Birth Stories Thread

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I know we had a post like this at WC. Thought it might be good to start it up again as even though I already have my DS I still enjoy reading them and I am sure many other expectant moms may like to read them.

Please make sure that if your birth story was scary, or had a lot of problems, that you add that into the title of your post so people can choose if they want to read them. Thanks!

Enjoy! :D

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I guess I will start with mine...

9/20/04

I got up as normal on this Monday at 6:00am to go to work. I got ready as normal and left the house at 7am. I got to work around 7:30am and started working. I had some really tight deadlines that I had to meet that week. Around 12:30pm or so I had to go to the bathroom. I decided at the same time to take a belly shot since I though you may have dropped down a little. I went to the bathroom, took a few pictures in the mirror using work’s digital camera. At that point I went to the bathroom. As soon as I sat down on the toilet, I felt a gush. I thought it was strange, but figured I was just leaking some urine. So I proceeded to finish peeing, and went back to the office. As soon as I sat down in my chair I felt a gush, then another, and another. I grabbed my keys and rushed to the bathroom as I thought I was peeing in my pants. I got there and was on the toilet and I gushed some more fluid again. Also, my pants were soaking wet. Oh my god, I think my water broke. It took a minute or so for the fact to sink in. I got up and went back into the office. I walked straight to Dorothy, all the time leaking more fluid, told her I think my water broke and asked if she had any towels. She just looked at me in shock and grabbed some towels for me. I put them between my legs and went back to my office. I called Dan and told him I think my water broke. He said “Are you serious”? I of course said yes, I was going to call the doctor and told him I would call back as soon as I knew.

I got onto the phone with the doctors office, told them I was only 34.5 weeks and that I think my water broke. They took my information and said a nurse would call me back in less than 5 minutes. In the meantime I called my mom and told her I think my water broke to give them a heads up. She couldn’t believe it and was very worried. I told her I would callback when I got more information. The nurse called me back in about 5 min and told me to come in right away. I called Dan and told him to come pick me up and bring a change of clothing for me as well as a pad. I then called my mom and told her what was happening, and I would call back as soon as I knew more information.

I then got online and told my WC buddies that my water may have broken. I told my boss at work what was happening and finished up a few things at work really quick. I then went outside to wait for Dan, and Dorothy accompanies me to keep me calm. I was extremely nervous at this stage. Dan came and picked me up about 20 min later. We went directly to the Doctors office. It was about 1pm by the time we got there and most of the doctors were still at lunch. We waited for a little bit, I got weighed, blood pressure taken and peed in a cup. I then went into a room and waited there completely undressed from the waist down. There was an ultrasound machine in the room. After about 5 minutes or so, the doctor came in. Dr. Hansen used the ultrasound machine to look at the baby and told us immediately that my sac had burst completely. I just was in shock and disbelief because you were still so young and we were not at all prepared for this, mentally or house wise. I just moaned and said oh no. She then wanted to take a sample of the amniotic fluid to see if the baby’s lungs were mature. She had me lay back and took a look and used a syringe to get a sample. It would take 3-4 hrs to get the results back. She also took a quick peek at my cervix and told me I still looked pretty closed up.

At this point she told me we would be heading to the hospital. I checked out at the office, and we made our way to the hospital, about 2 min away. We parked in the parking garage and then walked to the front entrance. It was about 1:30 - 1:45 pm or so at this time. I went to the front desk and said I have to go up to labor & delivery. They called up, got approval and gave me an escort up. I was offered a wheelchair, but declined, as I wanted to walk. We got up to the 8th floor and went to the nurses desk. They took me into a temporary room to get monitored. I had to get fully undressed and put on a gown. Once this was done, my blood pressure and temperature was taken. I also had to answer a bunch of questions for some forms. At that point the nurse told me that I would be getting antibiotics and would have to have an IV and that I would get a steroid shot, one right now and one 24 hrs later if necessary. I was told that if your lungs were not matured enough, this would help and if they were fine, it would not cause problems. I then got put onto the monitors for your heartbeat and a contraction monitor. I was extremely hungry at this point as I had not eaten since breakfast. I asked if I could get some food, they called the doctor and told me I could have something to eat. Dan was given a $12 pass to go downstairs and get some food. He came back with some pizza, which tasted fabulous! During the time that Dan was gone, I had the IV put in and that was quite painful. It was the 1st time I had ever had an IV. She got me all hooked up to some fluids and started me on the antibiotics. The antibiotics really stung going into the IV. About 15 min later, she came in with the steroid shot. The shot had to be given in the buttocks and it was also quite painful. The shot burned a lot. I was on continuous monitoring for the rest of the period I was in the room.

After a few more hours of watching TV the results of the amnio came in, one result was + for lung maturity, one was negative, so the results were borderline. The decision was made to wait until Wednesday the 22nd to induce and get me the last steroid shot over the next day. The benefits of waiting outweighed the risks at that point. I was moved from the Labor and Delivery floor to the high risk OBGYN floor where I would spend the remaining time until I was induced. I told the doctor I was nervous about the induction as I had heard stories, and she said that statistically they found no difference between an induced labor and a natural labor. I just said OK, but didn’t really believe her.

Once we got settled into the room, Dan left to go home to get dinner and get some of my items together from the list I had made him. I was on bedrest for the next 2 days until labor, I could only get up for a shower and to use the bathroom. I just decided to watch TV and eat some dinner. Dan came back a few hours later with my stuff and kept me company for an hour or so. At that point he left for the night. One of the shift nurses came in shortly to do some monitoring to check if I was having any contractions. When I was laying on my back I was having a few contractions, spaced out unevenly, which I could not feel. The nurse came back in and gave me a pill to help me sleep and to help ease the contractions. They did not want me going into labor yet. At this point I fell asleep.

September 21, 2004

I woke up several times during the night due to the continuous monitoring that was necessary and the antibiotics in my IV. I was also very nervous about you coming into the world so soon. So many thoughts going through my head, would you be OK, would you need to stay at the hospital, etc. Once morning came and I got my breakfast, I decided to watch TV again. I then took a shower, which was interesting because I had to have the nurse cover my IV. I watched TV for most of the day with Dan coming by to visit in the afternoon until the evening. Around lunchtime I also had a visitor from work. She also brought some flowers, which just cheered me right up. She was telling me what was going on at work and what some of the single guys were thinking as my water had broken in my office while I was sitting down. I guess some of the women were teasing the single guys for not wanting to go into my office and sit in the chair, even though my water did not really touch the chair. It also helped cheer me up.

I found out from the doctor today that both of the lung maturity tests came back negative. I am not sure why there was a discepency, but it made me worry all the more.

About 4:30 pm I got my 2nd steroid shot. This one didn’t hurt as much going in, but really stung afterwards. The anticipation of the shot was really horrible that day and I was happy just to get it over. Now I could mentally prepare for being induced the next morning. I was told that the tentative time for me being brought up to the labor and delivery ward would be around 6:30 to 7:00 am depending on how busy they were. I started getting extremely nervous and was glad that Dan was there to talk to.

Dan left that evening and I told him I would call him the next morning as soon as I knew the time. I was still really nervous about the upcoming induction. Once evening came I decided to get some sleep as I figured I would probably need it. Again I was being monitored every shift and had antibiotics every 6 hours.

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September 22, 2004

I slept quite poorly last night due to the anticipation of having you. I was up at 5 am and the induction was still on for that morning. I was going to be picked up around 7:00am or so. I decided to try and sleep a little more. I just ended up laying in bed and after about 45 minutes of this I decided I would take a shower. I called the nurse, got my IV taped up, and took a shower. I also blow dried my hair as I figured I wanted to at least look a little decent for the labor. I then called Dan at 6am to tell him to go ahead and come up. Everything was on schedule. After this I asked the nurse if I could eat something. She called the doctor and they said no as I was to only be on clear liquids from now on. I was very hungry and groaned at the thought of not being able to eat anything solid. I asked for some jello and they were all out at that time and said I would need to wait until a tray came up. I then decided to pack up my items as I wasn’t sure Dan would make it in time. There wasn’t much so it didn’t take long. After this I laid back in bed and watched some more TV. I just kept watching the clock, 1st 6:30 passed then 7:00 passed and I was getting even more nervous. At 7:30 the nurse came with the wheelchair to bring me to the labor and delivery floor. Dan had not yet made it so the nurse said they would redirect him to the appropriate floor.

I got into the wheelchair and was brought up. I was wheeled into the very last delivery room on the floor. At that point I met my nurse for the morning and she got me comfortable. I found out that the doctor on call for the day would be Dr. McDonald. Another doctor was still there that morning and he would be checking me 1st. The nurse checked my IV to make sure it would still work. They had a few issues with it, but decided that it would be OK. I chose to keep my hand a certain way. At that point I also got the blood pressure cuff, which would go off every ½ hour, continuous monitoring, and fluids.

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The doctor came in and checked me out. I was a fingertip to 1cm dilated, 90% effaced. I asked if I could just have intermittent monitoring and was told no. Anytime someone is induced with Pitocin, they have to be on continuous monitoring. I was disappointed, but understood. At 8:30 am they started the Pitocin. They started at a very low level and would be increasing the amount every 45 minutes.

Dan finally arrived shortly after the pitocin had been started. I remember turning on the TV and watching a movie. I was bored as I had to stay in bed and could only move as far as the wires would allow me to. I was allowed to unhook everything to go to the bathroom though. I did have to stay in bed until I had started moving along. Breakfast was brought in, jello, broth and some juices.

My contractions were very irregular throughout the morning. Around 11am I decided to sit in the rocking chair for a while as I hoped it would be more comfortable. The contractions did not hurt and there was only pressure. The contractions were still very irregular. After a bit, I went back to the bed to try and take a nap. I didn’t end up napping, just resting. Around noon, lunch was brought in, the same thing as breakfast, yuk!

I was checked again around 1pm and had dilated to 2cm. The doctor decided to try and stretch my cervix out. This was extremely painful and I lay in bed crying while he did this. He stretched me from 2 cm to 3 cm. I was 100% effaced at this point. The doctor hoped I would make more progress. Up till this point the contractions did not hurt and there was only pressure. If the pitocin didn’t start making my contractions more regular soon, they would bring the amount down again and ramp me back up. I was told by the nurse that this sometimes help bring people into more active labor.

Once 2pm came along, the contractions started to get more painful and I was getting more uncomfortable. I decided to go back to the rocking chair as it was nice and comfortable. As my contractions were becoming more regular the pitocin was left at the highest level. I stayed in the rocking chair for quite a while. The doctor came in around dinner, 5:30pm or so. He checked me again and I was at a good 3cm, almost 4 and very soft. I was making progress, just very slowly. He told me I could get an epidural if I wanted, but declined and told him I wanted to do this naturally. Dinner was brought in after and it was the same as breakfast and lunch again. I asked for more jello and ate that. I was very bloated from all the fluids.

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After being checked again the doctor told the nurse to put me back in the rocking chair as that really seemed to be helping me dilate. I asked instead to use the birthing ball. The nurse brought it in and I got on it. I tried it out for a while, but I did not find it comfortable. I had issues with my IV and it seemed to really make the contractions more intense. I was on the ball for about ½ hour before I decided to move back to the rocking chair. Dan had to physically help me onto the chair as I did not have anymore energy. I stayed there for most of the rest of my labor.

The pain started to get more and more intense. By 8pm I had to start breathing through the contractions. It felt as though my back and front we aching quite badly. I just breathed through the contractions. By around 9:30 to 10:00pm the contractions were extremely intense. It felt as though I was tearing up the middle, from front to back. I was also shaking quite a bit due to the stress. I could not take the pain anymore and the contractions at this time were 1-2 minutes apart, with each contraction lasting about 1 min. I talked to Dan and we decided to call the nurse to talk to her about an epidural. She said that we could talk to the anesthesiologist if we wanted and we decided that would be a good idea. In the meantime she would call the doctor and ask if it was OK and start the bag of fluid I would need.

A few minutes later she came in to talk to us. We asked he all the hard questions and were happy with what she told us. I could only talk to her during the times I had no contractions as it took all my effort and concentration to get through each one. I was worried about my blood pressure as it was on the low side and I knew an epidural would lower it even more. She said they could always give me something to raise it. I was in the unnper 90's to lower 100's for the top number and in the lower 70's, upper 60's for the lower # even with all the fluids. We decided to talk about it and get back to her. I got through another set of contractions and the nurse suggested she check to see how far dilated I was. Dan helped me move from the rocking chair to the bed. The nurse checked and I was only 4cm dilated. I decided at this point that I couldn’t take 6 more hours of this and decided to go ahead and get the epidural. They got all the trays into the room for the epidural. I already had some fluids and they were waiting for that to go into my system. The anesthesiologist got called to another room for an epidural. The doctor came into the room and gave me a shot of Demerol to help take the edge off until I could get the epidural. This made me feel loopy for about 5 min but did not help take the pain away or even make me care less. The doctor then checked me again as I was shaking and having a hard time getting though the contractions. At this point I was 6-7cm and this was about 10 minutes from the time I was at 4cm. They sat me at the edge of the bed to get me ready for the epidural. I had several contractions during this time that were extremely painful. I then found out that the anesthesiologist had an emergency. She would be back as soon as possible.

After another 5 minutes or so I had a very intense contraction and toward the end of it felt some intense rectal pressure. I told the nurse who called the doctor. After the next contraction I was checked again and was at 10cm with a lip. The doctor told me to push a little. I did as he asked and I was complete. I think he may have helped move the lip of cervix out of the way. I was told I would not be getting the epidural and that I was going to be able to do this naturally. I went from 4cm to 10cm in ½ hour. The doctor turned off the pitocin so I could get a little relief.

All the nurses in the room started getting ready and moving the epidural trays out of the room. The doctor then came to let me know that he had an emergency c-section and one of the midwives associated with the practice would be delivering me. He figured since I wanted to go naturally anyway that this would work out great.

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She introduced herself to me. She had very kind eyes and I liked her immediately. I felt a great connection with her. She told me what I would need to do and when. During the next contraction I pushed with everything I had. I was extremely tired, but managed to get 3 pushes for 5-8 seconds a piece in. I felt lots of pressure, but was pushing correctly. While I pushed she helped stretch out my perineum area. This was quite painful and I wanted her to stop, but I figured it would only help me later. My contractions had slowed to one every 5 minutes and I did not really feel the urge to push, but did anyway. Dan helped hold up one of my legs. I pushed for an hour and it felt like my hips were spreading apart. With each push he came further and further down, slipping back until finally he didn’t slip back anymore. At this point I started to feel the burning pressure. It felt like I was on fire from my urethra to my rectum. The midwife called in the respiratory specialist and other nurses as he was a preemie. There was quite a few people in the room. I asked the midwife if it was possible to leave him attached to his cord as long as possible. She talked to the specialist and they said that they would need him right away so this was not possible.

From this point I pushed through three contractions until he finally came out. Everyone in the room kept urging me to push him out. I saw his head come out, I then pushed a little more and his shoulders came out. The rest of his body then slipped right out of me. Dan was right there next to me and saw him come out of me. He was born on 9/23 at 12:27am. He was 5lb 6 oz and 19” long.

He was placed on my belly and I was warned not to grab him to me as he was still attached to the cord. I just looked in awe at this being on my stomach. He immediately started turning pink and started yelling. It was amazing. I just felt his hands and looked at him in awe. I remember faintly the midwife telling Dan where to cut the cord and that it would not hurt him. Dan did this and they took the baby away to the attached baby room to check him out. I told Dan to follow him and take lots of pictures. I found out that he scored a 9,9 on his apgars and they actually said he was a 10, but they don’t give 10’s.

The midwife started checking me out and waiting for the placenta to come out. As my contractions were spaced so far apart they restarted the pitocin to help out. After 20 minutes or so the midwife started pulling on the placenta a bit. They like for it to be delivered within 30 minutes. I saw Dan off to the side holding onto the baby and couldn’t wait to see him again.

The midwife told me that if it didn’t come soon she would have to go in and get it. Finally about 5 minutes later I felt an intense contraction, told the midwife that, and she said the placenta was coming. I felt it coming and pushed it out. I was surprised as to how big it felt. She got it out and looked at it carefully. She noticed something on it and decided to send it off for pathology. I asked if I could see it and she showed me what it looked like. It was kinda neat to see, but also gross.
At this point she checked me over and noticed a spot that was bleeding. She said I had 2 skin separations (skid marks) and that I may need a stitch. One stopped bleeding but the other didn’t. She decided that I would need one stitch to help the bleeding stop. We decided to do the stitch without the numbing agent as that would probably hurt worse than the stitch. She did spray some numbing agent on the area to try and help a little. I felt both pokes and it was painful, but not to bad. I was happy that I only needed one stitch.

Once this was done they washed me down with some really nice warm water and then gave me an ice pack. Then everyone left the room so we could spend about an hour with our son. Dan gave him to me and I just couldn’t believe it. We created this tiny being. I tried to breastfeed him a little but he wasn’t interested. I just kept him to that general area. He was very alert. We decided that the name Joseph suited him and went with that.

We took lots of pictures. After an hours of bonding time, they came and took Joseph to the nursery for a bath and warming.

The nurse came for me and helped me walk to the bathroom. She wanted to make sure I could go pee. I did and she also helped me change my gown. After that Dan started getting all of our stuff together and I was put into a wheelchair. She wheeled us over to the recovery room and the room I would spend the rest of my time in. The baby would be in the nursery for 2-hrs.

I met the nurse that would take care of me that night. Once she showed me some of the stuff I could use to take care of myself, I decided I needed some food. Dh went and got some pizza, which I wolfed down very quickly almost making myself sick. After eating I decided I wanted to go for a walk and see Joseph. I got on another gown and went to the nursery to se him. He was under the warming lamps and looked so cute!

We took some more pictures and then headed back. On the way back I asked for some breast pads as I was starting to leak. Then DH and I tried to get some sleep until Joseph was brought to us.

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Sorry this was sooo long :).

[ajlanden]

I love reading birth stories! So here is mine!

Birth Story:
I was induced on my due date. I felt a little guilty about being induced because I only did it because I was so impatient to meet my little one! (Patience isn’t my strength) Luckily my doctor was also pg and very understanding.

DH and I left our house at 7:00 am on December 14. I was a nervous wreck. I couldn’t even talk. It was so hard to believe that when we returned, we were going to be parents! Once we checked into the hospital, I calmed down. My mom and DH’s mom joined us shortly after. (We both have really great close families. I wanted everyone, who was comfortable doing so, to witness the birth of our little girl!).

My doctor came and inserted the gel (cervadil?) into my cervix and told me I would have to lay flat for two hours. Shortly after she left I started to get these feelings like I had to go #2 REALLY bad. I was paranoid about going while I was pushing, so I was upset that I didn’t get it out before we had got to the hospital. Later I realized these were my contractions. I started feel a dull ache in my back (again, contractions). After the two hours had passed, DH and I walked the halls like there was no tomorrow! They then checked me and was at 2.5 cm. I had been 2 when I came in. So more gel and more walking. I was having regular contractions by then, but nothing I couldn’t manage.

My doctor came back around noon and wanted to check me again. Unfortunately, there was a resident that asked me if it was okay if she checked me instead. OMG, talk about pain! I was crying and I thought DH was going to punch her. My cervix was still very high, but I was almost at 3. My doctor said she was going to try break my water. I think she knew I didn’t want that resident anywhere near me again. I said that was fine, but I wanted my epidural right after she broke my water, because I just knew that the contractions would get more intense and I wanted to as pain free as possible. Well, she broke it and of course the contractions got much worse!!! I didn’t want to feel that much pain. It was bad luck that all the anesthesiologists were busy. At that moment I was so mad because I had warned them that I wanted on right after my water was broken. About two hours later the anesthesiologist came in (about 5 pm). I had never been so happy to see someone in my life! It didn’t hurt a bit and everyone laughed at me because I was thanking him for his generous donation to the non-profit organization that I work, while he was sticking me with the needle!

After that I felt wonderful! I told my family that I hadn’t been that comfortable in months. Unfortunately it totally stopped my contractions. They waited for awhile before giving me pitocin. After the pitocin, my blood pressure started dropping pretty dramatically. They had to shoot me up with speed (don’t really know what it was called) three times. It was scary and I was just waiting to be wheeled in to do a c/s. Things started to pick up quickly after that. They checked me at I was at 7 at about 11:30 pm. About 1 hour later I started to feel like I was going to have a bm. I had heard that that is a signal for being ready to push. I couldn’t believe I went 3 cm in an hour, but the checked me and sure enough I was ready to push. The whole family came in, my mom, dad and sister and MIL and FIL. The doctor came in about 1 am and I started the pushing. I was in real pain, but could definitely feel when I was contracting.

After half an hour of pushing our little girl popped out at 1:31 am on 12/15/2004. Everyone in the room screamed! Our little girl was placed on my belly and I looked right into her eyes. I remember DH just yelling, Oh my god, Oh my god! It was the most amazing moment of our lives. I LOVED that she was surrounded by all the people that loved her at her birth.

Danielle Judith
7 lbs 0.5 oz
20 ¼ inches

It much actually much easier than I thought. The recovery was more difficult than I had anticipated, but worth every second!

[SaphirimalMei]

Act I: The routine Dr appt becomes not so routine

Since I was past my due date, the docs wanted to make sure I was fully monitored to be certain Girlbito wasn’t running out of fluid or room. So, when I went in for the appointment at 8:50am on Monday the 31st, they checked my amniotic fluid level via ultrasound and hooked me up to the NST machine. I had been having contractions that morning (and the night before), but they were totally irregular so I didn’t think anything of it. During the NST, however, they started coming every 3.5 minutes…weird!

Next up was the doctor’s exam to see if I was dilating at all. Doc had good news…I was at 1cm! Whoopee! As she was finishing up the exam, I felt a warm rush of fluid down there. The doc sounded confused, “ I think your water just broke.” “Or my bladder!, I said (I really needed to pee). To be certain, the doc tested the fluid, and sure enough…my water had broken! “Go to the hospital,” the doc said, “I’ll call ahead to let them know you are on the way.”

Act II: Holy Crap! This is it!!!

Luckily Phil and I had already packed the bags and put them in the trunk, but we still had to go back to the house to be sure that Sainty had enough food and water, and to grab the cameras. Sadly the whole “broken water” issue made the trip a little bit more interesting. As soon as I got out of the car to go inside, the dam officially gave way, completely drenching every piece of clothing I had on below the waist. (Ew!) This made us step up the pace of our efforts. I changed, we grabbed the stuff, and we were out of the house and on the road again in record time.

The morning had started out pretty snowy, but the sun had come out by this time and the roads were mostly dry. My new, fave CD (Hot Fuss, by the Killers) was on the stereo as we were cruising towards the hospital in the warm sunshine. Everything seemed so normal that I had to keep reminding myself that the moment I was waiting for had finally arrived. Surreal as it seemed, this was really it!!! Holy Crap! Yay!

Act III: Welcome to the Jungle

We arrived at the hospital around 11am. Phil dropped me off at the entrance, and he went off to park the car. A lady met me just inside the doors and asked me in an unlikely southern accent if she could help me find anything. “No,” I told her, “I’m in labor and heading up to L&D…I know where it is.” “OK, Darlin’,” she drawled, walking away. (Funny that she didn’t offer me a wheelchair, but…anyways) I kept on movin, made my way to the 3rd floor and rang the bell to get in. A nurse appeared, looked me up and down and asked me who I was there to see. “Um, I’m here for me…I’m in labor,” I told her, unable to keep the “Hello, you Idiot!” tone out of my voice. I mean, seriously, I’m hugely pregnant, carrying bags, and looking at least a little bit anxious…”who am I there to see…” duh!!!

So, I was checked in and given a gown. As soon as I was changed and back in bed, they hooked my up to what was to become the banes of my existence at the hospital…the blood pressure cuff and the fetal monitor. They just wanted to keep me on there for 30 minutes, they said, to make sure the baby was doing well before I could walk around and get things movin’!

Act IV: Failure to Progress

Well, they came back 45 minutes later to look at the strip of monitor paper, and decided that they needed to monitor me further. OK…fine. An hour later they came back and told me it looked like Girlbito’s heart was doing little mini-dips (variations, they called them) with my contractions and they needed to keep me on the monitor full time. I was so upset. Already, I was more a patient than anything else, and now I wasn’t even going to be allowed to leave my bed. Arg!

Most of my time after that was spent visiting with people who’d come to see me, and watching TV. My friend, Sara, was really awesome and gave me foot and back rubs. A few hours later at around 4pm they came to check my cervix and I found out that I was still at 1cm!!!!!!! They put me on pitocin. I was devastated. I REALLY did not want pitocin. But, pitocin I got.

Time went by very slowly after that. My contractions were getting more and more painful all the while. The stupid blood pressure cuff thingy kept going off every half-hour and it was awful. The cuff they were using was too tight and sometimes the damn thing wouldn’t release causing my arm to turn all kinds of purple. Lovely. Like I said before…bane of my existence. Also, in my efforts to get more comfy in bed, I tried to shift about, but every time I did, the sucky Girlbito monitors would slip off of my enormously round belly. So, I was just generally getting more and more irritated. And more and more in pain.

At 10pm, when they came in to turn up my pitocin for the millionth time, athe doctor also came in to check me. Still at 1 FREAKIN CM! By that time, I had been in labor for 12 hours, and I was totally unable to relax during contractions. When I found out that I was still 1cm, I gave in to the relief that drugs had to offer. If I knew that the pain I was in was allowing me to progress, I may have been able to stick it out, but I was feeling like the pain was worthless, so what’s the dang point. Since I didn’t want to run the risk of an epidural “stalling out” whatever labor I had going, I opted for the smallest shot of Stadol to see where that got me.

Well, turns out that it got me dizzy, but in an increasing amount of pain, and the pitocin kept going up. “That’s it!” I said and told them to go get the anesthesiologist. He came in at 11:30pm and was super nice. The procedure seemed to take forever though, I had 5 contractions while the epi was getting put in and I cannot even tell you how much that sucked. The pain I was feeling was so intense by that point that I was shaking from the exertion of trying to cope. Shortly thereafter, though…sweet relief. Like many women…I truly could have kissed the epi doc.

I could still feel the pressure of the contractions, but none of the pain. Thank god.

Act V: I use the Jedi Mind Trick on my cervix to great effect

The hours from 11:30pm to 4am were kind of a blur. I was half-dozing in between the times when my blood pressure cuff would go off (still every 30 minutes) but this time when it went off, the alarm would also go off. My blood pressure was getting way too low. Sometimes it went as low as 90/40. Kinda scary, but if the nurses weren’t that concerned, I decided that I wasn’t going to be too troubled about it either. However, this did not stop them from leaving the dang alarm on. So every time it went off, I had to buzz a nurse to turn it off. :rolleyes:

At 4am, I decided that I was not going to get any real sleep, so I decided to use that time to talk to my cervix. Not out loud, mind you, but I kept up a steady running dialogue in my head telling it to open up and let that baby out!

The doc came back to check me at 5am. Lo and behold…I was 4cm! Woo hoo! Checked me again at 6am and I was 6cm! Up til now, Phil had been snoozing away on the couch/bed…lucky lucky man. I woke him up and told him that things were really starting to happen. At 7:30am, they checked and I was complete!!!! The Jedi Mind Trick had worked!

Act VI: A labor of Love

Girlbito was still riding a little high (-1 station) so the nurse had me do some practice pushes to see what happened. At this time, they turned off the epidural to give me a chance to un-numb so I could push effectively. When I did my practice pushes, the nurse said it seemed that I was still a little to anesthetized, and we’d wait 30 min or so before really getting down to business. In the meantime, I was to do little one second mini-pushes to try to see if she’d move down a bit into my pelvis.

Move down, she did! The pressure was amazing. After the 30 minutes were up, it became almost impossible NOT to push. Finally the nurse came back at about 10 after 8am, she said that Girlbito had moved down to +1 station and that it was time to push for real. Everyone but Phil and the medical staff was ushered out of the room and we got down to business.

We started pushing and at 8:52am, my little girl came into this world. I cannot effectively describe the sensation of pushing, but I will never forget what it felt like. It was tough, but it was a release as well. I felt so powerful.

The first time I heard my little girl cry, I just broke down crying. I was finally a mommy.

Unfortunately I could not hold her right away because they were having trouble getting my placenta to detach from the top of my uterus. I guess when I finally got a sticky baby, it REALLY stuck! They ended up having to go in and yank it out. It was not especially fun, but I will not go into further detail. I ended up with only a small internal tear. 4 stitches put me back together just fine.

My emotions are still pretty close to the surface these days. I am super sentimental and cry at the drop of a hat. The picture I posted below, makes me tear up every time I look at it. The love and amazement I felt at that moment are forever recorded in that photograph.

I am so so so in love with this precious little girl. I'm still in awe that my husband and I could have created this special being.

Obviously the Defcon 5 level Sap-factor from pregnancy is still lingering, but I have the funny feeling that it will never really leave me.

http://im1per.shutterfly.com/procserv?si=00004759836920050210160807594.JPG&cb=13031133&ph=56785&cr=0.0,0.026315749,1.0,0.97368425&r=0&sc=1&sar=1.3333333730697632&p=1&pa=0.5&b=1&bw=0.2&po=0&sa=0&ps=2&g=2.2&rx=96&ry=96

written 2-10-2005

[SiValleySteph]

These are from my WC posts when DS was born. :D I was induced at 41 weeks.

9-26-04

I have to get to bed early tonight. I might have to go in at 6:30 AM tomorrow!!
I had my prostoglandin gel today. No biggie. I was hooked up to the monitors for like 4 hours. While I was on my back, I could feel and see on the monitor contractions like every 10 minutes. Cool. Now that I've been busy the rest of the day, I haven't really noticed too much going on. I'm top of the queue for induction tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.
I'm hoping, hoping, hoping that this baby comes the usual way with no problems. Figers crossed!

9-27-04

Hello! I'm sneaking a post in from the hospital while DH gets some food and DS gets some shut eye.

We had such a good labor experience. It was so speedy!

I got to the hospital a little past 7:30. We got the pitocin hooked up around 8am and my doctor showed up around then. He checked and I was 1cm dialated - I was estatic about this since I wasn't really dilated at all the day before. I had some contraction overnight, so maybe this helped. He tried to break my water, but wasn't sure if he got it or not. After he left, I started gushing a lot with each contraction, so it was a success! The first couple of hours were not too bad, we even started watching a movie - Office Space - (we brought our Playstation 2), but then it got bad. The nurse had really upped the pitocin. I labored some on my knees leaning over a stool and then in a rocking chair. I did a good job managing the pain for the most part, just trying to keep relaxed and breathing. The nurse warned me that if I wanted an epi I would have to wait until after a c-section that would be from 12:30 to 1:30. She also wouldn't check me since my water was broken. I decided that I would wait for my dr. to come during lunch to see and then decide if I wanted to get one or not. When he came around 1, he said I was 4cm and he wouldn't be surprised if I had the baby before office hours were up. What?? We were totally thinking it would be late that night if not the next morning. Well, after he left, the pain was just really intense. The nurse came back at 1:15 and said the anetheselogist was available if I wanted anything and I decided to go ahead and get the epi. He was so good! I laid on my side and he had it in before I knew it. But... it still hurt!?!?! I was confused. He asked if I was feeling it down low. I said it felt like I really had to go to the bathroom - a ton of pressure. He told the nurse she'd better check me again. So she did and I was already 8 cm!!! And it had only been about 30min since I was 4cm. By 2pm, I was already pushing. My contractions were spaced pretty far apart (2 minutes), so I would do my 3 sets of pushes for about 20-30 seconds and then get to rest until the next contraction, so I didn't get too tired. It also didn't really hurt and I could tell exactly when I was having a contraction. Since I wasn't contracting that much, it took about 2 hours of pushing. Baby Lucas arrived at 4:16pm... very cute! And my husband never got to finish his Playstation Football game he starting playing when I couldn't focus on the movie anymore.

I did have a (gasp) 4th degree episiostomy. Ack!

My mom came, too, and she was a big help also. She held one of my legs up for pushing and counted along. DH was awesome - he gave great counter pressure and massages and encouragement.

I think the reason I neaded the episiostomy was due to the wait between pushes, but I'm not sure. I'll take it though because we had such a great experience. Only 8 hours really!!! And so little pain. The epidural was great because it never really had a chance to kick in all the way, so I could feel my legs and everything.

Breastfeeding is going super well. Lucas is doing great! I'm in totally mommy mode already because I know he's had 2 poo diapers and 4 wet diapers already and he's only 28 hours old.

Okay, I should really go now... I have to roll the bassinett into the bathroom so I can go. The hazards of being alone in the hospital room! Can't leave the baby unattended!!!

Here's a first picture from DH's camera phone!
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d706b3127cceb727676650a60000001610

[BooeyJ2]

Here's mine (copied from my LJ) :)






Monday - 3/14/05 - Went to work as usual and was feeling fine. A little crampy
here and there, but pretty darn good. Later that night I started having some
contractions. They felt like really bad period cramps……quite painful, but managable.
Throughout the night I got them sporadically…..2:10 AM, 3:00 AM, etc. Didn't get much sleep.






Tuesday - 3/15/05 - I was nicely awoken at 6:56 AM with pretty bad contractions.
They were coming more frequently, so I started timing them…..10 minutes, 8
minutes, 14, minutes…….just irregular. Of course I didn't go into work since I
hadn't gotten much sleep and was in pain with contractions, but I told Mark to
go ahead and that I would call if they started getting closer. I decided to jump
in the shower. The contractions got closer….even as close as 4 minutes. Next
thing I know Mark calls and says he's on his way back home…which is good because I figured
we should head down since my doctor had told me to head there when my
contractions were 5-7 minutes apart. We get to the hospital and they send me to
the triage department (for those who don't know, this is where they check you
first to see if you are really in labor and need to be admitted). Anyhoo, we get
there and they send us to a room. A few minutes later this “nice” (not)
nurse comes in and hooks up the monitors that read the baby's heartbeat and the
contractions. At this point they are still anywhere between 4-7 minutes apart.
She does a internal exam (ouch) and tells me that by cervix has thinned, but I'm
only dilated to ONE!?! WTF? Are you kidding me?? My doctor told me I was 1-2 cm dilated at my last appointment!? Whatever. She tells us to go home and
come back when the contractions are between 2-3 minutes apart. Uhhhh…..ok lady,
some of these are only 4 minutes apart….we're pretty darn close….and plus these
contractions are painful as hell. So whatever……we leave and go meet my sisters
for lunch (they were already on the way to the hospital) since we're all down
this way (keep in mind the hospital is about 25-30 minutes from our house
(without traffic)....so we really didn't want to drive all the way home and have to turn back around and risk getting caught in rush hour traffic). We grab lunch and I'm still having painful contractions. Keep
in mind that I'm NOT a wuss and have had HORRIBLE period cramps my whole life
(TMI - the kind that make you have diarrhea and vomit)…..so yeah….i'm in pain.
We decide to go walk around the mall hoping that maybe that will help me
dilate. We're walking around the mall and I'm stopping every few minutes because
of the contractions. I'm literally holding onto shelves every time I have a contraction. A few hours go by and I'm in PAIN. The contractions are now
2-5 minutes apart….close enough for us. We head back to the hospital and are
sent back up to triage. Arrgghh….we get the SAME nurse again. She does the whole
thing over again and says I'm still at 1 cm dilated. She says that since the
contractions are so close she's going to call the doctor and see what he says.
The doctor says for me to stay at the hospital but to walk around for a few
hours and come back. So we do that. At this point I'm practically dying every
time I have a contraction. For those of you who don't know what they feel
like….imagine the WORST period cramps EVER along with really bad “sh*t your
pants” diarrhea cramps. I literally felt like I was going to just crap myself
and just wanted to curl up in a ball and die. Finally 2 hours have passed and
i'm about to die. We head back up….same routine….but different nurse (thank god!) and
whattya know….all the sudden I'm magically dilated to 2 - 3 cm! I'm finally
admitted to the hospital and they get me a room. At this point I'm damn near in
tears because of the contractions. Seriously…..the worst pain ever. My sisters
and everyone else who was lucky enough to be dilated more than they had
contractions are soooo lucky. My body was doing it backwards for some reason.
Basically I was having contractions of someone who was already dilated to
8+cm…..it was ridiculous. Finally they gave me an epidural and contraction-wise I
was fine about 20 minutes later. Phew! Just when you think things are going to
get speedy and better…..they don't. Hours upon hours, upon hours pass. My water broke around 2:45am (about 5 hours after they gave me my epidural). It was SO gross/weird. All the sudden I just felt this gush of fluid (imagine filling up a plastic grocery bag with water kinda loose and then it slighty bursting all the sudden...it was SO weird). Luckily it happened RIGHT when the nurse walked in and I turned to say something to her LOL.









Wednesday - 3-16-05 (Paige's Birthday!!) - My body is nicely dilating on it's own (no pitocin)……… but not fast enough for myself and
especially not fast enough for Mark and my sisters who never left my side. The
next thing I know, I have a horrible migraine and feel nauseaus. My head is
pounding so bad that I can't even keep my eyes open because any bit of light
makes it worse. To make a long story a tiny bit shorter…..I ended up throwing up
about 3 times (luckily only fluids/stomach acid since I hadn't eaten since lunch
earlier that day. So just as a recap….I was having contractions since 6:50am
that morning, finally got admitted to a room around 9:30pm and now it was around
5:00am the next day (3/15) and i'm nauseaus and have a migraine (apparently pretty common in labor). Finally around 9:00am they give me pitocin
(uhhh…..why couldn't they have done that waaaaay earlier?) to help speed up the
labor. My head is still throbbing and I'm still nauseaus. At this point I have
ZERO energy since I hadn't gotten any sleep. I finally sleep for a few hours
(since my head feels like someone threw a bowling ball at it) and next thing I
know I wake up and they say that I'm pretty much ready to go. The nurse suggests
that we wait a little longer and see if Paige drops down into the birth canal a
little bit more. Apparently she does and they have me start pushing at 12:10pm.
I really didn't have to push too much….and next thing I know the doctor comes in
and I start giving a few really good pushes (which doesn't hurt at all, just
feels like I'm taking a HUGE crap) and Paige's head is out! All I hear is the
doctor, Mark and my sisters commenting on how much hair she has haha. Totally
from Mark's side of the family….not mine since my sisters and I were all pretty
bald. The doctor suctions her nose and mouth and then the rest of my my little girl comes out no
problem. Everyone is in awe….especially Mark who just keeps saying “Oh my god,
she's so beautiful”. My sister comments “Awww…she's like a little porcelain
doll!”. My other sister says “Oh my gosh Julie, she looks just like you!”. They clean her off and hand her to me…..and sure enough, she looks
totally like me when I was a newborn (super chinese!) haha. Anyhoo, the labor (contractions and
waiting around) was by far the worse part for me. The delivery (birth) was a
breeze. Mark is still amazed that when I was pushing my face was
normal….nothing like what he's seen on TV and such haha (yes, that epidural was
awesome).







Paige looks SO chinese.......it's hilarious! It's crazy how different they look in just days or months. She already looks different than when she was born. I can't wait to see what she'll look like in a few months (since they almost never look the same).





Without further ado........


I would like to introduce you to my little "porcelain doll"................


*Paige Jamieson*
Born on 3/16/05 @ 12:50pm
7 lbs 12 oz
20 1/2 " long


Right after birth (with the newborn eye ointment in her eyes)..........
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v716/Booey143598/49.jpg

[tray622]

I had been suffering from Pregnancy-Induced-Hypertension and mild Preeclampsia since 20 weeks. I had been on monitoring since 28 weeks and admitted 4 times to labor and delivery during my last month. Twice was for blood pressure that wouldn’t go down and twice was for low amniotic fluid. I was scheduled to see my doctor on Friday and schedule an induction.

Tuesday, October 5 (39 weeks)
I had an NST appointment at 10:30. I had been going twice a week since 28 weeks, so I figured it would be another routine day. I was running a bit behind, so I skipped breakfast and planned on getting lunch on the way home. I get to my appointment and am hooked up to the machine. Everything is perfect as always. Now it is time for the protein test. It is +4. I normally have trace to +1. The ultrasound came back good. I have had low amniotic fluid levels due to my continuous high blood pressure and the results this day were pretty routine. My blood pressure was next and was high… again. I lie down… still very high. The nurse decides I should have labs done again. It had been a week since my last draw. I figure it is another trip to L&D for stabilization. She paged the doctor to check and the doctor calls back with the message that I have had enough and today was the day. I was to go down stairs for my induction. I go down stairs and call my DH and my mom. I tell them that I will call them after I go to L&D and make sure that it is really happening today. I made my first HUGE mistake… I go to L&D without stopping to get food in the cafeteria or vending machines!! I will regret this later… big time.

11:30 - Downstairs I go. My nurse is awesome and she gets my IV going and starts up the Pitocin. She hangs out with me almost the whole day watching Opera. She was off at 4 and when she left I hadn’t made any cervical changes. I wasn’t feeling PAIN. I think I thought I was but nothing like what was coming. From 4-9:30 I labored some more. I am checked by my midwife and again no change. I send my mom home and my DH to do some errands. I WAS STARVING AND SNUCK A RICE KRISPY TREAT FROM MY DH’S SNACKS =) I couldn’t help it!! At 9:45 the midwife gives me an option. She could break my water or I could go with Pitocin until midnight, turn it off, and insert gel until 6am when Pitocin would start again. She breaks my water. DH and mom come back. The next 5 hours were misery. I was in a delirious pain and was not prepared. Second mistake, we had never taken labor classes. Good one. My nurse now was not so nice and would never take me seriously when asking for meds. Finally the midwife comes in and sees slight progress. She has the nurse give me nubane which completely knocks me out for the next 4 hours.

Wednesday, October 6
I awake at 3am with the worst pains ever. My back felt like it was splitting open and breaking my hips in the process. My cousin shows up at 6am and I am finally checked again. I am now 5cm. Yippee… epidural. Yeah right. My nurse was not really hearing me. She kept giving me excuse and telling me to breathe. This goes on until 9 when there is a shift change. New nurse comes on and I ask for my epidural. She starts the fluids. Finally. The anesthesiologist is in surgery, so I have to wait awhile. It comes at about 11am. It wasn’t so bad, just hard to stay still with the contractions. Things feel pretty good. It didn’t wear all the way on my right side but I could stand it. This good lasted all of 3 hours. Then the pain hit hard again. The nurse never took me seriously and I labored hard. At 2 I was checked with no progress. I was told I had two hours to see progress or it is in for surgery. 2 hours later I was at 6cm. The doctor struggled with the decision but extended my time one more hour. In that hour I was fully dilated and ready to push. It was at this time the nurse came in and I was standing next to the bed. She tries to tell me I couldn’t do that with and epidural and I said with what epidural. Then she had to admit it had not worked. Again, the anesthesiologist was busy so we gave up and started pushing at 5:50pm. I don’t remember much except I spiked a fever and all of a sudden an oxygen mask is out on and antibiotics are being pumped into my IV. I felt delirious. Zoey was born at 6:22. It was a 31 hour labor. 21 hours of my water being broke. Before I got much of a chance to hold her she was taken to the NICU. She was born with a fever due to my water being broke for so long and was very lethargic. She was there for 3 hours and I was going crazy. I couldn’t go and see her because I was catheterized and couldn’t urinate on my own. They brought her in around 10pm. She was beautiful and I was exhausted. Finally we were taken to the mother/baby center. It was over and I was awestruck and very overwhelmed.
Zoey Suzanne
8lbs 1oz / 21 in.

[cantwait]

I have actually never written my birth story down, although I remember it like it was yesterday. I guess I figured it was time to document what happened.

Tuesday, June 1, 2004
It was my first day of a 2-week vacation from work. My plan was to take the 2 weeks off, then go back to work and (hopefully) deliver the next day. That way I would get the maximum time off that I was allotted. I was almost 36 weeks at this point and David was doing well. We were told he was going to be a fairly big baby. We were so excited.

I had been having contractions on-and-off since 28 weeks, but nothing that alarmed the doctors to the point of putting me on bedrest. That Tuesday, my mom and her 2 best friends took me to lunch in a nearby town. We chatted and laughed and they toasted to my new baby who we would be meeting in another month. ;) I felt fine that day.

That evening around 7:00, I started having diarrhea (sorry if TMI) and I went ahead and took some Imodium for it (duh, had no idea I was in labor). I also felt some increased discharge. I knew that increased discharge was standard at the end of PG and I honestly didn't feel alarmed, but since I had an appt. first thing the next morning I went to bed and figured I would see what happened tomorrow. I had some back pain but I always have back pain so that wasn't really a reliable labor symptom for me!

Wednesday, June 2, 2004
DH and I went to the doctor at 9 a.m. but took separate cars (he had to work afterwards but I wanted him at the appt.) The bags were in the car and the carseat was installed the previous weekend (I am always hyper-prepared). I had previously been dilated to 1 cm and the doctor checked me - I was at 2.5 cm! I told her about the extra discharge and she swabbed me, looked at the swab through the microscope and said the now-famous words:

"Well, you're having a baby today."

DH and I looked at each other in shock and excitement. It wasn't supposed to be for another month! But David had other plans for us.

The doctor wrote me an order for delivery and sent me downstairs to L&D. DH went to his car to get his phone. I thought that's all he was doing. I waited in the waiting room for half an hour for that man! I was so P-Oed. Turns out he was calling everyone we knew to tell them (including my mom, who was on her way). I was irritated because I wanted to be the one to tell her, but Mike was just so excited to share.

Anyway, we got checked in around 10:00 a.m. and I peed in a cup, changed into the gown, and put my clothes in the lovely plastic bag they give you. I was so nervous I was practically shaking. It was all happening so quickly and I thought I would have more time to prepare! I went out to the bed and they hooked me up to the external fetal heartbeat monitor and another to monitor my heart rate and BP. That thing was SO annoying - someone had it set to take my BP every 5 minutes and it did that for 6 hours! The 2nd shift nurse finally figured out that it was set wrong. Ugh.

At this point, my mom's best friend Pam (who had gone to lunch with us the previous day!) showed up and I was so happy to see her. She had been in the area and actually beat my mom there. Mom showed up a few minutes later. After a few minutes of visiting, Mike left with Pam to get his bag and return his car home (since he wouldn't be working today). She would drive him back after he packed.

The anesthesiologist was available at that time so they came in and asked if I wanted my epi then. I said, "Hell yeah!" I honestly thought at that point I had it made - a completely pain-free labor. They hadn't yet started my pitocin and I had yet to feel a single painful contraction. Little did I know...

The epi was a breeze. I barely felt anything and I was in a great mood after that. They started my pitocin drip, as well as an antibiotic since my water had ruptured the previous day. Although it had broken, it was just a trickle, not a burst. That's why I didn't know I was in labor. They inserted a catheter and left me alone to watch the contractions on the monitor.

I hate this picture of me, but I wanted to post it here for the new mommies who might not know what kind of stuff they have you hooked up to. My hand, wrist and forearm look so swollen from the IV fluids.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d824b3127cce9ebfafb3260a00000016108AbMm7do1aM-

As you can see, I was in good spirits and not feelin' a thing:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d824b3127cce9ebfafbea73700000016108AbMm7do1aM-

Mike and Pam came back and after a bit, Mom and Pam left to go shopping for a special outfit for Davey's hospital picture. We were going to need a preemie size, which I hadn't purchased, thinking my baby was going to be so huge.

Here's a picture of the contraction monitor - DH and I loved just looking at it and listening to Davey's heart beat.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d824b3127cce9ebfafbf260600000016108AbMm7do1aM-

However, that heartbeat was behaving very erratically. It fluctuated and dropped suddenly. We became alarmed and the nurse inserted an internal monitor for a more accurate reading. At this point I had so many tubes and wires coming out of my hooha it was ridiculous. David's heartbeat seemed to calm down a little so we were reassured.

