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had my baby - yikes, that was hard!

1K views 20 replies 21 participants last post by  zjande 
#1 ·
Hi everyone!

Rowan Beverley Chow was born on November 20th at 1:25 am after a brutal but ultimately successful labour. She weighed 8 lb 14 oz and I forget the other measurements; Stirling has the tape-thing they gave us. But she is a hefty, solid, strong little girl who certainly knows her own mind already!

Short version (because Rowan just filled her diaper and will start to fuss any minute) - 24 hour labour, 14 of those intense, Rowan didn't want to be born, refused to drop down onto my cervix, she was totally active all through the labour and posterior - the activity was her staying posterior despite my body's attempts to move her. I knew it wasn't going well and asked the midwife to check me - she was surprisedbecause from the intensity of my contractions she thought I was close to the end and had already set up the bed for the birth - but I was right; I hadn't progressed in hours and was still at 4 cm. I chose to transfer to hospital to go on a pit drip, there was no way I could force my body to move enough to induce stronger contractions to force her down. I was disappointed but in sufficient pain to think that the accompanying epidural would be nice (to put it mildly). The car ride was hell - I was on my knees in the back seat, still trying to get the babe to move down, she was still resisting, and the combination of the car movement and her movement and contractions was so bad. At one point I almost broke my doula's hand, I think it might have been then. Oh and I started getting the shakes at some point too which was just awful. Once I got the epidural I went to sleep for a couple hours and then my midwife checked me and I had finally progressed enough... half an hour later I was ready to push, but my fever (which I had when I checked in apparently) was higher, and the baby's baseline heartrate had dropped quite a bit, so the midwife told me I had to push her out as fast as I possibly could. Thank god for all my weightlifting training - I put everything I had into it and had her out in just a little over an hour. I also blew out some major blood vessels in my nose and sprayed everyone. What they didn't tell me was that in addition to being poorly positioned for pushing and big, she also had her hand beside her face. Apparently my midwife didn't expect me to be able to push her out on my own and was a few minutes away from ordering a vacuum thingy, but I surprised them. Anyway, eventually I got her out and they put her on my chest for a minute or two and I was just blown away by how perfect and wonderful she was. They had to cut the cord then to assess her since my fever was still pretty high and all so with that and the epidural she was a bit dopey off the bat, but still a beautiful girl with lots of her dad's thick dark hair.

I just got out of the hospital today after losing tons of blood after the delivery and having an infection of some sort. I've been having trouble breastfeeding but it's getting better now although my milk still hasn't come in yet. It's good to be home now though. Oh, and my husband was absolutely incredible through it all and is a fantastic father already!

Now I can go read everyone else's birth stories - I'm sure there's been a ton since I last checked!

Here's some pictures:

Rowan swaddled:
http://www.cs.uvic.ca/~schow/pictures/rowan/Rowan.jpg

Rowan and Sarah:
http://www.cs.uvic.ca/~schow/picture...wan_Sarah1.jpg
http://www.cs.uvic.ca/~schow/picture...wan_Sarah2.jpg

Rowan's hair (takes after her dad):
http://www.cs.uvic.ca/~schow/picture.../Rowan_Dad.jpg
 
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#5 ·
She is gorgeous
It's a lovely name, for a lovely wee girl, and I think it's amazing that you pushed her out- I know a few mamas who ended up with c-sections at the last minute because their babies had their hands up, so you did really, really good
 
#11 ·
She is beautiful, and so is her strong mama! I hope you get lots of rest and recover from your hard birth- sounds like you did an awesome job of getting her out
 
#17 ·
Welcome, Rowan!
:

I've barely had time to catch up will all the announcements but glad I caught this one now -- I'm sure you have little time, too but try to read my birth story if you can -- we had some similar stuff.

And yes, we got off to a not-great start BF but I am working with a great LC and my milk should be here soon (boobies are getting big . . ). I've only been a mother for 4 days but I can tell you it's really hard to learn a new skill when your body and mind have been trashed the way it sounds ours were, but in the last day or so we're come up with a plan to get BF going that I feel really good about. Let me know if you want to talk!
 
#19 ·
Congratualtions, mama! It sounds like you came through a really difficult birth like a super-hero!

Plus, I hear you completely about being in the car being the worst place to be in labor. We had a much less challenging labor than you did, and I seriously contemplated homicide and suicide while we were stuck in the car in traffic. They should install special 'woman in labor' HOV lanes or something...
 
#21 ·
Oh yes, laboring in a driving car=pure torture. I'm with ya there sister!

Congratulations!! You did a fabulous job getting that baby out. And what a lovely little cone head she has in the that picture with her daddy.
I love her name, it's very cool. Enjoy your wonderful babymoon!
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