Piper's Birth Story

Arlynnda
Apr 14, 2020
8 min read

Piper Grace Heinrich

April 4, 2019, 12:41pm

7lbs 4 oz

It has been over a year since the last full day I would get Piper all to myself before she decided to join us earthside, so I thought I'd write a little bit about how she got here. I'm sure you all want to get to the good part, so I'll try to keep the intro short.

I started getting Braxton Hicks contractions 25 weeks into my pregnancy. I would get a tightening in my belly that would feel like she was stretching from end to end, when really it was my belly squeezing in and holding her tight, practicing for her entrance into the world. I got them weekly, sometimes daily, for the rest of my pregnancy. I asked my doctor how to tell the difference between Braxton Hicks and labor contractions. She said labor contractions would be so intense that I wouldn't be able to walk or talk through them.

On April 2, 2019, when I was out to dinner, I had BH contractions again, but this time they felt different... and they felt like they were getting closer together. I started timing them and they were about 5-15 minutes apart. They continued through the next day, but I was working and wasn't able to time them. After work I decided to stop by the hospital on my way home to ask if I should be concerned about having contractions 5-15 minutes apart, even though they weren't "intense".

"I can still walk and talk" I thought.

But I knew I was already 3 centimeters dilated at my last doctor appointment, so I just wanted to make sure I shouldn't be worried.

My doctor told me that since they were so close, my Braxton Hicks could be a sign of labor. "Go home, lay down, and time them for an hour", she said. "If they are less than 5 minutes apart for a solid hour, come back to the hospital."

I got home around 4:30pm and immediately went to lay down and time my contractions for the next hour. I stopped timing around the same time Vance got home from work. They weren't super consistent, but they varied between 3-7 minutes apart for an hour. I got everything into the car and was ready to go by 6:00pm when Vance told me he had a "few things to do" before we left.

I thought "Maybe this isn't it. Maybe it's not time. I can still walk and talk."

It was 8:00pm by the time we started heading to the hospital and my contractions had all but disappeared. However, I still wanted to go and check to make sure I was or was not in labor. I knew that once I got there I probably wouldn't be able to eat and we still hadn't had dinner yet, so I requested that we stop by Whataburger on our way there. Best decision ever.

Vance dropped me off at the emergency room entrance and left to park the car. I walked up to the check-in desk and when the woman asked me why I was there I calmly replied "I think I'm in labor". She looked up at me from behind the glass and I could tell by the look on her face that she thought I was crazy. I knew I looked perfectly fine and not at all like the sweaty, screaming version of labor we have all seen on TV, and I continued to check in.

"I can still walk and talk."

They ushered me through a door to a waiting room, where I sat waiting for Vance (he had gotten lost trying to find the waiting room from where he parked the car.) Shortly after he found me, a nurse came down with a wheelchair and told us she would be taking me to a room. As I got in the chair, she looked at me and said "Are you sure you're in labor?". I said "No I'm not, but I'm here to find out!".

"I can still walk and talk."

Once we got to the room, the nurse strapped me up to some machines to monitor Piper's heart rate and my contractions. They had gotten further apart since I had timed them at home. I looked at the mountains rising and falling on the screen, and they looked so... small. Not like mountains, more like rolling hills or sand dunes.

The nurse told me the doctor might send us home.

The doctor checked my dilation. I was 4 centimeters. I asked if I could walk around the halls to try to get my contractions back up; I was on my feet all day at work and it seemed like that helped. The doctor said they would unhook me so we could walk around a bit. I took this photo so I would remember which room to go back to.

"I can still walk and talk."

Vance and I made laps. First a lap around the bottom floor, then up the stairs, a lap around the top floor, down the stairs, a lap around the bottom floor, repeat for an hour. By 11:00pm, we went back to the room. I got strapped back into the machines and they checked my contractions.

Sand dunes.

Since I was 39 weeks and 6 days and contracting, the doctor decided to admit me. We decided to rest. I didn't sleep. The machine monitoring Piper's heart rate kept slipping and the nurse would have to come in and adjust it. She'd pull it tighter to make it stay and it felt like it was squeezing my belly harder than my contractions. I had to sleep on my left side because if I turned over, Piper would move and they'd come and adjust the machine again. But the monitor was behind me, so every so often I'd turn and watch my contractions.