The day wore on. I dilated to 3 cm and stayed there for 2 hours. The doctor broke the rest of my amniotic sac (only a portion had leaked). Rumblings of c-section talk started (I had a very crabby unsupportive nurse on that shift). Mom and Pam came back. My dad showed up. We all chatted and watched TV. I was checked again and I was 6 cm. Woo!

It was about 9 p.m. and I was starting to get very uncomfortable. I had the strongest urge to pee, which I knew was odd because I had a catheter. I also felt a lot of pressure and I could barely sit still. I had Mike go get my doctor and sent the family out of the room.

What the doctor did was so uncomfortable! Basically, the catheter had been inserted wrong and my epi was starting to wear off, so I could feel the sensation of having to pee. In addition, they had to reinsert the internal monitor because it was getting caught in David's hair (funny, in hindsight) and reinsert the cath with no anesthesia. Ugh, I felt like I was going to vomit. They were futzing around down there for what seemed like hours, but finally the pee urge passed and everything was A-OK. However, I was still at 6 cm and had been for 2 hours. We had a frank conversation with the doctor about a c-section. David was not dropping and it seemed like he might not be able to fit under my pelvic bone (even 4 weeks early, he was good sized). We agreed to give it another hour and if I hadn't made progress we would go ahead with the operation. Since my water had been ruptured for over 24 hours they wanted the baby out ASAP.

I waited for the doctor to come with another dose of epi. At this point it was just me and Mike. I couldn't bear to be around other people. He helped me though each contraction, which I felt before it showed up on the monitor. I hadn't planned on a natural birth so I was pretty unprepared with relaxation techniques, but I had a focal point (kinda gross) - there was a dead fly in the flourescent light fixture above my bed and I would just stare at that, squeeze Mike's hand and breathe through it. It hurt, but I don't remember it much for the pain. I felt very close to my husband and I know he felt good that he seemed to be comforting me somewhat. The doctor came after 45 of the longest minutes of my life and gave me a booster of my epi. Relief. My OB came after the prescribed hour and POOF! I was completely dilated. I had gone through transition epi-free and dilated 4 cm in an hour!

[cantwait]

Mike was elated and RAN to the waiting room, shouted "she's 10 cm and going to start pushing!" and ran back. Mom, Dad, and Pam just cracked up. It was a long wait for them - my dad ended up going to get Krispy Kreme donuts, which were a lifesaver to me later.

There was quite a bit of down time between complete dilation and beginning to push. The nurse (I loved this one - I ended up having 3 over my 15 hour labor) told me how to push and I started around 11:30 p.m. I pushed with every contraction and it felt GREAT. Like someone else said, I just felt so powerful and after sitting in a bed for 13 hours, I was DOING something. After about half an hour, my doctor came to check on me and helped with the process. They brought in a mirror because they thought it would help me (I was only pushing properly about 1/2 the time). The thought of it skeeved me out, but once I took a look at my bits with all the wires coming out, I was fine. It did actually help with my progress.

After about 1.5 hours of pushing with each contraction, I had a BIG push and his head crowned. The doctor yelled "STOP PUSHING!" and I said "What???" because it's really hard to stop at that point! Then about 10 people flooded into the room with equipment and the doc gowned up and put the face shield on and I just said, OMG this is really happening. And with one more push David Manning was born at 1:01 a.m., June 3, 2004. He was laid on my stomach and I just looked at him and he was so beautiful. He had the most gorgeous blond curly hair. He weighed 7 lbs, 10.5 oz (a month early!) and was 19.5 inches long.

Mike cut the cord and they took David to evaluate him. Here's his first pic:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d824b3127cce9ebfafbd260400000016108AbMm7do1aM-

They were working inside me and I had no care or concept of what the doctor was doing. I didn't realize that I was bleeding profusely and then she had to massage my uterus internally - OUCH!! Can't imagine how much that would hurt without drugs. They stitched me up, just a small 2nd degree tear and no other problems.

They cleaned David up and weighed him. People started leaving the room and Mike went to get my family (and Pam, who had waited until after 1 a.m. to see him! She's such a great friend).

WE had 10 blissful minutes with him before they had to take him up to the nursery for a full evaluation (since he was early). He was having a few wheezy breathing episodes so they didn't want me to attempt nursing.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d824b3127cce9ebfafab261200000016108AbMm7do1aM-
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d824b3127cce9ebfaf94a71d00000016108AbMm7do1aM-
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d824b3127cce9ebfaf95262c00000016108AbMm7do1aM-

Mike went up to the nursery with David, Dad and Pam left, and Mom kept me company until Mike got back. The delivery was perfect until then, but David started having breathing problems and I didn't get to see him for another 12 hours. I had a panic attack around 5 a.m. because I wanted to see my baby so badly. Fortunately, all's well that end's well and we left the hospital together a few days later, although he had a nasty bout with jaundice. Today he is a happy, healthy toddler. I loved reliving this! Good luck to all the future mommies. However your babies arrive, birth is absolute magic.

[kimthebride]

Friday June 3rd was the due date for my for child, and a day I will never forget.

I woke up around 7:30am and went to pee (of course). When I got off the bed I noticed I had left a little wet spot on the sheet, and by the time I got into the bathroom I had soaked through my panties. I changed into a fresh pair before using the bathroom, and by the time I walked out I had soaked through those too. So I changed into a 3rd pair, put on a pad, and went upstairs for breakfast.

As I sat on the couch with bowl of cereal in hand, I gushed a bit into my pad and realized that could be The Day. I told Tom what happened and asked him to keep his cell handy just in case.

He left for work, and I started cleaning up the house to be prepared in case something happened: ran the dishwasher, put the laundry in the laundry room, got the stuff together to change the cat litter, etc.

At 10am my good friend Tracy called from Chicago to see what was going on, and when I told her what happened she was beside herself that I hadn’t told my OB yet (ok, she was likely right). She said it would be funny and “so you” to deliver on my due on since I am so organized, and we laughed about that. Finally we had to get off, so I said that was fine since I wasn’t sure if I had to go to the bathroom or was having labor pains….”ha ha ha”.

I head downstairs to use the bathroom, figuring that was what was going on. By the time I got off the toilet (loose BM) and to the sink I had a horrible contraction that stopped me in my tracks. It was 10:30am. I called Tom to tell him “Can you come home right away please, I just had my first contraction and it really really hurts”. Then I got right into the shower.

I dressed and got my suitcase ready, then ate a yogurt and a mini whole wheat bagel with peanut butter in case I was about to have a long day and miss out on lunch. My next contraction was just as strong and hit at 10:55am. I called my OB’s office to ask reception what to do, and she said to go to the hospital to be monitored.

Tom got home around 11:30am while I was eating and text-messaging my OB what was going on. I ordered him to change right away, and I told him that it seemed like the contractions were getting closer and either lasting longer or having two phases. My OB called and suggested I come to the office 1st, but I was getting confused about describing my contractions: were they lingering and lasting a long time, or were they just coming REALLY fast? I was doubling over with pain and had one more loose BM before we RAN out of the door to get into the car.

By the time I buckled up, I told Tom “Go straight to the hospital”. I had the hot water bottle on my belly and the seat heater on to help with the pain while we made the drive into the city to the hospital. I could barely speak, I was concentrating so hard on making it through the pain of each contraction. Tom was pretty calm, until he asked me whether or not I was timing them and I replied : “I think they are already 5 minutes apart”. And we both got very quiet, because it was only 12noon and traffic slowed down in the city.

A few blocks from the hospital Tom asked me which lot to park in and I said him I had to be dropped off at the door and would run up to the labor triage while he parked – I just knew I couldn’t wait. He got upset, but when I was really moaning and breathing through a very bad contraction as we approached the hospital he realized I was right and he pulled up to the door to get me a wheelchair and into the hospital.

The concierge helped Tom get me into the wheelchair and let him leave the truck in front while he brought me up to the 12th floor Labor Unit. As he wheeled me in there were nurses all around but no one approached me so I caught someone’s eye and said “I think they are 5 minutes apart already and my 1st one was only at 10:30am – this is moving VERY FAST. What do we do?”

We were brought into the closest maternity triage room for me to get monitored to see how I was doing. The nurse handed me a gown and a cup to pee in, and sent me to the bathroom. I was having bad contractions the whole time, but I rushed as fast as I could to finish and get back to the room.

The contractions were coming so fast and hard that they were disrupting my being monitored: the nurses can’t put an IV in or strap monitors on me or do anything else to me during a contraction. However, the more I was held up the more likely I’d miss my chance for an epidural – which I kept asking them to prevent from happening.

Things were moving so fast, but we had to park the car. Tom asked me if I thought he should park it then or wait – I told him to run down and get back right away. As he stepped out of the room I had a big painful contraction so he came back in and asked again – so I yelled “JUST RUN!”

Once he left the doctor came in to check me out. Her manual exam really hurt! I was already 8cm (it was about 12:45pm by then), she could see the head, and my waters broke fully open when she was digging around in there. She basically RAN out of the room to get things moving for me to be put in a delivery room and get the anesthesiologist in the asap while the nurse got fluids into me.

Tom got back and before he stepped into my triage room he asked a nurse how I was doing. She said “She’s having this baby in about 10 minutes”. Then he came into the room and another nurse soon followed with a wheelchair to bring me into the delivery room. Again I asked her to rush me in so we could make sure I got the epidural!

We enter the delivery room and I was having a bad contraction so had to wait before jumping up onto the table. Tom was so good by my side, staying calm even though I could talk with him since I was breathing through all the contractions and staying focused.

I again asked for the Drug Guy – when is he coming? PLEASE make sure I get an epidural!!! And she eventually came in while everyone was rushing around me. She had to do some paperwork before she could do anything, but the doctor said it was unlikely she had time to give the epi, considering how far along I was. Tom & I were answering her questions FAST while the rest of the delivery team ran around me in a frenzy.

Suddenly it got really quiet, just Tom answering her questions while I breathed through bad contractions…and a nurse showed up at my side and said: “You’ve been getting the urge to push, haven’t you?” And I had to admit it: “I think I’ve been having that feeling since right before I left the triage room”. So she said I had NO CHOICE but push, even though the team wasn’t even in the room yet. So with no doctor in the room, I started to Officially Push” at 1pm.

The anesthesiologist was kicked out, the doctor ran in with her team, and she broke the news that I had no option for any drugs – which upset me, so I said “I can’t do this without any pain medicine!” to which she essentially replied “Sorry, nothing we can do – SO PUSH.”

[kimthebride]

The contractions were very, very painful. The nurses said that I had been doing really well controlling my pain with the breathing I had been doing the whole time so told me to keep doing that, and NOT to yell. They showed Tom how to hold my leg for me, he kept reassuring me being really positive while the labor nurse (who was WONDERFUL) stayed right in my face coaching me when and how to push.

They had me push at each contraction, said to wrap my arms around my thighs, tuck my chin into my chest, take a deep breath & hold it while pushing. They were getting really painful, a hardening and tightening that was all-consuming, along with the feeling like I had a hard ball that I had to poop out. I didn’t feel anything vaginally at all, which was strange to me.

After about 10 minutes, I had a very hard and painful contraction and swore loudly, and the doctor told me I needed to calm down and focus. Then the next one was so painful that I SCREAMED and shuddered (I literally saw black for a second it hurt so badly, like a searing hot pain in my groin), and the doctor yelled at me. She stopped everything and told me that if I didn’t get myself under control I would tear and hurt myself or the baby.

(I later was told by Tom that the reason that hurt so badly was that when I was pushing, the doctor put HER WHOLE HAND in me and yanked down on my perineum. No WONDER I screamed!)

Anyway, I pushed again after that nightmare, and the nurse said that the doctor was getting ready to catch the baby: it was time. The labor nurse made me open my eyes and she told me that I only had a couple pushes left, and that if I pushed exactly how and when she says I wouldn’t feel any pain pushing the baby out.

A BIG one came and I pushed soooo hard, and after a few seconds everyone got all excited and the doctor told me to open my eyes because his head was out! However, they had bundled my gown on my chest and I couldn’t see anything! I almost didn’t believe them since I hadn’t felt it pop out and my vagina didn’t hurt (I just felt like I really really had to poop)

Then it was time for another push. I bore down when the labor nurse said so, everyone started yelling and encouraging me and saying “He’s coming, he’s coming!” and I felt him slither out of me then finally they yelled “He’s here! It’s a boy!” and plopped him on my chest before I could even open my eyes. It was 1:13pm.

They were all congratulating us, saying he looked great, cleaning me and the baby up. All this was buzzing around us, and all I could do was look at our son…he was so beautiful. It was amazing to see him after all this time. And he looked exactly like Tom. Tom was kissing me on the head, telling me he loved me, touching Thomas and we just stayed there staring at him for a very long time. They left him on my chest the entire time they were cleaning us all up. Tom took pictures of us and we checked out every part of our new baby.

Eventually the baby nurse had to weigh him and check him out while I got my stitches. The doctor and nurses were surprised I hadn’t torn much – only needed 2 stitches inside and 1 outside. Apparently the exercises I had been doing on the big ball with my trainer stretched me all out!

We ended up hanging out for a while in the room while the baby nurse took some info, kept checking my temperature and blood pressure, making sure I was stable. Tom, Thomas and I just relaxed and waited to be moved into a recovery room.

Little did I know that by the time I was wheeled out of the room, I would be The Talk Of The Labor Unit.

[saathei]

April 23, 2005

I had had my 2nd baby shower that afternoon, and we had Passover in the evening. Despite having spent a long time (2-3 hours) in bed beforehand, I still felt exhausted. I was lying on the couch and everyone else was sittingaround the tables. I enjoyed our Seder, but I had a hard time hearing what they were all saying. The dinner was good, though i couldn't eat it all. I was starting to feel crampy, and by the time we drank the last cup and recited the Hillel I was not pating attention at all. My friend Misty helped me time the contractions; they were about 10 minutes apart. So we called the doctor, and naturally he had us head to the hospital. Our friends were all concerned, but I didn't think it was a big deal - I'd already been to the hospital 5 times for preterm labor.

So, we checked in and got all hooked up. The first thing they did was to check my cervix. I was at a 4! This definitely freaked us out, and I was given a shot of terbutaline (which has worked perfectly every other time). I calmed down for about 10 minutes, and then the contractions returned! And with a vengeance - they hurt and took my breath away (but the contractometer didn't register them). The nurse called the doctor, and I called Misty and asked her to finish preparing my hospital bag and bring it. I didn't know if I was going to have the babies, but it was sure looking likely! They even had an ultrasound guy come to check the babies' positions - and unfortunately, Baby A had scooted her butt back over the cervix. O and I prepared ourselves for the news of a C section.

The nurse came back and said we would put me on a mag sulfate IV to try to stop the contractions. I kind of lost it then - I had heard that mag sulfate was decidedly unfun, and at that point I was ready to see my daughters and was dismayed at the idea of yet another heavily medicated, unproductive hospital visit. Orion said a prayer for me, and I felt so much calmer about the mag sulfate, so I agreed to it.

After they hooked me up, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep. They thought this meant that they were calming down... but in reality I'm just a heavy sleeper, even through pain! When I woke up at 6 in the morning, they still hurt and took my breath away, and when they checked me I was dialated to 5. The doc scheduled my C section for 10AM. We let our friends and families know. I was excited, but so scared! Scared of the surgery, scared of getting the epidural (the reason I tried hypnobirthing in the first place), scared to realize I only had a few hours left before I became a mother!!

As the time drew near, they brought Orion some scrubs (he looke like a HazMat remover, haha), and then they walked me to the OR. It was kind of weird to be walking, since I had been primarily in bed for the last month. They got me there and helped me up on the table, and the anesthesiologist washed the small of my back. Then he put the needle in - more painful than a blood draw, but not that bad. Icy heat spread out from the spot. I wasn't really aware of going numb - I thought I was a lot more aware of my body than I really was. There were so many people in the room! Nurses there for each of the babies, the anesthesiologist, Dr. Parker, a midwife, and a couple of nurses just for the surgery. But not my husband. They laid me down and gave me an oxygen mask, and put up the curtain, but he wasn't in there yet. I was scared - where could he be? I asked over and over about him, and finally they ushered him in.

The doctor had already started cutting me open. I couldn'tt feel anything, not even pressure. Orion held my hand and was peering over the curtain, watching everything. He tried to tell me what was going on, but the idea of seeing anyone cut open, let alone myself, was enough to make me sick. He told me when the Thalia had been pulled out, and shortly thereafter I heard her cry. Then I felt a tugging sensation, and Orion told me they had pulled Michaya out. He told me what the nurses were doing. Then he told me what they each weighed, and I gasped and felt tears spring to my eyes. Each about 4.5 pounds - a whole pound more than what we had been expecting from the ultrasound. The midwife brought the babies to Orion once they had been swaddled, and they were beautiful. She took a picture of all of us together, and then Orion carried the girls off to the nursery.

But I wasn't done yet. They took out the placenta and started stitching me up. I couldn't feel anything - I couldn't really tell what was going on. I just was alone, and cold. It was quieter, too, now that the babies' nurses were gone. Eventually, they finished, and took down the curtain. It was so weird - all of a sudden I didn't have a big ballooning belly anymore. They brought a hospital bed and moved me onto it - it was bizarre to see them shifting my lower body around and not being able to feel it.

After puking a couple times and calling my parents to share the news, Orion came in with Thalia. It was so magical to hold her for the first time. Michaya, however, was having problems breathing, and she had to be taken in an ambulance to a larger hospital an hour away. I only got to touch her through the box while she was hooked up to a bunch of monitors. I didn't get to see her again until I was released from the hospital later that week.

[jess&dan]

It's so great to hear everyone's stories!

Nathan's birth story is rather short becuase it was a relatively short labor and pretty easy on me. I really cannot complain at all and was very lucky to have such a wonderful experience!

It started on Sunday, January 30th (one week before my due date) when I woke up early in the morning with lower back cramps. It went away, so I thought it was just braxton hicks and ignored it. Throughout the morning they came and went, but nothing strong and no pattern. We went out to lunch with my FIL for this birthday and I had them throughout that, but again, nothing uncomfortable. We also went and got Dan's hair cut and my eyebrows waxed. We stopped at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and Petco to buy dog food. Dan gave our dog a bath and he vacuumed the entire house while I did some laundry...so we were pretty prepared without knowing it. Around 7:00 I noticed the cramps a bit stronger and more often, so I decided to time them. They were anywhere from 5 to 12 minutes apart, so I again just blew them off as false labor. Well, around 10:45 they were getting really strong, so I had Dan time them with me. For an hour and a half they were anywhere from 3 minutes to 8 minutes apart. They weren't really painful, just uncomfortable. So we were really confused as to whether it was real or not, so Dan called the doctor and he said wait until they were consistently 5 minutes apart for an hour. We timed 2 more that were 6 and 7 minutes apart and decided to just try and go to sleep. I then had one very very strong contraction that I couldn't even speak through and then my water broke! So I told Dan that was our answer. And the amazing part is that I did not get anything on the bed! :D

We arrived at the hospital around 1:00 AM on January 31 and got settled in our delivery room.
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The nurse I started off with was so great and I really liked her! I was contracting pretty well, but I never once had a pattern! I was 3 1/2 cm dilated upon arrival. So she sent in my labs right away and within 45 minutes I was getting my epidural! Unfortunately, that took 3 tries to get it right. The first two times I would get the "funny bone" feeling they tell you to inform them about (meaning it's not in right spot). So he had to put it up higher. The process itself did not hurt, but I had 2 really strong contractions during it, which was tough. But the nurse said that she was amazed as to how quiet I was and impressed that I was actually using the breathing techniques. That really did help with getting through them. She was also impressed with how I didn't think they were too painful because they were pretty high according to the monitor. After I got the epidural I was in heaven! I probably could have gone natural, but just was too wimpy I guess. We slept and just relaxed until about 7:00 AM when I was already at 10 cm and ready to push! Unfortunately my first nurse had to leave, but the new one was very good and great for helping me along with the pushing! She was too funny, though. They told me to grab under my thighs each time I would push and since I had the epidural I could not feel the complete amount of pressure I was using to do this. She was so worried I was going to dig my finger nails so hard into my legs and bruise them, so she put cloths under each of my hands. It was very sweet of her to be concerned about something simple like that. Side Note: It was only Dan and I in the room. We had decided we only wanted it to be an experience shared by just the two of us.

We had a scare at first when my doctor asked me to do a test push. I did so as he was examining me and Nathan's heart rate dropped to about 60. This really scared Dan. They had me roll over on my left side and wear and oxygen mask for a while. He heart rate climbed back up to where it should have been and we didn't have another scare after that. I pushed for 50 minutes, so not too long. I did have to get an episiotomy becuase I started to tear. Once I had that, Nathan came right out. Pushing was nothing like I imagined and there were points where I swore my head was going to explode (Dan said I turned purple) but I didn't have to do it for long, thankfully.

At 8:02 AM on January 31, our beautiful son Joseph Nathaniel made his debut. He was 7lbs. 14oz. and 21 inches long and just perfect. And the very first thing I said when I held him for the first time was "Honey, he looks like you!" :p

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I have no clue what happened to me after that because all I could focus on was Nathan. I have no clue when the placenta came out or anything. I just stared at Nathan while he was getting weighed and assessed. I got a few stitches, only about 3 I think.

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The one thing that I couldn't stand throughout those days after was how the nurses would take Nathan to the nursery for various thing, promising to bring him back in a certain amount of time, then not doing it. I can't tell you how many time I sent Dan down the hall to bring him back! I couldn't get enough of my little guy and I still can't!

[Jen1098]

Hopefully I can type this up before Josh wakes from his nap.

His due date was July 10th 2004


July 2nd(friday) went to work felt fine. DH and I were supposed to go to a friends house for dinner that evening but those plans were canceled. The two of us were still going to go out since we knew pretty soon we wouldn't have many date nights.
I felt fine at work, one of the Dr.'s I worked for brought me a gift and she was so sure I was going to have the baby that weekend.
Well towards the end of the day I started feeling blah, real achey and tired, my back hurt. I got out of work early b/c of the holiday weekend and went and picked dh up from work. I had him drive home b/c by then I felt like crap. Of course we were sitting in traffic and I just felt so awful. We finally get home and I go to the bathroom-had some bloody show. Wasn't nervous b/c I've read this is normal. DH and I decided to stay home and order a pizza. I still felt like crap and couldn't even eat the pizza which I love. I went and took a two hour nap. WOke up and had even more bloody show so I called my OB about 9 pm. I was so happy that my favorite Dr. was on call. He asked if I was having any contractions-I wasn't. Said bloody show was normal etc. and if I were to have any contractions to call him or if the bleeding is worse.
I went to bed soon afterwards and I slept great.

Sat July 3rd-woke up around 6:30 ish to pee. Didn't have any more bloddy show this time. So after peeing I went and laid on the couch and had to rush back to the bathroom b/c I thought I wasn't done peeing. So tried to pee and not much came out, went back and laid on the couch-again same thing happened. Went back to bed but didn't happen this time. I woke DH up and told him what was going on but I wasn't sure if my water broke or not. I still wasn't having contractions. Called the Dr. around 7ish and he said it sounded like my water broke and to head to the hospital.
So as we're getting our stuff together I kept telling dh that it's probably just my water leaking and they'll probably send us home blah blah. He was so cute he couldn't keep the smile off his face the whole time.
I finally had my first contraction as I was entering the guest room to put more stuff in my bag. I had to grab the doorway, I was always afraid I wouldn't know if I was having a contraction or not-there was no doubting what that was.
I had another one on the way to the hosptial.

DH dropped me off in front of the ER. The recptionist was checking someone else in but took me in front of them. She called a resident to come get me and we waited for dh before being brought upstairs. We were taken into triage to get checked by Amy(loved her) she gave me a cup to pee in and a gown. Well when I came into the room it was just dh and there was no doubt my water broke b/c I ended up leaivng a puddle on the floor.
She checked me and I was already at 4 centimters-I couldn't believe it we were going to have our baby today!

So we went into our room and got hooked up to the monitor and got some fluids so I could get the epidural soon. I also got some pitocin to help regulate my contractions.
I got my epidural just in time b/c the few contractions I had while waiting hurt pretty bad.
Dr. D showed up,checked me and chatted with us while I got the epidural. Once I had the epidural everything was great. We hung out watching TV-poor DH wanted to practice all the relaxation tips he learned in Lamaze but I didn't need anything. I did let him feed me ice chips though.

I was Dr. D's only patient that day so we got lots of attention which was nice b/c he's so cool. Him and Amy had a great rapport so it was funny listening to them.

[Jen1098]

Continue

A little before 1 I was feeling pressure "down there" and felt I needed to push. Amy checked me and I was at 10 so she got the room ready and Dr. D came in. It was funny b/c we were watching ESPN's best sport movies and Dr. sat at the end of the bed and watched the end with us. He joked you can't push until we know what #1 is. (it was Hoosiers)
So finally at 1:00 it was time to push. They left the epi on b/c I was still able to feel the urge to push. It wasn't pain just a lot of pressure. We missed a couple of contractions b/c I was laughing so we'd have to wait for the next one.
Paul held one leg and Amy held the other and I'd pull my head up and bear down when it was time to push. Paul would count for me.
Towards the end Dr. D said he might have to give me an episotomy-I looked up and said nooo. I don't know what I was thinking but after that I pushed really hard and that's probably when I got my tear.
DH saw the head and a couple more pushes and he was out! I couldn't believe it.
He was beautiful and had a great set of lungs!

He was born at 1:38 and I pushed for 38 minutes.

Soon after the epidural took effect
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meeting Joshua for the first time
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Proud papa
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[albuquerque]

BUMP!

This has become my new favorite thread, and I want it to stay on the first page so that hopefully more moms will post their stories. The stories so far are fascinating, I can't get enough. Thanks so much to all the moms who have posted the stories of their very personal miracles. It's hard for me to believe that sometime in November I'll have my own birth story to tell, I have trouble imagining something so magical happening to me.

[kerrykate]

Thursday Oct 2nd
Dh and I went out to eat for the last time, just us. Dinner was good and we were actually pretty calm. Afterwards we went to the hospital to start the induction. We got there about 8:10pm and I changed into my hospital gown and got into bed. My nurse, Sue went through a bunch of questions then checked to see if I was dialted anymore, and I was still at a loose one...
She put the fetal heart monitor on my belly and a monitor to track my contractions. Next she inserted a gel on my cervix to help thin it out. Dh and I just sat around and watched Extreme Makeover and talked. He offered to stay the night but I told him to go home and get some sleep. I watched TV and tried to sleep but it's very difficult with 2 monitors on and blood pressure cuff on your arm going off every 45 minutes, plus my mind was racing. The nurse came in again around 1:30am to put the gel on my cervix for the second time. At that point I still hadn't gotten any sleep and Sue offered to give me and Ambien to help, I accepted since I knew I would need lots of energy the following day.

FRIDAY OCT 3rd
The next thing I knew it was about 6:45 am and the nurse was in my room getting my IV and pitocin ready. Sue's shift was over at 7:00 am and she said in a nice way that she hoped she wouldn't see me when her shift started again at 7pm. Nancy was my new nurse. Just as Nancy put the IV in and started the pitocin dh showed up. I was waiting for contractions to start booming but nothing seemed to be happening so after a couple hours Nancy turned to the pitocin up. My doctor came in and we talked with him for awhile. There are 5 doctors in my practice and I had only seen this one, one time but he is very nice, professional, and funny so I was happy to get him. Around 11:00 my parents showed up and hung out for a couple hours and dh's parents showed up too. Around noon I started to actually start feeling the contractions but they were still tolerable. Dh really enjoyed watching them go up and down on the monitor. The nurse came in and checked to see how much I was dialated and I was only at 2 I started feeling like it was going to be a very long day. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I got back into bed the contractions became a lot more painful. And I was starving. I wasn't allowed to eat anything besides jello, juice, and water. I had already eaten 2 cups of jello and was sick of it! The contractions were getting very, very, very painful. It's really a pain you can't even describe. To be honest I have no idea why anyone would want to do it without an epidural. I became miserable but I couldn't get an epidural because I was only dialated to 2 and they want you to be at least 3 before you get one. I was becoming desperate and grouchy and I was in so much pain that I started throwing up so the nurse offered nubane and I accepted. She put it in my IV and it took affect immediately. It didn't take the pain away completely but took the edge off and made me tired and loopy. A few minutes later my best friend walked in with a big bouquet of flowers for me. I tried to talk to her but I was mostly in la la land from the nubane. She got the point and only stayed a little while. About an hour later the nubane started wearing off and I could feel the contractions at full throttle, they hurt so bad I couldn't even talk.
The nurse checked me again to see if I was at 3 yet and could get the epidural but I was at a loose 2 still. She said she would talk to my doctor and see if she could get me the epidural anyway. Thank God he said it was ok and they called for the anestheologist. When I saw her I could have kissed her! She was great when she put it in and told me everything she was going to do before she did it. It really didn't hurt and it was instant relief. The doctor came in again and we talked and he decided to break my water to see if that would speed things up. They took the fetal monitor off my belly and inserted one vaginally and put it on the baby's head, a string hung out of me and they taped it to my leg. I was happy again but still a little tired from the nubane and still starving. Most of the day had gone by and it was 7:00pm and Sue was back on her shift. She said she really wasn't surprised to still see me there. Sue was ready to get things going and I was too. I really like Nancy the nurse but Sue was so much more aggressive. She cranked up the pitocin checked to see how much I was dialted, I was at 3 and I kid you not she put 7 pillows in between my legs and laid me on my side. She said with my legs being spread so far apart it will be easier for the baby to move down the birth canal and she was going to flip me from one side to the other every 30 minutes to an hour. It was around 8 or 9 and my parents had shown back up, dh's parents were there and my sister, brother, and sil were all in my room. I was tired and wanted to rest but I didn't want to be rude and throw everyone out, although I should have. They finally got the point when they kept having to leave the room so Sue could flip me. We promised to call as soon as something started happening. Around 11pm dh laid down started falling asleep. I of course couldn't sleep I had to hear the baby's heartbeat. Ever since the doctor had broken my water I had become paranoid and had to hear the baby's heartbeat. I would start to fall asleep then wake right up as soon as I would realize I couldn't hear the heartbeat. Plus Sue was till coming in flipping me from side to side and cranking up the pitocin plus the blood pressure cuff was still going off every 45 minutes.

cont.

[kerrykate]

SATURDAY OCT 4th
Sue came into check me and flip me around 1am and I was dialated to a loose 5 and 75% effaced. We were very happy that things were starting to go somewhere. I was finally able to dose off for about a half hour then Sue would come back in. She was back in at 1:45am I was at 6! All the flipping me from side to side with a million pillows between my legs was working! Sue was great she would get so excited when I started to progress, I really wanted to have the baby before 7am while she was still there. she came back in at 2:30am and I was at 8 centimeters 85% effaced. DH woke up to go to the bathroom and was thrilled with my progress. I told him to go ahead and go back to sleep and we would wake him when I was ready.
She checked again at 3:30am and I was dialated to 9 and 95% effaced. I woke up dh and told him to get ready and he called both of our parents and told them to come down to the hospital(they stayed in the waiting room when they got there). I was so excited, scared, and nervous. The nurse started getting things ready and checked me again at 4am and I was ready to start pushing. It was 4:15am and she had me start practicing a few pushes while she called the doctor at home, I started to not feel good and threw up, dh told me later that he almost got sick when I got sick. They brought in the warmer and anther table with all of the doctor's "tools". Dh had planned on staying up at my head but Sue had him right down there front and center holding one of my legs. Sue turned down my epidural so I could feel my contractions a little more and know when to push. Pushing is difficult, I had to learn how to do it right! I would pull up my on the back of my thighs and dh would push on one of my legs in the stirrups and another nurse would push on the other one. I had been pushing for about 30 minutes and the baby hadn't really moved down at all. So Sue grabbed another gown and had me and dh play tug of war with it when it was time to push. This seemed to be working much better and the baby moved down some. An hour of this had already gone by and I was getting so tired. And because my stomach was so empty when I was curl up to push I would get a bunch of acid coming up from my stomach and get heartburn, plus that damn blood pressure cuff would kept going off and cutting off the circulation in my arm when I was pushing and I also had an oxygen mask on because the baby's heart rate had accelerated. We decided to go back to regular pushing with out the tug of war and things really starting moving.
You could see the baby's head and Sue called the doctor in and put a blanket on my belly. Suddenly there were a lot more people in the room. Since I had been pushing for so long and the baby's heart rate was up Sue called in someone from the Intensive Care Nursery and a Respitory therapist for the baby, "just in case". The urge to push was incredible and when I had a contraction it was even worse, not painful but the pressure was unbelievable. It really felt like you have to take a huge poo. The contractions were one right after the other and they would make me rest in between. The doctor could tell I was going to tear and gave me a small episiotomy. He told me I was doing great and I needed one more big push, I gave it everything I had and the baby's head was out but so was a bunch of meconium(sp?) and the cord was wrapped around her neck. He told me to stop pushing so he could unwrap the cord. He got that undone and said he needed another big push to get the shoulders out. I gave another big push and the baby was out(6:02am). I thought he would lay her on my stomach but he gave her to the ICN nurse and the respitory therapist. I was waiting to hear a big cry but the doctor told me we don't want her to cry because she'll suck in the meconium. DH gave me a big hug and kiss. I couldn't really see the baby but the 2 ladies were talking very intensely and that made me very nervous. They worked on her for 20 minutes straight while the doctor delivered the placenta (I had him show it to me, it was really neat/gross) and he gave me 1 or 2 stitches. I was trying not to worry and I could see her chest going up and down but I wanted to hear that cry.
Finally they swaddled her up and brought her over to me I thought the lady was handing her to me but she was just showing her to me and let me give her a kiss and they had to take her away to the ICN for observation. DH went with them. The doctor finished up, told me congratulations several times and left and the next thing I know I'm in my room completely alone. I don't know how I didn't break down and cry, I think I was in shock. My baby was supposed to be in my arms nursing and she was in the ICN. I think things were worse with the baby then doctor and nurses led on. Her apgar scores were only 2 and 3. My parents and IL's came in and told me congrats and gave hugs and kisses and Sue came in. She told them they could go to the nursery and see the baby, I told my dad to take pictures with the digital camera so I could at least see her again. So they left. Sue came over and gave me a big hug and told me I did a great job. I said thank you and asked her if I could get some food! She brought me some crackers and chicken noodle soup, it was around 7am and Sues shift was over I thanked her for everything she did. Dh came back in showed me some pictures of my beautiful baby girl and my parents came for a little and my dad showed me more pictures. My parents and IL's left and dh and I talked for awhile.
I wanted to get out of bed and walk around since I had been stuck there since the day before plus I wanted to try and pee. DH and the nurse helped me out of bed, my right leg was still a little week from the epidural but I made it to the bathroom. The nurse helped me change my gown, and I asked her when I could go to my recovery room she said now was fine and called for a wheel chair. On the way to my recovery room we stopped in the ICN. Lauren was sleeping and looked perfect. Her pediatrician had just checked her out and said everything was fine but she had to stay in the ICN for another 3-4 hours so they could observe her. I got to my room and I told dh I wanted to try and sleep so he could go ahead and go home and shower and change. I actually fell asleep pretty easily and woke up about 3 hours later at noon. I was surprised the baby still wasn't in my room and got up to go to the bathroom then I was going to call for a nurse and find out where my baby was. When I came out of the bathroom dh and the baby were both there. Dh wasn't holding her, he said I deserved to be the first one to get to. I finally got to hold my baby 4 hours after she was born. It was heavenly, instant love.
Lauren Marie
10-04-03
born at 6:02am
7.3 lbs
20 inches long

[Kanga]

I just wanted to stop in here to say that I love hearing these stories. It's still so surreal to me that I'll have my own birth story in October! :D

[Kanga]

*bump

[tgray99]

I had mine all typed up nicely in my journal at the other site and now I can't get to it. Grr! :mad:

Oh well, here we go again...I hope I remember all of the details!

The Friday before Mother's Day, May 8, I went to the OB for my weekly appointment. I was due May 3 so I was getting really anxious to have my baby. I was originally due May 8th but it was adjusted after a few ultrasounds where the baby was measuring large. Anyway, the OB appointment was disappointing, only 1 cm dilated, where I had been for 3 weeks. We scheduled an appointment to begin inducing me. I was supposed to come back to the OB on Monday, May 9, for a cervical exam and then check into the hospital that night for Cervidil and then begin induction Tuesday morning.

Sunday, May 8th, Mother's Day rolled around. I was awakened to a call from my grandmother telling me that my cousin had her baby that morning. I was seriously jealous. DH and I went to his grandmother's church that morning. The pastor had all of the greatgrandmothers, grandmothers, grandmothers to be, mothers and mothers to be stand up to be honored. So, the whole church got to see me in all of my 9 months pregnant hugeness. ;) After church we went to my mom's house for dinner. When we got over there she was preparing a Mexican dinner to "smoke that baby out" as she put it. She made chipotle pepper queso, poblano pepper chicken and ceviche. I was seriously doubtful that the hot food would work to make me go into labor. I'd been eating tobasco and 3-Mile Island hot wings and jalapenos my whole pregnancy!

On our way home, DH commented that he was sort of sad that we never got to experience the whole "it's time!" moment since we were being induced. I agreed that it would've been nice but it was time to get that baby out so I didn't really care how we did it. We got home, did a few things around the house and then climbed into bed around 10:30. We laid in bed talking and at 11:36pm (weird how I remember that time so clearly) I had a really strong cramping sensation. I was holding DH's hand at the time and I told him, "I don't know what this is but it does not feel good." I told him to look at the clock and start timing just in case it was contractions. About 8 minutes later I had another and they just kept on coming. They were never more than 10 minutes apart. My lamaze class sucked so I had no idea how to breathe through the contractions. I made up a chant to help myself relax starting at my feet and going up to my face. It worked, somewhat. After about an hour and a half, DH called my mom and told her, "I don't know what you put in that food but it worked, we think we've started labor." I got into a hot bath to try to relax while he called my OBs office. When the OB on call called me back I described what I was feeling and she told me to get out of the tub and get to the hospital. We were so excited! We got the "it's time moment" we were both hoping for!

We got all of our stuff together (we forgot the babybook which I hate because I didn't get DD's footprints in the book) and headed over the the hospital. It was only 5 minutes away but oy vey it felt like the longest trip ever. Ryan rolled me up to the labor and delivery floor and the nurses were expecting me since the OB called ahead. They got me checked into a room and started an IV. They were trying to ask me questions while I was having some pretty strong contractions. The nurse was sweet though and would wait until the worst part was over. At one point I threw up which apparently was a good thing because it signaled that I was really in labor. Occasionally she would ask if I wanted something for the pain. I knew I wanted an epidural but I wanted to try to hold out (who the heck knows why?!?). Finally I had them give me something to take the edge off. By this time my mom was there. Now, my mom is a hoss. She had 2 babies and several fillings done, all with no pain meds at all. I am, on the other hand, a big wuss. I can't stand pain. I want drugs for an eyebrow wax! She kept telling me things like "don't close your eyes." I love my mother but I told her that if she said that one more time I was going to go over there and punch her out. Yeah, like I could've or would've done that!

Anyway, I got a shot of phenegrin and stadol in my IV. It didn't do much for my contractions, just made me loopy. At one point I had a really bad contraction and crawled down to the end of my bed and asked for a birthing ball. I was convinced at that moment that a birthing ball would help relieve some of my pain. Who the heck knows why!?!? It was then that I asked for "the man with the drugs."

The anesthesiologist on call came in and was fan-freaking-tastic. He was so talented that I didn't even feel the local anesthetic that he used to numb me up for the big needle. It was really hard to stay still during my contractions but man was it worth it!! When he finished I told him that I was in love with him. I bet he hears that a lot. Hospital policy was to kick my mom and DH out of the room during the administration of the epidural so I was hanging out with my nurse for about an hour. It was so cool to know that I was having a contraction but not feel it.

After I got my epidural I was able to get a few hours of sleep. I'm a very hard sleeper so I slept through a few cervical exams and many, many blood pressure checks. I awoke around 5 or 6am to my OB coming in to talk with me. She decided to up my pit drip and break my water to speed things along. I'm not really sure of dilation measurements, it's been too long, they're all in my old journal. I do know that I was at 10 by 7am because my nurse said I might have my baby before 8am. That got me really excited!

Apparently, a lot of women went into labor at the same time as me because my OB came in and said that she had 3 other moms in labor. I told her I'd volunteer to go last since I was feeling no pain.

Finally it was my turn to start pushing. My mom was holding a foot, DH was up by my head to help me curl into a c and my nurse was holding my other foot. They put me on supplemental oxygen just to help me push but I didn't like it because I didn't feel like I could get enough air with it on (ironic, huh?) so they let me wear it between pushes and not during. My epi was perfect, I could feel when to push but none of the pain of the pushing. I was carrying on a conversation between pushes with everyone in the room.

[tgray99]

So, after 11 hours of labor, I pushed for 2 hours. I bled a lot and everything down there was really swollen and angry looking (based on what my mom and DH said). After 2 hours of pushing and the baby's head never fully engaging under my pelvic bone we started talking C-section. My OB was afraid that her head was too big to fit and even if it did fit, they'd probably have to break her shoulder to get her out. At that point I demanded a c-section. I'd rather be cut up than my beautiful daughter be born with a broken bone. My OB wanted me to push one more time to make sure and on that push, DD's heartrate skyrocketted which clinched it. I was having an emergency C-section.

Let me interject here for a moment. My whole pregnancy I was never afraid of the idea of a section. For some reason (we now know the reason), I was calm and fine with the idea. I wrote in my journal long before I went into labor that I "knew" that I was going to have to get a section after pushing. Call it mother's intuition, call it divine intervention, call it whatever you want. All I know is, I was fine with it and it made the process a lot easier and smoother since I didn't have to be calmed down or reasoned with or convinced of it's need.

Back to the story. Another anesthesiologist came into put the surgery drugs into my epidural catheter. He was such a cool and funny guy (and good looking if I remember correctly). I asked him if it was the good stuff and he said it was about 5 times stronger than what I was getting. Wow, hook me up!! They topped off my epi, shaved me, put DH into his "doctor gear" and then we took off to the OR. I was nearly completely numb so it took a few people to get me onto the operating room table. After they strapped me in (yes they strap you to the table!), I fell asleep. They added a few more drugs to my epi so I was REALLY relaxed! I slept through the whole experience until I heard DH say, "Did you hear that?" My eyes snapped open and I heard my beautiful baby girl crying. I can't remember if I cried or not, I think I did but I'm not sure. I do remember telling DH to take pictures. He's a stickler for following rules so he wasn't sure where he could and couldn't go so he was hesitant to get up and start taking pictures. My fabulous anesthesiologist jumped in and said "Is that a digital? I know how to work those, lemme have it." So, he took our camera and took lots of pictures for us.

Our beautiful daughter, Aidan Christine, was born Monday, May 9, 2005, at 12:34pm. She weighed 8 lbs, 3 ozs and was 20 inches long.

As it turned out, DD's head was cocked to one side and she was trying to come out side-of-the-head first. We think it's because of my curved cervix but who knows?

[albuquerque]

I hope nobody minds, I asked a moderator to move this thread to the Parenting section. I did this with selfish motives, I'm hoping that in Parenting there will be more stories--I love reading them! But also, I do think that for anyone having a rough time TTC, this thread might be a bit tormenting to read.

[MrsTazlvr]

Moved. :)

[mel7dog]

bump!

[daisysue62]

Friday morning July 29th I woke up to find bloody show when I went to the bathroom, and it continued all day (and night!). I had started losing my mucous plulg the afternoon before so I figured I'd probably go into labor sometime that weekend even though I wasn't feeling any contractions yet other then the occasional braxton hicks. I got some errands done that day and even drove 30 minutes south to Albany to meet and pick out our pediatrician, nothing like leaving something like that to the last minute! Dh and I were planning on seeing a movie that evening and wound up making plans with some friends to go to dinner and then see The Wedding Crashers. Right before we went to dinner with Matt, Lauren, and Lauren's mom I started feeling "real" contractions so I brought Dh's pocket watch and some scratch paper to try to time them. They were 20 minutes or so apart at the beginning of dinner and 10 minutes apart after. I only ate a small salad so I wouldn't have a lot in my belly in case it turned out to be the real thing. At that point I still wasn't sure how long the beginning stage of labor would last...it could be days for all we knew! During the movie the contractions quickly got closer together and were about 5 minutes apart when it was over around 9:30pm. They still weren't very paintful but I had a pretty good idea that we'd be going to the hospital sometime that night.

We got home and I thought I'd try to rest in bed and possibly nap some since I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. The nap idea didn't pan out since contractions woke me up every 5 minutes so I gave up the idea around 10:30 and just tried to rest. I took a bath at 11:30 and stayed in there until around midnight. After my bath I came out and sat with David on the living room couch and told him to start timing the contractions again because they were starting to hurt more. They were around 3 minutes apart but only lasted 30 seconds so we decided to wait to go to the hospital until the contractions lasted closer to a minute long. By 1am they were every 2 minutes and 45 seconds apart and I wasn't able to talk through them anymore. So at 1:30am we decided it was time to leave for the hospital. David got our things together and loaded the car while I looked around the apartment wondering what kind of mess we'd be coming home to with a new baby a few days later. I grabbed a few last things and had one contraction at the bottom of the stairs before I got in the car. David RACED to the hospital even though I was no where near pushing the baby out and at 1:30am the streets were deserted. We live 5 minutes from the hospital so the speed racing wasn't exactly neccessary! We got great front row parking at the hospital at that time of night so I only had one contraction in the parking lot. Thank goodness for lamp posts! We got to the admissions desk and had to wait a while since an emergency patient was brought in and they were trying to get her admitted while she was in the operating room already. They eventually got to us by 2am and we were taken to the triage room to be assessed. I was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced when she checked me. They had me on the fetal monitor for 30 minutes and checked me again, and I was 3+ cm and was having regular contractions every 2 minutes still so I was admitted at 2:45am. At this point David called my parents to have them drive down from Portland and his Mom to let her know we were having the baby.

They brought me to a labor/delivering room and had me on the fetal monitor again for another 45 minutes and it was excrutiating. I just couldn't deal with the pain very well laying in the bed. I started shaking and could NOT relax for the life of me. At 3:30am they let me off the monitor and I got in the jacuzzi tub. Talk about relief! The contractions were much more managable and I felt able to relax through them in the warm water and the jets. I wound up turning the jets on during contractions and off in between. My parents arrived around 4am and I stayed in the tub until close to 5am when they had me get out and get back on the fetal monitor. They checked me and I was 5cm dilated and the baby was at -1 station. I was having some rough contractions and had a hard time relaxing through them and David did a GREAT job reminding me to relax. I tensed my shoulders a lot which I was trying not to do. Being back on the bed wasn't helping any and I felt worse. It was around this point I was asking for an epidural and David and my nurse talked me out of it. She told me to put it out of my mind and I could do it without. I was exhausted so I insisted on some kind of pain medication and got some drug like Stadol but it started with a P. Can't remember the name of it. Phentenol? It did the trick, I was able to relax and even slept through a couple of contractions. At 5:45am they checked me again and I was 7.5 cm dilated and the baby was at +1 station. At that point I knew I could finish labor without the epidural, especially when my midwife told me I would be pushing soon!

