WOW!! (big sigh) I love bein' a mamma!
Cameron is 4 days old now and we're starting to understand each other a little better. I've had some time to reflect on his birth and am amazed at how incredibly lucky I had it and special it was.
We hired a doula about a month ago, last minute b/c we just felt like we needed another person there...My mom was planning to be there, and DH too, but we just felt we needed someone that was used to the hospital and that would help us be more comfortable with everything. Seeing that my mom had to go home before Cameron was born, hiring a doula was a lifesaver for DH and I.
For those of you that didn't know, I was scheduled for an induction on Friday. I would have been 42 wks preg and my OB (who is awesome) let me go longer than most patients because I was so problem free. The week leading up to my scheduled induction, I was to have NST every other day to just check on things. I was having contractions at night and every time I laid down so from about Monday on, I got very little sleep. It was so frustrating because the NSTs just happened to fall on times I was having little to no contractions so I felt like I was getting nowhere. Monday, I was still dilated to a 2, Wednesday, I went in, after having NO sleep the night before and constant contractions. I was dilated to a 3 and having no contractions at the office. I was just hoping that there was more progress and she'd let us go to the hospital to have my water broke or something, I was so tired. When she said she didn't think it would be a good idea, DH and I were so ready to start bawling.
Wednesday night, we went to bed around 11pm and I woke up again with contractions at around 1am. They were, as always, 5 min or less apart, but not very strong. I got up and took a bath, ate some cold cereal, tried to sleep through them on couch, to no avail. Finally woke up DH at 4 am and said I didn't care anymore, I needed to go to the hospital and see if they'd induce me or something, I was just too tired.
We got to the hospital at 5am and they said I was 3 cm still (I think, this part is a little hazy). Our doula arrived and she arranged for our backup doula to show up as well as there were some scheduling conflicts with her other job later in the day. The nurses called my doctor who said to have the resident break my water and see where we went from there.
After a very painful several tries, the resident couldn't get my bag to break so they just left me for a half hour or so until my doctor came to try. She broke it, but nothing came out so she wasn't sure if it had broke or not (turns out baby's head was acting as a cork and blocking all the fluid).
Baby's heartrate was down so they started fluids. I had originally wanted to walk around a lot and use the tub, but I was too tired to care about anything at that point.
Now, it seem like a short time, but I guess I labored for about 6 hours. It was pure agony for me because I was so tired, I couldn't relax, all I could think about was trying to sleep before the next contraction and worrying about the next one. I was so frustrated because it seemed like I was dilating so slowly and nothing was happening. I tried laying in bed, sitting up, squatting and sitting on the labor ball, nothing worked. I finally started bawling and calling myself a 'wuss' and told my doula I just needed to sleep. She had the nurse come in (my nurse was AWESOME, happened to also be a midwife) and they gave me nubain (sp?) which was supposed to help me relax.
Nubain rocked!!! I was 7 cm when they put it in IV and rolled onto my side and had contractions for about 15 min. They were about 3-4 min apart at that point and I was able to 'sleep' in between them. When the contractions came, I just 'rode' with them and then went back to sleep. My arm fell asleep so I told them I needed to roll over to the other side.
As I was rolling over, I had a contraction that felt funny. I told them "that one was different" and fell asleep. Next contraction, I said "i think I need to push" and DH and doula look at each other and doula ran out to get the nurse.
Nurse came in at the middle of the third contraction that I'd felt like this and at that point, I was pushing, I couldn't help it. She checked me, said I was completely dilated and needed to breath through the contractions and not push because the doctor wasn't there yet. YEAH RIGHT!!! Thank goodness, my OB drives like a maniac and her office is only 14 blocks away on the same street.
OB gets there and asks if she has time to change to scrubs, nurse says "nope, she's a good pusher and she's gonna have this kid out quick" so doctor just puts on gown. She knew I REALLY didn't want an episiotomy so she did as much massaging with almond oil as she could. Three contractions and about 6 pushes later, baby Cameron was born.
