Only one minute to post. Teddy (8 lbs, 21 inches) was born on Thanksgiving day. Start of active labor til birth was 41 hours -- so intense! He is healthy, great and I am in great shape, too. Will post pics and birth story later. I see I have major catching up to do on other arrivals! He is sleeping by my side and is so precious! I am in love!
Thanks for the well-wishes -- here's a quickly-typed out story:
As some of you know, I was approaching my “2-weeks over my due date” and took a half-dose of castor oil during the day of Nov. 22 (Tuesday). The castor oil didn’t give me any intestinal distress, so I don’t know if it “worked” or not, but I did start having contractions at 9:00 PM. These were the first serious contractions of the entire pregnancy, so I thought they were likely to be significant. I went to the bathroom at 10:00 PM and had bloody show. From then on the contractions intensified and we began timing them. They were really intense and it was a lot of work for me to breathe through them and relax. They kept me up the whole night, except for what little sleep that I got in between them, on average they were coming about 6 minutes apart and lasting for a minute or so each. We had called the midwives and she said to keep the appointment we had the next day at 10:00 AM so that they could check me out then. We did make it in to that appointment – the drive was pretty tough in terms of the pain during contractions. I had a NST there which looked fine, but the contractions were very irregular still: 2, 3, 7, 5 min apart. I was 3 cm and 100% effaced. They told me to go back home and call them when they were 4 minutes apart, 1 min long, for one hour. We went home (another brutal ride) and continued contracting – we tried a lot of different positions, which changed the way the contractions felt, and at one point they were almost 4 minutes part for a while, but when I got out of that position they slowed down. By the evening I was really starting to have problems coping – it had been 24 hours of grueling labor, no sleep or food (could keep anything down) and no sign of anything progressing. We called our doula who came over. She tried more positions to get things to pick up. Sometimes it seemed like they would but then the would die out – all the while I was coping less and less well and started to get a negative attitude about things, although I did have bloody show about 4 more times, so I thought that perhaps I was progressing but that my contraction pattern was just different. At midnight I insisted on going to the hospital to find out where I was and have this baby – it was now about 30 hours of labor and I knew I had very little in me physically or mentally. The ride in was hell. We got there and I was wheeled up to triage where we met the midwife – she checked me and found that I was 5 cm. No fetal distress, so that meant that I did qualify to go the birthing suite (rather than regular delivery room) and labor there, perhaps in the tub (I had already been in the tub several times at home) but we agreed that little was likely to happen there. Since she saw me in the morning, she had expected I would have had my baby by this time. She asked what I wanted and I was really nervous because I had heard so much about the “cascade of interventions” – I said I needed to sleep because I could not deal with anything at that point. I felt like I could have dealt with things if I had been a lot closer to the birth, like pushing, but I knew I didn’t have another 12 hours of this in me. We came up with a plan which I thought sounded like the best alternative. I really would have liked to have “backed out” of labor and gotten a fresh start but that was not an option. I got on the table/bed in the delivery room and got the IV and the monitors. They gave me fluids and a dose of stadol, which let me sleep for one hour. When I woke we planned to start the pit and at that point I decided that I did want the epidural (I thought I would take a rest with the stadol and decide on the epidural after). Since it was a horrendous contraction that brought me out of my stadol-slumber, I knew I could not deal with any more contractions like that and feared the pit ones would be worse, plus it would take many hours for them to ramp it up to get close enough together. I was in hell waiting for the anesthesiologist and when he did arrive I was so relieved. When they were inserting the needles or whatever he was doing back there, people were commenting on how well I was doing – I was like what the hell – after what I have been through the last 30+ hours this is a cake-walk. After it was all hooked up and I was laying back down on the bed I apparently said this (don’t remember but DH told me) “I feel like I could cry” and someone asked why, I replied “because I am so happy I have this” and the anesthesiologist said that was the most sincere thing he had heard someone say (in terms of getting an epidural). I’m thinking that’s probably because most people who get them are people who expect to/plan on it, whatever. Anyway, I slept for several more hours, meanwhile the pit was working. The midwife (different one who was on call that day) checked me around 9 AM (this is now the 24th, Thursday), and said I was complete! I was so thrilled that the drugs seemed to have done their things and I was ready – people were really encouraging saying “you’re going to have this baby soon” and I was feeling more positive. He had done a “good job” on the epidural though and it was really creepy not being able to move my legs. I could move one a little but the other was totally out. They let me rest a little and around 10 AM had me start pushing. I was a bit difficult about this at first because I could not feel anything I didn’t know how I would be able to push. One of the nurses, who I found pretty annoying, kept saying I could and to just do it. I was asking about turning off the epidural so that I could feel but she said I didn’t need to – it’s funny because she was right. At first I think the pushing was kind of a disaster but it started working and he was coming down. They gave me plenty of rest between pushing episodes, so it took until 2 PM to get him out. One funny part, which I didn’t see, was that apparently when the head first came out, he lifted his neck opened his eyes and looked around – everyone that could see (doula, midwife, nurse) laughed and said it was like a turtle head coming out of its shell. When he was out he was placed on my chest and I was really in hysterics – between having my son on my chest slithering around, and knowing that my whole ordeal was over, I was totally overcome, blabbering, crying, and hyperventilating. I ended up with a minor tear – she debated rather to stitch it, but did but in two stitches.
