Birth Stories
Finally!
My due date was 9/20/07, and I went in for a non-stress test on 9/25 to make sure he was ok. I had a chai latte on the way to make sure he was awake! Baby sounded fine, then I had an appt. to check progress. It sounds weird now, but I was so beyond anxious and bored and excited (from living on the edge for about 3 weeks) that I was starting to give up hope that he was ever coming. I'm a week late, and not expecting to go into labor at this point! I was still 1 cm dialated, as I had been the last 3 weeks, but my OB said my water bag felt "squishy" - ? like it was ready to break. Ok. She stripped my membranes and sent me on my way.
So I am running errands to keep busy, and start getting what I think is BH in Hobby Lobby. Still in denial. By the time I am checking out, thinking, hm, these are coming often. Still in denial. Stop at another store! Moron! Well by the time I get there I realize it's serious and I have to get home. I ask to use the bathroom just so I can sit down for a minute without freaking anyone out then leave. (ha-ha, pg lady has to use the bathroom, how cute ... actually I'm waaay in labor by now.) One minute after I get home, I'm changing into yoga pants to get comfy and while my pants are off, my water breaks. Call my husband at work and realize I haven't eaten yet today, will have to go the hospital asap, so I sit down with a bowl of cereal. By the time he gets home 10 min. later I'm on all fours on the couch trying to breathe. He freaks and wants to get in the car instantly. So I tell him I'm not going anywhere until he changes, packs my toiletries, grabs the boppy, and rinses out that cereal bowl because I'm not coming home to crusty milk in a few days. He's getting stressed out, and later I realize he grabbed everything out of the whole vanity and threw it into my bag, as if I needed 3 kinds of moisturizer.
On the way to the hospital, we are trying to time the contractions but I can't tell when one ends and another starts, they are like 1 minute from beginning to beginning. Whoa! I convince him I can walk in without a wheel chair, with frequent stops to breathe, and when we get to the front desk I break down sobbing, from nerves I guess? There are like 4 nurses staring at me and I'm so embarassed! After getting checked in, I'm only dialated to 2 so the nurse dialates me to 3. Wow, painful. I'm trying to squirm off the table as she's doing it. Would have appreciated a little notice, thanks.
So I plan to try and progress for a while without asking for the epidural to speed things along. I really don't want pitocin. I had those contractions, without any breaks, for 6 hours. THey gave me a shot of something to try and slow them down! THey said they were coming too fast for my body to relax and dialate. Weird. I had awesome nurses that I really trusted, one of them held the childbirth classes a few weeks earlier and it was nice to see a familiar face. A few times I kind of panicked and said, I can't do this, but Matt was so awesome at coaching me really calmly and helping me calm down. I remember dealing with the pain really internally, I had to have my eyes closed and focus on counting and breathing. I didn't think I would be a screamer, and then during it all really couldn't imagine using my energy on screams.
So finally after 6 hours, they checked my progress, nothing. NOTHING! I was still 3.5 cm. I think they added the .5 to make me feel better. So I got the epidural with the thought that it would help me relax and let my body do it's job. It didn't work. I have about 10 little brown dots on my back where he tried. I didn't feel a thing, from however he numbed it locally, but it was really intense and stressful since he couldn't get it to work. Once he finally did get it in, it did nothing for my pain. He came back an hour later and I was still squirming and in a lot of pain. So they offered me something else to take the edge off, which I kept refusing. I knew that it would just make me loopy, which would be the worst possible thing for me to lose control mentally. THen he offered to use a different drug which would possibly make me itchy all over. What? Well it was worth a shot. ABout 20 minutes about that the magic happened. Pain free. It was the best thing I could have done. I fell asleep (by this time it's about 9?) After a couple hours of dozing on and off, and I remember being so completely starving, they checked me again, and again, no progress.
My contractions were still coming every 2 minutes, which I enjoyed seeing on the monitor but not feeling, but they weren't strong enough to make progress. Which I don't understand because they had hurt like heck. So they convinced me to get pitocin. I was pretty upset about that and the effects it could have on Graham. But since my water had broken I knew I was on a deadline and did NOT want a C-section. After one hour of a low dose of pitocin, I was dialated to 10.
They turned down the epidural, I still couldn't feel the contractions, but could feel a little pressure. I had such awesome nurses again! They explained that to push you had to pretend like you were pooping and use those same muscles. It worked, only 30 minutes of pushing and he was out at 1:35am. Let me tell you, I never understood the concern over pooping on the table. I'm a pretty modest person but was more concerned that people were going to be seeing all my "stuff" than whether I pooped or not. One of them told me that there is a bag at the end of the table that you are "over" and any poop would just fall into there, they don't really deal with it. I was like, mm, ok, (so what?) It's more like, I get to meet my baby in a minute, I don't care if you have to pick up my poop and lick it, I am ready! My OB asked when he was ready to come out if we wanted to hold him first or have him cleaned up first. Hold him of course! It was the most amazing thing in my life. He was so alert and looking at us, I couldn't believe it.
We stayed at the hospital 2 more nights since technically he was born Weds. morning. The first night was one of the most stressful in my life. He was circumcised that day and had pain, and mucous in his lungs that made him choke when he laid down to sleep. SO we were up all night, with zero sleep ourselves, holding him a little upright so he could breathe better, my heart would just break when I heard him choking and crying. We finally brought him down to the nursery at 3 amd to get some sleep. Guilt!
Now he's a happy and healthy 7 months and has made me so happy and proud and more in love than I ever could have imagined.
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Graham's birth story - long!
