Henry's Birth Story

Our precious Henry made his big debut on Friday, February 11th! We are so in love with our bundle of joy! I wanted to capture his birth story while the details are still fresh and decided to share it here on the blog. As a first time mom, it was really helpful to read other birth stories as I prepared for the big day so I hope this helps others!

Early Labor

Thursday, February 10th was kind of a rough day around the Stillwell house. It seemed nothing was going right and we were all irritable (Penny included). That evening we sat on the couch trying to unwind and discussing what to cook for dinner. We love to cook together and we made a big meal that night, a nice way to relax after a day like we’d had.

We’d planned to do some things around the house that night but decided to watch a movie instead. Shortly into the movie, (we watched that Sandra Bullock movie The Proposal) I started feeling very uncomfortable. The feeling happened again about 13 minutes later. I was pretty sure it was a contraction but I’d had some sporadic contractions for a couple weeks and they never seemed to be consistent or increase so I figured that’s what was happening again. (I should’ve known better because I had a membrane sweep at the doctor's office the day before lol, and was informed I was already 3 cm dilated). The contractions continued and we noticed they were coming closer together, now about 11 minutes apart. We decided if they continued through 11pm, we would text our moms a heads up since it was getting late and didn’t want to alarm anyone “if this was the real thing” in the middle of the night.

At this point, I was still convinced the contractions would go away. But they didn’t. It took us forever to finish the movie because we kept pausing every time I had a contraction haha. Once the movie was over, we thought it might be a good idea to get a few things in order “just in case.” We double checked the hospital bags, cleaned up the kitchen, switched the laundry around, and I made a bow order that needed to go out within the following days. The contractions continued and we decided it could be a long night so maybe it’s best we just get some sleep while we could. We got ready for bed and then noticed the contractions were coming 9 minutes apart and the first one that struck as I was getting in bed was much more intense than the contractions earlier in the night. Darrell held my hand and tried to help me relax as each one hit. It wasn’t long before they were 8 minutes apart. Realizing it was just a matter of time before we headed to the hospital, I said I really wanted to take a shower before we left. Darrell became pretty worried as things progressed to 7 minutes apart and he urged me to take the shower right away because he didn’t think I had much time before we would need to leave. He was headed to load the car in preparation and I was getting out of bed when I yelled for Darrell - he hadn’t even made it down the hall yet - my water broke! This was at 1:44am.

I was in shock at this point - literally still thought “you aren’t going into labor, these will subside and you’ll just go to the hospital Monday night for your induction like planned, don’t get excited!” But the water kept dripping as I hopped in the shower. Darrell RAN downstairs and loaded the car while I tried to quickly shower. I thought I’d shave my legs… HAHAHA… I think I shaved a quarter of the bottom half of my left leg when another contraction hit and I was freaking out. I asked Alexa what time it was and realized they were now 6 minutes apart! Within seconds of that realization, I looked down and realized I had just lost my mucus plug. I started shaking out of panic that this was real and now I was worried if we would make it all the way to Lexington in time.
Darrell made it upstairs just as I was hopping out of the shower and I told him the contractions were now 6 minutes apart. He told me he didn’t think I had time to “get ready” so I threw on the first thing I could grab… a Halloween sweatshirt and some leggings… and we raced out the door with my wet hair still in a towel and another towel between my legs - because the water just kept coming.

Getting to the Hospital

Darrell was amazing through this entire process. It was really funny when he called the hospital to tell them we were on the way. As soon as someone picked up, he spit out all the details he remembered the birthing class instructor saying he should mention. The person on the line said “Great job, Dad, we will have everything ready when you all get here!”

The panic really set in as we drove to the hospital. Darrell was driving responsibly fast and luckily there wasn't much traffic at 2 AM on I75! The southbound lanes were at a standstill from what appeared to be road work and I was praying “Thank you Lord this isn’t on the northbound side tonight!” The contractions were getting pretty painful and I was sobbing out of concern that I’d be one of those stories of a woman giving birth on the side of the road. I think Darrell ran 2 stop lights getting us there. We pulled up in front of the hospital and Darrell left the car running as he hopped out and rushed me up to labor and delivery… I think I had two or three towels between my legs at this point and I remember dropping them in random places throughout the hospital as I waddled to the registration desk… Darrell went back through and retrieved all of them, haha.

