Those who had irregular labors...

[Sk8ermaiden]

With Elizabeth, my contractions were less than a minute long and less than a minute apart. This was the ENTIRE LABOR - from first contraction to delivery. Every 10th contraction triple peaked and every 3rd or so double peaked (thus lasting a bit longer).

I had 3 hours of early labor and 4 hours of active labor (and 9 hours of pushing and a c/s, but that's beside the point. )

My midwife said that since it was such an irregular labor, she doubts it will happen again. However, I really would like for it to happen again, because I did it once and know I can handle it! Watching my best friend labor in a textbook pattern for hours with all these minutes in between contractions made me really never want to go through that! (Even though hers seemed much milder than mine for a lot of it- probably to do with the length of our labors).

What are my odds? I'd love to hear stories. If you had an irregular labor, was your second the same?

[alegna]

Both of my labors were very similar. Irregular contractions in that they never followed the pattern of increasing length of contraction, decreasing length of time between. They varied greatly from the beginning on. Both were long labors (31 and 17 hours) with very long pushing stages. Both babies had long cords that were wrapped (dd 2x around neck, 1x around shoulder, ds 5x around neck) Both labors water broke late in pushing (ds only forewater broke- he was born entirely in the caul, dd water broke with one of the last pushes so she was still in the sack as well)

-Angela

[Sk8ermaiden]

Thanks Angela, you give me hope!

[Sk8ermaiden]

Just gonna bump this once in hope of more stories.

[Peony]

My first was my only real regular one and even that one wasn't textbook.

DD1: 19 hour labor, 15 of that were contractions that had started and stayed at 7 minutes apart, then not much happening for 2 hours, and then they were suddenly very close and I was pushing.

DD2: 8.5 hours labor, one long contraction then nothing for 6 minutes, then 2 minutes, then 7 minutes, they were all over the place until the last 3 then they were suddenly back and back and I was pushing.

DS: almost exactly as DD2, but a 4.5 hour labor. DH just happened to be checking on me when I had two back to back contractions and then was pushing, everyone else missed the birth because it was so fast. My last contractions before those two had been 6-7 minutes apart!

The last two babies had very short pushing stages, DD2 was out in a minute, DS a few minutes longer because he was posterior with very big shoulders.

[Xavismom]

MW said mine were 'coupled'. I would have two strong contractions right on top of each other with no break, then a break, then one weak contraction. That happened almost the whole time though. I dont know if it made the pushing easier, but DS came out fast!