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December 2017 Moms
jlemons-2
member
Birth Stories
jlemons-2
member
I know we have an announcement thread but that tends to be a shorter type of deal and we don't comment. I want to hear your birth story! All the details! Induced? Barely made it? Long labor? Scheduled c-section? Tell us the nitty gritty about your miracle!
Re: Birth Stories
Married May 2014
DD born August 2016
Baby #2 due December 2017
@thatlauragirl I'm so, so happy your rainbow is here and doing well! I'm sorry your birth was traumatic and you had to do some NICU time, I hope you're home soon. N16 still loves you
We asked a lot of questions. I only remember the answer to two of them: Yes, you can eat dinner first and No, you don't have to bring your insulin with you. My OB explained that my cervix was highly unfavorable, and the baby was still at a very high station, so they were going to try Cytotec (not FDA cleared for inductions) to ripen the cervix and make it more likely to respond well to pitocin. Doses would be spaced 4 hours apart and I could take up to 6 doses, so it may be 24 hours before we even got to pitocin.
We got checked in at the hospital and into our room around 9p. I was 0.5cm dilated when they placed the Cytotec around 10p. We were supposed to get about 4 hours of rest before the next dose, and were told not to expect much of anything. Because I had been on insulin with GD, I was put on an insulin drip protocol for my IV -- glucose testing every 1 hr, based on the results they would moderate the amount of insulin and dextrose in my IV to keep my sugars stable. (My sugars were the highest they have been in weeks during labor: 105-120 mg/dl). My IV line had 3 inputs and they were taped at intervals up about 2/3 of my arm to keep them from getting caught on stuff. Because my BP was borderline, I had to wear the auto-testing cuff, which went off every 30 minutes. They started with a Novi monitor-- which is cool and would have let me move around -- but the baby's HR was tough to track and they moved to traditional external monitors about 2 hours in.
By midnight, I was having back to back contractions with less than 30 seconds between them (end of one to start of the next). This went on until 3am. They were strong enough that I couldn't speak through them, but not so sharply painful that I needed meds. I kept telling myself, this was the "easy" induction med and we still had pitocin to go. When my next dose was due at 1am, the OB on call refused to sign off on it because of how strong and frequent my contractions were. I was 1.5 cm dilated.
At 3a, the contractions had spaced out to every 5 minutes and I had been able to get some rest. They placed a second dose, and within 20 minutes we were back at back-to-back contractions. My water broke at about 330am, and the pain got worse. I couldn't breathe during the peak of my contractions anymore. I made it until about 5am before I got IV meds -- because I didn't want to slow down what little progress we had made. At the first dose, the baby's heart rate dropped low so they put me on oxygen and placed an internal monitor for my contractions since they were not able to monitor them on the external one. Baby was still too high for them to place the scalp monitor for his heartbeat. I got another 3 doses of the IV pain meds before the shift change at 7am. My BP was still all over the place.
I met the day-time OB around 8am. I was still 1.5 cm dilated. I was still having contractions about a minute apart. This OB reviewed the chart of my contractions, looked very concerned, and said it was okay to get the epidural. (I hadn't asked for one yet. She just told me it was okay, based on the intensity of my contractions and the visible pain I was in.) She was very upset that no one had told me it wouldn't slow down progress on the sort of induction I was experiencing. They put the epi order in and the anesthesiologist was up around 830a. It was the most amazing thing ever -- I literally felt like I was getting a big, warm, comforting blanket wrapped around me when the meds kicked in. I got off the oxygen and about half an hour of sleep. If I could go back in time a week and give myself one piece of advice about this whole thing it would be: get the epi the first time you think you need it, not 3-4 hours later.
I woke up to having my bed inverted, the oxygen mask being put back on my face and a bunch of people shoving me onto my left side. Baby's heart rate was not good; my BP was not good. They spent the next 2 hours trying to stabilize us. We never made it to pitocin or the "real" part of our induction. Around 11 we talked about a c-section because we were both "in distress" and "not tolerating" the induction well. At 11:47 he was born.