I went back in the tub after they checked me and I stayed in there another hour until 6:45am when I started pushing. My midwife had me switch to my hands and knees and lean over the shower seat while she put the shower head right on my lower back where it hurt the most. That got me through the last hard contractions and I have no idea how else I would have done it! She checked me at 6:45 and I was 9.5 cm dilated and she had me get ready to push. I never really got the urge to push so I pushed until I ran out of energy, rested, and pushed again when I could. I was just really ready to be done with laboring and I knew I was close to the end! David surprised me by getting really excited about watching the baby's head coming out. He originally siad he didn't want to be anywhere near that end but he was holding one of my legs and talked me into getting the mirror so I could see her head too! Once the midwife had the bed set up for birth and had the baby nurses called in I knew I was close. Plus I could see in the mirror that her head wasn't going anywhere inbetween pushing so I KNEW she was comning soon. Crowning definately hurt, and stopping pushing when her head was out was tough! My midwife had her turned and her body born really quick though. Grace came out with one eye open and she was immediately put on my chest. It was such a relief to have labor over with and to see Grace that I felt great! I got to hold Grace for a long time before they took her to weigh/measure etc. I tore in 2 places that needed stitches, one tear was minor and the other a little worse but healing hasn't been an issue. I actually felt pretty good after birth and was glad I only pushed for 25 minutes because Grace came out with a perfectly round little head instead of a cone shaped one. She looked a lot like her daddy when she was first born and I had a hard time believing she was mine too!

http://images.snapfish.com/34475%3A5923232%7Ffp3%3B%3Dot%3E2347%3D%3C%3A4%3D5 6%3C%3DXROQDF%3E2323996%3C29345ot1lsi

[Natrat80]

(My OB had agreed to induce me because DH and I were moving to a new town 4 hours away, but were having DD in our old town. So, we were basically waiting to have her before we could move--selfish motive, but I'm so glad we did it!)

Tuesday June 14, 2005

I woke up at 4am to shower and get ready. We had to be at the hospital at 5am. I woke DH up around 4:30 and we left the house at 4:45. When we arrived at the hospital we got settled into a L&D room and I changed into a hospital gown. DH snoozed in a chair beside the bed while the nurse went through some questions with me and set things up on her computer. At 5:40 I was checked by the nurse and was found to be 2cm dilated-I had been dilated to 2 cm for at least a week at this point! The nurse got my IV started and the pitocin was started around 5:40. DH and I both rested since neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before! Around 6am I started to feel the contractions. They weren't painful at all, I just breathed through them like I learned in my childbirth class. I let DH continue to sleep. Around 6:30 my OB came in and checked me and I was at 4cm. He had planned to break my water at this point, but he decided against it because 1-I was progressing fast and 2-he was about to go do an emergency C-section and wouldn't be around for an hour or so.

We continued to rest and my dad came in the room. He is Physicians Assistant and was up at the hospital doing rounds. He hung out with us and sent DH to get some breakfast while he stayed with me. Around 7:15 the OB came back and broke my water. My Dad called my Mom at home and told her to hurry, that I was progressing quickly. DH's parents came up around this point too. Somewhere around this time my pitocin was turned down. My OB called for the anesthesiologist to start my epidural. After my water broke the contractions were getting stronger. I was still fine without any pain meds, I just had to have someone look at the monitor and tell me when the contraction peaked so I knew that the end was coming. At about 8am, the anesthesiologist still hadn't arrived yet and my fabulous nurse started hunting him down! She asked me if I wanted some other pain meds in the meantime, but I decided to wait for the epidural-I could still handle the pain. Around 8:30 the anesthesiologist finally arrived! He also does anesthesia with my Dad's group's surgeries, so I think he was extra careful and very apologetic about taking so long. After the epidural was in I felt fabulous. DH and I decided to try to go to sleep, so we sent my parents and his parents out to the waiting room.

My nurse told me that she needed to put in a catheter. I don't know why I was so against it, but I really didn't want to have one. She said we'd wait a few more minutes and make sure the epidural was in full effect and then she promised that I wouldn't feel it at all. At around 9am she decided to check me before she did the catheter. I was 9cm!! I had no clue that I was that far along because I wasn't feeling anything anymore. The nurse sort of kicked it into high gear-calling for help to get the room set up for delivery and sending a page to my OB. DH went out to the waiting room to tell everyone we were about to start pushing. My nurse had me turn on my left side and suddenly the baby's heart rate starting dropping. The nurse adjusted the monitor and then had me turn back on my right side. Baby's rate went back up, but it would drop a bit with every contraction.

A few minutes later, after DH got back, I told the nurse that I felt like the baby was coming out. She asked me if I needed to push and I said "I guess so." She told me to go ahead and push. Of course I couldn't remember exactly what I was supposed to do and so I had to have a crash course in pushing!! I pushed a few times and then my OB arrived. At this point it seemed like there were millions of people in the room scurrying around me. I kept pushing and this was the only time I lost it. DH, my OB, and the nurse were all talking at the same time and I just couldn't focus. Plus, no one was counting to 10 for me and Lord knows I couldn't count to 10 on my own at this point!! So, I said in a pretty calm voice, "Too many people are talking at once and I need someone to count for me please!" DH took over counting and we pushed some more. Baby's heart rate continued to drop. I asked my OB what we needed to do to get her out safely and asked about a C-section. He told me that since we were so close to delivering she would be fine to be delivered vaginally even with the heart rate issue. My OB then did a small episiotomy. I pushed a few more times and baby's head appeared. DH got to see her head and we were both pretty much in shock. I pushed once more and out she came! Addie was born at 9:49 am. I asked if she was okay and my OB said yes. Then I saw my OB holding her and swinging her in a circle-turns out the cord was wrapped around her neck three times! OB was untangling the cord! The cord around her neck was the reason for her heart rate dropping.

I think DH cut the cord (I'll have to check again with him!!) and Addison Grace was whisked away to be cleaned off and get her shots and eye ointment. DH of course was right by Addie's side talking to her and watching everything going on. I was stuck staring at my OB as he was stitching me up and I couldn't see Addie at all! It was so hard not to be over with her at this point. Addie weighed in at 6lbs 6oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. During this time DH was looking for our camera-we hadn't even gotten it out yet and it didn't have batteries in it. I went so fast that we didn't have time to get it ready. He found our camera in my bag, but it wouldn't work! :mad: So DH asked a nurse to go out to the waiting room to get my mom's camera. DH took some pictures with my mom's camera and then went out to announce Addie's arrival. It was so funny though-he told everyone "She's 6lbs 6oz and 12 inches long!" We still laugh about that to this day. DH claims that lots of numbers were being shouted out and he must have gotten confused!!

After I was all sewn up and Addie was cleaned up we finally got to be together. I just couldn't believe our baby was already here. Addie was so tiny and red! She didn't cry much at all! We just stared at her for a while and then let all the grandparents have a turn to hold her. I nursed Addie and then the pedi nurses came to get her for her bath.
I really was blessed to have an easy labor and delivery!
Here's our happy family!
http://images.snapfish.com/34475%3B2%3B23232%7Ffp47%3Dot%3E2353%3D%3B8%3A%3D% 3B2%3B%3DXROQDF%3E2323%3A3%3A%3B978%3A2ot1lsi

[Natasha]

I love everyobnes stories! I am hesitant to post mine, because it was a bit traumatic...I had an emergency c-section. But, I love reading yours, and the pictures are great!

[jeggink]

Bump :)

[katnbug]

It’s been eleven months, but I still like to look back and re-read this once in a while. So all of you mothers-to-be, write a birth story!! Even if you don’t share it, it’s great to be able to go back and re-live the experience – good or bad.

My due date was 10/15

Monday 9/27 at my regular appointment they found protein in my urine sample and that got me a trip to the hospital for observation. My blood pressure was high and they wanted to watch me for fear I had pre-eclampsia. My bp went down, as did the protein amount in my follow up urine sample so they told me I probably had a urinary tract infection and send me home ?!?! (I still don’t understand this, even now. I’ve had UTIs before and I think I would know the feeling… but I’m not a doctor ;))

Thursday 9/30 at 2pm I went to my doctor appointment which was a follow up to my trip to the hospital on Monday. Something told me to throw my hospital bag into the car ‘just in case’. So I hurried around throwing in last minute items such as deodorant and a toothbrush. When I got to the doctor’s office I did my urine sample and then went to sit in the waiting room. I was the only one in the waiting room, but they didn’t call me in for about 25 minutes. When they finally called me in, the nurse said “Congratulations! You had the highest amount of protein in your 24 hour urine sample that I’ve ever seen!” Great. Just what I wanted to hear. So then they took my blood pressure and it was at 220 over 135. No lie. I thought the nurse was going to pass out. I don’t remember her telling me exactly what it was (I found out later from my doctor)… but this was seriously, seriously high. Like I could have had a stroke at any moment. Scary. So, nurse leaves the room and comes back a minute later saying I was going back to Labor and Delivery. My doctor’s office is in a wing of my hospital – so it’s a quick trip to the other side. Even though I didn’t know everything that was going on at this point, I knew this was more serious than my previous trip on Monday. Then my doctor came in and said that we were going to be having the baby “as soon as my husband could get there”. Yikes! I was a little scared to say the least. Mostly worried because I was alone and I didn’t want to have the baby without DH there. So I called him at work (he works in downtown Chicago which is a good 45 minute drive from the hospital. But he takes the train so he had no car.) and he says he’ll be on the 4:30 train! I said “NO, you’ll be in a taxi cab because we’re having the baby soon”. He said later that he didn’t realize how urgent it was. So I felt a little better after that, knowing he was on his way. And off to L&D I went.

When I got to the L&D unit and was put into a room I really got freaked out. I really didn’t want to be there alone. I couldn’t find my mom’s work number, so I called my sister. I asked her to call my mom who works a few buildings away from the hospital, and tell her to come over asap. My sister also decided to leave work and come to the hospital. So within ½ hour I had the family around me that I needed to calm my nerves. DH got there about 15 minutes after my mom. (After his high-speed $75 cab ride from downtown).

The doctor on call was one of the females that I really liked. They had to get my blood pressure under control before anything could happen. The dr. sat with me and monitored my blood pressure for what seemed like hours. They gave me some medication that lowered it to the point that they were comfortable with. I was given the option of an induction. The problem was that my cervix was not dilated at all and inducing could take many hours & might not even work. This was not good for my unstable blood pressure. So I chose to just go straight ahead with the c-section. I guess there were a bunch of other ‘emergency’ c-sections that evening. Since my blood pressure was under control for now they kept bumping me down the priority list for my c-section. I was getting anxious, but I didn’t really mind waiting. And it turned out that my regular OB came on call while I was waiting, so she was the one who would deliver Grayson.

(to be continued)

[katnbug]

Somewhere around 7-7:30 the anesthesiologist came in to administer the epidural. I was nervous about getting the shot, but since I wasn’t having any contractions he said it would be a breeze. Famous last words… it seemed to take forever. He had me sitting on the edge of the bed leaning into the nurse’s shoulder. He kept telling me to push my spine out towards him – which I thought I was doing, but apparently wasn’t! It’s not an easy thing to actually do with that enormous baby belly in front. Finally (and after a number of additional pokes) he got it in. Once that was done, I felt much better. I guess the epidural also helps to lower blood pressure, so that was good news for me.

Somewhere around 8 and 8:15pm I was wheeled down to the operating room for my c-section. DH had to sit outside the room while they were “preparing” me. The strapped my arms out to the side & the anesthesiologist was poking me with some sort of sharp item to see if the epidural had taken it’s full effect. He kept saying “tell me when you can feel this” and would poke up and down my torso. I was of course freaked out that they would cut me and I would feel everything! But he said it was working fine, and he was right of course. They finally let DH in and he came to sit up by my head. I could only turn my head from side to side and could barely see him. But we just started talking to eachother and I immediately felt more calm.

The operation had begun and I didn’t even realize it. We couldn’t really tell what was happening until we heard Grayson crying. He wasn’t even all of the way out yet & he let out a healthy scream. I remember my doctor saying he was a big one. I had to ask if he was indeed still a HE. They confirmed it was a boy. They took him off to do their check and clean him off. DH was able to watch while they did this. Then they finally brought him up by my head so I could see him and give him a kiss. He was beautiful. But then they whisked him away again to the special care nursery – where they would do his tests. I told DH to go with the baby and I would be fine. I really didn’t realize that it would take so long for them to stitch me up and get me back to my room. I was just chatting with the doctors and the anesthesiologist while all of this was going on.

About 45 minutes later I was on my way back to the room. Unfortunately it was another 45 minutes to an hour before they were able to bring Gray in from the nursery. But he was finally brought in and DH and I got to have a little “family time”.

I was brought to the mother/baby ward around 2am on Friday and told that with my blood pressure situation I would most likely be there until Monday. I actually ended up there until Tuesday – and they didn’t even want to let me go home then. My blood pressure never got back to normal even with additional medication. I convinced my doctor that being stuck in the hospital was not doing my blood pressure any good! So I got to come home. They’ve upped the medication I’m on and the numbers are finally starting to come down some.

It’s been a little difficult at times, trying to take care of the baby and stay on bedrest as the doctor prescribed. DH is being a saint and changing every diaper, cleaning up the house and cooking for us. Grayson is just adorable and I can’t kiss him enough!

[katnbug]

Can't resist.. here are a few of his first pics

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4ce32b3127cce9b94186fe1a300000016108BaNmzZq4aY
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4ce24b3127cce9b941878ba1f00000015108BaNmzZq4aY

[mcl]

bump....

i can have my baby boy soon--due sept. 24, 2005!

ladies, please keep sharing your birth stories and thanks to those of you who have shared already.

[newyorkgirl]

(posting my LJ entry, with names edited)

A lot of books I was reading on pregnancy talked about something called a birth plan – which of course appeals to the control freak in me. Basically, a birth plan was an outline of what my expectations (or DH’s and my expectations) were of the birth and how I would like things to happen. I talked to the instructor who taught the labor preparation class and to my doctor about what it should entail. It could be written down on paper, or it could just be a list of expectations that we bring into the L&D room. DH and I talked about it, and I wanted to be able to have a certain amount of control over what happened during delivery, even though I knew that I had to be flexible to allow for what were standard hospital procedures and what the doctor would do during times when he had to make split-second decisions to keep me and the baby healthy. We actually typed out a birth plan and a call list and put it into the bag we took to the hospital.

Things I wanted:
-To be able to walk and move around. Sometimes, the monitors that they hook you up to go wonky if you move, so the nurses will often prefer that laboring women stay in the hospital bed.
-To decide when to get the epidural, if I was going to get one at all.
-A vaginal delivery. But I understood if I had to have a c-section for emergency reasons.
-Examination of the placenta. Since there was so much issue about the complications surrounding my bleeding and the placenta during weeks 28-29 of my pregnancy, I wanted the doctor to make sure that he got all of it out when the afterbirth was delivered. My mom nearly bled to death after delivering me (she had to have 9 units of blood transferred – pretty much the entire human body’s blood volume), so I didn’t want the same thing happening again.

Things I didn’t want:
-An amniotomy.
-Internal monitoring.
-Pitocin/Induction.
-Use of vacuum or forceps.
-An episiotomy.

Thursday, I went to my pedicurist/massage therapist, a Vietnamese lady named V who runs a salon close to where I live, since my feet looked pretty nasty. She specializes in acupressure – different from acupuncture – and has lots of pregnant clients, and she tells me all the time that she helps pregnant women both prevent miscarriages and induce labor. So I went in and she asked me how I was doing and when the baby was coming. I said, “Any day now!” And she said, “So, do you want me to help you get the baby out?” I said “Sure! Why not?” She emphasized (like she always does) that she can’t actually “induce” labor or cause a miscarriage, but that she just works to build up good qi and it helps make labor go more easily for the woman or it helps to keep a woman healthy and prevent miscarriage. The last time she gave me a pedicure, she was really slow and gentle, because she knew I had had complications and was prone to preterm labor. This time, she really got into it and massaged a bunch of different small points on my feet, sometimes to the point of a little pain. And, like she always does, she worked an acupressure point, then made a comment, like, “That should help with those headaches you’ve been having” even though I hadn’t mentioned any headaches at all (and I was having headaches). When she was done, she said, “You’re not quite ready to go into labor yet – the muscle is still pretty strong and firm, except for a couple places where it’s tender. See?” She guided my hand to a couple points on my lower belly, pressing first a firm point, then a tender one. So I asked her when she thought I’d have my baby and she said, “Oh, not tonight, but pretty soon. Maybe early next week.”

I got home, and DH picked me up to go see Dr. B1 (my good-looking obstetrician), where he said I was about 50% effaced and tightly closed – which meant I could have the baby tomorrow or two weeks from then.

That night, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking something was terribly wrong with the baby. He wasn’t moving as much as normal, and so I got up and stayed up for a couple hours, reading on the Internet about all things that can go wrong in a pregnancy at the very late stages. (Yes, this was very bad, I know.) Meanwhile, the baby moved maybe a couple times the whole time I was up – really unusual. I managed go back to sleep, but when I woke up by myself around 7:30 am on Friday morning (I usually wake up around 6 am to the baby doing jumping jacks), I told DH I was really worried. I showered and called the doctor’s office at 8:30 am when it opened and Dr. B1 told me to drink some OJ and lie down for 30 minutes to see if the baby would kick. He only fidgeted a little bit, so I reported it back to the doctor, and I got sent to the hospital, where they did something called an non-stress test (NST), to check on the baby. The nurse who was in the observation room with us hooked me up to the fetal heart monitor and something they call the toco meter, which tracks contractions. Baby’s heart was fine, but she turned to me and said, “You’re having contractions every 2-3 minutes – do you feel them?” And I was just totally floored, because I wasn’t feeling them at all! She suggested that maybe the contractions were why I wasn’t feeling the baby’s movements the way I normally do. She then did an internal exam, and we learned that I was 80% effaced and 1 cm dilated – huge movement since the day before. Still, she emphasized that I could be as close to going into labor as that night or as far away as two weeks.

For the rest of the day, the baby was as active as usual. I began feeling a few contractions here and there, but I chalked it up to Braxton-Hicks. I should have known better, though, because I also began to feel crampy and had a couple trips to the bathroom for diarrhea (which a lot of pregnant women get just prior to going into labor). But I also got into my own car after DH dropped me off at home from the hospital and drove back into the city to get the infant car seat inspected (I won’t go into what an ordeal it was to find an actual certified person to inspect our car seat installation) and then ran some errands. So I figured, as long as I was feeling fine enough to run errands and do things, I was probably not going into labor soon.

That night, we got into bed to read before going to sleep, and I was lying there reading a book about Krakatoa when all of a sudden, I heard and felt a little “pop!” and a little warm wetness in the pantyliner I’d started wearing (just in case). I was totally surprised – I’d never heard anyone saying anything about a “pop” when the water breaks. I figured, maybe it was just something else. Either case, I had to go to the bathroom again. Got up, went to the bathroom. Came back, a little leakage. I was trying to decide whether I was just incontinent or it was my water breaking.

I figured I should probably tell DH that I thought maybe my water had broke and he suggested calling the doctor to find out if indeed it had. The ob/gyn practice that I go to has a bunch of doctors who rotate the on-call schedule. A couple of them are really great and very experienced, and there are one or two who are younger and not too long out of medical school, especially one woman named Dr. K. DH and I always joked about how it would just be our luck that Dr. K would be the one on call when I go into labor. Sure enough, it was Dr. K’s night on call. While we waited for her to call me back, DH got up to get dressed, and I was about to get back into bed when I just started to gush. I ran to the bathroom to sit on the toilet and yelled to DH, “Hon, I don’t think there’s any question anymore as to whether my water broke!” And he started to freak out, because he remembered from the labor class that the baby is prone to infection and complications once the water breaks. He kept saying, “We have to get to the hospital now!” And I responded, “But the doctor hasn’t called back.” to which he said, “We’ll call again from your cell!”

As we were going back and forth, Dr. K called back and I told her that there wasn’t any more question about my water breaking. She told me that her normal protocol was that, if labor hadn’t progressed by 6 hours after the water breaking, she would start Pitocin. Which I really didn’t want, and I suggested we could discuss it 6 hours from now and not on the phone just after my water had broken. Then she told me that she was only on call until 7 am the next morning and that a new doctor, named Dr. B2, was rotating into the the ob/gyn practice’s on-call schedule this weekend. I thought, Great, not only do we get the newbie, we get somebody I have never met pulling my baby out of my vagina.

[newyorkgirl]

We got to the hospital’s emergency room and they admitted me. I had to stand up the whole time because I’d soaked through the towel we brought for DH’s car. We walked up to the L&D ward and they put us in one of the better rooms – it had lots of windows and was roomier than the one I’d been in that morning. The nurse who helped me get settled in wasn’t my actual labor nurse for the night – that was too bad, because she was great. My labor nurse for the night was named M and it turned out that I didn’t like her much at all. In our labor preparation class, the instructor was actually one of the L&D nurses and she said that the basic rule of thumb about the monitors was that for every hour, we had to be strapped to them at least 20 minutes and then we’d be free to walk around for the other 40 minutes. We were also told that I’d be prepped for an IV, i.e. they’d put the heparin lock on my arm, but they wouldn’t hook me up to the actual IV unless I had to be hydrated or administered antibiotics. Since my Group B Strep test was negative, I didn’t need antibiotics. M didn’t quite understand – I think she expected me to lie in bed and be hooked up to the monitors and the IV the whole time. I kept saying, “No, I’m going to walk around. I was told I didn’t have to be in bed the whole time.” She kept insisting that I stay in bed. She thought I was having a natural birth – I said, no, I might want the epidural, but NOT now. Finally, DH had to get the initial nurse who helped us to come in and say, yes, she gets the heparin lock but no IV and after the first 15-20 minutes of monitoring, she can walk around for 40 minutes or so. (The monitors are hooked up by computer to a video screen at the nurses’ station so they can watch the baby’s heart rate and the contractions without having to be in the room.)

So I got hooked up and we learned that I was contracting every four minutes or so. They didn’t feel so bad – just more pains that felt like bad menstrual cramps. I’d been having them all day, but now they were just a little more intense. Baby’s heart was fine. But after 15 minutes, no one came to unhook me from the monitor, so I buzzed the nurses’ station and told them I had to go to the bathroom. The first nurse came in and I told her I was going to go walk now, so she took the stupid monitor belts off. She told DH to bring me back by 1:30 am, so we walked around the wards until then.

When we got back to the room, M put me back on the monitors. The contractions were starting to make me stop what I was doing to concentrate on getting through each one. After about another 30 minutes on the monitor, I buzzed the nurses’ station and said that I wanted to get up. M came in and dumbly asked why. She was starting to infuriate me. I told her I wanted to be able to walk around. She said, Are you going to walk now? And I answered, No, but I can’t manage these contractions if I can’t move around. She insisted that I stay on the monitors and would only let me get out of the bed and into the rocking chair in the room.

The rocking chair helped only a little bit. DH got my iPod out and I tried to listen to it for a while and rock out the contractions, which were starting to hurt a little. I think after about 45 minutes or so, the contractions started to hurt so much, I said, “To hell with sitting down” and I got up and stood bent over with my hands on the bed during each contraction while DH rubbed my back. Each time a contraction hit, I stood up off the chair and the monitors would fluctuate wildly. Of course, this brought M back into the room because she’d see the fluctuations back at the nurses’ station. And I told her to take the damn things off me. She said, “Well, Dr. K is on her way in, so we’ll keep you on the monitors until she checks you out.” This ended up being a recurring thing – she’d give me one excuse after another why she couldn’t unhook the monitors. The only reason I didn’t just unhook them myself is that I was afraid they’d put the internal monitors on if I kept refusing the external ones.

Dr. K came in around 2-2:30 am and checked me out. I was about 90% effaced and 3 cm dilated, still station -1. Then, M started telling me that they were worried about umbilical cord prolapse (which was stupid because they could already feel the baby’s head) and dehydration (which I wouldn’t be if they’d let me eat and drink!) so again, I wasn’t allowed to be unhooked from the monitor. Worse yet, she popped in the IV and from henceforth, I was stuck in the room. The only time I was allowed off the monitors was to go to the bathroom, so I started buzzing to go to the bathroom a lot. Funny thing was, the contractions were easier to manage while sitting on the john and M nearly came into the bathroom once to get me out so she could hook me back up to the monitors.

The contractions were now really starting to hurt – just at the time I’m realizing that they’re not going to let me move around anymore. I started to grip the rails along the side of the bed everytime a contraction hit. DH and I tried resting a little – he fell asleep in one of the chairs and I tried to close my eyes, but was jolted awake with each contraction. I called out to DH and he came to the bed side and tried to rub my back and arms each time one hit. He asked if I wanted to get the epidural now, but I really wanted to wait at least until 6 cm. I don’t know why I had that in my head, but, I’d made up my mind ahead of time that if it turned out I couldn’t stand the pain of natural childbirth, that was the number I wanted to stick to.

M came in around 3:30 am and said that the baby’s heart rate looked like it was decelerating during contractions (the opposite of what it ought to do) and said she’d called Dr. K in to insert the internal fetal heart monitor. I was really mad because I’d already given the nurses a copy of the birth plan and she didn’t even acknowledge that I’d said I didn’t want any internal monitoring. So I told her that I didn’t want it.

The contractions were really starting to hurt – like a cross between a really, really, really awful stomach flu and terrible constipation. Dr. K did an exam and said I was now fully effaced and 5-6 cm dilated. DH asked if I wanted the epidural now and I said, Yes, but I don’t want the internal monitor thing. Dr. K acknowledged that, but said that they needed to do it because they hadn’t been able to get a good read on the baby’s heart in the last couple hours and if I was going to get an epidural, they needed to know the baby’s heart rate was okay. I asked if they could do it and then take it out and go back to external monitoring after the epidural was administered, and she said, No, but sometimes it falls out on its own (I guess the corkscrew in the baby’s head is kind of flimsy) and then we go back to the external monitor. (In my head I’m thinking, That’s stupid logic. Why is the answer still “No”?) So they stuck the monitor on my poor baby’s head and, sure enough, his heart rate was totally fine. M told me to go to the bathroom one last time before the anesthesiologist got there. Somehow, between the bathroom and the epidural prep, the internal monitor fell off. So I went back to external monitoring.

I was actually pretty upset at this point, because things didn’t seem to be going the way I wanted. I was in a lot of pain and I wasn’t being given options – other than the epidural – on how to handle it. Granted, I was getting the epidural now, but still. And I wasn’t being allowed to be a participant in the process – I was being treated like a patient with a condition to be “cured.” I felt that Dr. K and M had managed the process very badly.

The epidural process itself was pretty scary. I was having really strong contractions every other minute or so. Two nurses with scrubs and face masks were prepping me and one made DH sit down in a chair far away. The anesthesiologist came in and – standard procedure – did a quick run down of the risks (including paralysis and infection) and asked if I still wanted it. (Uh….well, now that you mention it, no?) So he brought the bed really high up and had me sit up with my legs swung over one side of the bed, pillow in my lap. He stood behind me on the other side of the bed. I had to ask if it was okay for DH to come sit or stand in front of me and hold my hand. I started to realize that he was going to have to insert the epidural while I was having these awful contractions and I couldn’t move a muscle while he did so, or else risk really bad things happening. So, instead of moving each time a contraction hit while the anesthesiologist put in the epidural, all I could do was grip DH’s hands as hard as I could, all the while being conscious not to move anything else in my body. Poor DH was freaked out as well.

After that, the pain started to fade away slowly. It takes a few contractions before the epidural kicks in, so I wasn’t totally out of the woods yet. Also, since the epidural is a muscle relaxant, I started to get some pretty bad shakes all over my body. M stayed there because she had to take my blood pressure every 10-15 minutes for an hour. Finally, probably around 4-ish, M checked me again and this time, I’d gone up to 8 cm. Also, enough pain had gone away that I was able to go to sleep. DH also fell asleep in one of the chairs. Another weird thing about the epidural that I got – I could feel if something was touching my lower body, I could feel pressure if someone/something was pressing against me, I could feel hot and cold, but absolutely no pain. It was like someone had turned off the switch to the pain receptors. Totally and completely eerie. Later, the nurse the next morning told me that it was one of a few new epidurals being developed in ordered to feel everything but the pain.

[newyorkgirl]

Around 6 am, we woke up. Dr. K came in and checked me and found me at 9 cm and station +1. The shift change happens at 7 am and I wondered whether Dr. K and M were going to have to deliver the baby. Thank goodness that we held off a little. After the shift change, we got a new nurse named S who I ended up liking a lot. She came in and said, “Hi, I’m S. I just finished reading your birth plan, so I know what to help you with.” Dr. K stayed around to introduce us to Dr. B2, a guy in his late forties/early fifties who was fantastic. He came into the room and I was immediately relieved to see that he was going to be delivering the baby. While he made some rounds to other patients, Dr. K checked me again and found me fully dilated and ready to push. This was around 8:15 am. There was also the question of whether I wanted the epidural turned down/off to be able to push (it was in my birth plan). Here’s the first of two instances where I felt heard and comfortable with not going with my original plan. S told me that sometimes it’s useful, but sometimes it’s not necessary. If I already felt the pressure to push (which feels like the urge to pass a bowel movement) and I could push (like passing a bowel movement), there was no need to turn it down to feel the pain as well as the pressure, especially since I’d had the epidural that allowed me to feel everything but pain and actually allowed me to move a little. (Some epidurals essentially leave you paralyzed from the abdomen down.) Dr. K instructed me on how to push – each time a contraction hits, push 3 times for a count of 10 each – and then said goodbye. S ended up staying with us pretty much the whole time from that point on until we were transferred to the maternity ward.

Dr. B2 would pop in every half hour or so and see how I was progressing. For a while, there wasn’t much to see. Either DH/S would tell me I was having a contraction, or I would feel the pressure of the contraction (since the baby was already so far down the birth canal), and we would push. This continued until 11 am or so. Everyone else but me was worried I’d get tired from all the pushing, but I don’t think I really got tired until around 11. We kept having false alarms that the baby was coming. We would think the head was just about to crown and then it would recede back into the birth canal again. S brought a mirror into the room so I could see the baby’s head. DH says that each time she positioned it so that I could see what was going on while I was pushing, I would push harder than when it was just S and DH telling me to push. Dr. B2 was also a really great coach – when he came in and told me to push, DH said I would push hardest for him. Around 10:30 am, Dr. B2 made the first mention of using a vacuum. He didn’t think I’d need it, but said that if I did get too tired to push, he could use it and get the baby out – no problem. DH was getting worried about me being tired too, and he started to say, “Well, maybe we should just do the vacuum thing.” I was adamant – after a somewhat bad night, I was going to do it my way. “No vacuum!” I told him. “Okay,” he said, “but now you’ve really got to push the baby out.”

By 11:30 am, I think I’d manage to push the baby’s head far enough down that it would stay in the birth canal and not recede back. S ran to get Dr. B2. Meanwhile, it was just DH and me in the room. All morning long, if S ran out to do something and it was just DH and me, he would coach me on pushing through the contractions. But this time, we didn’t want the baby to come out while there wasn’t anyone else in the room, so we just rode out those contractions. Dr. B2 came in and he and S started to flit around the room doing things. She ran around checking all the baby equipment one last time and he “broke down the bed.” (The bottom half of the bed in a L&D room detaches and underneath are stirrups and a big huge red plastic wastebin. I guess the wastebin is to catch all the other gunk that falls out.) S told him I didn’t want an episiotomy if at all possible. And here is the second instance where I felt listened to even though I ended up not getting what I wanted. Dr. B2 told me since I’d been pushing for so long, the area which would tear was going to rupture pretty badly if he allowed it to tear instead of performing an episiotomy. And he said, “Trust me, I’m the first doctor to say, don’t get an episiotomy. But I’ve seen women who should have had episiotomies and didn’t and were far worse off without one. I would only do one if you really needed to have one and this is that situation.”

So Dr. B2 and S got into position and we all waited for a contraction. And when it came, I pushed and Dr. B2 cut the episiotomy and started to work the baby out. DH said, “Oh look!” and I think he started to cry. All I heard was Dr. B2 starting to clean out the baby’s – Bennett’s – air passages. Then he told me to push in between contractions, which meant this was the final push. Bennett slithered out, S placed a blanket on my chest and Dr. B2 put him onto the blanket, saying, “Congratulations! You have a beautiful baby boy!” DH came up next to me as Bennett started to cry (really softly). I started to cry and say over and over, “Is he crying? He’s not crying!” as S took him over to the warmer to clean him off. Dr. B2 said, “Oh yes he is – he’s perfectly fine” and Bennett started crying in earnest. DH was crying as he said to me, “Bennett’s here!” and then, “I love you so much!” He kissed me, then ran over to take pictures of Bennett while Dr. B2 finished with the placenta – he checked it out and everything was fine – and sewed me up. After he was done, I started getting a bad case of the shakes and he said it was a post-birth rush of hormones.

S finally finished cleaning Bennett up, put a hat on him and brought him to me. DH and I were just a total mess of emotions and we were both crying and laughing at the same time. Dr. B2 congratulated us again and told me I was a real champ for having pushed so hard and so long. I was just so happy that nothing had gone wrong and that we had a beautiful little son.

[mcl]

bump

[matryoshka]

newyorkgirl that was a beautiful birth story and I really appreciated reading about the times when you felt 'listened to' and then, other times not so much! thank you!

[newyorkgirl]

matryoshka, I'm glad you found it helpful. :)

[mcl]

bump

[Sabriel]

*bump*

I love this thread! Would anyone else like to share?

[cocoa_femme]

BUMP!

Any more birth stories? :D

[cocopop]

I'll share! I love re-living that day....

DH and I had a busy day the day I went into labor. We were dropping off our old boat at my parents and turning right around to get our new boat at the dealership. We did a lot of driving that day in DH's bumpy truck and I felt really uncomfortable. Before that I'd had a dream pregnancy and had never been happier, but that day I finally understood what people were talking about when they said they couldn't wait for the pregnancy to be over.

We went to bed that night around 10:30 and I felt my first contraction around 11:00. I always wondered how I would know if it was a contraction and there was no doubt in my mind - not because it hurt, but because it felt like a wave. I could feel it slowly coming, then build up, then slowly go away. Since it was 10 days before her due date, and I'd JUST been to the Dr. (who said I wasn't anywhere near giving birth ;)) I just chalked it up to false labor.

As the night went on, and the contractions started getting more intense I began to think it could be the real thing. Around 1:30 I had to go to the bathroom - #2 - which was weird because I never do that in the middle of the night. I also heard that is your body's way of purging itself so then I really started thinking it could be the real thing. Around 2:30 I woke up DH and we started timing the contractions - we did the 4-1-1 thing that you learn during childbirth classes so we'd know exactly when to go to the hospital.

Around 3:30 I had to go to the bathroom - #2 (again!) - and when I went to sit down blood sprayed everywhere! It even hit the shower door, I mean it was crazy. I was scared and called the Dr. on call and she said it was just the "bloody show". Okay, that WAS bloody! Yikes.

We finally hit the one hour mark of having one minute long contractions four minutes apart and we knew it was time for the hospital! Luckily our hospital was only 5 minutes from our house and since it was like 4:30 in the morning we were checked in right away.

When I got to triage they checked and sure enough I was dialted past 4 centimeters so they told me to walk around for an hour. Now that sounds like forever but it really wasn't bad at all. The contractions hurt, but they weren't these terrible things I thought they would be. After an hour I was checked into our birthing suite and shortly after that I had the epidural. Actually, getting the IV inserted was the most painful part of the whole process!! :eek:

After the epidural kicked in, I was good to go! I was talking to my friends on my cell phone, chatting with my parents (who'd since gotten there), talking with DH, etc. It was so fun!! We were all so giddy with excitement and it was a beautiful sunny day, it couldn't have been more perfect.

Finally it came time to push. I always heard of these people pushing for hours on end so I was a little worried about that. What they don't tell you is that you only push during a contraction, and only for about 10 seconds. So even though I "pushed" for an hour, I really only had to push about 10 times. It was a piece of cake!

I honestly don't remember much after she was born. It was very surreal. I mean, I knew I was going to have a baby but I kept thinking she wouldn't look like a baby, or maybe something else was going to come out. I can't really explain it but it was very overwhelming.

After that I remember the placenta coming out but that was no big deal. It was pretty gory looking and really heavy! I had three stiches from tearing but I never had much pain after that. Even after I went home going to the bathroom (#1 and #2) was no big deal. They give you stool softeners and they WORK!

I guess I've rambled long enough. I just have to say that that day was the most exciting, fun, wonderful day of my whole life!!! :)

[Natrat80]

bump for the ladies in the pregnancy forum

[shouldaeloped]

thanks for bumping this. I keep randomly searcing for birth stories in the pregnancy threads and it takes forever! Thank you!

[elladee]

Here's mine (copied from my LJ):

11:45 am I had my 39 weeks checkup around lunch time. The doctor checked my progress and I'd made it up to 3 cm dialated and 70% effaced (from 2 cm and 60% the week before). He offered to try to jumpstart things by stripping my membranes since I seemed to be about ready to go into labor anyway. He said it might work, or it might not, but he didn't see any harm in trying.

12:30 pm After my appointment I went back to work. I was having some serious cramping, but it was one big long continuous thing, not coming and going like contractions, so I figured things weren't really working. I'd had so much false labor already that I refused to get my hopes up.

1:30 pm An hour or so later, the cramping started to come and go. I noticed definated beginings and ending with a build up in the middle. They weren't regular yet, though, coming anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes apart, so I still refused to get my hopes up.

3:30 pm Still not a consistant pattern to the contractions, but they were definately getting stronger and a bit closer together. Finally decided I should bite the bullet and go home. I didn't want to make a scene with everyone thinking I was having a baby, but the weather was turning a little snowy and I didn't want to have to drive home in a snowy rush hour with these contractions.

5:00 pm I had called Greg when I got home and told him that he didn't need to come right away, but I thought he should leave work early. He said he'd take half an hour to wrap things up and then be on his way. I'm glad that I called when I did because things started to get a lot stronger. Greg made it home around 5 and was sooooo excited. He came running up stairs, jumping around and talking non-stop. I think he did that right in the middle of a contraction and it was about the last thing I needed. He caught on real quick. At this point they were pretty close to 8 minutes apart, with a few closer together. The doctor said I was to call when they got to 5 minutes apart, so I had some laboring to do at home. I decided to try a warm bath, partly to see if they would feel better, and partly to see if I could speed things up. I didn't like the bath so much because our tub is tiny and I couldn't move around. I did stay in for 20 minutes or so and by the time I got out, the contractions were closer to 6 minutes apart. As soon as I got out, I plopped myself down on the rocking chair, wrapped in a towel. Couldn't even bring myself to get dressed.

6:45 pm By this point I was having contractions here and there that were 3-4 minutes apart with others 6-7 minutes apart. I didn't want to call the doctor, because I was still convinced they were going to stop. Greg didn't have the same doubt, so he called the doc himself. She asked if this was my first baby, and since it was she wanted us to stay home for an hour more. If they stayed an average of 5 minutes apart we could head in.

8:00 pm Greg decided it was time to head to the hospital. I thought we should wait longer, but he didn't want to.

8:30 pm We got to the hospital, but couldn't remember which floor the maternity ward was on. I wanted to ask at the information desk what we should do, especially since they keep the maternity ward locked and I didn't know how to get in. Greg was sure we had to go to the 3rd floor and didn't need to stop at the desk. So we got in the elevator, went to the 3rd floor, and guess what... maternity wasn't on the 3rd floor. So we tried the 5th... no luck there either. I was pretty mad at Greg by now, but we tried the 4th anyway, and that was right. They were expecting us, so I got to go straight to a birthing room. I even got one of the nice ones with a jacuzzi tub.

9:00 pm The nurse finally finished going over all the paperwork, checking my vitals and the baby's vitals, etc. She wanted to check to see how far along I was. I had made it to 5 cm already! Halfway there. As she was checking me, I felt a hot gush come out. I though she'd broken my water, but it was actually a lot of blood. She didn't seem too worried, though, and let me get out of bed to labor in the glider for a while.

10:00 pm The doctor came in and wanted to check me. I guess they were more concerned about the bleeding than the nurse let on. As I was getting settled back on the bed, I asked about using the tub, or getting some nubane to take the edge off. I was no longer having fun with these contractions and the glider didn't help much. The doc said that with my bleeding she would prefer that I didn't do either. I guess there was some concern tht the bleeding might be from a premature separation of the placenta. Apparently that's bad. So I gave in and asked for an epidural. The doc checked and I was up to 6 cm. She also decided to break my water at this point. That didn't hurt by itself, but immediately the contractions got sooooo much worse. I couldn't think straight anymore. Things just kind of started happening to me and it was almost like I wasn't there anymore. They made Greg leave and the nurse had me get into position, sitting on the side of the bed. I was so out of it. I'd felt kind of guilty asking for an epidural when I did, but it took me an hour to get from 5 to 6, so I was looking at 4 more hour of labor, plus an hour or more of pushing. I didn't see how I could do that with this pain.

10:10 pm The anestesiologist got there. Made me sign some forms and told me the possible side effects. I tried not to listen because the epidural scared me enough already, but I just wanted the pain to go away. He said it'd take about 15 minutes to do. I had to sit so still on the bed and relax my back. The nurse stood there for me to lean on, but it was sooo awful. The anestesiologist had trouble finding a place to put the cathedar in. The first place he wanted to try hurt my back. Then he got it in somewhere, but it wasn't taking. So he had to pull it out and start over. I wanted to cry so bad.

10:45 pm Finally he got it in and working. I remember hearing him tell me what a trooper I was, that he could tell how bad the contractions were. All I could focus on though were my legs. They were feeling heavy and tingly, and I was so afraid of what the epidural had done to me. In fact I was so focused on the epidural, that I didn't even notice that the contractions didn't hurt anymore. I could still feel them, but they didn't hurt. I was actually feeling lots of pressure, so the nurse wanted to check my progess again. Turns out I was 10 and ready to go! Greg came back in and she had me do a practice push. Then she said she had to go get the doctor and I wasn't to push at all because I was just about ready to pop this kid out.

11:00 pm Since I could feel the urge to push, they let me go at my own pace. The nurse went and got a mirror so I could watch. That was pretty neat. In just one push I got the head to where we could see it. A couple more pushes and it was starting to come out. The doctor asked if I minded if she did an episiotomy because I was going to tear. My labor went to quickly and things didn't have time to properly stretch out. I said ok and asked the nurse to take away the mirror. As cool as the baby birthing was, that I did not want to see. Two pushes later, the doc instructed me to give it one more huge push and I'd get the head out! Sure enough I did! They had me stop for a second to suction her.

11:30 pm After that, I gave it one more push and Esther popped right out! It was the weirdest feeling. They laid her on my chest, and I couldn't believe it. The doctor clamped the cord and Greg cut it. I didn't get to hold her for long, though, and she went over to the warming station with Greg. I needed to be worked on. Greg later told me that I was bleeding a lot. I heard the doc tell the nurse to start pitocin. The placenta slid out after a couple minutes and they started massaging my belly. That kind of hurt, but I guess it worked because it didn't last long. I had to get sticthed up, too. That took forever. Meanwhile, I was watching them clean up Esther. It was so surreal. I had a baby. After we were fixed up, they gave Esther back to me and Greg and I got to bond with her. I put her to my breast and she latched right on. It was amazing. Greg was so adorable. He couldn't stop staring at her and touching her. I had to give her up so that he could hold her. After those nine very long months we were finally parents. It still blows my mind.

[~Kelly~]

I admit that my story is nothing compared to some but I know the thought of an epidural not fully working during a c-section can be to much to take so if someone feels like I need to take my story down then just let me know.

Madelyn’s Birth Story

Thursday was any normal day for me. I had a NST that morning and then nothing else planned (isn’t maternity leave great). So the NST went great baby and I were doing really well and they sent me home. It was also DH birthday so I ran some errands to buy some presents for him and went home to take a nap. After he got home and opened his presents we ran over to some friends house to pick up a Bday gift for DH and went off to spend all his gift certificates. We made it through the electronics store and were going to go and have a nice sit down dinner for his birthday but I was exhausted so we headed over to Chipotle (mexican). Could you believe that they were out of rice. UGH….So I had to have a burrito so we waited 20 minutes for the rice to be ready and the whole time I felt like crap. I was really uncomfortable and I kept telling DH that this was going to put me straight into labor. HA HA HA…

So we came home and I ate in bed so that I could do my kick counts right afterward and she passed with flying colors. By this time it was getting to be 10ish and so DH made me some cookies and I went to sleep. At almost midnight I woke up to go to the bathroom and before I got out of bed I thought wouldn’t it be funny if my water broke? So I stood up and sure enough, there was no denying it my water had broke. So I told DH what I thought and went straight to the bathroom. At that point my heart started beat really fast and I was sick to my stomach, as was DH's. I think the excitement and nervousness and all out fright about what was about to happen finally sunk in.

So we finally made it to the hospital around 12:15 and the nurses put me into a triage room to determine if I could stay or if they would send me home. HA HA HA. The doctor walked in and said yup your water is broken. Geez, I could have told you that. So then after about an hour the walked me over to a labor room and got me hooked up to all the necessary monitors. At this point I was 1cm dialated and my contractions were 8-10 minutes apart. The nurse told us at that point that Madelyn had already passed her first bowel movement and that they were going to insert a catheter into me to push some clear fluids so that all of the bad amniotic fluid would be gone and she would only have good stuff to drink until she was born. I told the nurse that she was getting her first bath even before she was born. So they got the catheter into me, which was a hellacious experience because the catheter was about 1 cm around (which was how much I was dialated) and the doctor that did the procedure said that it was the hardest one that she had ever done. She kept apologizing while she was doing it because it was the worst pain that I had YET to experience. Once they finally got it in they started the pitocin and some antibiotic IV’s because I had tested positive for Group B Strep so they had to make sure that both of us were safe during the delivery.

OK…so lets fast forward to 8 am. Because from about 1am to 8am everything was pretty routine. I was starting to have regular contractions and I was pretty comfortable. However, at 8am I had had enough and asked for an epidural. They brought the anestisologist in (who I would see so many times that day that I figured that he just hung out in my room) and everything went perfectly. He got it in on the first try and I was in heaven.

However a couple of hours later when they checked me I had progressed to 4 cm (WOO HOO) but I started to have the feeling like she was starting to come out of my butt (Sorry I just can't describe it any other way). I had so much pressure in my rectum it was ridicolous. Only later would we find out why. So they called the anestisologist back in and he started to give me some extra medication to take the edge off. It took him four different tries with 4 different medications to get the right one that would work on my pain.

I progressed really well throughout the day; however, Madelyn was not tolerating labor very well. Her heartrate did not react well to the contractions I was having and the doctors started to worry. So from about 1-6 pm this is how it would go, a doctor would come in to check me I would be making great progress but they would say Madelyn doesn’t look very good lets give it an hour and see how she does and then if she doesn’t improve then we will schedule a c-section, then they would call the anestisologist in give me another dose of whatever wonder drug. Then a new doctor would come in an hour later and say the same thing. It got really frustrating.

So at about 6:30 a new doctor came in and said that I was finally 10cm and I could push whenever I was ready. So we did some practice pushes in the labor room and then they wheeled me into the delivery room. DH and I were so excited about making it this far and having the end in site. We couldn’t wait to meet our new little girl.

