The Story of Sawyer's Birth

While I have always given a ton of credit to women who choose to give birth drug-free, I have never had even the most fleeting desire to be one of them. In fact, for a lot of this pregnancy, I have been saying how fearful I was of getting to the hospital without enough time to get an epidural. To me, this thought was completely terrifying! It’s also exactly what happened.

For weeks I’ve been having painful contractions on and off. However, after one close call that led to a hospital visit at 35 weeks, I hadn’t made any further progress. I stayed one centimeter dilated from that point up until my last ob visit at 38 weeks. Since Sadie was born at 36 weeks, I was very much expecting Sawyer to make an early arrival as well. However, the daily contractions passed without accomplishing anything.

Tuesday night, December 14^th, one day before I hit 39 weeks, my body decided to go full speed ahead. I’d felt nothing unusual all day, except maybe an increase in my desire to clean and organize the house. I wasn’t having contractions that day or evening. I was watching TV upstairs, and came down to eat some cookies and hot chocolate and hang out with Nate. I got up from the couch, and I was hit with the most painful contraction I’d had throughout this pregnancy. It was a little after 9:30 pm, and that’s when it all started. The next contraction followed just a few minutes later, and they continued to come about 4 minutes apart. I decided to go shower, time my contractions, and then call the Dr. if the contractions stayed consistent.

While Nate packed his hospital bag, I continued to time my contractions at about 3 minutes apart. After an hour, I called the Dr. It was about 10:30pm. The Dr. asked if I wanted to labor at home for awhile or head over to the hospital. I told him I was afraid of not getting an epidural and that I preferred to go right to the hospital. Nate and I then finished getting our stuff together and waited for my dad to get to the house to stay with Sadie. Meanwhile, Nate’s parents were heading up to eventually take over for my dad, and my mom was on her way to meet us at the hospital.

At this point, I was doubled-over, knocked to ground, and moaning in pain. The car ride to the hospital was miserable. We arrived there at about 11:15pm. I was checked out by a nurse immediately. She told me I was 6 centimeters dilated! While this should have been good news, I was sure it meant no epidural. The nurse assured me that it was still possible I’d get to have drugs.

I was taken to my room and the nurses began to get me admitted. During this time, I was checked again and had already reached 7 centimeters! I was finally admitted a little before midnight. At this point my mom was able to come into the room with Nate and me. My dad and brother were out in the waiting room.

I needed to have my blood work checked out and receive two bags of fluids before I could have the epidural. I was in terrible pain and was checked again and found to be 8 centimeters! It was happening so fast. The nurses said the anesthesiologist was at home about 30 minutes away and asked if I thought it was worth asking her to come to the hospital still. I said yes.

However, I started to feel the need to push during the contractions. I was checked again, and was now 9 centimeters! The nurses then left to call my Dr.

Dr. Shaya arrived to deliver my baby. The epidural was not happening and I was pretty freaked out; but, I was super ready to push and get the pain over with. Plus, I was so ready to meet little Sawyer! I was 10 centimeters, but needed to thin out a tiny bit more. When the nurses told me to try not to push yet, I was panicked because the need was getting stronger.

My water still hadn’t broken, so the Dr. had to go in and break it himself. Nate almost passed out at this point, but he managed to keep it together. It was then time to push. I have only been able to describe this part as “heading into the light.” The pain was so extreme that it was like a near-death, out-of-body experience. But it was quick!! Three pushes and Sawyer was out!! He came out crying and he was beautiful! A very big 8lbs, 1oz and 20.25in long! It was 1:30am, two hours after I arrived at the hospital, and four hours after my first contraction. It was painful, but it happened fast, and it gave us Sawyer Montgomery Smith! Welcome Sawyer!