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North Dakota Babies
Birth Story
So Phoebe is laying here asleep on my lap so I figured I would try to finally get her birth story typed up for you all. The week before she was born I was having a ton of period like cramps. I started having contractions but they were very few and far between and not regular enough to pay any attention to. Monday morning I went to the Dr and he said I was a fingertip dilated but still very thick and the baby was still very high. Tuesday night (well actually Wednesday morning) I woke up at 2 am having contractions. They were stronger than they had been but they really weren't that uncomfortable. What had me up was the fact that they were starting to get more regular. I remember calling Chris in the middle of the night because he was at a hotel in Chicago and I was freaking out that I was going to go into labor and he wouldn't be able to get in until around noon the next day. I started timing them and realized they were 10 minutes apart. We called my mom to give her an update because she was going to have to drive in from Charlotte (4 hour drive) and I wanted to be able to give her a head start. When she heard they were 10 minutes apart she freaked! She was afraid I was going to have the baby before she got here. I wasn't worried at all though because my contractions were not painful at all at this point. But my mom left work early and drove up that afternoon.
Thursday morning I had an appt at 8 am. When I got there I was still having contractions so they hooked me up to monitor them. They were still 10 minutes apart. When he checked me he told me that I had made progress but didn't give me exact numbers. He told me to go walk the mall for an hour (his office is in the hospital and next door to the mall) and if I was still having contractions to go to L&D to get checked out. My contractions were coming much more frequently and stronger when I was walking so after the hour we headed to L&D. When the nurse checked me she said I was 2 cm dialated and 65% effaced. So they had me walk around L&D for another hour. When they checked me this time I was 3 cm dialted and 85% effaced. My contractions were stronger and more frequent when I was walking but as soon as I laid down and got hooked up to the monitors they stayed at 10 minutes apart. However, since I was making progress they admitted me at 1pm.
Once I was admitted they started me on pitocin since my contractions weren't speeding up on their own. They came and checked me at 4 and I was now dialated to a 4 but my contractions now were every 1 to 3 mins apart and very strong. I wasn't making a lot of progress at this point and I was in a lot of pain. I hadn't taken anything for the pain and was terrified of the epidural due to my experience with Rowen. They broke my water soon after this and turned the pitocin off at this point. Once they broke my water my contractions were right on top of each other and coming so fast they weren't letting up at all. I wasn't getting down to baseline at all and was in constant pain from the pretty much constant contraction I was having. Finally I ask if I could have something for the pain. I couldn't relax at all and was gripping the bed rails so tight my hands hurt for days. They gave me some drug that was suppose to take the edge off. I HATED it! It made me feel drunk! You know that feeling when you are so drunk that you should just go pass out? Well that is how I felt. Except I was still in pain and feeling drunk. I couldn't see straight and so I just kept my eyes closed because seeing triple of everything was making me feel sick. But I was relaxing enough I was dozing off between contractions. When that drug started to wear off I finally ask for an epidural. I had talked to them before hand and everyone at the hospital was wonderful. They knew what had happened with Rowen and they never tried to push pain meds on me. But the second I said I wanted one the nurse ran to get the anesthesiologist. He was there in just a couple of minutes. Somewhere in all of this they checked me again and I was dialated to a 5. That part is all a little blurry, in more ways than one! 
I can not say enough good things about my anesthesiologist. When I had Rowen it was a terrible experience. It HURT! The Dr yelled at me. I threw up from the pain of it going in. And then Rowen's heart rate plummeted and they had to get him out ASAP. This was a completely different experience. He told me that it would hurt less than my IV and he was so right. My contractions were right on top of each other but they had me sit up and lean into my nurse. She told him about my scoliosis so he felt around my spine to make sure that he could get it in without a problem. (Last time they had issues with getting it in due to my scoliosis). I remember he told me I would feel a pinch when he numbed it but I didn't feel a thing. My nurse was talking me through the contractions and that was all I noticed. I hear all these girls say that they had a hard time sitting still but I was the exact opposite. I didn't want to move at all so that wasn't a problem for me.
Once they epidural went in things happened VERY fast. I should mention that Phoebe was still up high when they put the epidural in. Which BTW is VERY painful because she was pushing into my ribs with every contraction. Once I got my epidural she dropped, I dialated from a 5 to a 10, and her heart rate dropped. This all happened in about 1 minute and I'm not exaggerating at all. They got her heart rate back up pretty quickly this time, but they had been expecting it since it had happened with Rowen as well. They called my Dr, my mom and my DH (who had all stepped out of the room when I got my epi) and I was pushing within 5 minutes. This part was really scary for me. I went from being in extreme pain to feeling extreme pressure so fast that I wasn't ready for it. I was just sitting there shaking and not talking at all, kind of just staring at the wall and my nurse got really nervous about the way I was acting. I was kinda freaking out. I wasn't expecting to feel all the pressure they way I did. They had really drugged me up for Rowen's birth because they used the forceps but this time they wanted me to be able to feel things so I could know when to push. I actually felt the "ring of fire" this time, and that kinda freaked me out. I can't believe how different my two births were from each other. Anyways, once I started pushing she was out in 10 minutes. And actually getting to feel her come out of my body was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever had in my entire life.
After she was out they had a hard time getting me to stop bleeding. They were starting to get worried because I had refused blood products and they were afraid I was loosing too much blood. But they got it stopped alright. The worst part about my epidural is it caused me to shake uncontrollably. I hated that feeling. She came out at 7:40 pm weighing 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long. (Rowen was 5 lbs 14 oz and 17 inches so she seemed HUGE!)
Anyways, there is my birth story. It all happened so fast. I wasn't expecting her to be born so quickly. Not that I'm complaining. My only real complaint is that once they hooked me up to pitocin I couldn't walk anymore. They wanted me laying in the bed where they could monitor the baby. So I had a terrible time finding a comfortable position which made the contractions even worse.
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Re: Birth Story
Katy and Brett ~ Runaway Bay, Jamaica ~ October 4, 2008