Hey, everyone! We've got a great birth story for you on this mini-episode Monday. Lydia shares the story of her second pregnancy and natural birth - it was a fast ride in labor to Yale New Haven Hospital and an even faster ride once they got there! Lydia gave birth to her daughter before they could even get her to the maternity ward!
If you'd like to share your own pregnancy, postpartum or birth story, we'd love to hear it!
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I'm Lydia Ciollo. And I have two daughters, Rose, who is four and a half and Eva who is 10 months. And I'm going to tell Eva's birth story. to back up though, I had rose in January 2016. And there's a few details that matter about her birth because they were significant for my expectations about Eva. The births were both natural but very different. Rose was originally breach until about 39 weeks, and then she was turned through external version, which was really uncomfortable. I think I would go into labor again before I would be verted again. And that meant that she was head down, but she was in a semi setup position. So my labor with her was Was I dilated pretty quickly I was eight centimeters when I got to the hospital. And then 10 same centimeters like an hour later and then I push for four hours because my anatomy and her positioning were just no bueno. And she ended up being a vacuum extraction, which I was like convinced was going to be this hose that extruded from the wall. But no, it's this little cute little cap that they used to sort of maneuver her out. So my expectation was that my second birth, which was Eva was due August 1 of 2019. I expected that she would come earlier than rose who had been a few days post due date, and the labor would be quicker. So about six days After my due date, Eva had not yet arrived. I went to my doctor, my ob for a non stress test and everything looked good. And the doctor very sort of kindly asked how I felt about induction. I was of two minds, I really just wanted, it was August, it was hot. I just wanted to meet this baby no longer be pregnant. So there was a part of me that was grateful at the notion that there would be an endpoint. So I said I was open to it, but I also just, I knew what induction was, and it increased the likelihood of a whole lot of things that I didn't want to have happen. So that was August 7. I called my doula Colleen and she was lovely and said, Okay, see if you can get the induction scheduled, you know, for maybe a day after they're proposing because she was pretty good. Convinced that I was going to go into labor swiftly, she would be right. And then that night I started to feel some contractions or surges. At first, I kind of just put it out of my mind because a week before the exact same thing had happened, and I was totally convinced I was in labor and nothing happened. They all stopped. So they they were kind of continuous. And so I went to bed thinking all right, you know, maybe I'll wake up in the morning, I kind of, you know, told the people I needed to tell my parents who were going to come watch my older daughter. And I called my doula I called, you know, the people who needed to sort of be apprised and I'm going to sleep. And at 4am I woke up and at first I was convinced that it installed again, labor labor installed and then I felt contractions and I was like, Oh, okay. So maybe this is happening. So I went into my, my future baby's nursery and sort of just sat quietly and timed them. And at that point, they were like, six minutes apart. So already moving towards a swift dilation. And so I texted Colleen, or had called her and was like, yeah, so I think that this is it, this is definitely happening.
And I tried to go to sleep for a little while longer and just kind of relax and get into a good headspace. And at around 530 in the morning, I retimed my contractions and suddenly they were seven, eight minutes apart. And so I just, you know, was thinking, Okay, this is, you know, I know labor can stall, I know it can pause. But I was deeply frustrated. So I spoke to Coleen on the phone and said, You know, I'm having these these variations and I Don't really know what to do. And so she said, you know, she would wait for a little while longer to come by, but that I should start getting ready to go just in case. So I get up and immediately upon standing suddenly everything kicks into high gear like I'm having contractions, what felt like every 30 seconds at that moment in time and then I would sit down and it would be okay. So I was just having these like wide variations and I was having back labor again, which seems to be just the way that my body labor's it is not fun at all. I mean, I don't know any other way to help go into labor. So maybe the other way is worse, who knows? And so at about six o'clock, I, I'm having these like, wide swings and contraction times and I called Colleen and told her what was going on and she basically said she was going to come over. So she gets there at like 630. And at that point, I am on force and I am just rocking back and forth and it is very intense. And she basically she asks me, do you feel like you have to, to feel like you have to bear down and push and I said, No. She moves me into a sitting position. And I immediately felt like I had to push her in my living room and the sensation was, I mean, the uncontrollable is an understatement. So she looks at me and Joan is like we're gonna go to the hospital right now. So I think we got into the car at like 650 and Coleen very smartly, told us put towel and some garbage bags down on the front seat in case your water breaks. So we're in the car and the car ride. I think to Yale New Haven Hospital usually takes maybe 20 minutes and Joe did it in like 12 because the entire time I am saying every four level Words humanly imaginable I am berating myself I'm braiding both of us for not leaving earlier, I am yelling that we're going to be on the news and that there's going to be a state trooper interviewed who delivered our baby and that we're just going to have to name it after whatever exit we came next to, because all of a sudden it just feels like I'm about to have this baby in this car right now. My water breaks literally maybe the last stoplight before we're about to pull in to the hospital and I'm just you know, I'm in deep distress. Joe said later that he had never seen me in that much distress before. It wasn't even pain. It was just, I am doing everything in my power not to push this baby out right now because she is literally shooting out of me. So we get there and the lovely attendants basically see me and grab a wheelchair, are yelling at people to open the elevator. theater, bringing me upstairs and I get into triage. And I looked at the clock and the clock said 719 in the morning. And the lovely nurses are like, Look, Joe couldn't Joe couldn't come in. I went in with Colleen, you're only allowed to have one person there. And so he, he goes off to the waiting room essentially. But I'm in the room and Callie and starts yelling to the nurses, you need to get in here. Now someone needs to come here now because this baby's about to come go get dad. And so Joe told me later that he didn't even have the chance to sit down because someone was out coming to get him. And I think at that point, because I'm on a bed, I'm in the hospital, it's triage, but whatever. I think I just kind of relaxed and let go and three pushes 10 minutes later, my daughter Eva was born in triage. I'm sure all of the other women who were just sort of quietly laboring waiting to be brought into a delivery room. We're thinking what on earth is going on? It was a whirlwind. I will, I mean, I'll take it over, pushing for four hours. Nonetheless, I would have maybe opted for less of a movie Hollywood version of things, the kind of labor you see on TV and you think that doesn't really happen in real life. It kind of felt like it did to me, but it was extraordinary. I was able to give birth naturally again,
and apparently just the mention of the word induction will bring me into labor, which is great. And my one of the lovely labor and delivery nurses in triage, told me that if I have a third that I need to leave for the hospital, the minute I feel so that is my story of my daughter, Eva, my second baby.