First off-thank you sooo much girls for all y'all's participation. Seriously made my week. Now, onto our third and final installment...(you'll have to excuse me the added detail compared to the last two. It was my most recent birth and hence the most fresh in my mind).
I woke up on October 28th at about 7, 7:30ish with contractions every 10 minutes or so. I had been contracting off and on for about two weeks, so I wasn't convinced it was labor yet and figured I'd wait and see how things went throughout the day. The contractions were painful-ish all day, but weren't progressing very quickly and I just went about my day. Mid-day, I decided I was in actual labor, but I have a tendency to putter during labor (as my previous posts attested to) and I went about all business as usual. Anyway, about 5:00ish that evening, I started seriously timing my contractions and realized they were speeding up fairly quickly. I started packing up the kids to go with my mom to her house and getting stuff for the hospital and by the time I left for the hospital that evening, my contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart and were hurting a lot. They continued to get much more intense on the drive down to the hospital (a little over an hour away), but actually spread out in time to about 6 minutes apart. I was paranoid about going into the hospital and having contractions that far apart (heaven forbid they mistake me for an antsy first time mom ;), so I convinced my husband to pick up some dinner for himself and fill up the car with gas before we parked at the hospital. I considered stopping at the mall to walk around for a bit...thank heavens we didn't or I definitely would've had a baby somewhere between Famous Footwear and The Gap. When we parked they were still 6 minutes apart. My doctor suspects at that point in time, I was probably dilated to 5-ish cm. Because I wanted to give my contractions a chance to speed up, I had Spencer park in the parking garage (rather than do valet parking at the front of the hospital) and walk to the hospital with me (it's about a 5 minute walk while not in labor). As soon as we started walking (especially with those pesky two flights of stairs ), my contractions sped up like crazy. When I checked in at labor and delivery, it was 8:32pm and my contractions hurt like h**l, but I was surprisingly managing them really well. I had studied up on the Bradley method while pregnant and the method of relaxing your body while it worked through the contractions was working really well for me. Also, I think in large part, my management of the pain was because I seriously thought I had like 6 hours of labor ahead of me (like I did with my previous daughter), so I kept on comparing them to how much more intense they'd be getting, if that makes any sense. Anyway, they put me in triage and the nurse checked me and lo and behold, I was fully dilated. So, I had dilated from a 5ish all the way to a 10 in the time it took me to walk from the car to labor and delivery. That was a very. long. painful. walk. Right after she checked me in triage, I started to feel a little pushy. They immediately moved me over to a delivery room and called my doctor, who arrived all out of breath about 10 minutes later. While we waited for my doctor, I was practically giddy at the thought that I was that close to being done. I seriously had planned on going for so much longer. The nurses couldn't believe how well I was coping, including the fact I was laughing and making jokes in the moments between contractions. I just couldn't get over the fact that I would be having the baby in a few minutes versus a lot of hours, like I had planned on. Anyway, after the doctor got there, I couldn't hold back any longer and two contractions later, we had a baby. I was lucky and didn't have anything more than a little skid mark. My daughter was officially born at 9:31pm, so about an hour after we got to the hospital and about 14 hours after I woke up with contractions that morning. The pushing was by far the most painful part for me. The contractions were very intense, but I just focused on breathing and relaxing my way through them and I somehow was able to stay on top of them pretty well. The pushing...well, let's just say I was glad it only lasted for like five minutes, although I was at least crowning for nearly all of it, so that probably didn't help things any. After birth, however, I just felt so fabulous. I couldn't even believe how great I felt, both physically and emotionally. It was such a high and it was so nice not to have to deal with everything that comes with an epidural and tearing and all that.
Since the little one descended so quickly, there was loads of mucus still in her lungs when she was born (because it didn't have a chance to get squeezed out in the birth canal), so after the first initial holding and cord-cutting, the nurses and pediatrician started to suck out the mucus and fluid. That took about 30-45 min because they were having a hard time keeping her blood-oxygen levels up. They suspected that part of the problem was how upset she was, so they had me nurse her skin to skin. That calmed her right down and helped loads with her blood-oxygen levels. Other than that, however, she was just fine at birth, alert and active, although very blue. She was a perfect little 6lb 12 oz, 19 3/4 inch bundle of perfect.
