Joey's Birth Story

I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks.  At my 39 week appointment, the doctor checked me and I was still only 60% effaced and 2 centimeters dilated.  The doctor swept my membranes, but nothing seemed to happen other than some stronger Braxton Hicks contractions throughout the week.

On the morning of Friday the 4th I woke up with what felt like regular, but still painless contractions.  Usually when I woke up having contractions, I would get up and move around and they would go away.  When I got up that morning and started making breakfast, they seemed to get more regular.  After breakfast I decided to go for a walk to see what would happen.

I started timing my contractions on my walk, and they were average 5 minutes apart.  They weren't painful, but I could feel my abdomen contracting harder as I walked.  When I got home I called my doctor and let her know what was going on.  She told me to lay down, rest, and call her when the contractions got to the point where I couldn't talk through them. 

At about 2 p.m. I called Neal and asked him to come home from work because my contractions were getting intense enough that I was having a hard time focusing through them.  While he was driving home, I called my mom and let her know what was going on, and then got all of the "last minute" things packed for the hospital.

When Neal got home, we went on another walk.  The contractions were pretty intense at this point.  I had to really focus on breathing through them, but I could still walk through them.  By the end of our walk, I couldn't walk through them.  When we got home, Neal gave me a priesthood blessing. I sat down to relax, and my contractions completely disappeared.  Gone.  Was no longer having contractions.  At. All.

At about 4:30 p.m. my doctor called to see how things were going.  When I told her my contractions had completely stopped, she asked if I could still feel him moving.  I really hadn't felt him move in a while, so she told me to come in.  Neal and I drove to the doctor's office and they hooked me up to a non-stress test.  After the test, the doctor told me she thought I was probably having false labor.  Joey was fine, and I was still having contractions, but I couldn't feel them.  She sent me home saying she hoped she got a call from the hospital that night, but not to be sad if it didn't happen either. 

When we got home, Neal made me an egg sandwich, and I laid on the couch.  I was pretty bummed.  About 45 minutes after we got home, my contractions came back...with a vengeance.  I could not believe how intense they were!  I decided to get in the shower to see if the warm water would make them stop again.  It didn't.  My contractions were about 1 1/2 minutes long with about 1 minute between them at this point.  I had to completely lean on Neal during the contractions, and I definitely couldn't talk or walk.  

Neal suggested we go to the hospital, and I kept telling him no.  He insisted, and I remembered something that the blessing he'd given me earlier said - that I would be able to listen to the suggestions of those around me who were in a better frame of mind.  I finally gave in.  I laid on the bed while Neal got all of the bags in the car, and we took off.  

The car ride was seriously the longest of my life.  We dropped off an extra key at our friends', Paul and Jocelyn's, house so they could take care of our birds while we were in the hospital.  All I remember was lifting myself off my seat every time a contraction came.  We hit seriously every red light from our house to the hospital.

We got to the hospital about 7:45 p.m.  Neal sat me in a wheelchair, and we went up to labor and delivery.  When we walked in, the nurses looked very confused and said "are we expecting you?"  Then they saw I was in tears and rushed me into a room.  When we got into the room, the nurse told me to change into a robe.  Then she looked at me and asked how far apart I thought my contractions were.  When I told her about 2 minutes apart, she suddenly got very serious and started helping me change into a robe.

Once I was changed, I started pacing around the room, and leaning against Neal through every contraction.  My nurse came in, and she checked me and I was dilated to 5 cm.  They hooked me up to the wireless monitors, and then called my doctor.  I told her I wanted to try and not get an epidural, so we tried using Fentanyl to take the edge off.  The Fentanyl lasted a whole 20 minutes or so.  At that point, I told Neal I wanted to get the epidural.  There was about 30 seconds from the end of one contraction to the beginning of another, and I couldn't rest in between them.

The nurse checked me again right before the anesthesiologist came in, and I was dilated to 7 cm.  It had been my goal to make it to 7 cm before I decided to get the epidural, so I was pretty pleased with myself.  It was about 9:30 p.m. at this point.  My anesthesiologist was seriously awesome.  He was very calming, and didn't speak more than he had to.  At 10 p.m. the epidural started to kick in, and I could relax.  I was exhausted at this point, so I laid in bed and tried to relax.

At about 11 p.m. my doctor got to the hospital, and by 11:30 p.m. I was dilated to 9 cm.  At about 11:40 I was fully dilated, and I officially started pushing at 11:42 p.m.. 

Pushing was seriously one of the hardest things I have ever done.  My epidural was starting to wear off, so I could feel the need to push, and a lot of the sensations that came with pushing.  At one point the doctor told me Joey was very close, and that if she were to give me an episiotomy he'd be out.  Apparently at one point I took this as an offer and told her "just to cut me" if she needed to.  Neal said at that point she gave him a look, shook her head, and told me "No, one more push and I think that'll do it."  She was right!  On the next push, little Joseph Milligan Johnson, aka Joey was born.  I was a lucky, lucky woman, and only pushed for 45 minutes before he came.

He was officially born April 5, 2014 at 12:25 a.m..  He was 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and 20 inches long.

They placed him on my chest, and I started bawling.  Neal cut the cord, and I got to hold him for a while.  After a bit, the nurses took him and gave him the necessary medications and measured and weighed him.  While he was on the table, he tried to roll over multiple times.  It made us laugh.

So, say hello to Joey :)