It all began on Sunday evening.
My husband had recently had major surgery and was being discharged from the hospital, we went to pick him and were headed home about 11 pm.
After getting him home and settled I went to walgreens to pick up his prescriptions. Of course, they sent his prescriptions to the walgreens that was already closed so I headed to the next one that was open in hopes to get his scripts transferred over. While patiently waiting I experienced a single wrap around contraction, I brushed it off because she was still moving quite a lot and was in no hurry - as I'd specifically mentioned to my friends in our group chat!
I got his prescriptions and headed home. I pulled in at home and realized it was the night before trash day so I pulled our two bins to the curb and headed inside to get everyone into bed as it'd been a long day.
I continued to have very short and spread apart contractions for the next half hour.
Around 1 am I was still certain that while these contractions definitely felt more real that nothing was eminent - baby girl was still moving and they weren't lasting longer than 20-30 sec - so I headed to bed.
20 minutes later (1:39 am) I felt a lil pop and woosh. I was pretty certain my water had broken and this definitely was the beginning of labor!
I called my mom to tell her to head our way and collected mine and Silas's bags. During this time I experienced only a few more contractions, still not lasting longer than 30 seconds and maybe 5 minutes apart. I was still in a very positive mood when we got Silas dropped off to my sister and headed to the hospital 10-15min later.
The ride to the hospital was the intense part. The contractions intensity was 10 fold, however, they still never lasted more than a minute or so. My mom helped me focus on staying relaxed and working through the contractions. (Looking back I can now see i wasn't keeping all of me as relaxed as I should have - I did a good job breathing evenly and keeping my face relaxed, however, my legs, i had a harder time keeping loose)
I do remember being annoyed that my mom was being mindful of the bumps and speed limit
Around 2:30-40am (exact times get fuzzy at this point) we arrived at the hospital's emergency room. We left the car out front of the doors. As we were headed in I had to stop once in the parking lot to work through a contraction lasting about a minute and a half. We then got into the ER where one other family was in the middle of being screened (an older woman and her two sons probably mid to late 20s), when they realized I, a laboring mom, was walking in they suddenly raced the wheelchair over to (they totally intended it for the other woman being checked in ) me and wheeled me over to the check in window.
*At this point I think it's important to mention my mood during this time is swinging with the come and go of the contractions. I was happy, friendly and cheerful during the down times which varied from 1-5 min and focused, serious, and zero sense of humor.*
At the check in window the woman working was working to get me signed in. I flicked over my id and insurance card (respectfully lol) at that point the big contraction began. The one that took all of my focus and I knew it was time to push. The woman asked me to sign the consent to treatment form. She just needed an initial and signature. I told her that I could not do so at the moment as I felt the sensation of my baby girl entering the birth canal. At that moment I reached down to feel if I was feeling what I thought I did - I was - I could feel that my body was completely ready and the very top of her head.
At this point I'm demanding and determined. I tell my mom/the nurse(s), whom aren't responding as I wanted, to pull my pants down, she's coming NOW. They seem to ignore me. I say it again. My mom's beginning to agree with me. I tell them, I can feel her head, she is coming out now, pull my pants down now. Again they aren't reacting as quickly as I'd like. So I use one hand to support/gently pull her head while I used the other to get my pants and underwear out of the way.
With one push there was a huge splash (pants ruined ), a wave of relief and I pulled Francesca up to my chest so she could latch on right away.
I finally sat down in the wheelchair with my precious baby and began rubbing in the vernix as she figured out the feeding process.
I was taken directly back to a labor and delivery room and determined time of birth was 2:42 am. The doctor went to clamp the cord, I asked them to wait until the cord had completely stopped pulsing - they were happy to do so. I then said to my mom, now would be a good time to give them my birth plan - she did so - and was pleased to find them completely happy to comply.
Fortunately about 3/4s of it no longer mattered because I did all of the laboring and delivery prior to receiving their care!
We all rejoiced at the event that had just unfolded before them and giggled about the random people in the lobby.
I was pleased I didn't tear at all. My baby girl was already feeding. The cord was allowed to fully stop pulsing before being clamped and cut.
It did take awhile for me to deliver the placenta, fortunately the OB was patient and allowed my body to do its job. She did assist with "massage" - I'll tell ya the post labor contractions were actually harder than the actual labor contractions.
At the end of the day I was overjoyed and grateful to have had a truly unmedicated and unassisted birth, a beautiful, healthy baby girl, and a wonderful postpartum care team.
Francesca Tessa Del-Rose was born at 2:42 am weighing 6lbs 14.3oz and was 20in long.