Labor and birth stories

luna8433

Here’s a thread where we can talk and AW about the details of our labors and the births of our babies! It’s also a place we can go to give congratulations and ask questions so we don’t clog up the birth announcements thread. 

@BumpAdmin @bumptara@BumpCaitlin ; sticky please

knutty3

I believe we need to bump/sticky this!   

Ok, my story...one I think I am ready to tell without turning into a heap of tears.  **TW** and a long post....

On February 23rd, we went in for a routine ultrasound and watched as Andrew's heart slowed down on the screen.  We were then directed to have our 1st NST.  After tracking our little squirmers, we were released,  but had another NST scheduled the next day at the hospital just in case.   Next morning,  we went to the hospital and after an hour and a half,  we were released again as everything checked out.  A few hours later,  and just before I took a nap, I got a call from the hospital requesting that I come back as we didn't get enough tracking on Andrew.  Another trip and 3.5 hours later, we were released as all was ok, but to see my dr. on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Feb 27th, I worked from home before my 1 pm appointment. Husband came with me and upon arrival, we were back on the NST.  Not long after, we could tell Andrew was in distress.  The most shocking news was my Dr. And MFM Dr. Making the call that they had to come out now or I may not have two kiddos.  With no time to waste, we didn't have time for a steroid shot and no time to get to the better NICU.  We went directly to the local hospital. RNs descended on me and the tears just started flowing.  With twins, you think you prepare yourself for anything, but at 33w5d, I was absolutely terrified.  By 3:26 PM, two cute red kiddos were popped over the curtain for me to look at, but were then wisked away.  

The c section was surreal,  I felt movement, but nothing hurt.  I could tell when they were out as my nerve finally didn't hurt being on my back.   I could hardly breathe as I simply couldn't stop crying.  At one point my shoulder hurt, and I was told it was because my uterus was outside my body!  My husband watched the whole thing and said it was like watching an episode on the learning channel!  Lol!  

In the end, Matthew was the one who has to be resuscitated, but then both we're stabilized for transport in their 1st (and hopefully last) ambulance ride.  My husband got to hold them, but I could only see them in their transport box.  My dr. released me the next day wirh strict insrtuctions, but knew  I needed to be with my kiddos.  

NICU is a hard place to be, but you know they are getting the best possible care.  In 12 days, they have been taken off their cpap, IVs, and are in open cribs breathing regular air.  They've overcome jaundice and are doing really well.  They are coming off caffine, which helped stabilize their apnea episodes and are trying to learn to nurse.  I'm trying to get my milk supply up too.  It's been a crazy and emotional adventure, but I have the two cutest little guys that I hopefully can take home in about 2 weeks.  

Things I wish I knew:  bring your hospital bag with you to appointments...you just never know.  Too much prune juice isn't good either.  Prepared frozen meals are a must.  Know where you will get brewers yeast, mothers milk tea, flax seed meal and fenugreek if milk supply isn't where it needs to be, don't wait. And good luck!