The OB told me to strongly consider a RCS if I have any more children.
Our baby was weighed and measured in the OR while I was being stitched up. I could see all of it, but not read any of the numbers. They brought him over for my husband to hold and made a point of getting him close enough so that I could kiss the top of his head and have his tiny hand grasp my finger (my arms were not restrained). They took some pictures for us (blurry, of course), and right as they were working on closing my incision, they moved DH and baby to our recovery room. We were separated for about five minutes and most of that was the transit time of pushing my bed down the hall.
My BP and sugars were better immediately. Starting in recovery, I never had a high BP again. Baby Alexander had one low sugar level, but after he fed it stabilized. By the time we got out of the recovery room, I was down to having my BP monitored every 4 hours and my IV had been stripped down to just one line. My arm felt about 2lbs lighter.
Recovery for me has been a lot better than I expected. Every new monitoring requirement that dropped off was like getting a huge chunk of freedom back. I was allowed to eat something solid at 12 hours (midnight). I got my dressing off at 20-24hrs. Once the catheter came out (I can't remember exactly when, but not long after the dressing) and the IV was gone, I was up walking around the halls. I have been religious about my pain meds, and wearing the binder, and drinking fluids, and I'm physically okay. I hadn't pooped at 48 hours, so I asked for the suppository -- totally worth it -- and got back to my normal pre-pregnancy cycle about 15 minutes later.
Alexander didn't have any of the feeding reflexes when he was born. He would latch, suck once, release, and then go to sleep. Lactation spent a lot of time with us, so that we could teach him how to suck, how to latch, how to stay latched, etc. My milk still (6 days post-delivery) hasn't fully come in. He was jaundiced and dropping weight too fast for how small he was at birth, so we chose to supplement with donor breast milk. We learned how to feed him with a syringe and tiny lead, so that he was tricked into thinking he was drinking from me -- when that didn't work, we learned how to do the same trick with a finger in his mouth to teach him to suckle. We've moved up slowly from there. We could have him out of the bilirubin lamps for 30 min at a time, so we spent as much time as we needed on his feeding and then used whatever minutes were left for cuddles. Feeding, snuggling for a couple minutes, and then watching him worriedly under the blue lamps -- this was our Saturday and Sunday. Once I had eaten something solid, had my IV & catheter taken out, and our baby was situated under the bili lamp, DH called the grandparents to let them know the baby was here (this was late-morning ish Sat.)
Monday he could come out from under the bili lamps. We worked on feeding him enough to regain enough of his weight for him to be at a point where he could go home. But we could hold him again! He wanted to be held all day.
Tuesday his weight was up just enough to be released, which was good because I was being discharged whether he was ready or not. They stocked us up on donor milk, gave me an aggressive pumping schedule to try and bring my milk in, and sent us home. This is day 2 of being home and it's simultaneously so much better than being in the hospital and nerve-wracking to not have the constant reassurance that he's still okay.
When I got home, I called my mom. I was confused as to why she hadn't come visit -- after being horrible about boundaries for our entire pregnancy -- and wanted to see if she wanted to visit now that we were home. I had always assumed she'd be the first person in the family to hold him, outside of me and DH. Apparently, she was displeased and hurt about how we'd notified her an entire day after his birth, and that I didn't call her myself and she wasn't sure she wanted to meet her grandson. Ever.
So we're doing our best with an at-risk infant, and we're struggling to get my milk supply in, and we are learning the new parent dance, and we are uninvited to Thanksgiving. But, I have the most amazing son who gives the most amazing cuddles, and DH has been a thousand times more everything-I-need than I imagined he would be.
The rest of our family is just wonderful. My cousin, his wife and their 3 mo daughter are in town for Thanksgiving and noticed that DH said something about donor milk when we were talking about getting together this weekend. His wife pumped extra for us, and emptied out the stash they'd brought with them as a backup, and they dropped it off this morning. We now have enough milk to make it through the holiday weekend to Tuesday, when the service that supplied our donor milk at the hospital can ship us more. This means we don't have to switch to formula after tonight's feedings. We are ridiculously emotional about this, but in a good way.