So in the delivery room a new doctor took over and had me push a couple of times. How hard is that! Well, lets just say I wasn’t the best pusher ever. So the doctor decided to check me and she commented to the nurse that I wasn’t completely dialated, in her opinion I was only 8cm. I totally lost it. I couldn’t stop crying. I was so exhausted at this point I couldn’t stand it. So she tells me that I need to calm down and relax and that’s when I let her have it. I told her that I was sick of doctors coming in and telling me that Madelyn wasn’t doing well and to wait and hour to see only to have another doctor come in and say the same thing. I repeatedly said how long do we have to go and how many doctors do we have to see before finally someone says that we have both been in harms way long enough. Her reply was that she could go consult with the head doctor and see what he had to say. I told her I just want what is best for us and so DH turned and told her in a very abrupt tone to go talk to the other doctor. So she left and brought back the doctor that first said that I was complete. So he checked and can you guess what he said….YUP…your complete. The other doctor didn’t agree and they talked about it and finally discovered that what I had was that part of my cervix wasn’t completely out of the way and that it kept moving back and forth, from in the way to not in the way. They also finally discovered that she was postiorier (or facing up). Which is why it felt like she was coming out of my butt. So they decided to have me push a little to see if they could get it out of the way. No success, then they put my legs up in stirups and said that instead of wheeling me back to a labor room that they would just have me labor here for awhile to see if the cervix would move on its own. So they upped my epideral and they let me labor/sleep in stirups for an hour and a half. UGH….I am so glad that I slept for most of that time. They had a sheet over me but my but was still hanging out everywhere.

[~Kelly~]

So after that amount of time both doctors came back in with a new doctor, who I was told was the high-risk OB. Scary….what was he doing here. So they all talked and decided that she needed to come out right now. UM…I could have told you that. The options that they gave me were they could get here out with a vacuum with my help. Or they would use forceps and I wouldn’t have to do anything. I told them that I wasn’t comfortable with them using the forceps because I still thought that she was really high. But I was willing to try the vacuum. So they had me push some more to see if I could move her down the canal some more so that they could attach the vacuum. At this point I think that I pulled a muscle in my back because everytime I beared down I had this horrible pain in my back. I kept telling them that I couldn’t concentrate on pushing when all I felt was my back. They tried to rectify my back problem and couldn’t and so it was decided that I would have a c-section. FINALLY. So they wheeled me into the OR and took Shay away to get him dressed.

The OR was a weird experience. They really upped my epideral and I was in heaven, for awhile. While all the doctors were getting ready I started having contractions again that I could feel, I started to cry and they asked what was wrong I told them that it was the back labor and it was getting worse. It kept on getting worse and worse by the minute so before they started the surgery they decided to check me one last time to make sure that Madelyn wasn’t coming out on her own. Thank god she wasn’t. So they are about to start cutting and DH isn’t there yet, I kept telling him that they needed to go get my husband. Which they did but not before they started cutting. Thank god DH was there I just kept staring at him and he really helped me through this whole process, even the nurses kept saying how great he was and how great he handled everything. So while they were in the middle of the surgery I was have mulitple contractions right after another that I could feel. I felt like I was screaming (DH said I wasn’t). They asked what was wrong and I told them that I was still having contractions and that I was feeling a lot of what they were doing inside of me. They told that they could put me all the way under to ease the pain and I told them no just get her out and I will deal with the pain. So they continue on and at that point I hear the anestisologist whisper in my hear “I am going to give you something that will make you feel really loopy.” Boy was he right. I turned and looked at DH and everything was floating around and really fuzzy. At that point they told DH that he had to leave. I started freaking out I wouldn’t let go of his hand so that he could leave because I didn’t know what was going on. I told him that I was so scared and that I loved him as we finally let go and he was escorted out of the OR. Then the last thing I remember is an oxygen mask being put over my face.

I woke up being wheeled into the recovery room. Everyone was there but I was in and out of consciousness so most of the rest of the night was a blur. hat I was told by DH was that evenutally decided that they couldn’t get Madelyn out because I was contracting so bad and that they put me under a general anesthetic to get my body to relax. But she was born at 10:02 pm and her apgar scores were 4 and 8. She was 8lbs 1oz and 21 1/ inches long. All I remember is leaning over and seeing her in her isolette while the nurses worked on her and my family surrounded her with love. People kept trying to talk to me but I could never finish a sentence I would always fall asleep. So finally DH got to hold her and then they attempted to let me breastfeed. I slept through most of that. The decision was then made that I could not care for her on my own in the post partum room so she stayed the night in the nursery. I felt guilty, but I was able to get a full nights sleep to recover and shake off the anesthetic.

The next morning they brought her to me and we really got to meet for the first time. It was surreal.

I spent the next 4 days in the hospital because I had a fever that I couldn’t get rid of and they had me on three different types of antibiotics 24 hours a day. It was yucko.

But we finally made it home.

[Brady]

(copied from an email I had saved)

I still can't believe how quickly everything happened! Friday night, March 4th I wanted to see if I could somehow induce labor… :rolleyes: I started with the "spicy food" thing and made enchiladas, after that I decided I needed to CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. I was vaccuuming, dusting, and scrubbing like a madwoman...I went to bed around 10ish and woke up at 1:30 to go the bathroom then couldn't go back to sleep.. got on the computer, played around for a bit and just wasn't feeling "right", I thought it was from the enchildadas. I tried to go back to bed at 4am. Went to the bathroom shortly after and noticed pinkish blood and started thinking- hmmm, is this what I think it is? Shortly after- around 5:30 the contractions started.. I was convincing myself it was some sort of stomach bug or false labor since all the pains were down low and not the textbook "up high in your back, etc". I also had not had any contractions prior to this so I had no idea what to expect, I had been feeling great and just had a Dr’s appt. that Wednesday where she told me nothing was going on and that I was probably in it for the long haul.

The pain/contractions kept coming though and I finally woke my DH up and had him start timing them around 6am, we did that until 7 and I called the Dr., as they were less than 3 minutes apart on average and lasting about 30-45 seconds. She told me it could still be "early", but to go to the hospital if I wanted to get checked. (I was still convinced this really wasn't happening..). Took a shower, but then couldn't even blow dry my hair I was in so much pain... the funniest thing I remember is how upset I was that I did not get my eyebrows waxed on Friday like I had planned. I had actually had an appt. scheduled for 9:30am on Sat. I kept thinking, well maybe I can wait until after my appt. to go to the hospital, I can't be in labor with these awful eyebrows!! My son had other ideas though. I hobbled around the house until I realized THIS WAS IT and started to try to speed my DH up and finish packing my hospital bag. I couldn’t even tie my sneakers, it seemed the contractions were coming fast and furiously. We got to the hospital around 8:15 (and boy did that feel like a LONG ride! I was convinced my DH was just searching for potholes to hit..) and the pain was getting stronger and stronger and coming faster and faster. They were about a minute or two apart at that point. I remember looking at the clock when I would have one, and just dread when it would be time for another to come. When I got there, I was put in a wheelchair and a really sweet woman took me up to labor and delivery while he parked the car and checked me in. They got me in a bed, I put on a johnnie and the nurse checked me. I was already 4cm dialated, and about two seconds after she checked me, my water broke. I started asking for that blessed epidural right around then.., they had to wait for my OB and yada yada.. got the epidural around 10am- at first it didn't completely take, so it was like just this one low area on my right side that was feeling all the pain, thankfully he came back in and "topped me off". After the epidural I remember sort of zoning in and out, I really just wanted to sleep. My parents were there and kept talking to me, and all I could think was- everyone please be quiet, I want to SLEEP. Things progressed quickly though and I was soon 8cm around 11:30, the rest is pretty much a blur.

I remember starting to push around 11:30 for “practice”, but then not *really* pushing until about 1:30 when my OB came in. I know there was some Pitocin given to progress things at some point as well... somehow I got through the pushing and my son was born at 3:03pm! So, from the time we got to the hospital until he was born was only 6.5 hours! DH and my Mom stayed in the room during the birth. Myhusband was a great coach, and my mother just sort of hid off to the side, coming around once in a while to see if she could see the baby. ;) From the very start of my labor, my son was down so low that you could see his hair! Toward the end of my pushing the nurse brought the mirror around so I could see him to motivate me to push more.. I had always said I would never want to see anything down there when I had a baby.. but funny how things change when you are actually HAVING a baby. Having been pushing for what seemed like forever at that point, the mirror was actually very motivating. I did need an episiotomy, which honestly- when you have an epidural, you don't care what they do to you and at that point you just want the baby OUT! I remember the Dr. after he was born telling me what she was doing down there, stitching, delivering the placenta, etc. and I was just like- Whatever, go to town, I can't feel a thing! :-) (of course that all came back to haunt me the next day, but it was all bliss that day!)

Giving birth to my son was the most amazing, incredible experience I have ever been through. I don’t know what will ever compare to that feeling of seeing him for the first time. My DH tells me that when he came out, I just started saying through tears, “My baby, My baby!” (I don’t remember any of this) After nine months of anticipation to meet him, it was just absolutely incredible when he was born. To think that he was inside of me all those months and becoming a little boy, was just the most awesome thing. I never knew how much I could love someone I had never met before until March 5th at 3:03pm!

[cagey]

bumping, cause I know there's been a bunch of March babies!

[Cr8nme]

On my due date Saturday September 3, 2005 I was in extreme nesting period as well as the most irritated I had ever been in life. I was "supposed" to be induced because my doctor doesn't like for his patients to go over. I had been having a pretty good pregnancy a few scares of bleeding but all was well with our "surprise" baby. I call the hospital and they tell me that I won't be induced that day because they are over crowded from walk-ins. So we bar-b-que and eat and I have been having contractions on and off all day. All of my family is on town and we are getting ready for bed. I notice that the contractions are getting stronger but not frequent enough...My grandmother says to me "I give you 24 hours" and you'll have that baby in your arms. I just look at her like leave me alone. So I lay down but don't really fall asleep because of the contractions and I am writing them down. However get up at about 12:30am so now it Sunday September 4, 2005 and my hubby looks at me and says " Do we need to go?" I say "you don't but I do" and I walk into the bathroom (what a grouch I was) so yes I had to go #2 and when I am done and walk out of the bathroom my contractions were every 2 minutes :eek: so I tell my hubby that it is really time and we need to go. I wake my aunt up and ask her where did she put all my information and my hubby calls my doctor and he calls back and says "Sorry you aren't being induced today" in which I reply "well I beat you to it b/c I am really in labor",lol So we get to the hospital at 1:30 and they already have my triage room ready...I go in get checked yada yada yada I am 5 cm and contractions are every 1-2 mintues :eek: So I labor for about 1.5 hours in triage then go to my room in which I am now 7 cm and I tell them please get my epidural,lol b/c my window is closing. So I get the epidural about 10 minutes pass and my water breaks and I was a gush!!! they clean me up and I am 9 cm so I tell my hubby go and get my family so I can see them and then I am taking a nap. I see my family and I take a nap I wake up at 5:45 telling my nurse that I need to push so she checked me and lo and behold the head is almost crowned. While she gets my bed and the room ready for me to push my hubby is all down there looking at the head...he says to me "baby I can see the head" and I reply "Is it an albino :rolleyes: " by now it is 6am and we do some "practice" pushes with my contractions which had slowed due to the epidural so after 2 practice pushes she pages my doctor and me and hubby joke that we are on ER b/c my doctors name was Dr. Carter. He comes and the head is fully crowned and I pushe 1 time the head was out and a little push and she was on my stomach. I couldn't believe it, my baby is here and she is a girl!!! So Miss Noelle Alexandra was born on Sunday September 4, 2005 at 6:11am

[Sevilla]

No one is obligated to read this, it is wayyyy too long. But i couldn't figure out what to cut (which is why i made a separate post instead of clogging up my due date thread). The cliff-notes version is the various headings i made. For those of you still pg--write out your birth story as soon as you can. There are so many details i've forgotten already, that i'm glad i wrote down within the first two days.

I cannot say enough how our Bradley classes and the reading that we did before birth helped us to have a good birth experience. I can say that I am 100% satisfied with how my birth went and do not have any regrets about decisions that we made, and I believe that’s because we were so well-informed of our various options, and also that our wishes in our birth plan were respected and followed by the hospital nurses and my midwives. We were never pushed into anything, we were always asked to participate in the decision-making process, and really felt like we were equal participants in our care. i'm also *so* thankful for my midwives. I know with a different practice i would have been given an 'emergency' c-section instead of being able to have a successful vaginal birth.

Early Labor (0-4 cm) 5am Sunday-8am Monday (27 hours)
I wasn’t due for another week, and because I still felt so awesome pg-wise I figured that meant I would go overdue. Friday was my last day of work, and Saturday was my baby shower with DH’s family. At 4am Sunday morning I woke up and yelled to DH to get off his computer game and come to bed. He came to bed but I couldn’t fall back asleep. About 45 minutes later I felt a trickle come out of me and thought “I bet my bag of waters is leaking.” Went to the bathroom and sure enough had a very slow trickle of clear fluid.

I knew that labor would most likely start on its own within a few hours, and that DH really needed to sleep and get rested up. So I posted in my journal and just walked around the house, sat on the birth ball, etc… waiting for labor to start. I got all my thank-you cards from the shower written, talked to my mom on the phone for awhile, and remembered a friend's excellent advice to *take a nap* if you think you’re going into labor so you’re well-rested (so I also got in a 2 hour nap). Contractions started coming on and off, but didn’t hurt.

This was the first big decision that I made about my labor: whether to wait for labor to start on its own or begin the ‘cascade of interventions’ by calling the doctor’s office right away. Since I was GBS+ especially I knew that they would tell me to come in, and I didn’t want to be put on a clock. I was not overly concerned about the GBS b/c my test had come back barely positive so my colonization was not high. I am *so* glad that I decided to hold off on calling.

Finally about 10am I decided to have DH wake up and let him know I was in early labor. His first response was “That’s not funny” and thought I was joking.

Contractions still had not really picked up, and I was just leaking a little bit of fluid each hour, so I decided to see if I could try and get things going. I took a walk to mail my thank-you-notes, and also got out my breast pump for nipple stimulation. That worked very well in getting contractions coming more regularly, but they weren’t bad at all-didn’t even feel like period cramps.

Finally about 11:30 I figured that I should call the dr.’s office and see what they had to say. When I told the dr. on call my situation his first question was ‘are you GBS+’ and when I said yes he said ’then we need you to come in so we can start you on the antibiotics. If you weren’t GBS then we’d have you stay home longer.” My midwife wouldn’t be back on call until 5pm. I told the Dr. it would take us a little while to get into the hospital.

Got off the phone and told DH “We’re so *not* going to the hospital yet-we need to get labor in a regular pattern on its own first” and he completely agreed. For the next few hours I did more nipple stimulation (this worked SO well), took about an hour walk around the neighborhood, and started packing the hospital bag.

I didn’t want to make the mistake of going in too early, but also didn’t want to endanger the baby with the GBS+. So we decided that we would go in when my midwife was due back on call. That would be about the 12 hour mark from when I’d started leaking (I wasn’t losing a lot of fluid, but still some every hour). Right before we left for the hospital contractions got a bit more intense and I had two that threw me to the floor on my hands and knees. Also let my mom know our plan so she could meet us at the hospital (she was acting as my doula).

One concern I had when going to the hospital was that the change of environment would slow down my labor, but that didn’t happen. We were able to keep it going consistently (contractions 45-60 seconds long, 5-6 minutes apart). I used the birthing ball a LOT during those first few hours, it was wonderful. And I used just one vocalization for the whole labor--a long, low “Oooohhhhh” (first syllable of “open”) that I said multiple times with each contractions.

The labor and delivery room was really nice, and I had wonderful nurses (we went through 7 nurses by the time labor was over). When they would do the intermittent monitoring of the baby they would let me sit or stand how I was comfortable--I didn’t have to wear the belts or get into bed.

My midwife was delayed getting back to the hospital and finally got there at 8pm. She checked me (this was my first ever internal exam-whoa boy am I glad I declined those through pregnancy b/c they hurt!). I was 2cm, 60% effaced, and baby was at -2 station. My cervix was still very anterior. Baby’s heart rate was doing well, and I had my first dose of penicillin for the GBS. I continued to labor all through the night with contrax still not coming closer than 5ish minutes apart.

Around 11pm I decided I’d had enough and needed a break-and my body listened to me. I was whispering to my body ‘I‘m not having any more contractions, I‘m finished with this‘ and at that point my contrax stopped almost completely for about 2 hours which was wonderful b/c I was able to sleep. I’m so thankful I had that time of rest. About two hours later they started coming again so I got up and kept using the birthing ball and ‘labor dancing’ with DH to get through each one. I had a fabulous night nurse who was familiar with NCB and was very non-intrusive.

At 8am the next morning (Monday) my midwife Patty came back to check on me. At that point I was 4cm and 80% effaced. Baby was still -1/-2 station, but my cervix had moved more forward, and my bag of waters was bulging. Patty was encouraging and said that I was doing great, that the first stage of labor was progressing well, baby’s heart rate was wonderful, and to just keep going-that my bag of water would probably break sometime during the day during a contraction. (I should mention that when we got to the hospital I lied about how long my waters had been leaking for to buy us more time-I said noon instead of 5am. Another decision I‘m glad I made.)

[Sevilla]

Active Labor (4-7/8 cm) 8am to 8pm Monday (27-39 hours)
Once I was at 4cm the contractions got more intense and I had a few that I couldn’t figure out how to handle. I started telling DH and my mom that I wanted to get the epidural b/c I felt they were not manageable like before. The one technique I had not tried using yet was the shower, so I decided that I would try laboring in there and see if it helped-and would reevaluate whether to have pain meds or not after that. The shower was WONDERFUL. Oh my gosh, it totally helped me cope with each one and gave me a second wind. I would hold the sprayer on my lower abdomen during each contrax while I vocalized, and DH was in there with me letting me know when I was at 30 seconds b/c then I knew the peak was there or soon thereafter.

Honestly, those few hard contrax at 4cm were the most difficult part of labor for me mentally b/c I felt so overwhelmed and like I couldn’t do it anymore.

During labor you reach certain plateaus of contrax intensity. Like the early labor contrax got more intense but I was able to handle them, and then they ramped up and got too hard for me for a time--but I got into a rhythm and pattern with them as well. I spent the rest of the day laboring and making slow but steady progress. Contrax still were about 60-75 seconds long and 4-6 minutes apart and as intense as those initial 4cm ones that made me want the epidural, but I was able to handle them fine.

Even though having such spaced out contractions made my labor longer, I really didn’t mind it. Having those longer periods of rest in between were very helpful and refreshing to me.

I threw up a few times, which I didn’t mind so much (except the first time b/c my stomach was empty--I started making myself eat a bit so that next time I threw up at least there was something coming up and it was a lot better). I also hated going to the bathroom, even though I had to go regularly b/c was staying well-hydrated, b/c each time after going I’d get a strong contraction. But I also saw bloody show each time I went which was encouraging and showed me my cervix was progressing.

Experiencing ‘labor land’ when it came to time was very odd-I had no consciousness of how time was passing, and often forgot that I’d even just had a contraction or how far apart they were. There are whole sections of labor that I just don‘t remember or are very very hazy.

At 6pm Monday, 36 hours into labor, I was at 6cm, 90% effaced, and my cervix felt ‘like jello’ according to the nurse which showed that it was really ripe and opening. My bag of waters had not burst yet. Baby was still at -1/-2 station so he hadn’t really descended.

My contrax had not picked up in intensity either, even though we were doing everything we could to keep labor moving and active. It was becoming clear that my cervix needed the pressure of the baby’s head to push it the rest of the way open, but baby hadn’t really engaged yet. I could tell by how he was sitting in my abdomen and moving that his head was turned facing the side, instead of facing back like he should have been. I knew that this could be a complication, as baby’s whose heads are turned sideways (transverse), often end in c-sections.

We called our Bradley teacher to ask if she had any advice given that I’d been in labor 36 hours and how I suspected baby was positioned. Her advice was just to keep mobile as walking and pelvic rocks/tilts were the best chance of getting baby to turn how he needed to. And also that although a baby facing completely transverse was a problem, just a little bit turned wasn‘t something to worry about. She also mentioned that given how far I’d progressed and that baby’s head really needed to come down and help open the cervix, rupturing my membranes might be a positive intervention after a certain point.

At 8pm I asked to be checked again b/c I wanted to see where I was at. The nurse said I was at 8cm, 100% effaced, bag of waters still bulging, baby still at -1 station. She went to call the midwife to give her an update and then came back to ask if I was open to having my waters ruptured. Since my contractions had been plateued for hours and had not increased, we said that we were fine with rupturing them. We all figured that the midwife would break my waters, things would get intense, and I’d be ready to push in just a few hours.

Patty got there and checked me. She didn’t even need a hook to break my bag-when she pinched it between her fingers it burst right away and DH said it looked like a waterfall ran out of me. Fluid was clear, and baby’s heart rate was still great. He was so active all throughout labor, kicking around and moving.

My biggest fear about labor was transition, and knowing I was going to enter it made me afraid b/c I did not know how I would cope with it. But what I told myself earlier in the day was that I would use the shower during transition to help get me through, that was what I was holding on to.

As soon as she broke my water DH and I went walking to help baby’s head drop down and bring on contractions. I had a huge burst of energy and we walked the ward for about 45 minutes. Contractions started coming more intensely, though still 5 minutes apart, and I found that walking through them really helped and that I could feel progress. Finally towards the end I had a contraction that was so strong walking through it wasn’t helping and I said ‘we’re going to the shower.’ In my mind I was ‘past the point of no return’ for an epidural and was really excited to be almost at the end (so I thought), having gone unmedicated in spite of a long labor.

Stuck at 7cm: 8pm Monday to 4:30 am Tuesday (39-48 hours into labor)
When I got in the shower contractions became powerfully strong. I would not use the word ‘pain’ to describe them, b/c that makes me think of sharp stabbing and that’s not how they were. But they were pressure, the most intense pressure ever, as if my lower uterus were a black hole collapsing with each contraction. The shower sprayer didn’t reduce the intensity like it had done at 4cm (though I used it anyway). I moaned my way through each one, counting on DH to tell me when 30 seconds were up b/c at least I knew that I was almost at the peak. In early labor it took about 3 ‘ooooohhhh’ moans to get to the peak, now it took me 5-6 moans. DH was my rock, standing at the shower entrance with the timer, putting counter pressure on my back during each contraction, encouraging me the whole time.

I was truly delirious during this period. My whole world was “Time to have a contraction--stand up, breathe, grip the shower bar for dear life, moan moan moan, almost over, sink down into the chair to rest for awhile.” Although they were so intense, they still came just 4-5 minutes apart.

If I had stayed standing the whole time I think they might have come closer together, but there was no way I could mentally make myself *choose* to have such intense contractions any closer. The closest I could make myself embrace them was 5 minutes apart, and I had DH set the timer for 5 minutes after each one so he could tell me my rest was over and I needed to stand up to have another one. I haven’t ever heard other people talk about being able to control their contractions the way I was. But in a sense that was not good b/c who in their right mind can actively choose to have transition contractions one right after another, for hours at a time, you know? If it just comes upon you and you have no choice but to surrender, that’s very different than having to actively choose the intensity every time.

I stayed in the shower for over 2 hours. I was determined to make it through transition and that when I got out of the shower I would be complete and ready to push. The nurses and midwife were fantastic--they never made me get out to monitor the baby, they would use a Doppler on me in the shower instead.

Finally the midwife came in and told me I had to get out of the shower to be checked (and I was getting dehydrated and mentally checking out of labor). I told her I didn’t know how I would do it, that I couldn’t have these contractions while in a bed laying down. She said she would check my dilation on my hands and knees. I remember running out of the shower as fast as I could b/c I was terrified of having a contraction without the water.

It was midnight when she checked me, 4 hours after breaking my water, after several hours of transition contractions, and I was *still* the exact same at 7 cm, 100% effaced, baby still had not descended further (I was 8cm before she broke my water b/c the bulging bag stretched the cervix out a bit). There had been no progress on any level, and the baby‘s head was transverse and also acynclitic (which means it was tilted a bit as well).

I was so discouraged when I heard that I‘d made no progress. My body was doing everything it could, but without the baby in a correct position it was unsuccessful--you can‘t have a successful labor unless the baby cooperates. Something clearly was not working correctly for all those contractions to have done nothing. I was at 40 hours of labor and stalled, and my cervix was starting to swell which did not bode well. I was also mentally fighting my body’s contractions. Once I got out of the shower I didn’t have that many more transition contractions, everything slowed down (probably b/c mentally I was discouraged that they weren’t working correctly, and I didn’t have the strength left to work with my body. I was fighting the contractions so they didn’t come).

[Sevilla]

The Epidural
Up until this point neither the midwife nor the nurses had even mentioned pain medication or pitocin. They really followed our birth plan. But at this point after 43 hours when it was clear something was not working right with my body (and I knew it was the baby’s position), we had to consider what our options were. Since everyone could see that I was losing my strength and not able to relax or work with my body anymore, the midwife suggested that we consider some pain relief to give me a break and maybe help my body relax enough to ’break through’ and finish dilating.

I knew that I did *not* want to get narcotics, that it was either the epidural or nothing. I also knew that for some women who are fighting their labors, an epidural allows them to relax enough that the contractions are able to be more effective.

The midwife was very respectful knowing we hadn’t wanted pain meds (though at that point I really wanted the epidural, I just couldn’t take anymore). I asked her if she were in my situation what she would do, and she told me that she would get the epidural, especially b/c if I was so exhausted at this point, how would I be able to have enough energy to push the baby out in a few hours? DH was discouraged about me wanting/needing the epidural, he felt like he should have been able to do something more to help me relax through contractions and work with my body (though he shouldn‘t have felt that way, he was such a wonderful support).

When I said yes to the epidural things started to happen fast--they got the anesthesiologist in there within just a few minutes. I wasn’t having anymore contractions at this point either, which was a relief b/c I’d had hours of the ‘black hole collapsing’ ones and hated them.

I didn’t feel discouraged about wanting it b/c I knew I’d been through more hours of labor unmedicated than most labors last, so I felt like I had given the best effort possible. Plus I knew that the baby’s head position was preventing my cervix from fully dilating and there was nothing I could do to change that-we’d stayed mobile all labor to give him a chance to rotate, had left the bag of waters intact until very late, and the midwife wasn’t able to manually rotate him b/c my cervix wasn’t open enough yet. I didn’t feel like my body had failed me, b/c I knew it wasn’t my body--it was the baby’s issue that was outside of my control.

Patty said we’d reevaluate the situation after I’d had the epidural for a few hours. She wasn’t going to recommend pitocin until we could see if the epidural itself would do the trick. Even in how she handled talking about interventions, I really appreciated how she always made us part of the decision-making process and just tried one intervention at a time.

The nurse we had at the time came over to talk to me and said that it had been a long time since she’d seen a Bradley couple laboring and how impressed she was with us. That I had great breathing, DH was so intuned with what my body was doing, we worked together as a team wonderfully, et… Basically that she wanted to encourage me that we had done well, and not to feel disappointed like we’d failed b/c I needed the drugs. It was really sweet of her. I honestly didn’t feel badly about getting them, b/c I realized at that point I had reached the limits of my own resources and knew that a c-section was a distinct possibility if I couldn‘t continue dilating.

I started praying that the epidural would be completely effective, no complications to me or the baby, and would do what it needed to. Getting it didn’t hurt, DH stood at the edge of the bed and we were hugging each other when he put it in. That is one of my favorite memories of labor, him giving me that comfort and support when I needed it most and things were so hard.

The epidural itself wasn’t bad at all. I thought it would numb me from the waist down, require a catheter, and make me feel bedridden and disempowered. But it was none of those things. It only numbed my uterine area, I could still wiggle my toes and move my legs, and I didn’t even need a catheter (this was really important to me). I was able to sit up, and the medication worked right away to stop me from feeling the contractions. I had the bed tilted up before I went to sleep so that gravity could help the baby put pressure on the cervix. The plan was to see how my contractions were going and if I had progressed in a few hours. I felt very hopeful that this would work and thankful to get some rest after so long.

Around 4:30am I woke up--I had really needed those few hours of sleep. Patty came in and checked me. My contractions had continued at a steady 5-6 minutes apart, 60-90 seconds long the entire time which was a relief to me (since the epidural hadn‘t slowed them down, they‘d stayed the same as before). But I was *still* at 7cm with no change and no progress.

At that point I had been stuck at 7 cm for over 8 hours with no change in anything. The baby’s head was still acynclitic, and I’m not sure if he was still facing transverse or not. I had been in labor for 48 hours with a broken bag of waters the whole time, and I was GBS+ (I was given so many doses of antibiotics it wasn’t even funny, b/c they give it every 4 hours and I was there so long).

It was clear at this point that my contractions were not strong enough on their own to get me to full dilation b/c the baby wasn't able to help much b/c of his head position, though my cervix remained very soft and ready. Our options at this point were to try pitocin and see if that would get me over the hump, and if it didn’t then I would need a c-section.

But Patty said she would only give me pitocin if she could see that my contractions had not picked up enough on their own to dilate me. So at that point I was praying that the monitors would show contractions still spaced out and not strong enough--which they did. Patty was confident that the Pitocin would do the trick though and give my body the ‘oomph’ it needed. Baby’s heart rate was still doing great--there is no way they would have let me labor as long as I did if he had not been so strong and healthy through it all.

Transition (7-10 cm) 5:00am-7:00am Tuesday
The epidural medication started to wear off and I could feel the full strength of the transition contractions again on the right side of my uterus. Since I knew they were starting the pitocin I was very scared to experience pitocin contractions so I had DH get the anesthesiologist back in to give me one more dose of the numbing medication. They started the pitocin around 5:30, and within an hour I was at 9cm. I didn‘t even need that much, and Patty said that the dilation was my body doing it on its own, the pitocin was more of a jumpstart than anything.

Around 7am she checked me during a contraction and found I had just a rim of cervix left that she was able to push up and around the baby’s head. He had a conehead going at that point, and was now at +1 station b/c of it. I started feeling pressure to push with the contractions (they had turned down the epidural around 6am once it became clear I would be complete quickly).

It was such a relief and answer to prayer to know the pitocin had worked, and that the interventions we had chosen (the epidural so I could sleep, the pitocin so I could dilate) had been effective and necessary. I know that electing to have those two interventions prevented me from having a c-section.

[Sevilla]

2nd Stage Labor (pushing) 7am-8:58am Tuesday (50-52 hours of labor)
One of my other fears about having an epidural is how it would impact my ability to push and the positions that I could use. But thankfully this was not the case. DH, my mom, and the nurse helped me support myself and I started out pushing in a squat. We tried a few different pushing positions in that first hour, and somewhere along the line my epidural line got ripped out (no one noticed until later). I was very tired by this point and I was scared the baby was stuck and wouldn’t be able to descend b/c of his position. At one point I even said “I don’t think this is working, I feel like the baby is stuck” b/c I wasn’t feeling any progress.

At that point it was about 8am and Patty the midwife was changing shift with the other midwife, Kathy. (Patty had been on-call at the hospital since Friday, had done 5 deliveries, and was completely exhausted).

Kathy was exactly who I needed to push this baby out, b/c I didn’t have the mental strength on my own to do it. She got me into a position I wouldn’t have thought of, but was very effective:

Putting the squatting bar on the bed, having me lay on my back with my feet braced on either end of the bar, and then tied knots at the end of a sheet and had me play tug-of-war with her for each contraction while I curled up my body as if I was on a rowing machine. It was *so* effective, I cannot even tell you.

She coached me like a drill sergeant through each pushing contraction, which gave me the strength to do it (Me: Here comes another one. Her: come on Rachael, you can do it, push push push, keep at it, go go go, etc…” really fast and loud so that it kept me focused.

I’m pretty sure I was feeling the full contractions now and that the epidural’s effects had worn off (except for the partial numbness in one leg). Pushing contractions hurt, I hated them and complained the whole time b/c as soon as I finished pushing (I would get 4 long pushes in per contraction) and would lie back to rest between I would feel the rest of it through my abdomen. I kept asking if she could just pull the baby out and also said “How in the world do people have more than one baby?” and she was just like “Having another child is not something to think about during labor” and helped me keep going.

Pushing with Kathy really got me into an effective and forceful rhythm. I found extra muscles I hadn’t been using before and could *feel* him moving further down with each push. Probably within 15 minutes of pushing with her she told me she could see his head and that there was a lot of dark hair. They brought a mirror over and a little while later she told me to look. I was like “No, I just want to keep my eyes closed” but she made me put my hand down there to feel his head and watch as his head came down the birth canal for a contraction to help me stay focused on the end goal. I’m glad she did that b/c that’s the only visual memory I have. When I saw his head I asked “If I stand up now will the baby just fall out?” (I so wanted to be done…). That quote made my mom laugh so hard. The midwife was just like “No, he won’t fall out. Let’s keep going.”

During pushing I kept thinking “This baby is going to be an only child or we’re adopting” and “Next time i‘m scheduling a c-section.”

I kept asking the baby’s position b/c I was still worried he wouldn’t come down right or would get stuck and I‘d need a csection. Whenever I’d ask she’d just keep saying “he’s moving down the birth canal, he goes down and then goes back up helping things stretch.” Everyone in the room was getting excited about being able to see the head and so much progress.

DH changed places with Kathy and was the one doing the sheet tug-of-war with me (I had no clue, I was so focused and kept my eyes either closed or just on my end of the sheet the entire time). Suddenly I heard her say “I need to get my scrubs on” and “Just a little more and he’ll be here.” It’s a good thing he was coming when he did, b/c his heart rate had started lowering towards the end (probably b/c I was not breathing as well, Kathy had to keep telling me to breathe during pushes so I could oxygenate the baby and myself).

I could hear my mom in the background getting really excited about seeing him so close to being born. I only felt a slight burning when he crowned (which I was excited about b/c it meant he‘d come down successfully), and Kathy telling me not to push hard so that my perineum could stretch. I visualized him coming out to his eyes, and then the rest of him with the next push. And I heard people saying “The head is out!” and Kathy telling me not to push so hard again (which didn’t work, his shoulders flew out right after his head even though I tried to hold back a bit). And then I heard “He’s born” and “It’s a boy” and they put him on my chest right away. He came out screaming at the top of his lungs, oh my goodness he was loud. The first thing I said was “I knew it was a boy.” And I talked to him and touched him as he lay on me, so happy he was here and healthy and that I was *done* with labor.

The placenta came pretty quickly afterward, and DH cut the cord. He said it was so cool watching him come down and be born, that he had an awesome view.

I asked if I tore and Kathy told me I just had one small skid mark, but she had to put two stitches in it b/c it kept bleeding. DH said she used an insane amount of lubricant as she gave me perineal massage to help me stretch. I’m so glad she did-I think my recovery has been so easy b/c of the lack of tearing.

After they cleaned the baby up a bit everyone left us alone in the room for awhile before they did bath/vit k/etc… It was so nice for just the three of us to be able to bond together, he was so alert and looking around. He had a big conehead, but I never really saw it and it went back down fairly quickly.

After about a half hour I was exhausted and told DH I needed to sleep. He held the baby and was with him on the other side of the room while they bathed him, etc… and I took a much-needed nap.

After birth/hospital stay/reflections
The hospital stay was very nice. B/c of how long my waters were broken, they had us stay for 48 hours after birth instead of the usual 24. I am *so* thankful for that (though I haven’t seen the hospital bill yet…I’m very interested in how much it will be)

I really needed that time to recouperate and having the breastfeeding support was fantastic. The LC was great, and the nurses were very knowledgable about bf’ing and helpful in getting him to wake up enough to suck in the first day. After the first day he was a bit more awake and would start sucking on his own. My mom went home a few hours later and slept for almost 20 hours straight (she had stayed up with us the whole labor with just a few short naps). It took us a day and a half to decide on a name.

And something else i should mention is all the prayer support that I had during labor. There were a lot of very tired people from our family and church b/c they had stayed up praying for me and the baby. Having my mom with me during labor was wonderful too, there's no way we could have managed as well as we did without her support and help.

Things I didn’t know about after birth:
1. How swollen your vaginal area gets. Wow, very weird to see (though mine was pretty much back to normal today, day 3).
2. That in the first day or so babies will still have some mucus/fluid in their lungs that they’ll spit up and you’ll have to suck out with a bulb syringe
3. How much hospital food truly sucks
4. How fast the trauma of birth fades. The day he was born I was convinced I never wanted to have another baby. And I kept having the dread in the back of my mind “oh no, another contraction is going to start”, like my body was still living in anticipation of labor continuing. It was a relief to realize I could go to the bathroom without the fear of it bringing on a contraction. But now, I am totally ok with having another baby (someday) and going through labor again. I think I’ll approach it the same was next time as this time too, just getting through the stage I’m at, when I want pain meds to see if there are other options for managing the issue first, and also knowing that odds are I will never have another labor
so long and complicated again.
5. How funny my belly would look, that it would still pooch out like i was 6-7 months pregnant (though now at 6 days pp it's gone down to about 3 mos pg)
6. That being cut off from the internet for days really sucks. ;) I think all hospitals should have internet access for their patients.

[mrstim]

I am utterly in AWE of you. You are amazing. Wow. That's all I can say right now - but congratulations on making it through!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[uskiku]

Sevilla thank you SO much for posting your birth story; cannot tell you how much I admire you -- you're one determined and brave mama! :) Congrats again on your baby boy!

[Graffy]

I'm so glad you posted this Sevilla. I'm hoping for a med-free birth as well, but I'm very glad to read your story and to realize that you're satisfied with how things went, even though the epidural wasn't part of your original plan. One of my biggest concerns is that I'll be upset with my L&D if I'm unable to follow my birth plan to the letter, so hearing your contentment with circumstances that were beyond your control is helping to ease my mind somewhat. Congratulations on your little boy!

[Delaney21]

That was amazing! You are an inspiration!

[Bloomwood]

wow. congratulations on making it through on your terms. it is wonderful that you were able to make the decisions that were right for you at the time rather than feeling disappointed by the circumstances. And, of course, avoiding the c-section is a huge accomplishment.

[miaclear]

Great Story, thanks for sharing!!!! You did awesome!

[Orange]

Wow, that's an amazing birth story!! That is so great that you were allowed to keep laboring so long without intervention. Congrats on the birth of your son and for having a birth that you were really in control of.

My DD was also transverse acynclitic, but I dilated quickly despite her position. However, because of her position, I was not able to push her out in a reasonable time but luckily my midwife was very understanding and let me keep trying for over 4 hours since I was not tired and the baby was doing well. I was in the birth center and transferred to the hospital for an epidural to hopefully allow my pelvis to relax enough to let her turn, but by the time I got over there it happened on its own and I was able to deliver without medication. I can't even imagine going 52 hours, you are really an inspiration!

I'm sure your midwife told you this as well, but mine said that the chances of having another baby in the transverse acynclitic position are almost zero.

[lil_geek]

That was amazing to read!

Congratulations!

[shaqangel]

what an amazing experience. and definitely an inspiration. congrats and thanks so much for sharing.

[lawgirl4]

Sevilla, thanks so much for posting this - you are amazing! I hope you are resting as much as possible and enjoying time with your new little boy. :)

[nettie]

Thanks so much for sharing all the details of your long labor! My biggest labor fear is making it through a long labor, and you're coping skills, use of movement and finally the epidural were all used in a way that allowed you to have control over a successful labor. Very inspiring. Congratulations!

[HGMorgann]

What an amazing job you did! Your story is defintely inspiring!

[Lolly]

WOW! Simply amazing birth story. Thanks so much for posting it Sevilla!

Congrats on your new baby boy :)

[Byrd's Boogie]

Wow! That was truly amazing.

Congratulations!

[e&d]

Sevilla,

Huge congratulations to you. And thank you so much for sharing your birth story -- you did an incredible job during a very long and tough labor!

[smiles33]

Thank you so much for sharing your story! I love how positive you stayed throughout the experience and it really is so inspiring. Congratulations!

[Natrat80]

What an amazing story. You seemed very strong and so focused-I'm in awe! What a blessing that you had people praying for you during your whole labor! I think I'll try to organize that during my good friends labor in June. I'm sure just knowing that someone was praying was awesome.

[Jessie]

I'm so glad I decided to venture into the pregancy forum today and see your post. I've been thinking about you because I knew your due date was coming up. What an amazing birth story. Congratulations on your little boy!!

[Sevilla]

Jessie: Hi Jess! Thanks so much for the congratulations :). Hope you and your family are doing well.

Natrat80 Thanks so much! Having the prayer/spiritual support was wonderful and I really believe it made a difference. Definitely write yourself out a list of people to have pray for you during labor if you can.

smiles33 Thanks so much! it's weird, now just 10 days later it feels like my labor experience happened to someone else, it feels so distant already. i'm really glad i wrote down my story when i did.

e&d Thank you so much! i look back now and can't believe i made it through all that.

Byrd's Boogie Thank you so much for the congratulations!

Lolly Thank you! I'm really glad i wrote my story down to remember.

HGMorgann Thank you so much! It amazes me all that we went through when i go back and read it. Labor is a very interesting experience.

nettie Thank you! Really, a long labor isn't so bad when you get the longer breaks between contractions. I didn't mind the length of it until i got past the 40 hour mark. I hope that you have a great birth experience when the time comes!

lawgirl4 Thank you so much! I am so in love with my little man, we are thoroughly enjoying him :).

shaqangel Thanks! It was a very intense experience, and so worth it to have our son.

lil_geek Thank you for the congratulations!

Orange Thank you so much! I am very thankful to have had the hospital and birth team that i did so that i was able to complete my labor even though it was long. Interesting how your dd was in the same position as my ds. Wow, 4 hours of pushing is a long time! I'm glad your midwives were so understanding and supportive.


miaclear Thank you so much!

Bloomwood Thanks for the congrats. I'm really glad that i always felt part of the decision-making process during my labor.

Delaney21 Thank you! It is not necessarily the type of birth i would have chosen, but i learned a lot from it and am happy with how it came out considering the circumstances.

Graffy Thanks! I'm glad my story was helpful to you. The things that made me ok with the interventions we chose were that i knew they were suggested as a last resort, not as routine, and that i felt part of the decision-making process for them. My birth team never made me feel that something was going to be forced upon me, so we were able to take the time to talk through and process things as a couple before making a decision. I sincerely hope that you get the type of labor that you want though and these types of things don't even come up :).

uskiku Thank you so much! I look forward to hearing your birth story when the time comes :)

mrstim Thank you so much! I look back on it now and can't believe i made it through either (though i remember at one point thinking "there's no way to stop this process, i can't 'get off the ride' now even if i wanted to").

[Chicksinger]

I just searched for you, because I figured you would have a very cool birth story. Wow! Great job!! I'm so glad I was able to read this, because I had a very, very similar labor with a very, very different outcome--emergency c/s in hour 48. However, I'm hoping for a VBAC when we try the whole thing again (maybe next year), and I'm very encouraged by how things were timed to help you progress. Thank You!

[Sevilla]

Hey Chicksinger! I just added you as a friend on LJ, hope you don't mind. Thanks for the congratulations. I hope you're able to have a successful VBAC next time, i'm sure you can do it :).

[bea_mama]

Congrats Sevilla! That's an awesome birth story. You have me beat - I had 44 hours of labor with my first DD. It was really hard, but I survived - enough to have DD #2 a week ago. I thought I'd post and tell you that my L&D with #2 was sooooo much easier - only about 24 hours of labor (which seems really short in comparison to #1) and 15 minutes of pushing (versus 2.5 hours with #1).

So, although I'm sure you have zero interest right now in having another baby ;), I thought I'd let you know that my experience was amazingly better the second time around.

[Pink_Converse]

bump

[red_canuck]

Writing out my borth story and reliving it has done wonders about how I feel about it. It was *my* birth, and it gave me a beautiful son. For these reasons I am proud of it. I am SO proud to say I gave birth!! I did it, my body has now completed the last adult woman task it was intended to do.



Logan’s Birth Story

How do you put into words the most powerful experience in life? There doesn’t seem to be ones that convey the proper emotions. Gratitude, love, happiness, pain, fear, the whole spectrum is represented. To bring a child into this world, one you created from the love between you and your husband is overwhelming. Thinking back on the whole experience there are many highlighted moments that will remain etched in my memory forever. But it’s the little ones that I pray I won’t forget – The look on Rob’s face as he helped me push, the peace and anticipation between contractions, even the nurses names and times are important.

And where to begin the story telling? At what point in storytelling can I be happy for Logan to one day read about his trip into my arms? For really, this story is for him, and is by him. Logan is the one, he makes my sun rise and my moon shine. He brings tears to my eyes with a twist of his lips, so like my own. I fall into his eyes, eyes so much like his father’s, the man I love so much and created this new life with. I melt with a stroke of his cheek, a brush of his hand. Moments feel like eternities but pass in a blink of an eye. He’s already changed so much, in so little time. I have such hope for his future, a hope that it is filled with love and happiness and health.
For Logan’s birth, there is no exact point in time I could ever pinpoint to exclaim- it started here. So with that in mind, I will pick the point that to me represents the official start of his trip to me.

Saturday March 11 was a beautiful day in Guelph. I was feeling the beginnings of cramping and wanted to help along any possible labour. Rob and I went for a sunny walk in Riverside park, and completed some errands. I spent an enormous amount of time that day sitting on our birthing ball. As the night had progressed, I had become more and more restless. Double checking our hospital bags, putting them by the door, reading baby books. I had a feeling that the birth was imminent, even talking to a friend that I thought Sunday or Monday were going to be it. Rob and I eventually went to bed around midnight. Saturday marked 39weeks, 1 day into my pregnancy.

At 4:15 am Sunday morning, I woke up to a feeling that I was wetting the bed. It took a moment to process this information and realize that my water had broken! I woke Robbie up as I ran to the bathroom. After controlling the flow, we sat in bed and talked about our excitement, and our disbelief that the time had finally come. I called my mom to tell her, and Rob called his parents. I also went online to update my friends. The adrenaline rush kept us awake, as well as the contractions that followed swiftly. By 6am the contractions were 5-6 minutes apart, which prompted us to page the midwives for more direction. I spoke with Shawna, who was just going off call, to be replaced by Carol. Shawna advised to relax, put my feet up and rest as much as possible. By 8 am, Rob and I had called our two best couple friends to share the excitement. It was around 9 am that my contractions began to slow, moving to a pattern of 10-12 minutes apart. Deciding this wouldn’t do at all, we went for a walk around the neighborhood and bounced on the birthing ball.

Carol called at noon to see how I was doing, and I disappointingly told her that things were not as far along as I had hoped. She recommended to keep up what I was doing, and to call if anything changed. So continue we did. By 3:00pm, the contractions were becoming more powerful, but were still farther apart. When Carol called again at 3:30pm, we agreed to meet at the Guelph General Hospital to check my progress. It had been 12 hours since my membranes had ruptures, so everyone was anxious that labour be moving along well. We meet Carol at the Family Birthing Unit Triage, and were disappointed to find out that although the contractions needed to be breathed through and were 5-6 minutes apart, I was only 1-2cm dialated. After much discussion between Rob and I, and us and Carol, we decided it would be best to allow some intervention at this point. We agreed to be admitted and start IV Pitocin.

Within a half hour of starting pitocin, my contractions speed up and became quite intense. Hospital policy had me stuck in bed on monitors, completely taking away any resources I had prepared to help me with the pain. I felt like a naughty teenager because I kept lying to my nurse that I had to pee so I could get out of bed to deal better with the contractions. The best I found was standing up “slow dancing” with Rob. That relieved my back labour and allowed me to relax into the contraction instead of fighting them in the bed. By 6 pm my contractions had gotten to be 1 minute long, with 30 seconds between. I was in agony. I was tied to the bed where I didn’t want to be, not allowed to move at all since the slightest nudge knocked off the fetal heart monitors and to add to my pain the monitor belts were incredibly tight and gave me what I later found out was a rug burn all around my middle!

