Saba's Birth Story

On Saturday, August 30th 2008 our little girl, Saba, was born. Saba was in the womb a total of 41 weeks which felt like a lifetime to me, but it was just the right amount of time for her!
Here's how it all started: on Thursday, Aug 28th I went to triage at the hospital for some gels that the doctor wanted to do because I was still only 1cm dilated (and had been 1cm for about a month). My first round of gels did absolutely nothing, but my second round of gels led to some contractions that lasted throughout the night. The next morning I had to go back to the hospital to have a Non Stress Test which is where I found that I was still only 1cm dilated and no change had occurred (despite my ongoing contractions)!
All Friday I contracted - the morning was pretty mild, but by the afternoon I was convinced that I was going to have a baby at any second (at one point on Friday night I went to sleep in the bathtub because of the contractions-which actually worked quite nicely for a couple of hours)! Saturday morning we headed over to the hospital - I was so tired from contracting for so long, but I was also pretty sure that I had a long way to go. When I got to the hospital they told me that I was 3.5 cm dilated which was a huge relief just to know that my contractions were leading somewhere. I was a admitted to my room where I labored for a couple more hours until my next examination to tell me how far I had progressed. Somewhere around 11am the Doctor examined me and informed me that I was still 3.5cm and that he was going to start pitocin to try to get things going. I immediately asked for an epidural!
After the epidural and pitocin were both flowing for about 2 hours the doctor came to examine me again and told me that I was still sitting at 3.5cm (I was comfortable enough with the epidural not to lose it at this point, but I was also pretty nervous as I realized that I might be heading towards a c-section if my cervix wouldn't dilate). It was at this time that the doctor broke my water to see if that would change anything - two hours later I was at 7cm!
Right around the time my epidural was running low I started to feel some incredible contractions that were enhanced by the continual flow of pitocin...I almost lost it then. The nurse decided to examine me at that point and she quickly told me that I was 10cm and that the baby was right there. The Doctor was then called as everyone got ready for the new baby. As the doctor was making her way to the hospital they decided to start some pushing practice with me so that I could get the hang of it....I practiced one push and was told immediately to stop or else the baby was going to come out. When the doctor came into the room I pushed again for the total of 4min and out came Saba Alexandria Brockhagen!
It was a long labor, but it was worth every minute and more just to have Saba in my arms!