Team Green baby is a (birth story)

thatsmary · February 2011

Girl. Ellen Jean was born at 7:13 pm on 2/2/11 measuring in at 7lb2oz, 20-1/4", with Apgar scores of 9. Mom, Dad, and Baby are all doing well.

Starting on Monday (38 weeks pregnant) morning morning I had some brown discharge, cramping, and an increase in BH. Tuesday night at 8 pm I started having a bit more pain with my contractions and although they never measured in at regular intervals were between 4 and 20 minutes all night long and throughout the morning. My bloody discharge got worse, the pain got worse, and I was having loose (but still solid) stools. DH and I walked around the block, but I could not walk through the pain. At 9:15 am we decided to call my OB since it was during normal business hours. She sent me to L&D.

I got there about 11 am and was already measuring 4cm dilated and 100% effaced so they admitted me. At this point timing got fuzzy for me. Not long after my OB arrived and I was 6cm and even though my contractions were still around 10 minutes apart. She broke my water to try to speed things up and it did, I was at 9-1/2cm and then 10 within a couple of hours. Everything was going so fast and my contractions were far apart so although it had not been my plan, I opted out of drugs.

The next part is a little difficult so skip if you want, but it all worked out in the end.

Then I pushed for at least an hour! Yikes! I was begging for pain meds at that point but was told by the nurse that it was too late. Lots more pushing and not enough progress so my OB suggested a vacuum. I said not yet and was then told I could get an epidural. I gladly accepted. Because it was hard to feel how to push with the epi, they got a mirror out and I got to focus on my baby's brown hair. More attempts at pushing and I continued to not make progress so they added pitocin to try to increase the contractions. Unfortunately that didn't work either so we opted for the vacuum. I ended up with a 2nd degree tear.

And I got a beautiful baby girl out of it all. Most people had guessed boy because of the way I was carrying, but the necklace test was right for me.

So far breastfeeding is going well. I've already walked to the bathroom, so my recovery is going well so far too. DH and Ellen are sleeping right now. It's about 30 minutes until our next feeding.

I will try to upload photos later.