And this is why it has taken me a week to write up our birth story.
I remembered to check my fasting this morning: TOTALLY NORMAL! So, DH and I celebrated Thanksgiving morning with breakfast burritos.
Hopefully everyone else gets to write easier stories than this one, and has beautiful happy healthy babies, and gets to go home as a family. For anyone else that has a rougher go of it than you'd hoped/expected, feel free to ping me if you need someone to vent to. You ladies have been a huge source of support and comfort for me and DH in the past week and we'd love to repay that if we can.
With such a traumatic start, and the added stress of your mom's reaction I would gently nudge you to consider seeing a therapist sooner rather than later to get a preemptive jump on any potential for PPD.
Thinking of you, lady - please feel free to reach out if you need someone to talk to!
@elvenchick92686 Best of luck for a happy, healthy delivery. One very good thing about L&D is that it completely focused me on my tiny family unit -- me, DH and baby. I hope you can enjoy (sounds like the wrong word) that sort of single-minded inward focus and tune out you MIL and all others. Baby cuddles make a lot of things better -- I'm sure you're going to be holding your LO soon!
If you are on a particular pain management regimen in the hospital and your discharge paperwork seems to be missing 1/2 - 2/3 of that ... ask questions. I was sent home with just the narcotic painkiller, not the Ibuprofen it was supposed to alternate with, and none of the constipation-management meds. After 3 days of being hopped up on more Norco than was intended, I went to urgent care (on the Friday after Thanksgiving) because I didn't know what to transition to when my meds ran out. I found out my discharge orders were missing 2/3s of the medication I was supposed to take and that I am ridiculously blocked up as a side effect of the narcotics.
Don't be me!
Our delivery was everything I was hoping for. We checked in at 00:01 Monday morning (11/27). They checked me, hooked me up to monitors, and determined I was having contractions every 1-2 minutes so I couldn't receive cervical gel as planned, which I had no issues with. They let me "chill" until about 3 AM when they checked me again and I was working in a positive direction on my own, but they still wanted to add Pitocin. Received Pitocin and continued contracting. Around 830AM they checked me and I was dilated enough to have my water broken. after they broke my water things really took off which was great. I could tell I was ready for my epidural around 11 and received it around 1145. The added the peanut to my sidelying around 2PM to hopefully help my cervix dilate more efficiently, and boy did it work. I progressed really well and was ready to push at 445PM. had to wait on my doc, but once she arrived I pushed through 3 sets of pushes and he was out at 459PM! It was so awesome and I'm so happy I got to experience a good labor (my first was rough). We are so in love with him and big brother is so interested and engaged, it's adorable.
I Woke up that morning refreshed and blasting Christmas music. Took my time getting ready and finished all the last minute to dos! Lol DH and I headed out to our scheduled C-section for 1030am. Got there about 830 for check in. Hung out in our room for awhile with my mom(huge corner room, handicap accessible). being monitored etc. Unfortunately DHs Mom couldn’t come to the hospital because she was super sick.
Lo and behold Addie was still breech! I knew she was xoxo
They started to pumped me with 3 bags of fluid and wheeled us into the OR. Next thing you know I’m getting my local anesthesic and the spinal and then DH came in.
For me I got really scared at the moment I realized I could not move from the waist down. For some reason that sent me into panic mode on the inside. Lol. But was ok with the comfort of DH there and a little oxygen
They pulled and tugged for about 10 minutes on the other side and DH was just AMAZING the whole time! I truly am so blessed to have such a wonderful man, partner, best friend, lover etc in this crazy thing called life.
Next thing you know I hear the Drs say she’s peeing and pooping and here she comes!!!! I couldn’t help but laugh and then in that moment, right before we got to “meet” our daughter for the first time , I will never be able to put into words the anticipation of undeniable love on my husbands face looking to hold her , I will never forget that.
