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Natural Birth
michellepeanut
member
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Long NB story Annabelle Grace
michellepeanut
member
Our first baby, Miss Annabelle Grace entered the world fashionably late at 41weeks exactly just in time to share her Daddy's birthday (poor man had to cancel his golf game).
She was born at 9am June 3rd and weighed 8.1lbs.
I had some really mild contractions starting on Friday night, that were just annoying enough to keep me from sleeping they continued all day Saturday without getting any stronger or closer together. During this time I was losing some clear mucus, but not a lot and nothing I would have thought was my mucus plug. By 11:30 Saturday night they started to become uncomfortable so I decided to get in the bathtub to see if I could make them slow down or stop (I was really desperate to get some sleep). I stayed in the bath until about 1:00am rolling my hips on the bottom of the tub.
Throughout all of labour I had horrible back pain that accompanied all my contractions and never fully went away between them.
At 1am I got into the shower where I braced my hands against the walls and rolled my hips around, I also tried lunging with 1 leg propped up on the bench. Really low loud rhythmic moaning was very helpful and kept me focused. It was much much easier if I started moaning the moment I felt the contractions building rather than waiting until I needed it. My wonderful husband fed me apple juice ice cubes and sips of water the whole time. I told him to start timing contractions around 4:00am and they never really reached a minute long most were between 30-45seconds but they were only 2.5 minutes apart so I never got a rest. I told him he should call our midwife anyway because I was starting to feel desperate and like I had run out of ideas, she decided to come and check me.
Our midwife got to our house at about 4:30am and I finally emerged from the water (love love love hydrotheraphy and our amazing hot water tank that never ran out) - I couldn't make it to the bed so she checked me on the floor of the bathroom. I told her if I was only 2 cm that I was quitting and wanted a c-section (I was so scared that this was still early labour), it turned out I was fully dilated!
We got ready to go to the hospital - this was the hardest part so far with only 2 minutes between contractions it took me forever to get dressed, down the stairs and out to the car. I kneeled in the passenger seat leaning over the back of the set for the ride to hospital.
We got to the hospital and I tried a bunch of different positions on the bed, including hands and knees and leaning over the back of the bed. By this stage I had incredibly bad back pain and I was exhausted my contractions were still super close together. The midwifes were amazing and would apply counter-pressure and warm compresses to my back during contractions while I leaned on the bed or my husband.
I had one
amazing 10 minute break between contractions and had a quick power nap -
it was wonderful. They checked me again and I had a lip of cervix and
bulging membranes but the baby was still fairly high (I think -1) - we
decided to rupture the membranes because I was getting so tired and
wanted to move things along. They broke with so much force my husband
said the water shot out and the midwife had to jump back.
After an hour more of really intense close together contractions
and some involuntary pushes she still hadn't moved any further down - so
they had me get up. At this stage I really wanted to give up, I kept
saying that I wanted to go home and just sleep. The midwives were
amazing and great cheerleaders, they also helped by putting warm
compresses on my bum to help show me where to push.
I finally made my way to the bathroom and started pushing sitting
on the toilet. I could finally feel her coming down (I never had the
bowling ball between your legs sensation during pregnancy) and started
being able to tell how to push her out. The midwives were able to see
her head and I really started making progress (it was so hard up until
this point because I felt like I working so hard and nothing was
happening).
I really wanted to push her out on the toilet (ha ha I know strange desire) but the position finally took away some of the back pain and I knew the right feeling of how to move her. But they were concerned about the safety and made me move to the bed. I ended up having about 20 more contractions in a squatting position on the bed holding onto my husband. When her head was crowning they told me to breathe her out which I did (so interesting and not what you think when you read it in the books). She came out with her hand curled up at her chin (in the thinker's pose - little bugger). I caught my gigantic baby girl at 9am that morning. (I know 8lbs isn't that big but everyone though we would have a baby in the mid 6lbs range)
I had some tearing and ended up getting a couple stitches - so the only drugs I had were some shots of local anesthetic after the birth. We waited until the cord stopped pulsing (which took a really long time) and then cut it.
Such an amazing experience, though contrary to everything I've been told I found birthing the placenta to be quite uncomfortable. The end of the pushing stage when I could tell what I was doing was a lot less painful but the worst bit for me was waiting for her to descend because it made my back hurt so much.
Hope this is helpful for those still waiting for their babies. We are back and home and enjoying the surreal world of extreme sleep deprivation.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Long NB story Annabelle Grace
What a wonderful story, congratulations!
How did you breathe her out? Does that mean when you pushed to exhaled forcefully?
How long would you say the cord pulsed for?
It's when the head is being born and you're trying to control the delivery - instead of bearing down and using big pushes you just use short light pushes with your breath.
Hmm I have to ask my husband but I think it was about 15minutes..