Welcome to the world, Chloe Ana McEwan! Our baby girl was born on January 10th, 2022, at 6 lb 9 oz and 19.5 inches. She was ready to enter the world early, arriving at 37 weeks and 4 days. We are in LOVE with our sweet Chloe!
Chloe’s Birth Story:
My contractions started Monday 1/10 at 2:30am but I didn’t realize until later that I was in labor. Everyone says that you will know when you’re in labor but that wasn’t true for me! For the last few weeks, I had been in so much pain with my back. What I was feeling that morning felt like constant pelvic pain or pressure. I didn’t think it could be labor contractions because I thought those would be more spaced out and more obviously contractions. At 3:30am, I woke Brendan up because the pain was unbearable, and I didn’t know what to do. Brendan asked if we should go to the hospital. I didn’t think we should because I didn’t want to go all the way to the hospital and then be told it was nothing.
Ten minutes later at 3:40am, my water broke so then we raced to the hospital! It’s about an hour drive to the hospital, and my contractions were SO painful. I used a contraction app to record and time my contractions. I had about 27 contractions during the drive, and they were a minute or two apart. The app kept telling me to go to the hospital – I was like, we are!!!! I was worried that I wouldn’t get the epidural in time. Brendan was worried that I would give birth in the car, and he was silently wondering if we should stop at other hospitals along the way. I really wanted to give birth at Greenwich Hospital because I felt comfortable there so I’m glad we made it in time!
We arrived at Greenwich Hospital by 5am, and I was already 5 cm dilated. It took time to get the epidural since I first had to do bloodwork and be hooked up to an IV to receive fluids. By 6am, I had the epidural, and it felt AMAZING. It was so warm and nice. The relief was incredible.
By 6:40am, I was 9 cm dilated. By 7:30am, I could feel the contractions again, and I was like ummm what happened to my epidural?! It turns out that it doesn’t completely remove the pain.
I started pushing at 8:18am. It’s a weird sensation because you can’t feel everything with the epidural so it doesn’t feel like you’re doing much. I kept asking if I was getting closer and if they could see her head. By the time her head came out, the rest of her body easily came out. I pushed for 1 hour, 22 min, and then Baby Chloe made her entrance at 9:40am!
It was love at first sight, and Brendan and I cried happy tears. I was incredibly relieved that our baby girl was healthy and safe and in my arms. My labor took 7 hours, 10 min from start to finish. Apparently, that’s pretty quick for labor but it didn’t seem quick to me. They told me to come to the hospital ASAP for my next child!
Read more about my pregnancy here:
