Team Green, med-free birth story (with PsIP and a name!)

MsNessa · March 2012

38 weeks, 3 days: Woke up Monday night at midnight with contractions about 7 minutes apart and discovered my water had broken. Went back to bed to try to rest. Around 3am they seemed closer together so I got up to time a few. They were 5ish min apart and I started to feel like things were getting more serious. I threw up a couple times and I'd had loose stools since waking up the first time. My mom came down to stay with DD about 4am. We left for the hospital shortly after when contractions were a minute long and 3.5 min apart.

Got to the hospital and started checking in at 4:40am. Already dilated to 8cm and entering transition. Contractions had been incredibly intense the whole time---way different from my labor with DD. Despite my desire to have a med-free birth and knowing I was in transition, I asked for the epi. They said it would probably take 40 min and I?d have to get a bag of fluids first. They started the process, but within 10-15 min it was time to push. So epi-free afterall! I was obviously pretty close when I asked. LOL

Pushing was awesome and my body basically took over. I didn?t push for longer than 10 or 15 min. All of my pushes were really effective and I could feel LO?s head then body come out. The OB held LO up for DH to look and announce the sex. ?IT?S A GIRL!? So glad I stayed Team Green! It was awesome to find out in the moment like that.

I never felt the ?ring of fire,? although I had a 2nd degree tear (didn?t feel that either). I ended up with the on-call OB instead of mine, which was a bummer, but when the time came to push it didn?t matter at all. He was great and even took the time to show us the bag of waters/placenta and where it broke and where it was attached. Gross but cool!

DD spent over an hour with me doing skin time and I felt pretty good despite how fast and furious my labor ended up being. She had some bruising on her face from coming out so fast, but perfectly healthy. Recovery has been so much easier this time and since both of us were doing well, we got to leave the day after she was born. Being home is a lot nicer than being in the hospital!

BFing has been easier in some ways than it was with DD #1. DD #2 is a better nurser overall, but we had some latch positioning issues that gave me a nasty set of cracked and sore nipples. MIL is staying with us (LLL leader) and has been a huge help getting things back on track and helping with DD #1.

DD #1 is crazy about the baby (bringing her toys and books). But she?s having pretty typical issues with the change in dynamic and the unavoidable change in routines as we all adjust. Hopefully things will get better soon.

As for the name?DD was nameless for her first day. (We had a boy name but couldn?t agree on a girl name so we gave up, hoping it would be a boy. LOL). DH looked through the baby name books and came up with the same short list he?d put together months ago. The only name on both of our lists was nice, but neither of us was totally in love. But it fit better than the other names he liked so we compromised. Not ideal, but since it?s DD?s name now I?m sure we?ll grow to love it.

Introducing, Alice Kay W!

I feel like I missed so many birth stories and announcements within the past week, so congrats to all of the other new mommas! Hopefully I?ll be able to post a bit more soon instead of just reading a post or two while nursing at 2 in the morning. ;-)

ETA: She was born at 5:44am, weighing 7lbs 7.5oz, and was 19 1/4 inches long.