The Labor Story

Having a baby changes everything! - suddenly I have absolutely no time to do anything the way I used to...every 2 to 3 hours Noa wakes up to eat and get changed...those 2-3 hours is all I have to shower, clean, cook/eat, blog, etc. and its not as easy to plan around something that changes so much!

I realized that I hadn't shared my labor and delivery story with anyone and since the whole process took about 32 hours, I thought that it might be worth sharing this amazing experience.

On the night of my scheduled induction (Aug 19), I went into the hospital around 7:30PM. The hospital was brand new, quiet and had a very calm atmosphere. I was very lucky to be in a nice sized, private room with my own bathroom, shower, TV (mostly for Chad), and a couch for my husband to sleep on. From my previous doctor's appt I knew that I was at least 1 cm dilated. When I went in that night, I was at a 2. At around 10:30 the nurse came in to apply cervidil to start the induction process. I was told that I am not allowed to move for at least 2 hours and limit my movement afterwards until morning ( for 12 hours). That had to be one of the most uncomfortable nights of my whole pregnancy....I couldn't sleep very comfortably in the hospital bed. In the morning, the cervidil was removed and I had dilated to about 3-4. I was surprised that I wasn't further along than that... Chad had even taken me out in the morning for a walk around the floor to speed up the process just a little. things had to keep moving though...everything after that seemed to go by a lot quicker. Since they were going to break my water at around 1, I requested for the epidural to be given right before they did.

I don't know if it was just me, but the epidural did not take ALL of the pain away. Once the contractions started, I felt every single one of them, and they didn't feel good at all! Thinking back on the experience, I am glad that I got to feel some of the pain, and that it was such a long process...because I was able to appreciate so much more how precious life really is!

I started pushing right around 11:30PM on 8/20...but didn't have the baby til 1:35AM on 8/21. Can you say, LONG LABOR?!? I was exhausted!!! BUT I'm SO thankful there were NO complications AND that he's finally here ~ healthy as can be!


The people present at Noa's Birth were Chad, my mom, and Yoko...but EVERYONE was there waiting in the lobby to support me through the whole process! THANK YOU!