I enjoyed reading others so here's mine..
bobcatsteph
member
I went to my 37 week appt on Monday, 3/30 (at 36 weeks 6 days) and I was 2cm and 60% effaced. I went to work and was there for a few hours and I got hungry so I decided to get my lunch out of the fridge. I decided since I had already walked down the hall, I might as well go to the bathroom to prevent having to walk all the way across the floor again. I sat on the toilet and felt a gush of warm fluid before I even started peeing. I thought maybe it was my water but I wrote it off to just being caused by my internal exam that morning. I left the stall and walked to the sink to wash my hands. I was standing at the sink and felt warmth in my pants. I ran back into the stall, sat down and more fluid came out. At this point I realized that this probably my water breaking. I saw my coworker's shoes walk into the stall next to me and told her I thought my water was breaking. She bought some pads from the bathroom machine and gave them to me. I stacked 3 of them in my underwear and decided to walk to my desk to call DH.
I started walking down the hall and felt a gush so I stopped in the break room and sat down at a table. My coworker brought me my cell phone and I called DH. It was 11:45 and I realized that he had just left to run on Town Lake during lunch and I knew he wouldn't be back to his phone until 1:15 or so. I called my ob's office to see what they wanted me to do and they told me my doctor had taken the rest of the day off and their office was closing for lunch until 1. They told me to come in at 1 and one of the doctors would see me to make sure it was my water. I just sat in the break room in shock with my coworker until almost 1 and tried to eat my lunch. We decided that she would drive me to the ob's office and stay with me until I could get a hold of DH. I stood up to walk with her to her car and completely soaked my jeans! My coworker announced to everyone what was going on and all the men immediately left the break room?haha
We get to the ob's office and everyone was staring at me because my pants were soaked. I asked if they had a gown or something to change in to. They said they didn?t, but let me sit in a room until a doctor came back from lunch. I sat on a water proof pad with a paper sheet draped over my lap and I soaked through the pad and fluid was dripping onto the floor. A doctor came in after about 10 minutes and checked me. I was still 2cm but she confirmed that it was my water that had broken. She gave me some paperwork to give to the hospital and called and told them I was on the way. I decided to call DH and he answered. I asked him if he had checked the THREE voicemails I had left for him and he said no. I told him what was going on and he proceeded to apologize for 5 minutes. I told him to just hurry up and get to the ob?s office. I waited there until he got there, then I put my wet pants back on and we headed to the hospital.
I walked into the hospital in my soaked, cold jeans. We checked in and they sent us to a room. I changed into a gown and got in bed. A nurse came in and explained that because my water had broken and I wasn?t having contractions, they would probably have to use pitocin to get my labor started. She asked me if I was going to want an epi later and I said yes so they started an IV. She said they would wait a couple of hours and check me and if I wasn't progressing, they would start the pitocin.
At around 3:30pm, the nurse checked me and I was 2.5-3cm. I wasn?t really having any regular contractions so they decided to start the pitocin. I started having more regular contractions but I didn?t really feel them. They kept turning up the pitocin every 15-20 minutes and I started to really feel the contractions. They didn?t feel bad at first (like light menstrual cramps) but they got progressively worse (like a sharp, stabbing pain). I wasn?t having a problem just breathing through them at that point. The doctor came in and checked me to see if the pitocin was working. I was at 4.5cm. I decided to go ahead and get the epi even though I wasn?t in a ton of pain yet. I wanted to get it ASAP so I wouldn?t have to experience the really bad contractions.
The anesthesiologist came in within 15 minutes and kicked everyone (including DH) out of the room except for the nurse. The numbing shot didn?t hurt at all, but when he was trying to put in the actual epi, it was pretty painful. It felt like he kept scraping my spine. He was asking me if I had ever had an epi before and telling me that I needed to stick my back out more. I could tell he was struggling. I was freaking out thinking it wasn?t going to work or something. He had to poke me two different times and was moving the needle all around in there, and then he said he was going to try with a longer needle. He did and it worked right away and wasn?t painful at all.
Pretty much right when I got the epi I stopped feeling the contractions. From my stomach down was numb. It felt like my legs were asleep. They put in an internal monitor to measure the contractions and put in a catheter and I didn?t feel a thing. My family came in and we were watching tv and talking..it was great. We were watching the contractions get worse and worse on the screen and I didn?t feel anything.
About 2 hours after I got the epi I started feeling a LOT of pressure. I pushed the epi button thinking maybe it was wearing off. When the nurse came in I told her about the pressure and she checked me. I was 9.5cm! She said she would come back in 30 minutes and check me and if I was 10 we would start pushing. I was so excited that it was moving so fast.
During the 30 minutes while I was waiting for the nurse to come back, the pressure got worse and worse. It felt like I really wanted to push. I kicked my family out. The nurse came back and I was 10cm. I was so excited to push..I thought Caroline would be there in no time.
I ended up pushing for over 3 hours. The nurse had the doctor come in and watch me push and the doctor decided to feel to see if Caroline was face up or down. She was face up so the doctor manually rotated DD?s head. Thank goodness for the epi because I didn?t feel a thing. The look on DH?s face while this was happening was scary. DH was completely awesome throughout everything. Before that day, we were worried that he was going to pass out because he gets queasy pretty easily. He was a champ.
I was so exhausted but I was bound and determined not to need forceps or the vacuum. I finally got to the point where it felt like her head was right there. The nurse finally called the doctor, and a ton of other people in. They took off the bottom of the bed, put my legs in the stirrups and got everything ready for the baby. While this was going on, I felt like DD was going to fall out. I pushed twice and she was born. The pressure immediately went away and I felt nothing again.
They put DD on my chest and it was the awesome feeling ever! Everything felt so surreal until I saw her. She was born at 1:43am (which ended up being 37 weeks exactly so she wasn?t considered pre-mature), weighed 7lbs 12oz, and was 21inches long.
Re: I enjoyed reading others so here's mine..