It started Thursday night, I guess. I had been having regular contractions for weeks off and on but something was different and I said I thought I was in labor. We went and rented "Father of the Bride 2" because it was the only fun movie we could think of that was about pregnancy/birth.
We went to bed and I was able to sleep but was woken by contractions a couple times. Skyla woke up between 3-4 AM and by then I was pretty sure I was in labor because they were getting more painful. By the time Micah got up to get ready for work a little before 5, I told him he wasn't going to work but he wasn't convinced. My contractions were close together but not reliably regular. I would have one very painful one, and then one that wasn't bad. I was induced with Skyla so I didn't really know where I should go to the hospital. I didn't want to be there too soon or too late. I called my ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
ffice:smarttags" />OB around 6 AM and asked if he thought I should go in even though they weren't regular and he said yes since I had been dilated 3 cm and was at least 80% effaced for weeks. I was 6 days past the ultra sound due date and nearly 3 weeks past my cycle due date.
By 7 am we were in rush hour traffic on the way to the hospital. Laboring in a car, for the record, is horrible, especially the way Micah drives. The contractions were getting pretty intense by this point. We had never actually been to the building with the maternity ward and we couldn't find it. After a quick stop at ER to get directions, we eventually found the parking garage we needed and Micah dropped my mom and me off at the elevator and went to park. When we realized that we were not quite where we thought we were, my mom went back to find Micah so he wouldn't get lost. I about lost it while I was alone waiting because I was afraid she would miss him on the elevator and then they would both be lost while I was in active labor on the side of the street. Thankfully, they both showed up a few minutes later and we went in the correct building at the completely wrong end. I was almost in tears from the stress and pain combined. We finally got checked in about 7:30.
They took one look at me and decided to skip triage since I supposed there aren't a whole lot of false alarms with moms as late as I was. I had a birth plan that I had gone over with my doctor that I would not have an IV or be strapped down the whole time. The nurse said that she would have to call my doctor to get permission not to hook up an IV and that I would still have to have a shunt so if it became necessary to use an IV it would be set up. She went and called my OB and I can only assume that he told here I didn't have to have the shunt because it never came up again. I was thrilled to find that they have remote monitors so I was able to wear them without being strapped down or having to go on and off for intermittent monitoring. I found my most comfortable position at first was on a rolling stool probably for the doctor. I tried the birth ball but preferred the stability of the stool while I could still roll around. It is funny what helps you deal with the pain but I was spinning around in circles for some of the contractions. Sometime after 8am my OB stopped by and declared me dilated only 4cm. This was disappointing since I started at a stretchy 3. He said he thought I would go quickly. The nurse left me alone and didn't even check on me until 10am when she said that my OB had called and said to check my progress at 11am. I now found my favorite position was on the stool leaning back on Micah who was in an arm chair behind me. My mom was sitting on my side telling me every so often that I was doing really good. Micah would tell me to think about my breathing and that was very helpful too. Between the two of them I had a lot of good support. By this point, the labor was really intense and I wanted to be checked but figured I should wait. I remember Micah talking (probably not ever to me) about some restaurant down the street and I yelled at him to stop talking. I couldn't think about anything else. The contractions were still irregular. I would have one that would last 3 minutes and then have one minute off and then a 45 second contraction with a minute and a half off. The nurse said that this was not ideal and that usually it does not help you progress. She said that it was "great if you can change your cervix like that…but usually it ends by using the p-word (pitocin)"
After 10am they started to get pretty regular but extremely painful. I had been using various breathing techniques and visualization exercises to help focus but they were all starting to fail. The visualization became particularly useless although it had helped earlier in the labor. It was so painful I couldn't imagine it being any more painful. I had reached the 10 on the pain scale they are always asking for a number. I was thinking that if this wasn't transition (which judging by the length and frequency of the contractions I didn't think I could be) I wasn't going to make it through transition…I just didn't want to be that optimistic that I was almost done. I was just surviving one contraction at a time. Luckily, and for the first time, they were getting regular. I would have roughly one minute contracting, one minute off. The minute off gave me a chance to try to recover and convince myself I could keep going. By 10:30am I really wanted to be checked but the nurse hadn't come in again. I had been vocalizing through contractions but now it was getting so intense and all of a sudden I felt a kind of pop. It was about 10:45am. I jumped up screaming. This is the part where I lost control. My screaming brought no less than 8 staff running in with 2 doctors on the way. I was yelling, "Something happened" and they asked me what I felt but I couldn't describe it. I said I thought my water broke because of the pop but when I looked down there was blood but no water. I was climbing up on the bed so they could check me and felt completely out of control. Something had changed but I couldn't tell what.