I am so happy with my fearlessness and acceptance of having a C-section for my first birthing experience And I owe that to a lot of you women here! I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and look forward to all of our journeys together going forward!!! God bless
Married May 2014
DD born August 2016
Baby #2 due December 2017
I woke up around 2 am on the 27th with contractions and decided that it was time to have my baby. I had been having labor contractions for days but Micah wasn’t dropping and my cervix was still high and only soft. My contractions kept waking me through most of the early morning so when my husband got up to go to work at 5 I got up with him and called my mom. I wanted to take my older two to her house so that my sister and I could go walk a few stores and see if I could get labor going. By 10 we had the boys at my moms and we were just getting to Target when I had a BIG contraction and felt like I peed myself. I stayed and walked around (I was wearing a pad) and kept feeling trickles with every contraction so I called my husband and Mom and we all decided it was hospital time. I was gbs+ so my hopes of laboring at home wasn’t going to happen. Got to the hospital, checked in and my midwife came in to check me. She said I was wet but the test wasn’t showing signs of water leaking so she decided to do a full check with a speculum. As soon as she put it in my waters went gushing and that was that... we were going to be having a baby. I labored for 6 hours was checked and there was no change. By this time my Midwives had a change over and Kim (who delivered my first) was now on shift. She knew I wanted to go as med free as possible but since labor wasn’t going at all she suggested pitocin and I said yes. I wanted Micah out and he wasn’t moving. I labored with pitocin through the night and actually slept pretty sound. I woke with really strong contractions and was positive something had changed. Kim checked me and I was at a 4 and starting to finally thin. I labored a few more hours, walking and on the birthing ball. Things were moving and I was doing good without pain meds. Until my nurse came in and bumped my pitocin up even more. Suddenly the pain was almost unbearable and I could barely take the pain. I wanted in the tub and she started to scare me with talk about how I was in a critical hour and approaching 24 hrs with my waters broken. How the baby could be in distress and blah blah blah. My mom went full momma bear on the woman and demanded to see Kim. Kim came in, my mom explained that I was unhappy and in pain and wanted the pitocin lowered and she said ok and lowered it just like that. I labored a bit longer and thought all was great until I was checked again and he had popped his head out of my pelvis! All of the work we had done and now I had to start over. After discussing it in length I allowed Kim to up my pitocin again and I laid on my side and told myself to just go away into another place mentally. I knew we were coming up to the 24hr mark and every contraction needed to count. A lot of my laboring was a blur after that. I was in pain and begged a few times for pain meds but my mom, my wonderful husband and my sister along with Kim just kept encouraging me to go a bit longer.
Funny side note- I deliver at a teaching hospital and was asked when I checked in if I minded students in the room since they had a full floor of newbies for the week. I said I didn’t mind and then completely forgot about the whole exchange. So when it was hour 27 and I was on my knees in bed bent over the back of the bed with my butt hanging out the last thing on my mind was that I consented to having an audience. Imagine my surprise when Kim told me to turn over and there were like 15 new faces all staring at me LOL. My mom said I turned and went ‘Oh well hello everyone.’ Then promptly laid on my back and started pushing!
Micah’s head came out easily with the cord around his neck. His shoulders were stuck and Kim had to pull him out after a lot of hard, hard pushing from me. I was certain he was tearing me all to bits but she checked after he was out and I had no tearing at all!
His birth being my third was so surprisingly difficult and scary and satisfying. I hated every moment of the labor and pushing but the ultimate high after was the best out of my 3 boys. Kim told me I was a rockstar and apparently I was the talk of the delivery ward lol. They don’t get to see many labors that go past 24hrs without a ton of interventions. Other than pitocin I was med free and the residents got a good show. Baha... anyway. Recovery has been amazing. I’m almost done bleeding after just a week and my uterus firmed up immediately. Micah was healthy and strong and we are now home enjoying our family of five.
thank you so much!!! Tomorrow Addie will be 1 week old! I can’t believe it! We are settling into a good routine and had our first Drs appt yesterday. Addie is doing perfectly and the Drs said to just keep doing what we are doing! @lindsey30 you will do beautifully! When is your section?
