She's my third, but by FAR the most difficult labor. Whew.
I went into labor on Tuesday - water broke at 9am and I got SO excited! Waited for active contractions at about 9pm and then called the Doula and the MW to come on by.
Contractions were really painful. Like, OMG painful. It never dawned on me to get into the tub or the shower, though, I needed to keep walking and even walked around the block...having contractions all the way. I even ended up doing the Macarena with the Doula at about 11pm. It was hilarious and fun.
Then the contx started getting super-intense and they were all centralized right in my lower pelvis - at one point I hit my forehead against the wall to try and distract myself from the pain. I don't know why this one was so much more intense than the first two and I felt like a dork the minute I did it and then realized it just made my forehead hurt AND my contrx were still painful
Started pushing at about 7:30am on Wednesday (today, wooHOO) and Dagny came roaring into my husband's arms at 9:56am. She couldn't seem to get un-blue. After an hour of chest to chest contact and oxygen and sucking out of mucus from her nose and mouth, the MW told me she needed to go to the hospital because she wasn't "pinking up" - so we called 911 and my husband went with Dagny to the hospital while I got cleaned up and dressed and stuffed a chux liner under my pads and panties to go to the hospital and see what there was to see.
Luckily the hospital has changed a LOT since I was last there. They were VERY pro BFing and I already dropped off a half ounce of colostrum for her to have overnight (she's getting her calories via IV right now, but they were excited to have the colostrum as a supplement) and gave me bottles and bar-coded stickers for the Breastmilk I am going to bring in tomorrow morning (plus they're VERY happy about me trying out latching in the morning, too!)
She will be in there until Friday. I'm sad to be home with no kids and no dogs and all alone after giving birth, but am so grateful that she just had "wet lungs" - which isn't dangerous and doesn't have long-term ramifications...but it was scary to have to put my poor little newborn into an ambulance so soon after birth.
She was 9lbs. 8oz. at birth and even though she's now receiving interventions that I think are totally unnecessary (antibiotics "just in case" *sigh*) I'm so happy she's safe and healthy and pink as any other baby now that they got all the mucus out of her lungs, I don't even care enough to raise a fuss. (although I did refuse the eye goo)
My MW and doula were total rock stars and came to the hospital with us. After hearing and reading how homebirth transfers are treated, I was so blissfully happy to find that no one - not the paramedics, the nurses, or the ER staff - judged us poorly for having a homebirth. They all thought it was really cool and just said in regards to her having a problem, "That's what an ambulance is for!"
So it was a great experience even though it wasn't the picture-perfect homebirth I'd envisioned. Go figure
The best part was that the MW and doula had cleaned everything so by the time we got home from the hospital, my bed was waiting for me covered in clean pillowcases, sheets, and chux pads. It was the first time in two months I'd been able to sleep lying down and it was pure bliss.
I went into labor on Tuesday - water broke at 9am and I got SO excited! Waited for active contractions at about 9pm and then called the Doula and the MW to come on by.
Contractions were really painful. Like, OMG painful. It never dawned on me to get into the tub or the shower, though, I needed to keep walking and even walked around the block...having contractions all the way. I even ended up doing the Macarena with the Doula at about 11pm. It was hilarious and fun.
Then the contx started getting super-intense and they were all centralized right in my lower pelvis - at one point I hit my forehead against the wall to try and distract myself from the pain. I don't know why this one was so much more intense than the first two and I felt like a dork the minute I did it and then realized it just made my forehead hurt AND my contrx were still painful
Started pushing at about 7:30am on Wednesday (today, wooHOO) and Dagny came roaring into my husband's arms at 9:56am. She couldn't seem to get un-blue. After an hour of chest to chest contact and oxygen and sucking out of mucus from her nose and mouth, the MW told me she needed to go to the hospital because she wasn't "pinking up" - so we called 911 and my husband went with Dagny to the hospital while I got cleaned up and dressed and stuffed a chux liner under my pads and panties to go to the hospital and see what there was to see.
Luckily the hospital has changed a LOT since I was last there. They were VERY pro BFing and I already dropped off a half ounce of colostrum for her to have overnight (she's getting her calories via IV right now, but they were excited to have the colostrum as a supplement) and gave me bottles and bar-coded stickers for the Breastmilk I am going to bring in tomorrow morning (plus they're VERY happy about me trying out latching in the morning, too!)
She will be in there until Friday. I'm sad to be home with no kids and no dogs and all alone after giving birth, but am so grateful that she just had "wet lungs" - which isn't dangerous and doesn't have long-term ramifications...but it was scary to have to put my poor little newborn into an ambulance so soon after birth.
She was 9lbs. 8oz. at birth and even though she's now receiving interventions that I think are totally unnecessary (antibiotics "just in case" *sigh*) I'm so happy she's safe and healthy and pink as any other baby now that they got all the mucus out of her lungs, I don't even care enough to raise a fuss. (although I did refuse the eye goo)
My MW and doula were total rock stars and came to the hospital with us. After hearing and reading how homebirth transfers are treated, I was so blissfully happy to find that no one - not the paramedics, the nurses, or the ER staff - judged us poorly for having a homebirth. They all thought it was really cool and just said in regards to her having a problem, "That's what an ambulance is for!"
So it was a great experience even though it wasn't the picture-perfect homebirth I'd envisioned. Go figure
The best part was that the MW and doula had cleaned everything so by the time we got home from the hospital, my bed was waiting for me covered in clean pillowcases, sheets, and chux pads. It was the first time in two months I'd been able to sleep lying down and it was pure bliss.
