So here I am sitting next to a sleepy nursing little dumpling ( who loves to cluster feed ) trying to take this time I have to type out her birth story in as much detail as I can! I realized that I never did a birth story for Iris so I figured I’d share a few words on that before I dive into this one! So, pretty much with Iris I had all these notions of what I expected labor to be and it did not end up the way I expected. I had already began the prelabor process a month or so before as I was 80 effaced and 3.5 cm dilated. Well her due date came and went and so did 6 more days. So on the 7th day over I had an appointment and ultrasound to make sure everything was all good in there. Well as the ultrasound tech began to look around with the monitor on my belly she states, “ Well hunny you’re going to have a baby today.” In my head I was like wait what? She then proceeds to tell me I have like no water left. To which you may be thinking wouldn’t I have known?! Well honestly not really. I realized my belly seemed significantly smaller that week but from everyone talking about the baby “ dropping” I assumed it was just that, with it being my first baby and all what was I to think? I didn’t know that you could have a slow leak that could happen as you’re using the bathroom etc. So naturally I started to tear up as she told me I needed to head to the hospital to be induced. I really really hated the idea of induction and didn’t want it at all, but now I didn’t have a choice. So long story short, I mean this is Poppy’s birth story after all, I arrived at the hospital and they hooked me up to pitocin. Then after a few hours of waiting for it to kick in at 5 O’Clock a contraction hit Real Hard, like 0-100, and they didn’t stop after that. From then on it was 5 hours of 1-2 minute apart hard labor contractions and I had Iris naturally/no epidural at 10 pm on December 8th! One part of the process I got to still complete naturally as I had originally wanted it all to go natural, so I am proud of that. Also, to our surprise as she was being born the doctor proclaimed, “ It’s a miracle baby!” To which we were completely confused, as he then showed us that there was a knot in her cord that was just enough loose for the blood still to flow the whole pregnancy! How incredible is that?! That’s why sometimes I find her name so fitting. Iris means a rainbow, it’s like she was her own little rainbow 🌈. Anyways, that was the brief telling of Iris’s birth story to catch you up to Poppy’s!
Oh Poppy girl, you really gave me a run for my money this last month of pregnancy. So naturally after Iris’s birth I really wanted to experience this birth naturally. I wanted to know the feeling of “ It’s time!!” I hated the idea of driving to the hospital again knowing you’re going to meet you’re baby that day but not feeling any different, it was so anticlimactic. Not to mention pitocin in my experience was intense and I didn’t want to experience it that way again ( jokes on me because this time wasn’t much less intense). So, Poppy was due on December 26th. Our best friends also were due to have their baby boy on the same day! Crazy right?! Their baby boy, Wyatt, came on the 1st just incase you were curious! Anyways, December came and I was already starting to experience a lot of prelabor signs. I’d have braxton hicks quite frequently and the first time I got checked at 37 weeks I had already been dilating and effacing. I ended up being the same dilation and effacement as with Iris a few weeks prior to my due date ( 80 effaced and 3.5 cm dilated). Not to mention Poppy had her head So Low for So long! I know not everyone experiences this feeling but she would scrape my pelvic area/cervix with her head so hard every single day multiple times! Yes it hurt, it felt like she was trying to claw her way out to put it simply😬. The few weeks prior to her birth I really began to feel like she had to be coming really soon. The pelvic pressure was more and more intense. The braxton hicks/contractions were happening more regularly and becoming more and more uncomfortable. The scraping became worse as she began to have what I called the witching hour where before bed for about an hour or so she would give me stabbing, shooting, scraping pain down in there every couple of minutes and it would make my sciatic go crazy! My heartburn got worse again at night keeping me up again. So all of this to say she was really making these last weeks super fun lol! Well my due date came, to my surprise as I was shocked she hadn’t clawed her way out by now! However I really did expect to go over a bit as that’s normal. I was not expecting to go as long as I did though 🙃. A week past my due date came and I went to my appointment and my doctor swept my membranes. That day the contractions definitely got stronger and the pelvic pressure was… Woah! I really felt like it might be it. Well the next morning I lost my bloody show. Which I had been losing pieces of my mucus plug for weeks but this was like all of it and the show! So I then got really excited as this had to be a sign that it was today or tomorrow right?! Nope! Every day after that the contractions in the night got worse, the back pain got worse, and so did the pelvic pressure, but no labor. I won’t lie I began to feel hopeless that my body would never go into labor. It did all of this crazy prelabor prep work and it wasn’t going to go into labor?! Well, they scheduled my induction for Jan 8th, 13 days past my due date. Jan 7th came and I accepted that I was just going to have to be induced. So we planned for Iris to stay the night at my mom’s as my induction was at 7:30 am, that way we could head right there first thing. That day I noticed my irregular contractions that I had been having for weeks felt a little different. I felt it more in my pelvic/down there region. It was a little more stabbing. Not enough for me to pay much attention though because at that point I’d convinced myself it was never happening. So I went about my day and then took Iris over to my mom’s around 6:30 and then headed home. Jesse and I spent some time together, had dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed. Right around 3 O’clock in the morning I got woken up. This was pretty normal for me as it had been happening pretty much every night. However, this time it was a little more intense. The contraction felt stronger. I got up to go to the bathroom and realized by the time I was in the bathroom another came just as strong. Still convinced it was nothing I pulled out my contraction timer on my phone. I began to time them. 2 minutes. 2 minutes. 2 minutes. 