There was a little bit of meconium so they whisked him to the other side of the room and DH followed. I had a small tear so doctor started sewing that up. I was BAWLING though because I hadn't seen my baby yet. I didn't have my glasses on so when they held him up, I couldn't see him at all. Finally my backup doula (she'd been there through most of the heavy labor, main doula had gotten back JUST IN TIME for birth) yelled at the nurses "get that baby over here" and someone found my glasses so I could see him.
If you missed it, he was 8 lbs 15 oz, about 21 inches long and was born Thursday, the 9th at 12:04 pm. His full name is Cameron Arthur DeB****.
I'm so in love with this baby. I'm so more in love with DH. He has been such a good daddy and husband.
Oh, I could go on an on, but I'll stop now. I feel so blessed by his birth, even though it was rough at first, there was nothing better than the feeling of pushing to get him out. My doctor couldn't be better, she was so proud of me. I had a wonderful experience with my labor nurse and doulas...The post-partum nurses were really good as well and very helpful. I got lucky and had mostly 'old-school' nurses who were just kind and compassionate to me and my baby.
Cameron has gotten really good at nursing (it was rough at first, now I'm just sore a bit) and is such a good baby. He tries to sleep at night, but we are having humidity problems and he's getting too dry and snuffly so he can't breathe very well. He likes to sleep stomach to stomach with me reclined on the couch.
Yay!!! So, was I the last of us to finally go? If there's anybody else out there, hang in there, it's SO worth it!
Jen
PS: here's a link to a picture of him http://i1.tinypic.com/nph215.jpg
Added stuff:
**They were concerned about baby's heartrate when we first got there so were encouraging me to drink some juice. Apparently I heeded because I drank 3 large glasses of orange juice. Needless to say, that didn't stay down very long.
**I cussed at my doctor several times, I call her by first name and when she was sewing, she had missed a spot with the lidocaine so I was like "dammit Sheri, that hurts, keep it up and I'll kick you"
**The day after Cameron was born, my arms were so sore and weak, I couldn't figure out why until DH said it was probably from holding my legs while pushing...I asked for tylenol for that and the nurses looked at me a bit funny.
Cameron is 4 days old now and we're starting to understand each other a little better. I've had some time to reflect on his birth and am amazed at how incredibly lucky I had it and special it was.
We hired a doula about a month ago, last minute b/c we just felt like we needed another person there...My mom was planning to be there, and DH too, but we just felt we needed someone that was used to the hospital and that would help us be more comfortable with everything. Seeing that my mom had to go home before Cameron was born, hiring a doula was a lifesaver for DH and I.
For those of you that didn't know, I was scheduled for an induction on Friday. I would have been 42 wks preg and my OB (who is awesome) let me go longer than most patients because I was so problem free. The week leading up to my scheduled induction, I was to have NST every other day to just check on things. I was having contractions at night and every time I laid down so from about Monday on, I got very little sleep. It was so frustrating because the NSTs just happened to fall on times I was having little to no contractions so I felt like I was getting nowhere. Monday, I was still dilated to a 2, Wednesday, I went in, after having NO sleep the night before and constant contractions. I was dilated to a 3 and having no contractions at the office. I was just hoping that there was more progress and she'd let us go to the hospital to have my water broke or something, I was so tired. When she said she didn't think it would be a good idea, DH and I were so ready to start bawling.
Wednesday night, we went to bed around 11pm and I woke up again with contractions at around 1am. They were, as always, 5 min or less apart, but not very strong. I got up and took a bath, ate some cold cereal, tried to sleep through them on couch, to no avail. Finally woke up DH at 4 am and said I didn't care anymore, I needed to go to the hospital and see if they'd induce me or something, I was just too tired.
We got to the hospital at 5am and they said I was 3 cm still (I think, this part is a little hazy). Our doula arrived and she arranged for our backup doula to show up as well as there were some scheduling conflicts with her other job later in the day. The nurses called my doctor who said to have the resident break my water and see where we went from there.
After a very painful several tries, the resident couldn't get my bag to break so they just left me for a half hour or so until my doctor came to try. She broke it, but nothing came out so she wasn't sure if it had broke or not (turns out baby's head was acting as a cork and blocking all the fluid).
