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Lucia Kathleen's birth story (PIP) (long)

MollySmMollySm member
in February 2012 Moms

Lucia was born last Wednesday, February 22nd, at 2:59 am.  I was 40w5d by the time she came out.  She was born after 29 hours of labor, including 3 hours of pushing.  She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz, and was 20 in long.  

Here's the long story :

After having contractions that lasted all night and then stopped in the morning several times, I was feeling frustrated.  Then on Monday, Feb 20th, as my H and sister and I were walking to a pizza place for dinner(around 7 pm), I started to feel more discharge than normal.  It was just slightly more, so I mentioned it to them, but couldn't figure out if it was my water or not.  We ate and took a long walk home, just to see if that would shake anything loose, but I just seemed slightly more wet than normal.

By 9 pm I  had cramps, but that was normal.  At 10 I called L and D to see what they thought about the wetness, and they said just keep an eye on it, and call in a couple of hours.  Around then I realized that though they didn't feel anything like the contractions I had felt the other days, the cramps were coming at regular intervals.  It didn't feel like the tightening, but it was hurting more and more, so I started timing.  We all went to bed, but I couldn't sleep, so just paced and timed the cramps.  They started coming 3 - 4 minutes apart.  

They continued to get more and more painful.  My sister got up to hang out with me, and they eventually started coming every 2 minutes.  I took a shower, and then just tried to breathe through them.   Around 2 am I woke H, told him to get ready and called L and D.  The nurse there told me they were full, and I should just choose another hospital!  I cried and panicked.  My sister took over, talked to several more people, and in the end found another hospital that accepts Kaiser(which ended up being a lot nicer than mine, though they didn't have midwives, only OBs).  We drove 30 min to the hospital, and by the time we got there the contractions were coming one on top of the other and were super painful.  

We were checked in by 4 am, at which point they checked me and I was only 1 cm ;(   They then checked and found out that I did break my water, so they admitted me.  By 5 am my contractions started to slow down, like they had so many other days, and I fell asleep for about 2 hours.  We tried to get them strong again by walking, changing positions, and anything else we could think of, but with no luck.  

So by about 9 they put me on pitosin, which brought them right back.  I only needed a little (they turned it up slowly to a 4, then ended up having to turn it back down to a 1 because my body picked it up).  Contractions started to become more and more painful, and after 2 hours I got an epidural.  They eventually turned off the pitosin, but every time they would do that my contractions would last an hour or 2 and then start to peter out again.  

I progressed throughout the day, only slowing down when I was completely off the pitosin for too long.  Some family friends came to spend time with us and keep us busy.  It was a long day.  I don't remember the time, but eventually we hit the point where I felt I needed to push.  It was so strong!  But when they checked me I still had a lip left on my cervix.  So they wouldn't let me.  I was in tears, freaking out because I couldn't stop myself.  My nurse was amazing (as was my sister who is a doctor) and he worked with me on turning myself every which way trying to get it to go away, all the while dealing with my tears and stress.  

By just before midnight it had finally gone away, and I was exhausted but ready to push.  I pushed for 2 hours with my nurse, and was exhausted and feeling like we weren't getting anywhere, though clearly she was moving down. At this point I was off the pitosin, so my contractions were not coming that close together.   Eventually the doctor came, and she was low enough that the doctor could see that she had turned sideways.  She painfully turned her while I was pushing and got her set up.  I started to get a fever, and was clearly exhausted, and had my water had been broken for over 24 hours, so I started thinking they were going to move to c-section soon.  When the doctor asked I'd perk up and tell her I was fine, but otherwise I though I was going to die and never get her out.  I pushed as hard as I could and when we hit 3 hours we were really getting close.  The doctor suggested using the vacuum as a last attempt, and I jumped at the chance for help.  I started pushing like 5 times in a row instead of 3, she used the vacuum for a second, and out came Lucia Kathleen!

It was the longest, most exhausting, most painful thing I've ever done.  But as the days pass and I get more separation from it, and more time and more time with my beautiful daughter, I'm starting to feel better about it.

So that is my story, and here is my daughter :)

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BabyFruit Ticker

BFP 3.8.16  EDD 11.20.16

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