I am proud to say that I dealt with the contractions, worked through them mentally with music and visualization until they checked me for progress at 10pm. I was still contracting every 30 seconds for a minute. I thought I would die. The pain overshadowed anything I had felt with the gallstones, and I had thought that impossible. When they checked me at 10pm, I had the rudest shock any labouring woman could have – I was only dialated 3-4cm. It was then I made the decision that is haunting me know. It’s haunting me because given the same situation, I would make the same decision all over again. I asked for an epidural. The sweet sweet epidural that would get me through the end of my labour! After making this agonizing decision, I then found out that the anasthesiologist had been called to the OR, and wasn’t expected back for over an hour! That was the longest hour of my life! Or so I though…I made it through, with Robbie rubbing my back and sneaking out of bed to rock with him standing up. When the news came after the hour was up that the Dr. would be delayed another 2 hours, I lost it. I lost faith in my abilities to deal and it was only Robbie’s encouragement that kept me going.

I finally had the epidural at around 1:30 am. I was able to relax for the first time since the pitocin was started. It was pure heaven! It was at this point that Logan’s heartrate started plummeting. My bloodpressure dropped very hard, very fast. At one point I remember the nurses frantically calling the ob because my pressure was so incredibly low and so was Logan’s heart rate. I remember the nurse saying something about 60 over 35, but I can’t be sure if this is accurate as I was in a fog. I just remember staring at the ceiling wondering if it was white or beige! They pumped some meds into my IV, and asked our permission to put an internal monitor on Logan. I had previously been incredibly opposed to this, but was so scared for my boy that we consented. The OB on call applied the monitor, and inserted my catheter. The monitor showed Logan’s heart rate has recovered with my blood pressure and all was ok again. We were able settled in and relax. We talked about the baby, and about our own hopes and dreams. The next hour was fabulous. Rob and I bonded on a whole different level and I will treasure that hour for the rest of my life!

con't next post....

[red_canuck]

Around 3:00 am I started feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. Having the catheter in I knew what this meant- I could potentially be dialated fully!! The nurse checked, and what do you know, Logan’s head was only about an inch from coming out! His poor head was a pointy cone from the pressure. I was feeling so good at this point we joked with the staff that if baby was a boy we could call him “Conan!” It was at this point that the midwives came back (the inducement has transferred my care from them to the hospital, so they had gone home to sleep until I was fully dialated). They got the room all prepped for the delivery and set my legs up in the stirrups. The epidural had left me with a little control of my legs, but nothing that would allow any other delivery position. Rob was stationed at my head, to help me pull up and bear down. I found my pushing groove at around 4:15, 20 minutes after starting to push. At 4:30, I made a bet with my midwife that I could push this baby out before 5am – we bet a pizza dinner on the time, and I choose 4:58 (pretty incredible knowing now that he was born then!! I can’t wait for my pizza!). Pushing was an incredible experience, my body doing what nature intended, and listening only to nature. I had no control over pushing, I didn’t need to be told when I was having a contraction as I had them turn down the epidural and I could definitely feel it when it was time. About half way into pushing I did ask to have the mirror to see what was going on, which I never thought I’d do. It was awesome seeing Logan’s head right there. I didn’t watch him coming out though as the midwife needed to move the mirror. Rob tells me now that he was looking through my legs, and saw Logan crowning, but didn’t see again until his head was out. Just before Logan crowned, he stretched out and hooked his foot under my rib! The second midwife took up the position on my side to push his foot down with every contraction. My boy is just like his daddy – he fears change The added pressure unfortunately made for me getting sick, but those contractions ended up being the ones that got Logan’s head out! 4:58 am my world became that much more alive and wonderful when my son was born. I did tear, a second degree inside my vagina, as well as a smaller tear in my perineum, but both were easily fixed. As Logan came out, the midwives guided him onto my chest and into my arms. The little stinker showed off his kidney functions by peeing and pooping on me at this exact moment! I was in heaven. I held him skin to skin for about 20 minutes while I delivered the placenta and the midwives stitched my tears. Logan calmed right down, only crying for a minute. I softly called his name and calmed him, and was surprised and amazed when he looked up at me and stopped fussing. He spent the whole time with me just staring around at the room, at his daddy and at me. It was such an incredibly time, I had big tears rolling down my cheeks trying to wrap my brain around the fact that this little perfect person was my son!! After the midwives were done with my repairs, I realized I had no idea how much my boy weight, and I was dying to know! So I let them take Logan to the warmer and do the newborn physical. Robbie went with Logan and snapped lots of pictures. He was amazingly calm through out, not even making a fuss when he was given his Vitamin K injection!

So I guess that ends our official birth story. The rest of Monday was simply heaven. I held Logan for a long long time, tried feeding a few times with moderate success and Rob got to change his first diaper! After my legs unfroze, the nurse helped me to the washroom. I though it was the scene from psycho, but the nurse reassured me it was actually not bad at all. She helped me put on the mesh undies with the huge pads and ice pack in them, and I used my new best friend for the first time – witch hazel and warm water in the peri bottle. After cleaning up, I did a quick sponge bath, which made me feel a hundred times better. The rest of the day was spent gazing at our son and welcoming our friends and family to visit and meet Logan.

[ambam]

Wow. I hope I can handle labor as well as you! I have 9 weeks to go and I'm so nervous! We have labor classes that start May 2. I hope the classes help because I have no idea what to expect. But reading birth stories on CC and LJ have really helped me see different things that can happen. Thanks for sharing!!

[charliezangel]

Amazing. What an inspiring and beautiful birth story. Call me crazy, but reading that made me want to have a baby even more. I look forward to my labor and I hope that I will have that kind of control and positive attitude. You are a fantastic mama just because you did everything you could to make your birth healthy and safe for your child.

[mel7dog]

I won't post my birthstory here because it is 4 posts, but if anyone wants to read, it is on page 25 of my journal. Mel's Birthstory (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?p=711141&highlight=joke#post711141)

Basically I was 110% prepared and ready for NCB, but my body had other ideas. I labored for 40 hours total and ended up with a c-section. My story is a great example of how you need to be prepared for anything!

[Standrea]

For some reason, CC won't let me copy my birthstory from my journal into here...

Not to pimp off of you mel, but my story is on the top of page 28 of my journal...

[Bloomwood]

I too have a really long birth story, so here (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?p=757697&posted=1#post757697)is a link to it. It starts with post #722 on page 73 of my journal.

Cliff notes: prepared for ncb with warning I might need a c/s; achieved ncb through fairly quick and text book labor. Thankfully I was in the hands of competent medical staff as I started hemorrhaging with the afterbirth to the point of losing a liter of blood and needing 3 bags of IV fluid (with pit) before being discharged.

I didn't put in my birth story, but it is worth mentioning that today, just over 2 weeks PP, I cannot remember any of the pain I felt with the contractions. Pushing, yes, but contracting, no.

[maryanne]

bumped for those with bumps :)

[Kimmer]

bump for new mommies

[Wrighty26]

This is also in my journal...but I love sharing the story of the most amazing day ever.

July 4th
I went to spinning at my gym that morning (yes, I was a crazy mamma-to-be who worked out right until the end) and WOW what a mistake! Kate (Oakley) was on the bike next to me and she kept looking at me saying, "Are you OK?" I was in a lot of pain-- apparently the baby decided to move further into my pelvic bone region during that class because I couldn't walk without being in immense pain for the remainder of my pregnancy. I somehow made it through that day--I spent most of the time laying on the chaise in my family room. I even skipped watching fireworks (besides the ones on TV) because I was in so much pain.

July 5th
I had my 39 week appt (although I was 39w5d) that morning. Dan (my DH) came with me because we had to drop off the Jeep to get the bumper fixed from my accident 2 weeks prior. I was slowly making progress-- and was almost 2cm and 50% effaced, but I definitely wasn't there yet. The Dr. could tell I was having contrax though. I told her about my pain and how it was really hard to walk and she brought up induction. I swore to myself I would not be seduced by an induction--but at the time it was the idea in the world! I thought she would schedule the induction for the next week (after my due date-- which to them was 7/10, but due to charting I knew it was actually 7/8)--but instead they scheduled us for the next day. Talk about a shock! I left with the directions to call the hospital the next morning @ 6:30 to see if they had room for me (if not, they were going to bump me to the next day). That night Dan and I spent our last night together as just husband and wife. We watched a movie and ate take-out Thai food and talked about how much our life was going to change. Little did we know!

July 6th
I barely slept, but I managed a few hours before getting up @ 6. I called the hospital @ 6:30 and they told me to come in. I specially asked if they needed me to be in by a certain time and they said no....so we took our sweet time!

Looking scary on the way to the hospital:
http://images1.snapfish.com/347893%3A%3B7%7Ffp33%3A%3Enu%3D3284%3E%3B48%3E%3B8 %3A%3EWSNRCG%3D32338%3B%3A887777nu0mrj

We ended up leaving the house @ 7:50 because Dan took an eternity to get ready! Seriously, I was ready to go @ 7:20 - Dan, no so much. Of course, on the way to the hospital we hit a little traffic! As we were in traffic the hospital called wondering where the hell I was. I apologized and blamed our delay on the traffic (kinda true). Apparently my Dr. was waiting for me and was kinda pissed that I wasn't there yet. He had to leave to go back to his practice (across the street) for his first appointments of the day. I really wish the damn nurses told me that I needed to be in by 8!

We ended up finally checking into the hospital @ 8:30am. The Dr. came by to break my water/start up the pitocin @ 10-- but he could hardly reach my cervix to break my water because Braeden's head was in the way. At that point I was a good 2cm and according to my Dr. 30% effaced (it's so subjective!)-- my cervix had also moved back into the posterior position, making it hard for the Dr. to reach my cervix. So they just started the pitocin instead-- and let me contract for a few hours. I was having regular contrax before I was given pitocin (It seems I was about I was about to go into labor anyways) but they didn't start to get semi-painful until around 11-11:30ish. They started me with 2cc of pitocin and gradually increased it every 15 minutes (the highest I was up to was 14ccs and DAMN were those contrax intense!). The Dr. came back at 1pm and this time successfully broke my water (at that point I was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced. The water breaking was pretty gross. I definitely was not all about it. At that point the Dr also predicted that Braeden is going to be small-- he was thinking 6-6.5lbs. In anycase, the contrax started to get more and more intense as soon as the water was broken. They were pretty much 2 minutes apart and continued to get stronger and last longer.

At one point when I got up to go to the bathroom the nurse confided to Dan that my contrax were really really strong and she was impressed with how calm I was. I think all that working out really paid off because it really didn't get bad until later-- when I was fatigued and just sick of the damn pain.

Before the contrax got too bad:
http://images1.snapfish.com/347893%3A%3B7%7Ffp33%3A%3Enu%3D3284%3E%3B48%3E%3B8 %3A%3EWSNRCG%3D32338%3B%3A875799nu0mrj

Before the epi:
http://images1.snapfish.com/347893%3A%3B7%7Ffp343%3Enu%3D3284%3E%3B48%3E%3B8%3 A%3EWSNRCG%3D32338%3B%3A87579%3Bnu0mrj

I managed some hardcore contrax for 4 and a half hour before finally, around 5:45, I submitted to the epidural. It's not that I didn't want the epidural-- I just didn't want it to slow down labor and call me crazy, but I wanted to feel like I was laboring as much as possible (who knew that I would actually get that wish)! Getting the epi was weird-- it hurt no more than the contrax did (probably less) but there was an insane amount of pressure in my spine while the nurse inserted the needle into my back. The epi was a little left heavy-- which effected me more later and caused my left leg/foot to go numb. It took @ 20 minutes for me to really feel the effects-- and even then I wasn't numb like I thought I would be. I could still feel every contrax I was having -- it was just slightly muted. It pretty much sucked that it didn't work how it was supposed to--but at least I did not feel any vaginal pain.

About 20 minutes after I got the epi the Dr. came back to check on me and I was only 4cm, but 100% effaced. He told me that I would really start laboring now (like I hadn't been in intense pain for the past 5 hours-- I wanted to smack him)-- and as much I had to admit it, he was right. The time went by really fast and really slow at the same time. I don't really remember what I did from 6:30-8, but I do remember still feeling every contrax and wanting to scream. The anesthesiologist nurse tried to help me out a little and he up'd my rate because of my height/weight (I'm 5'10 and was 167lbs) but it never worked like it should have. At 8 my nurse came and checked me and I was only @ 5 cm. I was SO disappointed. I felt like I was going to be in labor FOREVER at that point. The Dr. predicted that I WOULD deliver on the 6th (he made this prediction when he came in @ 6), but at that point I totally didn't believe him.

After the nurse came in, my middle brother-AJ- came for a visit and took Dan to get dinner (I told them they COULD NOT eat in the room because I hadn't eat since 8pm the night before!). I watched the season premier of Big Brother (while I was not contracting) while they were gone. After they got back- @ 9- I told Dan I was going to TRY take a nap or at least rest-- as soon as I shut my eyes the nurse came in to say that the Dr. was on the phone and he wanted her to check me again. She then announced that I was 9cm! I totally didn't believe her--and was like HOLY CRAP what did I get myself into. I knew that the contrax were back to back (with maybe 30 seconds in between) and were lasting almost 2 minutes, but I thought it was just the pitocin! This was around 9pm. The nurse started to get stuff ready, checked me again @ 20 minutes later and said I was pretty much at 10cm. Because of the epidural (it's impossible to feel anything in that area) they usually let the baby move and turn for a little while before pushing--so she told me to tell her when he pressure was really intense and then we'd be ready to start.

I started pushing @ 9:45. I was having a little trouble pushing because I couldn't feel anything-- especially on my left side. Dan had to help hold my leg up the ENTIRE time because of this (even though he didn't want to watch ANY of it-- he got to see the ENTIRE thing and loved every minute of it!). I finally started to get the hang of pushing @ 10:30 and then I had to stop (she was basically pushing the baby BACK) because we had to wait for the Dr. Basically at that point the baby was about to crown and he was stretching out my perineal so I could avoid an episiotomy--which I REALLY wanted to avoid! By the way pushing was the best part about labor. While I was pushing I did not feel a single contrax.

The Dr. arrived @ 11 finally! He suited up, and dove right in. I pushed for about 10-15 minutes and then Braeden arrived! The cord was wrapped around his neck a little--but nothing major. It was SOOOOOOO surreal watching hiim pull a baby from my body. I have NEVER felt such a relief pass over me either. Oh, another thing Dan did that he didn't want to do was cut the cord. The Dr. just handed him the scissors! The Dr. then tried to guess his weight and admitted that he was WAY off but wanted to know where I was keeping him.

Stats:
Braeden Michael
July 6th, 2006
11:16 pm
7lbs 13oz
21 inches

[Wrighty26]

After that things were a blur. The Dr. had to tell Dan to go take pictures-- he was just standing there in amazement! I know that the Dr. delivered my placenta (grossest thing ever) and that I had a 2nd degree tear and he stitched me up (I didn't feel a thing thanks to the epidural) and that I heard the baby crying-- the best sound ever!

I also remembering hearing a few songs from my iPod-- Braeden was delivered to Fade Into You by Mazzy Star, and then as Dan leaned over to show me pictures of our beautiful boy I remember hearing My Best Friend by Tim McGraw. So fitting! Now both songs bring tears to my eyes!

They then massaged (aka- pressed super hard) my uterus to help get all of the crap out. I was bruised from that for days! After everything checked out-- they handed me Braeden and we just stared at each other for what felt like forever. I have no clue what was going on in the room around me! I know that the Dr./nurses left at some point-- and that Dan started to call everyone. I did get the baby to latch on and breastfeed before he was taken away-- so that was good. Once they took him away recovery began and that was NOT fun! They stopped the epidural about 15 minutes after everything was finished-- and it started to wear off about 15 minutes later. YEOW! Once thing I HAD to do before they took me to my room was pee-- and I just couldn't so they had to give me a catheter. Let me tell you-- that thing hurt like HELL. I had a insanely full bladder (700ccs!) though, so it was necessary.

Meeting my little man:
http://images1.snapfish.com/347893%3A%3B7%7Ffp33%3B%3Enu%3D3284%3E%3B48%3E%3B8 %3A%3EWSNRCG%3D32338%3B%3A8977%3B5nu0mrj

http://images1.snapfish.com/347893%3A%3B7%7Ffp339%3Enu%3D3284%3E%3B48%3E%3B8%3 A%3EWSNRCG%3D32338%3B%3A8974%3B%3Bnu0mrj

After that I was finally wheeled to my room. About that time my temperature dropped and I started to shake uncontrollably. When I got to my room I received an icepack, food (hospital food has never tasted SO good), and DRUGS. Thank GOD for percoset! They eventually brought B back and we settled in. I think I slept about 3-4 hours that entire night/morning-- I was SO high on adrenaline! The rest of the time in the hospital was pretty uneventful-- just painful. It was hard to get comfortable and I almost passed out when I stood up a few times (I suspect it's because of my drop in blood pressure and loss of blood). I was given darvocet--but that only helped so much!

The pain continued when I got home--my milk came in the 2nd day home and my boobs grew to the size of bowling balls (NO LIE) and were SOOOOOO painful. I don't wish that type of pain on anyone! To top it off, I had some serious baby blues for the first week. I DEFINITELY believe in the power of hormones after that week. Thankfully, Dan has been AWESOME and really helped me through it. Now I'm back to my normal self!

Giving birth was hands down the awesomest thing I've ever experienced. I was truly blessed to have an awesome pregnancy, a vaginal birth, a fanstastic and supportive husband and best of all a beautiful and HEALTHY baby boy. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

[Kimmer]

Wrighty26 - Wow! Amazing story, your little man is such a cutie

[heidi0622]

Thought it would be fun to share my story...there is one word to sum up my story - DENIAL! Looking back on it all, it was perfect and I couldn't have asked for a better birth...I just may get to the hospital with a *little* more time to spare next time :)

Copied from my LJSo, many of you have asked to share my birth story. It truly was so much better than I was expecting. I think I was stunned when little Benjamin came into the world.

I want to get it typed though before I forget some of the details. I started having contractions on Saturday throughout the day. They were painful, but manageable. Saturday night, they started coming more regularly, an occasional one that was less than 10 minutes apart, but mostly 20-30 minutes or so apart. Saturday night, I didn't get much sleep as I would have sporadic contractions throughout the night. Sunday morning, I woke up about 6am since the contractions were about 10-15 minutes apart. I got up, pulled out my pregnancy book and started reading a little more about the signs of labor. Everything I read seemed to indicate I was in pre-labor since the contractions were not that regular at that point and not terribly painful. Everything I read in the books said the worst thing you could do at that point was give into them and get worked up about impending labor. At that point, I still thought I was days if not weeks away from delivering Ben. So, my mom came over about 10am, we finished setting up the nursery, ran to Wal-mart and Babies R Us and got everything set. Throughout the day, I continued to have contractions, but they seemed to space out to 20-30 minutes apart. The contractions were strong enough to stop me in my tracks and occasionally I had lean over and breathe through them, but they were manageable.

Sunday night, the contractions continued to worsen, but since I wasn't getting any that were 5 minutes apart, I continued to think I was still in pre-labor and maybe even that these were just more painful Braxton-Hicks. I took a long hot shower about 9pm Sunday night and that seemed to help the pain. I then tried to get into bed to get some sleep, but the contractions still kept coming - 10 minutes, 15 mins, 5 mins, etc. The worst position for me during a contraction was lying in bed, so I would jump out of bed everything a contraction came and get on my hands and knees and rock through it or use my exercise ball, or kneel on my stairs. At this point, I started crying to Mike saying I had the worst pain tolerance of anyone I knew and if this was just pre-labor, what would the real thing be like? About 1:15am, the contractions started coming a little more closely together...I finally noticed they were approximately 5 minutes apart - I didn't want to wake DH, so I was half trying to time them myself. At 1:45am, I woke up DH and asked him to start timing them for me. At this point, they were truly strong and regular. I was pacing around my house, using my exercise ball, kneeling on the stairs, anything to help me manage the contractions. At this point, I did start to believe they were the real thing. At 2:45am, the contractions had been 5 minutes apart for about 1.5 hours, I finally decided to call my midwife. I paged the midwife and chatted with her for a few minutes about what was going on - she determined that since I was able to have a conversation with her, that I was most likely still in pre-labor and maybe just a few cms dialated. She said I was more than welcome to head to the hospital at that point, and could ask for some meds if I truly felt like I needed them, but they most likely would make me walk the halls and there was a chance I could be sent home (the absolute last thing that I wanted). She recommend I take a hot shower and continue dealing with things at home and update her if anything changed. I got off the phone and started bawling to my husband that I was I really had no pain tolerance and if this was only pre-labor, kill me when real labor kicks in. Within a few minutes of hanging up the phone with the midwife, I went to the bathroom and noticed that I lost my mucous plug. I started to think at that point, that maybe there was a chance this was more than pre-labor, but still thought I had a *LONG* way to go. After that, I hopped in the shower about 3:15am and that did help me manage the continued contractions. I stayed in there about 30 minutes (until our hot water ran out). After the shower, I felt a lot better, so I tried to get back into bed. The contractions started spacing out to about 6-7 minutes apart, so I then thought my midwife was right - this truly was just pre-labor. I got into bed about 4am and for the first time all evening, I was able to dose in between contractions. I still had to get on my hands and knees when a contraction came, but then was really able to relax in between them.

[heidi0622]

After 3 or 4 of those contractions, at about 4:20 or so, I felt this tremendous pressure and told DH I thought my water was going to break (but still in the back of my mind, did not believe this was going to happen so quickly). I went into the bathroom, sat on the toilet and within 5 second, my water came gushing out and I felt this tremendous urge to push. I just thought I had to do a #2 and did not realize I was actually starting to push.

Finally, it hit me that maybe I was trying to push - I was in denial though that I had actually gotten that far. I yelled to Mike that we had our answer and had to head to the hospital. I called the midwife back at 4:30 and she said, Ok- head on over and she would meet us there. Mike hopped in the shower (everyone had told us that once your water broke – you still had time to mosey on over to hospital). I quickly realized that the urges to push were coming every 5 minutes and told Mike we had to start moving FAST. We were on our way by 4:45am – that had to be one of the hardest car rides of my life. Every 3-4 minutes, I would get this tremendous urge to push, so I was blowing out with all of my might to fight it. In a temporary moment of insanity, I told Mike he could park the car and I would walk into the emergency room, so we parked (it was maybe a 200 yard walk to the ER)…I got about halfway there and told him he had to run and get me a wheelchair. Looking back, I realize it was one of those stereotypical movie moments – we get into the ER and I am panicking at this point telling the ER attendants I am ready to push this baby out. They were laughing a little bit and asking if it was my first baby – I don’t think they believed me at that point, but they did get an attendant there fast that rushed me to L&D. We get to L&D, they put me in a room and at this point – the nurse is very calm and tells me to go into the bathroom and get changed into my gown. I get into the bathroom and get another urge to push and tell I can’t even get my gown on, she then decides that she better check me. I get up on the table and within 2 seconds, she looks and realizes the head is RIGHT there. That changed the mood very quickly – within seconds 4 or 5 nurses are in the room trying to get me to breathe to fight the urge to push. They tell me my midwife is still 20 minutes away from the hospital. I panicked at this point and said I couldn’t hold it anymore. They quickly decided to bring the OB on call into the room. I then had to fight to hold in one more push and the OB finally arrived. After he arrived, I was FINALLY given the green light. It took 3 pushes to get little Ben out – 1 push he crowned, 2nd push the head came out and 3rd push he was here. Because he did come out so fast, I ended up with a second degree tear. As many of you have heard – we got into labor and delivery at 5:07am and he was born at 5:23am. Mike and I truly had no idea how close we were to actually having to deliver this baby ourselves!

They put him on my belly for a few seconds, but then had to take him because he had a little meconium in his mouth. He was absolutely beautiful and perfect in every way. Mike and I just looked at each other absolutely stunned at how incredibly fast everything had happened. I thought I would be one to bawl once I laid eyes on my son, but truthfully, I think I was completely in shock at how fast everything happened. I thought I was still only in pre-labor at 3am, did not accept that I would actually have this baby that day until my water broke and even at that time, I thought we’d be at the hospital for quite a while before he made his appearance. My midwife got there about 15 minutes and we shared a good laugh. Everyone has warned how fast I need to get to the hospital the next time I have a baby.

The nurses suctioned him, checked him out and then gave us a chance to nurse. That boy latched on like a champ the first time…it really was a wonderful feeling. Mike and I then had about 2 hours in the delivery room by ourselves with Ben before moving to the postpartum area. He really was alert for his first 5 hours or so of life…I was able to get in 3 nursing sessions during that time.

I am very proud of myself for achieving a natural childbirth. I went into it with an open mind – I wanted to try and do things naturally, but I wasn’t going to beat myself up if I needed drugs. Everyone keeps commenting on how high my pain tolerance is and I don’t know if that I was it…truthfully, I just consider myself fortunate – he was in the right position and I was born with wide hips (those were finally good for something J). Also, I did spend a lot of time during the pregnancy on the birthing ball – rolling my hips, doing squats, etc…maybe that did really help?!

[shaqangel]

here's mine....i truly enjoyed my experience. x-post from my journal.

Javan's Birth Story
Early Labour
It all began on Sunday, 4 June 2006 at about 8am. Contractions were about 6-10mins apart and definitely felt different. Since they were not consistent at all we went about our day as normal, but I knew this was early labour for sure. We went to church and then got home and ate lunch. I finished up some freelance work I had to do and we got misc. things taken care off. J and I went over our birth plan. About 5pm I could tell that the contractions were getting a little stronger but I was still able to talk through everything. Mum and decided to go for a walk.

Active Labour
Active Labour started around 6pm. The contractions were getting a little more painful but still between 6-8mins apart. Mum and I went walking for an hour to help bring the contractions closer together. When we got home, they were now 5-7mins apart. I just kept moving around and used the exercise ball to help keep me moving. I bounced on that ball during contractions and it definitely eased the pain. Eleanor came by around 8:30pm and everyone kept talking and doing stuff to help distract me but we kept timing the contractions as well. Around 10pm I knew for sure this was it since the pain was more intense and the contractions were lasting a wee bit longer. Mum and J were too excited! I was kinda nervous but still excited! It was getting closer to when we could meet our little surprise! We finished packing for the hospital, took our showers ( i had 3 really big contractions while in the shower and those were pretty painful), got a quick bite to eat, packed the car, and then called the docter at 11:30pm. Dr. R. (who was on-call) called us back and said its okay to head to the hospital and she would call in and let them know to expect us. We got to the hospital at 12:30am (now the 5th). I can honestly say that even though the contractions were much closer and stronger i still couldnt believe i was in labour - i definitely was in denial at this point!

At the Hospital
Jaime (my first nurse) checked me in and got me hooked up to the monitors that checked the baby's heart rate and my contractions. she was quite excited to find out that baby was a surprise! Baby's heart rate was doing great (150's) and my vitals were good. When she checked me, I was already 5cm dilated, but still 70% effaced! YAY! I lay on the bed for a while and tried to sleep between contractions which were now between 3-5mins apart. Mum and J tried to rest as well. This was from about 1am-5am. At 5am I decided to go to the Serenity Room (has a whirlpool with warm water that you can labour in). This was heavenly! I could feel the contractions but the warm water really masked the pain. Dr. C (my doctor) checked in on me - i just love him! He comes in and says 'hey princess. how are u doing?' He joked that he really scared me into labour! He said if didnt deliver the baby by the end of the week-end he wanted to induce me (something I did not want at all). I stayed in the water til about 7am and then got out as Jaime needed to check me again for progress.

I started to get really nauseaus at this point and threw up during contractions. At about 7:30am my new nurse, Wendy, came in to check up on me. Bekah, an intern, was with her to learn so she helped me too. At 7:30am I was 7cm dilated and about 80% effaced. Since I was dehydrated Wendy decided to start the IV and give me sugar water. I walked for quite awhile around the hallway, stopping in between contractions to rest. Wendy was awesome and showed me how to ease the pain (sounds crazy but it worked!). I had to lean up against the railings and stand with my feet wide apart and sway my hips from side to side. That was pretty painful actually so I just rocked back n forth.

At 9am, Dr. C came in to check up on me. While he was doing an internal (which btw was so darn painful and i had even more bloody show after the internals), he broke my water. All this warm water gushed out of me and that was the weirdest feeling ever. I felt like i was peeing on myself BIG time! At that point I was between 7-8cm dilated and 80% effaced. He decided to add a little bit of pitocin to help speed up the process since he didnt want me in labour ALL day. I instantly felt the pitocin since it brought the contractions about 2-3mins apart and lasting 60-90sec. It was the most intense pain I had felt in such a split second. Wendy suggested I use the shower - this helped tremendously as whenever a contraction hit, Jermaine would point the shower head right at it and i would focus on the burning hot water instead of the pain. The shower was working well for me, but Wendy was unable to pick up baby's heart rate. At this point she wanted to use the internal fetal monitoring stick, but we didnt want that. But, I didnt want to get out of the shower so I was willing to get anything done, but J knew my desires and we had discussed all this so he kept asking Wendy to check the monitors again and re=position them on me. No matter what she tried she couldnt pick up baby's heart rate. At this point I really wanted something to help ease the pain, but Wendy reminded me that if I did get those drugs then I would not be able to have the baby with me for 4hrs. I had come so far, that I decided to stick it out without the meds. So after MUCH resisting, I got out the shower and onto the bed. I had to lay on my left side, which made the contractions MUCH more painful. When she finally found the heart rate, it was easy to tell that our baby was in distress....heart rate had dropped to 80's so I had to go on oxygen which was NOT fun. Every time a contraction hit I would get so sweaty and that oxygen mask totally aggravated me. Several times I threw it off and J had to hold it on for me cos i couldnt stand it. Every time a contraction with hit - I wanted to scream so bad and several times i did. J and Wendy had to remind me that I needed to slow down my breathing and stay really calm. It really helped when they would watch the monitor and tell me how long into the contraction I was and when it would peak and then when it would subside....that was SO SO SO helpful cos I could concentrate on that and know when the worst was over. When Wendy checked me I was at 9cm so I had transitioned while in the shower, but I had still not fully effaced. During the next few contractions, she decided to helpe me out with the effacing and stretched me while the contractions hit. OMG - talk about freaking pain, that was so uncomfortable. For the next hour or so, I actually dozed off in between contractions cos I was so tired.

[shaqangel]

cont....
Around 11:45am Wendy checked me again and I was at 10com and 100% dilated. I was so exhausted at this point that I kept falling asleep only to be woken by the piercing pain. Wendy got me to do a few practice pushes. Dr. C came in around 11:55am and checked me. I was surprised by the amt of people that came into the room - gosh there were so many nurses and everyone was all excited but I was so out of to know what was happened. I knew it was time to meet our baby! I honestly had no energy to push our baby out but Dr. Child's and Wendy were awesome and really helped me through this. Bekah (the intern) and J helped me by counting and I had a mirror to watch, but I was so focused on the pushing that I kept closing my eyes and everyone kept saying 'look at all that hair!'. Eventually Dr. C asked me to open my eyes and to look - that really helped motivate me. But since i was so exhausted I just kept asking 'how much longer?' and then at one point I jsut said ' I cant do this' and thats when Dr. C grabbed my hands and said 'look at me...you can do this, i believe in you. look right into my eyes and push, dont close your eyes, just look at me and give me all you've got cos i know you can do this.' How can I argue with that!

After that pep talk from my doc i just pushed and i remember letting out a scream and the nurses and Dr. C were like 'thats it! dont hold back!' I was holding back from making the slightest peep cos I thought that was 'wrong' and then I didnt know if i was pushing 'correctly'! Every time I pushed Wendy and Dr. C would massage me and add TONS af mineral oil. Baby really had LOTS of hair! When i finally saw baby crown, it was so amzing to know that i was almost there. Once the head came out, Dr. C guided me and told me exactly what to do. Everyone was so eager to see if baby was a girl or boy!

After 30 mins of pushing our baby came out....Dr. C flipped baby over and said 'This one has outdoor plumbing...it's a boy!' WOW!!!! He layed baby right on my chest. He did a little squeal and then when they cleared out his mouth he cried! that was so awesome to hear!!! I think my first words to him were 'hi' and 'OMG you're mine!' I was in such disbelief! J got to cut his cord while I was holding him. Mum came in at this time and we both cried. Since I had no energy, I handed him to Mum and she took him to the nurses. SHe got to watch him get cleaned up and since he was so quiet I kept asking if he was okay and she had so assure me he was fine....he was just looking around! When they weighed him, everyone was shocked, even my doc! I couldnt believe he was that big!

While he was getting cleaned up, I had to deliver the placenta which definitely was very painful. I screamed cos Wendy was pushing on my belly and then Dr. C was pulling the placenta out and I could feel everything. Doc gave me some anaestethic and then stitched me - I got just 2 superficial stitches so not too bad. At this point everything was so surreal and it was pretty hard to believe that after all the anticipation and excitment leading up to that very moment....our little one had arrived! I just couldnt believe it!

So, after 18.5hrs of an active, med-free labour Javan Christopher entered the world at 12:28pm weighing 3.65kg / 8.1lbs and was 53cm / 21 inches long with a head full of jet black hair - tons of it too! He shocked everyone by his weight!

During the whole pregnancy I worked hard to not focus on the actual delivery. The baby had to come out so there was no need to get all worked up about it!!!

I knew I wanted a natural birth and J and I talked about our birth plan and he knew exactly what to say and when to say it! When I didnt think I could do J, Mum, Wendy, Bekah and Dr. C let me know they believed in me and that I COULD do it! It was a great experience and I am thankful to God for blessing me with both a healthy pregnancy and safe delivery, but most of all for blessing our family with such a beautiful baby to love and cherish.

BTW- Javan was born on the 3yr anniversary of our engagement and the 1yr anniversary of my grandfather's passing away. so it was a very emotional day for my family.

[Mrs. M.]

The due date of Monday Aug 14 had come and gone. I had gone to my check-up to find out that baby was at -4 station and I was fingertip dilated - I knew that did not mean much.

On Thursday Aug 17, I went for another check. No changes. The midwife gave me a recipe for some tea that could speed things up a bit. So I went shopping for the ingredients. Then I attended a baby-group meeting. Went home for lunch. Picked up DD from preschool at 2 and went to playgroup with her. I was carrying a bottle of the special tea and sipping it throughout the day. After playgroup, I met DH to have him take DD home and I went to pregnancy yoga class. The teacher did not let me pay for the class, it was her gift to me for being overdue!

I got home at 8, and was pleased that DH had already put DD to sleep. Did some chores and went to bed around 9:30. DH went right to sleep. I thought I would try some nipple stimulation, but it felt so weird that I stopped after about 2 minutes.

10:00 - I started feeling some pain. I thought the baby was causing the pain, so I got up to move around and make it change position. The pain did not get better, but started coming and going. I started timing it, and it was about 5-7 minutes between spurts of pain.

10:30 - I woke DH up, and told him to go take a shower and get ready. I re-checked the contents of my hospital bag and got dressed. When DH was done, the contractions were at about 5 minutes, so I called my friend G, who would be watching DD. DH took DD and we went downstairs to grab 2 cabs - DH to go to G's, and me to go to the hospital.

Contractions are at about 3-4 minutes in the cab. I get to the hospital and proceed to L&D. As I stroll in with my rolling boardcase, the midwife looks at me and says "You don't look like you're in hard labor!"

I get hooked up to a CTG monitor and the midwife leaves the room. DH arrives. I can't bear to lay down on the bed, so I sit up and rock back and forth. The CTG is showing contractions at 2-3 minutes. My water breaks! The midwife comes back and does an internal - 3 cms dilated. She sends me to get checked into my room and suggests I have a hot shower to relax and help with the pain. I get my stuff to my room and get into the shower.

11:30 - After about a minute in the shower I think "forget this!". Contractions are about every minute or two, and I get my hospital gown on and walk back to L&D. Meanwhile, they had the bathtub ready as I requested, and DH put my music in the CD player. I have to pace around the room, it's the only way to deal with the intense contractions. I keep telling DH and the midwife "this is going so fast!" Finally, I get into the water, but after 2 or 3 contractions, I have to vomit. The midwife tells me I must get out, she has to check me because vomiting usually indicates full dilation. I pace around some more before she orders me onto the bed "you don't want the baby to hit it's head on the tile, right?" She checks me and puts the CTG back on. I am fully dilated, but hating the bed. Laying back goes against all my instincts. She offers to bring the birthing chair. I pace around a bit more, then sit on the chair with DH behind my back supporting me. I have to scream a bit while I am pushing.

1:05 Aug 18 - After only 2 or 3 pushes, the baby is out!

I am first to see that she is a girl. DH cuts the cord, and I am helped onto the bed. Baby gets put on my belly, and latches on right away. She gets covered with towels, and nurses while I deliver the placenta and get stitched up (minor tear). DH and I look at our lovely daughter and make the final decision on what to name her.

[Amie]

Here is a link to my birth story - with photos!

http://amie-austin.livejournal.com/497031.html#cutid1

[jimmysgirl424]

Bump! :)

[Ericka_Jarett]

Sept 5, 2006 - 35w 6d - Easton's birthday!

9:45 am - Went to Dr Agar's office for my weekly appt. I was scheduled for the GBS test and also to have my pessary removed. We got there a little late but no biggie. Got weighed was up 3 lbs from last week, but still not a huge deal. A student OB came in and asked the normal questions and than measured me and listened to the heartbeat. Dr Agar came in and she is happy we made it this far and she listened to the heartbeat and also measured me, did the GBS and than removed the pessary. Asked me what we would like to hear and honestly I said 1-2 cm, since the shower is on Saturday. She checked and said well you are 3-4 cm so I am sending you to the hospital.

10:50am - Got to the hospital (we had the carseat and also the hospital bag in the car already) and was admitted right away and got my labor room, I was in there for a while, and than Dr Lamborne (she delivered Rebekah's placenta) came in and checked me, found me to be 4-5cm at that time (about 1-2 hours after seeing Agar.) She said that she could induce me to get things moving. Jarett and I talked it over and decided to go for it, so we had less chance of an infection starting. She said that she was going to start pitocin and than break my bag of water after my contractions got more regular.

Around 2:00 pm - The pitocin was started and they called for my epidural (having gone natural before I wasn't doing it again, I made a good choice for me) Called my mom to tell her the baby was going to be born today. She said she would come down when I told her my next update.

4:00pm - Lambourne came in and broke my water, it was clear so that was good news. My pitocin was increased more and I was really feeling lots of pressure.

6:00pm - Lambourne came in and checked me said I was completely dilated and could push, so did that a few times, just to be told there seemed to be a little lip that wasn't felt before. I sat up more in bed and we waited for the head to descend a bit more. I was having quite significant pressure at this time. Also had the lovely BM on the table happen. (oh well, not much you can do about that,especially when you have so much pressure happening down there, plus didn't really know until the nurse mentioned it since I was numb from the epidural)

6:30pm - had Jarett call the nurse cause the pressure was so intense, I was ready to leave the bed, I needed to push so bad as the contractions were right on top of each other.

6:40pm or so - Lambourne came in and she checked me and said there was a lot of change, I was at +3 station and completely ready. I started pushing and usually got 4 pushes in before the contractions stopped. I was just getting as frustrated as I could so that I could get him out fast. I pushed with all my might, I was getting tired but was determined to get him out. My epidural was turned off at this point. Jarett was trying to keep me calm and cool by wiping my head, face and neck with a cold wet washcloth, since I felt like I was burning up from the pushing.

7:29 p.m. - Easton Robert entered the world. As soon as he was out, I was a ball of tears and then she let Jarett cut the cord and he was laid on my stomach, he started to cry once they started to rub him a bit. Was the most beautiful sound in the world at that moment. The SCU (Special Care Nursery) nurses took him to be warmed as the Dr worked on getting the placenta out and than stitching me, which was quite a tear from what I am told. They brought Easton over, told me about his APGARs which was 8 & 9. He weighs 5 lbs 6 oz, 19" long and just perfect. He is doing great and should be out of SCU in no time.

Sometime after the nurse showed Jarett what room I was being moved to so that he could take our bag and such over there. The nurse was waiting for my epidural to wear off some more before she put me in the wheelchair. She helped me onto the bedpan before leaving that room and I could feel some of the stinging, since I had some light abrasions on the outside but also the tear. The nurse said she hoped Jarett didn't get lost or stay in the room since she mentioned we were heading to SCU. I said he was probably there already. She helped me in the wheelchair and we headed to the SCU, sure enough there he was. The nurse was talking to him about different things and so she repeated them to me, as she was talking they took Easton from his bed and handed him to me. I touched his hand and he grabbed my finger, he is so cute. Jarett stayed a few more mins for some pics and than he headed to get food and for home to get our computers and to upload pics for all to see our little bundle of joy. I was hoping to get my IV out before we headed to the SCU again, but I was a bit too clotty for the nurses comfort level (my uterus was hard though, which she wanted to make sure of) so it stayed in until the next bathroom break, which after she took the IV out since my uterus was already hard and down to my belly button.

8:00 pm - started calling several friends to let them know the baby was here. Called my mom and left a message, called her friend's (Grace) house and got her there. She sounded happy and told me that she and her friend, Grace would be coming down tomorrow. Told her will be in the hospital until at least Thursday is my guess. My friend Jessica was so thrilled to be one of the first to know and was so excited. When I first got admitted and found out today was the day, I called and let her know, only to get her voicemail, she called, left me a message that she didn't hear my message but was going to listen to it when she hung up. And than she called back and left a message that she was so excited, I called her back and we talked for a bit, her hubby asking for the stats as we were talking.

10:00 pm - Called the woman hosting my shower and let her know that the baby was here and all the stats (she is due in November with #3) she was telling her husband the info and than asked about what I wanted to do about the shower, to see how I would feel about it. So when I told her that I was still planning on being there, but Easton wouldn't she said that was great and totally understood about not wanting him there since he would only be 4 days old and since we are getting into RSV season we didn't want to risk anything. He may still be in the SCU even come Saturday, if she Jarett will go with me to the shower and he can hang with the other woman's hubby for a while and than we will hit the hospital. I said I would have lots of baby pics with me so everyone could see him, since I will mostly just eat, open presents, chat a bit and than probably be ready to see my baby boy for a good while. They wanted me to come later than most people so that I didn't have to worry about greeting everyone individually, plus with my tear I am sure I will be sitting most of the time and not leaning over to hug people and such.

11:30 pm - On Jarett's way back he stopped to grab me something to eat, so I wouldn't be stuck with just a sandwich. He got a little lost getting back to my room, I was just calling him to see if he was heading back when he walked in the door. I ate my dinner and than the nurse came in to explain the breast pump to me, so that we can hopefully get some milk moving. I also watched my breast-feeding DVD that I rented.

1:30 am - We then headed to the SCU to see Easton. You have to call before just heading over. This is for in case one of the babies is getting helped, you won't be disturbing the nurses with getting entry (they have to swipe their cards to let people in and out.) The nurse I had until 11 told me that if I called and was told I couldn't come to just know that it wasn't a problem with my baby, if it was they would have called me immediately. (That was good to hear, cause I may have freaked otherwise) We stayed about 30 mins with Easton. He was asleep when we got in there. Jarett sat on one side and I was on the other, we just talked to him and touched his arm and leg. They had tried feeding him from a bottle his preemie formula, but apparently it was making him gag a little. He spit-up a little so the nurse came and took the blanket from under his head. Than poor baby got the sneezes and must have sneezed about 10 times, after that he got mad and screamed until he went red. He calmed down after a few mins of us talking to him though. While we were in there the nurse asked about how to spell his name. A few mins later she came over with a little sign she made for his bed of his name on die-cut stars, she taped it to his bed. We thought that was a sweet touch. We headed out for the night so we could get to bed and also try out the breast-pump.

2:30 am - used the breast-pump for about 15-20 mins and than called it a night, there were a few drops starting but the nurse had told us probably nothing would flow just yet. We finally turned in for the night after that experiment.

[Kimmer]

Bump

[Rancid13]

Tyler's Birth Story

Dec 1
We were instructed to call our hospital at 5am Friday morning, 2 hours prior to the time we were to check in. We were told that there were no beds available on the L&D floor because they had a lot of women in active labor and scheduled inductions had been pushed lower on the list of priority. We were told to call again at 8am, which we did, and again at 10 and still there were no beds. Finally we were told to come in at 12noon and there would probably be a room available. We got all our stuff packed into the car and headed over. We temporarily parked in front, in the event that there wasn’t a room available that we wouldn’t have to search for a parking spot and trek across to the hospital. They did happen to have a room available and admitted me right away. The nurse took me right to the room so I could put on my gown and get all settled in. DH went to the car to get all our bags and get parked. One of the toughest parts of the entire L&D process for me was getting the IV administered. I don’t do well with needles and this one hurt like a mother. I was bawling like a baby, the only time during L&D that I cried other than just before I was given my epidural.

2PM So I got all hooked up to the machines and get my Pitocin drip started. It was just me and DH for a few hours, then my mom showed up and occasionally friends would drop by and we’d all chat. The nurse upped my Pitocin every hour or so to get some contractions going at a nice slow pace. I started getting contractions fairly regularly by about 9pm, but I couldn’t feel a thing and wouldn’t have known I was having them if it weren’t for the monitor. My mom was in charge of timing the contractions and we spent the evening watching tv and chatting. My SIL, best girlfriend, and DH were also there in the room and a coworker of mine stopped in for a good while to visit. I dozed off every now and then, but woke up in the wee hours of the morning with a killer backache. The Pitocin drip had been upped to the mid-20’s and I called in the nurse to talk about pain medication.

Dec 2
4AM She talked me into using the birthing ball for a couple hours to see if that helped at all, as I was still only 1 cm dilated. 1.5 hours later my backaches were getting so bad that I begged for medication and was put back in bed and given a narcotic through my IV that took the edge off the pain. I was even able to nap a little bit, which was a welcome rest.

7:30AM When I woke up the medication had worn off so I asked for some more. The nurse gave it to me and also had an ob come in to check my progress, still only 1 cm dilated. He broke my water which was quite uncomfortable b/c my cervix was still so high up and we were hoping this would get things moving. I did vomit a few times with some of the larger contractions and begged for more medication. I was checked for progression (it had been a couple hours since my water was broken) and it turns out I was 3-4 cm dilated and could get an epidural if I wanted one.

10:45AM I immediately asked for one and the anesthesiologist came in and got me all set up. I had a gigantic contraction as she was trying to get the needle in place, and it lasted for over 3 minutes before finally letting up. The pain was so intense that I cried. I never felt the epi needle go in, I’d been expecting to feel at least some discomfort but there never was any. Immediately I could feel the effects of the epi and could no longer feel my contractions, which were starting in my lower back and coming around to my front.

I was feeling so good that I decided to take the opportunity to have a nap as I hadn’t gotten more than an hour’s sleep the night before. The nurse suggested to rest up as it would likely be 6-7 hours until I’d even reach full dilation, so my mom went home to shower and get some rest and DH did the same so I could nap for a few hours on my own.

2PM The nurse came in to do another internal and get the baby hooked up to an internal monitor.

3PM I was still only 4 cm dilated, so she upped the Pitocin to the maximum dosage and we tried to get my contractions closer together.

5PM I’d only dilated another cm and the nurse got my ob on the phone to talk to me b/c things were not progressing as quickly as they should have been. I agreed to give it another couple of hours to see if we could get any more progression, then we would start to talk about a c/s at that point in order to avoid potential fetal distress.

7PM Another internal showed I was now 5.5cm dilated and physically and mentally I was exhausted/fatigued. I knew there was no way I’d be able to make it another 4-5cm of dilation AND get to the pushing stage. I told the nurse that it looked like I was going to need the c/s.

They got the OR all set up and got the c/s paperwork for me to sign and got me all prepped and onto a gurney to make the trip up the hall. During this time the nurse had shut down the Pitocin drip, so that in her words “my uterus wouldn’t explode”. Sadly I watched the monitor go from rather sizeable contractions ~2 minutes apart to hardly any discernable contractions.