2 minutes. My app went off to say, “ Get Ready to head to the hospital!” I kept timing. Next one was 5 minutes. Then 3 minutes. I was so confused. I’m like see they aren’t regular, this still isn’t it. At this point my back was really killing and the contractions were super painful don’t let my casualty fool you, I was just still in denial. I woke Jesse up and asked if he could rub my back as it was really hurting and told him how I was timing the contractions. Well as I’m telling him I realized I couldn’t bare to really even have him rub my back as the contractions were strong and it wasn’t helping. He then said, “ Paige I’m gonna go start the car.” Thank God for him because we probably would not have made it if he hadn’t decided so fast. I went over to my bag to make sure I had everything and called the doctor, mind you this is all happening within like a half hour since I woke up. So I reached my OB office and she told me to wait for the doctor to call back. So I hung up and waited a minute or two and the on call doctor got back to me saying , “ Hey Paige, you’re having regular contractions? Come on over!” I realized as I was standing there that I could no longer talk during the contractions at all and my legs were shaking bad. By the time we got out the door which was around 3:40ish my legs were horribly shaking as I was fighting through the contractions. We got in the car immediately after I got the call and headed that way. Well I should also state that the roads were horrible. We had gotten some wet snow that night and it was now 26 degrees outside. So we were speeding under pretty terrible conditions. Thank the Lord everything went okay! Anyways back to the story. So I’m pretty sure the ride there was a complete blur. I had my hand clenched around the top ceiling handle squeezing for dear life and had the other hand on my face as I was bracing myself through each horribly painful contraction that was coming less than every 2 minutes. I had been induced with Iris and the contractions were super intense as anyone who has been induced well knows, but this time it honestly might have been worse on the pain scale somehow. I’m not sure if it was her position or what but I would call it to put it plainly “ rectal” like contractions, where you not only felt it in your abdomen and back but all down there it was so sharp and crushing. I don’t know it was just different this time. Well anyways… we got about half way there ( the hospital is about 30 minutes away from our house, we got there in 20👀) and this super strong contraction came with an immense amount of pressure and I felt it. My water broke. In my head I was screaming, Oh No!! I told Jesse we weren’t gonna make it. I was terrified we weren’t going to make it. No wonder my legs were shaking I literally just went from 0-100 in like an hour and I knew when my water broke she was there, it was time to push but I wasn’t about to have my baby in the car! So I fought it. I fought it real hard. Now every contraction came and now I was fighting through the contractions and the urge to push ( which If you know this urge to push sensation it is really painful and hard to fight against it) and it also makes the contractions more painful to fight against. So I was half way to the hospital praying, praying to please lord make it. You hear stories of people having their babies in the car, but when it’s a reality, it’s honestly terrifying. I didn’t want it. Every mile closer Jesse would say, “ Only 4 more miles… Only three more miles. We’re gonna make it!” We made it. We pulled right in front by the emergency entrance and parked. I got out and Jesse said he would go get a wheelchair, to which I said, “ No!! We don’t have time!” As I stood crippled over fighting through another contraction and holding my baby in. He then was insisting on carrying me and began to pick me up, as I lightly yelled in desperation, ” No please don’t touch me, I can’t!” Poor guy, just trying to help me haha. At this point it was too much to think about anyone touching anything. All I could focus on was getting through the next one and making it upstairs before my baby came. We got into the building stopping with every contraction, as we realized all the doors inside were locked to get upstairs and no one was to be found! Jesse finally saw a lady in the back behind a desk and said, “ Maam, we need to get upstairs!” She then proceeded to tell him we had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, as to which he quickly said that we did not have time for that right now. Thankfully at that very minute two male nurses walked through the door and saw our desperation and one quickly got a wheelchair, sat me in it, and took us up to the fifth floor for labor and delivery. Once we arrived they directed me quickly in the first room casually telling me to go put on my gown, which honestly felt utterly ridiculous to be putting on a gown and I could barely stand, but I did it, as more water and blood gushed onto the floor. I quickly walked out and onto the bed as the nurse checked me. She calmly exclaims, “ Okay go get the doctor you’re going to meet your baby in a minute.” In my head I was like, “I Know!!” As in I could feel that she was ready to arrive 20 minutes ago. At this time it’s about 4:15 in the morning, like I said this is all within a little over an hour🤯. Jesse texted my mom and his at like 4:11 so we barely had a second to even let anyone know anything! Again, thank the Lord that Iris was ironically already at my mom’s otherwise she would have experienced this traumatic event! The doctor comes in and the nurse tries to coach me through pushing saying it will feel better. Well listen. I know sometimes it feels better, but this time it did not. At all. It was the worst. It honestly hurt so bad this time. Maybe because it all happened so fast, and the baby was so low for so long, I’m not sure! But It felt like someone was knifing me as I was pushing with the contraction. Well there was no way I was doing that for long, so I pushed with all I had a few times, I remember screaming on one of the last ones and at 4:30 am Poppy Odette Johnson was born. 7 lbs 13oz and 21 inch. I couldn’t believe it. Once it was over I literally was like what in the world just happened!! I couldn’t believe it was over. I had it all in my mind that I was going in at 7:30 am to be induced and I had the process all in my mind. It was now 4:30am and she was here! I couldn’t believe it. Man she really showed me, lol. Here I was doubting my body and here she was, as my body just went into overdrive and showed me just what it could do. 👀 After that recovery was so fast! I felt really good like within an hour or so after. To my surprise even the very next day my milk came in and everything, so everything happened super fast! I honestly felt like myself within like 2 days which is insane I know, I’m super greatful for that, and honestly that pretty much sums up the most part of our crazy journey! Now she is here lying next to me as I get to look back on her arrival as if it were years ago even tho it’s been a week! I’m sure I’ll have more to share baby wise in weeks to come, but right now she’s pretty high maintenance as most newborns are hah! Let me know if you have anything you’d like to hear about or see on here!❤️ I’m off to watch an episode of the bachelor because I’m a sucker! If you’ve gotten this far I applaud you and thanks for coming along with me to reminisce! I hope you enjoyed!
Paige ✨
