My labor and delivery Story

So childbirth is not at all what I thought it would be. I thought that the closer I got to October 12th I would start to get nervous, but that never happened. I just became anxious to meet the little man that was growing inside of me.

It was Friday, October 6th, I had my weekly doctors appointment and I learned that I was 1.5” dilated, I was so excited. My doctor told me that usually, first time moms go past their due date. I wasn’t trying to hear that. I wanted my water to break walking to the car. I immediately went to the market and got all the fruits I read helped induce labor. After that, I went over to the dollar store to buy two bags of hot fries and a Coca-Cola with the hope that I could induce my labor with spicy food. I was nowhere near done after that I went on a hunt for a big bouncy ball. My best friend ended up bringing me hers and I spent that evening up until about 2 am bouncing on the ball. Doing hip circles on the ball. Dutty whining on the ball, all of this and still no Mehki. The next day I went to the gym twice and walked almost 3 miles on the treadmill.For the duration of the weekend, I bounced and shook and swirled, trying to drop baby boy down into the birthing canal. My fear that he wasn’t going to come the weekend before my due date came true. Like any expectant mother, the “where’s the baby?” texts and calls didn’t do anything to help with the anticipation.

The following week was agonizing. Excitement woke me up early every morning even after my full 

bladder kept me up all night. Each day dragged. My phone pretty much stayed on whattoexpect.com. babycenter.com, and parents.com. I didn't get any action again until Sunday night October 15th. I was Finally getting consistent contractions. Each time one would roll in and I would screenshot the time. I timed a few of them to track the consistency. They ranged from every 5-8 minutes and lasted about 50 seconds. The pain was truly something that I don’t think I can put into words. If I had to try I would describe the feeling as; a sudden yet gradual, all-encompassing, wrenching pain that sends a surge of heat through your entire body with the intensity to leave you curled up in the fetal position. Imagine when you’re trying to squeeze all the water out of your washcloth, that’s what it feels like is happening to your entire mid-section. Those contractions kicked my ass. I had to breeeatheee. I groaned. I put clothes on. I took clothes off. I stretched on the floor. I laid over the birthing ball. I cried out loud. My sister said I sounded like Angela on that episode of Power when Ghost came over and broke up with her at the end of season 3. For a person who’s never so much as broke a bone (knock on wood), this was some otherworldly sh**t.

My boyfriend and I  went to the hospital only to be turned away after an hour. I hadn’t dilated after All that foolishness. Again I was disappointed, with a phone full of texts awaiting good news. We went to my moms and ate and chilled there for the day. If only I had known......

That night at 10:40 on the dot contractions started raining down on me again. I laid in bed twisting and turning and screen shooting, thinking that it probably wasn’t going to happen for at least another few days. My contractions were a consistent 7 minutes apart for about 4 hours. Then around 3am, they became 5 minutes apart. Around this time my boyfriend ran me a bath and I made me a quick “uplifting” playlist of Jhene Aiko and Lauryn Hill to keep me from losing my mind. I really felt like the music and the bath helped. I wanted to wait it out to see if my contractions would get closer together. So I limped around our apartment every 5 minutes bending over at the waist, panting and groaning...every once in a while crying. We headed out to the hospital around 8am. The ride to the hospital was interesting. I knew I wanted to look decent in case this was the real thing. I hadn’t slept in 2 days, I was not trying to meet my baby looking like Beetlejuice. So between dabbing concealer under my eyes, and brushing my eyebrows, there were tears and the Real curse words.

I could’ve dropped to a split (pregnant and all) when we arrived at the hospital and I learned I was 4 centimeters dilated. It was On!! My baby was coming Today! I was soooooo ecstatic. My family was already en route, everything was in place. Still, the contractions had their foot on my neck. But it was all good because I knew help was on the way. My epidural was chilling on ice. I was hooked up to IV’s, which was a cool feeling, literally. My epidural contrary to what I thought, was a breeze. I asked myself “You want this to be the last contraction you feel, right?” I bent that spine, hugged that pillow and shut my eyes really tight and that was the beginning of me actually enjoying my labor/delivery.

Just like in a movie my family arrived about twenty minutes before my water broke. My mother and my boyfriend were in the room and the nurses had to ask my mother no less than 10 times to stop recording (she got the whole thing). It was time to push and surprisingly while it took all the strength that I had, it didn’t hurt like I thought it would. But then again that epidural was a gift from God. I pushed from 1:17pm to 1:35pm. I didn’t open my eyes, I didn’t talk, I grit, held my breath and dug deep into the soul of my inner warrior woman.  The last push was so surreal. I don’t think anything will ever compare to the feeling neither emotionally nor physically of bringing your baby into the world. Words just don’t do it justice.

I was so spent after pushing Ki out. I remember laying back getting stitches (that I hardly felt btw) and catching my breath watching nurses scurry around my wailing baby. I remember how warm and full I felt when I was able to put Mehki on my chest, ahhhh skin to skin <3 I had waited all year for that. He was so beautiful and delicate and alert. In my head, I kept thinking to myself “omg you’re someone’s mother” “you have a son, what the hell, is this for real” . October 16th, 2017 was such an unforgettable day. I am completely and wholly obsessed with my sweet baby Mehki. Just a flash of those gums and I just melt.