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Claire's birth story (natural)

MisNMisN member
in Birth Stories

It was four days past my due date and I had been having very mild cramping on and off for about a week.  I was still carrying so high and was preparing for a little longer wait.  I took our dog for a long walk then went to my regularly scheduled OB at 1030 am.  I  sent DH to work as usual thinking we still had a while and it would be a fairly uneventful appointment.

 I was 3 cm dilated and 50 percent effaced.  My OB performed a membrane sweep and ordered an ultrasound as she was concerned about fluid levels.  I started getting a little nervous when the ultra sound tech got pretty tight lipped and had me try juice and different positions to get baby moving.   A few minutes later my doctor explained that she was sending me for an induction, baby was okay but scored low on a test and at this point "SHE'S better out than in". We were team green.  I told myself that perhaps my doctor refers to all babies as "she"  and didn't mention the slip to DH.  I was also a little distracted as I was being sent to the hospital to have a baby!  

DH met me at home, we grabbed our bags, left instructions out for the dog and told my parents to come who were 5 hours away.  We arrived at the hospital around 1pm still having mild cramps perhaps a little more then usual.  I was nervous about the prospect of an induction as I wanted to try for a natural birth.  They were hesitant to give me a room with a tub as I was to be induced but eventually agreed.   

Once I was hooked up to the monitors, it was apparent that my mild cramps were in fact fairly regular contractions.  I was now about 3.5 cm and a little more effaced and still only felt mild period cramps and wouldn't have known I was in labour.  At about 2 pm they broke my water but agreed to wait and see how I progressed without starting pitocin.  Within minutes of my water breaking, the cramps got more intense with a definite beginning and end.  By 5pm I had to start concentrating and breathing through the contractions but still felt well enough to eat dinner.  By 6pm my contractions were around four minutes apart and I really couldn't carry on conversation during them.  I kept walking and rocking on the ball to try to keep things moving fearing having to start pitocin if things didn't progress.  At 7pm I was about 4.5 cm, felt good enough to be looking forward to watching survivor at 8pm.  At 8pm I threw up and there was no way I felt well enough to watch survivor.  I also was no longer comfortable standing up or walking around so I got in the tub and stayed there for the next two hours.  The pain became unbearable, I lost track of time and there seemed to be no relief from the contractions that were now right on top of each other.  I had trouble controlling my breathing and the nurse kept telling me to slow it down.  I could barely open my eyes.  I wanted to go natural but knew I couldn't take much more.  I told myself, if I wasn't close when they checked me, I would need an epi.  

Thankfully, when they checked me at 10:45pm, I was ready to push.  The pushing was exhausting, it took 2 hours and I had third degree tearing as she was laying on her side instead of facing back.  But the pushing was not as bad as the last few hours in the tub and I was thinking about meeting our baby.  Claire was born at 12:10 am weighing 6 lb 7 oz.   She was perfect and I held her and nursed her all night.  She was so alert in those first few hours and I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

I can't believe a year has gone by and my little baby is now a busy little toddler.  

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