Charlotte's Birth Story

croberts22

From May 201.  I had wanted to go med-free but that didn't happen, I was happy with my birth experience though as nothing was forced on me but offered as needed and my choices were respected. 

My MW swept my membranes on Thursday, I don't know if it helped things or it was just time anyway.  Sunday, about 9:30am I noticed what I thought might be cntx, but I wasn't sure.  When the same thing was still happening at 11:30a, I started to time them.  They were about 5-7 min apart.  I continued with my normal Sunday routine, including laundry, and continued to time them.  About 2 they were 3 1/2 minutes apart and I was having to concentrate on them (but could still walk and talk through them).  I called the MW line to see what to do, and she said it was really up to me when I came in.  About 3p I decided to get the last of things together and head in. 

We got to the hospital about 3:30p, they checked me, and I was at a 3 (had been 1 1/2 up until Thursday).  They gave me a room and had me walk.  About an hour or so later I was getting nauseous at the peak so I just walked around my room.  (Times are all appx because I don't think I looked at a clock the whole time I was there).  When they hadn't seen me in the hall for a while they came in and started my IV and had me get in bed for a bit to monitor the baby.  Despite what I thought I wanted, I was ready to just labor in bed the best I could for a while.  I'd been walking through contractions for about 5 hours and my back was really hurting.  They had a hard time getting my contractions to register, so after a while they gave up trying to get them to read right and said it was fine as long as they could tell I was having them so they knew Charlotte was okay.

Around 6p they checked and I was a 4-5, so the MW broke my water.  I also got some Nubain at this point and it really helped for about 2 hours.  The contractions where getting much worse, even with the Nubain, so I asked for more when the 2 hours was up.  They said Charlotte was still reacting to it, so I couldn't have more.  They checked and I was still only a 5, so I decided to get the epi.  Its a good thing, because about then I started getting head to toe shakes.  I couldn't relax and breath through contractions because I was shaking so bad.  I think I got the epi about 9p and once it stared to work, I was able to relax and even sleep a little.  The pain was gone, but I still had a lot of pressure I needed to breath through.  They came in to check me several more times and around midnight they said it was time to try to push. 

I did so well on my practice pushes, they called the pediatrician.  I was able to still feel all the pressure, I had no trouble feeling when I needed to push.  They had noticed meconium when I was around an 8, so the pediatrician needed to be there when she was born.  They told me they'd only let me hold her for a few seconds before they took her to the warmed to make sure she was fine from that.  I ended up pushing for around 1.5 hours because as it turns out, Charlotte was face up.  The MW had to do an episiotomy because she just wasn't coming out.  I only had to push with a few more contractions once that was done.  Charlotte was born at 1:38am.  They laid her on me for 30 seconds or so, and then took her to the warmer to check her out and clean her up while I delivered the placenta and got the stitches I needed to.  I ended up with a 3rd degree episiotomy and tear. 

After what felt like forever, they brought Charlotte back and we were able to BF.  She was good right from the start. 

We went home after just 36 hours (a few hours short of 48 from check-in) and have been getting along we sense.  I can't believe Charlotte is 6 weeks old already.  

c_washington

beautiful!

Lauren79

What a pretty baby! Congrats!