I am just now sitting down writing the story of the day my life changed forever. The day my first child was born. She is now six months old (what?) but the day she was born I still remember every single detail. That day will forever be the best day of my life and there is nothing in the world quite like bringing a life into this world. Anyway, back to the story…
On Wednesday April 21st I woke up feeling weird. The only way I knew how to describe it was I knew something was going to happen, soon. Your body has this weird way of telling you things. I went to the bathroom and sorry if TMI (there’s nothing TMI about pregnancy & birth haha) I lost my mucus plug. Of course, me being the person I am I texted my cousin and mom a picture right away. With this being my first pregnancy I didn’t know a whole lot so having my cousin and mom guide me through it was so helpful. I already had an appointment later that day, I was 36 weeks 4 days at this time. I decided to call my doctor anyway just to let them know. I went to my appointment later that afternoon where she checked me. I was 2 cm dilated and she basically told me baby was sitting very low and “it could pretty much happen any day now.” I travel a lot for my job and at this point I knew it was best to stay in town considering this new info so I got a note but was still able to work thankfully.
During this time, I was working a 12-day stretch so I was exhausted. I had lots of anxiety leading up to the day and just kept wondering when it was going to happen. On Sunday April 25th, I was scheduled to work. I felt totally fine during the day. As I was driving in the afternoon I noticed slight pressure in my lower abdomen. I didn’t think much of it and I certainly didn’t think they were contractions considering they weren’t that painful and the timing of them was inconsistent. Well, turns out they were contractions. I got home at 4:00pm. My husband was downstairs playing XBOX and I decided to pack up a few more last minute things in our hospital bags. I went to the bathroom and afterwards a few minutes later I had the urge to pee again. And then again. By this is point I knew something was different but I still didn’t think it was time! I called my mom and cousin and they both told me it was my water and to go to the hospital now. Crazy enough, I still didn’t feel pain. Just a little bit of pressure. We left for the hospital and got there around 7:45pm. The reason we waited was because I couldn’t find my insurance cards LOL. We laugh about it now but trust me at the time it definitely was not. Hahaha.
We arrived at the hospital and got checked into an observation room where they hooked me up to the monitor and checked to see if it was truly the amniotic fluid that was leaking out of me. 2 minutes later (literally) the nurse comes back and says “Well, you’re staying. It’s the amniotic fluid.” The look my husband and I gave eachother was PRICELESS I will never forget it. We didn’t even bring our hospital bags!!! We then got checked into our official labor and delivery room and I think that’s when it finally started to feel real.
Vic left to go grab our bags LOL while they asked me a billion questions and started my IV- which by the way, was the worst part of the whole experience. It took three tries to get my IV in and it hurt! After that, my nurse told me I could try to labor on my own and gave me the ball. I had always wanted to use one lol. I did that for about half an hour. She then checked me again and I was at a 6! Yay. I was starting to really feel the contractions at this point. The time was 11pm. She let me know that the anesthesiologist would have to travel 30 minutes to get here to do my epidural so I agreed to have them call him and do it as soon as possible. I was terrified of it being too late to get it. By this time also my husband had returned with all our bags! Haha
After the nurse left to go call the anesthesiologist, my water finished breaking. It felt like a “pop” and it all gushed out! Luckily I was able to get cleaned up before he got here. After I got the epidural things moved really really fast. I went from a 6 to a 10 in an hour and a half. At 2:00am I started pushing. The nurse put a mirror down “there” so I could see what was going on and how I was progressing. Funny story: I had taken my glasses off beforehand so I couldn’t see anything! I had to ask them to bring me my glasses so I could see 😂 I pushed for exactly 40 minutes and at 2:40am Priya Ann Patel entered the world. The first thing I noticed was her full head of dark hair that I knew she’d have. They laid her on my chest and she immediately stopped crying and stared up at me. She snuggled right into my cheek. She knew I was her safe haven right away- her momma. ❤️
Beyond Just Styles 