No time to waste: The birth of Brixton

My first real contraction came at 1 a.m. At least the first one that I felt. I woke up to that deep almost period-like pain in my abdomen, and I was almost positive that it was going to be the day.

My husband was out of town on work—but luckily only three hours away. I called him and let him know the situation. We talked about it for a bit and weighed our options. I really didn’t want him to drive all that way and then it end up being a false alarm, so we decided to wait it out a few hours to see if the contractions got closer and closer before he left for home. Well, turns out 3 a.m. rolled around and the contractions were indeed quicker and stronger. James left and was home by 6 a.m.

I laid in bed for an hour or so while James took care of our son Kaysen, which was great. I needed to get in the right mindset, so I could easily relax through each contraction. Once he got home, though, my contractions went haywire. I would have one 20 minutes apart then shoot down to five minutes apart, then 12 minutes then three minutes, and back up to 20. I was getting a bit worried that this was indeed a false alarm. To calm down I took a really warm bath. This seemed to regulate my contractions to six minutes apart. At this point I was super excited and ready for the baby!

James called his mom to come and pick up Kaysen. By now it was noon. My contractions decided to unregulated themselves, and once again I had no clue what was going on and had no idea when this baby was going to come. Again, I decided to take a bath. Contractions regulated at six minutes apart for about 30 minutes and then back to all over the place. Into the bath for a third time I went! At least it was helping me to calm my nerves and just breathe through the pain.

My contractions may have been all over the place, but they were getting more and more painful that’s for sure. I had to really concentrate to make it through each one. Deep breaths … one after the other. At 3:30 p.m. I told James we should probably just go even though my contractions were not at the suggested one minute contraction at five minutes apart for one hour.

We arrived at the hospital at 3:55 p.m. We couldn’t figure out where to go, the signs were all confusing. I would have to stop every two minutes to have a contraction as nurses and doctors would pass us. James was getting so frustrated! He would say to me, “Doesn’t anybody around here see that we need some help?” Eventually we found our way to the labor and delivery registration, and they got me in the triage room. I asked the nurse if I could change and before she got the clothes out of the cabinet my water broke right there. I let her know what had happened, and she said, “Are you sure?” I followed up her question with, “Um yeah, lady, I’m sure!”

Following my water breaking the adrenaline kicked in, and I violently threw up everything (which was literally nothing) in my stomach. As I am hurling into the trash can the nurse decides to explain to me that she really needs to check my cervix. Well, let me just hop up onto the bed while I’m in the middle of throwing up. Eventually that subsided, and I was indeed able to get onto the bed. She checked, and I was dilated to a NINE! I said, this baby is coming out now. She proceeded to tell me that he was not and that I was not allowed to push. Ha!

This very lovely nurse called in the other nurses, and they ran me down the hallway like a herd of elephants as I screamed in agony. I couldn’t believe the volume of the sounds that were coming out of my body—I really am not a loud person. Yikes. James trailed behind the chaos, I’m sure making faces at the passerby’s like, This lady is crazy; she is indeed not my wife. Hell, I would, too—that is embarrassing!

Finally we got to the labor and delivery room. There was no doctor in sight. I let them know that I was going to push him out right then!

They told me to wait and transfer onto the other bed first.

And in three pushes viola this little bundle of joy made his way into the world at 4:14 p.m. Yes, you read that right—from the time that I got to the hospital to the time he was delivered, it was a whopping 19 minutes.

It’s a damn good thing that we left the house when we did or baby Brixton would have been born in the car. It only would have saved me about $2000. Ha.

Brixton weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 20 inches long.

We are so lucky to have him join our family. He has been the sweetest little thing, and I just cannot get over his hair!

Send us your birth story! Whether you had a home birth, hospital birth, 37-hour labor or emergency C-section, we’d love to read the tale of your little one’s grand entrance. Write up your birth story (click here for tips on getting started) and email it, along with a few photos, to birthstory@pnmag.com. We’ll share it on our Birth Day blog and may even print it in an upcoming issue!