Our Birth Story
** WARNING: This post may be too much for some people. There are some very graphic and to be honest intimate details that I will be sharing. To some, it might be "too much information", but this is my story and I want to share it all.**
I’ve been so excited to sit down and write out our birth story as it was (in my opinion) pretty interesting! Let me give you all a little backstory first. Zach and I decided to build a new house and signed our papers for that on December 17th, 2020, with a tentative closing date of August 16th, 2021. Just 11 short days later we found out we were pregnant with our sweet angel baby with a due date of September 8th, 2021. We were so overwhelmed with all the blessings God was giving us to finish out a year that was less than ideal. As the weeks grew closer to our due date our house had some bumps in the road and the closing date kept getting pushed back. We finally got a final closing date of 8/31 at the beginning of August which made us feel a little uneasy as it was getting dangerously close to our due date. Plus, we knew going in that we would not make it all the way to our due date as my OB wanted to induce between 39 weeks 1 day and 39 weeks 5 days due to my size and what baby was measuring at growth wise.
I found out at my appointment on August 25th that I would be induced on either Thursday (9/2) evening or Friday (9/3) morning depending on how dilated I was on 9/1. So we had a definitive date just days away from our closing date on when baby boy would be here. The week of August 30th was here, and we were still unsure if we would get to close on the 31st or not, but I went ahead and scheduled all of our appointments (movers, appliances, etc.) for that Wednesday the 1st of September anyways because I knew we would be in the hospital to finish out the week. The morning of the 31st rolled around and it was still in question if we would close that day but finally at 1:00 we got the news that we could close at 3 that afternoon (praise)! So we went and signed our papers to become official homeowners and we both felt so relieved that we would have 1-2 days in our house with everything moved before our little man entered the world.
I went to my appointment at 8 AM on Wednesday 9/1 to find out when we would have to check-in to the hospital, remember I’m thinking either Thursday or Friday at this point because that’s what I understood from my appointment on 8/25. As I check-in to the appointment the nurse says to me, “tomorrow’s baby day right?” and I responded dumbfounded, “I mean maybe if he comes really quickly?” I was very confused. She then proceeds to tell me that after he checks my cervix that will determine if we have to check-in to the hospital TONIGHT (Wednesday) or tomorrow morning (Thursday). I was SO confused. I told her that it was my understanding that it was Thursday or Friday not today… So once my OB came in the room to check me I explained my confusion and he then verified that I was scheduled for a 9/1 or 9/2 induction not 9/2 or 9/3… I then started to panic as you can imagine because we were scheduled to move all day – I couldn’t go into the hospital at 5 PM there was just no way! Luckily, I had dilated enough that we didn’t have to check-in until Thursday morning at 5 AM but I was still very overwhelmed with this information and super angry with myself for getting the days wrong. I immediately called Zach and work and cried to him that I messed up and that we would in fact be having our baby TOMORROW instead of Friday like we had thought. This meant we would have 1 night in our new house before bringing a newborn home, ONE. NIGHT. Y’all it was so stressful to think of all the things and how exhausting moving is on top of knowing I needed to rest up for labor!
So after I calmed down over the fact that I was having a baby the next day I went to meet with the movers I had hired at 10 AM. They started to move our bedroom furniture downstairs when one of the movers came and told me that his partner was feeling ill, and they did not feel comfortable being around me since I was pregnant (which I appreciated greatly) and that there were no other crew members available to move us today. Panic mode #2 of the day kicks in immediately as we kind of must move our stuff. So, I called every moving company in NWA and was thankfully able to get someone booked for 2 PM that day (which was a miracle). It took them until 8 PM to get all our stuff moved and I was beyond exhausted. Zach and I got about 3 hours of sleep that night just from nervousness and restlessness of all the excitement from the day.
