Birth story DC #2 (even longer)
(I reposted my birth story from DC #1 below for those of you who might be interested in similarities and differences in first and second births, as I was.)
My pregnancy DC#2 was pretty similar to #1, as in morning sickness until about 16 weeks, weight gain of close to 50 lbs, otherwise healthy and felt pretty good. TMI, but possibly related to the story is that I had a yeast infection for pretty much the last 2 months of PG that would get better w/ treatment-only to come back a week or so later.
At my 37 week appt the OB told me I was 1-2 cm no effacement. I knew this meant very little in the way of when labor would start, but, as you know, those last few weeks are full of delicious anticipation of when and how it will all happen. So I scoured birth stories nightly. I was also nesting pretty fiercly for about a month before. But after this appt I started buying food so I could stockpile some frozen meals and made a list of a few things I wanted to organize before my due date.
At my 38 week appt (a Monday) the OB checked me and said I was softening a little-still about 2 cm-baby still very high. I was having BH occ, but nothing too exciting- A few pulls and very low pelvic/vaginal cramps. So I went about my organizing and cooking. On Wed, my mother took my 3 y/o DD out for the evening and I planned to do my last big project which was organizing and cleaning the pantry before ant season descended on my house. I was knee deep in this project when DH came home from work and suggested we go to the diner for a dinner alone. I really wanted to finish my project, but I agreed, and now I am glad I?m did because I haven?t digested a decent meal since, and probably won?t for another 18 years. I had a really delicious meal and when I came home, DD was still out so I finished the pantry (and cried listening to songs that were making me nostalgic for when DD was a baby). As DH and I stood admiring the closet, I felt the first ?different? BH.
I went to bed with these. They were about every 20 minutes, but I fell asleep no problem. I awoke at about 2 am to pee and in my grogginess looked down and saw bright red blood in my panties and blood in the toilet. I thought it must be the mucus plug, though there was no mucus. I called the OB on call an hour later and she said it was probably the mucus plug and early labor and to call the office in the morning unless it continued to be bright red or got heavier. I woke in the am to darker blood, no more BH, still no mucus. My doctor was out for the day and the nurse really felt it was my plug and said to just take it easy for the rest of the day. I never lost my plug w/ DC#1, so I didn?t know what it was like, but I just felt this was not right. I packed a bag and put the grandparents (babysitters) on alert.
So my husband went to work and my mother came over. In the afternoon we took DD to the park. A few minor BH, and still having a fair amount of dark red blood-but only needed a panty liner. At 3pm I told DH I wanted to go to the hospital to get checked. It is so much harder to wait patiently for labor when you know you have childcare to consider.
When we got to the hosp they hooked me up and an NP came in to check me. She said I was still 2 cm and soft. She said the blood could have been from the internal (2 days ago??? I didn?t believe it). So they said we could go home. We were kind of excited b/c we had a sitter and could go out to dinner again!. They told me to wait for the nurse to come take out the IV. While I was laying there I felt a lot of fluid trickling out. I thought maybe my water broke. I asked the NP to take a look and she said it was blood and she went to call the covering OB. He came in and they were both just staring at my nether-regions. He said ?yeah, there are some clots there?. So he said ?Well, the good news is your going to have your baby tonight?. They did an US and started making all of these faces and comments. Then they called in a perinatologist to do another US to assess fluid level. They said the fluid level was low, there was a lot of cord, but no placenta previa, and that the baby wasn?t making breathing movements as much as they would like. I was basically having heart failure at this point, but nobody seemed very upset and they weren?t clearing out an OR for me, so I had a feeling everything was actually not as bad as they were making it seem. They moved me to a monitoring room and hooked me up to IVs and told me I couldn?t eat (God help me). They weren?t very forthcoming with info at first, but at some point they told me they planned to keep me over night and induce me in the morning because L&D was too busy to induce right away. They said the baby?s heart beat looked good and they would be monitoring me all night. So I sent DH home and since my mom wanted to come up to visit I asked her to bring my Nyquil-because I had become a bit of an addict in the preceding 3 nights and knew I would never be able to sleep without it. And because I am a nurse and nurses are the very worst patients. They had WiFi and I had my laptop, so I just tried to relax, took a swig of Nyquil and started Facebooking. Around 9 pm I started noticing contractions. I didn?t time them but I knew they were coming regularly-I figured very 10 min or so. The nurse was busy with other women in the room who were getting cervadil. One of the residents came in to check me and she said the contractions were every 3 minutes! She said I had progressed to 5 and my bag of waters was bulging!. I was so surprised. I was still not in any real pain (maybe that was the Nyquiil!). So they moved me to an L&D suite and I called DH and mother and MIL and told them to come soon because with my last labor I went very quickly after the epidural. I wasn?t in a lot of pain, but I was afraid my water would break and the pain would get bad quickly, so at about midnight I asked for the epidural. The epidural was annoying because it felt like it totally numb on one side of my body and did nothing for the other side. But since the contractions werent?t that bad, I tried to sleep a little. My nurse kept asking if I felt pressure. I wanted to, but I didn?t. This went on for 2 or 3 hours during which they checked me again and said I was still 5!. So they started pitocin and even with pit things seemed to have stalled. My right leg was like a piece of meat, it even looked strange to me. I could not move it or feel it at all. At about 4 am the contractions started ganging up on me/ I didn?t want more epidural because I was afraid it would make my leg worse and I also felt like it was making me a little groggy, which is a scary feeling when you know what you are about to do. But I was having pretty bad pain on my lower left. Still no pressure, but very very intense pain. My mom and DH and MIL and FIL were standing in the room staring at me and I can?t imagine how I must have looked in such pain. My mom kept saying things that were annoying me. So I kicked everyone out-even DH. But when he came back in a few minutes later I grabbed his hand and was crying to him that I didn?t think I could make it through the next contraction. I am guessing they were about 1 min apart-maybe less. And they had 2 peaks. It was pretty bad. I think with my first labor my epidural must have been really great, because I don?t remember the pain during late labor or pushing. This labor, though, I will not soon forget! Luckily it is only for a short while. They checked me at some point and said I was ready to push. And with this labor it did ?feel good? to push like other people have said. It only took a few pushes and out came Joseph Arthur at 5:37 am. He had the most beautiful color to him and a lusty cry and I immediately (I mean it, immediately) knew that my worries about not loving him as much as DD were all wrong. He was 7 lb 13 oz 19 inches (1 ? weeks early!). He still has beautiful coloring at 15 weeks (today).
They never told me what they thought the bleeding was from. I wonder now if it might gave been from those perpetual yeast infections. It took 2 hours for my leg to regain sensation. As lousy of an epidural as it was, I feel like I went through ?natural? labor on half of my body and saw enough of it to know that an epidural was the right choice for me.
Breastfeeding was much easier to start this time around, though I did still have sore nipples for about 2 weeks. And one thing I didn?t know about-for you second time BFing moms-is the afterpains during nursing this time are much more intense. Take Motrin!
Good luck to all of you!
Re: Birth story DC #2 (even longer)