StephieMK

Ok finally time to tell my story...sorry if it's long.
Last Monday night DH, DD and myself had met a friend for a late dinner at the mall. After eating I wanted to run (ha! Shuffle slowly) to a store find DD a long sleeved shirt to wear under her new short sleeved "Big sister" shirt since it's still so cold. I've been at risk for preterm labor since having a moderate bleeding episode at 34wks. During and especially after dinner I was having lower back pain. Didn't think much of it at first since baby's been sitting super low and measuring large the whole time. The back pain got more annoying and I noticed subtle lower abdominal pain as well similar to menstrual cramping, almost like a "belt" of pain. When I got home I sat for a while and drank a bunch of water since BH were also there. But the lower pain wouldn't go away, even too annoying to fall asleep. I finally called the on call OB to ask if it were real labor. I had a scheduled induction with my first and never felt this back pain. She told me to go to the hospital to get checked. Had to drop DD off at my parents on the way and got to the hospital around 2am. The (hospitalist) doctor checked me and called my on call dr with the results. I was 1cm and 90% effaced. I was told it was probably a false alarm and that they'd keep me for observation  and give me fluids to see if it'll stop like last time. I was having some contractions but they were slowing. They moved me to the observation room and I tried to get some sleep. Still was uncomfortable but was almost asleep when baby girl let out one good kick and broke my water @4:45am. Then all hell broke loose! I have never felt pain like that before. Even with my first I felt true contractions that would intensify and release like you would expect. But this was different. The pain came on fast and strong and never let up. Like basically one long contraction and never felt the abdominal tightening. It was all pain around that "belt" mentioned and I felt like I was being ripped in half. I begged the nurse for some sort of relief because I felt like I was thrashing all over the bed. It didn't seem normal at all. I even became the crazy woman screaming which was super embarrassing but I couldn't control it. I had to pee but couldn't sit still long enough to use the pan they wanted to put under my butt. I begged over and over for an epi. The nurse said no because I had only been 1cm. And even mentioned being hesitant to give stadol in my IV but I can't remember her reason. At about 5:20am she checked and I was at 2cm. She agreed that they can get the epi, but it was taking a bit to get there so she finally agreed to give me a half dose of the IV med and then wanted me to move to a labor room across the hall. The Stadol made me dizzy/drunk feeling but I could still feel the pain just the same. She wanted me to walk but there was no way I could. So then she wanted me to get in a wheelchair to move me but I was feeling a lot of pressure and kept telling her I couldn't. I managed to get in the chair somehow and to the next room. I still had to go to the bathroom and remembered they put a chux pad under me before I sat down so I felt maybe that would be a good time to go. As I stood up to climb into the labor bed, I tell (apparently more like yelled, according to my husband, which I don't remember since the stadol made me feel kinda dizzy) them I really need to go and was feeling a ton of pressure. And the next thing I know I delivered my baby girl in the wheelchair! Never made it into the bed! Another nurse caught her barehanded because they had no inkling I was about to deliver. Hell, I had no idea because my first labor was so, so different! My poor DH didn't know what to do and ran into the hall yelling for a doctor to come help. I think he's a bit traumatized haha. I was able to get into the bed to deliver the placenta and to get sewn up due to a second degree tear. I didn't get to hold her right away because they wanted to make sure she was okay. I'm guessing also because I wasn't medicated during the sewing and felt almost all of that. So I had apparently dilated from 2cm to 10cm in ten minutes! From water breaking to giving birth it was 59mins total. And I was known on L&D as the woman who delivered in a wheelchair. Did I mention I work at this hospital? Embarrassing for sure!

Most importantly, Ella Grace is doing well! We had to stay an extra day in the hospital because she became jaundice, but follow up blood work showed she's almost 100%!

Edited because I hit post too soon since I'm mobile...sorry

dubnug

Went in for routine appointment Thursday the 8th. High BP and protein in urine sent me to the hospital for monitoring. After about 2 hours and a clean urine sample I was released but on bed rest. Sent home with the jugs for 24 hour collections on Sunday. Returned to the hospital the following Monday for monitoring and collections testing. Even though my BP was in shape, my protein levels were rising. Doctor didn’t want to take any chances and/or wait for it to become an issue. Nurse talked him into allowing me to go home and gather myself and belongings. Was told to return after midnight for induction as I would be 37 weeks to the day. We scrambled to do the final priorities before bringing home baby. Our plan was to have the nursery finished out and set up by the end of the week. When they say pregnancy plans never go as expected, they weren’t even half joking. We arrived at the hospital about 3:30 AM as we had attempted to catch a quick nap before being admitted. I was hooked up with the IV by 4 and the waiting game began. The doctor came about 8:30 to break my water and at that point I was begging for the epidural. More waiting. Fully effaced and about 9 1/2 dialated we started pushing. For an hour he would take two movements out and one move back in with each contraction. Finally, with the assistance of the doctor and forceps our baby boy was born at 6:33 PM on March 13 and was as healthy as could be. We were really hoping for his due date, as it is my birthday as well. However, I am so stoked to have him here to hold in my arms and love and nurture. 

knutty3

Andrew came home today!  After 28 days in NICU, he has a clean bill of health!  His brother, Matthew, will follow in a few days, but will come with a monitor as he had to go back on caffeine this weekend to deal with his apnea again.  At least they will all be home soon.