Our alarm goes off at 4 AM for us to get ready to head to the hospital. We have all of our bags ready to go and we get all checked-in and settled into our room. They hooked me up to an IV and started antibiotics on me (as I tested positive for Group B strep) around 630 or so. Then for the next hour and a half all we did was answer questions and wait around. Both Zach and I were a little frustrated and confused on why we had to be there at 5 AM to wait until 8 for anything to actually begin! Finally, my OB comes in and explains that we’re going to start the induction process. I had planned to try to have a natural birth throughout my pregnancy (I’ll share what I did to prep my mind and body in a later post) so he knew that I was hoping to forgo an epidural. He also knew my history with the medicine Cytotec and how unsuccessful it was during my miscarriage, so we did not go that route during the induction. Instead, he likes to use a combination of Pitocin and a foley bulb to induce. So we started the Pitocin and they inserted the foley bulb around 8-8:25 AM. If you don’t know what a foley bulb is, google it but I’ll give a short description. It’s like a catheter type tube they insert into your cervix and then fill it with saline. I got 60 ml of saline to help dilate my cervix quicker. They then increased my Pitocin hourly based on my contractions. At this point I was apparently having contractions, but I didn’t really notice them to be honest. I was able to walk around and move, bounce on a ball, do squats etc. with the foley bulb in, it just felt odd tbh. A couple of hours (2-3 hours) had passed and my contractions weren’t getting too much worse, so I had the nurse check my bulb and sure enough it had kind of popped itself out which means it had done all that my body was going to allow it to do. So I just thought that the nurse was checking the bulb, when all of a sudden she literally just ripped it out…. It didn’t hurt, but it definitely took me off guard and was a very weird feeling! My OB then came in to check on how far dilated I was (this was around 1230-1 PM) and I was to a 6.5! They upped my Pitocin again and elected to manually break my water. This was the WEIRDEST feeling ever… I mean it literally felt like I was continuously peeing on myself haha it was aggressive. I was told that once they broke my water my contractions would most likely get very painful so if I was considering an epidural yet I should really think about it. I told them I wanted to continue to wait it out which they were fine with. I continued to bounce on the ball, lay side lying on the peanut ball, and doing squats/lunges throughout the room. There was a point about an 1-2 hours after my water broke where my contractions were getting more painful, still tolerable, but definitely painful. It was at this point where I told Zach that if I was going to be stuck at a 6.5 dilation for a while that I wasn’t sure I would be able to do this without the epidural… but we talked it out and decided to wait just a little longer.
Around 3:00 I told the nurse that I was starting to have the feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom (#2 haha) but that I didn’t actually need to so she decided to check to see how dilated I was. I had gone from a 6.5 to a 9! It was then that I realized it was probably too late for the epidural, so I got my mind right to just keep going. The nurse and Zach were so encouraging the whole time. All of a sudden all of my contractions made me have the urge to push, but I was told repeatedly not to push because I wasn’t to that stage of labor yet. Let me tell you something, when your body has the urge to push it is insanely hard to negate that urge and just breath through it instead. This went on for about 30-45 minutes were anytime I had a contraction Zach would coach me to not push but to breath. I was seriously making the most awful noises, I can’t even describe it other than a freaking water buffalo haha but I couldn’t help it! It’s what my body was doing! The nurse came back in and noted that my contractions were sounding more and more intense so she wanted to check me. I was finally to a 10, it was time to start pushing for real! So my OB and another nurse (who was actually a nursing student) came in and it was officially time to have our baby.
My OB asked Zach if he would be able to help out and hold one of my legs (poor Zach) and of course he said he would. So I had Zach on my right leg and the nursing student on my left, it was time to push. I was told I would push for 10 seconds at a time for 3 consecutive pushes every time I had a contraction. I really can’t put it into words how difficult it was to make it to the 3rd 10-second push. I was so exhausted by that time it was hard. This cycle of 3-10 second pushes went on for 30-45 minutes and every time I kept having more and more pelvic pain/pressure that was super intense. It was painful, yes, but it wasn’t super painful – more uncomfortable and a very weird feeling.
My OB, Zach and the nurses were SO amazing during this process helping coach me through every contraction and giving me the positive affirmations, I needed to keep going. Finally, I was down to 2 more pushes before I would get to meet my baby boy. The last series was so crazy I wish I could describe it better. All I can say is I felt this insane pressure and a true “ring of fire” feeling in my pelvis that was so intense, but I just kept pushing through it until all of a sudden, my OB said “Erin, look, it’s your son” and he was here! I couldn’t believe what had just happened, I just gave birth to my beautiful baby boy! Jett David White was officially here at 5:27 pm weighing 7 lb, 3 oz and was 19” long. He was immediately placed on my chest, and I was in shock. Zach was squeezing my hand and crying as he admired the miracle that was our baby boy. I can’t put into words the emotions that were going through me as I held this sweet angel in my arms. I couldn’t believe he was here for one and that I was able to do all of that without medication.
After they cut his umbilical cord and took him for measurements, my OB helped me deliver the placenta (another very weird feeling) and stitched me up. Luckily, I only required 2 stiches and to be honest the lidocaine shot was not the most comfortable which is funny to me seeing as I had just pushed a baby out haha he stitched me up and I was given my sweet baby boy back. We immediately started nursing as he was rooting once on my chest, it was such a surreal moment for all of us.
We spent two nights in the hospital because I was step B positive, and Jett was coombs positive which put him at risk for high levels of bilirubin/jaundice. Thankfully Jett’s labs stayed level and checked out and we were able to go home after 48 hours!
It was a crazy, amazing, and unforgettable experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Just writing all of this out makes me cry just thinking about how miraculous it all is. God is so good and He continues to amaze me with His miracles.