They took me into the OR while hubby went to the recovery room to get a sterile gown and whatnot to put on over his clothes. They got me onto the table and were commenting on how high the baby still was in my belly, and asked me if I was sure I had been ~5-6cm dilated. They got me all prepped for surgery and hubby came in to hold my hand. I was so fatigued and scared that I was shaking all over, and not from being cold. I also vomited right before the anesthesiologist got me all nice and numb again. Everything happened so quickly and before I knew it, I heard the surgeon say “Ok, we’ve found the uterus, now we’re going to go in there and get Tyler out!” then shortly after, “Oh my, look at all that hair! This guy has a full head of hair!” and DH saying “OMG, hon he’s SO CUTE” and I could hear them taking him over to get cleaned off and DH got to cut the cord. They announced his time of birth as being 8:29pm, he was 7 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches long. They brought him over to me while I was still being stitched up and laid him on my shoulder so I could give him a kiss.

They wheeled me over to the recovery room and I was still shaking so hard that the nurses piled blankets over me. Everyone (family/friends) was out in the waiting room and were all dying to see baby Tyler and me, but I was so out of it and exhausted/fatigued that I asked not to see anyone. I told DH that if anyone wanted to see the baby they could, but to please pull the curtain around me b/c I had zero interest in seeing anyone other than DH and the baby, I wanted to sleep so badly.

After an hour in the recovery room I got wheeled up to my postpartum recovery room and situated in bed so I could attempt some rest. It felt great to get some sleep and by Sunday morning I felt like a new person. I told DH that if anyone wanted to stop by to visit, they were more than welcome, that’s how good I was feeling (many thanks to the morphine and other pain meds I was given every time I started feeling an inkling of pain).

And here's my little man:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/rancid13/Tyler224.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/rancid13/Tyler444.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/rancid13/Tyler427.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/rancid13/Tyler452.jpg

[shouldaeloped]

OMG Rancid- he is to die for! I can't believe how cute he is! congratulations and thanks for sharing your story!

[jimmysgirl424]

Rancid He's beautiful!! :D :D Congratulations!!

[Rancid13]

Thanks, shouldaeloped and jimmysgirl!:D :D

[PinkMartini]

10/18/06

J took the day off of work because at my dr's appt the day before, Dr. Anderson said I'd be having Jacob pretty much within 24 hours. I had been having contractions the past week and a half, for about 3-4 hours straight during the early evenings and then they'd just stop. At my dr's appt I was 4cm's dialated and 80% effaced. She stretched me a little bit and sent me home with instructions to head to the hospital if my water broke or if I started having contractions again.

Woke up at my normal time, around 10am. (Hey, I had to get that extra sleep while I could) Spent the morning hanging around the house, started getting contractions around early morning, but they weren't regular or painful. J and I took a walk around 12pm to hopefully speed things up and get the contractions coming regularily. Got home and was super hungry. Had J go to McDonalds for me, as the contractions started coming more regularily and the pain started, so I knew we were heading to the hospital sometime soon. Ate 2 cheeseburgers; fries and a coke (which turned out to be my last meal before Jacob's birth). At this point, I went and took a shower, to see if that helped the pain, and because I wanted to be cleaned up before heading to the hospital. When I got out of the shower, the contractions were pretty regular (5-10 min's apart) and I was having HORRIBLE back pain. Looked up back labor online and read that because Jacob was in the wrong position (facing upwards instead of sideways) that I would experience it and that I was more than likely in labor.

My mom ran around and finished packing our hospital bag; made sure the dogs had a full bowl of food/water and we headed to the hospital. Took a picture on the way out the door of my belly:

(40 weeks 1 day pregnant)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/PinkMartini/Summer216.jpg

We arrived at the hospital at 2:30pm. J, my mom and I walked up to the nurse's station in the maternity ward and I told them that I was instructed by my dr that when I started having regular contractions to come in and that I was having HORRIBLE back pain. The nurse took us to a monitoring room and I got into a gown and she hooked me up to the contraction/heartbeat monitor to see what was going on. She said she had to monitor me for 20 min's and then she'd call my dr and let her know what's going on and see what she wanted to do. She also checked me and said I was 5cms! 1 cm more than the day before. Thank goodness those contractions I had been having were doing something... Well the nurse left the room and 45 min's went by with me having pretty regular contractions (and pain) when she came back in and said my dr. said I was doing great and she was admitting me! Yay! No more waiting!

The nurse also commented on how amazing it was that I was up and walking around at 5 cm's. She said she's never seen that before.....

I got unhooked from the monitors and we headed to our room. We were in room 223 and that's where we'd stay the entire time (labor & recovery all in 1 room at this hospital). I got hooked back up to the monitors and my mom and J went outside to call friends/family (cell phone didn't work in the hospital) to let them know I was admitted and Jacob would be here soon.

We hung around the room for awhile (J went out and got Taco Bell for him and my mom - I couldn't eat anything for fear of a C-Section due to my high fluid levels - my dr. was scared of a prolapsed cord when she broke my water) watching tv while my contractions started getting stronger. My dr. showed up after her office closed - sometime after 6pm. Asked me what I wanted to do about pain medication, I told her I still wanted an epidural, and checked me and I was 7cms! She was leaving to go get some dinner and rest a bit but said I'd have this baby sometime before the next morning.

The nurse put a request in to the anesthesiologist to get my epidural and we hung around a bit more. I was trying to get some rest, but the contractions hurt too much. Finally, at 7cm's, around 9pm, the anesthesiologist got there and I got my epidural. At this point, my pain was pretty bad, my back hurt the most though. Worst back pain I'd ever felt... He was my hero The epidural didn't hurt, like I thought it would. I mean, a needle that long going into your back should hurt, right? I guess my back pain was too much to feel the needle. I did get the weirdest sensation though, when he was 'threading' the catheder into my back, he hit a nerve and my left leg got the pins n needles feeling... It jerked my WHOLE BODY. Didn't hurt, but felt weird.

WooHoo! Within 10 min's my whole lower half was numb. I had to get a foley catheder (which sucks because I guess my urethra ripped and has caused me pain since I had Jacob) and had to be constantly monitored with the blood pressure cuff. That thing was almost as annoying as my contractions. I finally got some rest, dozing on & off while J and my mom watched tv.

10/19/06

Around 12am I started feeling horrible back pain again. Only on my left side though. My mom went and got the nurse and she came in and checked me again and said that I was 9cm's and that the pain was probably from him dropping lower and him being in the wrong position. The anesthesiologist had warned me that towards the end of labor I might start feeling pain because Jacob was 'upside down.' Great. This was the beginning of the most pain I've ever felt thus far.

Dealt with the contraction pain until I hit 10cm's and was ready to push, around 1:30am. My dr came in again, checked me and told me how to push, then went to the 'sleeping room' and took a nap until she was needed. The epidural was pretty much useless at this point, and I started pushing. With my first push, I started feeling nauseated. I started pushing, and by the time I was to 8 or 9, I started gagging. Had the nurse bring over a basin to throw up in (just in case) and kept on pushing. J had one leg, my mom had the other (I couldn't feel my legs still) and I pushed for a long time... Every contraction I was instructed to push. At this point, I couldn't even tell when a contraction was coming, I was in constant pain. So the nurse coached me on when to push. Some time during the pushing, I started throwing up. Thankfully I hadn't eaten but 12 hours earlier so it was all just bile. Finished throwing up and kept on pushing... My dr came in at some point and got all ready to 'catch' Jacob.

Jacob's head came out first (obviously) and then his shoulders (at which point I got the loudest I'd gotten all day/night; damn did they hurt) and the rest of his body slipped right out. My dr. suctioned his mouth/nose and he started screaming. She cut his umbilical cord and layed him on my tummy. He was born on 10/19 at 3:44am and was 8lbs 12oz and 22 1/2 in long.

My dr gave me as long as I wanted with him on my tummy before they took him to be weighed/measured/cleaned up/ect. He was laying on my tummy for about 5 min's before they took him. I was absolutely estatic. I couldn't believe what I had just done. J was right next to me the entire time and when Jacob was layed on my tummy he had tears in his eyes.

I layed there while my dr. delieverd the placenta and stiched me up. I tore in a few places and got 6 stitches. J stayed right next to Jacob while he was getting taken care of. I got a bagel to eat after I was done being stiched up and got to hold Jacob. After an hour of bonding time and breastfeeding (he latched on like a pro within 30 min's after his birth) the nurse came and took Jacob to the nursery for his first bath.

Jacob was brought back in to us all nice and clean and J and my mom got to hold him, while the nurse helped me to the bathroom and showed me how to take care of myself. I cleaned up as best as I could and then went to lay down. J left to take my mom back to our house (4 miles from the hospital) and then came back and layed down on the fold out chair and we rested a little bit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/PinkMartini/Jacob1001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/PinkMartini/Summer238.jpg

[jimmysgirl424]

PinkMartini Jacob is absolutely adorable! Thanks for sharing your story and congratulations!! :D

[MichelleRenee]

I finally wrote the full version of my birth story....


Wednesday, October 25: evening

After work I decided DH and I should walk around Target until I couldn’t walk anymore. I desperately wanted to go into labor and was afraid to try more aggressive means, so this was what we decided to do. We walked around Target sharing a decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte. I was pretty uncomfortable but anxious to meet my baby.

After a couple hours we went home to eat dinner. Mike made stuffed shells with extra basil and oregano, as he had heard foods like that can help jumpstart labor. I ate and went to bed. I hadn’t slept well for awhile and was hoping for a full night’s rest.

Thursday, October 26: 1 am

After sleeping a couple of hours I woke up because of mild menstrual like cramps. I knew they could be a sign labor was starting so then I couldn’t sleep. I came to CC to read as much as I could about signs of labor.

I slept a little here and there that night. I wasn’t in a lot of pain, but was slightly uncomfortable. Around 5 am I noticed light brown spotting. I was also leaking *something* but I was pretty sure it was urine. After all, I did have a full term baby resting on my bladder 24/7!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/AngelyWangely/Tristan%20Michael/DSC00628.jpg
(right before I left for work)

I got dressed and headed to work. I called my sister and told her about the spotting and leaking. She said I should call my doctor, so I did. Instead of going to work they told me to go to the Family Birthing Center to be checked. They thought I might be leaking amniotic fluid. So I called DH and asked him to meet me at the FBC.

When we got there I was sent to one of the LDPR suites… you labor, deliver and recover all in the same room there. I was surprised to be sent to one of those rooms already. I changed into a gown and got hooked up to all the monitors which was pretty neat. I enjoyed seeing my contractions on the chart and hearing the baby’s heartbeat. I was cramping a little more at this point and still spotting. The nurse checked the fluid I was leaking and it was urine after all. She also checked my cervix, which was dilated 2 cm. She called down to the doctor who told her to have me walk for an hour and then check me again. That first time she checked my cervix a big piece of my mucous plug came out. This grossed out my DH and me. It was a lot bloodier than I thought it would be.

I walked for an hour and the cramping got a little worse. As we walked through the FBC we saw a couple newborns and started to get really excited about meeting our little guy. After that hour I was 3 cm, but my contractions were 7 minutes apart. The nurse told me to go walk around town as much as I could, eat a light lunch and come back when the contractions were stronger and 5 minutes apart. That second time that she checked me I really think she got things going down there. I started having much more painful contractions as soon as we left the FBC. We drove to my office to let them know I was probably not going to be back until after my maternity leave. I also changed my voicemail message to let my clients know I would be out for about 6 weeks. I had been waiting to do that for what seemed like forever!! Everyone wished us luck and we were off to walk!

Then we went to DH’s work to pick up his paycheck and let them know he would probably not be in for the next couple of days. That was right by Panera so we went and got our light lunch. I had some broccoli cheddar soup and a half of a turkey sandwich and lots of water.

During all of this I was having stronger and stronger contractions about every 5-6 minutes. We walked around Hobby Lobby, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart before I decided we should go home. I was tired and we had no idea how long we would have to walk before it would be time to go back to the hospital. Plus we had both cars with us and wanted to take one home before I was admitted to the hospital. I had a couple really strong contractions on the way home and got scared, but I made it OK. We went home and got everything ready. We packed the final items in our bag and relaxed for a few minutes. I was scared and excited. We also tidied up the baby’s room so it would be *perfect* when we brought him home.

The contractions were very painful by this point and very close together so we headed back to the FBC. It was a 20 minute drive from home… not too bad, but far enough! I made the mistake of calling my mom and sister on my way there. I told them not to come up there and that I would call if I was admitted.

We got there and they checked me again. I was still 3 cm. They said they would monitor me for a few hours and call the doctor to see where we should go from there. As I laid there being monitored in walk my mom and sister! I wasn’t even admitted and I had visitors. I was kind of embarrassed, but glad for the extra company. We all chatted for about 2.5 hours and they checked me again. Still 3 cm. My contractions were averaging about 5.5 minutes apart but I wasn’t progressing. The doctor told them to send me home. I had the option of taking a shot of morphine before I went home but I said no. I was in pain but not enough pain to take any drugs that I hadn’t researched. If the baby’s health or safety were at stake I would have done it, but not just for my own comfort.

I was in quite a bit of pain at this point and very mad. I did not want to drive all the way home. What if we had to turn around and come right back? And I thought that painful contractions that were 5 minutes apart were *the sign* that you should go to the hospital. If I was already having those what was I supposed to watch for now?

We got home and I got a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and turned on the TV. Friends was on… the one where Rachel has her baby. She was mad because she was “stuck” at 3 cm too. I had to laugh at the coincidence. That was the only laughing I did that night. I dozed off after about an hour of watching TV.

(cont)

[MichelleRenee]

Friday, October 27 (my due date!): 12:00 midnight

I slept for about an hour and then suddenly woke up to the most excruciating contraction yet. I was practically on the floor in pain. It hit me SO hard and scared me. I was scared to go back to sleep because that contraction hurt so bad. DH came out and slept on the couch so I could lay in bed, watch TV and breathe through contractions without waking him up. He offered to sit up with me but I was feeling aggravated and annoyed so I told him to get some rest.

I spent the whole night dozing off for 10 minutes here and there. My contractions became irregular. 10 minutes, 13 minutes, 7 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes…. But more and more painful. I tried so hard to breathe through them. I stood on the floor bent forward over the bed for most of them and it seemed to help, but barely. I occasionally went to CC to try to distract myself but I was miserable. I remember taking my notepad and pen and throwing them across the room. What was the point in timing contraction? I knew they hurt really bad and they weren’t stopping and that was enough for me.

Around 6 am I got into a warm bath. The warm water helped quite a bit, but the hard surface of the tub and the fact that I was so huge made it hard to sit in there for long. I can see why people do water births though. When a contraction came I was able to relax by letting my legs float. I couldn’t relax at all out of the tub. But the other discomforts became too much for me, so I got out. Through all of this I talked to Tristan. I asked him to go easy on mommy and told him how excited I was to meet him. To this day when I give him a bath I will remind him of how mommy talked to him in that same tub when he was still in her belly…

Anyways, at 8 am I had had enough. The contractions were about 10 minutes apart but SO painful. I had a scheduled dr’s appointment at 10:45 but I was miserable. I called the office in tears asking if I could come in sooner. They said to come in ASAP. I woke up DH and told him we had to go. He got in the shower real quick and I sat on the bed bawling my eyes out. When DH got out of the shower he tried to calm me down. I told him we shouldn’t even bring the suitcase because they were just going to send us home again. He did a really good job of calming me down and then we left. Right when we left I started having contractions about every 4-5 minutes. We finally got to the doctor’s office and had to wait in the waiting room. A little girl who was about 5 was in there making so much noise and I was SO irritated. I made sure to breathe through my contractions extra loudly so the receptionist would get the picture that I was in pain and needed to be seen SOON.

Finally they called me back. They weighed me and asked me to pee in a cup. I told her I couldn’t pee and she said that was OK. She went to take my blood pressure and I had a bad contraction. She rubbed my back through it and it helped a lot. I asked her to teach DH how to do that. Then the doctor came in. She wasn’t my actual doctor. He wa son vacation. But I had met her before and frankly, at this point I didn’t care who pulled the kid out! She asked me why I didn’t take the morphine the night before and I told her I had an irrational fear of medications, but had I known how bad the pain would get I would have taken it! She warned me that she is more strict than most on measuring how dilated someone is and not to be discouraged if I was still at 3 cm. She said that if I hadn’t progressed she could strip my membranes. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but I was willing to try anything. She checked and membrane stripping was not necessary. I was 5 cm!! She told us to go straight to the FBC and they would be waiting for me. My doctor’s office is at the hospital, so it was just a quick trip across the parking lot. Before we left I made my 6 week PP appointment. That was so weird! I was terrified and SO excited by this point!

I was shaking as I called my mom, sister and SIL. We went to the FBC and the first words out of my mouth were “I am ready for my epidural.” I changed into my gown and waited for the anesthesiologist. My mom arrived pretty fast. I had told her beforehand that I wasn’t sure if I would want anyone in the room with me so she just told the nurse to tell me she was here and that she’d wait in the waiting room. But I wanted my mommy!! So she came in and kept me company. DH had to leave to do a few last minute things so I was so happy my mom was there.

A nurse came in to do my IV and it HURT. She couldn’t get it in right and had to poke me a few times. My hand looked pretty gross when she was done.

The anesthesiologist came in and my mom had to leave. Luckily a really nice nurse came in and sat with me. I was scared of the epidural. (I am a scaredy cat!) It wasn’t so bad though. It only took a few minutes and he was really nice. He made conversation to keep me distracted and the nurse let me squeeze her fingers.

Within moments the pain was gone. I didn’t even know I was still having contractions. It was FABULOUS. DH returned and the waiting began. He kept asking when they were going to give me Pitocin and I told him I didn’t need or want it. He just wanted the baby to be out! I had been checked in at 10 that morning and everyone was convinced I would have my baby before the day was over. That was good enough for me. He would be born on his due date!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/AngelyWangely/Tristan%20Michael/DSC00629.jpg
(right after my epidural)

After a couple hours the nurse checked me. I was 7 cm. The doctor came in to discuss a concern with me. She broke my water. She said I was bleeding more than they would like me to be and that if I didn’t progress fast enough they would have to consider a c-section. I did not want that and I prayed I would continue to progress. Labor had been pretty easy since I had gotten my epidural. My right leg was numb and I itched a little, but felt great overall!! I was also shaking pretty badly, but I think it was because I was scared and hungry.

2 hours later, at 5 pm I was checked again and was 10 cm! She told us and went to get the doctor. I said to Mike “wow! This is it!” He had no clue what I was talking about. He hadn’t been paying attention. I hoped I had a little bit of time. My sister desperately wanted to be there and was stuck in traffic. They asked if I had the urge to push and I said no. The doctor told them to start me on Pitocin. My contractions had never gotten any closer then 6 minutes apart on average so they wanted those to speed up a little. I did a few practice pushes. The doctor said she wasn’t sure if she would have to use the vacuum or not. I was scared of that (surprise!) so I promised to push harder. My sister arrived and that was the motivation I needed. We all watched King of Queens as I pushed. I pushed with all my might. It started to hurt a little. It was achy around my cervix, which wasn’t pleasant, but not horrible either. DH is a bit squeamish so he tried to stay up by my head. My mom and sister were to my left and my nurse and the baby’s nurse were to the right. I asked the baby’s nurse to make sure Tristan was placed on my belly before he was taken away to be cleaned up. (“away” was 2 feet over in the baby’s alcove)

At 6:37 I gave 4 big pushes. With the first I felt his head crowning. It burned a little but I didn’t care! I did not let him slip back between pushes. Thanks for the strength, kegels!! With the second his head was almost out. With the third it was out all the way. With the fourth I felt a little pop. His hand was up by his face and the pop was his elbow coming out. He was placed on my belly and I said “he’s here! He’s finally here!” I touched his head and I can still feel how warm and wet it felt on my hand. DH was crying, my mom and sis were hugging and I was just SO happy. I was a mom!! They took Tristan to be weighed and clean. DH even cut the cord after he said he wouldn’t! DS was crying and I told him it was OK and mommy was here.

He weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 inches long and he scored an 8 and a 9 on his Apgar’s. The doctor said him cord was a little shorter than it should be but that everything else was fine. I had two small tears, but felt great overall. I wanted a Pepsi so my mom went to get that and I finally got to hold my baby.

It was the most amazing experience of my life. If I could go back and redo anything it would be to take back all the time I spent worrying about l&d. With the epidural I was comfortable and happy and it was so much easier than I had anticipated.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/AngelyWangely/Tristan%20Michael/DSC00630.jpg
(my first time holding my baby)

[Tonysweetie]

What beautiful stories!!!

[DansGirl]

Great stories new mommies! Absolutely beautiful!

[Wrighty26]

Michelle - This has me laughing out loud...Thanks for the strength, kegels!! Thanks for the laugh :D

[jimmysgirl424]

Reminder to self: Start doing kegels today!!! :D :o

Michelle I loved reading your story. Thanks for sharing it with us!

This thread has slowly started convincing me that yes, I will make it through L&D when my time comes. Thanks for that!

[PinkMartini]

This thread has slowly started convincing me that yes, I will make it through L&D when my time comes. Thanks for that!

You will, I promise.... I'm the worlds BIGGEST baby when it comes to pain and I was SCARED TO DEATH about L&D. It did hurt more than than I imagined (sorry but it's the truth :o although my pain level could've been partly due to my DS facing up instead of down - which is supposed to make labor longer & more painful) but I got through it and 8 weeks later I can see myself doing it again....

[Wrighty26]

This thread has slowly started convincing me that yes, I will make it through L&D when my time comes. Thanks for that!

Oh, you will definitely make it through AND you will be anticipating it at the end-- instead of dreading it. Meeting your baby is SO worth it.

L&D was such an amazing experience for me. I really can't put it into words. I had my son and just knew that I had to experience it again (we were on the fence about having #2).

I hope you have a H&H 9 months :D

[babylove]

Oh, you will definitely make it through AND you will be anticipating it at the end-- instead of dreading it. Meeting your baby is SO worth it.


This is so true! I don't know whether I was just totally ignorant or if I subconsciously blocked out any thoughts of what was to come, but I don't think I ever really thought about what was going to happen during L&D(meaning, push a human being out of my vagina). Which is funny b/c that is SO NOT my personality AT ALL. But in any event, knowing that there is a baby at the end of the road is all the encouragement you need to get through it.

[Rancid13]

Oh, you will definitely make it through AND you will be anticipating it at the end-- instead of dreading it. Meeting your baby is SO worth it.


ITA! I was blubbering about being afraid of L&D in my LJ and on the Nov/Dec Mommies threads and I must say that while it was tough (I was in labor for 30 hours before having to resort to a c/s) it definitely wasn't impossible or horribly terrible. L&D to me was a lot easier than the previous 9 months had been, b/c it didn't last nearly as long and b/c I got a cute little guy out of it at the end. :)

[jimmysgirl424]

You will, I promise.... I'm the worlds BIGGEST baby when it comes to pain and I was SCARED TO DEATH about L&D. It did hurt more than than I imagined (sorry but it's the truth :o although my pain level could've been partly due to my DS facing up instead of down - which is supposed to make labor longer & more painful) but I got through it and 8 weeks later I can see myself doing it again....

Oh, you will definitely make it through AND you will be anticipating it at the end-- instead of dreading it. Meeting your baby is SO worth it.

L&D was such an amazing experience for me. I really can't put it into words. I had my son and just knew that I had to experience it again (we were on the fence about having #2).

I hope you have a H&H 9 months :D

This is so true! I don't know whether I was just totally ignorant or if I subconsciously blocked out any thoughts of what was to come, but I don't think I ever really thought about what was going to happen during L&D(meaning, push a human being out of my vagina). Which is funny b/c that is SO NOT my personality AT ALL. But in any event, knowing that there is a baby at the end of the road is all the encouragement you need to get through it.

ITA! I was blubbering about being afraid of L&D in my LJ and on the Nov/Dec Mommies threads and I must say that while it was tough (I was in labor for 30 hours before having to resort to a c/s) it definitely wasn't impossible or horribly terrible. L&D to me was a lot easier than the previous 9 months had been, b/c it didn't last nearly as long and b/c I got a cute little guy out of it at the end. :)


These were sorely needed words of encouragement from ladies who have all been there, done that. Thanks so much for making me feel better about this whole process. I won't lie, I'm scared to death. :o

[Rancid13]

These were sorely needed words of encouragement from ladies who have all been there, done that. Thanks so much for making me feel better about this whole process. I won't lie, I'm scared to death. :o

Believe me, so was I!! Even after I'd been hooked up to the IV and was being induced, I asked my mom and DH if it was too late for me to back out of the whole having-a-baby thing.:o

[jimmysgirl424]

Believe me, so was I!! Even after I'd been hooked up to the IV and was being induced, I asked my mom and DH if it was too late for me to back out of the whole having-a-baby thing.:o

:D That will almost certainly be me too! I'll probably try to get out of bed and leave the hospital if I get too panicky. Luckily, DH and sister will both be there to stop me from running away. Hmmm...wonder how fast a 9 month pregnant lady can move?? ;)

[Tonysweetie]

jimmysgirl424: I'm feeling just like you. I'm scared but looking forward to it at the same time. I was more scared a few weeks ago than I am now. Now that I'm getting to the point where some tasks are getting near to impossiable (shaving my legs, picking something off the floor etc.) I'm starting to look more forward to it b/c I know I won't have this belly anymore, lol. But at the same time the fears of not making it the hospital, or having time for an epi, or having do it all natural scare me to no end. Honestly though I think I'm more scared of recovery and having a newborn than the actual L&D part. We can do it! :)

[Rancid13]

:D That will almost certainly be me too! I'll probably try to get out of bed and leave the hospital if I get too panicky. Luckily, DH and sister will both be there to stop me from running away. Hmmm...wonder how fast a 9 month pregnant lady can move?? ;)

LOL! I remember asking DH if he thought I could sneak out of there without anyone noticing...every time I had to get out of bed to use the restroom and get unhooked from all the monitors (except for the IV, I had to take that with me), I wondered if the nurses thought maybe I was making a run for it.:o :)

[rosa727]

Just wanted to share my birth story (cross-posted from my journal):

My water broke (very unexpectedly!) on the morning of Sunday, November 26 at 7:15AM. I just never expected it to start that way. I had no contractions or discomfort, but we headed to the hospital. Once there, they saw I was still only 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. Since the baby needed to be born within about 24 hours, they strongly suggested using pitocin to get contractions to kick in. I had always heard pitocin made labor come very fast and hard, so I wanted to avoid it, but I basically had no choice. The medication was started around 9AM and by 11AM I could feel contractions. They were manageable for a while, but soon I could barely even breathe through them and they were about 110 seconds long and basically on top of each other (technically 1 minute apart, but they never died down totally between peaks). I was checked and was still 1cm! So now I freaked and asked for an epidural, which I was given, since it looked like labor would be long. It was no big deal getting it (except staying still through contractions). It worked so well - I could feel my legs and even move them, but was not in pain. I was checked again immediately and had gone from 1 to 5 cm in about 2 hours! No wonder the pain was bad! I quickly progressed from there - they actually had to turn the pitocin off. It seemed that I was at 10 cm so fast! At 9:45 PM I began pushing. I was nauseous and throwing up, so it made it hard to push right, but once I was given something for that, things started to happen. After 2 hours of pushing, I asked how long they would let me push. They said that after 3 hours, they would probably decide the baby was too big for me and do an emergency C-section. I really did not want to have a C-section, especially at that point, so I said to the nurse "I know I can do this - I will try harder. Once I really resolved to get him out in an hour, things moved better. I started having the urge to push, which helped. At 12:39, I brought Grady into the world, which was the most amazing feeling ever. It was the proudest moment of my life, and I get so emotional even thinking about it. Everything was somewhat of a blur - he cried and was placed on my chest. His dad cut his cord, and he was officially separate from me - his own person. I cried, and could not believe this tiny person was mine! But I have to say, I had INSTANT overwhelming love for him. It is beyond anything I could have imagined and is actually quite overwhelming. My ability to love has surpassed anything I thought possible. My husband has been wonderful. He immediately told me how proud he was of me. It has also been incredible to see his love for this baby. As he said a few hours later "I think we all became different people today". It is so true - I will never look at anything the same way again. I feel like I finally understand what is important in life and what isn't.

And a few pictures...

Daddy with him at the warming table:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a343/rosa727/Grady/IMG_0115.jpg?t=1167755433

Holding him for the first time:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a343/rosa727/Grady/IMG_0120.jpg?t=1167755455

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a343/rosa727/Grady/IMG_0123.jpg?t=1167755491

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a343/rosa727/Grady/IMG_0127.jpg?t=1167755517

Our little guy:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a343/rosa727/Grady/IMG_0129.jpg?t=1167755565

[jimmysgirl424]

Rosa He is a beautiful baby! Congratulations!

[Kanga]

My Birth Story

I woke up to Daytona whining at 1:30am on Saturday March 10. I put her back to sleep and hopped back in bed. I layed there and tossed and turned unable to get back to sleep. I thought about waking dh up for some late night action in hopes of it putting me in labor but this late in pregnancy, sex just isn’t enjoyable. I decided to go for it knowing if I went too much longer pregnant I’d regret not at least trying. So we dtd and not too much longer I lost my mucous plug. I went back to bed and started getting faint contractions, but nothing painful or regular. I tried to sleep but couldn’t. Finally around 5am I was able to doze off for a few minutes before Daytona was up for the day.

The contractions continued off and on all morning. I went to the grocery store in hopes the walking would get things going, but I still was just more miserable than anything. They weren’t getting stronger, closer together or anything like that. Finally around noon just after I was able to get Daytona down for her nap, they started coming a little closer together. They weren’t regular at all, but they were getting stronger and usually coming less than 10minutes apart. After about an hour and half of this, I called dh at work and told him I might be in labor so if he had anything to finish up at work, he probably should do it sooner rather than later. He said he would catch up on his emails and then call me to see how I was doing. Daytona was up from her nap at this point so I decided to take a bath with her. The bath seemed to lessen the contractions and I started getting disappointed. I checked my phone and saw that dh had called while we were in the tub and just as I was calling him back, he pulled up in the driveway. Apparently he told his boss that I might be in labor and he sent him home. By now it was about 3pm and the contractions still were not regular and had actually lessened in strength. I decided to have my mom come get Daytona and figured if I wasn’t in labor then dh and I would at least get one last child free night. I took Daytona for a walk while dh got her things ready and when I got back my mom was here. By 5:30 the contractions were finally getting stronger but were still only 10 minutes apart. I decided that I was in labor. We watched some tv and as the contractions got stronger dh urged me to go to the hospital. I resisted, as they were still only 7-10 minutes apart. At around 7:30 I gave in and we went to the hospital.

The nurse checked me and said I was 4-5cm. Not what I had been hoping for since I was almost 4cm at my last ob appointment. I was hooked up to the monitors for about ½ an hour and then we walked around. The nurse checked me again around 9:30 and I was 5-6cm. I was a little discouraged especially since my last labor went so fast. The nurse said that my water was about to break at any time and once it did I would probably go very quickly. My bag of waters was apparently keeping the baby’s head from putting pressure on my cervix, in turn not allowing it to dilate much. She asked if I would like to get in the tub but I was a little apprehensive as my contractions slowed quite a bit after my bath earlier in the day. I had also just blow dried my hair before coming into the hospital and didn’t want it to turn frizzy and curly. :o I decided to walk around a little more and then get in the tub. We walked and then she checked me. By this time it was about 10pm, contractions were still only about 10 minutes apart and I was still 6cm. I asked about getting in the tub and she said my water was so close to breaking that she really didn’t want me to get in there since it’s often hard to get women out once their contractions really take off. I layed in bed for awhile and around 11 I asked for my epidural. I was hoping to go for a natural birth, but the contractions were getting too much and I was exhausted from not getting much sleep the night before. I also asked about breaking my water since it still had not budged. The nurse said she had just talked to the dr. to update him on me and said he was planning to do it anyways. At 11:30 the anesethiologist came in and gave me my epidural and by midnight it had taken full effect. The dr. also came in at this time and broke my water. I was 8 cm. I layed down and tried to get some rest. The nurse said to make sure I tell her when I have the urge to push. About 10 minutes passed and the urge came. I had never felt anything like it before. I’m not sure what the difference was between this epidural and the one with my other daughter, but with this one I felt a tremendous amount of pressure. With my older daughter I could only feel the slightest amount of pressure. The room immediately was filled with people trying to get the room set up and my nurse was begging me not to push until the dr. came. I couldn’t help but give a few tiny pushes but the really didn’t do much so I kept blowing. The dr. came in and said I could push. The pressure was so intense that I couldn’t get a good deep breath, but it didn’t matter anyways as her head was out with the first push. I couldn’t believe how much it burned since I had the epi and wondered what the hell it would feel like had I opted not to get it. One more half hearted push and the rest of her was out at 12:14am. Dh had planned on video taping the birth but as fast as everything went, we had forgotten about it. He did videotape the part immediately after when they were assessing her for the apgars, weighing, etc and I must say, my hair did look pretty damn good if I do say so myself ;)

I wasn’t disappointed with myself for getting the epidural. In hindsight had I not gotten it, it would have only been ½ an hour before the dr. was there to break my water and another 15 minutes until she was born. I probably could have made it, but it was the best decision for me at the time. When/if we have a #3, I’ll try again but should I opt for the epi or other drugs I won’t be discouraged.

[ellidew]

I just stumbled upon this earlier tonight and I don't think I ever posted it here. I had a very emotional l&d with a lot of ups and downs and I typed this a few days later. I haven't looked at it since so when i found it tonight I went and fixed some of the grammer/spelling/etc... My ds is 5 months old tomorrow and I'd already forgotten so much about what had happened. I highly recommend typing a rough draft right after giving birth so you don't forget anything!

I also want to add that in the last 5 months I've more or less come to terms with the emotional side of my l&d. It's no longer something that puts me into tears just thinking about. I didn't write about my experience the days to follow but by the next afternoon when my mil asked if i still wanted to have more kids i told her, 'Absolutely!' Apparently I have a VERY SHORT TERM memory :p

I wrote this birth story while all the emotions were still raw so i left most of it intact. It's long... sorry, a lot happened in 30 hours!!

On Wednesday November 1st we checked into the hospital at 6:00pm. I was 39 weeks pregnant and I was 3cm dilated and 70% effaced. We were being induced because our baby boy measured 8.13 lbs via ultrasound at my appt the Friday before. My ob had always thought I was going to have a big baby and she thought the risk of a c-section would be lower if I was induced early rather then wait for him to grow to full term. I wanted to avoid a c-section at all costs so I agreed plus, I couldn’t wait to meet my little boy! By 9pm the Cervidil was inserted and I was hooked up to an IV. I started having mild cramping (contractions) shortly after and because I was so uncomfortable, and probably anxious and nervous, I got a horrible nights sleep. I bounced between the extremely uncomfortable hospital bed, the recliner, and the cot they brought in for dh. I actually slept best on the cot so dh got bumped to the recliner.

The next morning they took the Cervidil out and let me take a shower. I took a nice long hot relaxing shower. At 9:00 they started the Pitocin. I was SO excited and couldn’t wait to really be in labor! By 11:00 I was having regular contractions every 5 minutes apart and by 1:00pm I was in so much pain so I asked for the epidural. Getting the epidural itself wasn’t bad at all. Unfortunately, because I had so much swelling the anesthesiologist couldn’t feel my spine and as he put it he was ‘shooting craps’. He felt around and asked me if I thought that was my spine but I wasn’t sure. I have a slight curvature in my back that makes it harder to just aim for the middle. It was finally in and I started getting relief within 15 minutes. By 30 minutes I couldn’t feel a thing and thought l&d was going to be the easiest thing ever. I was quite surprised at exactly how little you actually feel with an epidural. This is where I start to really lose track of time. At some point the baby’s heart rate started to drop after each contraction so they turned off the Pitocin and gave me a dose of Tributiline (sp?) to stop the contractions. The baby’s heart rate started to recover during my natural contractions but because they went from 3 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart they turned the Pitocin back on about an hour later. They monitored the baby closely and he was doing just fine.

Soon after, the epidural started to wear off. I suffered through many contractions before finally sucking it up and asking for a refill. Ask and ye shall receive so about 15 minutes after I asked I couldn’t feel a thing again! I asked dh why I was so stupid and didn’t just ask for it right after I started feeling the contractions! Unfortunately, an hour later I was back in excruciating pain. At this point my options were to labor through until I was complete and ready to push and they’d give me a big dose for pushing or have the epidural removed and put back in. I decided to labor on… and quickly (at least I think it was quickly… time is all blurry!) I knew I was complete because I felt the urge to push and I kept telling everyone that I wanted to push but the nurse told me she’d check me again in 25 minutes. She left the room and I just kept telling everyone that I wanted to push. Someone finally went and got the nurse to check me and sure enough, I was complete. She said the doctor said to let me push for an hour and see what kind of progress I make and then call her. I vaguely remember the anesthesiologist administering more drugs into my epidural and I know he loaded me up with everything he possibly could. I finally had some relief and was ready to push.

I was so determined to deliver my baby vaginally that I pushed with all my might for an hour. The first 15 minutes it was just dh, the nurse, and me. The l&d floor was a little short staffed the day I was in labor and they had already delivered 15 babies! That’s a lot for a hospital that probably only delivers 5-8 a day. Even though dh swore he wouldn’t look, he did and was able to see the head but it was way up in my pelvis and all that was coming through was about a half dollar size amount of his crown. The nurse asked if I wanted additional help because she knew my mom and mil were in the waiting room. I hated having to make this decision. I’d always imagined dh and me in the delivery room together and being able to share those first moments with one another. I told the nurse that I wanted to push until I couldn’t push any more and that I didn’t care who was in the room at that point and if she thought it would help then I wanted to take advantage of it. I told her I wasn’t willing to choose between my mother and mil and that she’d either have to choose or they’d both have to be in the delivery room. She went and got both of them from the waiting room. Dh held one leg while I was pushing and my mom held the other. My mil helped push my back forward to get all the momentum possible. I pushed and pushed and pushed and cried and cried and cried. My hour was up with very little progress and the nurse was going to call the doctor. I told her to tell my ob that I wanted to push until I couldn’t push anymore though. The nurse returned and said the doctor was on her way in and said that I could push until she got there to assess things. By this time the second dose of epidural meds were gone. I’d only gotten about 45 minutes of relief from it while pushing and I felt like I’d been pushing forever and my energy level was nothing and my emotions were out of control. I just knew a c-section was going to be unavoidable. Even as I write this I am starting to cry. This isn’t how I wanted things to happen and I was scared, disappointed, and sad.

[ellidew]

The doctor arrived within the half hour and had me push through the next contraction. Baby’s head hadn’t moved and he was most likely stuck. She could tell he wasn’t going to fit through my pelvis and at that point I was begging for them to just get the baby out of me because I couldn’t take anymore. It was nearly 11:00 on Thursday evening and I’d been in that l&d room for 29 hours. News of the c-section sent me into a panic and I had panic attacks, couldn’t breath, couldn’t swallow and couldn’t stop crying uncontrollably. I only vaguely remember anything after that point. I know the anesthesiologist was by my side through the entire ordeal and that drugs were constantly being administered. I remember saying I couldn’t breath or swallow and someone told me I didn’t have to. I knew if I just calmed down and let go that it would be natural but I just couldn’t. I was so scared of what was going to happen. I remember being taken out of my l&d room. I vaguely recall seeing the operating room. I remember opening my eyes once or twice and seeing the lights above my head. I remember hearing people talk and I remember finally feeling relaxed but I knew in my mind that any little thing could send me back into a panic and I was just lying there waiting. It felt like the prep time took forever and I don’t even know what they were doing or how long it really took. They asked me several times if I could feel things. The first couple of times I could but after a few minutes I couldn’t feel anything when they asked. I remember hearing someone say they are ready and to bring dh in and I remember dh coming in and holding my hand and me telling him that I didn’t want to hold his hand because I didn’t think I could stay calm if I did anything other than focus on exactly what I was doing. My eyes were closed and I never even saw him. They told me they were going to start and I asked them to do the ‘pinch test’ again. The ob said she’d been pinching around for a while and that I hadn’t even flinched but did it anyway and asked if I could feel it. I couldn’t. I remember dh grabbing my hand again and it was the most welcome relief ever. I think the anesthesiologist had the other hand but I don’t really remember. I couldn’t feel anything until they actually got into the uterus and then I thought I was just going to die from the pain and began to panic again. At some point dh told me that the anesthesiologist asked another anesthesiologist to come into the operating room. He said my original anesthesiologist was frustrated that he couldn’t find anything to rid me of the pain. The pulling and tugging and pressure in the uterus was absolutely horrific. It didn’t help that the baby was already in the pelvis and stuck so someone was also pushing up through the vagina to try and get his head back into the uterus. I remember hearing my ob saying something along the lines of ‘he’s stuck and I don’t know if he’s going to come out’ and I remember laying there saying out loud ‘uh oh’. When they finally delivered the baby the ob said ‘he’s peeing everywhere!’ and dh told me she also said ‘that’s it?’ Turns out my little boy only weighed 7lbs 11ounces. I felt them start pushing on my stomach and I was in a tremendous amount of pain. They told dh to go see the baby and I insisted someone hold my hand. I have no face to put with the name but a man with an Indian accent held my hand. I heard my baby let out a scream and then a cry and then nothing. Next thing I knew I was back in the l&d room and just coming to. I don’t know what normal protocol is with a c-section but dh said my anesthesiologist just pumped me full of morphine once I heard the baby cry. He said he wanted me to hear the baby before knocking me out.

I came to back in the L&D room crying about ‘the pain’ and everyone kept asking me where and I was (I thought at least) pointing to the incision area. They didn’t think I was really in pain and thought I was just having a residual effect from before the morphine kicked in but I swear I was in pain. I honestly don’t know anymore if I was or not but I sure thought I was at the time. I know I said some crazy things at this point and was asking about my baby who was in the nursery. My mom was by my side and said dh was taking pictures of the baby getting washed. Dh came back and I kept asking for my baby. I don’t recall who but my mother or mil went to the nursery and insisted they bring the baby back to the l&d room for me to see. They did finally bring him in and I do remember seeing him. The most beautiful baby boy I’d ever seen!

http://images.photos.walmart.com/3486%3A537%3A%7Ffp3%3Enu%3D3236%3E36%3A%3E6%3A7%3E WSNRCG%3D32323964%3B9623nu0mrj

[jimmysgirl424]

ellidew Your story brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for taking the time to post it and congratulations on your baby boy!

[dizylizy]

we need some more.
Hoping for some VBAC stories.

[littlemia]

I wrote this a few days after DD was born, so it's a little disjointed as I was pretty sleep deprived. She was born on 3/21. Even though it was extremely painful, I'm so, so, glad I had a homebirth.

On the morning of the 20th, I started feeling a little crampy. DH's phone had woken me up at an ungodly hour and I was tired, so I went back to bed figuring that if the cramps meant something they would wake me up. I got a couple of hours of sleep and when I woke up I still felt crampy but the cramps were mild and irregular. By my 4:00 41 week appointment that afternoon the cramps were a little stronger and I had some back pain. After hearing my symptoms my midwife checked me and declared me 1cm dialated and fully effaced. She told DH to call when contractions were 5 minutes apart lasting 45 seconds and that she expected him to call at about 3am. She told me the baby had moved into a left occiput transverse position and that was contributing to the back pain and that I should go home and go into the knees chest position for 45 minutes. I was pretty skeptical that I was in actual labor; I figured that this prodromal labor could last another day or so.

We went home and I started cleaning the house and getting everything together. At 7:00, I did the knees chest position. It was uncomfortable and the contractions were stronger so I needed DH to rub my back through them. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the baby move into a better position and I was still having back pain after 45 minutes. At 8 something, I decided that I was officially in labor. I called my mom and told her to come over later that night. We started timing contractions while watching The Sopranos. They were only lasting 20-30 seconds but they were between 3-6 minutes apart. We were a little confused as to why they were so frequent but since they weren't too painful we weren't worried. After the show, I finished cleaning up and getting the supplies together.

At about midnight, I decided to go lay down and get some rest but about two minutes after I laid down, the contractions got worse. It was not at all comfortable to sit or lay down through them; I had to move. We started timing the contractions again and they were 2-5 minutes apart but still not lasting more than 35 or so seconds. After a few hours of this, I started getting nervous because the contractions were painful enough that I had to really work to get through them but they still weren't 45 seconds long. At 3 something, I told DH to go ahead and call the midwife because I at least needed some suggestions as to how to get through the contractions. The midwife got to our house at about 4. She checked me and I was at a 5-6. I was glad that I had made some progress but I knew I had a long way to go and I was in a lot of pain, especially in my back, hips, and legs. I continued either walking through or swaying through the contractions for another hour or so.

Sometime after 5, I got in the tub. It made the time between contractions a little better but it didn't help with the pain during contractions. I'm not sure how long I was in the tub; I had intended to only be in there for an hour and a half because I heard it's not as effective after that but I think I hit transiiton in there and I didn't want to move. While I was in the tub, the student midwives arrived. I remember telling them I thought they were crazy for doing this more than once (they have 3-4 kids each). I was miserable. I was making a lot of noise and I was hoping the neighbors wouldn't hear but not caring that much either. I finally got out of the tub and my midwife put out a pad to check me but I hurt too bad to lay down. I finally let her and not long after they had set up the birthing stool.

It was 8 something at this point, I think. I was so tired and hurt so bad and was practically begging to be put out of my misery but I heard that some people liked pushing so I was hopeful that things would not be so bad and would be over soon. Um, no. I couldn't push effectively and it hurt more than I could ever imagine. I just screamed and screamed. I tried to control my breathing and make low noises but it didn't make anything better at all. So I did what came naturally which was scream. At some point, the birthing stool became too painful and I was tired and wanted to lay down. I tried pushing on my hands and knees and on my side and wow it was painful. There's no way I could have pushed her out in a hospital bed. I went back to the birthing stool and kept going. Finally after almost 3 hours, she was born. They immediately put her on my lap. I was just stunned. Everyone was crying but I was just really freaked out. I did have enough presence to check to see her gender, though. After awhile, we moved onto the bed and waited for the placenta to be delivered before DH cut the cord. They let us bond for awhile before they fixed me up and did her newborn exam. The midwives cleaned up and left after about 3 hours and we were on our own.

[Daniel's Kitty]

I don't remember posting this before

Our second son, Michael Thomas, was born at 4:12 pm on February 20th.

I woke up a few times in the night with contractions, but this was nothing new. We woke up when Ben came in to visit and I was still feeling them. They weren’t that strong so I didn’t worry. We had a bunch of stuff to do so I was going to go about my day. It was Daniel’s day off. He left to go run a few errands even though I was getting pretty uncomfortable. I decided to try to drink a little bit of wine to see if that would slow things down, but it only made me want to fall asleep between them. I called my mom, and she decided to time them that was when I found out that they were down to about 2 ½ minutes apart and lasting 30 seconds. I called the midwife finally and she was going to keep her prenatal since we figured that I still had a while. This was probably around 11:30. I called my mom back and then she timed them again, they were down to 2 minutes and 45 seconds long. I called the midwife back around noon to tell her so she cancelled the appt and started to head over. Daniel got back from his errands by this time, including dropping Ben off with the people who were going to watch him since I was not going to want him around. He cleaned up a little in between contrax and rubbed my back during them. The midwife got there and brought in her stuff. I was still flopped over the exercise ball where I had spent most of my time up until now. I shifted over to lay on the loveseat to see if side laying would be more comfortable. It made it so I could get more backrub. After a while of this it was time to get checked.

I hated this, it was the first check I had had for this pregnancy, but it sucked. She couldn’t reach all of my cervix very well, but I was around 5 cm. I was starting to moan and groan pretty loud, but I had to pee so I had to go sit on the toilet which made everything stronger. Daniel had to support me while I sat.

