It Was A Movie

Ok so it didn’t quite happen like this but you get the point!

Let’s see if this one can be brief, but like always, don’t hold me to it!

So, we met around Thanksgiving but we’d been talking a little bit before that on IG.

We chatted and hit it off pretty quickly.

This was her second baby, but her first baby with me.

We talked about her first birth, what that experience was like, what she wants to do differently this time, etc.

We meshed well and the interaction felt good!

I don’t recall the conversation completely but we discovered that we’re sorors and that really sealed the deal for me because it always feels good to support a soror during this most intimate time of life.

Our conversations got more familiar and we laughed more and just chatted about everything and nothing.

We moved through her prenatals and had pretty frequent check-ins.

Fast Forward To Due Week.

Let me start by saying that we never really know what the body is going to do after the first baby.

Sometimes it goes incredibly fast and sometimes it’s what I like to call a crockpot birth, meaning it’s just low and slow.

Well, we reached due date and baby girl still was here yet but she already had considerable dilation and effacement and baby was a little low soooooooo

We’re heading into 41 weeks and baby still hadn’t arrived so we discuss labor augmentation vs. induction.

QUICK LESSON: Labor induction is the process of starting labor before it begins on its own. Labor augmentation of labor is when labor is already in progress, but needs a little help to move along.

Though she wasn’t having consistent contractions, she was about 3cm dilated, 60%-70% effaced and baby was at -3 station so it was an augmentation to me but it was labeled an induction.

She goes in for her Tuesday night and then I heard from her on Wednesday morning close to 7am.

At that point, she’s on Pitocin, she’s 5cm, 80% effaced and baby is at station 0.

Her Pitocin was on 10 and she was talking to me like nothing was wrong.

I decided to go ahead and make my way there because I didn’t quite know how long it would take but I knew it would be fast.

Through ATL traffic, I made my way to her and I think I got there right at 9am.

She hadn’t been feeling her contractions for real until I got there, then they started to hit back to back.

We labored down for a bit because the name of the game is getting baby down and out.

I got her out of bed and moving and she handled labor beautifully, despite what she may think and feel.

Then we were presented with an option to either break hear water or not.

She understood that breaking the water would intensify the contractions but we agreed that we’d see how she handled contractions with broken water before getting the epidural.

She handled me getting her in different positions before being ready to let them break her water.

She’d gotten to a point where she was extremely tired and taking quick naps between contractions because they were coming back to back.

Here’s a secret: That usually means mama is in transition stage and the baby is coming pretty soon.

She even very sternly told her husband “This is the last one!” 😂 (You just had to be there to hear how aggressively she said it.)

She labors a little bit more but she insists that she wants the epidural and I immediately start stalling her out because I knew this baby was coming soon and I knew she wasn’t going to sit still long enough to get the epidural.

I let the nurse know that she wanted the epidural but I knew it wasn’t happening.

As soon as the secondary nurse hung the bag of fluid to bolus her in preparation for the epidural.

Quick Lesson: If you ever hear the world bolus before or during an epidural it simply means that a quick administration of fluids is happening. As opposed to other IV methods, like a drip or infusion, bolus administration delivers medication rapidly, usually within seconds or minutes. And a fluid bolus has to happen before getting the epidural.

So the nurse hung the bag of fluids to bolus before the epidural and stepped to call the anesthesia team.

No sooner than she stepped out, mama’s water breaks and splatters on the floor, on my rebozo cloth and pants and she cannot resist the urge to push.

Just. Like. In The Movies. And. On. TV.

Within two minutes baby girl was born at 11:02am!

Remember I said I got there at 9:00am?!

I LOVE a fast birth!

Mama labored and birthed beautifully and my favorite part of it all…👏🏽SHE👏🏽DIDN’T👏🏽 TEAR!!!

Not a single stitch needed, no major blood loss and her uterus firmed up beautifully!

She asked several times “Is this real?”

She even asked to pinch her doctor.😂

It was a truly beautiful experience!

She was up moving around within 2 hrs after baby girl was born!

Everybody was simply amazed and tickled at how quickly it happened.

It was truly a movie!

To My Sweet Soror and Her Husband: Y’all are a hilarious good time! 😂 I truly enjoyed the laughs and good conversations! I would’ve never imagined a birth this seamless but I’m glad it went so beautifully. Thank you for allowing me to be part of the team to help usher your beautiful baby girl earth side. I have no doubt that she will be loved beyond measure and will have a hell of a sense of humor. I enjoyed sharing space with y’all! Love y’all real big!

-Aeryka ✌🏾💜🤍🩵