My third birth was my ideal birth. Really, truly fabulous. It was totally worth the pain in the butt of traveling over an hour to each doctor visit and then the hospital to have my natural VBAC. I realize that it's not an option, or even a desire for everyone to go natural, or even vaginal, but for me, it was absolutely perfect. I could honestly have 5 more just like her, especially considering she really was a good little baby (as long as she was being held, anyway ;). Honestly, I can't wait to try it again.
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Ok- here's my number 2...a little background info first. I was living in Michigan at the time with my husband and 2 year old, Josiah. My husband, a seaman in the Coast Guard, was stationed to a bouy-tender, ice-breaking cutter. He was gone ALOT. He was accepted to A-school and we were to move the first part of September. I was going to be 8 months or so when we moved. He was gone throughout the majority of the packing and cleaning of our household, which I did alone. Finally it was time for us to move-or at least me and Josiah. Kit drove us down to OK to stay with my mother while he went back and finished out his tour of duty on the cutter. He would fly in on October 9th, then leave for his training school on October 12th. I was due October 18th, but my doctor was willing to induce me Oct. 10th so Kit could attend the birth and see our son before he left for 3 months. At 36 weeks when my dr. checked me I was dilated to a 2 and starting to eface. 37 weeks I was still at a 2 and efaced a little more. Not bad. At my 38 week appt. I hadn't changed. I thought for sure things would stay put to allow Kit to come in for the induction. And then there was a cold front moving in...I woke up Oct. 6th at about 5:30 with hard contractions, different from Braxton Hicks. I rolled over and tried to sleep a little more. At 7:00 I woke up again and they were pretty consistant at 10 min. apart. I had the bloody show and went downstairs to tell my mom around 8:00. I didn't really think I was in real labor (or at least I was in denial) and refused to call my doctor until 10. He told me to go ahead and come in. By this time they were 7 minutes apart and I got Josiah's bag ready-he was going to stay with my MIL and we left for the hospital. We took a pit stop along the way to pick up my sister and drop her son and mine with my father at his work where he would watch them until my BIL and MIL could come pick them up. I got to the hospital a little after 10:30, got situated and they checked me...a 5. I wanted to go ahead and get the epidural, but the anesthesiologist was in a surgery. Ok, I'd wait. I called my poor, absent husband and he blurted out, "Can't you wait until I can get there?" No...things were moving right along...They checked me again and I was an 8. The anesthesiologist said he'd be there in about 15 minutes. Ok, I could handle things until then. And then, I NEEDED to push. The cute nurse asked if I was sure, then checked me. Ok, it was a definite go. A few pushes later and out came Gavin at 12:23 pm. Right from the beginning he waited for no one and was busy with his own agenda. He wasn't breathing well, so they whisked him away after I admired his scrunched face and ginger fuzz. I wasn't able to see him until 6:30 that night. Boo. Meanwhile, I was feeling fabulous!! After labor, for me, is so much better and exhilarating than when I have an epidural. I felt great. My mom and sister laughed it up and had a wonderful time...as much as one can when you're worried about your baby and missing your spouse. Kit's commanding officers were fabulous and put him on the soonest plane they could and he arrived to the hospital at midnight. It was wonderful to see him and for him to finally see our second little boy. This was such a pleasant differance from my first labor and delivery experience. It set the course for my 3rd delivery, which was also natural.
