Myler’s Birth Story

Here lies the story of the greatest day of my life thus far. The day our sweet baby, Myler William McGrath, entered the world.

1.10.17
6:30am That morning I woke up with minor cramps. They were strong enough for me to notice, but so faint I could sleep through them. I had them on & off, then went to the bathroom, & I passed my mucus plug.

8:30am I slept through the cramps & told Griffin he was ok to go into work, as I expected this to be an all day event. Griffin brought me a bowl of cereal because I was hungry, then went to work, & I continued to sleep. I wanted to get as much sleep as I could incase this was the real thing. My contractions were still faint, but they were a consistent 10 minutes apart. I began to track them on my phone.

10:45am Around this time I woke up & showered, ate some scrambled eggs, & cleaned the kitchen. While cleaning the kitchen, I noticed my contractions getting stronger & a little closer together.

12pm Sometime around noon, Griffin called to check-in on me, & I told him my contractions were getting stronger & closer together, but I still didn’t feel like he needed to come home.

2pm At this time, I was having to really focus my breathing during each contraction. I typically was on the floor during each one as they were pretty painful. I called Griffin & asked him to make his way home because of how strong they felt, & because they were 4-6 minutes apart.

Griffin left work then called me again to check in a few minutes later. In that short time, I kept progressing quickly, & I told him to hurry because the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. I honestly was afraid of having the baby at home or in the car on the way to the hospital haha (total rookie).

2:15pm Once I got off the phone with Griffin, I tried to put on some makeup & finished packing my bags. The makeup thing didn’t work out too well because I was constantly taking a break to get through each contraction.

2:30pm Griffin arrived home, grabbed his things, & we headed to the hospital. I’m so glad we had most of our things packed because I felt so frantic before leaving.

3pm We arrived at the hospital, & while walking in, I had a contraction & had to stop walking. Griffin kept on trying to pull me in saying, “Come on, Babe. Let’s get in there. I can’t help you out here.” Haha that didn’t make me too happy, but he was just trying to get me admitted fast. I got checked with contractions 2 minutes apart (& had been for a while). To our disappointment, I was only 1.5cm dilated!! I was so bummed about it, especially with the amount of pain I was in. They told me to walk around the lobby for an hour & then they would check me again to see if I was progressing. In my mind I was thinking “heck no!” But we had no other choice obviously.

3:50pm We walked around the lobby, & Griffin was so great to help me through each contraction. I felt so nauseous & weak that I was on the floor multiple times about to pass out. I ended up throwing up a few times as well. In the middle of puking my guts out, Griffin said, “Try not to throw up because you’ll get dehydrated.” Haha this, again, did not make me happy, but it’s funny now to talk about it. I tried to stay hydrated, but it honestly was really hard to drink anything.

4:45pm We had been walking around for 55 minutes when my water broke on the lobby floor (thankfully the tile, not the carpet). I was so relieved because this meant I would get admitted since I was GBS+. So we went back in to get checked into a room. My coontractions got majorly stronger after my water broke, & some of them went from one contraction to the next without breaks. At that time, I measured at 4cm.

The midwife on call came to say hi & see how I was before checking me into a room. I had only met with that particular midwife once throughout my whole pregnancy, but it was at the last appt I had. I’m so glad we got to meet at least once before going into labor. She honestly was absolutely amazing, & I couldn’t imagine a better person to deliver our baby. We got an IV hooked up for antibiotics (for GBS) & got checked into our room. I asked to get in the labor tub right away. Griffin handed our nurse & midwife our birth plan, which they absolutely loved. They said it was the best they’d ever seen (who knows if they say that to everyone though haha). It was cool to share our story of our miracle with my nurse & midwife.

Throughout each contraction, Griffin, my nurse, & my midwife were all so encouraging & so helpful. I can’t imagine a better team to have had during the most vulnerable time in my life. I got in the tub & labored there for a little bit. While it helped, it wasnt enough relief from my 3 minute long contractions. I got up to go to the bathroom & had a scare because the nurse & midwife stepped out for a second, & the heart monitor on Myler dropped to zero & started beeping. Griffin ran to get the nurse, & thankfully Myler was fine. She said it was a “variable” & that can happen. Phew! I was a little distracted to really understand what was going on, but Griffin sure was scared for a minute. I got back in the tub, but quickly realized I wanted an epidural. Griffin & my midwife were both so good at encouraging me to go longer, but not letting me feel bad for getting one. After a few more long contractions, we all decided an epidural was a smart decision.

Myler’s heart rate was doing good, but it was a little lower than they wanted to see. I received the epidural & felt instant relief! Praise the Lord! I got hooked up to an IV, & soon after that, Myler’s heart rate came back up. We realized that his heart rate was low because I was dehydrated. My midwife said my contractions had little to no breaks in between because he wasn’t facing the right direction. Normally that position would’ve caused back labor, but I had none.

Griffin was hungry as he hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so his mom & step dad came to bring him food. We rested & tried to sleep while waiting to start push. It was seriously so calm & peaceful in the room & will be one of my favorite moments of my life. We had our oil diffuser going, the lights dim, & worship music playing. Griffin made sure to set the atmosphere, & it was perfect!

We waited throughout the night for me to become dilated to 10cm. The nurse had me change positions every once in a while to hopefully have Myler turn his head the correct way. Griffin was great about texting family updates & encouraging me throughout the night.

1.11.17
5:30am Griffin was sleeping, while I was resting my eyes, & my midwife had come in to check me again. I was at 10cm!! Griffin woke up, & I got the shakes because I was nervous. We did a practice push & soon after started pushing. Griffin had in his head that he would be standing by my shoulders the whole time while holding my hand, but to our surprise, he had to hold my leg up (numb from the epidural) during each push lol. In between each push, Griffin was on his phone texting people. At the time I thought he was being rude, but I later found out that he felt light headed & was trying to distract himself so the nurses didn’t have another patient on their hands haha! He even went to the bathroom during one of my pushes without saying a word. All in all, Griffin was seriously amazing! Encouraging me after each push & getting excited as Myler got closer & closer to being in our arms.

6:42am One last push & our sweet Myler William was here! He cried right away, & they quickly placed him in my arms. We both instantly started crying, & then after that I was pretty silent looking into my son’s eyes for the first time. It still feels so surreal. I got to hold him for about an hour while I delivered the placenta & got stitched up. After our skin to skin time, they weighed & measured him, then Griffin got to hold him for a while against his chest.

The whole experience was so much… so much emotion, pain, joy, excitement, etc. The first 24 hours after, I kept saying to Griffin that I didn’t want anymore kids because I never wanted another contraction again lol. It was so much more than I could’ve ever imagined, & my hats off to anyone who has a non-medicated birth!! I regret absolutely nothing about my labor & delivery. I, again, was so happy with my midwife & nurse, & I also am happy with the decisions I made. Everything was perfect!

The healing afterwards has been way more than I expected as well, & the exhaustion is so real. It’s been the most tiring 2 weeks of my life, but nothing has ever felt more rewarding. My husband is the best dad & husband in the whole world. He’s been nothing but helpful & encouraging, even when I’m crying for no reason. I’m more in love with him than ever before. We can’t even express how thankful we are for our miracle & how thankful we are to you for fervently praying for us every day.