Let’s start this story back around 37-38 weeks pregnant. I was sure that this baby was going to come early. So sure. I went into labor with my last baby, Riley at 39w3d so I was pretty confident that this baby was going to come before he did. Oh boy was I wrong. Melanie didn’t decide to grace us with her presence until TWO DAYS after my due date. I was very, very ready and expecting her to come around 38 weeks. Let me just tell you the last two weeks of my pregnancy were excruciating because of this. Not to mention Melanie was my biggest baby (you will soon see) and I was so very uncomfortable.
For the last few weeks of my pregnancy I was experiencing pretty intense contractions here and there. I was just waiting for them to become more regular. The last two weeks or so at night I would get quite a few but never anything consistent. When I would feel them overnight I would get up and sit on the couch and wait for them to come again and they never would. It was so frustrating.
Then the day after my due date I was having contractions on and off all day. Still nothing consistent though. That night the baby was moving around SO MUCH. She was doing this the two nights before too and it would cause pretty intense contractions. I was hoping it meant that labor was starting but at this point I wasn’t getting my hopes up because I had been let down so many times thinking I was going into labor.
I had told Shane that night when I was putting him and Riley to sleep that night that I thought the baby might be coming. I asked him to pray for me. He told me he would pray now and said, “God please help mommy to be safe and strong and healthy and please help the baby to be safe and healthy. Amen.” 😭 Isn’t that just the sweetest?!
Around 11pm the contractions were coming about 15-20 mins apart but they were really strong so I felt like I was really going to go into labor this night. I was worried to call the on call doctor though. I was scared she was going to tell me to wait until the contractions were closer together.
I really wanted to go to the hospital as soon as I knew I was really in labor though because one of my biggest fears during this pregnancy was that I wouldn’t have time to get the epidural. I finally decided to call the doctor and she said I could go in. The contractions were getting to be closer together at this point too. About 5-10 mins apart.
We got to the hospital around 12am and they didn’t have a room for me so we were put in triage. This was a strange experience for me because I had never been put in triage before. The nurse had a hard time finding my cervix because it was still very high up but when she finally did she said I was about 4-5cm.
At this point the contractions were very manageable. Mostly because they were about 15 mins apart or so. Around 1 am everything started changing though. They started getting a lot more painful and started getting a little bit closer together. I started getting worried because I was still in triage at this point. The nurse had told me a little after we got there that the anesthesiologist was in a c-section so I had to wait to get an epidural.
Around this time I start asking her again if he will be done soon and if there will be a room for us. They finally moved us to a room at 1:30 but my nurse told me at this point that not only was the anesthesiologist still in a surgery, but that there was one more person ahead of me for the epidural as well. As you might imagine I was very panicked. Like I mentioned earlier, one of my fears during this pregnancy was that I wouldn’t be able to get an epidural in time and I started thinking that this might actually happen.
From 1:30-3:00am I was in excruciating pain waiting for the anesthesiologist. The contractions were about every 2-3 minutes at this point and were lasting about 2 minutes! That was the part that was making it so painful. I also didn’t get much relief in between contractions either. I was still in pain. To try to manage the pain, I was grabbing onto a chair that was next to the bed as well as this thick cotton pad under me and pulling as hard as I could to try to distract myself from the pain. (Side note, I still have back pain from this!) I was also begging Tommy to pray that the anesthesiologist would come soon, ha!
I was so scared at this point that I would have to give birth without the epidural and I literally didn’t think I could do it.
Right before 3am, the anesthesiologist finally came in and it took about 20-25 mins for him to set everything up and for the medicine to start working. By 3:10-3:15 I felt much better. The nurses came in at this point and checked me and I was at an 8. They also started prepping the room for the baby to be born.
From 4-5:30 I tried to sleep as much as I could because at this point I had been up all night. I was able to sort of doze off here and there but I was extremely uncomfortable. I kept expecting the nurse to come back and check me but she never did. I think she was waiting for me to call her and tell her that I was ready to push but when I have an epidural I get so numb. I can’t ever feel the pressure that they always expect me to be able to feel when it’s time to push.
I’m pretty sure I had been ready to push for a while but during this time I also started to get just a little bit of feeling back and I got scared that when it came time to push that I would start to feel everything. I decided to push the epidural button but I later regretted that because it made me way to numb.
Finally around 6am I called the nurse in to check me to see if I was fully dilated because it had been so long since she left and I was confused why she hadn’t come back already. I was also so uncomfortable. I asked her to check me and she basically asked me why (??). She checked me and she was like oh yeah her head is right there.
So she called the doctor and the doctor got all dressed up and I started pushing. Which was kind of difficult because I was so numb. But after about 5-10 pushes, she was out! Thankfully I didn’t tear or anything either. She was born at 6:10am! Our sweet Melly girl!
Her middle names are super special because they both have ties to Tommy and I’s Grandmas. Tommy’s Grandma’s name was Carmela and my Grandma, Mom, and I all have the middle name Marie. A special name for a special girl! ❤️
