Giving Birth at Scripps La Jolla

Personal

Since River, my baby boy had his first birthday just the other day, I wanted to share his birth story! This is my experience of giving birth at Scripps La Jolla.

My pregnancy with River was far from a walk in the park. I have never enjoyed pregnancy, and throughout my pregnancy with Wes I promised myself I’d never go put myself through that again.. but the second he was born I changed my mind. The light at the end of the tunnel was just so amazing and made everything worth it!

The Pregnancy

My pregnancy with River started off really well. I still dealt with morning (all day) sickness but otherwise I was really healthy physically. My OB told me I was the perfect candidate for pregnancy. I was healthy, young and active so she didn’t have to worry about me!

At my 20 week ultrasound things took a turn, they noticed that my cervix was really short. I was then put on bedrest and medication until further notice. For about two months I really had to cancel everything and I just laid down at home! I had so many amazing people who helped me out during this time and I’m forever grateful for that! It was difficult physically of course but also mentally as you can imagine. A big part of my life was High Fitness and having to stop that somewhat took me out of the community and I missed my friends so that was a little depressing.

After two months or so (the timeline is foggy so I’m just estimating) I’d go into the doctor one week and they’d say my cervix was doing better so I could be off bed rest. Then the next week I’d go in again and my cervix would be short and I’d be back on bed rest. I felt so bad because I was making and canceling plans literally every other day.

More Complications

Throughout all of this, we also moved from Orange County back to San Diego. I was really sad to leave OC just because I loved my friends and community there so much. It was hard to leave. On top of all this, we had a lot of personal trials and moving drama so I’d say this was one of the most stressful/depressing times of my life. I literally posted every “pregnancy” picture I have to this blog post. It makes me really sad but I was just not able to “enjoy” the pregnancy as I hoped I would have since all these other stressers overshadowed it in a bad way. But since I knew it would be my last pregnancy (we’re done!!!!) I really wanted to treasure it more.

The goal was first to make it to at least 26 weeks pregnant, then 30, then hopefully 36. Despite all the health issues (I had Covid twice, gestational diabetes and placenta previa for a minute), I found myself getting closer and closer to my due date. We were just so shocked that I eventually made it full term. I experienced a few days of contractions which made me think I’d go into labor on my own (with Wes I was a little overdue so I opted to get induced). But then at week 39 the contractions totally stopped. Since I had gestational diabetes they wouldn’t let me go too far past my due date. So we scheduled an induction!

The Hospital

The day of my induction I called the hospital two hours before my appointment to see if they had room for me and they didn’t. The nurse said to call back “in the afternoon” and check again. I planned to call at 12:01 and it’s funny because at 12:01 they actually called me and told me they had a room for me. Yay!

We got to the hospital and started the process. The beginning part of being induced is pretty anticlimactic because at least in my case it always takes awhile for things to get going. After a couple hours I wasn’t progressing so my doctor came and broke my water. After that then my contractions really started coming.

Eventually I got the epidural (I was planning on it) and after that I seriously was in zero pain. I progressed pretty fast and I could feel a lot of pressure but I was also really numb down there so I wasn’t quite sure. My doctor looked down there and she was like oh yeah you’re going to sneeze this baby out. I think his head was starting to come out. I pushed for two contractions (took like 5 minutes) and the baby was out. It seriously was so fast we could not believe it!

With Wes I was pushing for hours and hours and I was exhausted but this baby really just slid out. It took him a bit to start breathing but when he was on my chest I knew he’d be okay! We weren’t settled on a name and spent the next few days in the hospital debating but we finally settled on River and that was a dream come true for me! Love our River boy!!

So thankful to scripps la jolla

I had such an amazing experience giving birth at Scripps La Jolla. Thank you to all the nurses and doctors!

I love birth so much and I would love to help you document this lifechanging moment! Or, I would also love to photograph your beautiful family. Click here to view my work and here to send me a message and hear more about my services. I look forward to it!