Sand dunes.

At 5:30am the doctor woke me up to check my dilation. 4 centimeters. No change. "We're going to break your water", he said. "What a great thing to wake up to", I thought. Turns out, that's just what my body needed. After they broke my water, they came and checked my dilation every one-two hours.

7:00am - 5 centimers.

9:00am - 6 centimeters.

10:30am - 7 centimeters.

"Do you want the epidural now?", the nurse asked. I had been watching my contractions. They felt a little more intense than my usual Braxton Hicks by this point. I looked at the screen. The sand dunes had turned into rolling hills. Mountains, even. But I felt okay. I could handle it still. "Should I get it now?", I was always worried about waiting "too long" and not being able to get one. I was afraid of being that woman in the movies that's crowning and asking for an epidural. "It's up to you", the nurse said. I decided it was probably a good idea not to wait.

The anesthesiologist had Vance sit in front of me as I sat on the side of the bed and hunched over. "Don't move", he said. I hated the epidural. It made my entire body shake, as if I was in freezing cold water. They tell you that you can't feel your legs, but they don't tell you that they feel like they're frozen. The nurses brought me heated blankets to stop my shivering. They helped a little. Vance would occasionally walk by and squeeze my foot. I probably would've kicked him in the teeth if my legs weren't numb. His hands felt like needles in my skin; like when your foot falls asleep and you try to walk on it. It made me want to throw up. Did I mention I hated the epidural?

11:30am - 9 centimeters.

"Ten", the nurse says, as she stretches me while checking my dilation. "You're having a baby!", she smiles at me.

Then Vance says "Do I have time to shower?" I could have killed him. Right then. If I could walk and didn't feel like puking.

He really did go shower. While I was ten centimeters dilated and practically in stirrups. I will never let him live that down. While he showered, the nurses prepped the room for delivery.

In all honesty, it was probably the quickest shower in the history of the world and he finished right as the nurses were done. Everyone left the room except Vance, my mother-in-law, two nurses, and me (obviously, I can't walk, remember?).

My nurse, Kayla, explained how everything would go. She told me she was going to watch my contractions and as they climbed, she would tell me to push and I would hold it through the entire contraction, as she counted out loud. Then I could rest, but only for a few seconds until the next contraction and I'd push again. And we'd keep doing that until I had a baby in my arms. Kayla is an angel. A real-life, honest-to-god angel. I cannot imagine having any other nurse coach me through the most important moment of my life.

Everyone got in their places. Vance was on my left and his mom was on my right. Vance and another nurse helped hold my legs and his mom held my hand. Kayla sat on the bed in front of me and said "You're gonna have a baby!"

12:00pm - I started pushing.

If I'm being honest, I couldn't feel anything. Remember when I said I hated the epidural? "I take it all back now", I thought. I was SO thankful for that epidural. By the look on my husband's face, I was glad I was numb. But it also made it hard for me to tell what I was doing, what was working and what wasn't, and how close I was to having this baby. I was exhausted. I couldn't feel her crowning, but I could feel the pushing, and it was the most exhausting thing I have ever done. Since I couldn't tell what I was doing, I imagined my body was like dough and as I pushed, I imagined I was rolling the dough and squeezing it from the top of my chest down through by stomach, like a tube of toothpaste. I know this is a weird analogy, but I swear it helped me push and it kept my mind focused.

I remember smiling and laughing mid-birth, but I don't remember exactly what I said. I'm sure it went something like this. "I can't! This is hard work! Why do people do this??" I really hadn't been pushing that long and all I could think about was how some women do this for HOURS and I literally could not imagine it lasting a minute more.

"When you push, her head starts to come out, but when you stop between contractions, it's like she gets sucked back in", Kayla tells me. "We need to do a few really good pushes, okay?"

For every "I can't", Kayla came back with a "Yes you can!". She really is an angel, y'all. I pushed three more times before she said "She's almost here, I'm going to have them call the doctor". Then they put me in the stirrups. I knew once the doctor came in, I'd be home free. They really are just there to catch the baby. Just a few more pushes and I'd be done.

I rolled that dough. I squeezed that toothpaste. I climbed mountains, y'all.

And there she was.