I was in a room pretty quickly and the nurses began prepping me. Darrell was back from parking the car in no time and he held my hand as they tried SIX times to put in my IV. That was probably the worst part of actual labor. I'm not afraid of needles and I'm not someone who particularly freaks out over getting an IV or blood drawn but this was while having contractions and after the second try I was getting anxious. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing and told everyone to stop talking to me until the IV was actually in!!

Waiting on Baby

As we waited on my COVID test, blood work, etc. I tried to just focus on breathing. We'd made it to the hospital and everything was falling into place for my epidural to come soon, I tried to relax as much as I could. To my surprise, the epidural was a breeze. I focused on a speck in the tile floor while Darrell squatted in front of me to keep me calm. Interestingly, through the entire labor process, I think I only actually squeezed Darrell's hand a couple of times. He kept offering me his hand as we drove there, while in the delivery room, etc. and I'm not sure why but I didn't squeeze the heck out of his hand like everyone kind of says you will. We didn't take Lamaze classes so I don't know if I was breathing "that way" but I just tried to breathe through everything as it came.

Once the epidural hit, things began to slow down. I have to wonder if this is partially me not allowing things to progress... I didn't want the emergency doctor to deliver the baby and I didn't know the on-call doctor that night so I wasn't really interested in that option either. I needed to wait until at least 8 AM for my OB to be on call. I was DETERMINED to wait it out. Thanks to the epidural, I was able to get some sleep and hold off.

Around 9 AM my nurse came in and had been communicating with my doctor. She said it was time to start Pitocin and get things moving along. As the contractions picked up again, we anxiously awaited my doctor to arrive. Neither of us had eaten since dinner the night before and while I couldn't eat, I wanted to make sure Darrell didn't pass out on me when it was time to push. I kept encouraging him to go grab a snack but he didn't want to leave my side.

The nurse came in and convinced me to try the peanut ball again (we had tried it in the middle of the night and I don't know if it's where I'm so short or just numb from the epidural but I didn't like it). She said it would help the baby get into position so I agreed to try again.

They checked my cervix a couple of times while I was in the hospital. When we first arrived, I was "5 or 6 centimeters dilated" - everyone kept giving me estimates which seemed confusing. Apparently, (according to many nurses), my cervix was very "stretchy" so it was hard to tell.

Time to Push

Just a few seconds after I convinced Darrell now was the time to get a snack, the nurse walked in with my OB right behind her (Darrell hadn't left the room yet). When the doctor came in, the nurses explained I had progressed to 9 cm, possibly 10? The doctor checked and agreed and said to get ready to start pushing soon. She left to find scrubs and the nurse helped me "practice."

I pushed for almost two hours. Pushing was so weird because I was giving it my ALL but I had no idea if I was making any progress because I couldn't feel anything other than at the top of my abdomen when a contraction would begin. Darrell was right there beside me the entire time (and he didn't pass out!!). He held my hand, gave me sips of water, helped me stay calm and not tense up between contractions by stroking my hair and at a certain point I had him help support my back as I would push. He had texted our mothers when I began pushing and I later found out they were beginning to panic when so much time had passed without an update.

I seriously had no idea Henry was almost here when they said "give us one more big push - get really mad this time" and then he was here! According to Darrell, it was apparent that it was a "one more push and he's here" but I was in a whole different world at that point and really didn't know.

Meeting Henry

The greatest feeling in the world was when they placed Henry on me after he was delivered. This might sound silly but it was in that moment that it all became so real. He was HERE. This little baby that had been growing inside me for 9 months was really here. He was really real. And he is perfect.

The entire labor process went so much differently than I anticipated. Maybe I didn't really have expectations? I'm not sure. But it went so much better than I could've ever imagined. I'm still in shock that my body went into labor on its own. That my body knew what to even do. I'm shocked watching my body recover and again, know what to do. The fact that my body makes milk and I sustain our child's life with it?? - Mind blowing. And I am so sooo grateful my incredible doctor was there to deliver our baby. I'm grateful for a smooth delivery and a mostly healthy pregnancy. We feel so blessed.

Seriously. I am in awe of our creator and so amazed at what God has done in our lives through this pregnancy, birth and now postpartum experience. I'm overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for this precious gift. Life is such a precious gift.

As for recovery, I did get stitches. Henry decided to enter this world just like he looked in his ultrasounds - with one hand up by his face, meaning mommy tore a bit... Second degree tear. All in all, we are adjusting well to this new world of parenthood. I could stare at him forever! Now back to some baby snuggles - he's asleep in my arms as I type this!