December 2016 Moms

Tinattt23's birth story

Luke Andrew was born Christmas Eve, 3 days "late" at 3:33 AM weighing in at 7lb 7oz and 19in long. Much bigger than the everyone guessed!

Thursday night we ran a bunch of last minute Christmas errands. The walking around had contractions going but I figured they'd fade away once I went to bed like they had been for the past week or so. But that night was different. Instead they picked up enough in intensity that I wasn't able to sleep through them. So I caved and downloaded a timing app and timed all night. Slowly moving from 10 minutes apart down to 7 by morning. I got no sleep but stayed in bed all night at least trying to rest. 

Friday morning I tried to keep busy to speed things up. Went for walks, wrapped presents. Got contractions all the way down to 4 minutes apart but not really intense. Just enough to pause and breath through. 

And then everything stalled. By 2 PM they were spaces back out to 10-15 minutes. Doula (who I'd been texting )recommended I take advantage of the break and get some sleep. I was so discouraged. I thought I'd gotten my hopes up for nothing and it was just a false alarm. 

I went to sleep and woke up 2 hours later to more intense contractions. Instead of "keeping busy" I decided to go into "labor mode". I abandoned the timer. I turned down all the lights, got into cozy clothes, wrapped myself in a blanket (which was then referred to as my cape for the rest of labor), and started walking laps around our house. As I walked, I repeated to myself "my body was made to give birth, and I will let it" over and over. When a contractions would hit, I'd stop walking to sway through it and tell myself out load to "open". As they got more intense, FI started following me in my circles (secretly timing me) and being my "tree" to hang on during contractions. At 4 minutes apart and starting to moan through them, he called the doula to come over and assess where we were. I still thought it was too early to go to the hospital and was afraid of it still not being the real deal. 

Doula arrived at 8, 3 hours after I woke up from my nap. She walked or our laps for a bit and tried out some other comfort measures. She liked that contractions were close together, but still a little short. She asked if we could do a side lying release to help move baby down. Sure. After that, things got more intense. I was swaying and groaning. My thighs started shaking like crazy. Contractions got longer. 

Doula recommended we start thinking about heading out based on what she was seeing from me. I still wasn't sure. I was afraid the change in setting would stall things and we'd be back to square one. But I trusted her and we slowly packed up and headed out in the pouring rain. We arrived at the hospital at 11 PM. 

My last check a few days before had me at 1cm / 50%. I'd been having bloody show with all the contractions so I really hoped they had been productive. Turns out they were. I was 7.5/8 cm and 100% effaced. I was on cloud nine. We were almost done and the pain still felt super manageable.  Nurses and staff were impressed. I felt like a rockstar. Since the hospital officially labeled me in transition, I had to remain on the monitors. So I stood next the bed swaying and chit chatting between contractions. 

Slowly the chit chatting faded. No position was comfortable. I hit my wall. The I can't do this wall. Logically, I knew that meant the end was near. My mantras had changed from "open" to "relax and breath" to "you're ok, you're safe, you've got this" to "fuck this". The nice low moans turned into screaming growls. The doula tried to help. I snapped at her to stop touching me. I gripped the rails of the bed and writhed. Yeah, so much for relaxing the tension away. I begged to have a break. All I wanted was a break and I'd be ok. But that's not how it works. My leg shaking had turned into whole body shivers at this point which made even the small break between contractions painful. 

Eventually I started pushing involuntarily. The doula stepped out to get the nurses. People started rushing around. I was not a fan of pushing but apparently was doing well. He was out 15 minutes later. And promptly pooped all over me. Thanks. 

We'd been at the hospital 4 hours. I'd been in what I call transition for an hour and half. That hour and a half was hell. But honestly, the previous 28 were so manageable. 

I did have a second degree tear that required some stitches. I had a little more bleeding than the would have liked so I was a little dizzy for a while. But everything is looking good now. Like eats and poops like a champ. And hopefully we'll get to go home today!

Re: Tinattt23's birth story

Sign In or Register to comment.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"