Audrey's Birth Story

I don't know about you but I am a sucker for birth stories. I remember asking my mom to tell me the story of how she had me countless times when i was younger. There's just something magical about how a baby enters this world.  

On August 10, 2017, I was 35 weeks and had a normal doctor’s appointment where they did the Group B testing. I also asked him if he would check me and how she was measuring. He said that she wasn’t even in my pelvic area and that it would be pointless to check me. After doing an ultrasound he said that she was measuring a little behind her due date (September 10^th) and predicted a due date of September 11^th. After the appointment we immediately went home and I start all the home remedies of trying to induce labor. The week following my appointment I was climbing the stairs, going on walks, taking primrose oil, drinking red leaf raspberry tea, all the things to start getting some progress. I knew I did not want a September 11^th baby.

On August 18, 2017, I woke up having mild and inconsistent contractions, Since this was an everyday occurrence I went ahead and went into work. I went to the bathroom that morning at work and noticed that I had lost my mucus plug, I though nothing about it since you can lose your mucus plug weeks in advance. As the morning passed by, the contractions started to get worse and really hit me when I was in a meeting. During the meeting I was thinking of how I could skip out or tell them I needed to go home but then I felt something leak out downstairs. I got up to run to the bathroom. Just as I closed the door to the meeting room my water broke (gushed) everywhere, around 10:30 a.m. I was humiliated, my supervisor came out of the meeting to check on me and we immediately went to my desk to gather my personal things. Luckily and by the grace of God, Chad was minutes away. He came to get me, we switched cars and jetted to Tulsa, about an hour from our workplace. I called the doctor’s office to make sure our doctor was on call that weekend and sure enough he was! I did not expect for her to come so quick and thought that she would come later on that evening. I was still feeling ok so we stopped by the house to grab the hospital bag and for me to change and take a shower. As I was changing I looked at myself in the mirror and my belly was scary low so I yell at Chad and off we went to the hospital. By time we arrived at the hospital I was having bad contractions. They were doing some construction on the entrance to labor and delivery so we had to go through the ER entrance. Chad parked the car right in front of the ER entrance which is also a "do not park" area. It was clear that I was in labor so I jumped into a wheelchair and someone pushed me to labor and delivery. They asked if I had the urge to push or have a bowel movement which I told them a bowel movement so they yell for someone to grab an OB kit and walk with us, which I proceeded to yell at them saying ‘you better get me to labor and delivery, I’m not about to delivery this baby in the hallway’. After making it to labor and delivery, all the labor and delivery bed were being used so I jumped up on a regular hospital bed that was in the hallway and got pushed into an empty room. About 10 nurses come piling in while I’m crying and begging for the epidural. Ones taking off my pants, poking me with an IV, checking me, getting my blood pressure, calling my doctor, etc. I was currently at a 7. Little did I know that they have to run tests before getting an epidural. So as I’m crying and confirming that I cannot do this, one of the nurses is giving me a pep talk about delivering without an epidural and saying that the hard part is over with, umm if I do remember correctly the head still isn’t out at this point. Every time someone walked into the room I would ask them if they were the anesthesiologist. By this time my progress had slowed down as she was facing up, she knows her mommy and knows I wouldn’t have been able to make it. A security officer comes to our room and asks us to move our car as it is parked in the “do not park” area which I told Chad for them to take the keys and have them move it that he was not leaving. Also, my doctor comes running into the room as they are finally prepping me for the epidural. I do believe I called the anesthesiologist a saint. My mom and dad show up to the hospital and brought Grady back to see me. Grady was so worried for his mommy, it was the sweetest thing. Still thinking I had a little bit until it was time to push we asked my parents to go get a blanket out of our car. As soon as they leave it was time to push. Since I was on a normal bed instead of a labor and delivery bed, my doctor and I got really close lol. I pushed for about 10-15 minutes and she arrived at 1:27pm! My doctor asked me to grab her and finish pulling her out but I was caught up in all of the cords that I couldn’t get a good grip on her. My parents tried and come back into the room to give us the blanket and they hear baby cries and the nurse telling them that I had just given birth. Everything happened so fast, we were/am in total shock. 

You guys know me and know that I had a plan. I knew when she was going to come and what Grady was going to wear to the hospital. Nothing went according to plan, this girl surprised us all and I could not love her more for that.