Too add to my story alittle, we got to leave the hospital a day early because I was recovering so well. And Addie passed all her tests with flying colors. I know everyone’s stories and experiences are different and their preferences too. But I feel there is a lot to be said about having a scheduled C-section. Thanks to all the mental preparation going into it and the amazing Drs that I have , I know for me i wouldn’t have wanted it to be any other way!
We couldn’t be happier!
Over the weekend I was not sleeping due to hours of false labor. I went to my OB appt on Monday and, since we already had an induction scheduled for Thursday, I asked if there was any way to move it up; I was worried about being too exhausted by then to push a baby out. She agreed there was no reason to wait (I was 39+3) and told us to be at the hospital at 8pm that night. When we got there we checked in and found out I was 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. Baby was at -1 station so the OB on call decided to start by putting a Foley balloon in, which was one of the most painful things I have ever felt (but she also had to do it twice because it somehow slipped out before it was fully inflated). I had awful cramping all night and, even with ambien, didn’t sleep much. At 9am the Foley came out and it had done nothing. So they put a cytotek suppository in and waited 4 hours. Nothing again. Another suppository and the OB said that if this one didn’t work they were sending me home. About an hour after the second dose contractions started and kept getting worse. After 4 hours I was 3cm, 80% effaced, and Baby was station 0!! So the OB broke my water and contractions got pretty bad. I was able to breathe through them, so I opted to try the bath before getting an epidural. After 3 hours I was 4cm and asked for the epidural (I should have asked for it earlier!! Yikes!). The placement didn’t go well, the anesthesiologist was trying to rush between contractions and I ended up feeling most of the procedure, my left side was also more numb than the right, but I was able to relax and sleep a bit. They started pitocin around 10pm on Tuesday night and by 1am I was 9+cm. They had me “labor down” and nap for 4 more hours before pushing. We started pushing at 5am on Weds morning and after 45 mins of the hardest pushing I’ve ever done the OB came in to check progress. Baby was sunny side up, having some decelerations, and not coming out unless manually turned. So the OB got her entire hand up in there and turned Baby Henry while I pushed again. The OB was amazing and Henry was out in about 15 mins! I ended up with only a 2nd degree tear. We did skin to skin right away and he decided to pee all over me right as the placenta was being delivered! Haha.
The next day i was wrecked! Every muscle was sore and I was too swollen to pee on my own. Henry was also struggling to figure out feeding. But now, at 48 hours post-partum, it’s totally manageable and the worst part is the cramping when feeding, which he is doing much better at.
Overall it wasn’t what I had hoped for and was so much harder than I ever could have imagined, but it’s true, you heal quickly and forget how awful some of those moments are because the end result is worth every second of pain!
TTC#1 since November 2015
9/16/2016 IUI#1 - BFN
10/12/2016 IUI#2 - BFN
1/21/2017 Clomid/IUI#3 - BFN
March 2017 IVF: BFP! (beta#1 191, beta#2 378!) - it's a boy! DS born 12/6/2017
TTC #2 since July 2018
May 2019 IVF #2: BFP! (beta#1 346, beta#2 646) - vanishing twin at 8 weeks. Baby B still going strong - due 2/8/20!
At that point my OB came in for a chat. Baby wasn't really descending, I wasn't dilating, and chances were good that my pelvis was probably too narrow for him. The doctor said there were 3 options: A) I go home and come back to try again in a few days,
My mom and sister had come down for the delivery and, like us, were a little shocked about me needing the cesarean, but they agreed that it seemed like the best option. My very opinionated grandma called my mom to express her disagreement and say how she didn't think it was necessary (former nurse), but my mom just kept telling her that DH and I had already made the decision and that was final. DH helped get me prepped and then they took me across the hall.
