The saga commences with snow, snow, and more snow. The week following my due date we had 2 foot plus storms as we nervously awaited any sign of impending labor. I was due to have an ultrasound at 8 days overdue and we got hammered with another foot of snow so I postponed my appt. until Weds, the 16th. So Meme and I trucked in leaving all the boys at home to await our call as to the next step. At this point I was resigned to an mild induction via Cervidil, since my Doc., “wouldn't let me go past 42 weeks”, and I was a bit ready shall we say, to pop. Everything looked great on the ultrasound and up I went to the Birthing unit to find out what my cervix had been doing. Come to find out, not much. The only thing it was, was ripe, so we moved on to cytotec, (which I hadn't done much of my homework on but my Doc was very good about answering any questions). Within 30 minutes I was having mild contractions and assuming there might be a baby that night, (yeah right!), I called DH and late that afternoon all the boys trucked in and my in-laws headed north. After mild contractions that day and evening my cervix had not changed due to the baby hanging out so far out in front that it was stuck in front of my pubic bone, thereby not putting any pressure on my cervix so my contractions didn't get any stronger. My FIL and dad headed to Newburyport with the boys and hung out there playing hard until further notice. By morning my contractions were still mild with no cervical change and after hours of climbing stairs, lunges, squats, pelvic tilts, some tub time, and some midwifery manipulations the baby hadn't budged. So with much trepidation and discussions with the doc and nurse we started the dreaded Pitocin. The contractions did get stronger but not strong enough to do much so we decided to take a break for the night and start afresh on Friday morning. After a somewhat decent night of sleep the doc started another round of cytotec and I did another round of climbing stairs, etc. By midday I had hardly changed so we started the Pit again and this time after a couple of hours of increasing the Pit rate of infusion the contractions finally started to get a little stronger. I immediately started squats and could feel this stubborn kid finally moving down. I was really convinced that my body was finally taking charge and the Pit contractions were starting to be on top of each other so with a bit of arm twisting of the “traditional” nurse we had her start to wean me off the Pit and the contractions slowed to a more tolerable rate but didn't lessen in intensity. It was kind of funny because the nurse kept trying to get me on the squatting chair to take the “strain” off my legs. I tried it once and said no way, I'm fine. After a couple more comments about trying the chair I told her that I lived in Africa for 2 years and can squat my life away, she shut up
. I spent another 2 hours squatting every 2 minutes, got completely weaned off the Pit, and was thrilled to get clearance to hop in the tub for the fun part, this was around 6pm. My water hadn't broken yet and even though the baby was finally over my cervix, (which had finally dilated to 5cm!), the doc was not comfortable breaking my water due to the possibility of a prolapsed cord and he was convinced that it would break on it's own, which I'd never felt before. A little before 8pm, I was having trouble not pushing so the doc rushed back in and all I had was a bit of lip of cervix left. I think he did some manipulations while I was pushing and a few minutes later gave me the go ahead to push. So at 8:08, on the 18th, I put all my energy into getting this procrastinating Volkay/Richardson out and Andrew William was born at 8:20, hallelujah!!!!!! Oh and after just a few minutes of pushing I had the strangest sensation that a fountain had just burst and I got to feel my water break, that was cool!
I had guessed his weight to be 8lbs 5oz and he was 8lbs. 4.5oz, after 2 pees, I was right about something. Length was 19.5in, and so far his hair looks like Connor's, kind of a coppery brown. His in utero temperament seems to be holding true, he eats, pees, poops, and easily goes to sleep, what a relief!!!
The only big kink thrown in my recovery was that the next day I hopped in the tub and a couple of hours after I got out I developed a fever of 103 and spent the next 3 days on IV antibiotics recovering from an infection probably due to an infection in the lining of my uterus, not fun. I was finally discharged on Wednesday and headed to my in-laws to recover a few more days before heading home sweet home on Friday. I'm still amazed that I ended up having my water birth after all that and am so thankful we were able to keep up such great communication with my doc who really respected our wishes and was willing to work with our stubborn ways.
Now that I've been home for a bit and finally able to post the story I've got a question about pelvic pain. I've got some serious ache going on in my pelvis and it definitely feels like bone/muscle ache that is so strong that I can't sit for longer than a couple of minutes at a time, which is why it took so long to write up the birth story
! It also means I can't even sit long enough on our soft couch to nurse, I've actually had to get up and walk around to BF because my rear end hurts so much
:. I certainly remember aches associated with my previous births but I was not as negatively affected afterwards and the babes were even bigger!
I had been taking advil and arnica right after the birth but stopped the arnica since with me it seems to not work as well when I'm using it days after an incident. So I'm considering increasing my advil and possibly contacting the Doc to see if there is anything stronger. I'm usually pretty stubborn about dull pain like this but it's really interfering with nursing, resting, typing, snuggling with my boys...life! Any recommendations?
. I spent another 2 hours squatting every 2 minutes, got completely weaned off the Pit, and was thrilled to get clearance to hop in the tub for the fun part, this was around 6pm. My water hadn't broken yet and even though the baby was finally over my cervix, (which had finally dilated to 5cm!), the doc was not comfortable breaking my water due to the possibility of a prolapsed cord and he was convinced that it would break on it's own, which I'd never felt before. A little before 8pm, I was having trouble not pushing so the doc rushed back in and all I had was a bit of lip of cervix left. I think he did some manipulations while I was pushing and a few minutes later gave me the go ahead to push. So at 8:08, on the 18th, I put all my energy into getting this procrastinating Volkay/Richardson out and Andrew William was born at 8:20, hallelujah!!!!!! Oh and after just a few minutes of pushing I had the strangest sensation that a fountain had just burst and I got to feel my water break, that was cool!I had guessed his weight to be 8lbs 5oz and he was 8lbs. 4.5oz, after 2 pees, I was right about something
. Length was 19.5in, and so far his hair looks like Connor's, kind of a coppery brown. His in utero temperament seems to be holding true, he eats, pees, poops, and easily goes to sleep, what a relief!!!The only big kink thrown in my recovery was that the next day I hopped in the tub and a couple of hours after I got out I developed a fever of 103 and spent the next 3 days on IV antibiotics recovering from an infection probably due to an infection in the lining of my uterus, not fun. I was finally discharged on Wednesday and headed to my in-laws to recover a few more days before heading home sweet home on Friday. I'm still amazed that I ended up having my water birth after all that and am so thankful we were able to keep up such great communication with my doc who really respected our wishes and was willing to work with our stubborn ways.
Now that I've been home for a bit and finally able to post the story I've got a question about pelvic pain. I've got some serious ache going on in my pelvis and it definitely feels like bone/muscle ache that is so strong that I can't sit for longer than a couple of minutes at a time, which is why it took so long to write up the birth story
! It also means I can't even sit long enough on our soft couch to nurse, I've actually had to get up and walk around to BF because my rear end hurts so much:. I certainly remember aches associated with my previous births but I was not as negatively affected afterwards and the babes were even bigger!I had been taking advil and arnica right after the birth but stopped the arnica since with me it seems to not work as well when I'm using it days after an incident. So I'm considering increasing my advil and possibly contacting the Doc to see if there is anything stronger. I'm usually pretty stubborn about dull pain like this but it's really interfering with nursing, resting, typing
, snuggling with my boys...life! Any recommendations?
Congrats on your little fellow. What the heck is Volkay/Richardson? 
: Andrew! And congrats, mama!
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