That’s the story, but some comments on how I feel about a birth that was definitely not what I would have asked for, well, overall I am really thrilled. I feel like the interventions that we used were used in just the way they were meant to. I don’t know what was wrong with my labor, the doula thought maybe positioning, but he came out just the “right” way. The midwife said maybe something with my uterus. She mentioned something about dysfunctional labor – that’s something I plan on researching, I guess that is maybe what I had. When I realized things were not going well, I got really scared that things would spiral downhill, but once I got the help I needed things went well. I am really grateful to the midwives, nurses, doula, DH who helped get me through this even though it was a really different situation than we planned for. I am also grateful that during the whole process we had the EFM and my blood pressure constantly measured and not once was there any indication of distress or any kind of emergency. Teddy was born 14 days after his due date – I am glad that I went into labor on my own rather than induction because I feel that the pit worked with my body the way it was supposed to, since it was an augmentation rather that total induction. As for post-dates – I was very curious about my placenta since he was a 42 week baby – it was in great shape, no signs of deterioration – Teddy is in great shape, too. His hands and feet are a little wrinkled – I guess from being in there so long, but I think that’s normal. Since this was my first birth, I didn’t know what to expect and this has taught me a lot – we considered homebirth at first, and then transferred to the midwives at the hospital for non-medical reasons. While it’s obvious from all the great stories that homebirth is the right option for many women, it’s not something that I would consider with my next labor. When I was laboring at home for so long, I knew it my heart that something was not right and I was grateful that we had a great hospital to go to, rather than have to go in as an emergency at a the closest hospital, say, and I got to keep my whole team. All in all, I am very thankful for the birth I had – I can’t say that I enjoyed any of it really, expect pushing out my son. But that’s the way it happened and I don’t regret a thing (expect not going to hospital sooner!).
Thanks for the well-wishes -- here's a quickly-typed out story:
As some of you know, I was approaching my “2-weeks over my due date” and took a half-dose of castor oil during the day of Nov. 22 (Tuesday). The castor oil didn’t give me any intestinal distress, so I don’t know if it “worked” or not, but I did start having contractions at 9:00 PM. These were the first serious contractions of the entire pregnancy, so I thought they were likely to be significant. I went to the bathroom at 10:00 PM and had bloody show. From then on the contractions intensified and we began timing them. They were really intense and it was a lot of work for me to breathe through them and relax. They kept me up the whole night, except for what little sleep that I got in between them, on average they were coming about 6 minutes apart and lasting for a minute or so each. We had called the midwives and she said to keep the appointment we had the next day at 10:00 AM so that they could check me out then. We did make it in to that appointment – the drive was pretty tough in terms of the pain during contractions. I had a NST there which looked fine, but the contractions were very irregular still: 2, 3, 7, 5 min apart. I was 3 cm and 100% effaced. They told me to go back home and call them when they were 4 minutes apart, 1 min long, for one hour. We went home (another brutal ride) and continued contracting – we tried a lot of different positions, which changed the way the contractions felt, and at one point they were almost 4 minutes part for a while, but when I got out of that position they slowed down. By the evening I was really starting to have problems coping – it had been 24 hours of grueling labor, no sleep or food (could keep anything down) and no sign of anything progressing. We called our doula who came over. She tried more positions to get things to pick up. Sometimes it seemed like they would but then the would die out – all the while I was coping less and less well and started to get a negative attitude about things, although I did have bloody show about 4 more times, so I thought that perhaps I was progressing but that my contraction pattern was just different. At midnight I insisted on going to the hospital to find out where I was and have this baby – it was now about 30 hours of labor and I knew I had very little in me physically or mentally. The ride in was hell. We got there and I was wheeled up to triage where we met the midwife – she checked me and found that I was 5 cm. No fetal distress, so that meant that I did qualify to go the birthing suite (rather than regular delivery room) and labor there, perhaps in the tub (I had already been in the tub several times at home) but we agreed that little was likely to happen there. Since she saw me in the morning, she had expected I would have had my baby by this time. She asked what I wanted and I was really nervous because I had heard so much about the “cascade of interventions” – I said I needed to sleep because I could not deal with anything at that point. I felt like I could have dealt with things if I had been a lot closer to the birth, like pushing, but I knew I didn’t have another 12 hours of this in me. We came up with a plan which I thought sounded like the best alternative. I