but first check and see how much progress I was making. NINE cm dilated, there was no time for adjusting, it was go time. Pushing was the bestttttt. It felt so good to focus my energy and pain on pushing rather than feeling those contractions. Because I had some feeling in my lower half, it made it easier to know what was going on and when to push. I pushed for an hour and a half and out came baby boy at 12:30 pm!

After a fairly quick, 9 hour labor, HE was here. Our rainbow baby. The moment of bringing him to my chest was definitely magical when I remember back on it but in the moment it wasn’t quite how I had imagined it. They hand you this cone headed baby covered in white mucus and you’re laying on a bed, covered in old throw up and looking down at this stranger on your chest. Meanwhile you’re birthing your placenta and they are trying to stitch you up, all while you soak in the moment of a brand new life on your chest. It wasn’t quite love at first sight if I’m being honest, but the second they handed Lincoln to Jake and I could see that sweet face, tan skin and big dark eyes, my heart melted and my world changed. It was Lincoln all along. The baby we prayed for for over a year. He was finally here. And I birthed him in the midst of a pandemic. Pregnancy + birth was the best and hardest thing I’ve ever done but I can’t wait to do it again and again and again.