I always put off writing a birth story for way too long. <sigh> Oh well, better late than never.
Sat, Aug 16
My due date! Woke up and felt like just any other day. Puttered around this house, played outside with the kids, etc. Greg (my dh) went in to work at 4 and almost as soon as he left I called my friend, Miki to...well, pretty much to bitch and moan. I wasn't feeling anything even close to labor, I felt huge, I wasn't sleeping, and I didn't want to go to work on Monday. We talked for awhile and she told me that I could have another two weeks left
: (I mean, I knew this, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear). I think I was grumpier when we ended the conversation than when I first called!
Made a good dinner for the kids and put in Juno to watch and pass the time after dinner. About 9pm contractions started, but I didn't think much of it because that had pretty much become routine. These, however, definitely got stronger. A LOT stronger.
An aside - my previous two labors were very, very similar. I had a week or two of prodromal labor but my active labor never felt much different. Both times I was 7-8cm when I either went to the hospital or the mw came and neither believed I was actually in labor because of how...easy it seemed to be! I (naively) assumed this labor would be the same as my past two
About 10:30pm I called my h at work and asked when the earliest was that he could come home. He told me, "well, my shift is over at 12:00" and I was like, "NO. I mean what is the ABSOLUTE EARLIEST you can get home" - contractions were getting stronger still and coming quicker - about 1-3 minutes apart. At this point the birthing ball and the hypnobabies script were my best friends.
Greg got home and he was in adrenaline overdrive and making me completely nuts. I quick packed a bag, took a shower, and Greg got the kids to the neighbors. Connor (my ds) was so excited! Mairen (my dd) was asleep
We got to the hospital and Greg was still bugging me. He kept touching me and rubbing my back, which I hated. heh. The nurses said they knew I was in labor because of how I was talking to him.
We got up to the l&d room, and I was found to be only at 3 cm, but progressing quickly. They had a big tub thing that I hopped in, but contractions were completely unbearable at this point. With every contraction I had to lift up on my arms because the pressure was killing me. This is NOT what I had experienced with my last two. Hypnobabies was no longer helpful. I couldn't sit on anything, not even the birth ball and I wanted to just jump out of my skin. I've never, never experienced anything like it. So... I decided I wanted the epidural.
Of course, it was about midnight at this point and we live in a mountain town with about 5,000 people. So the anesthesiologist was on call and took FOREVER to get there. Actually, he got pulled over on his way, we saw the police lights out the window. Jerk. Anyway, he finally got there and I got all medicated up.
This was really hard for me - I'd had a homebirth! I'd had 2 natural births! Epidurals were for wimps! But at the same time, I was totally exhausted, and in so much pain. I remember lying there thing this birth couldn't be too much further from my homebirth - I was on a monitor, had a catheter, an IV, etc, etc. I was about a 7-8cm at this point.
When he was putting my epi in, my water broke. Well, I thought it was my water, but apparently it was mostly blood. Not long after, my bp dropped. Significantly. I was put on oxygen and given 4 bags of IV fluids. The on call doc was called, since my doc was out of town. Things at this point got really weird and kind of scary. My contractions were out of control. They were so strong, they went off the grid on readout thing. Baby had some concerning decelerations and was still floating around at about -1 station (!). Because he was still very high up and not responding well the doctor said he thought we would need a c-section, but it would take awhile to get the surgical team together. I was given terbutaline to stop the contractions, and when this happened the baby started responding better. How weird is that?
Just as the surgical was ready to go, the doctor said I could try to push - if he didn't come down fast enough, we would just go forward with the c-section. Many, was that motivation for me. But this is the coolest part - I always thought that with an epi, you couldn't really feel enough to push. But I felt exactly where he was so, so much better than with my other two births. Really, throughout the whole labor I feel like I was really able to feel and experience the labor and delivery - just without the pain. That part almost made up for all the wires and machines that go "ping." Anyway, little Colin Robert was out in two pushes (sorry surgical staff!), and was pink and crying and healthy. 7#4oz born at 5:00am on Sunday, Aug 17.
He had a pretty short cord and a really small placenta (weird, because we're at 8,000ft - I would have thought the placenta would be bigger, if anything). I was so relieved we didn't have to go through the c-section.
The nurses were amazing and all in all it was a decent experience - doesn't compare to a homebirth, but given our choices up here, I'm happy with our decision.