ReplyDeleteOkay, the story of my second. Sunday, November 9th: My hubby, son, and I got up and ready for church. I wasn't feeling great, but not much was happening other than a few Braxton Hicks here and there so we headed off to church. Somewhere during the middle of church I lost it. I was in tears and was having strange pains in my side and back and didn't feel well. (I didn't really know what contractions were at this time since I didn't feel any with my first). At that point in time, my hubby packed us up in the car to go home and rest. I tried laying on the couch and resting for about 2 hours, but I was just continually uncomforable and it was getting worse. At about 1:00 pm I finally felt like I was actually having steady enough contractions to merrit going into the hospital. We packed up Ian, called our friends to watch him, dropped him off, and headed to the hospital. When they checked me I was on ly 3 cm dialated and my contractions were steady, but the midwife wanted to have me walk around until I was moving along faster. So Brian and I spent the next 2 hours walking around the hospital floor laughing and telling jokes, and trying to ignore the pain of every single contraction that came along. The midwife was also having me drink 3 large hopital bottles full of water before I could return to see her. I was in desperate need of the restroom around every lap we made. I had a hard time breathing through the contractions because no one had really talked to me about how to handle that pain, so I was just trying to ignore it until an older nurse suggested that every time I had a contraction I lean up against the wall and just breathe deeply until it passed. (Yeah! You'd think that I would have been able to figure that one out, but somewhere along the line I missed that one. By the way, have I mentioned I hated the OBGYN office I attended through out my pregnancy. I don't think I every saw the same midwife or nurse two times in a row. They were AWFUL and they didn't talk to me or know me and I HATED it!!! I didn't even know the midwife who was scheduled to deliver me. I had never met her before.) Anywho, back on topic. So, after walking around we went back and were checked again. I was still at a 3 but my contractions were getting closer together. So they put me in a room and asked if they could start Pitocin. I wanted, no had to, take a bath first. My lower back was killing me and I just wasn't going to be there the rest of the night without a single once of comfort somewhere. After, the bath they laid me down, IV'd me, check me again (a 4 this time), and the midwife admitted that she should have just sent us home. (Did I mention it took them 4 different pricks and 2 nurses to find a blood vein to pull blood and IV me!) At that point in time I agreed to Pitocin. At about 8:00 ish I asked for the epideral. I didn't really feel that I was in unbearable pain or that I needed the epideral, but (as weird as it sounds) I felt prompted to ask for my epideral. They came in and took care of it about 15 minutes later (a thoroughly uncomfortable experience as compared to the first child) and I started to get numb. At 9:30 pm, the midwife came in to check me again. Brian and I were making the calls around to family and friends and making sure Ian was getting taken to the right family to be watched (we had to shuffle him around 5 homes while we were in the hospital for 4 days). I wasn't moving along hardly at all so she asked if she could break my water. I agreed. At this time Brian was on the phone and the midwife broke my water. It was 9:56 pm. Right after she broke my water she got this look of panic on her face.
ReplyDelete2nd half - sorry
ReplyDelete(Here comes the gory part of the story, so just so you are warned...) She then turned to the nurse and said something like, "Get everyone in here now!" I immediately turned to Brian and ordered him off the phone, then I turned back to the midwife and asked what was wrong. She told me not to worry and said that about 15 people were going to be in the room in a matter of minutes. As people started rushing in on all sides, poking and prodding me I demanded what was wrong. The midwife explained that the umbilical cord was prolapsed, meaning had fallen out of the birth canal before the baby, and if I had a contraction while the cord was out it would kill the baby. (This whole time, from the time she broke my water till now, she had her hand holding the umbilical cord inside me so when I contracted it wouldn't hurt the baby.) At this point in time she jumped up on the bed between my legs and they pushed me and her down the hall to the elevator, down another hall and into the Operating room. (It really was like one of those scenes from a dramatic hospital show or something where people are running with this bed and someone's on the bed putting pressure on the wound or something and they're all frantic.) So we get to the OR and Brian can't even come in yet. They get me prepped for surgery (by this time it's 9:59 pm) and they're poking me in several places trying to get blood, which was uneffective. Apperantly I wouldn't bleed for them. They were grateful I had already had an epidural so all they had to do was pump up the dosage and they cut me open. (I was also grateful of the fact I had the epideral, thanks to little promptings. But even with the epideral, I felt when they cut me open, it just didn't hurt as much.) By the time they pulled Kenya out it was only 10:09 pm. That's right, it only took them 10 minutes from cut to born baby! I was amazed! They quickly showed her to me at my head and rushed her off to be tended to. At this time Brian finally made it into the room all clean and gowned. He came up and sat at my head while the sewed me up with took FOREVER! I had such bad pain my trapizoid muscles while they were sewing me up that I had tears running down my face and couldn't help it. Amazingly though, my trap muscles was all that was hurting. Brian talked with me through the whole thing trying to keep my mind off the pain. (I think that the pain in my shoulders was from a slight incline that they put me on and my head was lower than the rest of my body. Not sure, but that's what it felt like.) After about 30 minutes or so I was finally all glued back together (and yes, I was glued. No staples, no stitches, just glue). The moved me out to the post surgery area and Brian and I finally got to hold Kenya for the first time. I asked the nurse if I could sit up and she was flabergasted that I wanted to even try such a thing after such extensive surgery, but I had no desire to be lying down anymore, so she sat me up to hold Kenya.
