Ansel Quinn 7 pounds 19 1/2 inches 38 weeks
I went in at 2 pm on the 9th to be induced. I was already at 3 cm and 80% effaced and had a bulging bag of waters. For two weeks.
When I first got to the hospital there was a brand new nurse who tried for a long time to find the baby's heartbeat, but she couldn't, couldn't couldn't. Finally she left and I burst into tears and her supervisor came in and showed her how she'd put the gel on the wrong side of the monitor and quickly found the heartbeat and so then of course I was crying with relief and the poor nurse was trying not to cry too. Then the resident came in to introduce himself and started explaining about all the things they can do to speed labors along, after I'd just explained that I go really fast at the end, and wanted to try to slow things down this time. There were some English language difficulties as well as hyper-excitably. When I restated my concern he said "Oh, oh! Slow down is no problem. I just say "Slow Down" It is good." Ummm... yeah. Okay.
My OB couldn't get in to break my bag of waters until 8:45 pm. Once she broke the water things happened pretty fast. I walked off and on for an hour and a half, stopping twice to get monitored. Pretty quickly I couldn't walk or talk through the contractions, and within an hour they'd gone from every 3-4 minutes to every 1-2 minutes.
After an hour and a half it seemed too hard to leave the bed. I asked to go to the jacuzzi tub, and by the time the nurse checked with the doctor, checked the tub, started filling the tub, monitored the baby, and checked me it was two hours since the water breaking. I was still 3 cm. And devasted, though I shouldn't have been. I haven't had a labor yet that hasn't stayed at 3 cm for a long time. I made it to the tub room, passing my OB in the hall, in fact leaning on her during a contraction. I saw the resident and burst into tears. "I don't want him there!"
The tub felt really good but the baby flipped from left side to right (and face down to face up it turned out) immediately. My bottom felt kind of numb and weird. A nurse came in 15 minutes to check heartbeat and had to search around a little for it. Contractions were coming quick and with more than one peak. As soon as she left I felt like I should get checked, and another nurse came to check, and said apologetically that I was just 4-5 centimeters but 100% effaced. She was shocked that I said "OK, It's time to get out." My nurse came and rushed me in the wheelchair back to my room, passing my doctor on the way, who said she'd be right down.
By the time I got into the bed my doctor was there, and she asked if the contractions were hurting in my back. They were, since the tub. She checked me and I was 7cm. She had me go on hands and knees, sort of leaning against the back of the bed, and the contractions then were really really hard. I was throwing up, and they were having three or four peaks, and barely a breath in between. But I could feel the baby turn, and move down finally and get into place. My Mom and DH kept helping me breathe through them, and reminding me when I felt like I couldn't do it that this was transition, the worst of it.
Then suddenly I felt that need to poop feeling, and said so, but for the first time it wasn't just that feeling a split second before uncontrollably pushing a baby into the world without anyone being prepared. This time I felt like it was time to push, but also incredibly calm and quiet and just still. The doctor and nurses got the bed covered and got gloves on and everything ready. I pushed four times, and it was hard- I've never had to think about pushing before, and this time I did. My doctor held a warm washcloth to my perineum, which felt really good, and I pushed when I felt like it.
Ansel was born at 12:51 am on Feb 10, and started crying right away, then stopped the second she put him up on my belly. He was born pink and and plump and healthy and after that first burst of crying has been very quiet and calm.
An amazing thing about the labor, I think, is that my OB sat in the corner of the room during that last hour, just sipping her tea and knitting, ready if she was needed, a couple of times suggesting something, but just staying out of the way, not trying to rush or direct or take control. She was way more attentive and intuitive and calming than either the previous OB birth or the midwife attended birth. It really was perfect.
DH is teasing me about already planning the next baby,
and about how I just really can't complain if my hardest pushing stage ever was 10 minutes. But back labor sucks, even if it was only an hour of it. And pushing is hard, though rewarding work. I'm so grateful I got a chance to experience that, instead of it being such a panic-frantic thing. And I am just incredibly thankful for the amazing OB I have, the really wonderful pregnancy she enabled me to have, despite being high risk, and the great labor and birth of my third son. And I can't wait to do it again.