After my potty visit, I rushed to get back to my loveseat. We now had a chux pad (one of the disposable underpads) under me. I was starting to get to the point of feeling like I was going to lose it, when uh-oh my water just broke. It was such a funny gushing feeling that stopped that contraction, I had a break for a few seconds.

Now things started to get strong. I kept yelling at Daniel not to stop rubbing my back, he did it so hard that it is bruised. I wanted him out and it was taking all of me to get through the contrax. The midwife was helping me with what noises would help. Then things started to change a little. I had a few breaks in there and I was starting to feel like I had to push to get comfy. So we did another check and I was complete. The amazing thing was this was less than an hour after the first check.

I pushed for a while on my side. Then I moved to my hands and knees. This wasn’t working for me so I stood up. I just couldn’t get really good pushes so we decided to sit on the toilet for a while to push.

That was it, I could finally get some work done. His head still didn’t want to come down past the pubic bone but eventually it did. Then I couldn’t help but push. He was coming down fast. I tried to push a little less so things would get to stretch out without tearing, but I just couldn’t help it. He wanted out. I stopped for a second so I could feel his head since I didn’t want to with Ben and I felt how stretched out I was. It was so cool to feel the squished up top of his head. When I felt like I had to push again his head came out, and then came the interesting part. I had to stand up so he wouldn’t fall in the toilet. The midwife tried to tell me not to push, but I wasn’t so she had to catch him quick because gravity was taking over. We found out the reason I had to push so hard was because his head wasn’t quite lined up right.

I sat back down on the toilet holding a precious newborn wrapped up in white receiving blankets. They were so soft, diaper flannel makes great blankets. He looked so small and sweet. He acted like he wanted to latch on, but decided to take in his surroundings first.

Then the placenta came loose, and I didn’t even have to push, it fell into the toilet so the midwife had to pull it out. It was intact and looked pretty good. She put it in plastic bags so we could wait until the cord stopped pulsing to cut it. I put on one of the depends style pull up things so I wouldn’t mess up good underwear, and then we went to cuddle in bed.

He latched on great and nursed for the first hour of his life. While he nursed I had a Stouffers single serve lasagna. I never wanted to let him go.

Then came time for me to get a shower. That was the best feeling, the hot water felt so good.

Then we checked for tears and found one small one that she glued. I had to pee so Daniel cut the cord while I ran to the potty. We weighed him and measured him and then he nursed more.

The midwife left to go start the laundry and Mikey and I cuddled in bed. He looked so cute.

She came back for a quick blood pressure check and then left. We made a few calls and enjoyed him.

It was a great experience.

[Tonysweetie]

I never thought I would have a C-section. I was actually looking forward to L&D someday. Well a few weeks before Andrews arrival I was diagnosed with Pre-E. My blood pressure continued to rise over the last few weeks. I was put on bed rest from week 31 to 37. Finally at 35 weeks my Dr. gave me the option on being induced or a planned C-section. I first chose to be induced. Well 3 days later my condition began to worsen and my Dr. discussed the dangers of Pre-E and how important it is for me to get the baby out so it would go away. We decided to schedule the C-section at 37w3d on a Friday. I was a wreck the days leading up to the surgery. I was so nervous about the things that could go wrong.

Finally the day arrived. I couldn't sleep at all the night before so I was exhausted. I was up by 3 am and in the shower. I showered, did my hair (had to look good!) got dressed, brushed my teeth and went over my bag for the hospital. Finally it was after 4 so I woke up DH to get ready. We were finally on our way to the hospital around 5:10 AM. My heart was pounding the whole way. I mean this was our last ride in the car just the two of us. The next time I got in my car I'd be coming home with our son. I just couldn't imagine how my life was really about to change. That morning was full of excitement but yet also full of nerves.

We arrived at the hospital around 5:20 AM. We got up to L&D around 5:30 and things quickly started happening. I got into a labor room and got changed into my gown. Then they put me on the monitors to see how Andrew was doing. By 6:15 I had my IV in (which I thought was the worst pain of the whole process) and was relaxing. Family started to show up around 6:45. First DH Mom, his sister and his Mom's boyfriend showed up, then followed my best friend Kara, then after that my parents came in and last was DH grandparents. I was scheduled to go into the OR at 7:15 but they had me walk back by 6:50 AM.

They get me up on the table and went over the the procedure with me. I was so nervous about having the spinal I was shaking. The anesthesiologist reassured me that he had in the last 7 years only 1 person he had a hard time getting it in on the first try and had to go for a 2nd time. Well guess who became his 2nd difficult patient...ME! It took him 5 tries to get that sucker in. It didn't really hurt but it was a ton of pressure. I was so glad when he finally got it in. I was getting a bit nervous for a minute. It took effect right away. The nurses hurried and laid me back, put the drape up, got some oxygen for me, got the catheter in and I was ready to roll. They called back DH and he sat by my side and held my hand and talked to me. I was so nervous something was going to go wrong. The anesthesiologist kept talking to us about Star Trek. I didn't think anything was going to happen until the scheduled time of 7:30. They had told me before that nobody ever goes on time. It was only 7:15 at this point. I really thought they would talk me through the entire thing. Next thing I know they are suctioning out Andrews nose. I felt a ton of pressure in my stomach and then I heard his cry. It was the most moving experience ever! I bawled my eyes out and so did DH. Andrew had come into this world at 7:22 AM April 6, 2007 weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 18 in. long. I just couldn't believe that was MY son's cry. It was amazing! The first thing my Dr. says to me is "He's cute Leslie!"

DH got up and went and sat by his side the whole time. They wrapped him up and brought him over to me. Me, DH and Andrew bonded for a few minutes while our families watched through the viewing window. I just couldn't believe I was looking at the person who had been kicking me for all those months. He was finally here! It was a very short 10 minutes when they took him to the nursery. DH followed and stayed with him until I was our of recovery. That seemed like a lifetime. They sewed me up and wheeled me into recovery. I was in recovery for about 45 minutes and the whole time I'm in there DH Grandfather and my Dad kept coming in to kiss me on the cheek. So touching! After I was out of recovery they wheeled me into the hallway where I held Andrew for the very first time.

Once I got to my room they brought Andrew in and we got to bond and I nursed him. It was the most touching experience of my life. I just can't believe this all happened 7 weeks ago already. Time sure has flown right by. So that's the story of how my son came into this world. We are now a family of 3 and couldn't be more happy!! :) God Bless!!!

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http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f184/Tonysweetie/CIMG0170.jpg

[jimmysgirl424]

Thanks for posting that, Tonysweetie. It brought tears to my eyes! What a touching story. :) Its hard to believe that I'll be posting mine in a few short months...

DanielsKittyWow! That is some story!! I was very interested to read that it was easiest for you to push while on the toliet..I have been thinking about that for awhile and wondering if anyone had ever tried it. Just seems to me that gravity would take over in that case and your story certainly seems to back that theory up! Thanks for sharing!

[KeliAnn]

x-posted from my LJ

So I had my appointment on Monday and everything was closed up tight. Tuesday was a totally normal day - no contractions, no bloody show, no nothing. I decided that since she was going to take her sweet time, I'd get some stuff done around the house. So I went to Lowe's that morning and got a buttload of plants and top soil to do some gardening. Even joked with the cashier that I could load my own top soil because I was ready to go into labor. Ha.

I get home late morning and started digging holes for plants. I really didn't feel that I was overdoing it because, a.) I felt really great and b.) I took a lot of breaks, drank a lot of Gatorade, etc. I wasn't getting too hot or anything. I finished up around 4:30pm, so I came in, took a bath and layed down upstairs to watch a little tv. I have no idea why I ended up laying upstairs versus the couch, but I'm glad I did.

I had no indication whatsoever that she was coming ... I even wrote this email to one of my friends at 4:42pm - "Nope - no baby, yet. I'm feeling good today. I got up early, went to Lowe's, and have been working in the yard all day long. I swear, I'll do anything to get this baby moved out."

Anyway, DH got home a little before 6 with pizza. I layed there a little longer and then started to roll over to get out of the bed around 6:15, and I felt a pop like the baby had kicked really hard, and then a gush. It was so much fluid!! I do remember trying to "hold" myself while trying to get to the bathroom, which was totally pointless, of course. I yelled at DH, who was downstairs, "Um, my water broke! And it's clear and odorless!" Apparently, I was listening in childbirthing class. :p

He sprang into super action and started packing his bag. Luckily, mine was already packed, so I just had to tell him a couple of things to throw in there that I hadn't gotten two of. He was awesome and so calm, and surprisingly enough, so was I. I really thought I would be a freaking mess if my water broke, but it was like, "Okay, it's coming - let's go." I even called my parents while I was sitting on the toilet waiting for DH to get his stuff packed.

We left the house around 6:30 and headed straight to the hospital. I called a couple of girlfriends on the way there so that they could update my LJ and CC with the news.

So we get to the hospital and DH dropped me off at the door and went to park the car. I went up to the 4th floor and walked up to the nursing station and told them my water had broke. They wanted to check me to make sure it wasn't urine, but then they saw my pants and said, "Oh. Nevermind." LOL!

They went ahead and took me to a L&D room, asked me all the questions, checked to make sure it was amniotic fluid, etc. By the time we got to the hospital and checked in at 7:30, my contractions were 7 minutes apart, and I was 1 to 2 cm, 50% effaced. Totally bearable. We were joking and laughing and watching tv.

Luckily, things were progressing on their own, so I didn't have to have pitocin or anything.

I talked to my best friend around 8:30, I think, and I was 2cm, 70% effaced, contractions 5 minutes apart. My family got there around 9:30pm, and the contractions were hurting but still okay. By 11pm, I was 3-4cm and 100% effaced, and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. During one, I had to make my family leave and I burst out crying. I think it was the pain, obviously, but also the fact that they were so close, I didn't feel like I could catch a break. And the emotions of actually having a baby kind of hit me. It was all way too much, so the next time the nurse came in, she asked me if I wanted an epi, and I gladly said yes. I think I denied it 3 times before then. The anesthesiologist got there around 11:45pm, and I was so nervous about it hurting. But I felt nothing. Not even a prick. DH said it was pretty horrific to watch, though.

Once it kicked in, everything was fine. I still had enough feeling to move my right leg, pick it up, etc. But the baby's heart rate would drop a little if I layed on my right side, so the left leg got most of the juice - I couldn't even tell it existed. I could also still feel my contractions at the top of my stomach, but I couldn't feel the pain. I thought for sure I'd slow down once I got the epi, but things were still progressing pretty good. By 3:00am, I was 5cm - an hour later, I was 8cm. And 15 minutes later, I was fully open and ready to push!

They called my doctor at 4am, and she wanted me to "labor down" for an hour - meaning let the contractions do the work without physically pushing. It was extremely uncomfortable - like holding in a poop, but baby girl did her thing and dropped WAY down.

At 5am, the nurse had me do a couple of practice pushes, and I got the top of baby's head through my cervical opening. The nurse asked me if I had brought hairbows, and I said, "No, why?" And she told me that she had a head full of hair. I started crying -- it really hit me that she was almost here!

They called my doctor again right after that, and she told them to go ahead and let me start pushing. I started pushing at 5:14am, and after about 30 minutes of pushing, I had her crowned three times. The last time, I had her head half-way out, and her shoulders in my canal. Yeah, THAT was uncomfortable -- I had to hold her there for 3 contractions without pushing until my doctor finally got there at 5:56am.

She had me push once, head out. Once again, and Emma Grace arrived at 5:59am!!

Guys, it was so surreal. She plopped her up on my chest, and she started crying immediately. My mom cut the umbilical cord, and DH and I were both crying. It was amazing. They took her over to the other side of the room to work on her, and my doctor started working on me. She got everything out, stitched me up (I had a first degree tear), they pushed on my belly a couple of times, ran 2 batches of pitocin to contract my uterus, and by that time, Emma was ready to come see me.

Okay, the rest of the story is really kind of a blur because I was so exhausted, and there were people running everywhere. She scored a 8-9 on her Apgar because her hands and feet took a little while to turn pink, but other than that, she's just perfect.

She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Kym: I know you've said in the past that your doctor is considering a c-section for you since you have a small pelvis, but my ob told me that I had one of the smallest pelvic areas she's ever seen - and I obviously had NO problems delivering an average-sized baby. So don't be afraid! You can totally do it!! :)

[bluebunny]

Daniel's Kitty, sounds incredible!

Tonysweetie, sweet story!

Great story, KeliAnn! So awesome that you worked all day long the day you went into labor!

[pugzy]

Bump! More stories please!

[SQ2]

another bump! :)

[risa00]

This is long since I posted it on my blog for friends and family. I tried to trim it down.

On Tuesday, May 22nd we found out that we were going to be induced on Sunday due to IUGR and my high blood pressure. I called the hospital on Saturday to find out what time I needed to go in on Sunday. They said 7:00 am but to call ahead of time to ensure this was still accurate because if a lot of women went into labor the night before, they would have to push it out. So I woke up and called them to find out that's what happened. She told me to hang tight and that she would hopefully get me in that day but otherwise we would need to reschedule. She would have someone call me after 11 am. So we sat and waited. I finally called the hospital at 1 pm since I never heard anything and they told me to be there at 3:15 pm. This was it!

DH and I then do last minute items and leave the house at 3:09 pm. Yeah, we're always late to everything.. even our own induction. We arrive at the hospital around 3:35 pm and check in at the desk. I waited in the lobby while DH parked the car. A nurse, Alma, came out and got me and we went to my room. It was very crazy to see that this was my room and I would be delivering in it. DH finally came and Alma showed DH around so he knew where the kitchen and things were. I then got in a gown and had to get my blood pressure, temperate, IV, etc all done. We waited for the doctor to come and check my cervix and break my water. Cervix at this time was 2 cm. That happened around 4:35 pm and wasn't that fun. It's not bad to break the water, but since it was in an awkward spot, she kept messing around for a while which didn't feel that great. The nurse then started me on Pitocin at 4:45 pm at 4 (not sure what the measurement was) and was going to increase it by 4 until we got to the right spot. 12 ended up being the magical number since my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. Know that when I say contraction, I mean a very mild cramp and sometimes I didn't feel it at all.

DH and I just sat there and watched Raising Helen on tv. We ended up getting a new nurse, Kerstin, around 7 pm because it was slow and Alma's daughter was in town. She encouraged us to change positions often, so I sat in a rocking chair and walked up and down the hall. No real pain at all. The most annoying thing in the whole process was when the nurse kept asking me on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most excruciating pain you can imagine, what are you at? I have no idea! I have never been through labor before so I don't know what this feels like. I kept trying to refer to menstrual type cramps since I had those before, but who knows. I got tired of hearing that question. The nurse upped my Pitocin to see if I could get real contractions, but it made them be 1.5 minutes apart which isn't good for the baby. I remember that occurred between 9:15 and 9:30 so she turned it back down. Nothing was done differently, but somehow the contractions did get worse over the next hour. She asked if I wanted to try the birthing ball which I thought was a good idea. I enjoyed sitting on it but when a contraction came, she wanted me to either bounce or sway from side to side. Most women enjoy this movement, but it did not feel good for me so I had to stop. I then switched over to a rocking chair. Again, she wanted me to rock when the contractions came, but that made it hurt worse. I want to say the time was 10:45 pm but I said that I was starting to feel sick and luckily she gave me something within 5 seconds because I started vomiting. She tried to take it away to empty it but I wouldn't let her. I ended up doing it 4 times but it was all close together so it wasn't bad. I hadn't eaten since 2 pm so it was just clear liquids. She said this was a good sign that things were picking up. I then went back to bed because that was the only spot that I felt comfortable. No clue on ordering here, but I remember having to go to the bathroom often due to all of the fluids. Since my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, you knew that I would have one sometime from getting there, being there, and coming back. Was not fun. I then started to have potentially back labor because it would just kill me. The nurse was very good with pushing up on my hips from behind to help with some of the pain. DH wasn't exactly sure what he was doing because he pushed up for a second and then just let go. I had him monitor the equipment and tell me when the contractions were going down because it was getting mighty painful. I also had the shakes very very bad. It was the most unusual thing and I was going to look that up to see what causes that. It was kind of scary but the nurse wasn't concerned. Finally the pain was so unbearable that I said I wanted the epidural. Probably around 12:15 am.

Oh, the epidural.. my new best friend. My doctor said that I needed to be 4 cm to get it so the nurses needed to check to see what I was at. They couldn't feel the cervix so they kept mashing around and the contractions came and made it worse. Talk about pain! Then another nurse tried because the other one couldn't tell. She as well had no idea what it was but they were guessing it wasn't 4 cm yet. Since I was dying, they called the doctor to see if she would let me have it anyways and luckily she agreed. I remember before I went to the hospital I was going to check to ensure the anesthesiologist knew what he was doing and had been doing it for a while. I tell you, at that time I would have taken anyone that walked into that room even if they said they had never put one in before. Unfortunately she had to give me enough fluids before I got it, so we had to up some dosage and wait to call him until that was complete. That was the hard part of waiting. It was about 10-15 minutes before that was done. Then she paged him and he called back within 2 minutes. She said he would be here in 5 minutes. A knock on the door 3 minutes later and she says 'that must be him.' It was another nurse so that was a huge let down. But he was there within 5 minutes and he was my angel, Dr. Kim. He was trying to explain to me what was going to happen but when contractions came, I didn't hear anything around me so I had no idea what anyone was saying. I couldn't do my slow breathing anymore but kept saying 'ouch' throughout the whole contraction. He gave me a numbing shot so I wouldn't feel the epidural.. didn't really feel that shot either. Then a contraction came so he had to wait to do the epidural. He then took the time to give me another numbing shot. When it was over, he had me arch my back and put the needle and tube in. I tell you what, I didn't feel a thing when he put it in. He asked me if that was better or worse than what I imagined and I told him so much better. This was 12:45 am and he said it would take 10-15 minutes to kick in and by 1 pm I wouldn't be feeling anything. I had 3-4 more horrible contractions but he was right. Around 12:55 they saw one coming on the monitor and asked me about it and I said I couldn't feel a thing. Ahhhh.. it felt like heaven. I told DH I was so happy to have it and he said no he was and we kept going back and forth on who was happier. :) At 1:30 am they checked my cervix and I was at 7 cm! 3 more to go! DH took a nap and I tried but with them taking my temperature every 30 minutes and the blood pressure thing going off every 10 minutes, it was hard. Of course the nurse said that she heard snoring and since DH always says that I snore, I guess I did dose off. At 3:30 am they said I was ready to begin pushing!

I want to say that they saw a little bit of the baby's head when I was pushing initially. They brought in a mirror later so I could see. I pushed on every contraction which was every 4 minutes. Never felt any contractions so I just watched the monitor to see when one was beginning. The baby's heartrate would go down periodically so I had to breathe in an oxygen mask. Eventually I did feel some mild cramping so I pushed a button to up the dosage to my epidural. Dr. Kim came back in to check on me and he said that while I was waiting to dilate the goal was to make me comfortable. Now that it's pushing time, the goal is to get the baby out first and feel comfortable second. So he said I should feel some pain, but I never felt anything too bad. After about 2 hours of pushing the doctor said the baby's head is turned at an angled and she would like to use a vacuum to help guide it out. She said she could only do this 4 times. The phone thing rings and we all look around because the doctor and nurses were in the room so we didn't know who else it would be. Sure enough it was my mom calling to check on me. Yeah she calls just as the baby is about to come out. We tried once with the vacuum and I remember DH was counting so slow that I stopped and said 'Count faster!' The second time was very close so everyone got ready for the baby to come out. I felt quite a bit of pressure which did hurt so I knew the end was near. I told DH to get the video camera ready because I wanted to see it later. (Not that I want anyone else to see it. :) The last push again I felt some pain.. hard to explain because it was more pressure pain than anything else. And out the baby came at 5:58 am! I said 'What is it?' and no one answered so I asked again 'what is it?' and DH said it's a girl! I started to cry, no idea why but I guess all of the hormones and the anticipation of waiting to find out the gender. DH was laughing (only reason I know is because we have it on film). DH cut the cord and they put the baby on my chest. She was covered with all of the white stuff but was so cute. She did have a big red cone head from the vacuum but that went away shortly. Our little Ava Rose weighed in at 4 lbs 14 oz and was 18 inches long. We are very blessed to have our little angel.

[silentbunny]

This is my story -- not exactly what I expected, but worth every minute...

A little history: I went in on the night before my due date to have some cervadil inserted into my cervix since I was not dilating or effacing at all. Well, I think I was at a scant centimeter dilation and maybe 50% effaced? I had been having false labor contractions for more than a month, with nothing to show for it -- contractions were getting increasingly uncomfortable, but not getting the job done. I knew my due date was correct since he was an IUI baby, and all predictions we were getting were that he was going to be a very big baby. ( 9.5 - 10 lbs) My rationale was that if I went late with a big baby I was just as likely to wind up with a c-section as I was with an induction, so to me the risks and benefits balanced out.

We got to the hospital about 5:30, and spent awhile getting checked in, having blood pressure taken, yada yada yada. They hooked me up to the monitors and I was already having consistent contractions about every 3 minutes or so. The baby's heartbeat looked fine, and we waited for my docor to come and do the cervadil. She got there about 7 or so, checked me, said I was a centimeter (whereas at my appointment the day before I was about ½ cm, so we were all hopeful). She inserted the cervadil and we were supposed to wait for 2 hours, monitor my progress, and then go home until the induction the next day.

The cervadil seemed to strengthen and speed up the contractions, to about every 2 minutes. We hankered down to waste time, but then after about an hour the baby's heartbeat started dropping, to 60-70 bpm. That brought everyone in to try to figure out what was going on. They put me on oxygen and had me lie on my side and things evened out, but they kept coming in to check my blood pressure constantly. After a little while there was another drop in the baby's heartbeat and my doctor decided that I wasn't going home that night. Sean left to take the dogs out and feed them, and I tried to get some sleep. They started the pitocin at 1:00 am, after I had been on antibiotics for 4 hours because of my GBS + status.

*Wow, the details do slip away after awhile*

The next morning, my doctor was supposed to come in and check me, but it took her awhile to get out of the office. She decided I was maybe at 2 cm? I hadn't slept well or much at all, since Sean was on the guest bed and snoring. At some point in the course of the night I lost my mucus plug and ohmyGOD was that thing nasty! Kept on laboring all day. At that point, I was willing to have them break my bag of waters and get things going -- which it did! The breaking of my water (at 2 pm) was amazing and gross, since I was carrying a lot of extra fluid and I couldn't believe how much fluid came out of me. I was packed with towels all around and soaked through everything multiple times. I kind of freaked the nurse out, actually; I don't think she had seen that much fluid before. The contractions immediately got a LOT more intense and required very focused breathing through them. They were also coming about every 1-2 minutes. They HURT!

At 6 pm, I was checked again and was about 90% effaced but still only 3 cm dilated. I decided it was time to get the damned epidural. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but I really didn't like being numb. I was glad I could still move my feet and legs, though. Through this whole time they kept dialing up the pitocin, which was keeping he contractions fast and furious, but not doing much in terms of dilation.

The epidural helped immediately with the contractions -- amazing how I couldn't feel them at all -- but it did make me shake uncontrollably, which sucked. Sean decided to go home and do dog duty while I got some sleep. Well, I didn't really sleep -- or I would drift off for a minute or two, but then awake with a start because I felt like I was falling, or panicking. After a few hours of this when the nurse came in to check on me I suggested she might want to check my heart rate, because I felt really weird. Well, she did, and it turns out it was RACING -- up to 180 - 190 bpm. That freaked everyone out; apparently I was reacting very poorly to the epidural. So they tried a few things to get it to slow down, having me cough, etc, and it would come down but then go back up. Somewhere in here Sean showed up again. Oh, I was also very nauseated, and made the nurse and Sean leave the room so I could attempt to vomit, which is a thing I hate more than anything in the world. I managed to gag up some saliva but that was about it. The more people that came in the room the more worried I had to try not to be. I can't remember if they injected stuff into my IV to slow my heart back down, but they did have a guy come in and do an ekg on me. At this point it was heading towards 10 or 11 at night. My doctor checked my cervix again and I was actually going backwards -- no more dilated, and only about 70% effaced. I wanted to cry. (Actually, I probably did). My doctor said she was thinking about c-section, and I know I took her hand and told her that I was fine with that, that I wanted it at this point.

From that point on everything moved very quickly. They made me drink some horrible, wretched stuff to "neutralize the acid in my stomach so in case I vomited it (the acid) wouldn't get into my lungs". It was the nastiest vile swill I have ever tasted, and immediately made me feel worse. They put more meds in my epidural and I was wheeling down the hall to the OR. It was what I wanted, because I was wiped out, but I was also pretty scared. As soon as they lifted me onto the table and started putting my arms on those slabs that make it seem like you're getting crucified, I looked at Sean (in scrubs by this point) and said, "Get the bag". I then vomited violently, while naked, Sean holding the bag to my face, under bright lights, and unable to move. The nice anesthesiologist came over with the suction thing and tried to help me clean up my face. It was a definite low point -- I was SO sick. It sucked a lot.

After that I wasn't nauseated anymore but was still shaking violently. I told Sean to talk to me, about anything, everything, whatever, just to keep my mind on him. I remember thinking it was so strange that I couldn't see his mouth when he was talking to me because of the surgical mask. I could feel tugging and a lot of pressure, which made it feel for a second like I couldn't breathe, and then just a few minutes later we heard this baby cry. Sean's eyes got HUGE and he started to cry (first time ever he's cried in front of me). They showed Liam to us and Sean left my side to go watch him get weighed in, etc. I got to get cleaned up and stitched up after that, and then wheeled back into our room. I did get to breastfeed him before they did shots or eyes or anything, and he latched right on and fed like a champ.

It's been 5 weeks now and I know I've left a lot of parts out, but this is more or less what went down. Am I happy I had a c-section? No, I wouldn't say happy, but I think at that point it was the right decision. And I have this beautiful, beautiful kiddo that I would do anything for, so I am not going to beat myself up over the decision. If and when we have another, who knows if I'll have a repeat c-section or try for a vbac -- at least now we know I react poorly to epidurals. ;)

Finally, the reward for all of this:
Liam, 8 lbs 12 oz, 22 inches
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1313/1288975617_306eccd5a0.jpg?v=0

[Katie&Micah]

silentbunny
He's absolutely beautiful! I had a somewhat similar birth story. It took me a while to feel ok about having had a c-section, but in the end it was worth it and the right choice I think.

Congratulations!

[daisysue62]

Ethan Samuel’s Birth Story

I started noticing contractions Saturday evening and I had David start timing them at 10pm while we were watching the movie Knocked Up. After about 30 minutes of timing them we realized they were about 4 minutes apart and lasting 30 seconds and were noticeable but not necessarily painful. We called my parents at 10:30pm to let them know that we were pretty sure we would be having a baby soon and to be ready to drive the 90 minutes to our house that night. We continued watching the movie and timing contractions and by 11:30 pm contractions were 3 minutes apart and 40 seconds long and were getting painful so we called my parents again to ask them to come to watch Grace. They got here at 1am and things hadn’t changed much other then the contractions were getting a little more painful and were very slowly getting closer together. We chatted with my parents for about 20 minutes before we gathered up our stuff in the car and drove the 40 minutes down to the hospital in Corvallis.

We got to the hospital around 2am and they found I was at 3cm and 50% effaced. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor for 20 minutes and contractions were still 40 seconds long every 3 minutes and baby looked good. Then they sent David and I to walk the halls for an hour before they checked me again at 3:30am and there was no change so they gave us two options. They could give me some Ambien to go home and sleep which would make false labor go away, or if I was in real labor I’d wake up to things rocking and rolling or we could stay at the hospital and try to wait a bit longer and see if things progressed. We chose to stay and I got in the labor tub for about an hour and a half which felt nice and let me rest some. David slept on the couch while I was in the tub and walked the halls with me for 45 minutes after I got out of the tub. By 6:30am David and I were both pretty tired and contractions seemed about the same and were pretty painful. We asked the nurse to check me again and I was at 5cm so we could be admitted! That information gave me a little energy boost since I was worried they would send me home exhausted and still in labor. At 7am the nurse shift change happened and all of the admissions stuff happened. I sat on the birthing ball next to the bed strapped to the fetal monitors for 45 minutes while all that happened and contractions got more intense. I asked them to run the bathwater again and before I got in the tub they checked me and I was dilated to a “stretchy” 8 cm. I was pretty surprised I had dilated that far so quickly and was hopeful that the rest of labor might progress as quickly. I was in the tub for about 45 minutes before I started to feel a lot of pressure and I decided to get out in case I was close to pushing. They checked me again and I was at 9.5cm with a small lip of cervix still in the way.

The midwife arrived to stay (she had come by earlier when I was admitted to check on how I was doing) a little after 9am. They had me in the bed since everyone thought I was really close to being 10cm and pushing but for some reason the last little bit of cervix took a long time to melt away. The midwife told me I could start pushing little pushes during contractions to help take the edge off of them since they were really painful and I had a hard time dealing with the pain while laying in the bed. They had me switch to laying on my side for awhile and I did some pushing but was rapidly approaching complete exhaustion. The midwife broke my water to help speed things up and contractions got more intense but it still took a little bit of time to get fully dilated. The baby was descending through the birth canal but was in a bad position and got stuck at the pelvic bone. I was completely dilated to 10cm at 10:10am and started pushing much harder at that point. The midwife could see a patch of head each time I pushed but he wasn’t getting any further down the birth canal. The midwife suggested changing positions to all fours or squatting and I decided to try the squatting bar. I only pushed on the squatting bar for a few contractions since the squatting position really seemed to help move things along. I felt the “ring of fire” and knew he was crowning and got his head out about 2” when the contraction stopped and I had to pant until the next contraction came when I was able to push the rest of his head out and then his body. After he was out I fell back exhausted to the bed and the baby was placed immediately on my chest and I felt immediate relief! He was pretty purple and bloody but he was the most beautiful baby boy I’d ever seen. At the end of labor I was pretty much exhausted but after Ethan was born I didn’t feel tired at all!

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d16/daisysue62/sweetface.jpg

[Pink_Converse]

Ethan is gorgeous!

[SQ2]

daisy, what a great birth story. Thanks for sharing. You're definitely an inspiration to me as I'm hoping to give birth meds free. We'll see how it goes. Ethan is so cute!

[FSUSammy]

daisy - what a great birth story!

[QueenofCA]

It all started on Wednesday, Sept. 26. Since I had been so miserable with the PUPPP rash for 3 months, I had been walking twice a day and squatting on a birth ball in the hopes of getting him to move down. Once I hit 37 weeks, I also started taking Evening Primrose capsules because that is known to get labor going too.

On the evening of the 26th, I kept feeling like there was something trickling out of me, but since I was so far along, I figured that I was just peeing a little on myself (it happens!) I was in and out of the bathroom about 10 times, and I told A. that I wasn't sure if it was pee or amniotic fluid. I always figured that amniotic fluid would come out in a gush. It seemed to stop so I didn't think about it anymore. I did mention to DH, however, that since it was a full moon that night maybe labor was going to start.

Thursday, Sept. 27, I went in for a regular OB appt. and mentioned to the doc that I had felt that weird trickling the night before. She tested the fluid and sure enough, it was amniotic fluid because the litmus paper turned blue. She did an internal exam and I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She did an ultrasound to measure the amount of fluid around the baby and it was low, so she said she was sending us to the hospital right away to be induced. I cried from relief that the pregnancy was going to be over after everything I had been through.

Of course, we hadn't brought our hospital bags or anything, because I was sure that this baby was going to be late! We went home, had some lunch, got our stuff, and brought Ziggy to A's parents' house for them to watch while we were in the hospital. Then we got to the hospital and I went through admitting and they wheeled me up to L& D. We ended up just sitting in the waiting room for about an hour because there weren't any beds available when we first got there. It was nice to sit together and hug before this huge event in our lives. We also got to see the brand new babies in the nursery as they brought them in.

They called us into the room and I changed into a gown and got in bed. They hooked up the IV around 2:30 pm and started the pitocin. By this time, DH's aunt and a friend of mine had arrived in my room, which pissed me off because I never asked them to come. We had called a few people to let them know that I was in labor but I really didn't want anyone else there but A. Anyway, for the first few hours, the contractions were manageable and they were kind of scattered...no pattern or consistency. The evening wore on and things started to get more and more intense. I was very uncomfortable in bed and I really wanted to get up but of course I couldn't. I was also starving but I couldn't eat, so I pretended my ice chips were pasta and salad from Olive Garden. The pain started coming stronger so I told DH to ask my friend and his aunt to leave, especially since clearly nothing was going to happen any time soon. They kind of got pissy about it, which I thought was rediculous since I hadn't asked them to come in the first place.

My labor continued through the night, and my water broke in a couple of big gushes. I also had a bloody show, which I took to mean that I was dilating. I didn' t know how much I had dilated, though, because my doctor didn't want the nurses doing vaginal exams due to the risk of infection (the risk was high because my water had been leaking for so long). I also developed a fever so I had to have a bag of antibiotics added to my IV.

At 7:00 am on Friday, Sept. 28, my doc came and checked me and I was only 2 cm. I cried from sheer exhaustion and disappointment. I had been in hard labor all night, with no sleep, and now there was no progress. My doctor found that my water had not broken fully, so she went in with a hook and did the job. She also did something called "stretching my membranes" and I swear to God, if I had been able to reach over and kill her, I would have. It was so painful that I was crying and begging her to stop, and everyone in the hallway heard me. She said that my fluid was still clear (no meconium) so she told me that she believed I could still do this naturally and she wasn't going to consider a c-section at that point.

Once she left, my labor really picked up and the pain was excruciating. The contrax were coming every 2 minutes and were lasting for over a minute each. I felt like I was being run over by a truck, over and over and over again. I was begging anyone I saw for an epidural, but anesthesia refused to even talk to me because of my spinal injury. DH was great...he coached me through each contraction with all the breathing techniques we had learned. The breathing didn't take away the pain by any means, but it gave me something to do. DH could see on the monitor that a contraction was starting before I could feel it, so he would grip my hand and get me ready so that I was already breathing when the pain came. I did take one dose of IV Stadol, hoping that would help, but it just made me very disoriented and didn't do anything for the pain, so I didn't take any more IV pain meds after that.

Around 5 pm, my nurse came and checked me and said I was ready to push. By that time, I was drenched in sweat, I had been crying all day, and the pain was just overwhelming. My doctor got there and they put my legs in the stirrups. I actually was very scared to start pushing because I thought that would be more painful than the contractions, but it wasn't. Pushing felt better. At first I guess I wasn't pushing correctly because I broke all the blood vessels in my eyelids and face, and also on my chest. But after a few times trying I got the hang of it, and I think I pushed through 4 good contractions and then I felt this wet squishy thing between my legs. I didn't see him come out because I had my eyes closed and I was trying so hard to push the right way. But then all of a sudden he was out on my stomach and I saw him for a moment and then they took him over to the warmer to do all the normal stuff. He weighed 7 lbs, 2 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.

DH cut the cord and I remember delivering the placenta and my doctor showing it to me. I had one small tear so she gave me 2 stitches. After that they got me up to go to the bathroom and that was agony--my whole body was so exhausted from the trauma of everything. I was famished, so I ate a whole box of baklava that my MIL had brought...it was the most tasty thing I have ever eaten in my life. Then my MIL and SIL came in, after I was somewhat cleaned up, and they brought the baby back to me. It was surreal to see this little baby that had been inside me just 30 minutes earlier. Then they brought me a real dinner, and we moved up to a recovery room. I couldn't believe that the whole ordeal was over, but I felt good...better than I thought I would.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m262/queenofcali/Gabriel%20Hospital/GabrielHospital030.jpg

[jeggink]

Bumping and adding my 2nd birth story :).

November 19, 2007, 36w1d

I had been feeling contractions for several days at this point, and was quite nauseated, but the contractions were not very strong or productive. I was miserable. I had been 2 cm dilated since I had my cerclage removed at 34 weeks. I did end up waking up at 2am with a rather strong contraction, but they went away again and I was able to sleep through the night. I had an OB appointment at 2:40 in the afternoon at the hospital. I was still having contractions, about 10-15 min apart. I made it to the doctor and sat in the waiting room. I was called back to a room; I had not gained any weight from the week before. My blood pressure was fine and the hb was 152. The doctor came in and did an internal exam and I was still 2 cm dilated, maybe getting closer to 3, so basically the same as the week before. The doctor told me that if I wanted it and made it to next week that he would sweep my membranes to see if that would help things out. So I made another appointment for one week later.

After the appointment I went past my job and filled out some insurance paperwork that needed to get completed. Once that was done I headed home and rested. Later that evening the contractions started coming back a bit stronger, about every 6-9 minutes apart. They started lasting a bit longer and I also had to start concentrating through them a bit. I figured they would weaken again as the night wore on like they normally did. I got up and did some stuff around the house, made some spaghetti for dinner and we all ate dinner together. After dinner I went to my room to lie down to see if the contractions would slow down and they did, to about 10 -13 min apart and not nearly as strong.

Around 8pm or so once Joseph had been put down for the night my contractions started getting stronger again and I once again had to breathe through them. I told Dan about them and that tonight may be the night. They were about 6-8 min apart at that time and my back was starting to hurt with each contraction. I was able to get through them while lying in bed, but around 9pm I felt a pop and a gush. I immediately got up out of bed and went to the bathroom thinking my water had broken. I was in for a big surprise when I saw a good amount of blood instead. Instantly I yelled down to DH that we were going to the hospital and to get the neighbor to come and watch Joseph, we had to go right away. I called my drs office and the dr on call called me back and told me to head in. My bag was already packed and in the car. I cleaned myself up, changed and put on a pad, gave the neighbor our cell phone number, called my parents to come down and then we left at 9:15 or so. On our way I made a few other calls as well. It took about 25 min to get to the hospital and we went directly to the emergency room. They called up to labor and delivery while I breathed through the contractions and someone came down and got us. I went up in a wheelchair with DH and we got into a room.

Once in the room I asked to hear the baby heartbeat as I had not felt him move after I had the bleeding. Once I asked the little stinker moved all over the place, but she checked the hb anyway and it looked fine. They got some information from me during the time I wasn’t having contractions. I went and changed into a gown and after that I was hooked up to the monitors for both contractions and the baby heartbeat. I was also told that the house dr would be examining me as they wanted to see why I was bleeding. He came in and did a speculum exam and a regular exam and I was 3-4 cm dialated and 100% effaced (~10:00pm). He also thought that the bleeding was coming from my cervix but couldn’t be sure, they needed to watch my contractions. Since I was bleeding I was bound to the bed until it stopped, which included using a bed pan (my 1st time, yuk!). I wanted to have another natural childbirth so I really hoped that the bleeding would stop soon as I couldn’t manage it in a bed. The nurse started an IV for fluids at this point. I was continuously monitored and about midnight they checked me again and I was 5-6 cm dilated, so in labor and I would be staying. But since I was still having gushes of blood I had to stay in bed. At this time the contractions were spaced ~4-5 min apart and were manageable in bed.

[jeggink]

January 20th, 36w2d

After another 1.5 hrs of contractions that were getting more and more intense, plus my back was really starting to hurt during each contraction (maybe back labor?). I asked the nurse about an epidural and she suggested they check me and see where I was at. I was still at 6 cm dilated. Once I found that out and the fact that I knew I would be confined to bed the whole time, I decided to go ahead and get the epidural. I was a bit scared, but felt this was the best choice, I was sick of the pain and sick of being pg and I figured I might as well enjoy the remainder of the pg and the birth. Around 1:45am the anesthesiologist started the epidural. Unfortunately he gave me the numbing shot during a contraction so that was quite painful, but my contractions were spaced far enough apart that he was able to do the whole epidural part during the contractions. I felt a slight shooting pain in my right hip, but other than that it wasn’t too bad. He took some time to get the bleeding to stop at the epidural site as I was having bleeding issues, but other than that it went extremely smoothly.

He went ahead and put the meds in around 2am and I lay down. I was still feeling a bit in my left side so I had to lie toward that side the while time. I did end up getting completely numb so it did work completely for me. After the epidural I was on a blood pressure cuff every 15 min and although it went low, I didn’t need anything extra to counter the effects. I tried to get some sleep between 2 and 6am. I was checked at 4 and then at 6 and both times I was still at 6cm, so no progress. I had my catheter placed around 4am. The baby did move down during that period, but since my amniotic sac was still intact, it could only go so far. My legs were completely numb and at 6am I asked for the epidural to be turned down. The epidural started at 10 and they went to an 8 and then to a 7. I stayed at this level for quite a while.

Around 8am or so the doctor came in and checked me and I was 7cm dilated, and the baby was at 0 station, so some progress. He broke my water at this time and it was clear. He said they would check me in an hour again. After an hour I was at 9cm, so things were picking up. I started to feel a little bit of rectal pressure. I was told to call them if I felt more pressure. Around 9:30 I stared feeling a bit more pressure and I was at 10cm but the baby was still up high. I was told to try a push, but it was going to be a lot of pushing that way as he was still high. I asked to hold off a bit longer as I was waiting for my mom to arrive. It was no issue and I was told I could continue to push with each contraction as I felt the urge. I also asked the nurse to turn down the epidural again to 5, the minimum as I still wasn’t feeling much.

My mom arrived a short while later and the nurse checked me out around 10:30 and had me do a trial push. My mom held up one leg and Dan the other. The baby had decended quite a bit and the one trial push I had was enough for her to get all the stuff ready for the baby and call the dr once that was complete. My contractions were still about 5 min apart so there was a bit of time in between. The nurse also stopped my epidural at this time since the pump kept beeping, which I was fine with.

Once the dr came in it was pushing time. We got all set up and did the 1st set of pushes and I was told that they could already see his hair and that there was a ton of it and it was very dark. After the 2nd set of pushes that baby’s head was partially out and was staying in my pelvis. I was told the next set of contractions would do it. It was during that spacing of contractions that the baby started wiggling around and I could feel his head start to slide out a bit further. Everyone looked amazed and started saying that the baby wanted out! I just started laughing at that and of course the baby slid out even further. At that point it didn’t matter if I was having a contraction so I just went ahead and pushed, and out came his head. I felt no pain at all due to the epidural, but I did feel a slight bit of tugging toward my labia (in front). After they suctioned him out, he started crying before I could even push the rest of him out, so I went ahead and pushed and he came right out. They put him right onto my stomach and he was accessed by respiratory specialist right there. He did fantastic, apgars of 9/9. I had asked that they leave him attached to the placenta for a little bit and the dr was initially fine with that but I started bleeding quite heavily and they thought it was from my placenta and they wanted to get him cut so they could start working on me. So we were OK with that and DH cut the cord about a minute after he was born. The baby stayed with me on my chest while they worked on me. While the dr was waiting for my placenta to come out, she started repairing my tears. I had a 1st degree labial tear (basically pee hole to vagina) and another very small tear in back. All in all it was about 7-8 stitches, so not to bad, I was just told that it will sting to pee and to be very careful with my stitches as it is very thin skin and hard to repair.

Once complete my placenta still wasn’t out and I was still bleeding quite heavily and was also having huge clots. At that point she decided it was time to get the placenta out and went in for it, I swear she was up to her elbow in me. She used her hand to get it from the uterine wall, so let’s just say I thank god I had an epidural! It finally came out, but in pieces, and it was calcified (looking old). We aren’t sure why and it went to pathology, but she finished getting the entire placenta from my uterus and then gave me pitocin to stop the bleeding. The dr kept asking me if I bled this much during my other labor and I told her I didn’t think so. Once the placenta was out I stopped bleeding pretty quickly which was a good thing as my mom was starting to get worried. My mom told me that I had lost a lot of blood and that even the dr was starting to look a bit worried. But I guess it wasn’t enough to need blood. Once she left the room we decided to find out how the baby was doing so we had the nurse take him off our chest so we could see how much he weighed and his length. He was 7 lbs 8 oz and 21� long. We were all amazed at his size since I expected him to be 6 to 6.5 lbs per the ultrasound. They gave him his shot and eye goop and we got him right back.

After an hour or so once my epidural wore off I got up to go to the bathroom and they took the baby to the nursery as the pediatrician was there and since there were 3 babies all born within 1.5 hrs, she looked at them all. After my bathroom break I was taken to the recovery room I would be in for the next 2 days. The hospital had just instituted a new policy; they were doing family rooms now. So basically the baby stays with you at all times, but the nursery is open from 11pm at night to 7am in the morning if you do want to send the baby there for a little bit. So everything would be done right in our room. Alex came back and was put right into a warmer in our room. He was looked at by the nurse and she was going to give him a bath. I asked that that he not get a bath as I wanted to leave any remaining vernix on him due to the winter dryness. I would give him a bath once I got home. She told me that all the nurses would have to handle him with gloves and I said that was fine.

So I got the baby back after ½ hr and he stayed with me for the most part. I did send him out around midnight till 4am both nights just to get some necessary sleep as I was exhausted and due to the blood loss was quite weak. We stayed in the hospital for 2 days, had to do a car seat challenge as Alex was born early, but were released on time. I was never so happy to just get back home!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/jeggink/HPIM1740.jpg

[pocahontas]

LOVE the birth story, JUDY...and I laughed because I know you have to be one TIRED mommy to have written "January 20" instead of "November"! :D LOL Get some rest! ;)

[bensgirl1222]

I didn't even realize that I never posted here! Ok here goes...

At my 40 week appointment I was 1 1/2cm dialted and 80% effaced. I had lost my mucous plug a few days prior and then the rest of it after my appointment when they stripped my membranes (ouch!). Before I left my OB I had scheduled an induction for August 8th. Although I didnt want an induction, I scheduled it anyway bc my doctor said I was "favorable" and I was just ready for it to be over and to meet my little guy!

I thought I'd be pregnant forever bc I always heard of people having pre-labor before going into labor and I never felt one single contraction prior ro going into labor. I had come to terms with never having my baby. LOL

At 4:09am on August 7th I woke up bc I had to pee. Nothing unusual there. But as I sat on the toilet, I felt this urge like I had to poop. It almost felt like a really bad diarrhea pain. It was really low and went around to my lower back. I sat for a second and tried to "go" but the sensation soon passed and I went back to bed. As I was getting into bed, I had another one. It lasted a little while and then passed again. Then it struck me that I might be in labor! I laid in bed and just watched the clock. Every contraction from then on got stronger and closer together. Finally after about 10 minutes of this, I was apparently making enough noise that it woke my DH up and he asked if I was ok. I said, "Uh...I think I'm in labor. My contractions are about 3 minutes apart and right on top of one another." So we both laid there until it was clear that this was it! The contractions were so bad that I couldnt even talk thru them. And in between big contractions, I had smaller ones so I wasn't even getting a break. We called my doctor and I got ready while we waited for her call. I put on makeup and blow dried my hair! The whole time, I'm crying in pain but I was not going to hospital with my hair a mess. LOL

My doctor called back about 20 minutes later and she could tell I was in active labor. She said she could tell bc I was breathing really heavy (and sometimes not at all!) and almost crying while talking to her. We grabbed my bags and headed out the door. The 20 minute car ride to the hospital was pure hell. I had never been in so much pain in all my life. I knew they would hurt but man...never knew the extent of it. My DH was saying, "Here, grab my hand". I kept telling him I didn't want to grab his hand! He was trying to be supportive and boy do I love him for it but I just wanted to be left alone. It felt good to me or took the edge off I suppose when I'd stomp my heels into the ground. I dont know why but it did. Thats what I did. I tried breathing slow but that wasn't happening. My DH later told me he was scared bc he had never seen anyone in so much pain and he wanted to take the pain away from me. Awww! :)

By the time we got to the hospital it was a little before 6am. I know bc valet started at 6am and we were early. We parked in the garage and went into labor & delivery. DH wanted to get a wheelchair but I didnt want to sit down so I walked. We got up to L&D and tried to compse myself. I didnt want to be that woman screaming in the L&D triage. LOL However, I was definately moaning, grabbing onto the wall while bending over in pain and stomping my feet into the ground. There was no one in there besides us and the nurses and I really tried not to make a scene. But at this point I really didn't care. A triage nurse came over and said to my DH, "Would you mind filling out her paperwork without her while I take her back?" Of course he said, "Not at all."

