Okay, not sure if they are going to leave this here or not, but here is Kate's birth story. Disclaimer - I had a hospital birth, and while I am very granola about a lot of things, birth is not one of them. My hospital experience was very positive, but I did do an epidural and pitocin, although not much of it.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 I was out at my folks house having dinner. We do that every Wednesday so the kids get to spend a good deal of time with their grandparents. I had a few contractions here or there, and had been for the previous week. Nothing regular and definitely nothing to really worry about. We finished dinner, came home, got the kids in bed, and then I hung out with DH for a while. We headed for bed about 10. I had not felt contractions for about 2 hours, so I figured we still had a good deal of time to wait.
Through the night, I had contractions about every 2 hours that woke me up. But I would get up and pee and then go back to bed. We always get up around 5 am and the alarm went off, I went to stand up, and realized that I had either peed myself a ton (not possible given how many times I had gotten up to pee overnight) or my water had broken. So I got up and checked to make sure there was no meconium in the water and told DH what was going on. He started to over react so I calmed him down, and told him that we needed to eat and drink some coffee and read the paper and get the kids ready for school.
We came downstairs and sat down and I had toast with peanut butter and honey and a cup of coffee and read the comics. But I quickly realized that the contractions were actually much closer together than I had thought they would be. When I started timing them, they were actually 4 minutes apart. At that point, we decided to get the kids up and dressed for school and pick them up some breakfast on the way to the hospital. We got them french toast sticks and milk and headed in.
Once we got to the hospital, which was about 6:30 or so, they took me back and checked to see if I had ruptured, and start to check me. By the time I was checked in I was 4cm dilated and the waters had broken. DH came back with the kids so I could say goodbye for the day and tell them that I was okay and would miss them. Then DH took them to school. By the time he got back, they had moved me to a room and started the IV. They didn't start anything else right then since I was progressing nicely on my own.
By the time DH got back I was feeling the contractions. I did that for about an hour and decided I wanted the epidural. That was around 10am. They called for it, but the guy was in 2 c-sections so I waited until 11. I was having to stop and concentrate during contractions, so I was gripping DH's hand during them. Once the epi went in, they did start up the smallest done of pitocin and stayed there. At this point I was still between 4-5 cm. They checked me again around 12:00 and I was 6 cm. At this point, I felt like the epi was wearing off, despite the fact that I could give a bolus every 5 minutes. The pain got pretty intense, even the little bit I could feel. at about 12:30 they checked me again and I had gone from 6 cm to fully dilated in 20 or so minutes. I must have been feeling the transition phase, I assume. So they called in my doc and after 9 pushes Katherine was here.
They placed her on my tummy and wiped her down. She did freak me out a it and didn't cry for about a minute, even though they were sucking crud out of her mouth. Finally she started crying. I nursed her within 15 minutes, and it has been going strong ever sense. The docs finished their business, and while I had/have super bad hemerrhoids, I had no tearing at all.
I loved this birth. It went very smoothly and everyone was happy and content during it. I wish that both the others had gone this way. But for a last birth, this was quite nice.
I wish I could say that I am going to miss the whole growing a baby and birthing a baby process, but we feel very content that this was the last baby. She is wonderful and completes this family nicely.
If you have made it this far, congratulations. I hope that you enjoyed reading it.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 I was out at my folks house having dinner. We do that every Wednesday so the kids get to spend a good deal of time with their grandparents. I had a few contractions here or there, and had been for the previous week. Nothing regular and definitely nothing to really worry about. We finished dinner, came home, got the kids in bed, and then I hung out with DH for a while. We headed for bed about 10. I had not felt contractions for about 2 hours, so I figured we still had a good deal of time to wait.
Through the night, I had contractions about every 2 hours that woke me up. But I would get up and pee and then go back to bed. We always get up around 5 am and the alarm went off, I went to stand up, and realized that I had either peed myself a ton (not possible given how many times I had gotten up to pee overnight) or my water had broken. So I got up and checked to make sure there was no meconium in the water and told DH what was going on. He started to over react so I calmed him down, and told him that we needed to eat and drink some coffee and read the paper and get the kids ready for school.
We came downstairs and sat down and I had toast with peanut butter and honey and a cup of coffee and read the comics. But I quickly realized that the contractions were actually much closer together than I had thought they would be. When I started timing them, they were actually 4 minutes apart. At that point, we decided to get the kids up and dressed for school and pick them up some breakfast on the way to the hospital. We got them french toast sticks and milk and headed in.
Once we got to the hospital, which was about 6:30 or so, they took me back and checked to see if I had ruptured, and start to check me. By the time I was checked in I was 4cm dilated and the waters had broken. DH came back with the kids so I could say goodbye for the day and tell them that I was okay and would miss them. Then DH took them to school. By the time he got back, they had moved me to a room and started the IV. They didn't start anything else right then since I was progressing nicely on my own.
By the time DH got back I was feeling the contractions. I did that for about an hour and decided I wanted the epidural. That was around 10am. They called for it, but the guy was in 2 c-sections so I waited until 11. I was having to stop and concentrate during contractions, so I was gripping DH's hand during them. Once the epi went in, they did start up the smallest done of pitocin and stayed there. At this point I was still between 4-5 cm. They checked me again around 12:00 and I was 6 cm. At this point, I felt like the epi was wearing off, despite the fact that I could give a bolus every 5 minutes. The pain got pretty intense, even the little bit I could feel. at about 12:30 they checked me again and I had gone from 6 cm to fully dilated in 20 or so minutes. I must have been feeling the transition phase, I assume. So they called in my doc and after 9 pushes Katherine was here.
They placed her on my tummy and wiped her down. She did freak me out a it and didn't cry for about a minute, even though they were sucking crud out of her mouth. Finally she started crying. I nursed her within 15 minutes, and it has been going strong ever sense. The docs finished their business, and while I had/have super bad hemerrhoids, I had no tearing at all.
I loved this birth. It went very smoothly and everyone was happy and content during it. I wish that both the others had gone this way. But for a last birth, this was quite nice.
I wish I could say that I am going to miss the whole growing a baby and birthing a baby process, but we feel very content that this was the last baby. She is wonderful and completes this family nicely.
If you have made it this far, congratulations. I hope that you enjoyed reading it.
. Thank you for sharing your story!
