Or a Christmas baby for the atheist.....
Ash Roland 6.14, 20inch was born at 2 am on Christmas morning.
I'm sorry if this is long and meandering but the labor was so long it was really a blur of days and pain and it's hard to remember it all coherently.
Despite earlier posting about bloody show and leaking, I didn't actually start getting contractions until Thursday(12/20) night, about 20 minutes apart. I slept fitfully waking for contractions all night. Friday they picked up and continued regularly all day and at 3am Saturday they were 5 minutes apart and fairly intense so we went to get checked out. 1-2 cm, 80% effaced and he was pretty low. So home we went.
Labored all day Saturday and Sunday at home, spent a lot of time in the bath tub as it was the only way I could sleep, picture a bathroom the size of a closet , a giant pregnant woman in the tub, DH curled around the toilet sleeping and a cat asleep on the toilet itself. It was pretty insane.
Sunday evening the contractions stopped for several hours I felt this really horrible, agonizing constant pressure instead DH called the midwife who said the baby was probably in a strange position and to spend some time on all fours and doing lunges which I did. The contractions picked up again and by Monday (x-mas eve) 7am we headed off to the hospital. At this point if it was active labor I knew I'd accept the morphine offered the last time we were there just to get a few hours of sleep. Luckily I was 4cm and in early active labor.
Instead of a sedative, I got to hop in the jacuzzi, relax and rest a bit. That was absolutely wonderful and the thought of that tub was what had gotten me through most of the previous weekend.
I didn't progress much in the tub so once I felt energized we got out and walked the halls trying to really get things going. After and hour or so of that and no progress, we tried some nipple stimulation, then more walking. The contractions still weren't getting any closer than 5 minutes apart and they were only slightly more intense than when I went in. The MW thought the baby was still in a strange position and the contractions weren't strong or constant enough to get him moved into a better place so she suggested some pitocin. Ugh. After trying more walking and nipple stimulation we agreed to a very low dose to be turned off as soon as contractions got regular on their own. The IV and monitoring could go into the bathroom with me so I could labor in the tub and continue to be mobile. True to her word we never got more than 8 drips/hr of pit and it was turned back to 2 as soon as she saw a pattern she liked.
The contractions picked up in frequency and intensity but were definitely still manageable. We labored on the ball, walking, swaying and finally back into the tub where I noticed my lower back was starting to hurt. By this point I was 7-8cm. I hit transition although with surprisingly more clarity than I'd thought and James said after he didn't think it was transition because I didn't beg for drugs or totally freak out.
I was on my hands and knees in the tub trying to get the baby to turn when I started getting the urge to push. A further check indicated I was 9.5 with a lip that the MW couldn't budge. She was afraid of swelling so I spent a long time leaning over the back of the bed trying not to push. It was awful. Finally it was suggested that since the bag of waters was bulging so much, it might be causing the urge to push rather than the baby's head and the MW hoped that breaking the back would not only allow the pressure from baby's head to finish dialating the cervix but would also alievate the urge to push.
She broke the bag and I pretty much immediately went to 10cm. Much pushing ensued. He was on his way to LOA and I was pushing well, all over the place; squat bar, squatting in bed, on the toliet, on all fours, on my side. (Don't even ask me about the pooping) Then he flipped.....totally posterior. This was after 2 hours of pushing. So we resigned ourselves to a marathon pushing session until his heart rate started declining, rapidly.
The MW said she expected it would take at least another 3 hours of pushing to get him out and the Dr. who supervises didn't think he could handle the stress as his heart rate wasn't recovering between contractions. We very reluctantly agreed to a c-section. DH was heartbroken but at that point I was feeling rather calm and removed.
The absolute worse part of the whole ordeal was the overwhelming urge to push that continued even as the anethesiologist was asking me questions and even as they wheeled me down the hall to surgery. It was just such an out of control feeling and it was rather humilitating at that point, being wheeled past all these people after my nice, private labor.
The c-section itself was totally surreal, all white lights after hours in a dim, quiet room, DH in scrubs. Like something out of a sci-fi movie.
They pulled him out and didn't lift him over the screen and I knew something was wrong. But was still really calm, they called James over and the MW stayed with me and explained what was going on. He was absolutely covered in meconium, the most the MW had ever seen (his head was blocking the passage when my water was broken so there was no indication) he was limp and grey and not breathing. It took 2 minutes of suctioning and oxygen to get his breathing started. Once they did he was breathing on his own right away and he was holding his own well. They brought him over to see me for just a second before taking him up to Special Care Nursery. They wanted to observe him for a few hours to make sure his breathing was stable and steady.
After I was cleaned up and recovering I was brought upstairs to see him. He wasn't hooked up to anything, just monitors and he was pink and healthy.
A few hours later he was back in the room with me and nursing like a pro. He hasn't left us since.
We got a nice early discharge and and my milk is in and he's curled up in his sling while I type.
So while it obviously wasn't my ideal birth, I do feel really empowered by having gone through 4 days of labor, almost 3 hours of pushing without pain meds and I feel like every choice we made was well informed and in the end probably saved his life.