They took me back into triage, hooked me up to a fetal monitor and checked my cervix. I was 5 cm dilated and completely thinned out. They took some blood, asked me if I wanted an epidural (to which I said hell yeah!) and then we walked to my delivery room. As I got up, I looked back and saw a ton of blood and "matter". I was like, "OMG! What is that?!" The nurse was like, "Its ok! Thats totally normal."

We walked to my room and got all hooked up again. I was asking the nurse when I could get my epidural. She said once my labs were back they'd called the anethstegiologist but that she could give me Stadol "to take the edge off." I said, "Give me whatever you got!". I thought anything they offered me would be safe so I took it. After I got the Stadol around 7am I felt really loopy and giddy but could still feel the contractions although she was right...it took the edge off. Unbeknownst to me, as soon as they gave me the Stadol, my DH said the baby's heartrate dropped but nothing too dramatic. He didn't say anything to me bc he didn't want to scare me but looking back, the nurse wouldn't leave my side and kept checking the fetal monitor. Around 7:30am/7:45am the anethstegiologist came in to give me my epidural. He stuck me about 7 times with the Lidocane and then had to pull out the epidural about 3 times before getting it right. I wasn't arching my back good enough. My DH was in front of me stooping down and I remember looking at him and saying, "What the hell is he doing?!" The epidural really didn't hurt but it was uncomfortable and I felt them putting in and pulling out the epidural and it didnt feel good! Finally it was in and I immediately felt no pain.

At this point my doctor came in to check me and I was 6 cm dialted and she said the baby was right there. She could feel that he had a conehead already! LOL Then she broke my water and left. She also said my water probably halfway broke in triage but she was breaking the rest of it. I was relaxed and ready to call people when the nurse got a phone call and said, "I can't leave room 108. Can you get someone else please? ." I was like, "Wha...?" She then called my doctor and said the baby's HB was dropping and continuing to drop even when my contractions let up. She had me turn left, turn right, put on an oxygen mask, turn left again, etc I heard her call my doctor again and say, "I think we need to call a c-stat." Next thing I know, my doctor and a few nurse come running in. By this time I was getting scared bc his heartrate was in the 60's! My doctor assesses the situation, looks at the fetal monitor sheet and very calmly says to the nurse, "I'm calling it." The nurses start running around, throwing my DH some clothes to put on and my doctor says, "Ok sweety, this is all going to happen really fast. We need to do a c-section to get your baby out. His heartrate is just not going back up. This is the safest route." I quietly said "Ok" and just laid there watching everyone scramble around. Right before they unhooked the fetal monitor his HB was low 50's. I started to cry to myself bc I was scared for my baby. I wasn't even scared of the c-section. It was all happening so fast that I didn't even have time to be scared!

After they unplugged everything, they wisked me thru L&D to the OR. We got into the OR room at 8:05am. My doctor asked me if we had brought our camera. My DH said, "Uh no...I wasn't even thining about the camera." So she asked one of the nurses to run and get it for us. After they prepped me and gave me the spinal block, I felt nothing from the neck down! It was like I was paralyzed. A little scarey but I had an AWESOME anethstegiologist who was so reassuring. I said, "Is it normal I can't lift or move my arms & fingers?" He said that was completely normal and that some people's bodies react really well to the medicine. Then I said, "Uh...what if I can't breathe out of my nose, just my mouth?" He reassured me that that was normal too. At this point I felt some tugging and alot of pressure. Then the aneths. says, "Ok hun, your blood pressure is a little low so I'm going to give you something to boost it up, okay?" My DH said when he looked over at my BP that it was REALLY low but the doctor was so non-chalant and calm about it that he didn't even worry. Shortly after that I heard my baby boy crying! He had a HUGE set of lungs on him. He was born at 8:17am on 8/7/07. My doctor said, "Here is your baby boy! And he has a conehead!" At this point my DH was already taking pictures of them pulling him out and showed me when they took him to clean him up. It was so surreal. I couldn't believe he was ours! After they wrapped him up, the nurse brought him over to me and took pictures of all of us together. I couldn't hold him bc I was "paralyzed" from the neck down. I thought I'd cry when I saw him fo rthe first time but I didn't. I was kind of in shock and in disblief that he was here and he was mine. After they stitched me up, they wheeled me into recovery where My DH and the baby were. They told me he was 8 pounds 7 ounces and 20" long. The nurse asked if I wanted to hold him. I told her I couldn't really lift my arms yet and I was afraid I would drop him. LOL After about an hour or so, they took me to my room where my mom, MIL and cousin were waiting. Everyone got to hold my DS before me. It was an odd feeling though. Even when I felt ok to hold him...I didn't. It was like I was scared to or something. He was just so foreign to me. Not in a depressed or bad way...just so new! It was just all so overwhelming and alot to take in. Once I finally held him though...it was the best feeling in the world.

All in all it was a great experience. No complications from the c-section and virtually no pain (after the percocets and motrin kicked in). I got to experience the labor part of it which is what I wanted and maybe thats why I was ok with having the c-section. I'm just glad we have the technology today to do c-sections bc who knows what would have happened had this not have been available to us. The doctor said the cord was wrapped around his neck when he came out but who knows why his HB dropped.

[teacher_jessica]

The Birth Story of Charles Philip... "Charlie"

We arrived at the hospital a little early at 7:15 am on Friday, November 30th and our nurse quickly met us and got us into our lovely birthing suite. Her name was Traci and she is real spitfire which was a great personality match for Brad and I because I like to have someone high energy, firm and confident around me when I have to tackle something unknown. t The wonderful thing about the hospital we delivered at, Swedish, is that you have one nurse assigned to you and she stays with you for your entire experience so she really was a savior. She had me undress, put my gown on and climb into my bed after she showed us around the suite. Next up was the IV for the Pitocin which hurt like no other. Seriously, getting that IV in my hand was so painful and Traci was nice assuring me that if I chose to have pain meds I would realize that getting that IV was by far worse than getting the epidural. So, at 7:30 am my Pitocin drip had been started and contractions started shortly after but I was able to breathe easily and talk through them... no biggie.

At 8:30 my doc walked in the room and was thrilled that not only had we gotten in for our induction but that the Pitocin had been going for an hour. She did an internal exam and told me I was now at 3.5-4cm dilated and said she was going to break my water and I might feel some warm fluid. Yeah, I felt warm fluid, a lot of it, and it felt disgusting. The fluid was clear and my doctor gave me a little pep talk and said she'd be back in a few hours to come and check on me. Within minutes my contractions were horrendous. I couldn't talk through them, gripped Brad's hand with all the energy I had and breathed the best I could. After about an hour or so of that Traci asked me how much active labor I would like to experience. I replied, "No more please." These contractions were one on top of the other and I was getting no break so she ordered the epidural.

The anesthesiologists showed up and talked me through getting the epidural and honestly, getting it was cake (the doc's were one female and one male and they were both drop dead gorgeous and worthy of Grey's Anatomy and I thought it was funny that my big ol' pregnant rear was just hanging out in all it's glory as they worked away on my back). Within a few minutes I was calmly lying on my side and Traci asked me how I felt. "Great." I said and she told me that the epidural was obviously working because I was currently having a horrendous contraction without feeling it. Phew! Since I hadn't slept much the night before due to excitement and an overactive baby the lights were turned off and I just relaxed quietly and told Brad to go get something to eat while he had the chance. Off he went in search of nourishment.

At around 11:30 my mom and her boyfriend arrived and shortly thereafter my MIL, FIL and SIL all arrived. We all chatted for a while and then Traci kicked them all out so that I could rest some more. My doctor showed up to check on me again and did another internal and found that I was making great progress and was at 6 cm. From this point on people would come in and check on me and I was just feeling really tired so I pretty much just listened to the chatter around me in a tired daze. Whenever Traci needed to check me internally she cleared the room and she consistently would lean down quietly and tell me different signals I could give her if I needed her to be the bad guy and kick people out, quiet them, etc. She was amazing.

By around 2ish I was chipper, chatty, had a renewed burst of energy and was feeling like I couldn't possibly be in labor because I felt far too good.

At around 3:30 when Traci checked me she said it didn't look like I'd quite made 9cm yet... I'd made 10! She told me it was time to start pushing and meet my baby and confidently told me that even though this was a big baby she would protect my body to her best ability and that there would be no need for an episiotomy. It was so reassuring to have her tell me that even though I logically knew it could still happen. She then asked me who I'd like in the room with me because it was just Brad and I at that point which had been our plan all along. All of a sudden I changed my mind and asked her if she would go and get my mom and my MIL Robyn. She asked if I was sure and I was. Before she left she got Brad to feel the baby's head which amazed me because Brad is super squeamish. I was really proud of him and struggling with the understanding that a real live baby was actually going to come out of my body. I was all smiles and laughter.

Once my mom and Robyn were in the room Traci had me do some practice pushes and was impressed by how well I could push with the epidural so she didn't turn it down. I felt zero pain and whenever I wasn't pushing I was laughing and talking. All I heard were reassuring and encouraging words from everyone around me and I felt incredibly empowered and just kept thinking to myself that I couldn't believe that my labor was so enjoyable and amazing so far.

Traci had me do some small pushes for a while and did a lot of massaging and said that since the fetal heart rate was great that pushing slowly would really help ensure that I suffered as little damage as possible. Just before 4:00 she called my doctor who was down in flash. As soon as Traci got off the phone with my doctor I asked her if she would get my SIL and FIL and bring them in. I know it probably sounds crazy but being surrounded by all these people who were so full of love was really empowering to me and filled me with emotions I can't describe. Plus, my FIL was a family practice doc so I knew this wasn't going to be anything he hadn't already seen. As soon as they were in the room I looked over at Steve, my FIL, and saw tears and I knew I'd made the right choice because it was readily apparent how special this was to him. My doctor then walked in and then told us that this was why we were her most favorite patients, laughter and love was spilling out of the room and apparently my high spirits were the talk of the labor ward as she entered.

I pushed a little while and my doctor was happily chatting with us in between pushes and we were swapping mini-stories and then she jokingly thanked me for keeping my end of the deal. She was referring the fact that when she put us on the schedule for induction on Friday I had told her I didn't want a long labor and that I intended to have her off to enjoy her weekend before dinnertime. Tee hee.

At about 4:15 the baby's head was out and my doctor told Brad he couldn't cut the chord because she had to since it was wrapped snuggly around his shoulder. Next, out came one shoulder and then another along with the rest of his body (it was 4:19 PM when he was officially born). I could feel the baby come out but I felt not a single sensation of pain. As soon as he was out the whole room cheered and then we all promptly began to bawl as they brought the baby over to stimulate him. Out came the most beautiful cry in the world and then Brad said, "It's a boy! It's a Charlie!" I couldn't stop crying and everyone was giving me kudos and congrats.

My doctor talked to me as she delivered the placenta and then of course I wanted to see it because I find that kind of stuff fascinating. She showed it to me and told me it was incredibly healthy and went over some other things with me as I asked questions. Then she told me I was completely "in tact" and had only some minor labial tears that required just a few stitches. She was amazed by this as am I because here are Charlie's stats:

9 pounds 6.2 ounces
21 1/2 inches
Head circumference of 15 1/2 inches

Wowee! He of course had major conehead, his nose was all smushed and even his ears were crumpled up but to us he was just perfect. Before my doctor left she gave me a hug and thanked me for letting her be a part of our special day and then told us she hoped we had many more children that she could deliver. Soon after I had my first round of breastfeeding, Brad bathed him and we basked in the glory of our brand new baby boy. Throughout the evening we had lots of visitors and eventually got transferred to a recovery room after several hours (Traci let us stay in the suite for a long time since they weren't busy and she was holding out for a larger recovery room for us since Brad is so dang tall).

I could go on and on... um, I guess I already did... but I can honestly say that ever since this experience I keep thinking about how I could not have wanted anything more from a labor and delivery experience. I never dreamed it could go so well and I could never have dreamed that I could do what I did. I am so thankful to have had the experience I did.

[Katie&Micah]

teacher_jessica
Wow!! Your labor sounds pretty darn perfect. It sounds like you were really really supported.

[lml41981]

......

[ShannonGH]

lml, beautiful story!! Got a little teary reading about your grandmother.:o I'm so glad your homebirth was all that you wanted and more!

jessica- I confess to lurking in the Nov thread and tearing up reading your story too! What a wonderful experience you had!!!

[karabear0117]

subbing

[NotDesperate]

Bump for more stories because I love reading these!

[Jaeschelle]

I will post because the day my DD was born was the best day of my life and I need to post something positive for a change, lol ...

***

Despite all of my hopes and dreams of going into labor naturally, I ended up getting induced because there was some uncertainty about my due date and my doctor didn't want me to go over 41 weeks. I was scheduled to be induced at 8am on Monday, December 3rd. As soon as we (me, DH and my mom) got to Labor & Delivery, they took me straight to my room. The nurse kept asking me if I was ready and I kept saying "not really." I was TERRIFIED! Anyway, I got changed and got into the bed. The nurse started my I.V., which I thought was going to hurt way worse than it did. But I think it didn't hurt so much because DH and I were trying to find Golden Girls on TV so I was distracted. After I got the I.V., I started shaking all over; I couldn't make it stop. They said it was from adrenaline.

Then, at about 8:30am, they started the pitocin. A lot of people had told me that contractions from pitocin are worse than regular contractions so I was really scared of that. I started shaking again and they said that it was from adrenaline and that the pitocin was causing other hormones to be released. About ten minutes later, the doctor came and checked me and I was 2cm, 50% effaced, which is what I was at my last appointment. Then she broke my water. Everyone had told me that getting your water broken hurts worse than pushing the baby out, but it didn't hurt AT ALL. We even heard a "pop" when it broke.

About ten minutes after that, I had my FIRST. REAL. CONTRACTION. Whoa mama ... that hurt. People say it feels like cramps. That's a lie. It feels like someone is trying to kill you. It felt like someone was trying to pull my uterus out of my ... um ... hoo-ha. I tried to just breathe through it, but it was hard. And the contractions were coming every three minutes at that point. I didn't want to get any pain medicine yet though because my only options were stadol (which I heard makes you feel and act drunk) and the epidural (which I didn't want to get too soon cause I didn't want it to stall my labor). The nurse said that stadol just makes you sleepy but it doesn't take the pain away. So I thought "What's the point of that?!" but I wasn't ready for the epidural, so I got the stadol. And I started shaking again. (Pretty much every time I/the labor made any progress or any time someone did something to me, I started shaking.) I drifted in and out of consciousness between some pretty horrible contractions for awhile. The nurse told me that stadol would "take the edge off" but, um, she lied. I mean, I guess it hurt a LITTLE bit less ... but not really. Anyway, at about 10:30am the doctor came back and checked me and I was 3cm and 100% effaced. (And my contractions were ... yikes!) She said that the hardest part was getting to 100% effaced and that I wouldn't be wimping out if I asked for an epidural then. I kind of didn't want to because 3cm didn't seem like very much progress. Then I had probably two more contractions and I asked for the epidural. Before the anesthesiologist came, the nurse checked me and I was 4cm. At this point, I was shaking out of control. It was so weird and embarassing because I couldn't stop it but they kept saying it was adrenaline. I just kept saying "I can't stop shaking, I can't stop shaking ..." It was extremely uncomfortable.

Anyway, then they did the epidural, which I expecting to be the most painful thing ever (besides contractions, of course) but it just kinda felt like someone pinched my back and then I felt some pressure. The hardest part was trying to be still while they were doing it because I was still kinda shaking and the contractions were making me want to jump out of the window. I just leaned against DH's chest and he whispered in my ear how great I was doing. I never saw any of the stuff they used to do the epidural and I think that made a big difference. It took them about fifteen minutes and then I got to lie back down. That was probably around 11:15am or so (I'm not so good with the times since the stadol had me all loopy).

Within ten or fifteen minutes, I started feeling some pressure but it wasn't that bad so I didn't think it was the urge to push. I thought it was just the contractions or something. So I had DH look at the monitor and tell me if I was having contractions when I felt the pressure. Sure enough, I was having a contraction every time I felt that pressure. That went on for awhile and the nurses turned me from one side to the other every fifteen minutes or so to help the baby drop more and stuff. Around 11:45 or something (maybe noon), I told the nurse I was feeling a lot of pressure and she checked me and I was a complete 10! (Good thing I got that epidural when I got it ...)

I really started shaking all over at that point. Everyone (the nurses) kept telling me that they couldn't believe how fast it was going. So they went to get the doctor (from China or somewhere cause it took forever). Luckily, they let me start pushing before the doctor came. They kept saying they didn't think I'd have to push for long. So, I did like three pushes or something and the doctor came and I pushed some more. At first they were only having me do three pushes to a count of ten, but the doctor asked if I wanted to do more and I was like "Well, duh, I'm ready to get this kid out!" So I started doing four pushes in a row. They kept telling me they could see the head and blah, blah, blah. I was just like "Shut up and count so I can push." Then the doctor started asking if I wanted a mirror so I could see the baby's head. I was like "Um, no, I want to push. I just want to push, push, push!" But they kept saying that the mirror would help me push. All of a sudden, there were forty people telling me to get the mirror. So I got the mirror mainly to make them leave me alone. And I saw the baby's head ... and then it went away and I think I got kinda mad cause I felt like they wouldn't let me push long enough to get her out. I really didn't want to rest even though I knew I needed to. I just wanted to push. I just didn't want to be pushing for hours or anything. I was soooo ready for DD to be born. Anyway, I should mention that until this point I had a deadly fear of pooing on the table, but when I saw her head disappear, I was like "I.am.NOT. watching her head disappear again." So, on the next push, I pushed really hard and I didn't give a crap (no pun intended, haha) if I pooed on the table or whatever. (I didn't, thank God!) And her head came out (and even with the epidural, it felt like someone set my hoo-ha on fire). And then they were telling me to stop pushing (because the doctor didn't have her coat or gloves on. :rolleyes: lol). Then all of a sudden everyone was like "Look! Look!" And I was like "I DON'T WANT TO LOOK! I JUST WANT TO PUSH THIS KID OUT!!" I didn't realize that my body had already pushed her out and that the doctor had her. (I think that I kinda fell asleep between pushes right then. Blasted stadol.) But then I saw her and they put her on my chest and I cried and DH (who was REALLY quiet during the whole pushing part) cut the cord. (He later told me he was scared to say anything because I always told him I didn't want any cheerleaders -- a la Miranda from Sex and the City.) Everyone started saying how much she looks like DH (and she does). And then I spent the next 45 minutes or so getting stitched up and with people pushing on my tummy and stuff. Oh yeah, those stitches HURT even though I had an epidural. Fun times. Unfortunately, I don't really remember much else about after she was born ... stadol had me loopy.

After DD was cleaned up a bit and they were allegedly finished fixing me up, I got to hold my little pumpkin. We took some pictures and then they gave her a bath. She stayed awake for a looooong time after delivery and she just looked at everyone. She didn't really cry at all, other than when she was first born. She just looked around. She was 7lbs 6oz, 19.5 inches. And she was freaking BEAUTIFUL!

[HollyMN]

I also posted this in the Unmedicated birth thread.

Here it is - all eight hours - but I was so late getting my hospital room it could have become a "hallway birth".

Dave is my DH, and Caleb is my 2.5 year old son.

Last Friday, at 5:30 AM (t-8 hours) I was having contractions in my sleep. I wouldn't fully wake up for them, I’d just roll over and go back to sleep. These contractions felt different and eventually it occurred to me I could get out of bed and walk around and maybe that would help. I have never been in real labor or false labor before - just induced labor - so this was new. I crawled back into bed between contractions, but I couldn't sleep for thinking about it.

At 6:30 AM, I was up with a contraction and felt almost a trickle, but not really. I went to the bathroom and it was some red mucous. Okay, more signs, today is probably the day, forget the weekend plans. Caleb woke up earlier than usual. Even though Dave gets up with Caleb on weekdays lately, I got Caleb since I was already awake. Caleb and I climbed on the couch and watched a couple Curious George's (I had about 2 contractions/episode, but didn't get off the couch for them).

Dave got up at 7:45 while I was getting Caleb dressed, and he remarked why did Caleb get up so early. I told him that I got Caleb today because I've been awake since 5:30 and having regular contractions. Dave just sort of froze in place for a second while making the bed, and then he asked if I had packed everyone for the hospital already. I said I’d packed myself and the baby, but not Caleb – and that I hadn't decided whether I still wanted to check in at work today anyway. And should Caleb still go to his Friday morning toddler group?

Dave was insistent on my packing Caleb’s stuff and he started packing his. Contractions were about 15 minutes apart and I’d stop what I was doing and pace, then return. I also told him about the mucous.

At 8 AM, I was envisioning myself at work. I could walk and talk through contractions. Nobody would look at me and know. I could go in for an hour. I wanted to hand off some tasks I was working on to people and update myself in the vacation database, clean off my desk, etc.

At 8:30 AM (t-5 hours) I decided it was ridiculous to go to work because labor could pick up at any time. I would not to go to work, but Caleb could still go to his class. After Caleb left, I checked in online and posted.

I thought I had better rest. Dave wanted me to call the midwives, but I thought it was too early, contractions were 15 minutes apart and easy to handle. I turned on the TV and laid on the couch and watched “Bringing Home Baby” on TLC, which is the first baby programming I’d watched since before Caleb was born. I’d have to pause the TV now to get up and walk around during contractions so I wouldn’t miss the show, then return to the couch. I was now timing contractions. Nine minutes apart. Also more red mucous. Dave really wanted me to call the midwives – what if something is wrong like low amniotic fluid with Caleb? I said that I had an ultrasound two days ago and everything was fine. I found a pamphlet for what to do when you’re in labor and it says to call when contractions are 5 minutes apart for an hour. Mine were farther apart. Finally I humored him and just called the midwife apologizing for how early on in labor I was calling.

The midwife on call was the new one that I had only had for an appointment once but it was recent and I remembered her and she was nice. She said that I should drink a lot of water, and take a bath to see if this was the real thing. She said to call her when the contractions were 6 minutes apart. She said it sounded like the real thing, and that since I was GBS+ and my first labor was short that I could actually go to the hospital at anytime if I wanted to. She said that she was at another hospital, but she had some other work to do at mine, so she’d head over now. She asked about my intentions for pain medication, and I said that my first baby was born without an epidural and I’d give that a chance again, but no guarantees.

Then Caleb came home from “class” at 10:30 (t-3 hours), and was excited to show off his Valentine’s craft with candy glued to it. Dave was very glad I called, and practically ushered me to the sink to drink water. I said “let’s call Craig and Christina to get Caleb”. It occurred to me that I didn’t have to wait for the last minute for that, they could take him now.

I was in the bathtub when Christina arrived at 11:15 AM (t-2.5 hours). Labor sort of stopped entirely in the bath. Eventually I had a little contraction. I had a fleeting thought that maybe this was all just a false alarm - and I was skipping work and calling my SIL over nothing. Caleb ran in and checked on me in the bath a few times and wanted to join me and play with his toys, nope. The hot water ran out, and Christina was still chatting with Dave and Caleb. I guess I was going to get out of the tub with my SIL still here. I got out and put on clothes and held a pretty long conversation. I felt like a fraud because I didn’t feel or look like I was in labor anymore, and here she was to take Caleb for us.

She and Caleb left at 11:45 (t-2 hours). For lunch, Dave had made some pita sandwiches with chicken and olives and red peppers and cheese. We sat down at the kitchen table with a list of baby names and went through them while eating, and I would get up every six minutes now and walk around through a contraction and breathe, then go back to the table and resume eating and discussing the next page of names.

Dave was insisting I call the midwife again. I put him off a little and went downstairs and was checking online and felt some back pressure. I got on all fours and put my head on the ground and the slight pressure of my jeans on my butt made me feel better. I told Dave that the hospital was so nearby and Caleb was gone that we didn’t have to worry about timing anymore. I said I see why people have home births now. Not that labor is different from the hospital labor with Caleb, but time flies when you’re doing stuff you want to do at home like watch your own Tivo, check in online, walk all over your house, I could put my head down on carpeted floor. I told Dave – why can’t we stay home, no hurry, it’s going to get a lot worse than this. Didn’t he want to stay home and play on his computer, more fun than the hospital? He said if I wanted antibiotics, we should really go (I should have 4 hours of antibiotics before birth for Group B Strep ).

At 12:30, I sent an email to my boss explaining my absence today. I called the midwife to say that I was coming in and that the contractions used to be six minutes apart, but I’d quit timing them lately. She said that she’d call the nurse’s station and let them know I was coming.

At 12:56 (t-48 minutes) I got in the car to go to the hospital. OH, guess what, I really don’t want to sit down in the car. Good thing we only had one mile to go, with one stoplight (and it was a right turn). I planted my feet on the floor and raised my butt off the seat because it was a little better. I wore my seatbelt.

I was very happy to get out of the car at the hospital parking lot. The snowy air was a nice distraction. I paced in a circle while Dave got our bags out of the car. We walked across the parking lot and in the main building where the different wings for the clinics and the hospital meet. I was struck by how busy it was. Lots of people, would I have a contraction here and make a scene, breathing? I kept walking.

We got up to the third floor maternity area at 1:06 (t-42 minutes). I went to the desk and said I was Holly. A nurse asked me if I was okay with standing up. I said yes, (because I was not okay with sitting down). I followed her to triage and Dave and I waited there. I changed into a gown and had more contractions. Dave and I were alone in there, and Dave was getting upset. What he saw was that the nurses were just out there eating their lunches, and here I was doubled over in triage. I said – “oh well – what can they do for me anyway?” I probably was going to avoid drugs again, so really, what could anyone do that I couldn’t do for myself. Dave: “they could show you some attention! I’m going out there”. He left and I was alone and had another contraction. I felt like I was in a time warp, it couldn’t have been six minutes since the last contraction, they were coming fast. Dave came back with an older nurse who said, “oh hi – I was just in the bathroom getting the food out of my teeth.” I was amazed – um… she was telling me this, why?

She asked if I would lay on the bed to get monitored and checked. I said, “maybe….actually no.” And started breathing through another contraction. Then she said – you seem pretty uncomfortable, is this your first birth? I said no, and that I needed to get the antibiotics. She asked if I had my cervix checked at my last appointment and I said I was 3+cm on Wednesday. She said, why don’t we just get you a room? Uh….works for me!!!!!

[HollyMN]

I tagged along behind her down the hall and she showed me to my hospital room at 1:20 (t-24 minutes). I felt another contraction and walked into the bathroom to get away. I came out when it was over, but I still didn’t feel right, so I just stood in the doorway of the bathroom with my hands on my knees breathing. Dave was on the other side of the room unpacking our bags, and other nurses were coming in. I felt more wetness, but it still wasn't amniotic fluid – more red mucous.

Then I grudgingly got on the bed to be checked. I wondered if I would be 6 cm or something and how long I had to go. Now if the nurse’s station lunch hour was the part that pissed Dave off, this next part makes me upset. The nurse was checking me and reaching in there and said, “it looks like you’re complete�. I was pleased to be 10 cm, but not comfortable with her exploration. She kept talking “there’s a bulging bag of waters". I really hated it, so I grabbed the bed side rails and was breathing to try to cope. She stopped and asked if I was having a contraction, and I said “no – it’s you, be gentle!� Then she resumed jerking her hand around down there. So I grabbed the rails and was breathing again and again she stopped and asked if I was having a contraction and again I said NO. (Hello! Don’t try to be thorough and double and triple check your measurement if you are causing me pain! One check is enough!)

The room was buzzing with nurses unsure of what to do next. And where was my midwife, I thought she’d be waiting for me? One nurse gave me an IV for antibiotics, but I said that clearly I wouldn’t get the recommended dosage in time (the first should be started at least 4 hours before birth). I found that they were “supposed to ask� me to start some antibiotics, but I could refuse them. I asked if one was better than none. I said fine, get me the IV, whatever. But of course they couldn’t get the antibiotics delivered without my midwife ordering them for me.

I had another contraction lying in bed, and it was awful. I grabbed the siderails and faced them white-knuckled, eyes shut. They asked if I felt like I was going to push, I didn’t think so. Elsewhere in the room, one nurse wanted to monitor me, but I didn’t want to move to the other side of the bed. Another nurse was trying to fill out my admission form, but said – “oh, I won’t have you do this now. Can I at least get verbal consent that you’ll have your baby here?� I said, “I will have my baby at this hospital.� Dave remembers that some doctor in a white coat stepped into the room, and she seemed annoyed to be called in, probably because I wasn’t her patient. They were prepping the room for delivery.

I had another contraction and grabbed the bedrails again, and I was breathing hard and they told me to blow, blow like a candle and afterwards I said, “I felt a baby head descending!!!� They said yes, they saw that. The baby was right there.

I lay clutching the bedrails on one side, sweating and shaking a little, trying to rest and relax now that that contraction was over. The next contraction came, and I felt the baby’s head again – oh I hate this so much, much worse than labor. And then I felt a gush of warm liquid on my lower leg. There – that was my bag of waters. It was 1:29 PM (t-15 minutes). In case you’re wondering how I know these exact times - Dave had nothing to do because my bed was surrounded by nurses, so he was taking notes for me.

My midwife arrives at 1:33 (t-11 minutes), and we say hi. I actually look over at the group gathered by my bed and there is another midwife in my group, who I had most of my appointments with. I say hi.

The midwives say that the baby’s head is right there and I can push the baby’s head out. I don’t believe them. I remember at Caleb’s birth I felt exactly like this, and they couldn’t find a heartbeat and the doctors made me push out his head and it was an awful five seconds. I’d like to argue with those natural birth advocates that say that tearing doesn’t hurt because the baby’s head applies pressure and numbs the area. That was NOT TRUE for me! Pushing a baby’s head out is pain. This is partly why I chose midwives this time instead of OB’s – maybe they knew some midwifery technique to alleviate some of that pain. More stretching?

I had another contraction but did not push. After it was over, they asked why I didn’t want to, and that the only way it would feel better is to push her out. I said that pushing out my first baby was painful -didn’t they know some technique with stretching to help me? They told me that I was as stretched out as I was going to get. I could push her now or later, but I was already stretched out, and there was no point in waiting.

The next contraction I did push for real. And a baby did not come out. With Caleb, the first push I actually tried he came out – after three hours of resisting pushing. Not this time. They asked me why I didn’t push. I said I did push. One nurse said yes, she did push. A midwife said, “I didn’t see you with your chin down and holding your breath and PUSHing.� Okay, I suppose I could try that. I was laying on my side, but at a 45 degree angle, with one midwife supporting one leg in the air.

The next contraction, I did as they said with my chin to my chest and pushing with all my strength, ow-ow-ow!, and I felt her head move farther down, grabbed a breath again and pushing more and felt her move farther down, OW-OW-OW, and then again. I stopped and – HER HEAD WAS HALFWAY OUT. I could just cry (I didn’t) – I was stuck like this in a terribly painful position. I feared this would happen with Caleb’s birth, but it never did then. Finally another contraction came (it’s messed up that I now had to look forward to a contraction), and I did it again. Chin down, holding my breath, pushing her head farther, farther – ow! Grab a breath and more - and her head was out! And then the body came right after it like nothing, and they put her on my stomach, all purple. Oh, I was glad that was all over and I said that a few times. The baby (for which we still didn’t have a name yet) was crying and healthy.

I felt immediately fine after it was over, until the midwives were poking down there to inspect me. I had the midwife demonstrate how she came out - some of the tearing was due to the fact that the baby had her hand up - and the hand came before the shoulder. They said that having her head halfway out for that minute or so helped with stretching and not tearing more too. I said I guessed it was worth it then. The midwives were congratulating me and saying "how could that have gone any better?" My midwife wondered what it was that finally made me come to the hospital and I said my husband.

[ShannonGH]

Contractions started around 8:00pm on Friday night (40w1d). At first, I didn't get my hopes up too high, since I had had a couple hours of pretty decent contractions the previous two nights that did not end up in real labor. These contractions seemed more intense though and by 9:30pm, I knew it was probably the real thing. Dh went on to bed to try to get some sleep while I stayed up and played around on the computer and timed contractions. They were 7-9 minutes apart at this time. By 10:30pm, they were 4-6 minutes apart so I got Dh and told him to start getting ready. I also woke my mom, who was staying with us since we were scheduled to be induced the next morning at 7:00am (I was so pleased to have gone into labor on my own instead!). Dh showered, I put on makeup, and we finished packing. We left for the hospital at 11:45pm, when contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. I was SO EXCITED that we were finally going to be able to meet our new baby!

I checked in to the hospital, got hooked up to the monitors and found I was almost 5 cm dialated and fully effaced. Contractions were pretty uncomfortable at this point but they suggested I be monitored for awhile and receive IV fluids before I got my epidural. I finally got the epidural at 12:45am, although there was a spot on my left side where I could still feel pain and, at times, it got pretty uncomfortable. They added more epidural meds at 2:15am and that thankfully did the trick. I was totally pain-free and looking forward to resting for a bit before time for pushing. To my surprise, when I was checked again at 2:30am, I was 10cm! The on-call ob was on her way to the hospital so I just let my contractions push the baby further down into the birth canal since, at that time, he wasn't fully engaged. The ob got there at 3:00am and broke my water. I started pushing at 3:10am and delivered at 3:27am on Saturday, December 29.

The ob immediately held the baby up so Dh could announce the gender. "It's a boy!" I could not believe it! I was so convinced we were having a girl. What a wonderful, welcome surprise!! Maxwell XXXX XXXX was 9lb 13.9oz and 20 inches long (although I'm pretty sure they mismeasured his length). I was shocked when they told me how much he weighed! He had a head full of sandy brown hair. The nurses cleaned him, put him under the oxygen for a little bit to help with pinking up, and then handed him over to us. We simply could not believe we had a healthy son. He was so very handsome and we were immediately in love.

side note: I know it sounds crazy but I LOVE giving birth. I have been very fortunate that both of my labor/deliveries have been wonderfully, awesome experiences. It is a time full of every single emotion you can think of- excitement, nervousness, elation, love. Makes me want to do it again. :)

[Wrighty26]

Great stories Jaeschelle, Holly, and Shannon!

I am thinking I would really like to have a natural birth next time, Holly - so I loved reading your story :) I can't believe how close you came to having you baby at home or in triage!

I don't think you sound crazy at all Shannon! I loved giving birth to me son-- it really was the best day in my life....it's indescribable and nothing can ever come close to how it feels!

[PinkMartini]

DD's birth

I woke up to a gush of fluid at 6:15am on October 25th 2007, 4 days overdue and a day until my scheduled induction. My underware was soaked as well as my pj pants. I sat up and woke DH up with a “DH, I think my water just broke.” He jumped out of bed, went to the bathroom and got dressed. I went into the bathroom and confirmed my water was broken. We told everyone, my mom and DH’s parents that the big day had come. They ran around the house and got ready. DS was to stay with father in law while DH was to take me, my mom and his mom to the hospital. We finally made it out of the house around 7:30am. It took us a good hour to get to the hospital and the drive there was beautiful. The mountains around the valley were covered with snow and it was such a perfect day to have a baby.

Got to the hospital and checked in. Nurse Marie took a sample of the fluid and told me in fact it was amniotic fluid. Yay! My water had broken, finally. Something I didn’t get to experience with DS (Dr. broke it in the hospital). Nurse Marie told me I was being admitted and she took me to my labor room and I got changed into a gown. Got hooked up to monitor to measure my contractions and she went to call OBGYN. Came back in and said the dr was on his way over and told me my contractions were about 5 min’s apart and were about a min long. I was having contractions but they weren’t painful yet. OBGYN was there within mintues and took a look at me and said I was about 5 cm’s dialated and 80% effaced. He broke my hind water bag (I guess I had broken my forebag on my own) and told Nurse Marie to watch my contractions and if they didn’t get stronger to start me on Pitocin. So I rested in bed for about 20 minutes while I was being monitored while my mom and mother in law called family to let them know today was the day.

Nurse Marie came in and told me that while I was having contractions, they just weren’t strong enough to keep dialating me for a long while. She suggested trying Pitocin but that it was up to me. I agreed, although I realized Pitocin made the contractions stronger and more painful, I wanted to have DD without having a long labor. So she turned Pitocin on at 3ml/hr to see if the helped. Boy did the contractions start up a lot quicker at that point. As soon as the contractions got worse I asked to get my epidural. Nurse Marie went to get ahold of the anesthesiologist and find out how long it would be. I played a few card games with DH and mother in law while my mom played an electronic yahtzee game. The contractions got very bad after about an hour on the pitocin. At that point it was all I could do to get through them. Nurse Marie would help me through them (hold my hand while DH held my other hand, talk me through it, help me breathe, tell me when it was almost over). Finally the anesthesiologist made it to my room. He sat me up and prepped me. Nurse Marie was my saving grace, she sat on the back of a chair right in front of my bed helping me through the contractions while I had my epidural put in. My mom had to leave the room at that point (she doesn’t do well with needles) and went and called my dad. After I got the epidural I was told to expect relief in about 5 minutes. The anesthesiologist stayed in the room while he finished up the paperwork to make sure I started feeling some relief. After 5 min’s my contractions got a lot easier to deal with. He finished up and left the room.

After about 30 min’s I noticed that only my right side was feeling numb. I felt the contractions still on my left side. So Nurse Marie went and got the anesthesiologist again. He came back in and talked to me. Told me I could have him re-do the epidural or I could try to roll on my left side and see if I could get the medicine over there. So I rolled onto my side and prayed it started working because I didn’t want to get it re-done. At that point I started feeling my bladder. (Or what I thought was my bladder) I asked Nurse Marie if she’d express it and she said it wasn’t full at that point, so she’d wait a little longer. With every contraction I felt like I had to pee though. So after a little while of feeling like my bladder was going to burst I asked her again. She agreed and got out not that much urine. And the feeling didn’t go away. So a little while longer Nurse Marie said she’d do an internal to see how dialated I was. She checked me and I was 10 cm’s and ready to push. She told me she’d have me do a ‘practice push’ to see how well I pushed and then she’d call the dr. So she got the room ready, changed the bed out (added the pushing parts to it – stirrups, ect) and then pulled my gown up to push. She took 1 look and said “Don’t do anything, the baby’s head is right there!” and ran out of the room to call the dr. I freaked out and started bawling. I honestly don’t know why I started crying at that point, I remember DH coming up to me and asking why I was crying. I think it might’ve been the adrenaline. So that feeling I was feeling wasn’t my bladder, it was DD moving down the birth canal. A few min’s passed and in walks OBGYN. He got suited up and we were ready to push. I pushed once for a count of ten, and DD’s head was out. I pushed once more for a count of ten and she was out, at 1:23pm. She was 8lbs, 5oz and 20 in long. I didn’t feel any pain like I did when DS was born. He cleared out her nose/mouth; DH cut her cord and she was placed on my tummy. I started bawling again. She started screaming at that point and we got a few pictures. All the while OBGYN was stitching me up. I tore and got 3 stitches. Then they asked if I was ready to let them clean her/measure her/check her and I said yes. So they took her over to the ‘baby bed’ and took care of her. DH got some pictures of her while she was being measured. After she was taken care of I was then told I should try nursing her. I still couldn’t get up out of bed so I nursed her on both sides for like half an hour each. After that, Nurse Marie told me I should try getting up to go take a shower and clean up. So I got up, with her help, made it to the bathroom and sat on the toilet while she took my IV out. Afterwards I tried to stand up and fell back. I sat there for a min and got my bearings. Nurse Marie told DH that he needed to come into the bathroom with me while I showered, just in case I almost fainted again. So I showered and got changed into a clean nightgown. We then packed up the room and was moved to the post partum room. My mom and mother in law stayed around for awhile and then DH left to take them back home. He got back a few hours later (our house was an hour away) and brought me McDonalds to eat for dinner. We then ‘oohed’ and ‘awwed’ over DD and tried to get a bit of sleep that night.

Here I am at 39 weeks pregnant with her

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/JMO919/39weekspreg003.jpg

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/JMO919/TaylorParentscamera10-25012.jpg

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/JMO919/Taylor10-25037.jpg

[MelissaLovesPugs]

It has been over 2 years now, I can't believe how time flies. Just wanted to share the birth story my hubby wrote, "way back when". ;) -Melissa
-
-
2/2006
Abigail is here!

That's right, Abigail Rose was born yesterday at 3:32 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 10
oz and was 18.5 inches long. That's right, she's short and chubby, just like her
dad. Actually, she's the cutest little thing I've ever seen. And so far she has
a great personality; not too fussy, but very communicative in telling us what
she needs (basically food, diaper change or to be held). We'll see how long that
lasts!


The story of Abby's birth is one with several ups and downs. Abigail, after having turned and engaged around week 33 or
34, last week somehow managed to flip herself out of position and into a breech
position. Yesterday morning the OB and a resident performed an external cephalic
version, which basically involves the doctors using their hands and fingers to
put tremendous pressure on Melissa's belly and then drag their hands around
either clockwise or counterclockwise to try and rotate the baby back into a
vertex position. It was very painful for Melissa as they couldn't use any pain
medications (they needed to know when they were pushing too hard.) Melissa took
it like a champ - she only said "ouch" quietly once and was silent and still the
rest of the time. I was amazed, because as I'm sure you all know, I would have
been howling like a baby had I undergone that.


So, after four attempts, and despite only a 40% chance of success, they actually
managed to get the baby turned! The doctor immediately induced labor. A couple
hours later, Melissa had dilated to 4 cm. and they put in an epidural. Things
were going very smoothly at that point, when Abby decided to throw another
wrench into the process. Sometime right before noon, the nurse checked Melissa’s
cervix and thought she felt little fingers in the cervix. The resident came in
and sure enough, Abby had somehow managed to get her hand up above her head. At
that point, our OB ordered the resident to try and push the hand back inside.
He and another resident were unable to do it after a couple tries. So, there was
no choice but to go for a c-section. By the time they had Melissa prepped and
ready to go, Abby had managed to get her whole lower arm through the cervix.


Thus, despite the successful external version and the smooth progress of the
labor (made it all the way to 6 cm dilated!), we still ended up with a
c-section. But that’s all right because Melissa is recovering wonderfully so
far. She’s going to have a little breakfast this morning and she’ll probably try
standing soon. Her incision is healing well with no signs of infection.


As for Abby, she’s doing great too. She had an Apgar score of 9 and 9, which is
great. Her hand and arm were a little swollen, but don’t appear to be too
bruised for having been pinched between her head and Melissa’s cervix. Our
pediatrician stopped by yesterday evening and said he wants to order a sonogram
of Abby’s hips because he’s concerned about hip dislocation since she was breech
for a while, is female and was born c-section. But she’s moving all her limbs
really well, so I’m not terribly worried about it. Otherwise, she’s doing just
great! She’s such a cute, chubby little thing! Last night she slept for about an
hour at a time between feedings, diaper changing and snuggle time. . . . Did I
just say “snuggle time?� . . . Anyway, everything is going well. I’m at home
taking care of the pugs right now, but I had better head back to the hospital
soon.

[red_canuck]

Ainsley’s birth story

Welcoming a second child into the world is just as unique an experience as the first time. You may think you know what you are doing, but each child shows you that they have their own personality, distinct even to the point of how and when they want to enter the world! To be blessed with creating and nurturing a life again, after knowing the love there exists between mother and child, is overwhelming. Love is not divided; it is multiplied with each child. Ainsley’s birth was an amazing event. I had hoped and planned and had everything I could set up ahead of time, all that was left was for her to decide she was ready to enter the world and be welcomed into our lives – she was already a part of our hearts and our family the moment she was conceived.
Writing a birth story is a challenge and a privilege. Writing it means you are a mother, it means you have an amazing little person who needs you and loves you for being *you*. It means that you have gone through the most life changing event I can imagine. Giving birth is powerful. It can push a woman beyond any level of imagination possible. It is the most physically charged, basic human function I can imagine, and its rewards cannot be counted. Knowing where to start the story is hard. You want to remember and document everything to show your children when they are older, to show your friends and family, and to reread yourself whenever you need a pick me up. I reread my son Logan’s birth story frequently. During the sleepless newborn nights, during the sleepless teething nights, as his first birthday approached, when he amazes me and when he frustrates me. It is an instant connection to the beginning of the most fundamental relationship possible.
I am insanely proud of Ainsley’s entrance into the world. I fought long and hard to plan a homebirth, where I could welcome my daughter into the safety and comfort of our family in surroundings that were familiar to me, and would be a comfort to both of us. We had numerous roadblocks to overcome to ensure our homebirth, but we did it. I had asked my two best friends to be involved in Ainsley’s birth, and as both live over an hour away, we needed to be on the ball about when to call them to be here. And as both have toddlers themselves, timing could have been an issue. Thankfully, it all worked out perfectly!
Thursday April 10, 2008 I had a midwife appt first thing in the morning. Rob had taken the morning off work to be with Logan while I went to my appointment. After talking to one of the midwives, Basak, about the random contractions all week, we decided to do an internal, and if possible a stretch and sweep to see if we could move things long. Turns out I was about 1cm dilated and 50% effaced, and Basak was able to do the S&S, which I didn’t even feel!! After my appt, we took Logan to the park to play and for a nice long walk. Rob left for work as Logan went down for a nap, and I took the time to myself to have a nice long nap as well. Thursday night we spent the same as usual, watching some tv, puttering around the house, talking to friends and family on the phone. I was optimistic the S&S had helped a bit as I was having a lot of activity down under.
Turns out my optimism wasn’t misplaced!
My labour started around 2am on Friday April 11, 2008. I had been having cramps and random contractions all week, but on Friday they began to come at time able distances between then, and were painful enough that I wasn’t able to sleep anymore. I ended up coming downstairs and watching tv, deciding to track my contractions using an online counter, and update my journal. Here is how the contractions looked in the early morning:
Start time - end time – duration - interval
03:54:07 am 03:55:16 am 1 mins, 9 secs - 7 mins, 22 secs
03:46:44 am 03:47:42 am 57 secs - 7 mins, 10 secs
03:39:34 am 03:40:24 am 50 secs - 8 mins, 17 secs
03:31:16 am 03:32:13 am 57 secs - 8 mins, 16 secs
03:23:00 am 03:23:44 am 44 secs - 9 mins, 3 secs
03:13:56 am 03:16:10 am 2 mins, 14 secs - 4 mins, 23 secs
03:09:32 am 03:10:29 am 56 secs - 6 mins, 20 secs
03:03:12 am 03:04:03 am 50 secs - 8 mins, 40 secs
02:54:31 am 02:55:35 am 1 mins, 3 secs - 11 mins, 56 secs
02:42:35 am 02:44:09 am 1 mins, 34 secs
I decided around 5am to wake rob up to rub my back during contractions, I was feeling a lot of back pressure and pressure in my hips as the contractions wrapped around to my lower abs. Around 6am Rob and I decided the contractions were definitely “it�, and so we made the decision to call in the troops! I called (and woke up!) Christina and Andria, and called my mom as she made her way into work to find out when she could come. The plan had been for my mom to come and be with Logan while I laboured, maybe keeping him overnight depending on timing. Turns out my mom wasn’t able to leave work and be in Guelph until late afternoon, but both Andria and Christina were both able to come out mid-morning.
As luck