Rosemary's Birth Story (not so natural-avoid if you want only the most positive stories)
pepomntpat
member
I am writing this with my little daughter laying next to me in bed. She's just precious and I love her more than anything.
So, Friday night I started having contractions. They weren't too bad, but bad enough that I didn't get much sleep. By Saturday morning they had spaced out a lot and decreased in intensity. Saturday night they picked up again and were worse than Friday night, but still nothing to call the MW about. Sunday again they spaced out and decreased to almost nothing. Sunday night they were bad enough that I would moan through some. They lasted about a minute to 90 seconds and were getting close to the five minutes apart thing...then they spaced out again. I was on my third night with no sleep. At 6 AM Monday I called the MW and told her I hadn't slept in three days but the contractions were irregular and I wasn't sure what to do. I went in to the Birth Center to get checked. 2 CM and 60%...I cried. This is called prodromal labor and is apparently totally normal. That didn't make me feel much better and I was exhausted.
I had an NST at the birth center and they didn't really like the readings much, so they sent me to the hospital to have another NST and a BPP. The NST was fine, but the BPP was not so good. Rosemary's fluid level had dropped from 10.9 on Friday to 4 on Monday. Since she failed the test (she was doing well in all other areas, just not the fluid), I had to stay at the hospital for my labor. I was allowed to eat some lunch and then got admitted. I was 3 cm and about 80% at that point. The MW decided to let me labor on my own since Rosemary was not in distress and I was progressing. I am so thankful for that decision. It made me feel a lot more confident about how things went later.
I labored with DH for about two hours. The contractions were increasing in intensity, but still not that bad. I'd moan through some and others not so much. The worst ones were when I was in the bed on the monitor. I did not like laboring in bed. Thankfully I was on intermittent monitoring. When our doula arrived she asked the nurse if I could do the monitoring on the ball instead of in bed and the nurse was fine with that. It made things MUCH better. I went back and forth between walking the halls with DH and our doula and sitting on the ball while being monitored until 6 PM. Then Rosemary started having decels...so they made me get in bed on the monitor and then the contractions were really picking up. I was only really half aware of what was going on around me because I was concentrating on my contractions. At this point I was at 4 cm. I don't know the effacement.
The decels were with every contraction and her heart rate was going into the 90s. The MW said that we would have to get her out. This was around 7ish. I really was crying then. She asked if I had any questions and my only one was whether I'd still be able to see my baby. She said that of course I would. I knew already that I wouldn't be able to hold her right away and that was really devastating to me. Lots of stuff happened then. I signed a paper agreeing to a c-section, they cleaned me up and got me hooked up to the IVs and who knows what else. My doula and DH were great and just reminded me how well I was doing and that nothing I could have done would have prevented this outcome. Dh got dressed in his scrubs and I was transported down to the OR where I was told about the risks of a spinal and signed another paper agreeing to that.
All along I was dealing with increasingly bad contractions along with the nurse who kept losing LO's heartbeat when they happened and kept pushing the monitor into my belly. I was in quite a bit of pain and it was hard to breathe through the contractions then because I was scared and being punched in the stomach at the same time. I was off in labor land and not totally aware of what was going on-I knew intellectually, but my mind was not able to focus on any one thing. It was odd. I was not as cooperative as I would normally be and kept telling the nurse to stop pushing on my stomach.
I got my spinal which was also odd. I told the nurse anesthetist that I felt sick and he gave me some anti nausea meds. I guess my BP had dropped a lot. DH came in and he and the nurse anesthetist (who was my very favorite person right then-he was awesome) told me what was going on. I was still pretty out of it. I heard her cry-she was born at 7:48 PM. DH went over to see her and took lots of pictures which I am so happy for. I didn't get to see her until after she was all bundled up. DH sat with me and Rosemary for quite a while even though the nurse was trying to usher him out right away. We got some pictures of the three of us and then DH and Rosemary went off to the nursery and I got stitched up.
They knocked my catheter out somehow and so I was in the OR for another 30 minutes while they tried to put a new one in. They couldn't get any urine and the nurse anesthetist came to my rescue again and said that was because the previous one had already emptied me out, so then I got to go to recovery. I had the shakes pretty badly, but otherwise was recovering nicely. I was down there about 30 more minutes and then headed up to my room where my doula was waiting. She and I chatted for a bit while waiting for DH and Rosemary...who didn't come so she went to get them. I guess they forgot to tell DH I was upstairs even though he was asking.
Anyway, they came in and they were just about to finally let me hold my daughter when they came in and said the lab was there for her CBC. I went back into uncooperative mode again and said they would just have to wait until I had a chance to hold my daughter. I got her and she started breastfeeding right away. DH said she cried the whole time in the nursery and didn't really stop until I held her. Mommy's girl! We all got to hang out for a while and then I did let the lab do her CBC.
She roomed in with us the entire time except for an hour or so the first night when she needed to be warmed up. I hated that nurse because she was mean about it and even though she could have been put on a warmer in our room she "didn't have time" to keep checking on one patient in another room (the L&D has 8 rooms) and so she would just have to go to the nursery. She said I could come down and see her which she knew full well I could not.
Other than that nurse, I really had a very positive experience despite things not going as I would have liked. All the other nurses were really helpful, supportive (even though they must have thought I was a little crazy being the ONLY person on that floor who roomed in with her baby). Rosemary is BFing amazingly well. We are working out a little latching issue, but it is coming along with practice. She's alert and strong and beautiful. I am doing pretty well...just catching up on not sleeping for almost four days along with the surgery. Thanks for all the well wishes!
ETA: I did forget to mention that the decels were caused by the cord being tightly wrapped around her neck which was also possibly slowing her decent. She was also swimming in meconium and came out pooping!
Re: Rosemary's Birth Story (not so natural-avoid if you want only the most positive stories)
Congrats on your baby girl!
I also wanted a natural birth and ended up with an unplanned c/s so I just want to give you an extra hug and say that you are awesome. I know there are a bunch of us around on the NB and VBAC boards who have had this happen if you ever want to talk about it more.
Take care of yourself and enjoy your beautiful baby.
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I also had an unplanned c-section. It was Thursday night, and I haven't posted the birth story yet.
I know it is disappointing, but I also know you understand like I do how amazing your baby is and how much you love her!!!
Congratulations!!!!
Congrats! And I just have to do a little "lol" at your last sentence (not the swimming in meconium part). Noah just about came out pooping, too... his first poop was him pooping on one of the nurses while he was being weighed, hehe.
Matthew Kevin
7/31/83-7/20/11
Met 1/8/00
Engaged 4/21/06
Married 9/29/07
Two beautiful legacies: Noah Matthew (2 yrs) and Chloe Marcella (8 mos)
Day Three