Nolan's Birth Story

My head is still reeling from the events over the past week. I guess the rule for deliveries is to always expect the unexpected!

Last Monday evening (April 2nd), I was relaxing at home after work with Joe and our friend Kevin who was visiting from North Carolina. We ordered some pizza and watched the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game - Kentucky vs. Kansas. The game started late (around 9:30pm), but I felt pretty good energy-wise and stayed up until very close to the end of the game. Kentucky dominated most of the game and won. I headed to bed around 11pm. Joe joined me not too long after - maybe about midnight. As soon as he laid down to bed (and reported that Kentucky had indeed hung on and won the game), I noticed a trickling of fluid running down my leg. I remember totally freaking out internally - "what is this?!" "could this be amniotic fluid?" "oh no, it's too early - I'm not full term yet!" etc etc etc. After going through everything in my mind, I said over to Joe - I have fluid running down my leg. I'm not sure what it is, but I have to get to the bathroom. I think I may have also told him that I was scared. As soon as I stood up, I felt a gushing of fluid down my legs into my sweatpants. There was no doubt in my mind at this point what had just happened. My water had broke.

I managed to make it to the bathroom and officially started freaking out. "Oh no I'm not ready!" "Is the baby going to be OK?" "My hospital bag isn't even packed!" "I haven't even gotten to the L&D chapters of my pregnancy books yet!" Joe helped calm me down and suggested I call my doctor. I called and tried to be patient as I waited for him to answer his page. While we waited, I had Joe run around and put a hospital bag together. He literally dumped all of the contents of my adidas bag on the floor and threw things in as I called them out from the bathroom.... toiletries, change of clothes, baby's first outfit, camera, baby book etc etc. Finally the doctor called back and told me to come in. I wasn't feeling any contractions yet, but if my water had broke than it was only a matter of time before baby arrived. Joe went over to tell Kevin to tell him we were headed to the hopsital. Kevin really helped calm us down a bit as he has a 1 year old and is a doctor. He also gave some good advice as to what to bring to the hospital.

Off we went to Bryn Mawr Hospital. We arrived around 1am and used the after-hours L&D entrance. They were expecting me and we were put immediately into a delivery room. Lots of questions were asked collecting my medical history and current symptoms, then a swab was taken to confirm that my water had broke (it had). At this point, they administered an IV of antibiotics (I never got to my 37wk OB appointment where they were to test me for Strep B Bacteria, so they had to administer them just in case). They asked if I was having contractions, which I wasn't having full-blown, but starting to feel pressure down low. She checked my cervix and I was only a fingertip dilated. They set me up with monitors for contractions and baby's heart beat and Joe with a cot and let me progress on my own through the night. I called my parents to tell them the crazy news and my mom started packing her bag, but we both figured she had a lot of time to get there.


About an hour after hospital admission, the contractions started picking up. At first they felt sort of like menstrual cramps, but then they progressed into gut splitting explosions of pain. I was trying to be tough and just quietly breathe through them as Joe tried to get some sleep on the cot. But eventually the moans/cries of pain escaped from me and Joe was by my side, rubbing my back and giving encouragement through them. I could manage them at first as there were decent breaks in between contractions that I felt no pain and could recover. However, they continued to intensify and suddenly there were no breaks - just intense, terrible pain followed by slightly less intense pain. I couldn't catch my breath. I felt trapped and out of control. It was HARD!

Eventually I called for help at around 5am. I was tough, but this was another level of pain that I had never experienced. It was also hard dealing with the unknown - where was I on the pain scale for labor? Was this pain even accomplishing dilation? I felt like I hadn't been there that long and I was already defeated. Was this pain nothing compared to what was to come? I had the nurse come in and told her I was in immense pain. She needed to check my progress before deciding what my options were for pain management. I remember her look of surprise when she checked and reported I was 3-4cm dilated already, and asked the magic words "would you like an epidural?" I sighed a huge breath of relief. I would have been mentally crushed after going through that kind of pain only to be told I hadn't progressed at all. The pain at least led to progress, which was much easier for me to mentally handle. I didn't hesitate when accepting the epidural. I was done with the pain, and really needed some rest if I wanted to be ready to push later.

The anesthesiologist came in promptly, and although it was tough to stay perfectly still through several contractions, the epidural was wonderful. I had pretty quick relief and went from stifling screams to sleeping in 30minutes - amazing! I called home to tell them of my progression and my mom left to drive the 2 hrs to join us. I slept on my back for another 3 hrs or so (interrupted by people coming in and out to ask questions/do tests and my blood pressure cuff automatically measuring my pressure every 15minutes). The OB came in and re-checked me. To my surprise, the epidural didn't slow my progression at all - I was fully dilated! I think everyone was surprised how fast everything was going for my first labor. I was so happy to have gotten so near the end, but my mom still wasn't there! The OB asked if I was comfortable, and since I was, decided to let my body do some of the work for awhile while she attended to a C-section. I called my mom a bit concerned that she needed to get here ASAP! She had gotten lost, but was very close so she rushed over and we had some time in the room together before the OB came back/pushing commenced. She mentioned how shocked she was in how comfortable and calm I was, just waiting for the right time to have my baby. Guess she wasn't as familiar with the wonderful magic of the epidural :) I had just the right amount of pain relief - enough to still move my legs freely and push, but not feel the pain of contractions.

