Well, I *finally* had the baby. 
Jonah Gabriel arrived via med free, natural birth on Saturday, Aug 20 at 10:31 am weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz, 20.5 inches. We got home yesterday, but I've been so exhausted (from the beginning jonah's nursed EVERY hr, 24 hrs a day... and my milk just came in), I wasn't unable to get back online until today.
I'll go over my birth story. Several of you may have known that I had been struggling with prodromal labor for several days prior to jonah's birth and even had a false alarm where I called my mom to come stay with joshua (but contrax pittered out before we went to the hospital). Anyway, all day friday, I had contrax every 5 min since 11am, by 4pm we decided it would be best to call my mom to stay with joshua (DH already had the day off since we thought I was going to have the baby by thurs). My contrax became more intense, so we headed to the hospital at 11:30pm. I was hooked up to the monitor in the observation unit, since my water had not broken yet. The nurses determined this was going to be the real deal, so admitted me, I was only 3 cm (on monday I was only 1cm at the doc's office). Well, by 3am, my contrax had died down and were erratic. The nurse admitted to me, I could either go home or wait for the ob (I was happy the ob I wanted was on call that wknd) in the morning and see what he would do. I did not want to get induced, but I was getting so frustrated after several days of thinking I was in labor, that we decided to stick it out at the hospital and hope for the best. I walked the halls several times during the night and did notice that my contrax seemed more intense and closer together, but we were going to wait the doctor got there in the morning to do another internal exam.
The doctor showed up about 9:30am, I had not gotten much sleep during the night, and was getting annoyed with being hooked up to the external monitor (which kept falling off and getting displaced whenever I moved). Anyway, my ob came in and said, "wow, sounds like you've been stuck in the latent phase for a long time, let's take a look." He did an internal exam, I was 6cm, he said the baby's head was VERY low, and he had to manuver around the baby's head to even feel my cervix. He asked if I wanted an epidural, I said, "not this time." So, we decided to break my water. Within 15 min of my water breaking, my contrax got so strong, I could not stand it anymore, I was all over the bed and just felt like crawling out of my skin and thought, "this must be transition, b/c it can't get worse." Of course DH did NOT read any of the bradley method books I had gotten, so he did not know what was going on, except that I was acting really crazy and I ordered him to get the nurse NOW. Another nurse came in, and took one look at me and went to get my nurse. My nurse came in and was surprised (once again my stupid monitor had fallen off, so they did not realize how close and intense my contrax were from the nurse's station) I had progressed so much and said, "let me know when you have so much rectal pressure you feel like I have to push." I said, "that's how I feel NOW!" So, she ran out to find the doctor (who was in the postpartum unit), the other nurse helped her prep the room and when the doctor got there he started coaching me on pushing. By this time, I just felt like things were spinning out of control, I've never been into relaxation techniques, but my ob did a good job of talking me through it (he is my regular ob in the practice and also the one who delivered joshua) and the nurses kept telling me I was doing really well (I didn't feel like it though). I wanted to use the birth bar... but the nurses said nobody had used it for such a long time and since they changed beds, they weren't even sure if the birth bar fit the newer beds!!! However, they felt that I would do ok with out it. Anyway, the pushing part was very scary for me, I really had to focus, and basically during the entire pushing part, my eyes were closed. I know it sounds strange, it was the only way I could cope with the pain and focus. I think I pushed a total of about 10-15 min, by the end, I thought I was going to lose it, the baby felt stuck to me, my ob told me he'd have to do an episiotomy (we had discussed it earlier and he knew I didn't want one and promised not to do one unless it was necessary). So, he did a quick cut and my last three pushes I was so exhausted, I literally ended up screaming bloody murder for the three pushes. I think I probably shocked everyone in the room, b/c I'm normally very soft spoken. My ob did the episiotomy, told me to stop pushing and blow and jonah was born. I was just completely drained afterwards, but happy to see jonah, who looks COMPLETELY different from joshua (I guess this shocked me, for some reason I thought jonah would look a lot like joshua did), and I was relieved that he was healthy and strong.
