Med Free Fast Labor after 41 weeks, 3 days

amh_navyblue

After lurking here for the past 9 months, I thought it was only fair to share my birth story...

My first daughter was almost 7 days late, so I wasn't surprised when the due date for my second came and went with no baby.  I did think that the baby would arrive with a few days since I had been experiencing some BH contractions over the course of the last few weeks of my pregnancy, but alas this kid was in no hurry to come out.  My doctors' office has a policy of scheduling an induction for the 41 week mark...again, I didn't think it would go that far, so I didn't worry about it, until the day before when I sensed that I was not going to go into labor before the scheduled induction.  I really wanted to avoid being induced--I had my first daughter without drugs and from all the stories I have heard that is practically impossible with an induction because of the contractions you get with pitocin.  I called my doctor's office to push the induction back a few days and of course ended up talking to the one doctor of the 5 that I like the least.  She really wanted me to go ahead and be induced, but she said she would consider pushing the induction back if I had a NST and another sonogram to make sure that the baby was not in distress.  I did that and the baby passed both set tests with flying colors.  With that information I was even more determined to wait, feeling that it would be better to let this little one come on his/her own.  The doctor tried her best to scare me into having an induction, citing general statistics about how the chance of a stillbirth goes up after 41 weeks, but I pointed out that I had had a totally normal pregnancy, the baby was not in distress and after all, the due date is an ESTIMATED one.  It just didn't seem right to schedule a medical procedure based solely on the calendar.  

 My induction was postponed to the following Monday, 1/25 (original schedule was 1/21).

 The next several days passed by uneventfully and we joked that the baby was waiting for the "cranky" doctor to not be on call (she was on call both Friday and Saturday).  I continued to feel the baby move regularly and regular pressure on my pelvic area...it seriously felt like the baby was about as low as he/she could go without actually coming out.

When Sunday morning came and I was still not in labor, I began to resign myself to being induced the next day, hoping that just the action of breaking my water would get things going and I wouldn't have to have too much pitocin.  It turned out that those fears were unwarranted. 

 On the way home from church around 11am, I started to feel more pressure and decided to take a walk with my 3 year old and my mom to see if I could get things going.  Sure enough by the middle of the walk, I was having regular contractions, very manageable, but very regular (every 3-4 min).  I had lunch with everyone and continued to labor at home, sitting on my exercise ball.  We all figured the baby would come sometime before midnight and that I still had many hours of labor ahead of me.  Ha ha.

By 2pm, my contractions were coming every 2 min and getting more intense.  Finally around 3:30, I called the doctor on call (who turned out to be one of my favorites) to tell her I was in labor.  She suggested I head over to the hospital, but I said I wanted to labor at home a bit longer.  She reminded me that this was my second and things might happen a bit faster.  Since we live literally next door to the hospital I wasn't too worried.  After getting off the phone with I had 2-3 more contractions and then felt like the baby made a major move down and I knew that we shouldn't wait any longer.  Leaving my daughter with my mom, my husband and I walked over to the hospital, stopping every minute or so so that I could get through the contractions, which were coming every minute or so at this point.

According to my DH, the guy at the registration desk looked petrified that I was going to have the baby right there...

We made it up to the labor and delivery floor around 4:30, got right into a room and when the doctor checked me, I was 6 cm and almost fully effaced.  Minutes later, as she prepared to break my water, I was 9 cm and after she broke my water I was 10cm and fully effaced.  Before I knew what was happening, the baby was coming and I was pushing.  After just 3 short, but insanely intense pushes later (and just 45 minutes after we checked into the hospital), Kristina Marie entered the world--all 8lbs, 7 ounces and 21.5 inches of her.  

It was an incredible experience--the intensity and speed of the labor was something I never expected.  It was very different from the birth of my first daughter, whose labor was more than 18 hours.  I feel so fortunate to have had another healthy baby girl and to have had the opportunity for her to enter this world the way she did.  I am so glad that I trusted my body and pushed back with the doctors.

Good luck to all of you still waiting for your little ones!  May your birth experience be what you want and what is right for you and your baby!

Alice

NFL_Wife

Congrats and thanks for sharing your birth story!

hazelgemini26

Every pregnant woman's dream birth!  One should be so lucky!  congratulations!

luckyladyNJ

Congratulations! What a wonderful birth story!

Gabe&Dana

Congratulations! What a wonderful birth story! 

zookbride

Wow! If only every labor and delivery went that fast! Congrats on your healthy girl. Thanks for sharing your story!

mollymurphy

What a great story! Congrats! (I'm a fellow 41 w 3 day-er...and I, too, am so glad I was able to hold off on being induced: I squeaked in under the wire went into labor on my own 24 h. before my scheduled induction.)