Birth Story for #2

eaglesfan700 · July 2009

I am so glad this board is here - I wasn't sure where to post this!

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I was due on Monday July 6. At my appt that day I was 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. On Friday night (July 10) I was feeling some pretty strong contractions. They never got closer than about 15-20 minutes apart, so we went to bed hoping I didn?t wake up in the middle of the night in labor!

I actually got a good night?s sleep, but Saturday morning the contractions were in full force, about 20-30 minutes apart. I was pretty sure this was it, so we called my brother and SIL who came and got Charlie (DS). The contrax were getting closer together and between 1pm and 2pm they were consistently 5 minutes apart. DH had called the hospital around 1 and let them know we were probably coming and we left the house at 2 (hospital is about 5 minutes away).

By the time we got there, checked in and I got examined, it was around 3pm and I was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Also there was some fluid ? my water didn?t break in a big gush, it was a little bit at a time and when the resident examined me she knew I was progressing. The contractions were also getting more intense very quickly. DH and I had a feeling this was really going fast, so we asked for the epidural because I didn?t want to miss the window.

Our nurse was great, she got me into a delivery room and got the anesthesiologist. My doc came in and said I might want to take a nap and relax, meanwhile the contrax are really getting intense and 2-3 minutes apart. The anesthesiologist was really nice and said he wanted half an IV bag in me before the epidural. So I got it around 4pm and felt tons better.

I started feeling pressure but thought it couldn?t possibly be the baby descending yet. However a resident came in with the u/s machine to check the baby?s positioning and had a hard time finding her head because it was so far down the birth canal! Another resident came in around 5:15 and examined me ? I saw the look of shock on her face and she says ?Are you ready to push? You are fully dilated!?

They get my doc back in there and we start pushing. I remember the burning feeling from my son, but I knew I just had to push through it or I would just be prolonging the inevitable. So even though it hurt like hell, Samantha Helene was born at 5:44pm after about 20 minutes of pushing. She was 9lbs, 7 oz with a full head of black hair! I had a 3^rd degree tear and had to be stitched but other than that I felt pretty good.

However, she had a bowel movement in utero, so they whisked her right over to the table to make sure they got all the meconium out. I was mildly worried when I didn?t hear crying, but then after a minute or two (still not sure exactly) I heard crying and was relieved. I found out later her apgar score at 1 minute was a 3, but then went to 9 at 5 minutes. I was able to BF her, but she didn?t latch right away ? she wanted to play around a bit.

There was also some concern because she wasn?t pooping. Her bilirubin levels were also borderline ? they let us leave the hospital on Monday but we had to see the pedi the next day. They drew more blood and her levels had increased. Luckily that night she let out some massive dark, tar-like poops and when we went back for more tests, she was fine. Now she is BFing and pooping like a champ!

All in all, this was a way better experience than I had with DS - an unplanned induction at 38w 4d (birth story in bio).