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was not expecting an early baby
i wasnt expecting baby to come early....i was having contractions all Saturday, and then Sunday they got a lot worse. It was like migrane pain but just in your lower abs and pelvis, and it came and went. The contractions were getting worse so I decided that after supper I would get checked out at the hospital while DH was playing hockey next door. My thinking was, "I just want to know if these are labor contractions". As we drove the 20 minutes to the hospital, I noticed that the contractions were only about 3 minutes apart. After spending a few minutes on the fetal monitor, and a quick internal exam, the nurse told me they would be keeping me. At 8PM they gave me a room, I was 3cm dilated and contractions were 3 minutes apart and about 45 seconds long - and getting worse. By 10PM the contractions were getting a lot for me to handle and I was having a hard time breathing calmly thru them, so I debated about whether I should take any medication. I knew that morphine wouldn't lessen the pain of the contractions at all, but would give me a chance to rest between the contractions - so I asked for one shot. I had my mom and brother, DH and his parents and his brother all in the room. It was nice because as we visited i was able to take my mind off of the contractions. The nurses came in every half hour to every hour to check babys heart rate and my blood pressure. I was thinking that if i progressed normally, I would be fully dilated by 3am. As the night progressed I took turns between sitting in the shower, sitting on the exercise ball and walking up and down the halls with DH.By around 3am the contractions were almost unbearable and coming every minute or 2. I asked DH to call the nurse, and checked - I was 9.5cm dilated. The contractions felt so strong that I just started to push thru them. It really took away some of the pain. After my nurse checked me, everything is a blur. The nurses called my Doctor, and they started preparing everything. Only my mom and DH were in the room at this point. Again I was having a hard time breathing thru the contractions and couldn't catch my breath at all. The nurse offered the laughing gas to help to control my breathing. I used the laughing gas for the next few contractions, and didn't notice that the hose has come disconnected, I am not sure how much of it I actually got, but breathing thru the mask still helped to control my breathing.The Doctor came in, she broke my water and I literally went right into pushing. I pushed for maybe 5 minutes. I literally had 1 push left to get his head out and I felt so weak and it hurt so bad I was crying and shaking, and couldn't breathe. Everyone kept cheering me on, that it was 'only 1 more push' and 'we can see him' - I finally managed to give one more push and his head was out. It was the weirdest feeling ever and a huge relief. I did have a little tear, but the Dr said she would rather not stitch it up because it was so small. I didn't hear him cry right away and knew something was wrong because they didn't put him on my belly, DH said he came out gray and the cord was around his neck. It was scary not being able to see or hear him right away. They cleaned out his lungs, I heard a little cry as rubbed him down a bit, and DH was the first one to hold him. I was still in a lot of pain and couldn't really move - i was shaking uncontrollably, i'm not sure if it was from the pain or adrenaline. DH rubbed my legs a bit and it calmed me down. I breastfed him fairly easily, so many people were like "don't expect it to happen or work out easily, its super painful"... After just going thru labor, breastfeeding was a BREEZE. I am feeling okay right now. Sore as hell! But that's to be expected. It was incredible to sleep on my back and not have to pee every 30 minutes, altho the first couple times I had to use the toilet burned really bad. Charlie has just been incredible so far, he barely cries and sleeps a lot. He was 7 lbs 1 oz, and 19.3 inches long with a full head of blonde hair. We left the hospital Tuesday morning, and had a hard time at home the first few days. I wasn't expecting my emotions to go haywire, but they have. I think its partly because I caught a cold while at the hospital, so I am fighting that along with caring for a newborn. I am so thankful that I have DH and my family here to help. I can't imagine doing this with just DH - we both have no clue what to do when it comes to newborns, and you can only learn so much from books. Baby Charlie.
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Re: was not expecting an early baby
Congrats! He is beautiful. What a fast birth for a first timer.
Hey, just a thought, as I know this is your first time nursing, you can file this under G if you want to, but I would seriously not use a soother for the first few months while you are establishing your milk. Let him nurse whenever he wants to suck and you will have plenty of milk (especially when they go through growth spurts and want to nurse all the time to increase your milk:) Best of luck.