XP: Eric James natural birth story

Eric James M (we had a last minute name change) was born on thursday November 3 at 5:35pm, weighing 8 lbs even and 20 inches long.  My contractions had started sunday night and  by thursday am they were pretty close together, but not close enough to go to the hospital (so I thought).  Went to my reg OB appt and was 5 cm and was sent to L&D (drove myself and called DH on the way).  Got in a room at 1:30, doc broke my water and I had a baby boy by 5:35.

The REALLY long story:

I had been having contractions since last sunday night.  At first they were very mild like gas pains.  They progressed aver the next few days until I thought we were going to the hospital on halloween, but every time they got under 5 min apart for an hour they would get farther apart, so we stayed home.  

I wanted to labor at home as long as possible anyway, so it was just as well to me.  My LMP EDD was the 12th, my  charted DD was the 15th, so I figured they would go away and "real" labor would start in a week or so. 

Wednesday night they were strong and regular, but not enough so to go to the hospital.  They woke me up every 20 min that night, and thurs am they were strong and regular.  I debated a few times about telling DH to come home but then the contratx would slow down a tad.  I had an OB appt at 11:30, so I called DH to come home so we could decide if we were going to the OB appt to have a reg appt or if we would go to the Hospital.  Well he took FOREVER to get home, and I knew there would be no one in the office to check me if I missed my appt, so I got in the car and hauled @ss to the OB office.  I was late and one of the NP's said, "Why are you here, you should have gone to the hospital if you were contracting!"  I said well I have been having them since sunday and I didn't want to get sent home from L&D for being the girl who cried labor, or worse, have the hospital strap me into a bed and try to force labor, my nightmare.

So the NP checked me and said, YA, honey, you are a 5 right now, you are going to the hospital right now to have a baby.  She looked at me like I was totally insane for being there.  I did start bleeding after the check.  So I got back in my car and went a mile down the road to the hospital, still without DH.  I called him with the news and I could tell his brain totally shut down.

They got me into a labor room about 1:30.  I did get an IV right away and they did make me do continual EFM.  I was bouncing on my labor ball and smiling when the doc came in and he decided if I was that comfey at 5 cm, that would never do, so he broke my water.   Almost immediately the contractions got stronger and a lot closer together.  I had planned for a natural birth, so they just let me do my thing for a while.  I had ready the bradley books and I really really tried to totally relax and just think of the pain as a muscle flexing, but...it didn't work.  After my water broke, any sense of time went out the window.  They were so incredibly intense.  I wanted to stay upright as much as possible and for a while I did.  But then I HAD to be still as much as I could to concentrate through the contraction and lessen the pain.   The nurse came in and told me I had to lie on my side because the baby's heart rate had spiked into the high side of normal.  I had been on my back (I know!!  But I HAD to!) but I had the bed sitting up  so I was not flat at all.  I get on my side and I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE.  It was SOOOO painful in my hips.  I toughed it out for a few contractions, and told my DH (who was amazing though everyting) that I needed an epi.  Not wanted, NEEDED.  He said ok and told the nurse.  She said ok, give the anesthesiologist 20 min and he would be in.  I remember thinking that I hoped I could make it that long because I know you have to be perfectly still to get the epi.  I got back on my back, still upright, and did the best I could to breath through them.  For a while it felt better to breath normally as possible and stay as still as possible.  As we were waiting for the epi, I started moaning some, and breathing harder through them.  Then I was moaning through the whole thing, breathing heavily through the whole thing.  It felt like someone was in my insides wringing out my uterus like you would a wet washcloth!  It was agonizing.  One of the nurses had said something about pressure at some point, but I do not remember when.  (We were largely alone the whole time)  I sat up, snapped out of the fog I was in the whole time, told DH I thought I felt pressure, and went back to my zone.  The nurse came in and checked me and I was 100% effaced and 10 cm!  She called for the doc and I knew I had to do this naturally after all.  DH held my left leg and a nurse had my right.  DH iced my face between pushes and that was a nice distraction.  In a way the pushing felt better than just contracting because I could DO something.  In another way, it was NOT like pushing out a huge poop like it is for some people, it was like pushing out a watermelon out of a tiny hole.  On the first push DH said, "oh wow, I see his hair!"  I pushed for about 20 min.  I never felt "the ring of fire" really, just some stinging.  No one told me when his head came our and I was surprised I could not feel it.  The last contraction passes and I stopped pushing and the doc looked at me like "hello!?" and said "ok mam, push the rest of him out!"  So I pushed one more time and felt the most amazing slither and gushing feeling and he was out!  They put him on my belly since his cord was short and dried him off.  He didn't cry at first, he just looked at me .  It was so amazing to finally see him in all his bloody, vernix-ey glory.    I did have an episiotomy (sp?) since as I was pushing I got a 3rd degree tear, he just cut me.  I  did not feel that at all.  The nurses took the baby to the warmer and cleaned him up, weighed him, etc...while I was getting stitched up.  That did hurt, even with anesthetic.  I still had my regular bra on, so DH helped me get it off and we unwrapped him and tried to nurse him.  We waited about 20 min before letting anyone in the room so we could relax and enjoy the moment.  We got to spend an hour in the delivery room then moved into the recovery room where we were bombarded with family and friends.  I had no idea how tiring that would be and I will probably never visit anyone in the hospital  for that reason!  We were released saturday afternoon and we are doing great!  I am so so grateful to have a healthy baby boy and DH is a great father!  Congrats to everyone else who now has outside babies!