Hanging with Bear post-epidural in the Delivery Room

Joe's cot in the delivery room. Not much sleep to be had.

Smiles post-epidural. Ready to meet our baby boy!

Finally, the time had come... time to push! My OB and nurse were awesome. They were so supportive and gave great instructions in how to get the most out of each push. I had heard that pushing can take anywhere from 1-3hrs, and I definitely ended up being on the short end of the time frame. Again, pushing was HARD! I literally put everything I had into each push, gasping for air in between contactions. At first, the pushing went great - the OB gave me hope saying she could already see a head full of dark hair! Then my contractions started stalling. We were waiting too long between pushes, waiting for the next contraction to come. I started getting nervous - the baby's heartrate was rising, and I developed a fever of 102F. I was informed that because of the fever, they were going to have to involve the NICU due to an elevated risk of the baby having an infection. I felt a bit frustrated, but it motivated me to push even harder. They administered some pitocin to help things move along better with the contractions (everything else up to this point was my body leading the way with the labor), and that seemed to help the intensity of the contractions - helping me push better.

After about an hour of pushing, the OB started to get gowned up to deliver the baby. To everyone's surprise, before she was completely ready, I gave the push of my life and Baby B flew out (literally!) He almost fell on the floor, but luckily the OB had quick reflexes and caught him before he slid off the table!  I felt a huge sense of relief and joy seeing him and hearing his strong cry. Nolan Lucas was here! Joe cut his umbilical cord, and they immediately put him on my chest. He was so alert - eyes wide open and making direct eye contact with me. It was very emotional and I couldn't take my eyes off of him. He was healthy - weighing 6.0lbs, 19.5inches in length with a 1min apgar score of 8 and 5 min score of 9.

Nolan's first ever photo! His cry was music to my ears 

Dad cutting the umbilical cord

Meeting Momma. Best feeling in the world.

Welcome Nolan Lucas! All cleaned up and calm.

Proud Dad. Nolan making lots of eye contact.

First family photo in the delivery room.

Unfortunately, one of my concerns about post-delivery came true. They had to take the baby to the NICU right after delivery to hook him up to antibiotics due to my fever during delivery. They took him pretty quickly after delivery and it was so odd just sitting in the delivery room with my mom and Joe after this crazy experience with no baby. The NICU doctor came in and asked a ton more questions about my family medical history/etc as well as told me what to expect as far as the NICU involvement. They were putting him on precautionary antibiotics and sending out blood samples for cultures, but he wouldn't officially be in the clear until 48hrs post culture. I was disappointed, but totally on board with whatever was the best course of action to ensure baby's health. They did transport me directly to the NICU from the delivery room so I could nurse the baby though, which was a really wonderful experience.

Spending time with Nolan in the NICU.

Our cutie all snuggled up in his swaddle blanket

Dad goofing around with the little guy once he was back in our room.

All in all, I feel very lucky to have had such a quick and relatively easy delivery - less than 10hrs from water breaking to delivery. It was my first hospital stay - we were there for 2 nights and discharged on Thursday April 5th (which would have been 37weeks "full term" for Nolan). The hospital was great for information and help with breast feeding (they have the highest % of breast feeding moms in the state post-delivery!) I had lactation consultants visiting my room every day along with free classes on breast feeding and infant care during my stay. We also had a newborn photo session taken at the hospital that turned out wonderful.

Everything checked out fine with our little boy - no infections and we felt so blessed going through this experience with everyone coming out healthy. We were discharged on Thursday, April 5th. I definitely got emotional as we were getting ready to leave to be on our own with our new little boy!

Testing out the car seat with Bear before buckling up Nolan

Nolan in his going home outfit - whale onesie with "little squirt" on it :)

Time to head home!

Joe loading up the car

Riding in the backseat home with the little guy!

We are just over-the-moon about our little boy, and, to be honest, still getting over the shock of having him home with us already! I keep looking at him and trying to imagine him still cooking away in my belly and it is just so hard to wrap your head around. It will be sort of surreal when April 26th, my due date, comes and goes and we'll already have a 3 week old. Thanks for giving us 3 extra weeks to love you, Nolan! You definitely filled a place that I never knew existed in my heart.

Love.