I kind of freaked out during the spinal, but it actually wasn't as terrible as I had feared. They strapped down my arms and DH got to come in and sat down by my head. There was quite a bit of pressure as they wrestled a rather stuck baby out of me, and my doctor told me that it was good that we'd made this decision because there's no way he would have fit through the pelvis. He came out, he cried, I melted. I didn't get to immediately hold him because apparently I was bleeding a lot, but DH got to hold him and brought him by my head while they were closing me up. After that we came back to our room for recovery and I got to nurse him and he did really well.
After an hour or so we were both in good enough shape for my mom, sister, and stepdad to join us. Little Aidan is perfect and very loved. I've been in a lot of pain if I forget to ask for my PRN pain meds, but when I remember, it's not too horrible.
Congratulations on your sweet rainbow baby @Amber_Waves I'm so happy for you. My best wishes and thoughts are with you as you welcome your baby to the world. ❤
I'm scheduled for a Foley procedure Thursday evening, and an induction Friday morning, if baby hasn't come before. My EDD was 12/9, and I'm 41 years old, so it's not advised for me to go much longer than the duedate, but we settled on just shy of 41 weeks...
It's awesome to hear your story. I too am hoping to deliver vaginally and without an epidural if at all possible. Of course I'll see how everything goes....
Anyway, really appreciating all of these stories, and just trying to relax and remember however mine goes it'll all be fine.
Due date 12/9
I can't figure out the pregnancy countdown tickers, but I do know how to make a signature!
#40andpregnant
As of 12/15/2017, my new hashtag is #41 and pregnant!
We got home around 11pm, i showered, got ready for bed, and got maybe 3 hours of sleep before intense contractions and back labor started. I hopped back in the shower to try and help my back pains, and that worked for a little bit. But around 7am (when my toddler woke up), i couldn’t deal with the pain anymore, called in the reinforcements who were going to be watching DD1, and left for triage once they arrived.
9am in triage, I’m hooked up to the monitors and they check me to find I’m 6cm with a bulging sac. Once they have a room and a nurse for me, I’m admitted, anesthesiologist is called to place the epidural (which only took effect well on one side but was still glorious), and my family comes in to hang. Around 2 the OB comes in, checks me and I’m now at 7cm, so they break my water, and DH and i decide to nap. At 4, my family comes back in, the nurse comes in to change my cath bag, and checks me, only at 8cm. Dr comes in to break second bag, says rest, I’ll see you in a few hours. Well, a few hours turned into less than a half hour because around 4:45 i started feeling pressure up front. The nurse can feel her head, has me start pushing, and after 2 pushes, i had to stop so she could get the dr. The dr comes in and so does the team and they’re scrambling to get everything heated and ready (i needed the NICU team because GBS+ and she pooped in my belly). I do one more set of 3 pushes and out came Lindsey! No tears, nothing.
She checked out just fine, no infection, no meconium. My placenta pretty much fell right out after she was delivered, so the plan for us to wait for the cord to stop pulsing before clamping and cutting was not possible. But everything went really smoothly!!!
Now that we’ve been home almost a week, she is nursing like a champ, not quite back to birth weight yet, but we are getting there.
@Tennis11785 I've been peaking in to check on you. I hope all is well for you and baby girl. ❤
All is good here and I'm rocking little Charlotte in my arms. Charlotte was born on December 22.
On the 20th, I went in for my weekly appointment. She wouldn't move on the ultrasound, so they wanted to induce. But because she hadn't dropped at all, they did a cycle of cervidil first.
Cervidil did nothing and they started pitocin. Two rounds of pitocin and 36 hours later, I was still only 1 cm and she was so high they couldn't even reach my water to try and break it. At that point, we all decided a c-section was the best and safest option.
So more than 48 hours after the whole process started, I went into surgery and she was born! I'm so in love with her.
