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Q’s Birth Story

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Hi, I'm Tina!

I’m the owner of Carrots ‘N’ Cake as well as a Certified Nutrition Coach and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P). I use macros and functional nutrition to help women find balance within their diets while achieving their body composition goals.

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Here is Q’s birth story! Finally!

I’m sorry that it took me so long to publish it. Every time I would sit down to write, I didn’t know where to start and what to say. I wanted to make his birth story really exciting, but, truthfully, my labor and delivery were kind of “uneventful.” Of course, I don’t mean “uneventful” in that giving birth wasn’t an amazing, life-changing experience, but there wasn’t any crazy drama or surprises. In fact, my labor and delivery were low-key, straight-forward, and even enjoyable!

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Ok, so here goes… Q’s birth story!

It all started at 3:38 in the morning on Sunday, June 8th. I woke up in the middle of the night to pee and noticed that my sweatpants were wet. I thought maybe my water had broken, but it didn’t seem like that much fluid, so I went back to bed.

As soon as I climbed back into bed, I noticed a wet spot on the sheets, but I still wasn’t sure if my water had broken, so I grabbed my iPhone and started Googling stuff. Haha! A few minutes later, it felt like I needed to pee again, so I went to the bathroom and a lot more liquid came out. Five minutes after that… even more liquid. I knew there was no way my body was producing that much urine in so little time, so I knew my water had broken… well, that I was leaking fluid and it was GO TIME!

At this point, I was so excited and woke up Mal. I know I had the biggest, goofiest smile on my face when I told him. I was so pumped to meet Q! And, honestly, I just wanted to get the show on the road already!

Mal immediately popped out of bed and then we spent the next hour or so getting ready to leave the house. He took a shower while I made us two breakfast sandwiches. Of course, as soon as I’m in labor, I immediately thought of food! Haha! I just remember everyone telling me to make sure that I ate something because labor can last a really long time and you need fuel to get you through.

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Mal and I ate our sandwiches and then we ran around the house doing some last-minute clean up. We knew the next time we’d be home, we’d have a newborn, so we wanted the house as put together as possible.

We also took some time to say goodbye to Murphy. I felt soooooo sad leaving him. I literally had a pit in my stomach when we left for the hospital, and I missed my little puglet the entire time we were gone. We left a key to our house for our dog sitter, so she could come pick him up later that morning, so I knew he was in good hands, but it was still sad saying goodbye.

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Mal and I left the house around 5:00 AM and whizzed into the city. Q had some great timing with his arrival, and I am so thankful he decided to come in the wee hours of Sunday morning instead of Friday afternoon in the summer!

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We arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes later and checked in to the maternity ward. Once I was admitted, one of the residents on staff examined me and broke my water… for real. Prior to that, I just was leaking fluid, so she applied some pressure and then there was a big rush of water. Mission accomplished: Water broken. (It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel awesome either.)

After that, I was told to just hang out and wait for my contractions to get going. At this point, they were pretty non-existent. I was having them, but they were irregular (ranging from 7-10 minutes apart) and not very strong (they just felt like period cramps).

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Basically, not much was happening on the labor front, so Mal went to get us iced coffees, egg sandwiches, and fruit salad while we waited. My second egg sandwich of the day actually ended up being the last thing I ate for almost 24 hours, so I’m glad that I doubled up on breakfast!

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Over the next 5 hours, we waited for my uterus to do… well, something. My contractions were still pretty much non-existent, so the doctor suggested starting pitocin to move things along. He said: “Let’s have a baby,” and it sounded like a great plan to me!

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Once the pitocin started, my contractions became more regular, and I was having them every 4-5 minutes. They hurt, but they were bearable because I had a 4-5 minute break after each one to rest and recover. Mal distracted me from the pain by doing crossword puzzles with me and showing me adorable pug pictures on Instagram. It actually kind of worked!


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As my dose of pitocin was increased, my contractions got stronger and closer together. Getting through each one wasn’t so bad (well, it wasn’t fun either), but not having a break to recover made them so painful. At one point, I was having double and even triple contractions, which meant I didn’t have a break at all between them and, wow, they hurt like a bitch! I was not a happy camper, so when the nurse suggested an epidural, I was ALL about it. (Long before I started the pitocin, I spoke with the anesthesiologist about the possibility of getting an epidural, everything from how it worked, where it was inserted, and, of course, the possible risks and complications associated with it, so I was comfortable with the option long before I was in terrible, give-me-drugs pain.)

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After almost 6 hours of painful, omg-these-suck contractions, I was more than happy to have an epidural and not feel any of them! Hooray for drugs!

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Once the epidural was in, I couldn’t leave the bed. I could still feel my legs and move them around pretty well, but it felt like I had pins and needles in them, so it probably would have been pretty tough to walk. Basically, I wasn’t going anywhere until after my baby was born! 

The next 8 hours involved a whole lot of hanging out and waiting for my cervix to dilate to 10 cm. Mal and I napped, watched a Friends marathon on TV, did more crossword puzzles, read magazines, and played on our phones.

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It was actually kind of fun, and it definitely wasn’t the “labor” that I expected!

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By 11:00 PM, I was almost fully dilated, so the doctor said he’d give things another hour and then it would be time to push. Woohoo! Finally!

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At midnight, I started pushing, and I pushed every 2-3 minutes for 3 hours and 41 minutes until Q came into this world. I remember it being painful, but I was so exhausted, I kept dozing off between contractions. Crazy, right? I actually don’t remember a lot of what happened between 1:00 AM and right before Q was born. I was definitely in the zone and pushing with all my might, but I don’t have a lot of coherent memories from those couple of hours. Mal was by my side the entire time, coaching me and holding one of my pins-and-needles legs. He was awesome and totally calm the entire time, and I KNOW he saw some crazy things happen! Haha!

Before I knew it, everyone (Mal, the doctor, nurses, a couple of residents) started to get really excited because they saw the top of Q’s head and he had BLONDE hair. I just assumed he’d have dark hair, but he was blonde like his dad, which made me so happy and gave me a second wind to push like mad so I could meet him.

After that, things seemed to progress quickly. I just wanted him out (I was also in a lot of pain), so I pushed like crazy and got that little guy out. I still remember seeing him for the first time. I sat up and saw his arms and legs flailing all around like a mad man. Seconds later, he was on my chest and we were meeting for the first time.

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It was love at first sight.

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Shortly after that, Q was weighed, measured, and tested. He met his dad for the first time, and I was stitched up, cleaned up, and wheeled into our room where we all stayed as a family of three for the next 2.5 days.

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It’s crazy to think that after months and months of waiting to meet Q, he was finally here, all 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and 21 inches of him. And the second I saw his little face, my life immediately changed for the better.

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The end.

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