The labor

On December 23, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to go to the bathroom (pregnant women pee a lot) and noticed a trickle that wasn't normal. The thought immediately occurred to me that my water broke but as it was 3 1/2 weeks early, I dismissed the thought and went back to bed. The trickle continued and I realized that I was, in fact, going to have a baby soon. I laid in bed trying to process everything and let H sleep until his alarm went off. Here was the conversation we had when H woke up:

Me: Well, you are going to get your tax deduction.

H: Huh? (to be fair, he did just wake up)

Me: You're going to get your tax deduction.

H: Why?

Me: My water broke.

H: Really? When?

Me: Yes. An hour and a half ago.

I don't remember the rest of the conversation, but my next step was to call our doula (she was amazing - worth every penny!) and describe what was happening. Next, we called the doctor who was on her way home from the hospital. Her reaction was pure excitement. Not for us, really, for herself. She was so excited that she would no longer have to keep the secret about the baby's sex. She said this is the longest she's ever kept a secret in her life. (As a refresher, her husband and H work together and are good friends. So she knew us on a more personal level and had to keep this a secret from her husband and us.) Since contractions had not yet begun, she told us to just hang out a while and keep her posted.

H booked a hotel room in Manhattan (we didn't want to drive in to the city while I was far into labor) and we packed, got the puppy ready and headed into the city in the early afternoon. By 9:00 that evening, my contractions had not begun so I was asked to check in to the hospital so the doctor could start them for me. (It is considered dangerous for the baby to be inside the womb more than 24 hours after the water broke.) My hope of laboring outside of the hospital was gone - on to plan B.

At the hospital I requested intermittent monitoring and no drugs (yes, I wanted to have my baby without painkillers). Because of this, I was given a Hep-Lock and pricked three times before it was put in correctly. Since they did need to start contractions, I was given cervidil which opens the cervix and hopefully starts contractions. This was inserted at midnight and contractions began the next morning.

Throughout the day I walked the halls and labored on a birthing ball. We kept the mood in the room very mellow by turning the lights down, playing relaxing music (Barefoot Truth, Jack Johnson, etc.) and maintaining calm voices. H was amazing and very supportive the entire time. The doula's skills and knowledge were indispensable. Unfortunately, I had back labor (the most painful kind of labor) the entire time.

Around 5:00 p.m. on December 24, I was told that I was still only dilated 4 or 5 centimeters and needed pitocin. So I was given the pitocin and the contractions got so bad that I couldn't handle it anymore. My doctor said that it would be at least another 5 or 6 hours before the baby came and "We're little Jewish women, we're not made to do this without pain medication. That's for those 18-year-old Latin women with big hips." So I got the epidural (another few pricks for them to get it right - my contractions were so close together that they didn't have much time) and settled in to relax.

Relaxation never happened as the pitocin made my whole body shake and I could still feel each contraction. An hour and a half later, I was fully dilated and ready to push. A quick 30 minutes later and a beautiful baby girl was born! Since she was so tiny (4 lbs. 14 ounces), she came out very fast and with perfect skin. No bruises, dents, etc. And I only had 1/2 a stitch.

Tali looks a lot like me when I was a baby. My parents compared pictures and it's pretty incredible to see.

Looking back, I'm not angry or upset that I had the epidural. I think it was the right decision and helped my labor progress. And, since it takes six hours for those drugs to get into the baby's system, Tali was born drug-free. At our follow-up meeting with the doula, she said that I'll probably be able to have a drug-free birth next time. But for now, I'll just focus on this baby.