Holly's birth (long)

blueeyedgirl27 · March 2009

Good morning ladies! Just wanted to share my birth experience with you. My EDD was 3/28/09, but baby decided enough was enough at 38w5d.

Friday, March 20, was to be my last day of work so I'd have a week or so to get things ready for baby. But Thursday night I went to pee and saw pink-tinged fluid on my liner that smelled like semen-I was leaking amniotic fluid. I yelled to DH, honey I think I might be leaking fluid but I'll change my pad and see if anything else leaks out. Soon as I lay back down on the couch, I could feel more leak out, so it was time to call the doc. I was told to go down to L&D so they could check to be sure it was my water, and at 11:15pm I was put into a triage room and hooked up to the EFM machine. I'd been having BH contrax all week, and off and on that day, but didn't pay attention to how regular they were. The machine was showing them 3-5 min apart, but not painful. The doc came in after about an hour and checked me, my membranes had indeed ruptured and I was still at 2cm and 80% effaced (which is where I was at my checkup 2 days prior). But I was there to stay.

Unfortunately, since my membranes had ruptured I had to get an IV and was confined to bed, so my plans for a completely med-free childbirth went out the window. I wasn't permitted to use hydrotherapy or walk around, and the EFM belts had to stay on at all times. So I had to be creative in bed when it came to trying different positions. Around 2am I felt a pop and a gush of fluid, and the painful contractions began. I was checked around 4am and was at 4cm. Baby was so low in my pelvis that the pressure was intense and made the contrax more uncomfortable to bear as back labor kicked in. I had the best luck breathing through them by kneeling on the bed and resting my upper body over the back of the bed, which I had up as far as it could go, and DH putting cold compresses on my tailbone.

I was progressing quickly, despite the fact that my contrax were erratic. They varied from being 5 min apart to being right on top of each other. If I were able to move about the room or soak in the tub, I believe I may have been able to go without the epidural. But by 7am I couldn't handle the back labor anymore so I asked for the epi. The received the epi around 7:30 and at that point I was 6cm dilated, 100% effaced and +1 station. The epi was great, but my whole body shook constantly. I progressed even more quickly after the epi, however. I went from 6cm to 10cm in an hour and a half! I was too numb to feel any pressure so they started to turn the epi off and around 10am I was ready to push. Baby was sunny-side up, so the nurse had to work on turning the baby while I was pushing. I did some pushing leaning over the back of the bed and squatting down, which helped get the baby into position. Contrax had slowed to 5min apart so they started pushing pitocin to try and get them to come faster. Unfortunately it didn't work, it only made them stronger! It felt so good to push through the contrax though. I also watched the whole thing with the mirror which really helped motivate me to keep pushing.

It took only a little over an hour of pushing, but Holly Mae was born at 11:10am weighing 6lbs, 1oz and measuring 18.5in long. What a little peanut! She scored 8 and 9 on her Agpars and is doing great! BF'ing has been a challenge due to latching issues. I've had to pump and bottle-feed since her weight had dropped to 5lbs 8oz in the hospital, but as of yesterday she's back up to 5lbs 13 oz and doing wonderful!