I didn't post here often but I loved reading. I found this board a bit late in the game after getting frustrated with the attitudes toward childbirth on some other boards. I found everyone here to be much more helpful and understanding. 
So, on to our story...
On March 31st June Elizabeth was born. Our little Junebug is absolutely perfect and we are really enjoying her. She is already such a Daddy's girl. I've had a difficult recovery so it's been tough to get to the computer.
After delaying as long as possible we ended up with a hospital induction, but it went as well as I could have hoped. On 3/30 at 41w6d we checked into the hospital and talked to the Midwife. At check in I was 2cm, 70% effaced and -1 station. We decided to go with Cervadil to get things started and that was placed around 11:30am. We tried to get some sleep, snack and relax but we were bored bored bored. Around 2ish I started having some real contractions. By evening they were pretty regular and the new Midwife suggested doing a check when the Cervadil came out and possibly breaking the waters instead of pushing Pitocin. We were SO happy about this option because it meant getting off the constant monitoring (what a pain in the butt), avoiding the IV fluids and avoiding pitocin contractions. At this point I was losing my focus so we called the Doula to come be with us.
At 12:45am, after the Cervadil was removed, I was at 6cm, 90% effaced and -2 station. Progress, but the stubborn baby was moving in the wrong direction! The Midwife said my contractions were about 2 minutes apart and they couldn't use Pitocin to do much more, so at 1:23am she ruptured the membranes. She checked me at that point and I had already progressed to 8cm, 90% effaced, -2 station since the Cervadil removal! Things really got moving after the water broke and by 4am I was 9cm, 100% effaced and baby was at +1 station. The fluid was completely clear, something that surprised everyone since 42 week babies have typically passed the first mecomuim. I had a small anterior lip so they had me use some different positions to get rid of it. By 6:15am I was complete and baby was still at +1 station. At 7am I was officially pushing. The Doula had me push in positions to encourage the baby down. Everyone thought things would go so quickly at this point but we couldn't have been more wrong.
After several hours of pushing in different positions I was exhausted and baby was lower, but not as low as they would have liked. At this point we turned to purple pushing, something I had hoped to avoid. I was soo exhausted and losing steam. When they got me on my back I was apparently falling asleep between contractions. I don't know how I found the strength to keep going but I got a bit of a second wind. At the very last minute they started pushing some Pitocin to speed up the contractions because in the 4 minutes between contractions baby kept moving back in. They would be pushing Pitocin after labor anyway so I quickly agreed.
At 11:54am our baby girl was born and placed on my chest and almost an hour later she was still there and began breastfeeding like a champ. It was almost 2 hours before they did all the Newborn stuff. She was 10lbs 1oz, 21 inches with a 15 inch head. Oy! Suddenly the 5+ hours of pushing made sense!
My Mom always told me that when I was placed in her arms the memory of labor pains just disappeared. I never believed her, but this definitely happened for me. Of course that was quickly replaced with the pain of my 4th degree tear (apparently my muscles were just way tight down there and would not stretch). Ugh, misery. They called in a surgeon who spent over an hour stitching me up. The last 14 days have been rough but I am starting to feel better and get back up on my feet.
We could not be happier with our birth experience. We did a lot of research and really wanted a natural birth but were stuck with a hospital for insurance reasons. Luckily, everything came together and we had an extremely supportive hospital staff, midwives and doula. Several people even said to me that if I'd had an epidural I would likely have ended up with a c-section because of the amount of pushing down required for this kid. Everyone said that June definitely paved the way for future kids and other births should be easy. Let's hope! :-)
Here are a few of the many, many pictures we've taken of our girl...
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v495/bak/Junebug/
So, on to our story...On March 31st June Elizabeth was born. Our little Junebug is absolutely perfect and we are really enjoying her. She is already such a Daddy's girl. I've had a difficult recovery so it's been tough to get to the computer.
After delaying as long as possible we ended up with a hospital induction, but it went as well as I could have hoped. On 3/30 at 41w6d we checked into the hospital and talked to the Midwife. At check in I was 2cm, 70% effaced and -1 station. We decided to go with Cervadil to get things started and that was placed around 11:30am. We tried to get some sleep, snack and relax but we were bored bored bored. Around 2ish I started having some real contractions. By evening they were pretty regular and the new Midwife suggested doing a check when the Cervadil came out and possibly breaking the waters instead of pushing Pitocin. We were SO happy about this option because it meant getting off the constant monitoring (what a pain in the butt), avoiding the IV fluids and avoiding pitocin contractions. At this point I was losing my focus so we called the Doula to come be with us.
At 12:45am, after the Cervadil was removed, I was at 6cm, 90% effaced and -2 station. Progress, but the stubborn baby was moving in the wrong direction! The Midwife said my contractions were about 2 minutes apart and they couldn't use Pitocin to do much more, so at 1:23am she ruptured the membranes. She checked me at that point and I had already progressed to 8cm, 90% effaced, -2 station since the Cervadil removal! Things really got moving after the water broke and by 4am I was 9cm, 100% effaced and baby was at +1 station. The fluid was completely clear, something that surprised everyone since 42 week babies have typically passed the first mecomuim. I had a small anterior lip so they had me use some different positions to get rid of it. By 6:15am I was complete and baby was still at +1 station. At 7am I was officially pushing. The Doula had me push in positions to encourage the baby down. Everyone thought things would go so quickly at this point but we couldn't have been more wrong.
After several hours of pushing in different positions I was exhausted and baby was lower, but not as low as they would have liked. At this point we turned to purple pushing, something I had hoped to avoid. I was soo exhausted and losing steam. When they got me on my back I was apparently falling asleep between contractions. I don't know how I found the strength to keep going but I got a bit of a second wind. At the very last minute they started pushing some Pitocin to speed up the contractions because in the 4 minutes between contractions baby kept moving back in. They would be pushing Pitocin after labor anyway so I quickly agreed.
At 11:54am our baby girl was born and placed on my chest and almost an hour later she was still there and began breastfeeding like a champ. It was almost 2 hours before they did all the Newborn stuff. She was 10lbs 1oz, 21 inches with a 15 inch head. Oy! Suddenly the 5+ hours of pushing made sense!
My Mom always told me that when I was placed in her arms the memory of labor pains just disappeared. I never believed her, but this definitely happened for me. Of course that was quickly replaced with the pain of my 4th degree tear (apparently my muscles were just way tight down there and would not stretch). Ugh, misery. They called in a surgeon who spent over an hour stitching me up. The last 14 days have been rough but I am starting to feel better and get back up on my feet.
We could not be happier with our birth experience. We did a lot of research and really wanted a natural birth but were stuck with a hospital for insurance reasons. Luckily, everything came together and we had an extremely supportive hospital staff, midwives and doula. Several people even said to me that if I'd had an epidural I would likely have ended up with a c-section because of the amount of pushing down required for this kid. Everyone said that June definitely paved the way for future kids and other births should be easy. Let's hope! :-)
Here are a few of the many, many pictures we've taken of our girl...
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v495/bak/Junebug/
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