Tenley Blake: Birth Story

March 7, 2016 will forever be one of the greatest days of our lives, the day our sweet little girl came into this world, and it all began very early that morning. 

Our little miss was diagnosed with IUGR [intrauterine growth restriction] and it was decided that I would be induced at 37 weeks if she didn't decide to come earlier then that. Time passed and little miss was in no hurry to get here so I was scheduled to be induced at 12:00am Monday March 7th. Being induced is the best and the worst thing all at the same time. It was so nice to have everything planned out but the fact that my body was not ready to go through the whole birthing process, labor was very long, painful, and rough.

I worked up until the day I delivered, which is something I always joked to people at work about, I just can't believe I was actually able to do so. I worked Saturday night and got off early Sunday morning. Sunday consisted of taking it easy and waiting. A lot of waiting. Midnight came and we were off to have a baby! (with a short pit stop at the gas station to load up on snacks).

I was first started on cytotec because I wasn't dilated or effaced whatsoever. I was given 4 doses and by 10:00am I was only dilated to a 1.5, in a lot of pain and very sick. I begged my OB and the nurses to let me get the epidural but was told that the anesthesiologist didn't like to do it until I was dilated to at least a 3. My OB came in and broke my water to hopefully get things moving along and placed some additional monitors on the her head because I wasn't progressing very fast and they wanted to watch the contractions more closely. After a couple more hours I still had not progressed at all so they convinced the anesthesiologist to place the epidural early. I was so happy I was crying tears of joy. Life was good again. An hour later though the epidural wore off on the right side of my body and I was able to feel the intense contractions again. The anesthesiologist came back in and repositioned the epidural in hopes to fix the problem, but it didn't. An hour later another anesthesiologist came in, took out the epidural and put a new one in. This time it worked and didn't wear off. I was so happy and was finally able to relax! The nurse continued to check me throughout the afternoon. The OB came in around 6:00pm and checked, I was dilated to a 2.5! [Baby Steps]. The doctor told us that it would be a long night and if little miss didn't come by midnight we would go in for C-section. Because of her size they didn't want me to be in labor for more than 24 hours, even if she was looking good. 

Weeks before I had joked to Ryan that if needs be we would be watching the bachelor while I pushed. Luckily for us I was still only dilated to a 2.5 by the time bachelor came on so we watched and relaxed. at 8:45 the nurse came back in to check me and I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. We were hoping that things would move along a little more quickly now. 15 minutes later I felt a lot of pressure and told the nurse that either my catheter was coming out or this baby ready to come. She laughed and said she would check again to ease my mind. She checked and I was dilated to a 10 and she could feel the head!! She was coming! [Guess she just knew I really wanted to finish the bachelor] The nurse yelled to the other staff out in the hall to grab the needed materials and to call the doctor. I was told to cross my legs and not to push. I tried really hard to relax but everything was happening so fast. I kept asking the nurses how many times they had delivered a baby without the doctor because our doctor was a few minutes away, which they had to reassure me that they had and to not worry. They then called in the respiratory therapist and other staff members to help out. My nurse checked me again and shouted out to the nurses that the baby was coming right now. Just then my OB walked through the doors, gowned up and told me to start pushing. 17 minutes of pushing and a total of 21.5 hours of labor later at 9:27pm our little miss Tenley Blake was born weighing 4lb. 15oz. and measuring 18 inches long.

The BEST OB in the entire world! and I saw a number of different OB's throughout my pregnancy because I was considered high risk due to having an IUGR baby. I am so grateful for him and all that he did for us and for bringing our sweet baby girl safely into this world. 

We love you more than you'll ever know our sweet baby girl.


Tenley Blake Briggs
March 7, 2016 at 9:27pm
4 lbs 15 oz & 18 in long