Recovery was kinda rough, but I don't even remember the first day very well. They gave me some pretty heavy drugs after surgery and I was pretty much unable to keep my eyes open for the next 24 hours. I couldn't even feed Kenya cause I was afraid I'd drop her when I dozed off. As far as nursing Kenya went, well it was a nightmare. I bled, she cried, I cried, I couldn't make it work. She would latch right and had a strong suck, but it was so painful I would sit in tears. After a week of this I got a pump and tried to pump for her (pretty much impossible) and then at two weeks after birth I got an infection and a 103 degree fever for 4 days that dried me right up. It's not for lack of trying, but I just don't breat feed well.
So that's my kids.
Baby boy #2 was born 13 mo. after baby boy #1. :D He was supposed to be born 15 mo. after #1 but came 6wks early. We had a feeling that we would be having him early, so I had everything packed about 2 1/2mo. early. (my 1st had come 4wks early) At 33wks, I started contracting and spotting. I went in to the dr that same day and told him, so he checked me and I was dilated to a 1. He sent me to the hospital to make sure I wasn't in labor, and they monitored me and sent me home on bedrest. 2 days later, my water broke. I went to the hospital contracting and they gave me an epidural to stop the contractions. I'm still not sure what they were thinking. They got the contractions to stop and then decided that they needed to move me to a different hospital with a better NICU. So, I got to ride in an ambulance (not fun) to the other hospital while my poor husband was trying to take a biology test on about 2 hrs. of sleep (he failed the class thanks to Caleb's birth). My dr. didn't have privileges at the new hospital (uggh), and I was cycled between 2 different drs. at the new hospital (which was totally ghetto and awful). The new drs. told me they wanted me to get to 36wks, which meant they wanted me in the hospital for 3 wks. With a 13 mo. old at home, and a husband in Chiropractic school, and living 1500mi. away from all of our family. Yeah, right. Apparently my water hadn't broken enough to cause infection, so they thought if they drugged me up long enough, that I wouldn't go into labor. After 2 days on high doses of magnesium sulfate and Turbutilin which made me shake so bad I couldn't hold a glass of water or sleep because my heart was racing, and it didn't stop the contractions, (I dilated to about a 3 1/2 while on the drugs)I took myself off of them. The dr. on duty was soooo mad at me. He yelled at me and told me I was being a bad mom and endangering my child and basically told me I was an idiot. He left the room and sent the nurse in to reason with me. I stood my ground and refused any more drugs. And oh yeah, this was the week of Thanksgiving. So fun. So, I spent Thanksgiving by myself in the hospital while my husband and son went to a friend's house. I had sad turkey loaf and gross stuffing. It was awful. The mean dr. went off duty at midnight on Thanksgiving, and I started contracting about 3 in the morning on Fri. I was in active labor at about 9am, and had Caleb at 1pm that afternoon. The stupid nurse didn't believe me that I was in labor because it was back labor and wasn't showing up on the monitors, and since I was 34 wks, she wouldn't call the dr. So, finally, the dr. was doing rounds and found me with contractions about 1-2min. apart and dilated to a 6 1/2. She told the nurse that she should have been called a long time ago and to believe people when they say they have fast labors! Duh. I asked for an epi since my back was killing me and I couldn't breath in between contractions. The nurse farted around before calling it in, and by the time he got there, put it in, and they checked me again, I was ready to push. It took about a 1/2hr. for me to go from a 6-10. Caleb was 5lbs, 1oz, and spent 1 week in the NICU.