Ash Roland 6.14, 20inch was born at 2 am on Christmas morning.
I'm sorry if this is long and meandering but the labor was so long it was really a blur of days and pain and it's hard to remember it all coherently.
Despite earlier posting about bloody show and leaking, I didn't actually start getting contractions until Thursday(12/20) night, about 20 minutes apart. I slept fitfully waking for contractions all night. Friday they picked up and continued regularly all day and at 3am Saturday they were 5 minutes apart and fairly intense so we went to get checked out. 1-2 cm, 80% effaced and he was pretty low. So home we went.
Labored all day Saturday and Sunday at home, spent a lot of time in the bath tub as it was the only way I could sleep, picture a bathroom the size of a closet , a giant pregnant woman in the tub, DH curled around the toilet sleeping and a cat asleep on the toilet itself. It was pretty insane.
Sunday evening the contractions stopped for several hours I felt this really horrible, agonizing constant pressure instead DH called the midwife who said the baby was probably in a strange position and to spend some time on all fours and doing lunges which I did. The contractions picked up again and by Monday (x-mas eve) 7am we headed off to the hospital. At this point if it was active labor I knew I'd accept the morphine offered the last time we were there just to get a few hours of sleep. Luckily I was 4cm and in early active labor.
Instead of a sedative, I got to hop in the jacuzzi, relax and rest a bit. That was absolutely wonderful and the thought of that tub was what had gotten me through most of the previous weekend.
I didn't progress much in the tub so once I felt energized we got out and walked the halls trying to really get things going. After and hour or so of that and no progress, we tried some nipple stimulation, then more walking. The contractions still weren't getting any closer than 5 minutes apart and they were only slightly more intense than when I went in. The MW thought the baby was still in a strange position and the contractions weren't strong or constant enough to get him moved into a better place so she suggested some pitocin. Ugh. After trying more walking and nipple stimulation we agreed to a very low dose to be turned off as soon as contractions got regular on their own. The IV and monitoring could go into the bathroom with me so I could labor in the tub and continue to be mobile. True to her word we never got more than 8 drips/hr of pit and it was turned back to 2 as soon as she saw a pattern she liked.
The contractions picked up in frequency and intensity but were definitely still manageable. We labored on the ball, walking, swaying and finally back into the tub where I noticed my lower back was starting to hurt. By this point I was 7-8cm. I hit transition although with surprisingly more clarity than I'd thought and James said after he didn't think it was transition because I didn't beg for drugs or totally freak out.
I was on my hands and knees in the tub trying to get the baby to turn when I started getting the urge to push. A further check indicated I was 9.5 with a lip that the MW couldn't budge. She was afraid of swelling so I spent a long time leaning over the back of the bed trying not to push. It was awful. Finally it was suggested that since the bag of waters was bulging so much, it might be causing the urge to push rather than the baby's head and the MW hoped that breaking the back would not only allow the pressure from baby's head to finish dialating the cervix but would also alievate the urge to push.
She broke the bag and I pretty much immediately went to 10cm. Much pushing ensued. He was on his way to LOA and I was pushing well, all over the place; squat bar, squatting in bed, on the toliet, on all fours, on my side. (Don't even ask me about the pooping) Then he flipped.....totally posterior. This was after 2 hours of pushing. So we resigned ourselves to a marathon pushing session until his heart rate started declining, rapidly.
The MW said she expected it would take at least another 3 hours of pushing to get him out and the Dr. who supervises didn't think he could handle the stress as his heart rate wasn't recovering between contractions. We very reluctantly agreed to a c-section. DH was heartbroken but at that point I was feeling rather calm and removed.
The absolute worse part of the whole ordeal was the overwhelming urge to push that continued even as the anethesiologist was asking me questions and even as they wheeled me down the hall to surgery. It was just such an out of control feeling and it was rather humilitating at that point, being wheeled past all these people after my nice, private labor.
The c-section itself was totally surreal, all white lights after hours in a dim, quiet room, DH in scrubs. Like something out of a sci-fi movie.
They pulled him out and didn't lift him over the screen and I knew something was wrong. But was still really calm, they called James over and the MW stayed with me and explained what was going on. He was absolutely covered in meconium, the most the MW had ever seen (his head was blocking the passage when my water was broken so there was no indication) he was limp and grey and not breathing. It took 2 minutes of suctioning and oxygen to get his breathing started. Once they did he was breathing on his own right away and he was holding his own well. They brought him over to see me for just a second before taking him up to Special Care Nursery. They wanted to observe him for a few hours to make sure his breathing was stable and steady.
After I was cleaned up and recovering I was brought upstairs to see him. He wasn't hooked up to anything, just monitors and he was pink and healthy.
A few hours later he was back in the room with me and nursing like a pro. He hasn't left us since.
We got a nice early discharge and and my milk is in and he's curled up in his sling while I type.
So while it obviously wasn't my ideal birth, I do feel really empowered by having gone through 4 days of labor, almost 3 hours of pushing without pain meds and I feel like every choice we made was well informed and in the end probably saved his life.
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