I listened as the message closed at church then got up to leave. Every movement was uncomfortable because I had just reached 40 weeks. I was ready for this baby to be out. A woman approached me, and we got to chatting. I mentioned I was ready for this baby to be born. I wanted to meet my little girl! My husband Casey had set up a surprise gender reveal party at my parent’s house, so I already knew her name was going to be Naomi. But I wanted to see her. The woman offered to pray for me to go into labor. I readily agreed. The woman placed her hands on me and prayed. I thanked her and we went our separate ways.
I went to Target afterward and felt sudden discomfort, I hoped this meant the prayer was working. I woke up the next morning feeling pressure on my pelvic bone. I felt like today would be the day, I mentioned this to Casey. We laughed because today was the day they were doing a major step on a construction project that was very time sensitive. He said, “Please not today honey. Just wait one more day!”
My sister Anna was babysitting that day and I told Anna the same thing. I was feeling Braxton Hicks contractions throughout the day. They were not painful but they were constant. I went to my appointment at 3:00 PM. I decided to do a membrane sweep and it was extremely painful. The midwife was only able to do it for a second. At this point I was only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. This led the midwife to suggest scheduling an induction for next week.
Shortly after I got home the contractions were getting stronger. They started to be a 2 out of 10 for pain and more frequent. I started timing them. Every hour they got stronger. I started texting my sister Mariya, I wanted to know if this was what natural labor was like. I had been induced with Hannah so I did not know. At 7:00 PM they had reached a 5 out of 10 on the pain scale and 10 of the contractions were only 4 minutes apart. I was sitting on the floor of the bathroom crying when Casey walked in. He insisted calling the midwife despite my protests. The midwife suggested we come in.
We finally got ready by 8:00 PM and headed in. I was checked and was now 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. They asked me for a pee sample. I managed to spill this on my pants in the process. The midwife told me to labor at home for now. I was offered a shot of morphine for the pain while we waited so I could get some sleep. I declined. Casey and I got home around 11:00 PM.
I told Casey to go to sleep even though I was having contractions that kept me up. We were both exhausted and we agreed that Casey should be ready to drive if we had to go back in. The contractions were now a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale. 1:00 AM arrived and I felt like I had either peed or my water had broken. It turned out that it was pee of course. Once we had cleaned the mess Casey went back to sleep.
3:00 AM arrived and I was crying from pain. It was now a 10 out of 10 on the pain scale. Casey said we were going to the hospital now. I tried to stall by cleaning the room which frustrated Casey. I did not want to be sent home again. At 3:30 Casey was no longer asking and told me to get in the car. This turned out to be a good decision.
We got to the hospital around 4:00 AM. When we arrived I was dilated 4 cm and was finally admitted. They got the IV fluids set up which required me to be poked 5 times with needles culminating in the nurses using a special tool that shows your veins through your skin.
I already knew I needed an epidural even though I had hoped to give birth naturally. At 5:30 AM the anesthesiologist arrived and set it up. As of 5:45 AM it was still not working. The midwife checked me again and she said it was time to push. No more time for the epidural.
Naomi’s heart rate started dropping and the midwives mentioned needing to use a vacuum. I did not like the sound of this and pushed 6 minutes straight with a Herculean effort. Naomi arrived at 5:57 AM. We were pleased to welcome Naomi Willow Bromet to the world.
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Bromet Family Blog 