Greta's fast and furious arrival(but long story)

mrsblueeyes · January 2011

I really enjoy reading all the birth stories. I thought I would add mine. With my first baby, I had a long (14 hour) slowly progressing labor. I figured the second might be a bit quicker, but not by much.

On New Years Eve at 39 weeks, I woke up with some mild contractions, which was nothing new. I had been feeling contractions daily for about 2 weeks, but they never progressed. From an OB visit the day before I knew I was 3cm and 50% effaced, which was unchanged from one week prior. By mid-afternoon, I decided to time these nonpainful contractions. They were 3-4 minutes apart, but not painful. I watched a little TV that afternoon while my son napped, I noticed when I laughed it made the contractions hurt a little more. At 5pm it was like a switch was flipped and the contractions became intense and were 3 minutes apart. I jumped in the shower hoping for relief, but it didn't really provide any. I figured this was the real deal since I couldn't really talk or stand up straight during the contractions.

My husband and I left for the hospital a little after 6, and I had a very uncomfortable ride and then a 20 minute wait in the waiting room. It was really hard to hide my discomfort from the entire waiting room full of people. Finally, they took us back to the room around 7pm. This was also a bad time since it was change of shift for the nurses. We weren't seen for an additional 25 minutes. I just labored in the room swaying through contractions while my husband pushed on my back.

Finally, worlds nicest nurse came in. She managed to call for an epidural, prior to the anesthesiologist going in for a C-section. They scrambled to place an IV and get fluids running. I did get a quick cervix check and I was already 6cm and fully effaced. The epidural worked great, and took the edge off of the contractions which were happening every 2 1/2 minutes. The OB came in and broke my bag of water and found meconium, which earned us an evaluation by the NICU. He then left for the C-section.

Even with the epi, I felt myself dilating and the baby moving down. At 9:30 the doc returned and I was 10cm and ready to start pushing. It looked as if I was going to tear, so all my pushing had to be at 50% power per the OB(still managed to get a 2cd degree tear). Greta was born at 10pm exactly, less than 3 hours after getting to the hospital. She was 7lbs 5oz and 20inches long. Lucky for us, she was breathing well and had no problems despite the meconium. We are thrilled and adjusting to life as a family of 4. Thanks.