She checked me and said… "We aren't going to need Dr. So-and-so, her water is bulging and she is complete." I can only assume that they had called a anesthesiologist and realized that was unnecessary. With the next contraction I realized I was pushing, mostly from the sound I was making. I wasn't doing this on purpose and the nurse told me not to push. I yelled back (while pushing) "I can't not push!" Because as far as I was concerned, it wasn't me doing the pushing. A doctor was putting an apron on in front of me and all of a sudden my water literally exploded all over. They were still trying to get everything ready for the delivery and my OB wasn't there but the baby was coming. There was meconium in the water so within seconds they had a Pediatric specialist there. I pushed again and saw the head crowning, and again the head was out. I figured that none of these people had read my birth plan so I was trying to give instructions, "No Vitamin K…No eye drops." At 10:51am I pushed again and he was out. He weighted in at a whopping 8 pounds 2 ounces and 22 inches long-he is long and skinny. Skyla weight the same but was 3 inches shorter.
It was only a couple minutes later my OB ran in, making a total of 11 doctors and nurses present. I tore pretty badly probably since I pushed so quickly. The stitching was almost as bad as the birth. Preston had to have the deep suctioning since there was meconium in the water. I wanted him brought to me but they didn't bring him back to me until I was sewed up.
Preston didn't take to nursing like Skyla did. He barely latched on and nursed for a minute. I needed him to because I was bleeding heavily and needed the stimulation to help my uterus contract. After an hour or two of trying, I agreed to take a shot of pitocin to help my uterus contract because I was still bleeding heavily. After the shot, I was able to be moved to the postpartum area. I had to have help standing up because I lost so much blood I was very fainty (and still am 3 days later) but other than that I felt great…way better than after I delivered Skyla.
We were basically left alone the whole time, and only had my vitals taken once. We stayed for 24 hours when they could do the PKU and finally got released. Both the OB and Pediatrician were fine with it but the nurses acted like it was so weird that we wanted to go home. They were scrambling all over trying to get everything done that normally is done the second day. Now we are all home and doing well. Preston has been very sleepy during the day and is quite the night owl but he has made up for lost time and is nursing like a champ.
Overall the birth and hospital experience was much better that our first time around. I was especially happy with my OB (even though he didn't make the birth) for being so supportive of a natural birth and allowing the hospital to break protocol so we could have the birth we wanted.
Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karmajoy/
We went to bed and I was able to sleep but was woken by contractions a couple times. Skyla woke up between 3-4 AM and by then I was pretty sure I was in labor because they were getting more painful. By the time Micah got up to get ready for work a little before 5, I told him he wasn't going to work but he wasn't convinced. My contractions were close together but not reliably regular. I would have one very painful one, and then one that wasn't bad. I was induced with Skyla so I didn't really know where I should go to the hospital. I didn't want to be there too soon or too late. I called my ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
ffice:smarttags" />OB around 6 AM and asked if he thought I should go in even though they weren't regular and he said yes since I had been dilated 3 cm and was at least 80% effaced for weeks. I was 6 days past the ultra sound due date and nearly 3 weeks past my cycle due date.By 7 am we were in rush hour traffic on the way to the hospital. Laboring in a car, for the record, is horrible, especially the way Micah drives. The contractions were getting pretty intense by this point. We had never actually been to the building with the maternity ward and we couldn't find it. After a quick stop at ER to get directions, we eventually found the parking garage we needed and Micah dropped my mom and me off at the elevator and went to park. When we realized that we were not quite where we thought we were, my mom went back to find Micah so he wouldn't get lost. I about lost it while I was alone waiting because I was afraid she would miss him on the elevator and then they would both be lost while I was in active labor on the side of the street. Thankfully, they both showed up a few minutes later and we went in the correct building at the completely wrong end. I was almost in tears from the stress and pain combined. We finally got checked in about 7:30.