** December BMB Siggy Challenge - Animals in Pools **
Me: 31+ H: 32
TTC Since 11/2015
#1 - MMC 6.5 weeks (2/16); #2 - MC due to cystic hygroma at 20 weeks (10/16); #3 CP (2/17); #4 - Due 12.16.17
My best wishes again to you and the other former F17 ladies (and all the other mamas here). I hope this new part in your lives will be so full of joy and excitement. Big hugs to each of you and your sweet little ones.
TTC#1: October 2015
dx: PCOS & MFI
IUI #1 w/Femara + Ovidrel June 2016 ~ BFP
July 2016: Blighted Ovum
IUI #2 w/Femara + Ovidrel September 2016 ~BFN
IUI #3 w/Femara + Ovidrel October 2016 ~BFN
IUI #4 w/Femara + Ovidrel November 2016 ~BFN
IVF with ICSI January 2017 ~BFN
FET February 2017 ~BFN
IVF with ICSI March 2017 ~BFP--Twins Due 12/8/17
Team Blue X 2!
At 12pm that day I went to my OB for an exam, and my doctor swept my membranes for the second time (the first was 4 days prior). Afterwards I had a lot of cramping and contractions, not unlike the previous membrane sweep but a bit worse. Afterwards, while I was working (from home) I found the pain was increasing and I was having trouble sitting up, so I took my last call of the day laying in bed - when I hung up at 4:30 I was 80% sure I was in labor so I started timing my contractions (12ish minutes apart at that point). From there things sped up rather quickly.
I was trying so hard not to be wimpy and call it labor when it wasn’t or go to the hospital too early and get sent home that I just stayed in bed by myself waiting for some clear sign that the baby was coming. I finally told my husband at about 6pm when he was going to the gym that I thought we’d be going to the hospital later that night, and I texted my mom who is an L&D nurse where I delivered that they should expect me later on.
By 7ish my contractions were 7 minutes apart and closing in on each other, but I was still waiting to get to 5 minutes apart and stay there for an hour as is the rule of thumb, even though I was in terrible pain and really wanted an epidural even then. At 9pm my mom stopped by to check on me and I had skipped right over 5 minutes and was under 3 minutes apart. She and I both silently realized at that point that I was coming dangerously close to an accidental home birth, so off to the hospital we went. H was clueless but I could feel the baby’s head and was involuntarily pushing the whole way there. We made it to the hospital at about 10:05 and our son was born at 10:34.
There was no time for an epidural, which was devastating to me, but I had already figured that out in the car. My doctor made it to the hospital just in time, and it took at least half the nursing staff to rush and get everything ready in the few minutes they had. I pushed for about 20 minutes (wow that was excruciating) and then we had our little boy!
So yeah, kind of botched things a bit trying to be tough, but at least it was quick. The only plan I had was wanting the epidural and wanting as few people as possible in the room, and clearly that did not happen. Next time I’m going to the hospital at any sign of labor and camping out there!
A strong contraction woke me up on 12/12 at 3:40am at 39+5. I hopped in the bath, started timing, and they were about 5 minutes apart. At 6, I woke hubby, packed our bags, and headed to the hospital after my mom came to watch DD. I get to the hospital, get checked, and am 4cm (ugh!).
I walked around a lot and wasn't really progressing. Then, suddenly, I had this HORRIBLE pain, followed by a rush of nausea and I couldn't make it to the bathroom quickly enough. The nurse runs in, checks me, and I'm almost 9 cm, bulging waters. I legit went from 4cm to 9cm in a matter of 30 seconds. Strangest/most disturbing sensation of my life.
Anyway, I had to push but our nurse warned that if I did, I would rupture my cervix. I insisted, so My OB gave me two options: stadol or the epidural (at 9CM!). Because I'm not a fan of stadol, we settled on the epidural after the quickest-administered-fluids-ever. After, the doctor checked me and baby was moving down the birth canal. A few pushes later, she was born!
HINDSIGHT: If you want to do unmedicated, be prepared to stand your ground. I didn't do a great job of that this time and ended up with the epidural. Although I'm disappointed, baby is healthy, which is all that really matters!