After the doctor sewed me up, he came over and congratulated us and also told us how happy he was to be a part of this birth, and how, "fun" it was. I thought this was a little odd, but I talked to my LLL leader yesterday and apparantly, at our hospital, a med free birth is a rarity, so the nurses and doctors don't often get a chance to do them very often anymore... I guess they consider it a treat. The nurses also said they were happy to be in the room for the delivery and then several postpartum nurses later told me that I was so, "brave" for going without an epidural! I was kind of shocked, I did not realize that my decision to go w/o an epidural would be such a big deal to the staff. I do feel that maybe the reason jonah's a better nurser this time is b/c I did not have the epidural. The nurses were also impressed that I was up and about so soon after giving birth and said it was so nice to be able to wheel me in a wheelchair over to the postpartum unit, instead of taking my via stretcher, lol.
Anyway, I am glad I went w/o an epidural, but admit that it hurt much more than I would ever have imagined. I'm glad that the only, "intervention" needed to get my labor going was to break my water, I was afraid I was going to end up having to get a pitocin drip to induce, which is what I did NOT want. I never ended up doing a birth plan, but had some pretty strong feelings about what I wanted and did not want and just told the staff about my wishes as the labor progressed. The episiotomy would not have been my first choice, but considering how dragged out my labor was, worse things could have happened and the nurses all reassured me that my ob was one of the ones who performed the least # of episiotomies possible, and I had discussed this with my ob before, so he knew my wishes. Also, I feel that dealing with prodromal labor a few days before the real deal, really drained my emotionally and physically. I probably would have had more of that, "exhilaration" feeling that I hear so many women speak of after having a natural, med free birth if I was so mentally and physically exhausted going into active labor. I was just glad it was over with and I had a healthy baby.
Well, it doesn't matter now. It's all over, I can say with confidence that I do NOT want to go through pregnancy or birth again. However, I am happy to be a mom of two little boys.
Here's some labor vibes ~~~~~~~ for any of you who need/want them.
Jonah Gabriel arrived via med free, natural birth on Saturday, Aug 20 at 10:31 am weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz, 20.5 inches. We got home yesterday, but I've been so exhausted (from the beginning jonah's nursed EVERY hr, 24 hrs a day... and my milk just came in), I wasn't unable to get back online until today.I'll go over my birth story. Several of you may have known that I had been struggling with prodromal labor for several days prior to jonah's birth and even had a false alarm where I called my mom to come stay with joshua (but contrax pittered out before we went to the hospital). Anyway, all day friday, I had contrax every 5 min since 11am, by 4pm we decided it would be best to call my mom to stay with joshua (DH already had the day off since we thought I was going to have the baby by thurs). My contrax became more intense, so we headed to the hospital at 11:30pm. I was hooked up to the monitor in the observation unit, since my water had not broken yet. The nurses determined this was going to be the real deal, so admitted me, I was only 3 cm (on monday I was only 1cm at the doc's office). Well, by 3am, my contrax had died down and were erratic. The nurse admitted to me, I could either go home or wait for the ob (I was happy the ob I wanted was on call that wknd) in the morning and see what he would do. I did not want to get induced, but I was getting so frustrated after several days of thinking I was in labor, that we decided to stick it out at the hospital and hope for the best. I walked the halls several times during the night and did notice that my contrax seemed more intense and closer together, but we were going to wait the doctor got there in the morning to do another internal exam.
