Step right up: The birth of Daisy

I love telling this story because it was such a beautiful labor—and nothing like my first one. I went into labor the night after my due date, which was March 26, 2015. It was around 10 p.m. on the 27th, and I was getting some pains in my lower back. (I didn’t know they were contractions because I never had them on my own with the birth of my son.) I brushed them off and went to sleep.

Well, an hour later, I woke up to more pains. They weren’t unbearable, but they were happening more often and felt more painful. I couldn’t sleep through them. That’s when I knew they were contractions. I decided to wake my husband up at 5 a.m. because they were coming about three minutes apart—and we had a long 45-minute drive to get to the hospital.

He didn’t believe me at first because I was handling the pain very well. We quickly dropped off our son, and headed to the hospital. When we got there, they took me to the labor and delivery triage. I was only dilated to about 3 centimeters, so they told me to walk around the hospital for an hour. They also said that if I didn’t progress in that time, I’d be sent home. I was almost in tears when I heard that. So a friend and I walked up 13 flights of stairs—all the way to the top of the hospital. By the time I rode the elevator down to labor and delivery and was checked again, I was at 5 centimeters, and they admitted me!

We got settled into a room, and I was doing fine. I wanted to get into the birthing tub because I was handling my contractions very well, but I was progressing so fast that I had to get the epidural right away—or I’d risk missing my window. (I actually had to have it done twice because the first time it only got half of my body and made half my face droop, but they fixed it.)

The nurse asked me to push just to see if I could, but she said she doubted I’d be ready. Well she immediately told me to stop and called my doctor in right away. Three pushes and baby girl was out! Daisy Tennessee Chaney was born on March 28, 2015, weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces.

It all happened so fast! My doctor was amazing! He actually left for a week and was gone on my due date, but luckily he came back the day I went into labor. What a relief! Labor is such a beautiful experience. I’m so happy that I had such a calm, peaceful birth. I wouldn’t change it for anything!

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!