Okay, it turns out this is a very long winded story. Sorry. I need to get it down somewhere while it's fresh.
Hey! I haven't posted in a long time, but I've been lurking about and keeping up with everything. I wasn't sure if I'd get back on and type up a birth story, but it went so great and I feel like MDC helped so much with that, so the least I can do is share the tale.
:
My baby was due Wednesday the 22nd, by my count. Sunday the 19th everything seemed very normal, but I finally started to think that maybe she had dropped a bit. Other people have been saying that for a month but I was thinking..'how could she be any higher than this?'..because she was all up in my ribs still. Me and DP went out for some groceries, really just to make a cheesecake (goodness I think I'm getting too detailed, sorry
), and on the way home we passed this lake that we pass to get home and there was a stork standing in it. I rarely see storks, in fact I can't remember any other time I've seen one in a little local lake like that. So I pointed it out and told DP it must be bringing us a baby. We went home, I made a cheesecake, and tried to go to bed around midnight.
I started having some weird pains, and by about the third one I realized that they were a bit repetitive. I looked at the clock and it was 1:52 am, now Monday the 20th. I hadn't fallen asleep yet but that was normal. DP works nights so he was gone. I timed the contractions, they were every 7 minutes. They weren't at all what I expected contractions to feel like. Standing and swaying through them made them pretty easy to get through.
I hadn't even packed my bag yet, I was fully intending to go 42 weeks, sometime into November, so I started packing. The contractions gained speed quickly, getting to about every 3 minutes around 3. I finally sent DP a text telling him not to dilly dally tonight. He showed up in the house about one minute later, he hadn't been too far away when I sent that message. He seemed pretty freaked out but I was super calm and that made him unsure if I was really even laboring. I couldn't do much to assure him that I was because I really didn't know either, except that my contraction record was very steady. I told him to keep working, he usually gets done around 6 and I thought I could wait that long.
My plan had been to labor at home as long as possible to minimize the risk of interventions. The hospital is 45 minutes away so I was keeping that in mind, but still, as a first time mom I had no clue what I was doing or when I should go. I fixed myself up a bath and got in. It was pretty nice, but I was thinking standing might have been better. Maybe the contractions just got stronger. I tried using the jets for a minute and then decided that was just too much to deal with and I preferred them off.
My contractions got down to every 2 minutes and I realized that maybe DP shouldn't be finishing work tonight, so I let him know and he came home. I was still so calm that it weirded him out a bit, but he was all anxious and excited and weird anyway. He took a shower, helped me finish packing, and loaded the car. Off we went. I can't remember the times exactly, it's written on a paper that's still in the car, but I believe it was about 6 am when we left.
Contractions in the car were bad. I couldn't get into any sort of comfortable position and the road was bumpy. Some contractions were much better than others, I tried my own hypnobabies-ish blend of techniques..when I could convince my brain to leave my body for a minute it was great. The bumpy road kept bringing me back into my body though.
We arrived at the hospital, around 7 I guess, and I got checked in. I had two contractions while checking in and sitting in a chair and I don't think the girl checking me in noticed. We made our way to L&D and were put into a tiny ugly room that got me worried for a minute--I hadn't taken a tour because I had witnessed a birth there before and I knew the rooms were nice. But it turns out it was just the room where they see if you are really in labor. They hooked me up to the monitors, one for baby and one for contractions, and a blood pressure cuff. I told the nurse that I really needed to stand during contractions but she said they would just monitor me for 20 minutes and I would have to lay. Torturous!
The only method I remember using to try and cope during this phase was opening and closing my fists, I don't know why. I could hear screaming next door, really screamy screaming, and then overheard that the woman was a 7 or 8 and on her third child. It wasn't very encouraging, I started worrying that I'd be at 3 cm or not even really in labor and they'd send me home. I kept waiting for transition to hit, for the pain to be unbearable, for something. I went way past 20 minutes hooked up there because of the other woman and an apparently short staff. I had DP find someone and tell them I needed to get unhooked and pee. They made me get back in bed afterwards but did say they'd check me in just a moment (I had again said that I needed to be standing).
A nurse checked me first, and ouch! I thought wow, if thats what hands in there feels like how will I deal with a baby..? She didn't say what she found out but went and got someone else to check me and I was then told that I was almost complete!