The doctor showed up about 9:30am, I had not gotten much sleep during the night, and was getting annoyed with being hooked up to the external monitor (which kept falling off and getting displaced whenever I moved). Anyway, my ob came in and said, "wow, sounds like you've been stuck in the latent phase for a long time, let's take a look." He did an internal exam, I was 6cm, he said the baby's head was VERY low, and he had to manuver around the baby's head to even feel my cervix. He asked if I wanted an epidural, I said, "not this time." So, we decided to break my water. Within 15 min of my water breaking, my contrax got so strong, I could not stand it anymore, I was all over the bed and just felt like crawling out of my skin and thought, "this must be transition, b/c it can't get worse." Of course DH did NOT read any of the bradley method books I had gotten, so he did not know what was going on, except that I was acting really crazy and I ordered him to get the nurse NOW. Another nurse came in, and took one look at me and went to get my nurse. My nurse came in and was surprised (once again my stupid monitor had fallen off, so they did not realize how close and intense my contrax were from the nurse's station) I had progressed so much and said, "let me know when you have so much rectal pressure you feel like I have to push." I said, "that's how I feel NOW!" So, she ran out to find the doctor (who was in the postpartum unit), the other nurse helped her prep the room and when the doctor got there he started coaching me on pushing. By this time, I just felt like things were spinning out of control, I've never been into relaxation techniques, but my ob did a good job of talking me through it (he is my regular ob in the practice and also the one who delivered joshua) and the nurses kept telling me I was doing really well (I didn't feel like it though). I wanted to use the birth bar... but the nurses said nobody had used it for such a long time and since they changed beds, they weren't even sure if the birth bar fit the newer beds!!! However, they felt that I would do ok with out it. Anyway, the pushing part was very scary for me, I really had to focus, and basically during the entire pushing part, my eyes were closed. I know it sounds strange, it was the only way I could cope with the pain and focus. I think I pushed a total of about 10-15 min, by the end, I thought I was going to lose it, the baby felt stuck to me, my ob told me he'd have to do an episiotomy (we had discussed it earlier and he knew I didn't want one and promised not to do one unless it was necessary). So, he did a quick cut and my last three pushes I was so exhausted, I literally ended up screaming bloody murder for the three pushes. I think I probably shocked everyone in the room, b/c I'm normally very soft spoken. My ob did the episiotomy, told me to stop pushing and blow and jonah was born. I was just completely drained afterwards, but happy to see jonah, who looks COMPLETELY different from joshua (I guess this shocked me, for some reason I thought jonah would look a lot like joshua did), and I was relieved that he was healthy and strong.
After the doctor sewed me up, he came over and congratulated us and also told us how happy he was to be a part of this birth, and how, "fun" it was. I thought this was a little odd, but I talked to my LLL leader yesterday and apparantly, at our hospital, a med free birth is a rarity, so the nurses and doctors don't often get a chance to do them very often anymore... I guess they consider it a treat. The nurses also said they were happy to be in the room for the delivery and then several postpartum nurses later told me that I was so, "brave" for going without an epidural! I was kind of shocked, I did not realize that my decision to go w/o an epidural would be such a big deal to the staff. I do feel that maybe the reason jonah's a better nurser this time is b/c I did not have the epidural. The nurses were also impressed that I was up and about so soon after giving birth and said it was so nice to be able to wheel me in a wheelchair over to the postpartum unit, instead of taking my via stretcher, lol.
Anyway, I am glad I went w/o an epidural, but admit that it hurt much more than I would ever have imagined. I'm glad that the only, "intervention" needed to get my labor going was to break my water, I was afraid I was going to end up having to get a pitocin drip to induce, which is what I did NOT want. I never ended up doing a birth plan, but had some pretty strong feelings about what I wanted and did not want and just told the staff about my wishes as the labor progressed. The episiotomy would not have been my first choice, but considering how dragged out my labor was, worse things could have happened and the nurses all reassured me that my ob was one of the ones who performed the least # of episiotomies possible, and I had discussed this with my ob before, so he knew my wishes. Also, I feel that dealing with prodromal labor a few days before the real deal, really drained my emotionally and physically. I probably would have had more of that, "exhilaration" feeling that I hear so many women speak of after having a natural, med free birth if I was so mentally and physically exhausted going into active labor. I was just glad it was over with and I had a healthy baby.
Well, it doesn't matter now. It's all over, I can say with confidence that I do NOT want to go through pregnancy or birth again. However, I am happy to be a mom of two little boys.
Here's some labor vibes ~~~~~~~ for any of you who need/want them.
s to you and your family 
s up
Congratulations!
I love the name you picked out. Enjoy!
Enjoy your expanded family!!!
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