Baby's heartrate was down so they started fluids. I had originally wanted to walk around a lot and use the tub, but I was too tired to care about anything at that point.
Now, it seem like a short time, but I guess I labored for about 6 hours. It was pure agony for me because I was so tired, I couldn't relax, all I could think about was trying to sleep before the next contraction and worrying about the next one. I was so frustrated because it seemed like I was dilating so slowly and nothing was happening. I tried laying in bed, sitting up, squatting and sitting on the labor ball, nothing worked. I finally started bawling and calling myself a 'wuss' and told my doula I just needed to sleep. She had the nurse come in (my nurse was AWESOME, happened to also be a midwife) and they gave me nubain (sp?) which was supposed to help me relax.
Nubain rocked!!! I was 7 cm when they put it in IV and rolled onto my side and had contractions for about 15 min. They were about 3-4 min apart at that point and I was able to 'sleep' in between them. When the contractions came, I just 'rode' with them and then went back to sleep. My arm fell asleep so I told them I needed to roll over to the other side.
As I was rolling over, I had a contraction that felt funny. I told them "that one was different" and fell asleep. Next contraction, I said "i think I need to push" and DH and doula look at each other and doula ran out to get the nurse.
Nurse came in at the middle of the third contraction that I'd felt like this and at that point, I was pushing, I couldn't help it. She checked me, said I was completely dilated and needed to breath through the contractions and not push because the doctor wasn't there yet. YEAH RIGHT!!! Thank goodness, my OB drives like a maniac and her office is only 14 blocks away on the same street.
OB gets there and asks if she has time to change to scrubs, nurse says "nope, she's a good pusher and she's gonna have this kid out quick" so doctor just puts on gown. She knew I REALLY didn't want an episiotomy so she did as much massaging with almond oil as she could. Three contractions and about 6 pushes later, baby Cameron was born.
There was a little bit of meconium so they whisked him to the other side of the room and DH followed. I had a small tear so doctor started sewing that up. I was BAWLING though because I hadn't seen my baby yet. I didn't have my glasses on so when they held him up, I couldn't see him at all. Finally my backup doula (she'd been there through most of the heavy labor, main doula had gotten back JUST IN TIME for birth) yelled at the nurses "get that baby over here" and someone found my glasses so I could see him.
If you missed it, he was 8 lbs 15 oz, about 21 inches long and was born Thursday, the 9th at 12:04 pm. His full name is Cameron Arthur DeB****.
I'm so in love with this baby. I'm so more in love with DH. He has been such a good daddy and husband.
Oh, I could go on an on, but I'll stop now. I feel so blessed by his birth, even though it was rough at first, there was nothing better than the feeling of pushing to get him out. My doctor couldn't be better, she was so proud of me. I had a wonderful experience with my labor nurse and doulas...The post-partum nurses were really good as well and very helpful. I got lucky and had mostly 'old-school' nurses who were just kind and compassionate to me and my baby.
Cameron has gotten really good at nursing (it was rough at first, now I'm just sore a bit) and is such a good baby. He tries to sleep at night, but we are having humidity problems and he's getting too dry and snuffly so he can't breathe very well. He likes to sleep stomach to stomach with me reclined on the couch.
Yay!!! So, was I the last of us to finally go? If there's anybody else out there, hang in there, it's SO worth it!
Jen
PS: here's a link to a picture of him http://i1.tinypic.com/nph215.jpg
Added stuff:
**They were concerned about baby's heartrate when we first got there so were encouraging me to drink some juice. Apparently I heeded because I drank 3 large glasses of orange juice. Needless to say, that didn't stay down very long.
**I cussed at my doctor several times, I call her by first name and when she was sewing, she had missed a spot with the lidocaine so I was like "dammit Sheri, that hurts, keep it up and I'll kick you"
**The day after Cameron was born, my arms were so sore and weak, I couldn't figure out why until DH said it was probably from holding my legs while pushing...I asked for tylenol for that and the nurses looked at me a bit funny.
You handled "at home labor the way I did 
We went to the hospital at 4:am, too!
