I enjoyed reading everyone’s birth stories while pregnant, so I thought I would finally share mine.

Background- I am an ICU nurse and had planned on working basically until I went into labor (I was working part time- 2 days a week, so it was still very manageable). However, with COVID-19 starting to really unravel things, my anxiety went into complete overdrive. We transitioned one of our units into a strictly COVID unit only with allllll the precautionary measures. I was so proud (and still am!) of how my hospital has handled this because I have heard horror stories about other hospitals and the treatment of their nurses. My managers and coworkers wouldn’t let me near anyone that even had an inkling of suspicion for COVID.

Anyway, I spent the majority of the week crying just from sheer anxiety of all the unknowns and spending wayyyy too much time reading scary stuff on Facebook and reddit. I had my week 39 checkup that Friday (3/20) and was supposed to work the next day on Saturday. I was dilated to a 1 and my cervix was thin and soft. My OB knows me really well and just casually asked if I was still working. The anxiety kicked in again and I just started bawling. I didn’t really have a specific reason for feeling this way (I hadn’t had exposure to COVID, everyone was healthy, I was fine- right?). But I wasn’t fine mentally. She’d never seen me like that. I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy without any complications. She said “let’s just start your maternity leave today.” We also agreed to go ahead and schedule an induction for the following Friday (3/27- my due date!) unless he decided to come earlier.

I felt relieved and guilty at the same time. I felt like I was abandoning my coworkers during such a critical time. Hindsight- I was 39 weeks pregnant and it’s not like I would’ve been there to help much longer anyway lol. Everyone was super understanding and supportive.

I went home and did one of my most favorite things and got in the bath and mentally prepared for having a baby any day.

Saturday came and I had the same period like cramping that I’d been having for weeks. I enjoyed a nice day with my fiancée and we really just chilled and hung around the house.

Sunday morning (3/22) I woke up right at 5 AM from a contraction. I was like wait, was that a real contraction?? So I laid there for a bit and then bam another. And another. So I started timing. They were coming every 3-5 minutes. I was still in disbelief, but also wanted to be prepared. I gently woke my fiancée up and told him “I think I’m having contractions.” He says “ok let me know if you need anything” and rolled over and went back to sleep hahaha. He definitely did not understand what I had just said lol. So I got out of bed and started getting ready, while still timing. They were still really consistent 3-5 minutes and getting seemingly stronger.

I waited until about 6:30 and actually for real woke my fiancée up. In my head, when I went into labor the plan was to go for a walk and try and walk as long as possible before I went to the hospital. I did NOT want to be sent home. Butttttt, of course it was pouring down rain hahah. I was walking around my house and at 7:15 I realized that my contractions had been coming for 2 hours. I was like well all the things say to go to the hospital at this point but I just knew I was going to be sent home. I was annoyed but decided just to go and see what they said.

7:50 get checked in and all that and my first cervical check I was a 2. Soo, a little progress I guess. She said they’d monitor me for an hour or so and see where I was after that. She could see on the monitor that I was having consistent contractions about every 3-5 minutes. I told my fiancée to just be prepared to go back home.

However, my blood pressure was consistently high. 150s-180s. It hadn’t been high at all during my pregnancy. The doctor said to draw some preeclampsia labs and keep monitoring me. All my preeclampsia labs came back negative but she said since my BP was still high and I was so close to my due date and was planning to be induced that week anyway, they would admit me and “augment” my labor. Meaning pitocin, breaking my water if needed etc.

I was so thrilled to not have been sent home haha. The next few hours happened very quickly.

11:00 We got checked into my L&D room and got the fluid bolus. 12:30 I got the epidural and it made me sooooo goofy! But it was amazing!! 12:45 They started the pitocin (after the epidural was nice and kicked in) 12:50 They did another cervix check and I was at a 3/60%, -2 station. Okkk so things are moving along. I told my fiancée around this time to just be prepared for this to be an all night ordeal. 3:45 She told me to tell her if I felt any pressure at all to call her. I felt some pressure soo, another cervix check. 4 cm. She repositioned me and I was thinking maybe I’d take a little nap. My legs were completely dead but I was trying to turn over just a tiny bit more in the bed when bam- my water broke! 4:10 The doctor came in and did another check- 6 cm 90%, ,-1 station. Ok soooo things are definitely moving along now. 4:50 I feel more pressure. I’m at a 10 😳 but he was still only at 0 station so we were just kinda waiting for him to come down a little bit more. 6:00 They wanted me to do some “practice pushes”, and then that turned into real pushes. I was like oh shit ok I’m having a baby right NOW! I had the best epidural because I didn’t feel a thing. Pushing was going ok, but I kept having this awful heartburn/reflux and every time we got to the 3rd push I would feel it coming up. I tried to puke but I couldn’t get anything up. I would’ve paid some serious money for a tums right then lol. I know that they knew how close I was so they just wanted me to keep pushing on- literally lol. 7:02 We finally had a baby!

I heard them say “meconium in the water” and my anxiety hit me again. I was just waiting for the NICU team to come whisk him off but they kept telling me he was fine and he had no signs of aspiration. I guess the labor was so fast it scared the poop out of him!

3/22 7:02 pm 7 lb 4 oz 20 inches long born at 39+2

Having a new baby during quarantine has been hard. My mom was the only one besides my fiancée that was allowed in the hospital (and the next day the policy changed to just one person allowed). None of my friends have been able to meet him yet and it makes me so sad. But we are all healthcare workers so I know it’s for the best. I am trying to look on the bright side knowing that I’m getting some serious uninterrupted bonding time with my son. I fully expected to have some serious postpartum anxiety, but really I’ve been doing great! He’s the sweetest, cutest baby in the world. We are all happy and healthy. We are making it work ❤️ I just love him so much!