Birth Stories

Easy Arrival

It all started on June 24th at 10:50 am when I went to the doctor for my 38 week appointment.  I was dilated 1 cm so Dr. tried stripping my membranes to see if things would get moving.  I went home and had a huge bloody show and some mild contractions, but that was it.  At about 3 am on June 25th I woke up with mild cramping that was uncomfortable, but nothing more than the Braxton-Hicks I had been feeling for the past few months.  I finally got out of bed around 9 am and noticed that it was starting to hurt but the contractions were not coming regularly, so I figured it was just false labor.  Around 11 I took the dogs for a walk to help ease the pain just a little.  My mom was working from home, thankfully, because finally at about noon I called her in tears and asked her to come over because it was really starting to hurt and they were coming on a lot more regular and I wanted someone around to witness it.  She  got to our house around 1 pm and things started to get worse.  I called the doctor?s office and they told me to lie down and see if that makes them go away and to stay at home as long as possible, because as a first timer things take forever (next time I will not listen to this advice when I feel so bad!).  So I tried to lay down but it only made the pain worse and the only position that helped alleviate some of the discomfort was either kneeling up the stairs or leaning over the bed.  Finally at 2 pm I was in so much pain and they were coming every 2 or 3 minutes that we headed towards the hospital.   At some point earlier I had called DH in tears and hung up on him after telling him to meet us at the hospital and when we pulled up to patient drop off he was there waiting with a wheel chair.  I didn?t want to sit in the chair because walking made it feel a little better.  The look on DH?s face when I got out of the car was awesome.  I think he thought we had a lot more pre-laboring to do, but once he saw me he realized all those massage techniques and funny walking techniques we learned in child birth class might not be necessary.  We finally made it up stairs to Labor and Delivery and got all checked in and it was about 3:30 pm by this point.  I kept saying that I hope this wasn?t false labor because it hurt like a mother f*er!  I got changed and the nurse checked me and that is when she said ?Well you have definitely progressed from 1 cm, you are 6!? and DH and I looked at each other in shock and amazement.   After the nurse checked me she asked what I wanted for pain and I said DRUGs immediately!  So she called the anesthesiologist and by 4 pm I had my epidural.  The anesthesiologist was awesome.  He was cracking jokes and trying to make me forget about the catheter going into my spine.  I did jump at one point because the epidural hit a nerve in my leg, which I wasn?t prepared for, so he had to thread it again.  Finally the doctor came in to check and me and said that with the epidural and being a first time mom that it would probably be around midnight before I would deliver (boy was she wrong!).  Then the ?waiting game? started.  It was interesting watching the intensity of the contractions on the monitor, since I couldn?t feel them.  Every now and then I would have a really bad one and I could feel the twinge of a cramp, but compared to the pain of earlier in the day it was nothing!  It was about 5:30 when they checked me again and I was about 7-8 cm?s, so they said it would still be a few more hours plus 2-3 hours of pushing.  So all the visitors decided to order dinner from PF Chang?s.  Dinner finally arrived and everyone ate (but me!).  The nurses were doing a shift change at 7:00, so they wanted to check me again at 6:30 to see if there was any more progress and sure enough when they did I was fully dilated and ready to push!  So I started pushing at about 6:45pm and LO's heart rate kept dropping, so they had me on oxygen and turned me on my side for a while.  After about 20 minutes, they had me hold through contractions and wait for the doctor.  DH was trying not to look, but caught a glimpse of your head and said ?her head is so tiny, her head is so tiny? little did he know that was just you crowning and there was more head hiding back in the pelvis!  The doctor finally arrived and I started pushing again around 7:15 and at 7:27 pm LO came into the world.  It was amazing!  You barely cried and were so mellow and alert.  LO was born weighing in at 6 lbs. 7 oz. and 18 inches long! 

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