Birth story (med-free) w/ PIPS...long

10Nessie · November 2012

Sorry this is so long?pics at the bottom if you don?t feel like reading

Around 3:00 in the morning last Friday, I woke up to go to the bathroom. I made it to the bathroom just in time to have my water break. I went back to the bedroom and told H that I thought my water just broke and he shot out of bed and started packing some of his things and started the car (ha).

I was upset that my water broke since I wanted to labor at home as long as possible. Since I was GBS+, I would have to go to the hospital soon after my water breaking and wouldn't be able to wait for contractions to start. I called the hospital and the on-call midwife told me I could shower and get my things together, but should head in soon since we live an hour and a half away from the hospital.

We ended up getting to the hospital around 7 a.m. and they hooked me up to the monitors which showed no signs of contractions. I was 1 cm dilated, but 100% effaced. They started my antibiotics for the GBS and let me walk the halls for an hour or so. When I got back to the room, there were still no contractions and the midwife started talking to me about induction. I really did not want to be induced, but at this point I was running out of options since my water had been broke for 6 hours already. They brought me some toast and orange juice and my contractions finally started on their own!

I started walking the halls again and I progressed fairly fast. I had crazy back labor, so H rubbed my back with every contraction. They suggested I lay down for a bit to rest while I could. The contractions became much more intense at that point and I threw up. I had been using hypno-birthing breathing techniques and luckily I ended up with an amazing nurse who used hypno-birthing with her two kids. She was so helpful.

When we got to the waterbirth room around 2 or 3 p.m. I was shaking like crazy and was at 7 cm. The birthing pool felt awesome and helped so much with the contractions. I spent most of the next 3 or 4 hours in the pool. Since I was trying to use some hypno-birthing methods, I started to breathe the baby down as I was fully dilated. My nurse was great and did positive affirmations and relaxation techniques for me between every contraction. I ended up breathing the baby down/pushing for the next hour with no progress. The midwife checked me again and realized the baby was in the OP position which is not ideal. At this point, they suggested changing my pushing method and bear down and hold my breath to push. Once I started pushing that way, the baby?s heart rate elevated and they wanted me on the monitors. I would not be able to deliver in the water.

I went to the bed and pushed for two more hours and finally delivered my baby girl at 9:25 p.m. Surprisingly, I did not tear. When she was born, she was not crying and her umbilical cord had a true knot in it. Initially I wanted to delay clamping and have immediate skin to skin, but the minute the midwife saw that knot, she cut the cord and passed her to the warmer before we could blink. All of a sudden our room was filled with nurses from the NICU and we started to get worried. They had the oxygen mask on her and were trying to get her to cry. After they cleared her nose and mouth we slowly started to hear some whimpers.

I finally got to hold my little Lena Noel. She was 5 lbs 14 oz and 19 ? inches long. She was born with a major cone head and had a big bruise on the top of her head. Her head is back to normal now though

Even though I could have done without the 3 hours of pushing, I am so glad I was able to have the med-free birth that I wanted. If I hadn't gone med-free, the midwife said they probably would have had to use the forceps or vacuum to get her out or there?s a good chance I would have ended up with a c-section due to her position.

She has been such a good baby so far. Breastfeeding has been a little bit of a challenge, but I think she?s finally getting the hang of it. Recovery hasn't been bad at all and I feel great. The bleeding slowed down after a couple days and I'm actually only 3 lbs away from my 6 week appointment weight. The giant mesh undies are awesome BTW...haha

Here are a couple pics of her from the hospital. She?s wearing the goofy hat from the hospital, so you can?t see her cone head

angielayne926 · November 2012

Congrats! She's adorable!

persephonerose · November 2012

She is so cute and you look great! I hope I look half as good after tomorrow. Congrats!

keiral · November 2012

Congrats!! What a cutie!

ZoeMay06 · November 2012

Congratulations! I loved reading your positive, empowering birth story, thank you for sharing. She's adorable and you look amazing for just having been through all that!