Jess & Luke’s Birth Story – 'Sup, Moms Podcast

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**This episode discusses pregnancy and delivery. If this is triggering for you, please don’t listen. Our hearts go out to anyone who has experienced pregnancy and infant loss**

On this episode, it’s Jess’ turn to share her birth story with Luke. And this is an extra fun story because Jess gave birth in Stuttgart, Germany!

Here are some facts:

Due Date: October 31
Birth Date: October 9
Weight: 61/2 pounds
Jess Weight Gain: about 25 pounds

From Jess:

At 3 AM on October 9, I got up to pee, walked back into our bedroom and said, “Uh oh.” I had a feeling like I was still peeing, called the crisis hotline for the hospital and she asked if I could go back to sleep and if I could and to come to the hospital in the morning. Of course, I couldn’t fall back to sleep and spent the rest of the night Googling “how to know if your water broke.”

Show up at the hospital, go to the delivery area, knock on the door, have the midwife answer the door, check to see if I’m the labor, basically get kicked out, go check into the hospital and go get food! Yes, I had a pretzel! The midwife told us to come back in an hour and a half.

It went on like that for hours: do a contraction check for about 20 minutes, go for a walk (OUTSIDE!) and then get checked again.

Here’s the details:

Arrived at hospital around 7:30 AM
Got checked, went for walks, came back to get checked after an hour and a half
Labor wasn’t progressing so at 4 PM tried to start labor, was about 3 CM
Upped Pitocin at 7 PM
Got epidural at 9 PM around 5 CM (took 45 minutes for it to happen, had to sit “like a banana,” and then was asked if my legs felt “furry”)
Started pushing at 10 PM in several different positions
Luke was born at 11:20 PM

A couple of notes:

German hospital food is disgusting & was served a chuck of feta cheese! Midwives and nurses do a lot of the work, even changing Luke’s diaper during recovery! I had private health insurance, so I was able to have a private recovery room with a shared toilet. Vinn also could not sleep at the hospital and had to go home.