One year ago today Dean Alexander Mathewson was born. In honor of my baby turning one I thought I would do a special edition blog post telling his birth story. When I was pregnant I used to love reading other peoples birth stories, it’s so interesting to me how different everyone’s birth experiences are.
It’s long, but if you’re interested here’s my detailed birth story.
I can quite literally remember it like it was yesterday. My due date was October 14th, but my whole pregnancy I had a feeling (and hoped) that he would come early. I walked Nova a couple of miles almost every day during my pregnancy and I think that had a hand in him coming early.
I went into labor at 5:30am on Monday, October 8th. Blake and I were asleep and my contractions started in so aggressively hat it woke me up. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions all week but this was different. I decided to get my phone out after a little while to see if I could start timing them. Sure enough, they were coming about every 2-4 minutes, lasting 30-40 seconds each.
I happened to have a doctor’s appointment scheduled that morning with my OBGYN so instead of going to the hospital I told Blake to go to work and called my mom and mother in law. I packed a hospital bag just in case and all three of us headed to my appointment.
When we got there my midwife was busy so I saw her nurse’s assistant. When I told her how close together my contractions were she told me that I would most likely have him by that night, but when she checked me I was only 1cm dilated. She told me to walk as much as possible to speed things up.
At this point walking was uncomfortable but doable, so I got breakfast with my mom and mother in law and then went for a walk with my mom and sister for a good hour. I remember on our walk around the park I had to stop and breath through the contractions- they were getting so intense.
As soon as Blake got off work we called one of Blake’s brothers to stay at the house and watch Nova while we headed to the hospital. When we got there I was in so much pain but was feeling hopeful. The nurse in triage hooked me up to a monitor that showed my contractions, and kept making comments about how big my contractions were.
She checked me and looked up at me sadly- I was only dilated to 1cm. STILL. I lost it. "I AM NOT A ONE!" If you know me, you know I am not a confrontational person whatsoever, lol I was just in so much pain I couldn’t imagine going through this much longer without being admitted to the hospital. She proceeded to tell me that because this was my first baby that I could go through this for up to a week. A WEEK?! No. No way. I said "I can’t sleep. If you send me home I won’t sleep." It was already 9:30 at night! She called Rita, my OBGYN and Rita told her to give me a shot of morphine and send me home.
Let me tell you, morphine is amazing. Lol I had blake take me to get In N Out and was able to sleep for about 3 hours before it wore off. By noon on Tuesday I couldn’t take it any more. I was begging Blake to take me back to the hospital and kept saying "I promise it’s different this time, I promise!" Sure enough, when they checked me again at the hospital I was a 3! Good enough to be admitted, thank God.
As soon as we got to my room I asked for my epidural. I remember during the contractions I couldn’t even walk, I had to bend over and crouch down and just try to breathe. My nurse was an angel, she just kept rubbing my back and saying "You’re doing great mama!"
The anesthesiologist came in and asked everyone to leave the room. My nurse was there comforting me while he gave me the epidural. I will never forget that feeling of being in so much pain, so exhausted, and feeling another contraction start to build. Right as that new wave was coming he must have given me the epidural. The pain disappeared completely. It was magical. I asked him "Why doesn’t everyone do this?!" and cried tears of relief. I feel so lucky because I was able to feel my legs but feel no pain.
Once I got the epidural we brought out the laptop and watched Friends! That was my birth plan: epidural and Friends. I had a "happy button" that I could push whenever I felt the epidural wearing off, that way I stayed nice and numb.
They came in and broke my water after a little while, and the water was cloudy- he had pooped, which is called meconium. If babies inhale the meconium at all it can be extremely dangerous so they informed me that the NICU team would be there during the delivery to make sure everything was okay.
Things still weren’t moving as quickly as Rita wanted, so they gave me pitocin to speed things up. As we got closer to the delivery my nurses noticed that I had a fever that kept getting higher and higher. Rita came in a little before 9:00 so that I can start pushing. This was when I totally fell in love with Rita- she fought for us during that delivery. I was shaking uncontrollably from the fever and adrenaline, and my new nurse that I got after the shift change was not on top of things or very friendly. Rita got onto her and demanded assistance from her in every way: it made me feel safe.
After 10 minutes or so of pushing we met our little man. Dean had a fever when he came out too but was otherwise perfectly healthy. He was 6lbs 8oz (thank you Lord) with dark hair and dark eyes.
I was in complete shock. I was so exhausted and not at all expecting Rita to give him to me immediately, but she did. As soon as he was out she put him on my chest- and I almost dropped him lol I was so tired. He was crying SO loud, everyone kept laughing because he has such strong lungs.
I will probably start crying as I write this, but this was the best moment of my entire life. I was exhausted after laboring for 40 hours, overwhelmed because he was crying so loud, and Blake walked over. I always read that the baby knows their fathers voice from the womb but I never truly bought into it. I have so many clients a day, how does he know Blake’s voice compared to everyone else’s?
I was wrong. He said "Hey, buddy." And just like that, Dean got quiet. He grabbed Blake’s finger and stopped crying. He knew his Daddy. It was so beautiful.
And I’m crying.
I remember I started bawling and the nurse asked me "What’s wrong? What hurts?" And I couldn’t speak I was so happy. She said "Oh, you’re happy?" And I just nodded my head while crying silently.
They stitched me up and I was good to go.
This past year has been the hardest, best year of my entire life.
Dean, if you ever read this you are Mama’s best friend. My life will never be the same. You are the most loving, beautiful, handsome, funny, smart boy. I am so blessed to have you as a son.
