Lulu Pearl is here!! Birth Story, long

srrobert · February 2011

First, I am so excited for all of us February moms!! Ahem...with that out of the way, here's Lulu's birth story.

?? This was my first pregnancy, and I'm kind of crunchy-granola, so hubby and I were planning for a med-free birth in a hospital with a doula. The pregnancy itself was fairly textbook until my 37 week appointment, when I was told that I my blood pressure was high and that I was spilling protein into my urine. My OB discussed the probability of induction if it were determined that I had pre-e, which freaked me out. There were also some concerns about my cervix, as I had some scarring from a cone biopsy. I was between 80 and 90% effaced but not dilated at all, and my OB suspected that I might have difficulty progressing when labor actually arrived. Needless to say, I was kind of bummed, but I tried to take things in stride. I did the 24 hour urine collection and was told that I was developing pre-e, but that I didn't have it yet and so there was no need to induce. Cool with me. Hubs and I amped up our pre-baby regime of perineal massage and I started taking (orally and vaginally) evening primrose oil to help ripen the cervix?and hopefully soften up some of the scar tissue.?

?? So, anyhoodles, on Sunday 1/30 hubs and I went for a long walk- later that night I started feeling some frequent BH contractions but they petered out after awhile- then I started to have small contractions whenever I'd get up and walk but I figured they were nothing. ?I also started having diarrhea, which gave me pause, but I figured that I was a first timer and over a week away from my EDD, so again, probably nothing. I was still working though and feeling pretty miserable, and hoping to avoid induction, so I can't lie, I was definitely talking to Miss Lulu and letting her know that we were ready for her whenever she was.

?? On Wed 2/2 my office was closed due to the freakishly cold weather (in Austin, cold is a Big Deal). I rejoiced and celebrated by going back to bed. I was feeling just off, and having mildly uncomfortable contractions every 10-20 minutes. I went to bed that night with a major lower backache and a grumpy attitude, and was awoken at 11:30 pm-ish by the sensation that I was peeing on myself-but a neverending, gushing, uncontrollable pee. My water had broken. I'm a slacker and didn't have my bag completely ready so i started rushing around with a towel wedged between my legs trying to get it together while DH called our doula. We called my OB's ofc and they instructed us to go straight to L&D (in no small part bc of the blood pressure stuff I had going on). Contractions were not that bad, coming maybe every 6 minutes- I was worried that we were going to face the 24 hour post-membrane rupture "clock" and that I'd end up with an emergency c-section- this was amplified when the nurse did a check and confirmed that yes, water broke, and that while I was completely effaced I was only one cm dilated. I tried not to get discouraged and labored on the birth ball for awhile. Our doula showed up and we started trying different positions to labor in. Next cervix check I was at 3 cm, so I was encouraged, but our nurse started talking about augmenting labor with pitocin and how if I didn't start making more progress soon that would be something that my OB would probably recommend.?

?? Somehow I was able to progress on my own to 5, then 7, then all the way to 10- I was super stoked. The nurses were all really surprised because my contractions never came closer than 4-6 minutes apart, so they had taken it for granted that my labor was stalling. I found the contractions to be manageable by breathing techniques and visualization until the very end- I was pretty smiley and cheerful until I started to feel the urge to push. I also found that for me, pushing was the most difficult and painful part of the process- no smiling there. It was crazy intense and really painful and I didn't think I could do it. It also seemed like the pushing bit lasted forever, but in reality it was only 5 contractions and 20 minutes or so. The "ring of fire" was no joke, but then her head was out- and with one more big push the rest of her came out - she didn't cry at all, so I was worried, but she had an 9 apgar and DH said she was squirming around like crazy.?

?? ?Lulu Pearl Thompson was born 9 days early on 2/3/11 after almost 15 hours of labor, at 2:43 pm. She weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 19 inches inches longt.I'm really grateful that I was able to have the med free birth I had hoped for. It really helped that DH and our doula were very much in sync and worked really well together to provide support. Also, a lot of the L&D nurses had their own coping strategies that they advocated from attending so many births, and I found that following their advice was really helpful as well. Sorry this was such a lengthy post! Good luck to the mamas that are waiting for LO to arrive and congrats to those that have already had LO!?