I thought about it a bit and I think I can give the condensed version. I'll be leaving out a lot of the fine details but I still wanted to tell you guys at least briefly how it went!
When we went to the hospital on Sunday morning we were in triage for 5 hours. During that time, I was having some pretty intense, painful contractions that were close together, and in the whole 5 hours, my cervix did not change one bit. We had not slept the night before and very little 2 nights before, so they were concerned that because I was so exhausted, I was not going to progress. I very reluctantly agreed to cervical ripening, I SO wanted to do this without medication but it wasn't in the cards for me. With the long labor and lack of sleep, I would have been a c-section, no doubt. At least this time we made informed choices and the ripening and pain meds did exactly what we needed them to do. My body labors very slowly and I knew if I refused these things, it would have been a belly birth for me. I cried many tears over it... I was just SO upset that I couldn't have this the way I'd wanted. I asked my DH many times if I was just a failure. The first nurse we had out on the floor gave me a huge hug and told me it was OK to grieve the birth I was not going to get.
Just hearing that from a caring stranger gave me a lot of strength to face what was to come.
We got to a regular room, finally, and I had the ripening done and got something for pain, and we labored the rest of the day, into the evening. I did wind up getting an epidural because the shots were not helping anymore, I was SO exhausted and the ripening agent made me more crampy, this was after having been there for 16 hours and I was still only dilated to a 2. My doc also gave me something to help me sleep and during the night I went to 6 cm and my water broke that night on its own.
My doctor came in the next morning and broke my water the rest of the way. I was 6 and very stretchy, it was all looking good. After that, my ctx got stronger and I entered transition around 9. I had the urge to push at 7 cm and one of the nurses helped us get through that for about 1/2 hour, I was feeling very panicky because I had that BIG HUGE POOP feeling and my body was pushing by itself, I could feel her head moving down. During that 1/2 hour, I went from 7 to just lip, and the nurse said "Let's see what you can do." I pushed a couple of ctx in the bed, which felt wrong. I wanted the squat bar, and the nurse said "but you've had an epidural" and I said "I did this the last time, just help me get up there!" They no sooner got it attached to the bed and with a little help, I flew up there and pushed my daughter out in 5-10 minutes!! My doctor did not make it in time and the nurse caught her!
It was so ironic, after SO many hours/days of labor, I had a precipitious delivery! When I heard them say that, I was thinking, that can't be right... LOL... because the whole thing up to that point took so stinkin long! It felt really awful, I could feel her twisting her way through my pelvis and I kept yelling to get her out, that I couldn't get her out, and apparently someone was going to try to get me back on the bed but there was no way that was going to happen In any case, when I "came to" and opened my eyes, there were ALL these people in the room, we must have gotten everyone excited, and I was like "Who is that guy?" LOL It turned out to be an ER resident because he happened to be there and they wanted a doctor in the room! We were all just thrilled though, we got her skin to skin right away and she nursed for 45 minutes while we were recovering. She did not leave my tummy til I was able to get up to take a shower.
The nurses were all SO wonderful this time!! And although I had interventions I did not want, I know they saved us from a c-section and they all did just what we needed, we were able to progress and stay on top of the pain. And my recovery has been great, I'm hardly bleeding at all and even with the fast birth, I did not tear. It was very healing, and I am FINALLY (after over 2 years of struggling with it emotionally) at peace with my son's birth. (Starting to cry again just thinking about it!) I know now that it was probably not the induction with him, it's just the way my body labors... it feels good to be at peace finally and I know that this time, we made all the right choices. It feels so good not to be so bitter and guilty over my son's birth! I didn't ever think I'd get there, but birthing Sophie got me there!
As soon as I get a pic uploaded, I'll post...
When we went to the hospital on Sunday morning we were in triage for 5 hours. During that time, I was having some pretty intense, painful contractions that were close together, and in the whole 5 hours, my cervix did not change one bit. We had not slept the night before and very little 2 nights before, so they were concerned that because I was so exhausted, I was not going to progress. I very reluctantly agreed to cervical ripening, I SO wanted to do this without medication but it wasn't in the cards for me. With the long labor and lack of sleep, I would have been a c-section, no doubt. At least this time we made informed choices and the ripening and pain meds did exactly what we needed them to do. My body labors very slowly and I knew if I refused these things, it would have been a belly birth for me. I cried many tears over it... I was just SO upset that I couldn't have this the way I'd wanted. I asked my DH many times if I was just a failure. The first nurse we had out on the floor gave me a huge hug and told me it was OK to grieve the birth I was not going to get.
Just hearing that from a caring stranger gave me a lot of strength to face what was to come.We got to a regular room, finally, and I had the ripening done and got something for pain, and we labored the rest of the day, into the evening. I did wind up getting an epidural because the shots were not helping anymore, I was SO exhausted and the ripening agent made me more crampy, this was after having been there for 16 hours and I was still only dilated to a 2. My doc also gave me something to help me sleep and during the night I went to 6 cm and my water broke that night on its own.
My doctor came in the next morning and broke my water the rest of the way. I was 6 and very stretchy, it was all looking good. After that, my ctx got stronger and I entered transition around 9. I had the urge to push at 7 cm and one of the nurses helped us get through that for about 1/2 hour, I was feeling very panicky because I had that BIG HUGE POOP feeling and my body was pushing by itself, I could feel her head moving down. During that 1/2 hour, I went from 7 to just lip, and the nurse said "Let's see what you can do." I pushed a couple of ctx in the bed, which felt wrong. I wanted the squat bar, and the nurse said "but you've had an epidural" and I said "I did this the last time, just help me get up there!" They no sooner got it attached to the bed and with a little help, I flew up there and pushed my daughter out in 5-10 minutes!! My doctor did not make it in time and the nurse caught her!
It was so ironic, after SO many hours/days of labor, I had a precipitious delivery! When I heard them say that, I was thinking, that can't be right... LOL... because the whole thing up to that point took so stinkin long! It felt really awful, I could feel her twisting her way through my pelvis and I kept yelling to get her out, that I couldn't get her out, and apparently someone was going to try to get me back on the bed but there was no way that was going to happen In any case, when I "came to" and opened my eyes, there were ALL these people in the room, we must have gotten everyone excited, and I was like "Who is that guy?" LOL It turned out to be an ER resident because he happened to be there and they wanted a doctor in the room! We were all just thrilled though, we got her skin to skin right away and she nursed for 45 minutes while we were recovering. She did not leave my tummy til I was able to get up to take a shower.
The nurses were all SO wonderful this time!! And although I had interventions I did not want, I know they saved us from a c-section and they all did just what we needed, we were able to progress and stay on top of the pain. And my recovery has been great, I'm hardly bleeding at all and even with the fast birth, I did not tear. It was very healing, and I am FINALLY (after over 2 years of struggling with it emotionally) at peace with my son's birth. (Starting to cry again just thinking about it!) I know now that it was probably not the induction with him, it's just the way my body labors... it feels good to be at peace finally and I know that this time, we made all the right choices. It feels so good not to be so bitter and guilty over my son's birth! I didn't ever think I'd get there, but birthing Sophie got me there!
As soon as I get a pic uploaded, I'll post...
I am very, very Happy for you Liz!