Apthor02

Gwendolyn came home yesterday! One day shy of 4 weeks being in the NICU. All very happy to no longer be traveling back and forth. One happy big sister. 

itsrandiyo

StephieMK  I LOVE STORIES LIKE YOURS, thanks for sharing, rockstar. 

StephieMK

@itsrandiyo hahaha thanks! Definitely never would have anticipated that ending. And seriously, any woman that goes without the epidural is a rock star!

btm013

TW*** happy ending but scary parts of the story ***

My “going into labor” story mimicked my first. I went to bed around 10:30pm and around midnight I woke up to what felt like some discharge coming out. Sure enough, I go to the bathroom, pee and TMI the discharge came out. I sat there for a few seconds after I finished, knowing more pee was to follow and it did. But then I felt something else trickle out. And I wasn’t peeing anymore. I sat there silently freaking out as I was exactly three weeks early. Once the trickle stopped, I slapped on a pad and woke up my husband. I went back to the bathroom and called my doctor as more fluid leaked. She told me to go to the hospital and she would be there at 7am.

I called my parents to come up and watch my son. They got there in record speed and mild contractions began. I arrived st the hospital where they checked my pad and it came back positive for amniotic fluid. They admitted me, hooked me up to machines and I tried to catch some sleep. No one ever checked me for dilation bc my contractions were so irregular and they didn’t want to risk infection.

My doctor came in at 8:45am and gave me the option of pitocin but i really didn’t want a repeat of all day intense contractions/labor to end in a late night csection like with my first. So I said let’s do the csection (plus I wanted my tubes tied and given baby was early, I wanted a controlled environment because we didn’t know how the baby was going to be health wise). 

Getting the spinal was a little nerve wracking but manageable. It's different when you are in labor begging for an epidural as opposed to not in any pain  and knowing you're about to get a shot in the spine. Also weird was not feeling my legs at all. With the epidural you can still feel some things whereas the spinal you are dead weight. My husband came in and they started. At a certain point, my doctor told my husband to stand up because she wanted him to announce the sex (we were team green). He thought the baby was already out but it wasn’t. Haha poor guy saw everything. He announced it was a girl and promptly sat down. I thought he was going to pass out.

Once they evaluated the baby and brought her to us, we were taking pictures and I heard my doctor say “push the pitocin, she’s not contracting enough.” And all of a sudden things got fuzzy and I remember saying "somethings not right" and my husband yelled that I was losing color and they took the baby away. I got really hot, nauseous and my head felt like it was going to explode. It seriously felt like it had a heartbeat. It hurt so bad. The anesthesiologist and nurse were great saying it was ok and normal. The surge in pitocin to contract the uterus brought on a “pit headache” and they were pulling back on it and should relieve soon. It took about 5 minutes and it got better. Phew.

The fun didn’t stop there though. They wheeled me into recovery and my husband went to be with the baby (who we named Charlotte) and my parents who were all hanging in my postpartum room. The nurses were checking my vitals and when they pulled back the sheet to check my incision and palpitate my uterus, I started bleeding heavily and there were huge clots coming out. I was hemorrhaging. Thank the good lord I was still numb because they were pushing as hard as they could on my stomach as my doctor had her hand inside me scraping my innards to get it all out. They had to try three different medicines to get it under control. Since I was planning to nurse they wanted Charlotte there to help contract my uterus more. So I’m laying flat and the nurses are trying to get her to latch. All the while my family is outside not knowing what was going on. They called My husband back and the doctor said i was stable for now but they had an OR on standby bc if it didn’t stop bleeding they were going to put me under and try to suction out the clots. If it didn’t work they would do a d&c and if that didn’t work they would open me up and see what they could do and if the uterus still wouldn’t respond they would do a hysterectomy. My husband was a rockstar. Totally calm.