Finally!
My due date was 9/20/07, and I went in for a non-stress test on 9/25 to make sure he was ok. I had a chai latte on the way to make sure he was awake! Baby sounded fine, then I had an appt. to check progress. It sounds weird now, but I was so beyond anxious and bored and excited (from living on the edge for about 3 weeks) that I was starting to give up hope that he was ever coming. I'm a week late, and not expecting to go into labor at this point! I was still 1 cm dialated, as I had been the last 3 weeks, but my OB said my water bag felt "squishy" - ? like it was ready to break. Ok. She stripped my membranes and sent me on my way.
So I am running errands to keep busy, and start getting what I think is BH in Hobby Lobby. Still in denial. By the time I am checking out, thinking, hm, these are coming often. Still in denial. Stop at another store! Moron! Well by the time I get there I realize it's serious and I have to get home. I ask to use the bathroom just so I can sit down for a minute without freaking anyone out then leave. (ha-ha, pg lady has to use the bathroom, how cute ... actually I'm waaay in labor by now.) One minute after I get home, I'm changing into yoga pants to get comfy and while my pants are off, my water breaks. Call my husband at work and realize I haven't eaten yet today, will have to go the hospital asap, so I sit down with a bowl of cereal. By the time he gets home 10 min. later I'm on all fours on the couch trying to breathe. He freaks and wants to get in the car instantly. So I tell him I'm not going anywhere until he changes, packs my toiletries, grabs the boppy, and rinses out that cereal bowl because I'm not coming home to crusty milk in a few days. He's getting stressed out, and later I realize he grabbed everything out of the whole vanity and threw it into my bag, as if I needed 3 kinds of moisturizer.
On the way to the hospital, we are trying to time the contractions but I can't tell when one ends and another starts, they are like 1 minute from beginning to beginning. Whoa! I convince him I can walk in without a wheel chair, with frequent stops to breathe, and when we get to the front desk I break down sobbing, from nerves I guess? There are like 4 nurses staring at me and I'm so embarassed! After getting checked in, I'm only dialated to 2 so the nurse dialates me to 3. Wow, painful. I'm trying to squirm off the table as she's doing it. Would have appreciated a little notice, thanks.
So I plan to try and progress for a while without asking for the epidural to speed things along. I really don't want pitocin. I had those contractions, without any breaks, for 6 hours. THey gave me a shot of something to try and slow them down! THey said they were coming too fast for my body to relax and dialate. Weird. I had awesome nurses that I really trusted, one of them held the childbirth classes a few weeks earlier and it was nice to see a familiar face. A few times I kind of panicked and said, I can't do this, but Matt was so awesome at coaching me really calmly and helping me calm down. I remember dealing with the pain really internally, I had to have my eyes closed and focus on counting and breathing. I didn't think I would be a screamer, and then during it all really couldn't imagine using my energy on screams.
So finally after 6 hours, they checked my progress, nothing. NOTHING! I was still 3.5 cm. I think they added the .5 to make me feel better. So I got the epidural with the thought that it would help me relax and let my body do it's job. It didn't work. I have about 10 little brown dots on my back where he tried. I didn't feel a thing, from however he numbed it locally, but it was really intense and stressful since he couldn't get it to work. Once he finally did get it in, it did nothing for my pain. He came back an hour later and I was still squirming and in a lot of pain. So they offered me something else to take the edge off, which I kept refusing. I knew that it would just make me loopy, which would be the worst possible thing for me to lose control mentally. THen he offered to use a different drug which would possibly make me itchy all over. What? Well it was worth a shot. ABout 20 minutes about that the magic happened. Pain free. It was the best thing I could have done. I fell asleep (by this time it's about 9?) After a couple hours of dozing on and off, and I remember being so completely starving, they checked me again, and again, no progress.
My contractions were still coming every 2 minutes, which I enjoyed seeing on the monitor but not feeling, but they weren't strong enough to make progress. Which I don't understand because they had hurt like heck. So they convinced me to get pitocin. I was pretty upset about that and the effects it could have on Graham. But since my water had broken I knew I was on a deadline and did NOT want a C-section. After one hour of a low dose of pitocin, I was dialated to 10.
They turned down the epidural, I still couldn't feel the contractions, but could feel a little pressure. I had such awesome nurses again! They explained that to push you had to pretend like you were pooping and use those same muscles. It worked, only 30 minutes of pushing and he was out at 1:35am. Let me tell you, I never understood the concern over pooping on the table. I'm a pretty modest person but was more concerned that people were going to be seeing all my "stuff" than whether I pooped or not. One of them told me that there is a bag at the end of the table that you are "over" and any poop would just fall into there, they don't really deal with it. I was like, mm, ok, (so what?) It's more like, I get to meet my baby in a minute, I don't care if you have to pick up my poop and lick it, I am ready! My OB asked when he was ready to come out if we wanted to hold him first or have him cleaned up first. Hold him of course! It was the most amazing thing in my life. He was so alert and looking at us, I couldn't believe it.
We stayed at the hospital 2 more nights since technically he was born Weds. morning. The first night was one of the most stressful in my life. He was circumcised that day and had pain, and mucous in his lungs that made him choke when he laid down to sleep. SO we were up all night, with zero sleep ourselves, holding him a little upright so he could breathe better, my heart would just break when I heard him choking and crying. We finally brought him down to the nursery at 3 amd to get some sleep. Guilt!
Now he's a happy and healthy 7 months and has made me so happy and proud and more in love than I ever could have imagined.
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Re: Graham's birth story - long!