Currently in Labor! Need Advice!

[HomewardBound]

I started having "real" contractions yesterday around dinner time. I have been having Braxton Hicks for almost a month, but these were the first ones that actually were a little painful and I could feel in my lower back. Contractions continued on and off through the night. At 3:30 this morning, my water broke while I was on the toilet. Since then, my contractions have become more mild and are 10-25 minutes apart. I have a doctor's appointment I had scheduled for this afternoon and I am debating if I should plan on keeping it. My doctor does not know that I am in labor and does not know that I am planning to deliver at home with no one but my husband. I am sure if I go in, she will tell me to go to the hospital, but I am concerned because my contractions have all but completely stopped. Is it normal to have a lull like this, or do I have reason for concern? My first baby was born in the hospital where I was induced and I had an epidural, so I don't really know too much of what my body was doing. I thought my body would figure out what it needs to do and do it, but now I am wondering if there is a problem or something. Advice please!!

[freerangemama11]

I'd worry that your contractions might completely stop if you change your location. When I was in labor, I went into labor early in the morning, and spent most of the day in the early (not very painful/intense) stage of labor.  My husband was at work so I was home by myself and it was very peaceful.  I took a nap and a long soak in the jacuzzi.  Later that evening when my contractions were becoming more intense, I realized I was transitioning into more active labor and went to the birth center where I eventually delivered my son.  The unfortunate consequence of this was that as soon as I changed my location, my progress completely halted for several hours, I think from just being out of my comfort zone.  So, I'd say, if your at home and in the zone, stay where you are, especially if you are committed to delivering at home.  Also, what would you gain by going to the doctor at this point?  Lots of luck to you mama!

[freerangemama11]

Oh, and I found that I had lots of lulls in my labor, similar to yours.  It definitely wasn't consistent throughout the day until I started going in to more active labor.  So I wouldn't worry about that.  It's a great chance to take a nap, etc.

[HomewardBound]

Thanks for your reply! How long after your water broke did you deliver? It has now been 11 hours since mine broke and contractions are still not regulating or getting very intense. I mean they are by no means comfortable! :D But they don't really feel strong enough to do much.
 

[purpledragonfly]

If you wanted to try and speed things up you could try nipple stimulation.  Just keep stimulating till contrax are well established.

[silversparrow]

You can do castor oil (3-4 oz with orange juice AFTER a big meal) and breast pump (1-2 min per breast followed by 3-4 min walking and repeat for 1 HOUR MAXIMUM). Also, with your waters broken you should keep checking your temp. A fever can mean infection and you might want to see you dr for antibiotics. This risk is reduced if you are GBS negative.

[silversparrow]

Also, because your waters are broken, you should probably not take a bath or have anything in your vagina (intercourse or cervix check) until you are in active labour so that you don't introduce bacteria that can cause infection.

Edited by silversparrow - 12/20/12 at 1:13pm

[amberskyfire]

With my last labor, my water broke and I had heavy ctx right at first, then they petered out for a while. Turns out baby was malpositioned with his ear coming out first. Lying down for a bit helped him get off of my cervix enough to get him into position.

My advice would be to get some rest. Just rest until things pick up and for goodness' sake, don't put anything at all into your vagina! :) When there is a problem, your body does not usually have a lull. If something is wrong with baby, you're more likely (not always, just most of the time) to go into harder labor and your body will often try to get the baby out faster. Don't exert yourself trying to get labor going. You're more likely to just exhaust yourself. Your body WILL work the way it should, you just have to be patient. If you were not much dilated when your water broke, it may just take a while for you to get to the point where you are having good heavy contractions.

Happy birthing!
 

[freerangemama11]

I think my water broke during the pushing stage. I can't remember ever feeling it break because I was concentrating so much on pushing out the baby! Since you haven't posted in a while, I'm thinking you're now in more active labor. Hopefully by this time tomorrow you'll be snuggling with your little solstice baby!

[queenrilly]

Update!!?
I hope you're holding a new baby OP!:-)

[HomewardBound]

UPDATE!

We decided to skip the doctor appointment!

Contractions finally kicked in around 10pm Thursday night. They continued for the next 6 hours - really strong (yes, I thought I was going to die of pain! lol). I would doze off between each contraction and then wake up to the pain again. Finally at around 3 am I had to get in the warm tub because I needed something to ease the pain. I continued to fall asleep between each contraction, but around 3:30 I woke up and instantly knew something had changed. I got out of the tub and woke my husband who had finally collapsed on the bed and told him the baby was coming! I chose to deliver standing/leaning on my husband because that is how my mom had me and said I was the easiest of four to deliver. After about 20 minutes of pushing, out slid our new little boy, Josiah Robert! My husband caught him and eased him to the floor where I suctioned out his nose and throat before picking him up to my chest. We waited about 10-15 minutes to cut the cord, by then it was turning white so we figured it had given him about as much blood as it would. My husband than held the baby to his bare chest while I cleaned myself up a little. Baby and I took a nap while Daddy started cleaning up the mess we'd made (it looked like a massacre! Good thing we had all those plastic-backed sheets!). The afterbirth delivered about and hour later. Josiah is now about 30 hours old and seems to be doing just fine. He hasn't nursed yet, but we keep trying and I'm assuming as soon as he gets good and hungry, he will latch on! I pumped a little just to stimulate and make things easier for him, so we'll see what happens when he wakes up from his nap. Thanks everybody for your advice! I am SO glad we did the home birth and we can recover here rather than in a hospital! I'm loving this! :)

[rnra]

Congratulations on the arrival of Josiah!  Sounds like the delivery was uneventful and just what you were looking for.  Congrats!

Personally, I would pump/hand express and spoon feed it to him if he hasn't nursed at this point.  Sometimes if they don't nurse for a long time their blood sugar gets low which makes them tired which makes them too tired to latch on, which makes their blood sugar continue to drop, and its just a viscous cycle.  Spoon feeding him a bit of colostrum may help him wake up enough to latch on.  Good luck!  

[womenswisdom]

Congratulations on your baby! You didn't say whether he has just not been able to latch yet or has not wanted to attempt to nurse. I would be concerned about a baby who has had no interest in nursing after 30 hours and is not simply having a latch issue. Nursing behavior is instinctual and reflexive. Babies who are having a problem will many times be unable or unwilling to try to nurse - that is actually one of the things we look for to assess a baby in the immediate postpartum period.

[amberskyfire]

Congratulations on your little one! :D Wonderful!

Hope you guys have gotten him to nurse already. Definitely get him on ASAP.

Have fun with your new beautiful boy! <3
 

[queenrilly]

Woohoo congrats! Have a great babymoon!

[BlessedJess]

Congrats! My labors very typically don't include an active labor pattern. Last time I didn't see "active" labor until I was clearly in transition and just a few short minutes away from pushing. I also have had long periods of broken waters leading up to that. The birth before last I had broken waters for 3 days. This last time I had broken waters from 5 am to the time I gave birth 18 hours later. Everyone is different and every birth is different. I believe that the best thing in most cases is to trust the process, trust God and not disturb the flow unless something obviously points to a need for seeking intervention.

[freerangemama11]

Wow, that sounds like a beautiful birth experience!  Contratulations and welcome to the world Josiah!

[WildKingdom]

For the love of God, get that baby checked out if he is not nursing. Please.

[phathui5]

I'd love to hear an update with how baby is doing.

[rnra]

Any updates?  I hope you and Josiah are doing well!