Thankfully the medicine in conjunction with baby nursing helped . I was kept in recovery all night where they pushed hard on my stomach every hour for 24hrs. Words can't describe the pain. They had the OR for me all day and night and the doctor admitted that she really thought I was going in there at some point. I wasn’t allowed even an ice chip until midnight. Food didn’t come for a full 48hrs later. They finally said I was “out of the woods” the next morning and moved me to postpartum. Thankfully no blood transfusions were needed. Charlotte stayed on my chest all day per doctors orders and she was huge in getting my uterus under control ❤️. Suffice to say my nips are wrecked haha. Thank god for a nipple shield and cream. She’s doing really well weight wise and nursing. Seems content after each feed. She only lost 6% of her birth weight upon release of the hospital and she's since gained it back.

It was a scary experience and I'm happy to not have to go through that ever again. But of course, it was worth it for my sweet little girl. Good luck mama's. You'll do great! Trust in your doctors/midwives/nurses. Be open to every scenario and don't go in there with a steadfast birth plan. Unless you have a medical degree, you do not and SHOULD NOT call the shots. If the doctor has to act quickly, let them. Your life and your baby's may depend on it.

midnight-muse

@btm013 Wow! What a roller coaster you went on. Glad all is well! Congratulations on the birth of your daughter   

Mamapema

My birth experience was scary.  I went for a scheduled c-section. They prepared me for surgery and started an epidural. Unfortunately,  the catheter was misplaced in my vein. In few seconds, I started losing consciousness and started seizing. I cant remember what happened after that, . I couldn't breathe, I was sure my life was over. They put me under general anaesthesia,  got baby out in a 2 minutes. Its a very traumatizing experience  but we are both made it and doing ok. I never knew epidural can go so wrong??For those getting epidural, please do a little research...if something doesn't feel right, say something.  I saw my bp drop very rapidly, became sob, I didn't get any numbness etc.

stemgirl11

@Mamapema OMG that’s so scary! Glad you’re both all right. I have a friend whose epidural was botched up, making her go numb below her neck instead of her waist. She thought her lungs would stop working and she’d die. I’d like to avoid having an epidural if at all possible.

mrshernandez0908

my handsone baby 2 weeks old after almost having him at home. Went to hospital was dilated at 10 wasn't hooked up to ivs nothing i gave birth right away almost in a wheelchair.

Mamapema

stemgirl11 said:

@Mamapema OMG that’s so scary! Glad you’re both all right. I have a friend whose epidural was botched up, making her go numb below her neck instead of her waist. She thought her lungs would stop working and she’d die. I’d like to avoid having an epidural if at all possible.

@stemgirl11 Thanks.does your friend currently has any side effects from the epidural gone bad? I'm hoping I'll be ok. 

stemgirl11

@Mamapema Physically she’s fine, and after the epidural wore off there were no issues as far as I know. But it took her a long time to recover mentally because she was so terrified and even though her son’s fine and there were no long-term issues for her, it took her a couple of years to move past it. She doesn’t plan on having more kids. 

jkatkins

Beckett Daniel Glass born 4-6 at 4:20am 1 day before his due date weighing 9 lbs 5oz!! Started having light contractions at 1am 10 minutes apart by 2am they were getting stronger so I told my husband we should get ready to the hospital. On the way my contractions we're 1-2 minutes apart!! Got to the hospital at 3:20am and when they checked me at 3:30 I was 8cm! They took my labs because I basically begged for an epidural. They said it would be at least a half hour and to not get my hopes up. Fast forward to 4:13am no time for the epidural and was time for me to push because I was complete. 7 minutes of pushing and then he made his arrival. Crazy fast and tough birth but beautiful baby! 

