Fast Labor and Delivery

My first child, Dylan Scott, was a difficult 12.5-hour delivery. So, with my second child, I assumed that birthing her would be much of the same. How wrong was I!

I worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day, but before leaving work I told my co-worker who had recently delivered her fourth child in an ambulance, that I thought I was having contractions and that they had been going on all day. However, the contractions were not very close together, nor were they very strong.

My friend tried to convince me to allow her to drive me to the hospital at that exact moment. But I refused. I wanted to go home and shower before I went into the hospital for another 12-hour delivery.

By 6:45 p.m. I reached labor and delivery and they examined me. The nurse said that I was dilated to 3 1/2 centimeters and that I had the option of being taken into the hospital at that point or I could walk around and be checked again in two hours. I chose to walk around.

So my mother, my mother-in-law and I went to pick my husband up from work. We arrived back at the hospital around 7:45 p.m., and my mothers wanted me to walk the stairs to get my labor moving.

At this point my discomfort level had greatly increased; however, it was not unbearable. And I felt as though I needed to use the restroom; however, all I could do was tinkle a little.

I decided at that point that it was time to return to labor and delivery. Upon arrival at 8 p.m., the nurse said that I was dilated to 7 centimeters. The nurse was walking out of the room, and said that she would be back with the instruments she need to insert the standard IV.

Meanwhile, I was standing next to the bed, and began having a very strong contraction. I called to the nurse attempting to leave the room, and she rushed over to push me back onto the bed. They immediately rushed me down the hall to the delivery room.

My husband had carted off to update the grandmothers and almost missed our daughter being born. My bed barely reached the delivery room when my daughter arrived into this world at 8:13 p.m.

All of the nurses were gasping, and I thought that something was wrong with Brianna Nicole. So I was hitting my husband in the arm, exclaiming, What is wrong with my baby? There was absolutely nothing wrong with Brianna.

The gasping was caused by the scene that the nurses/doctors had just observed. No one in the delivery room had ever seen it happen. Apparently, I had what is called a veiled birth, meaning that my water had never been broken and that my daughter was born in the sac (just like a kitten is born). Apparently, this is very rare, and they say that my daughter will be a very special child. And obviously she is very special to me!