First I am so glad I found this group! My name is Kristin and my daughter is now 15 months old. I will give a shortish story of my labor and delivery. Her due date was March 3rd, 2011. February 26th was a planned busy day. We had to go transport some things for df's business and his mom was flying in from Brazil in the afternoon. This was also the first time I was meeting her. Well I woke up that morning feeling very crampy. I was driving on the way to the first stop and had to pull over to let df's employee drive our car because it was too painful. At the time I did not know it was contractions. I was miserable all day throughout picking up df's mom, going out to lunch, and stopping at the store so she could do some shopping. Finally that night the cramping went away. Sunday the 27th I had some random contractions but nothing consistent. Monday morning df and I enjoyed some "quality alone time" if you know what I mean ;-) well then my contractions picked up! and throughout the day got more and more regular. Finally we were eating dinner and I just couldn't sit there and eat anymore. It was too uncomfortable I had to walk around. I got in the shower and df joined when I had my bloody show. I knew then I was really in labor. My contractions were every 4-5 minutes. I wanted to stay home as long as I could handle it but we also had a 45 minute drive to the hospital and it was winter so there's always the chance it will take longer because of the roads. I tried to rest knowing it was only to get worse but the combination of pain, fear, excitement kept me awake. Around 5am we headed to the hospital. When we got there I was 3 cm dialated in and the next few hours I was dialated to 5cm! Well then my back labor got bad. DD was posterior. I had been doing some exercises before labor in hopes to turn her but she didn't. Hours passed of me walking, bouncing on the birthing ball, getting in the tub, standing and swaying with df, trying all sorts of positions. NOTHING was helping. My back labor was so bad I could only tell when I was having a contraction from the hardening of my stomach- it was constant pain; the worst pain I have ever felt. My goal was all natural water birth. I was no longer progressing and just in too much pain, tired, and frustrated. After 20 something hours I gave in and reluctantly got an epidural and pitocin. Pitocin didn't really help. I developed a fever and things just weren't going well.. After 30 hours of tough labor I had a c-section. I hated that experience. the spinal didn't take full effect so I was in pain. My daughter was born at 1:48 am March 2nd 9 lbs 2 oz 21.5 inches and a big head full of hair. I hated how the drugs made me feel and I struggled to heal emotionally. I do plan a VBAC next time whenever that is.
Sorry, that was longer than I thought it would be. Anyway, I have struggled with what happened but have started to feel a little better about it. Nice to meet all of you ladies!
df, dd and I she was only minutes old
Follow Mothering