Maya Love's naturdal birth! LONG
Maya Love was born on July 24th, 2008 at 2:36pm.
She weighted 5 pounds, 15 ounces and was 18 inches long. Just a little peanut! She was exactly two pounds lighter than her big sister Marley when she was born.
I meditated for Maya?s birth in the last trimester by chanting in my head every night, ?three hours of breathing, three pushes and sleeping? meaning I was wanting no more than three hours of heavy labor and would push no more than three times to get her out ? then I could get some sleep!. I think the mind is a powerful thing. With my first daughter, I would visualize my perfect birth plan before going to bed at night and her delivery was almost exactly as I had envisioned it.
Unfortunately, I had to be induced so I wasn?t sure how well my meditation would work. I had a scheduled induction because of some problems I was having with my right kidney. We really didn?t want an induction for two reasons. One, I?m very much for all natural childbirths and the idea of an induction just seems the opposite of natural to me. I was afraid of laboring with the use of Pitocin when I didn?t plan to get the epidural. I strongly believe babies will be born when they?re ready to be born and I didn?t like the idea of not going into labor naturally and letting the baby dictate when her birthday would be. Second, I was only a few days past 36 weeks. I was afraid that her lungs may not be developed enough and she would have breathing problems and possibly even feeding problems as I heard that preemies sometimes have trouble nursing. DH & I discussed all these concerns with my OB and she was adamant that the kidney issue was serious and the faster we got the baby out, the better. She was confident that neither the baby nor I would have any problems. At my 36 week check up, she checked me and discovered I was 50% effaced and 2.5 centimeters dilated. Because of these two factors we assumed my body was getting ready for labor anyway and that the induction would go smoothly. We reluctantly agreed to be induced.
They were in the middle of a shift change when I got there about 8am. After a short wait, I was shown to the delivery suite. The nurse had me change into a gown and asked if I would be getting the enema. I had one when I was in labor with Marley and I honestly felt it helped to speed up the process and helped the cervix to open so I said yes. She went through the admitting papers with me while another nurse got the enema ready. After the enema and all the fun that follows after that, it was about 10am. The nurse asked me if I wanted to walk the halls a little or if I was ready to receive the pitocin. I didn?t see the point in walking the halls since I wasn?t in labor ? I doubted walking around was going to do much for me at this point so I told her to get started on the pitocin.
The hospital has a 1 through 10 pain chart that it uses to access pain. 1 being no pain, 10 being unbearable pain. The nurse asked me what my pain tolerance was on the pain chart. I told her 10. She looked surprised and asked if I was being serious. I told her I was, that I have a high pain tolerance and that I did not plan to have the epidural. I also wanted to avoid the use of Demerol or other such drugs but that if the pain got to be too bad or labor got to be too long, I may ask for it but that I definitely did not want the epidural. I told her that I had Dermerol with my first child and I did not like it but that I was able to avoid an epidural with the first as well.
By 10:15, I could already feel the contractions and they were coming about 5 minutes apart. My OB came in to check on me around 10:30. She checked my cervix and told me I was about 2.5, almost three centimeters. I was little disappointed as I had felt some contractions after my 36 weeks check up two days earlier and thought they may have helped me progress more. I wasn?t too terribly disappointed though because when I went to the hospital in labor with Marley, I was only 3 centimeters but within 2.5 hours, I was at 10 centimeters! She said that the induction should go fast though but to expect at least 6 hours worth of labor. She didn?t expect the contractions to get painful until noon or 1pm.
Shortly after the OB left, we started to watch a movie and it was a great distraction to the contractions. About a ? hour into the movie, I could feel them getting stronger. The nurse came in every 30 to 45 minutes or so to up the dosage of pitocin. It started off at level 2 and she upped it by 2 every time she came in.
After awhile I decided I didn?t want to labor in the bed and moved to our exercise ball. It felt better to sit on the ball than to lay down. A few contractions felt like a strong urge to pee so I would have Stu help me move into the bathroom which was a bit of chore with the monitors on my belly and the IV. As the contractions started to get more and more painful, I wanted to move back into the bed. At this time, it was around noon. I laid on my side and would have DH apply pressure with his palms to my lower back when a contraction hit. It took awhile to get our communication with each other perfected. It was easy to instruct ?softer? or ?harder? for the pressure but when I would ask him to stop, he would often stop suddenly. If he had been applying a lot of pressure, it was pretty uncomfortable for him to just let go all of a sudden. When I needed a lot of pressure, he would often take one hand on my hip and use that to give himself counter pressure so he could press harder on my back. This would end up putting a lot of pressure on my hip as well and that was not comfortable. I also did not want the pressure during other contractions. Sometimes I just wanted to see if I could get through the contraction on my own without any help. He didn?t know this - he would see me in pain and start to apply pressure and I would have to tell him to stop. We finally were able to get some signals down.
By 1pm, the pain was creeping up to a level 8 of pain. The movie was finishing off but I had only been listening to it at this point ? but I will say, being able to listen to the movie did help take my mind off things in between contractions. It helped too that I have seen the movie a thousand times before so it didn?t require my full attention. It really did help to visualize a flower opening up when a strong contraction helped ? the really weird thing is, it seemed to make a difference the type of flower I envisioned! A rose did nothing for me, it had to be a water lily. Weird.
