22/12/2024
part 1 of my 42 hour birth story of Willow 🌿
On September 21st around 8am I woke up to my water breaking, we had just went to sleep at 6am so I was already so tired. I immediately woke up Garrett to let him know because my surges started out STRONG. Within the hour they were already happening every 3 minutes, so we headed to the hospital. I remember them being so intense and thinking I was about to give birth in the car, but boy was I wrong. We got to the hospital and met up with my birth team and they checked to see how dilated I was, I didn’t want to know. The surges continued to intensify, so after a few hours I decided to get into the water tub with Garrett. I remember going through so many intense emotions in that tub, discomfort, joyfulness, and determination. As the hours passed I was checked again and informed that my forebag was still intact. So they broke my forebag and found meconium, which resulted in us having to give up on the water birth as it now imposed a risk. This was heartbreaking for me, as it was what I envisioned for so long. That night was difficult, I was exhausted and saddened by how different my labor was from what I imagined it to be. As the sun came up, I found a new source of energy and felt confident as I danced in the room with Garrett, trying to do anything we could to help Willow out. By the morning I was checked again and I still hadn’t progressed since 4pm the day before so we tried an e***a and benadryl, with no avail. I remember feeling so defeated and so utterly broken, as a first time mom it felt like I was never going to meet my baby, because I didn’t know what it was like being a mom yet, everything just felt hopeless.