They took one look at me and decided to skip triage since I supposed there aren't a whole lot of false alarms with moms as late as I was. I had a birth plan that I had gone over with my doctor that I would not have an IV or be strapped down the whole time. The nurse said that she would have to call my doctor to get permission not to hook up an IV and that I would still have to have a shunt so if it became necessary to use an IV it would be set up. She went and called my OB and I can only assume that he told here I didn't have to have the shunt because it never came up again. I was thrilled to find that they have remote monitors so I was able to wear them without being strapped down or having to go on and off for intermittent monitoring. I found my most comfortable position at first was on a rolling stool probably for the doctor. I tried the birth ball but preferred the stability of the stool while I could still roll around. It is funny what helps you deal with the pain but I was spinning around in circles for some of the contractions. Sometime after 8am my OB stopped by and declared me dilated only 4cm. This was disappointing since I started at a stretchy 3. He said he thought I would go quickly. The nurse left me alone and didn't even check on me until 10am when she said that my OB had called and said to check my progress at 11am. I now found my favorite position was on the stool leaning back on Micah who was in an arm chair behind me. My mom was sitting on my side telling me every so often that I was doing really good. Micah would tell me to think about my breathing and that was very helpful too. Between the two of them I had a lot of good support. By this point, the labor was really intense and I wanted to be checked but figured I should wait. I remember Micah talking (probably not ever to me) about some restaurant down the street and I yelled at him to stop talking. I couldn't think about anything else. The contractions were still irregular. I would have one that would last 3 minutes and then have one minute off and then a 45 second contraction with a minute and a half off. The nurse said that this was not ideal and that usually it does not help you progress. She said that it was "great if you can change your cervix like that…but usually it ends by using the p-word (pitocin)"
After 10am they started to get pretty regular but extremely painful. I had been using various breathing techniques and visualization exercises to help focus but they were all starting to fail. The visualization became particularly useless although it had helped earlier in the labor. It was so painful I couldn't imagine it being any more painful. I had reached the 10 on the pain scale they are always asking for a number. I was thinking that if this wasn't transition (which judging by the length and frequency of the contractions I didn't think I could be) I wasn't going to make it through transition…I just didn't want to be that optimistic that I was almost done. I was just surviving one contraction at a time. Luckily, and for the first time, they were getting regular. I would have roughly one minute contracting, one minute off. The minute off gave me a chance to try to recover and convince myself I could keep going. By 10:30am I really wanted to be checked but the nurse hadn't come in again. I had been vocalizing through contractions but now it was getting so intense and all of a sudden I felt a kind of pop. It was about 10:45am. I jumped up screaming. This is the part where I lost control. My screaming brought no less than 8 staff running in with 2 doctors on the way. I was yelling, "Something happened" and they asked me what I felt but I couldn't describe it. I said I thought my water broke because of the pop but when I looked down there was blood but no water. I was climbing up on the bed so they could check me and felt completely out of control. Something had changed but I couldn't tell what.
She checked me and said… "We aren't going to need Dr. So-and-so, her water is bulging and she is complete." I can only assume that they had called a anesthesiologist and realized that was unnecessary. With the next contraction I realized I was pushing, mostly from the sound I was making. I wasn't doing this on purpose and the nurse told me not to push. I yelled back (while pushing) "I can't not push!" Because as far as I was concerned, it wasn't me doing the pushing. A doctor was putting an apron on in front of me and all of a sudden my water literally exploded all over. They were still trying to get everything ready for the delivery and my OB wasn't there but the baby was coming. There was meconium in the water so within seconds they had a Pediatric specialist there. I pushed again and saw the head crowning, and again the head was out. I figured that none of these people had read my birth plan so I was trying to give instructions, "No Vitamin K…No eye drops." At 10:51am I pushed again and he was out. He weighted in at a whopping 8 pounds 2 ounces and 22 inches long-he is long and skinny. Skyla weight the same but was 3 inches shorter.
It was only a couple minutes later my OB ran in, making a total of 11 doctors and nurses present. I tore pretty badly probably since I pushed so quickly. The stitching was almost as bad as the birth. Preston had to have the deep suctioning since there was meconium in the water. I wanted him brought to me but they didn't bring him back to me until I was sewed up.
Preston didn't take to nursing like Skyla did. He barely latched on and nursed for a minute. I needed him to because I was bleeding heavily and needed the stimulation to help my uterus contract. After an hour or two of trying, I agreed to take a shot of pitocin to help my uterus contract because I was still bleeding heavily. After the shot, I was able to be moved to the postpartum area. I had to have help standing up because I lost so much blood I was very fainty (and still am 3 days later) but other than that I felt great…way better than after I delivered Skyla.
We were basically left alone the whole time, and only had my vitals taken once. We stayed for 24 hours when they could do the PKU and finally got released. Both the OB and Pediatrician were fine with it but the nurses acted like it was so weird that we wanted to go home. They were scrambling all over trying to get everything done that normally is done the second day. Now we are all home and doing well. Preston has been very sleepy during the day and is quite the night owl but he has made up for lost time and is nursing like a champ.
Overall the birth and hospital experience was much better that our first time around. I was especially happy with my OB (even though he didn't make the birth) for being so supportive of a natural birth and allowing the hospital to break protocol so we could have the birth we wanted.
Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karmajoy/
the new family one! Enjoy your babymoon!
