As I've mentioned time after time my pregnancy with Tai was nothing like my pregnancy with Anelia. Well, the same applies to my labor & delivery. Before I begin to share my story please be mindful that this is a birth story, there may a lot of "tmi" moments. I'm also going to provide every detail because I personally want to be able to remember the good, the bad, the ugly & every little thing in between. So here goes...
Tai's due date was on 9/19 & on a Wednesday 9/17 my doctor swept my membranes in hopes to start labor. I was dilated to a 3 & 75% effaced at the time. I was extremely hopeful that this would work because I was so uncomfortable & so anxious to have our baby here.
I went home Wednesday & immediately started having contractions. I went to my in-laws with Sage & Anelia & I walked, skipped, hopped up & down their street. My contractions weren't consistent. At times they were as close as 7 minutes apart & other times they would only come once an hour. Unfortunately, these contractions continued until Saturday & were strongest at night & I was getting very little sleep. Saturday afternoon they were coming every 10 minutes again & they were strong & painful to the point I was in tears. I made the decision to go to the hospital because I couldn't handle another night of no sleep or the pain any longer & I figured the worst thing that could happen was that I'd get sent home. Sage worked grave shift Friday night until 6:00am Saturday morning & was scheduled to work at 6:00 that night. I didn't want to have him come along with me to the hospital & then it be a false alarm so I told him to stay home & sleep for work & I'd go in alone. If they were going to keep me I'd let him know of course. All my bags were packed but I didn't take anything with me other than my purse because I honestly thought I was going to get sent back home.
I left for the hospital at 2:22, I specifically remember that time because as I was getting in the car, I got a contraction. Our hospital is less than 5 minutes from our house so I wasn't worried about contracting while driving. I arrived at the hospital, went to labor & delivery & to my surprise there were at least 20 pregnant couples in the waiting room. I began to panic thinking they all were in labor & that I wasn't going to be able to be seen for a lonnnggg time. As I made my way towards the desk to checkin a woman approached me & asked if I was there for the hospital tour. The lobby full of pregnant women made a lot of sense after that, what a relief.
I approached the desk & let them know I was having very painful contractions. They checked me in & took me to a room to be seen. The nurse checked me & said that I was dilated to a 4 & 100% effaced & that the doctor would most likely be keeping me there. I was so relieved, excited yet nervous... finally, it was time! I texted Sage & let him know to gather everything & head to the hospital. By about 3:30pm we were assigned a new room. Around 4:00, I was settled into my room & they decided to break my water. I asked to get my epidural immediately after because I knew after my water was broken that my contractions would come stronger & faster.
My water broke naturally with Anelia so I was really nervous to have them do this for me this time around. I was mostly nervous for the pain I was going to feel afterwards. Luckily, the pain wasn't anything worse than I had already been feeling. After getting my epidural I was still feeling the contractions. They weren't extremely painful but the purpose of an epidural is not feel anything, obviously, so I let my nurse know. They gave me a stronger dose of medicine & if that didn't work they'd replace my epidural all together. They said that it may not be working correctly because I'm so tall. I didn't have any issues with my epidural last time, I was actually "too" numb. When they had given me the dose I was at a 7. I continued to feel the pain but the anesthesiologist wasn't able to replace my epidural as they planned because he had a c-section scheduled that he had to go into. He gave me another dose of strong medicine before heading into the c-section that didn't seem to help at all.
I wasn't upset that the epidural didn't work. I understood that things could go wrong that were out of their control. I didn't plan to have Tai naturally whatsoever but plans change & I am now glad it didn't work because I know I am capable of handling that kind of pain. I had extreme back labor & was in excruciating pain. As Tai descended I could literally feel my hips separating. I don't remember what I was saying as all of this was happening but I definitely was not quiet lol! I wasn't screaming or swearing but I remember yelling & crying when each contraction hit. I wasn't able to track time at all, I have no idea how long it took for me to get to a 10 because the entire time I was just trying to focus on getting through each contraction.
Before I continue I failed to mention who was all there for the birth. Sage, my mother-in-law, Heavenly, my sister-in-laws, Tawny & Ciera & one of my best friends, Bridget were all there during my delivery. I'm so thankful for all of them, as I dealt with the pain they talked me through it & encouraged me. I remember becoming really emotional as the pain got stronger & wishing my mom was there. Moms just have a way of easing pain with words of comfort & I wished with everything that my mom could have been there in those tough, painful moments.
My mom & siblings all sent me texts of reassurance as well & prayed for me throughout my delivery. It was rough at first not having anyone from my family there but I know that if they could have come, they would have. I am thankful for those who were there though, I don't know what I would have done without them all.
I finally reached a 10 & my contractions were back to back, it was time to push. I again have no idea how long I was pushing. The doctor who delivered Tai was Dr. Tineta. He was awesome & really guided me through pushing. When I struggled to get the hang of pushing he gave me a towel & basically played tug-of-war with me. It was different but a good kind of different. Instead of getting frustrated with me he came up a way to help me. As I was pushing I continuously asked if Tai was okay. With Ane she became stressed as I was pushing because the cord was around her neck so this time I wanted to ensure Tai was always doing okay.
After over 3 days of early labor & 6 hours of hard, painful labor at the hospital, our sweet baby girl Tai Moana Nua arrived at 8:13pm on September 20, 2014. She weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces & was 20 inches long. She is perfect! I was so thrilled that was able to hold her right away because I wasn't able to do that with Anelia.
Tai has been an amazing baby thus far. I'm really surprised how alert she already is at almost 3 weeks. She is already starting to try to hold her head up during tummy time & she's tracking things with her eyes. Her doctor says she's ahead of schedule in doing those things which makes me a proud mommy.
I'll update at a later time how we've adjusted to having two & I hope to update more often as well.
Xo,
Proud mommy of two amazing blessings
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