linds0503

Baby Violet was born Friday evening 4/13, ten days after her due date weighing 7lbs. 3 oz. My contractions became strong later Thursday evening to the point that it was too painful to go to bed. My husband stayed up with me watching a movie and walking down our street. At 4am Friday the contractions were very painful and between 2 and 5 minutes apart, so we decided to go to the hospital. In triage they said that while I was 90% effaced, I was only dialated to 3cm, so they would not admit me. They didn't have any rooms available anyway. I decided to wait in triage for two hours to get rechecked. I was about 5cms when they rechecked, and by the time I was fully admitted 3.5 hours after we got to the hospital, I was sure it was going to be a long painful process and decided to get an epidural. The epidural was amazing, it made the rest of the day pretty mellow and allowed me to get sleep that would have otherwise been impossible. The only additional complication was that I developed a fever a few hours after my water broke, and my contractions stalled at various times. I had to get iv antibiotics. They let me take a nap after that. When I woke up, I had a new ob, who checked me, said that I was dialated to 10cm, and that the baby would be born in the next hour or 2, and that I could start pushing. 20 minutes late my daughter was born. My husband and mother were recruited to hold my legs in the air while I pushed, and got a full view of my daughter being born. It was an amazing experience, but not at all the experience I had planned.

RiverWhispering

My birth story:

I've been meaning to post this for ages but I rarely have the time to shower let alone type out a birth story. So this is over a month late.... Baby came exactly 1 week late on April 12th. Contractions started at 9am that morning. I waited an hour just to be sure that they were the real deal. It became clear that they were. Told my husband to book the hotel room I wanted for 2 days, so we'd have time to chill after the birth (sans toddler). Yes, we *planned* on having a baby in a hotel room. I had wanted to do a home birth but we were in-between houses. Our move in day was the 15th and with our LO coming a week late she was born only 3 days before my hubby had to start moving everything (he was pretty bummed about that and missing so much of the early days). Anyway, since the due date was right around our move-in date, and I don't want to go anywhere near a hospital unless I'm dying, I decided to rent a hotel room. Opted for a nice suite with a kitchenette at a place two blocks from my midwives' clinic. We arrived at the hotel at 11:25am but were told the room wasn't ready (check in wasn't until 4pm.) We asked if they could rush the cleaning and the front desk guy was awesome. Super nice. He agreed to rush the cleaning and call us when it was ready. So we parked our car and walked to our midwives' clinic down the street. We stopped at Starbucks on the way and took some funny photos because we found it hilarious that I was in labor and chilling with a rooibos latte about to try and birth a baby in a hotel room. Lol. My entire family was terrified and thought me utterly crazy. Anyhow, we walked to the clinic, let them know I was in labor and was just waiting for my room to open. Shortly after walking in we got the call that our room was ready. We walked back to the hotel and on our way my contractions started coming every minute or less. I went straight up to the room, it was 12 noon now. My husband ran our things up and then he and I started prepping the room (covering the bed in plastic wrap, wee wee pads all over the floor, our own linens and towels, etc). I constantly had to stop and wait for contractions to pass. As soon as we were done getting the room ready I ran a bath and hopped in while hubby timed the contractions. He text my midwife with the info and she said it looked like things were progressing fast so she was heading over. She arrived at 1pm and got her stuff set up while I stayed in the bath. At 2:48pm she asked if I wanted to have a cervical check to see how dilated I was. I said yes so I left the bath and climbed onto the bed. She he checked and I was at 7cm, which surprised me! I told her I was going to get back into the tub and use the shower. The moment I got in the shower I had an overwhelmingly strong contraction and my water broke. I was already looking down at the tub floor when it broke so I saw the color of the water splash down a murky green brown. Instantly I knew what that meant. I called out for my midwife to come in and told her about the meconium in the waters. She started telling me that the "official" recommendation was to transfer to a hospital, but she also gave me the honest percentage chance of something being wrong, which was small. And I knew that already. We checked baby's heart rate and it was still the same normal rate it had been the whole time. So I told her I wasn't going to transfer. It didn't feel right. I just felt like everything would be okay. The next contraction happened and I was overcome by the urge to push, barely made it onto the bed before the following contraction. 10 minutes after my water had broken in the shower and 5 pushes later baby was in my arms. She was born completely healthy at 3:14pm in room 314 of the hotel, so we call her our little Cutie "Pi." Welcome to the world Ourania Freydis. 8lbs 11oz, 20 inches long. She was a chunky monkey to begin with and just keeps getting chunkier. My milk came in the day after her birth, which blew my mind because the first time around my milk took forever to come in. Ourania got back to her birth weight at only 1 week old, and nursing has been going strong from the get go. Hurt like a son of a b**** for what seemed like ages but *finally* that passed. Thank heavens.... And now we're just trying to get through this crazy insanity that is having a newborn *and* a toddler. Oy.... Thank goodness they're so darn cute. Okay yay! Finally get to post my birth story! 