I went in at 2 pm on the 9th to be induced. I was already at 3 cm and 80% effaced and had a bulging bag of waters. For two weeks.
When I first got to the hospital there was a brand new nurse who tried for a long time to find the baby's heartbeat, but she couldn't, couldn't couldn't. Finally she left and I burst into tears and her supervisor came in and showed her how she'd put the gel on the wrong side of the monitor and quickly found the heartbeat and so then of course I was crying with relief and the poor nurse was trying not to cry too. Then the resident came in to introduce himself and started explaining about all the things they can do to speed labors along, after I'd just explained that I go really fast at the end, and wanted to try to slow things down this time. There were some English language difficulties as well as hyper-excitably. When I restated my concern he said "Oh, oh! Slow down is no problem. I just say "Slow Down" It is good." Ummm... yeah. Okay.
My OB couldn't get in to break my bag of waters until 8:45 pm. Once she broke the water things happened pretty fast. I walked off and on for an hour and a half, stopping twice to get monitored. Pretty quickly I couldn't walk or talk through the contractions, and within an hour they'd gone from every 3-4 minutes to every 1-2 minutes.
After an hour and a half it seemed too hard to leave the bed. I asked to go to the jacuzzi tub, and by the time the nurse checked with the doctor, checked the tub, started filling the tub, monitored the baby, and checked me it was two hours since the water breaking. I was still 3 cm. And devasted, though I shouldn't have been. I haven't had a labor yet that hasn't stayed at 3 cm for a long time. I made it to the tub room, passing my OB in the hall, in fact leaning on her during a contraction. I saw the resident and burst into tears. "I don't want him there!"
The tub felt really good but the baby flipped from left side to right (and face down to face up it turned out) immediately. My bottom felt kind of numb and weird. A nurse came in 15 minutes to check heartbeat and had to search around a little for it. Contractions were coming quick and with more than one peak. As soon as she left I felt like I should get checked, and another nurse came to check, and said apologetically that I was just 4-5 centimeters but 100% effaced. She was shocked that I said "OK, It's time to get out." My nurse came and rushed me in the wheelchair back to my room, passing my doctor on the way, who said she'd be right down.
By the time I got into the bed my doctor was there, and she asked if the contractions were hurting in my back. They were, since the tub. She checked me and I was 7cm. She had me go on hands and knees, sort of leaning against the back of the bed, and the contractions then were really really hard. I was throwing up, and they were having three or four peaks, and barely a breath in between. But I could feel the baby turn, and move down finally and get into place. My Mom and DH kept helping me breathe through them, and reminding me when I felt like I couldn't do it that this was transition, the worst of it.
Then suddenly I felt that need to poop feeling, and said so, but for the first time it wasn't just that feeling a split second before uncontrollably pushing a baby into the world without anyone being prepared. This time I felt like it was time to push, but also incredibly calm and quiet and just still. The doctor and nurses got the bed covered and got gloves on and everything ready. I pushed four times, and it was hard- I've never had to think about pushing before, and this time I did. My doctor held a warm washcloth to my perineum, which felt really good, and I pushed when I felt like it.
Ansel was born at 12:51 am on Feb 10, and started crying right away, then stopped the second she put him up on my belly. He was born pink and and plump and healthy and after that first burst of crying has been very quiet and calm.
An amazing thing about the labor, I think, is that my OB sat in the corner of the room during that last hour, just sipping her tea and knitting, ready if she was needed, a couple of times suggesting something, but just staying out of the way, not trying to rush or direct or take control. She was way more attentive and intuitive and calming than either the previous OB birth or the midwife attended birth. It really was perfect.
DH is teasing me about already planning the next baby,
and about how I just really can't complain if my hardest pushing stage ever was 10 minutes. But back labor sucks, even if it was only an hour of it. And pushing is hard, though rewarding work. I'm so grateful I got a chance to experience that, instead of it being such a panic-frantic thing. And I am just incredibly thankful for the amazing OB I have, the really wonderful pregnancy she enabled me to have, despite being high risk, and the great labor and birth of my third son. And I can't wait to do it again.
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