really would have liked to have “backed out” of labor and gotten a fresh start but that was not an option. I got on the table/bed in the delivery room and got the IV and the monitors. They gave me fluids and a dose of stadol, which let me sleep for one hour. When I woke we planned to start the pit and at that point I decided that I did want the epidural (I thought I would take a rest with the stadol and decide on the epidural after). Since it was a horrendous contraction that brought me out of my stadol-slumber, I knew I could not deal with any more contractions like that and feared the pit ones would be worse, plus it would take many hours for them to ramp it up to get close enough together. I was in hell waiting for the anesthesiologist and when he did arrive I was so relieved. When they were inserting the needles or whatever he was doing back there, people were commenting on how well I was doing – I was like what the hell – after what I have been through the last 30+ hours this is a cake-walk. After it was all hooked up and I was laying back down on the bed I apparently said this (don’t remember but DH told me) “I feel like I could cry” and someone asked why, I replied “because I am so happy I have this” and the anesthesiologist said that was the most sincere thing he had heard someone say (in terms of getting an epidural). I’m thinking that’s probably because most people who get them are people who expect to/plan on it, whatever. Anyway, I slept for several more hours, meanwhile the pit was working. The midwife (different one who was on call that day) checked me around 9 AM (this is now the 24th, Thursday), and said I was complete! I was so thrilled that the drugs seemed to have done their things and I was ready – people were really encouraging saying “you’re going to have this baby soon” and I was feeling more positive. He had done a “good job” on the epidural though and it was really creepy not being able to move my legs. I could move one a little but the other was totally out. They let me rest a little and around 10 AM had me start pushing. I was a bit difficult about this at first because I could not feel anything I didn’t know how I would be able to push. One of the nurses, who I found pretty annoying, kept saying I could and to just do it. I was asking about turning off the epidural so that I could feel but she said I didn’t need to – it’s funny because she was right. At first I think the pushing was kind of a disaster but it started working and he was coming down. They gave me plenty of rest between pushing episodes, so it took until 2 PM to get him out. One funny part, which I didn’t see, was that apparently when the head first came out, he lifted his neck opened his eyes and looked around – everyone that could see (doula, midwife, nurse) laughed and said it was like a turtle head coming out of its shell. When he was out he was placed on my chest and I was really in hysterics – between having my son on my chest slithering around, and knowing that my whole ordeal was over, I was totally overcome, blabbering, crying, and hyperventilating. I ended up with a minor tear – she debated rather to stitch it, but did but in two stitches.
That’s the story, but some comments on how I feel about a birth that was definitely not what I would have asked for, well, overall I am really thrilled. I feel like the interventions that we used were used in just the way they were meant to. I don’t know what was wrong with my labor, the doula thought maybe positioning, but he came out just the “right” way. The midwife said maybe something with my uterus. She mentioned something about dysfunctional labor – that’s something I plan on researching, I guess that is maybe what I had. When I realized things were not going well, I got really scared that things would spiral downhill, but once I got the help I needed things went well. I am really grateful to the midwives, nurses, doula, DH who helped get me through this even though it was a really different situation than we planned for. I am also grateful that during the whole process we had the EFM and my blood pressure constantly measured and not once was there any indication of distress or any kind of emergency. Teddy was born 14 days after his due date – I am glad that I went into labor on my own rather than induction because I feel that the pit worked with my body the way it was supposed to, since it was an augmentation rather that total induction. As for post-dates – I was very curious about my placenta since he was a 42 week baby – it was in great shape, no signs of deterioration – Teddy is in great shape, too. His hands and feet are a little wrinkled – I guess from being in there so long, but I think that’s normal. Since this was my first birth, I didn’t know what to expect and this has taught me a lot – we considered homebirth at first, and then transferred to the midwives at the hospital for non-medical reasons. While it’s obvious from all the great stories that homebirth is the right option for many women, it’s not something that I would consider with my next labor. When I was laboring at home for so long, I knew it my heart that something was not right and I was grateful that we had a great hospital to go to, rather than have to go in as an emergency at a the closest hospital, say, and I got to keep my whole team. All in all, I am very thankful for the birth I had – I can’t say that I enjoyed any of it really, expect pushing out my son. But that’s the way it happened and I don’t regret a thing (expect not going to hospital sooner!).
congrats momma!! im soo happy for you. welcome to the world baby!