3 kids
Sat, Aug 16
My due date! Woke up and felt like just any other day. Puttered around this house, played outside with the kids, etc. Greg (my dh) went in to work at 4 and almost as soon as he left I called my friend, Miki to...well, pretty much to bitch and moan. I wasn't feeling anything even close to labor, I felt huge, I wasn't sleeping, and I didn't want to go to work on Monday. We talked for awhile and she told me that I could have another two weeks left
: (I mean, I knew this, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear). I think I was grumpier when we ended the conversation than when I first called!Made a good dinner for the kids and put in Juno to watch and pass the time after dinner. About 9pm contractions started, but I didn't think much of it because that had pretty much become routine. These, however, definitely got stronger. A LOT stronger.
An aside - my previous two labors were very, very similar. I had a week or two of prodromal labor but my active labor never felt much different. Both times I was 7-8cm when I either went to the hospital or the mw came and neither believed I was actually in labor because of how...easy it seemed to be! I (naively) assumed this labor would be the same as my past two
About 10:30pm I called my h at work and asked when the earliest was that he could come home. He told me, "well, my shift is over at 12:00" and I was like, "NO. I mean what is the ABSOLUTE EARLIEST you can get home" - contractions were getting stronger still and coming quicker - about 1-3 minutes apart. At this point the birthing ball and the hypnobabies script were my best friends.
Greg got home and he was in adrenaline overdrive and making me completely nuts. I quick packed a bag, took a shower, and Greg got the kids to the neighbors. Connor (my ds) was so excited! Mairen (my dd) was asleep
We got to the hospital and Greg was still bugging me. He kept touching me and rubbing my back, which I hated. heh. The nurses said they knew I was in labor because of how I was talking to him.
We got up to the l&d room, and I was found to be only at 3 cm, but progressing quickly. They had a big tub thing that I hopped in, but contractions were completely unbearable at this point. With every contraction I had to lift up on my arms because the pressure was killing me. This is NOT what I had experienced with my last two. Hypnobabies was no longer helpful. I couldn't sit on anything, not even the birth ball and I wanted to just jump out of my skin. I've never, never experienced anything like it. So... I decided I wanted the epidural.Of course, it was about midnight at this point and we live in a mountain town with about 5,000 people. So the anesthesiologist was on call and took FOREVER to get there. Actually, he got pulled over on his way, we saw the police lights out the window. Jerk. Anyway, he finally got there and I got all medicated up.
This was really hard for me - I'd had a homebirth! I'd had 2 natural births! Epidurals were for wimps! But at the same time, I was totally exhausted, and in so much pain. I remember lying there thing this birth couldn't be too much further from my homebirth - I was on a monitor, had a catheter, an IV, etc, etc. I was about a 7-8cm at this point.When he was putting my epi in, my water broke. Well, I thought it was my water, but apparently it was mostly blood. Not long after, my bp dropped. Significantly. I was put on oxygen and given 4 bags of IV fluids. The on call doc was called, since my doc was out of town. Things at this point got really weird and kind of scary. My contractions were out of control. They were so strong, they went off the grid on readout thing. Baby had some concerning decelerations and was still floating around at about -1 station (!). Because he was still very high up and not responding well the doctor said he thought we would need a c-section, but it would take awhile to get the surgical team together. I was given terbutaline to stop the contractions, and when this happened the baby started responding better. How weird is that?
Just as the surgical was ready to go, the doctor said I could try to push - if he didn't come down fast enough, we would just go forward with the c-section. Many, was that motivation for me. But this is the coolest part - I always thought that with an epi, you couldn't really feel enough to push. But I felt exactly where he was so, so much better than with my other two births. Really, throughout the whole labor I feel like I was really able to feel and experience the labor and delivery - just without the pain. That part almost made up for all the wires and machines that go "ping." Anyway, little Colin Robert was out in two pushes (sorry surgical staff!), and was pink and crying and healthy. 7#4oz born at 5:00am on Sunday, Aug 17.
He had a pretty short cord and a really small placenta (weird, because we're at 8,000ft - I would have thought the placenta would be bigger, if anything). I was so relieved we didn't have to go through the c-section.
The nurses were amazing and all in all it was a decent experience - doesn't compare to a homebirth, but given our choices up here, I'm happy with our decision.
3 kids
!!
Don't feel bad - I haven't done mine from 8/15.
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