At this point I was dying to see how far along I was because if I was still at 3 centimeters, I wasn?t sure I was going to be able to do this. The nurse commented that the doctor hadn?t broken my water yet so she would call her to come do that. I wasn?t sure I wanted that done as I was afraid it would make the contractions stronger, but as I was thinking this, the nurse upped the dosage of the pitocin. At this point, it was at an 8. I told the nurse I wanted the Demerol ? she acted all kinds of disappointed, telling me she thought I was going to do this with no medication! She offered me some kind of drug that started with an F ? I can?t remember the name but she promised it wouldn?t make me feel as drunk as Demerol had made me the first time with Marley but that it would help to take the edge off. I asked her to check me to see how far along I was before deciding ? she told me I was 6, almost 7 centimeters! I felt like the drug could help me relax enough to get to 10 so I told her to give it to me. It was now closer to 1:15 and my OB was on her way to break the waters.
After receiving whatever the F drug was, I definitely noticed a change in the contractions. While they still hurt, they were much easier to get through and I didn?t feel drugged up at all. The Demerol with Marley made me feel like I had drunk an entire bottle of wine by myself. I really like how the F drug helped me stay focused. Unfortunately, the F drug only lasted through 5 or 6 contractions before it completely wore off.
By 2pm the F drug was completely worn off and my OB and nurse returned to the room. During heavy labor with Marley, I would chant ?it hurts, it hurts, it hurts? as I breathed in and ?it?s ok, it?s ok, it?s ok? as I breathed out. I tried this and it just wasn?t working for me this time. Frustrated, I started to chant, ?I don?t want to do this, I don?t want to do this, I don?t want to do this? and it actually made me feel better! Labor was getting more and more painful and I asked the nurse to turn off the Pitocin but she said she couldn?t so I asked her to turn it down, which she did. I asked for more drugs and she told me it was too late. I asked for the Demerol and she told me it would make me too sleepy to push so I told her to forget it. The contractions felt like they were right on top of each other with no break in between. My OB checked me and told me she was going to break my water ? she wanted me to push on the next contraction. This surprised me and I asked if I was 10 centimeters. She just kind of nodded. When the next contraction hit, she reminded me to bear down and push ? I really didn?t think I was 10 centimeters yet so I gave a ? hearted push and she broke my water. I was lying kind of sideways on the bed and she told Stu to grab my leg while she took my other leg and placed it on her hip (she was sitting on the edge of the bed). She reminded me to take three deep breaths when I felt the contraction building and then to push hard, deep breath, push again, deep breath and final push. I was a bit shocked that I was already at the pushing stage as it was only 2:15. I did as she instructed and she told me I was doing great. I pushed another set of three and after that I told her, ?Hey look, I really don?t want to do this. Can you knock me out? Seriously? Just knock me out and take her out with forceps?? The doctor laughed and said ?but then you would miss the party? and I told her, ?it?s ok, I?ll see her tomorrow?. No one took me seriously unfortunately. The doctor then told me that I would probably push less than 10 times and she would be born. Ten times??? Um, no. I told her I was not pushing 10 times, that she would be born sooner than that. I had visualized this birth for a long time and always told myself ?three hours of labor, three pushes?. So far, I had started labor about 10:30 but heavy labor did not start until 12 or 12:30 ? that meant I was about right with my 3 hours of labor. As far as I was concerned, I had already pushed twice (my first push was ? assed so I didn?t count that) and I was not going to push more than two more times.
With the next contraction, I pushed with all my might and unfortunately, baby was still not born. But after that push, the doctor told DH to look between my legs on the next push. He had been facing the other way because he didn?t want to see anything down below! She said on the next push, the head would be out! She then told me that as soon as the head was out, she wanted me to stop pushing and pant through the contraction. On the next push, I got to experience the lovely ?ring of fire? (not nearly as lovely as Johnny Cash song). On the 2nd push, I felt her head come out but the relief was short lived ? I really, really wanted to push the rest of her out. I panted for a few seconds waiting for the doctor to tell me it was ok to keep pushing ? she never gave the ok (given, it was probably a 5 to 10 second wait that I gave her), I yelled that I had to get this baby out now and that I was going to push! This was my warning to the room! I half expected the doctor to tell me to wait and keep panting but she didn?t. I pushed as hard as I could and felt Maya emerge. I shouted Thank God! And fell back on to the bed to rest. I am not a religious person; I was just so relieved to be done with pushing!
It was so amazing seeing Maya for the first time. She was so tiny and just absolutely beautiful ? her features were so delicate. They put her on my chest briefly before taking her to the warming table to get cleaned up. I was dying to know how much she weighted since she looked so much smaller than Marley had. When they brought her back to me, I just cooed and cooed at her, telling her how beautiful she was and calling her a little stinker for causing me so much pain, but I had forgiven her already. It was much more real and alert for me this time around because I hadn?t had the Demerol to make me feel so drowsy. I really felt much more in the moment and much more curious about how she looked ? with Marley I was just so tired and really just wanted to sleep ? a combo of the Demerol and the fact she was born at 1am as Maya was born at 2:30 in the afternoon.
Unfortunately little Maya was not as ready as my doctor had predicted. They noticed her making some funny noises and told me that they needed to check her to make sure she was ok. A doctor came in from the nursery and they warmed her up, saying she must have just been cold. They brought her back to me so I could attempt to breastfeed and everyone left the room for us to bond. She wouldn?t latch on so we didn?t force it but we noticed she was making a grunting/crying sound that didn?t sound good. After about twenty minutes, the nurse returned to the room and we pointed it out to her. They took her to the nursery to be checked again and unfortunately, she was diagnosed with premature lung disease. She spent a week in the hospital as we waited for her lungs to mature. I can?t begin to describe how upsetting that was ? anger towards our doctor for not honoring our request to remain pregnant one more week and guilt for not being more demanding with our request.
She is now one month old and a happy and healthy little girl. I am so in love with my little Maya Papaya! Her big sister is doing wonderful with her and has shown no signs of jealousy (so far!). It amazes me that I have two wonderful, gorgeous little girls!
Re: Maya Love's naturdal birth! LONG
Congrats on your new baby!