Once upon a time there was a determined and hard-headed woman who was 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant who decided to go to a wedding 1.5-2 hours away from home. This wasn’t just any wedding, though. This was her childhood best friend’s wedding that she was not willing to miss. So, despite being woken up by cramps and diarrhea at 5 AM that morning (yea, I said the D word), she brushed it off and wasn’t even thinking it was early signs of labor. Despite the cramping, off her and her husband went to the wedding to celebrate…
(Spoiler alert – the woman in this story is me).
As we we’re driving to the beach I kept making jokes to my husband about how funny it would be if I went into labor while we were there. Real funny, right? We got to the church late because pregnancy hormones got the best of me that morning and I couldn’t get my hair JUST right. As we were sitting in church I kept grabbing my belly and telling my husband that I kept getting cramps, still in denial at this point that these are actual CONTRACTIONS that I am having. There was a little bit of time in between the ceremony and the reception so we stopped to grab a quick snack. This is when it started getting real. The cramps were coming more frequently. At this point I’m still hoping I just have an upset stomach.
We finally get to the reception and we’re chatting it up with friends and eating and admiring the venue. People kept telling me they couldn’t believe that I made it to the wedding and totally didn’t expect me to. I kept “joking” with people that I thought I was in labor. Before we even left for the wedding I told Sherif that we would leave after the cake cutting, but as we were sitting having dinner and the pain was getting worse I finally accepted the fact that I was in labor. I was telling people we had to leave because of the contractions, but still never expecting to have the baby that night. We had to kiss the bride and groom goodbye and start our almost 2 hour drive home.
This is a picture of us at 6 PM that night.
I remember making note of the time that we got in the car – it was 7:15 PM. I changed into comfortable clothes and starting taking off my make-up in the car on the ride home starting to prepare myself for the battle my body was about to go through. People say you forget what labor feels like and that’s how women are able to have other children, but I’m pretty sure that pain will haunt me forever. At this point panic is starting to sink in. We’re 2 hours away from home and I am clearly in labor. I started to time my contractions and they were coming just minutes a part. I called the doctor on call and told her what I was experiencing and she told me to head right into the hospital. Good thing I’m organized and always prepared because I had our hospital bag in the car ready to go for at least a week. The weather had taken a turn that night. Despite it being a beautiful day for a November wedding at the time we were driving home it was so windy, raining and even hailing to add to the stress. We finally get closer to the hospital and Sherif misses the exit. At this point I am clenching on to the handlebars in the car because the pain is so bad and this man just missed. the. exit. to the hospital. That set us back about 10 minutes. We finally get to the hospital and I tell the women in triage what’s happening and that my doctor told me to come in. They take me back and put me in a gown to start monitoring me. At this point, I’m ready for an epidural. I even asked the nurse and she was like, “Oh, hunny. You’re only 3 CM dilated. It’s too early for an epidural.” I wanted to be like, Oh really, hunny? Because my uterus begs to differ. So, I laid in that hospital bed for what felt like days, and it felt like forever that I waited for the nurse to come back in and keep checking on me to see if I had dilated anymore. Even though I was in SO much pain and my contractions were so close together, I hadn’t dilated. The nurse tells me, are you ready for this, that she wants me to get dressed and go walk around the hospital for at least 2 hours so that I would make some progress. Um, bish say wha? Go walk? I can barely lay in this bed! So I cried. I was in so much pain all I could do was cry.
Fast forward to when I finally mustered up the energy to get out of the bed and get myself dressed and I was walking down the hall, hunched over, crying and holding my belly. My contractions would come on so strong that it would freeze me in my tracks and I would grip the wall. I kept using the bathroom and trying to hunch over a toilet when I basically had a baby coming down my birth canal. I was in the stall, crying, holding on to the walls praying for relief. I came out of the bathroom and collapsed on the floor at Sherif’s feet begging him to help me and telling him over and over again I just couldn’t do it. Guys. I was like full on pregnant-women-in-a-movie-scene mode. I told him we had to go back and that they had to do something for me. I came screaming down the halls every time a contraction struck. At this point I gave no shits. I probably sounded like a dying whale but at that point I thought I was going to die anyway so it didn’t really matter what people thought of me. I finally make it back to the triage desk and I’m begging the ladies at the desk to do something for me. I tell them that I can’t take the pain anymore. They shout back to the nurses that “the walker” is back and take me back to a room. They need me to get dressed in a gown again which was nearly impossible for me to do at that point. I get on the bed and the nurse checks me and she says, “Yup. You’re 10 CM dilated.” Keep in mind that this is only after about 35 minutes of walking. So that nurse that checked me and told me to take a walk should have walked her ass right out of the hospital because I knew my body better than she did and I knew that I was further along than 3 CM!
After she told me that I was 10 CM dilated she opens up the door and shouts to the other nurses, “SHE’S 10 CM!” Nurses came rushing in, they’re ripping sheets and all types of stuff out of the closets and cabinets to prepare for the delivery. My doctor is no where to be found at this point because things are progressing so quickly. I have two women beside my head holding my legs telling me that I was going to have to start pushing. Even at that point I was still asking for an epidural! Literally legs up in the air about to push and I still think there’s a chance to get an epidural. I thought, there is NO way I can do this without one! But, with the support of the amazing nurses in the room, my husband, and my previous experience from pushing with my daughter, my son, Zane Alexander Bahgat was born just a few pushes later at 11:15 PM, just 4 hours after we left the wedding.
My favorite part about this story is that when I was packing my hospital bag the week before I had asked my husband what he wanted me to pack for him. He told me that he wanted a button up shirt because he wanted to look nice when he met his son for the first time. Little did we know he’d end up being in a full suit the first time they met. Here he is in his first picture with his son 🙂
Lynn murray says
Beautiful and spool relatable
Kbahgat says
Thank you for always reading!
dori kennedy says
You are an amazing author Kristi. I loved this story and can remember waiting at your house with lyla to hear the news. we all kind of fell asleep on the couch (couldn’t really sleep!) when that all important phone call came in from sherif. and then he didn’t want to tell us what you had!!!!! I finally talked him into it, but we kept it a secret from lyla. she got to meet him before any of us!!
Kbahgat says
Yes it was such a special moment when she finally came in to meet him! I’ll never forget that day!
jacqulyn murphy says
I Love love love your stories! You’re writing style is fantastic. I never want the article to end. Thanks for keeping it real. Looking forward to the next one
Kbahgat says
Jacqulyn this means the world to me! Thank you so much for reading!
Katie says
he missed the exit???! Nooooo
You are HIlarious 😆. i love thAt when i Read these blogs i read in your voice. Youre doing a great job!!! At the blog and being a bomb Mom.