Luke’s Birth Story – Part One

I initially debated posting Luke’s birth story, but when I was pregnant I scoured the internet reading as many as I could to “prepare” myself for what was to come (as if that was possible – ha!). What I eventually discovered was that no two birth stories are the same but that each one is special and beautiful. I love reading about everyone’s experiences, and I wanted to write this down to be able to remember it in the future. Just a warning…it’s long and very wordy 🙂 So with that being said…here is Part One of Luke’s Birth Story:

Once I hit 37 weeks…I was OVER being pregnant. While I consider myself extremely lucky for having a fairly uneventful and healthy pregnancy, I threw up and was sick for almost 20 weeks and started having round ligament pain and pressure towards the end. I was so excited to meet our baby boy and was giddy with anticipation at what he might look like, sound like, act like. At my 38 week appointment (on a Tuesday), I was 1.5cm dilated and my doctor said she felt like things were progressing enough that at 39 weeks we could discuss being induced if I wanted.

Blake and I went home that night excited and nervous knowing that we were going to have a baby in less than two weeks! I’m such a planner, and not knowing when he was coming was something that stressed me out during the pregnancy, so at least knowing it wouldn’t be AFTER 40 weeks was a relief. I was nervous about potentially getting induced – I had mixed feelings about whether or not I wanted to do it. One one hand, I was SO READY to meet our son and trusted my doctor that he was ready to make his appearance, but on the other hand I wasn’t sure if I wanted to rely on drugs to jump start my labor when I hadn’t reached 40+ weeks yet.

Fast forward a few days later to the weekend: It was Saturday night and I started getting this crazy feeling that something was going to happen. I was exhausted and having a few mild braxton hicks contractions. I turned into a cleaning madwoman, organizing the nursery, wiping down the kitchen, and washing, folding, and ironing every last piece of laundry. Blake kept telling me to rest and go to bed, but I just KNEW something was going to happen and wanted the house to be clean! I specifically remember ironing so many clothes because I kept thinking it would be so annoying to come home to a big pile of laundry haha! Finally Blake convinced me to stop and just go to bed so I could rest my body and get some sleep.

We hosted a “Friendsgiving” about a week and a half before I went into labor!

The next morning (Sunday – 1.5 weeks before my due date) around 5:50am, I woke up to my water breaking. I climbed out of bed and just stood there in shock for a few minutes before whispering “Blake, Blake wake up…I think my water just broke!”. I really had no idea what to expect, because I had heard some people don’t even know if their water had actually broken depending on how big and where the tear happens. (Looking back now…I’m not sure why I was in shock because there was definitely no question that it had, in fact, broken :)). Blake JUMPED out of bed and we looked at each other not really knowing what to do next. I was glad my water had broken because one of my fears was being turned away at the hospital for not being far enough along and I knew once my water broke we would be meeting our son in less than 24 hours! I also was very thankful that we were together at home when it happened…I kept getting worried my water would break or I’d start having contractions at work during rush hour (which in Atlanta means it would have taken at least three times as long to get down to the hospital!). I hopped in the shower while Blake packed his bag and threw my last minute items into mine. We called the on call doctor who said to start making our way to the hospital and then we were off!

I started calling family and texting our close friends. It was one of my best friend’s birthdays and I was so excited that our baby would most likely share the day with her! I told Blake we had to stop for breakfast because I was worried once I got to the hospital they wouldn’t let me eat anything (like seriously…this was a legitimate fear of mine). We stopped at Dunkin Donuts and this little stop along the way makes us both laugh because the drive-thru was broken so Blake ran in while I stayed in the car. We both had a surreal moment during this pit stop- I started having contractions in the car and a car pulled up next to me while I was trying to breathe through them. At first I was self conscious but then at some point…you just stop caring! Blake was inside and was laughing to himself that his wife was in labor in the car while everyone else is just going about their day ordering donuts and a coffee. But anyway…an iced coffee, sausage and egg flatbread and pink sprinkled donut (duh) later, and we were officially on our way to the hospital!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

xoxo,

Lauren