I asked for clarification and was told I was between a 9 and a 10. They finally allowed me to stand and sway again and we headed for a real room.
Hmm..I'm starting to think this novel should be in parts, or chapters..I think I smell a poopy baby. To avoid the risk of losing this to a computer monster, I am submitting it now. Sorry! I'll finish it soon.
Poopy baby indeed. Real poop already, even.
So, we went into a real room. I showed the midwife and nurses my birth plan, I hadn't brought it up yet, and they said they pretty much did all that anyway (no episiotomy, delayed cord clamping, immediate skin to skin) and were fine with no pit after birth, no cord traction, no Hep B/Vit K/eye drops.
Side note: NAK is harder than I expected.
The midwife told me to do whatever felt right and alert them when I felt pushy. I agreed to let a student midwife attend because I had been considering midwifery myself and I know students need to attend a certain number of births. She showed up after a while.
I stood for a good while, tried a birth ball and hated it, and then my legs got too tired and I wanted to try pushing. It was about 9:30 am. I tried a position my midwife recommended..the head of the bed was all the way upright, I knelt on the bed facing the head and kinda draped my arms over the top. I liked it because I could rest between contractions but I was kneeling. After a while of that they got out the squat bar and I tried that. More progress was made..midwife suggested lying back to help the head go under the pubic bone. I hadn't wanted to push lying on my back but I was so tired at this point that it was great.
After an hour and a half pushing, she was born at 10:59 am. Start to finish, labor lasted about 9 hours. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a much better experience out of my small town hospital..or a better baby. She's perfect. 7 lbs, 9 oz; 19 3/4 in; lots of blond hair. I never expected that, my own started out black. She's a good nurser although we have to try a couple of times for a good latch sometimes. She seems like she would have forced co-sleeping out of me so it's a good thing that that was my plan anyway. We got home today and I am loving my MamaBaby sling, haven't tried anything else yet. My dogs are bothersome, they are just sooo interested in her, and they howled when she cried during a diaper change earlier. I think they think I'm not doing a good enough job mothering her and I need their help. Bah..
Congrats to all the others who have made announcements! Wishing patience for those who haven't yet!
Hooray for October babies!:
Hey! I haven't posted in a long time, but I've been lurking about and keeping up with everything. I wasn't sure if I'd get back on and type up a birth story, but it went so great and I feel like MDC helped so much with that, so the least I can do is share the tale.
:My baby was due Wednesday the 22nd, by my count. Sunday the 19th everything seemed very normal, but I finally started to think that maybe she had dropped a bit. Other people have been saying that for a month but I was thinking..'how could she be any higher than this?'..because she was all up in my ribs still. Me and DP went out for some groceries, really just to make a cheesecake (goodness I think I'm getting too detailed, sorry
), and on the way home we passed this lake that we pass to get home and there was a stork standing in it. I rarely see storks, in fact I can't remember any other time I've seen one in a little local lake like that. So I pointed it out and told DP it must be bringing us a baby. We went home, I made a cheesecake, and tried to go to bed around midnight.I started having some weird pains, and by about the third one I realized that they were a bit repetitive. I looked at the clock and it was 1:52 am, now Monday the 20th. I hadn't fallen asleep yet but that was normal. DP works nights so he was gone. I timed the contractions, they were every 7 minutes. They weren't at all what I expected contractions to feel like. Standing and swaying through them made them pretty easy to get through.
I hadn't even packed my bag yet, I was fully intending to go 42 weeks, sometime into November, so I started packing. The contractions gained speed quickly, getting to about every 3 minutes around 3. I finally sent DP a text telling him not to dilly dally tonight. He showed up in the house about one minute later, he hadn't been too far away when I sent that message. He seemed pretty freaked out but I was super calm and that made him unsure if I was really even laboring. I couldn't do much to assure him that I was because I really didn't know either, except that my contraction record was very steady. I told him to keep working, he usually gets done around 6 and I thought I could wait that long.
My plan had been to labor at home as long as possible to minimize the risk of interventions. The hospital is 45 minutes away so I was keeping that in mind, but still, as a first time mom I had no clue what I was doing or when I should go. I fixed myself up a bath and got in. It was pretty nice, but I was thinking standing might have been better. Maybe the contractions just got stronger. I tried using the jets for a minute and then decided that was just too much to deal with and I preferred them off.