ReplyDeleteSince Whitney doesn't have any more babies to post about, here's my #3. :D We waited for 2 1/2 years before we had the courage to have another baby. Roman's pregnancy was wonderful, I felt great the whole time and had switched from an OB to a midwife and loved the change. They had also come out with the Fetal Fibronectin Test which alleviated a lot of my stress towards the end of my pregnancy. (It tests for a protein found in the cervix that's present when you go into labor. For people who labor early, it can give you a 2 wk heads up that you might deliver early) We started the tests at 24? wks, and did them every 2 wks. They always came back negative. At about 30 wks, I started softening and dilating. (normal for me) By 34 wks, I was a 2 and 50%, at 35 wks, I was a 3 and 60%. By 36 1/2-ish wks, I was miserable and wondering why I was still pregnant. I was at a 4 by that time, and my midwife told me if I had a period of strong contractions to call her and go into the hospital and she would break my water. I contracted the rest of the day, and by 10pm that night, we were on our way to the hospital. The dr. on call wouldn't call my midwife so I had to contract through the night and got zero sleep. My contractions weren't regular like with my other 2 boys, so I didn't progress as fast. By morning I was a 6. My midwife came in, broke my water and started some pitocin. They kept upping the dose since my contractions weren't regulating themselves. I'd have three about 1 min apart, then three about 3 min apart. It was weird. Since the pitocin was hurting me, I was exhausted, and I had a bad head cold, I got an epidural sometime that morning. I was too exhausted to know what time it was. I do remember that my nurse came in to check me about 1pm, and I hadn't really changed any. 10 min. later, I felt a lot of pressure and wanted to push. My midwife happened to come in then and checked me and I was ready to push. The nurse said she'd never seen anyone progress so fast. (my mom had done that same thing with all 5 of us, so I had heard of it before!) Roman was born at about 1:30. 8lbs, 4 oz, 3 wks early. My husband helped to deliver him. It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteHere's my number two - who is now two weeks old. After discussing options of VBAC with both my son's doctor and my current doctor it became clear rather quickly that the risk was too high. I, apparently, am too small and they were concerned that I would labor too long increasing my chances of rupture. So, we planned a c-section. Let's just say planned c-sections are sooo much easier than the unexpected one. We went in well-rested (well, my husband was well rested, I was a bit jittery and hadn't been sleeping well most of the last trimester anyway). We showed up at 5:30am, the nurses prepped me, wheeled me back, gave me a spinal block (much better than the epidural, I didn't feel a thing until they started pushing on my uterus), and pulled our little girl out at 7:12am. We did run into some complications as they were trying to get her out, they were having problems getting her to drop down and at one point the doctor made a comment about how absolutely small I was (I also got this comment from the nurses and the anesthesiologist, kind of made me feel skinny...). The worst part was what followed afterward, a severe case of the "shakes." I seriously laid there and shivered all through the sewing and cleaning up, and continued to shiver for another two hours in recovery. The anesthesiologist wrote out a prescription to help me stop shivering and the nurses kept piling me with blankets that they were pulling out of the warmer because my whole body was just shaking uncontrollably. Once that settled down I spent 4 days in a rather nice (and decently quiet) hospital, with a baby who so far has been perfect.
ReplyDeleteAubrey- much better than your first experience! It is nice when labor/delivery goes at least most of the way it is expected.
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