Magdalena's birth - 31 hours, worth every minute!

mss1226 · July 2009

Early Labor

Sunday, July 12 (13 days before my due date) I started feeling bad back and pelvic cramps around 7:30 pm. I called my doctor to see if I could use a Thermacare pad on my back and she advised me to use an electric blanket instead. Sadly, I was up until 3:30 a.m. because the "cramps" were so uncomfortable. I though they were just Braxton-Hicks.

Did I just pee my pants?

At 5 am (July 13), I got up to go to the bathroom and on my way back to bed, my water broke. Unfortunately, it wasn't a TON of liquid, so I thought that maybe I had just peed my pants. I was leaking, though, so I called my doctor and she told me to come in to get checked out. So we went into the hospital; they verified that it WAS amniotic fluid, that I was about 1 cm dilated, 60% effaced, and -3 station. So I went home because we wanted to labor at home as long as possible.

13 hours of contractions - No epidural

We went home and labored for about 6 hours and, unfortunately, my contractions, right from the beginning, were 5 minutes apart, DOUBLE-PEAKS, and lasting, on average, 2 minutes long each. Around 12:45, my doctor said that I should come in so that I could labor in the whirlpool tub. I did that and labored in the hospital until around 6:30 pm. The entire time, I couldn't stop vomiting. It was so bad that I was even vomiting up water. So, after 23 hours of not eating or sleeping and 13 hours of enduring double-peak contractions, I asked for the epidural. I was 6 cm dilated, 90% effaced and 0 station. Though I had wanted (very much) to deliver naturally, I realized that if I kept on vomiting (and obviously sleep was out of the question), that I would not have the strength to push out my babus. After receiving a one and a half hour long IV drip to reestablish my hydration, I received an epidural (which didn't work), so I received another one at 8:30 pm which finally worked. This allowed me to get about an hour of BLESSED SLEEP.

NO PITOCIN

One of the things that I personally felt very strongly about was not receiving pitocin. Around 9:30 my OB checked me and realized that I had only progressed .5 cms in 3 hours. She wanted to give me Pitocin, but since I knew about the natural alignment plateau, I refused. I asked her to give me an hour to try different positions in bed to help move the baby down. After one hour, I had opened up to 7.5 cms, so I bought myself another hour. By 11:30, I was at 10cms and the urge to push was OVERWHELMING.

Push, Push, Push

I pushed from midnight (July 14) through 2:21 am. Laboring in bed sucks, but with the guidance of my doula and my labor nurse, I got into every possible position in bed to help the baby out into the world. The worst part was about halfway through when I really thought I might not be able to do it. We made it through though, and at about 2:15, they saw the head! I was told to stop pushing (which was the only time I swore all day), so that I wouldn't rip and about 5 minutes later, Magdalena squirted out into the world!

After delivery

I only needed two stitches but due to the length and strength of my contractions they really had to do serious work on my uterus (which was UNCOMFORTABLE). I was fine with it, though, because my babus was on my chest enjoying her quiet-alert phase. It was AMAZING.

Obviously we are CRAZY in love with our babus, and I wish everyone the best of luck and grace in their labors.