My contractions got down to every 2 minutes and I realized that maybe DP shouldn't be finishing work tonight, so I let him know and he came home. I was still so calm that it weirded him out a bit, but he was all anxious and excited and weird anyway. He took a shower, helped me finish packing, and loaded the car. Off we went. I can't remember the times exactly, it's written on a paper that's still in the car, but I believe it was about 6 am when we left.
Contractions in the car were bad. I couldn't get into any sort of comfortable position and the road was bumpy. Some contractions were much better than others, I tried my own hypnobabies-ish blend of techniques..when I could convince my brain to leave my body for a minute it was great. The bumpy road kept bringing me back into my body though.
We arrived at the hospital, around 7 I guess, and I got checked in. I had two contractions while checking in and sitting in a chair and I don't think the girl checking me in noticed. We made our way to L&D and were put into a tiny ugly room that got me worried for a minute--I hadn't taken a tour because I had witnessed a birth there before and I knew the rooms were nice. But it turns out it was just the room where they see if you are really in labor. They hooked me up to the monitors, one for baby and one for contractions, and a blood pressure cuff. I told the nurse that I really needed to stand during contractions but she said they would just monitor me for 20 minutes and I would have to lay. Torturous!
The only method I remember using to try and cope during this phase was opening and closing my fists, I don't know why. I could hear screaming next door, really screamy screaming, and then overheard that the woman was a 7 or 8 and on her third child. It wasn't very encouraging, I started worrying that I'd be at 3 cm or not even really in labor and they'd send me home. I kept waiting for transition to hit, for the pain to be unbearable, for something. I went way past 20 minutes hooked up there because of the other woman and an apparently short staff. I had DP find someone and tell them I needed to get unhooked and pee. They made me get back in bed afterwards but did say they'd check me in just a moment (I had again said that I needed to be standing).
A nurse checked me first, and ouch! I thought wow, if thats what hands in there feels like how will I deal with a baby..? She didn't say what she found out but went and got someone else to check me and I was then told that I was almost complete!
I asked for clarification and was told I was between a 9 and a 10. They finally allowed me to stand and sway again and we headed for a real room.Hmm..I'm starting to think this novel should be in parts, or chapters..I think I smell a poopy baby. To avoid the risk of losing this to a computer monster, I am submitting it now. Sorry! I'll finish it soon.
Poopy baby indeed. Real poop already, even.
So, we went into a real room. I showed the midwife and nurses my birth plan, I hadn't brought it up yet, and they said they pretty much did all that anyway (no episiotomy, delayed cord clamping, immediate skin to skin) and were fine with no pit after birth, no cord traction, no Hep B/Vit K/eye drops.
Side note: NAK is harder than I expected.
The midwife told me to do whatever felt right and alert them when I felt pushy. I agreed to let a student midwife attend because I had been considering midwifery myself and I know students need to attend a certain number of births. She showed up after a while.
I stood for a good while, tried a birth ball and hated it, and then my legs got too tired and I wanted to try pushing. It was about 9:30 am. I tried a position my midwife recommended..the head of the bed was all the way upright, I knelt on the bed facing the head and kinda draped my arms over the top. I liked it because I could rest between contractions but I was kneeling. After a while of that they got out the squat bar and I tried that. More progress was made..midwife suggested lying back to help the head go under the pubic bone. I hadn't wanted to push lying on my back but I was so tired at this point that it was great.
After an hour and a half pushing, she was born at 10:59 am. Start to finish, labor lasted about 9 hours. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a much better experience out of my small town hospital..or a better baby. She's perfect. 7 lbs, 9 oz; 19 3/4 in; lots of blond hair. I never expected that, my own started out black. She's a good nurser although we have to try a couple of times for a good latch sometimes. She seems like she would have forced co-sleeping out of me so it's a good thing that that was my plan anyway. We got home today and I am loving my MamaBaby sling, haven't tried anything else yet. My dogs are bothersome, they are just sooo interested in her, and they howled when she cried during a diaper change earlier. I think they think I'm not doing a good enough job mothering her and I need their help. Bah..
Congrats to all the others who have made announcements! Wishing patience for those who haven't yet!
Hooray for October babies!
:
Enjoy your babymoon!