kmalls

Wow, I’m really glad that worked out for you. She’s a beautiful baby. 

...but holy shit, you gave birth in a germ infested hotel room with meconium present?? Those were some BIG risks to take and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point that out to lurkers who may be getting some ideas for their own births.

I get not wanting a hospital birth, I truly do, but you gotta be smart about it. Hotel room aside (which, gross), when you see meconium that’s some scary shit. My first child required a 5 night stay in the special care nursery due to an infection that arose from meconium aspiration. I honestly can’t believe your midwife was like “meh, it’ll prob be fine.” YIKES. 

joyful08

***lurker

i just really want to know if the hotel was aware that you were going to be giving birth in one of their rooms! Did you have permission? I feel like most hotels would definitely not allow that. 

vkoababy194

I was 11 days past due, and I started to spot lighty So I went in as a precaution, and they were like girl your past due so we going to keep and induce you....so of course I was excited, but little did I know I would be there from 7am till 3:02am the next day....the pushed pitocin and I quickly dialated with no issues...then when I got to about 5cm the contractions were strong and really painful and stayed that way for hours and hours they hooked up an epidural...I got relief for about 40 mins then it completely wore off...I was shocked because you always hear how much the epidural helps...and for me it just wasn't taking....the ansti guy didn't want to try it again since it took him so long to get it in there in first place. .so yes ...I had to endure the whole thing with no pain meds except for that brief 40 mins around 5pm....the rest of the night was probably the worst pain I've ever experienced and I've been In car accidents with broken ribs....that was nothing compared to this...at midnight I was 10 fully dialated and ready to push...I pushed for 2 1/2 hours before they decided to do an emergency C-section.... Once in the room they did the spinal and prep me, and they gave me too much so I literally was doing Morris code with my eyes just trying to give a signal that I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't move my mouth or speak , my vocal chords were numb so no sound we coming out no matter how hard I tried, finally they saw me and they had to physically force air which was werid becuase I was mentally aware but just couldn't do anything... My mom was going to be partner Because my husband will faint at any sight of blood. And they wouldn't let her in becuase I wasn't breathing and i could hear them talking saying oh this is too intense something could happen the mother can't come in....the labor was the most painful and the surgery was the scariest. They had to physically turn my head for me to see my boy and I couldn't say or do anything because the med atill hadn't worn off..but inside I was full of joy...then 5 seconds later I threw up...I didn't know it was coming I just felt warm on my face then make nurse was like oops someone threw up lol...funny now thinking back. Then they all started yelling, sounds were beeping...and the ansti. Was still forcing air and telling me that it was going to be okay and to not be scared..but I was ...I was bleeding out while they were stiching me up....I was bleeding out the bottom and I lost so much blood that I completely passed out. And I woke up in post op being hooked to a transfusion bag....deff scary...but after all of that I finally was able to hold my baby, and thats worth going through anything..