Birth Stories
mylovelyll
member
May 19th- Checked in at San Francisco Kaiser Labor and Delivery. Nurse Joe made us feel very welcome and led us to the room we saw on the hospital tour two weeks prior. After explaining to us that we could walk around with continuous monitoring, I altered my birth plan from intermittent monitoring because that would require staying partly still for 15 minutes out of every hour. One of the main parts of my plan had been to stay at home as long as possible, so the plan was not off to a great start! Resident Dr. M (way too young and pretty to be an ideal labor and delivery doctor, but other than that she was fantastic) introduced herself to us and tried to avoid giving an exam by using the pads we brought in with fluid to determine whether my water had broken. Unfortunately, they could mot get a good read and did have to examine me.
My waters had broken but unsurprisingly my cervix was completely closed - because I wasn't yet in labor. I had experienced perhaps two very mild contractions by this point, around 1:00 am on Sunday May 19th. Dr. M explained that there was an 18 hour window before the chance of infection increased, so labor needed to progress quickly, ideally. I wanted to avoid induction, and I asked to have a few hours to let my hypnobabies tracks move the birthing along before considering pitocin. Everyone was very respectful about my decision, but I could tell they did not expect much progress to be made for a first time birth in a situation like this. My husband helped me get the hypnosis tracks (Come Out, Baby!, Your Birth Guide, Pushing Baby Out ...I can't remember but I might have skipped Birthing Day Easy First Stage) going and also helped me get some natural oxytocin going as we listened. The hospital staff gave us the 3 hours of privacy that I requested. Every contraction (in the first four hours they honestly did feel like "pressure waves" which is the terminology used by hypnobabies) was like a triumph. Brad and I danced, kissed, used the birthing ball and basically seemed like those ideal births that we came across in our birthing preparations. I didn't know if I was making progress, though I noticed that my monitor numbers increased with each contraction, first in the teens and then 20s, and finally a few in the 30s. I didn't know what these numbers meant, but they seemed to indicate progress. I also noticed that my baby's heart rate went down a little during the contractions.
Around 4 AM, the staff came in to check out my progress. They were able to see the monitoring for the past few hours, so it seemed to me that they expected to see some progress. The doctor looked in and saw that my cervix had some scar tissue, which I was not surprised to find out because I had cryosurgery many years before. She immediately worked on softening the scar tissue, which was a big relief for me because I had read that not all doctors know how to do that. She asked me if I wanted to know what my progress was at that point, and I told her no. But, I took it as a positive sign when they told me to let them know when I felt like pushing. The staff left the room, and Brad and I continued to labor. It felt much better to sit on the toilet during contractions at first, and then I tried going to the shower for a period of time.
The shower helped a lot, but at one point they wanted me to get out of the shower and check my progress. My mom had arrived by that point, she lives over two hours away. She was very excited, and her energy was too high for me. I told her she needed to be quiet. After this exam, the doctor asked me if I wanted to know my progress. This time, I said yes. I had a feeling I was far along because I had felt the urge to throw up before I used the shower. The doctor told me I was at 8 cm. My mom (who is the best) got very excited, which annoyed the hell out of me. I told her that of course I knew I knew what that meant. Of course it was good that I had made it to the transition phase, but it hurt like hell. I went to the bathroom and spent a long time on the toilet with the pillow behind me. The contractions became very intense and each time I would stand up and lean on the sink, and Brad would come help give me counterpressure. We had not practiced this technique, because I did not think back labor was going to be a possibility for me. Our son was in a good position, and he had been for weeks.
When I started to feel really intense back pain, I just assumed this was part of labor for everybody. I yelled at my husband to apply pressure on my hip bones behind me higher? Lower? Harder? Less hard?!! He calmly obliged without ever complaining. Every time I had a contraction, more amniotic fluid leaked/gushed out of me along with blood. Despite my exhaustive research, I hadn't come across that part of labor. The nurses calmly cleaned up after me, never disturbing me throughout the process.
I started moaning, then yelling, and screaming, and definitely swearing! I shed most of my clothes during transition, and was very glad I had packed a spray bottle to cool off my face. The doctors left me alone for the most part, but told me to call when I started to feel like pushing. I started screaming, how do I know when to push? All I knew was that I was in a lot of pain! Finally, I decided I could not take the pain and so the answer must be to push! The staff set me up on the bed and at first it felt so much better to push. I wanted to do mother directed pushing, but at this point I could not think, so I followed directions.
Pushing was tiring, and then it became also painful. Exhausted, even though everyone was encouraging me with the progress, I started to feel like I just could not get him out of me. I had to push with all of my might, but also relax my legs open. It seemed like an impossible task. Brad kept reminding me to relax my jaw, but I had to tense every muscle in my body to try to get my son out of me. It felt like my efforts were getting me nowhere. They told me that his head was coming out, but my body did not feel like it was opening enough. And it turns out that it wasn't. In my birth plan, I requested that I not have an episiotomy. The doctor and rest of the stuff were respectful of my plan, and really tried to avoid an episiotomy. But when the baby's heart rate started to drop a little bit, and I was doubting my ability to push him out, they strongly suggested an episiotomy. I quickly said "Okay. Do it!"
I did not feel the episiotomy cut, and it made all of the difference. Apparently, my body was not stretching enough on its own. After that, he came out! My water broke at 11pm, early labor began around 1:30am, transition began around 5am, I started pushing around 7am, and our son was born at 8:24am. I never even thought to ask for pain medication. My placenta came out very soon after, it wasn't bad at all but I had some clotting that had to be manually taken out- that hurt! My husband was across the room with our son while he was weighed (5.5 pounds, 8 and 9 Apgar scores, over 18 inches in length) so I was free to curse some more during the clot extraction. Our son came out alert with his eyes open, and he peed on the doctor. We wanted to delay cord clamping, and our doctor suggested that the baby be placed below the level of the placenta. I had done research on this topic and was prepared for this recommendation, and I declined the recommendation. So, they delayed the cord clamping and he was placed on my belly, exactly as I wanted. My husband placed his hand on our son's back and we both looked lovingly at our new child. He looked back and forth between my husband and me, it was beautiful. He had a full head of hair, and a pronounced conehead. He really had been through the ringer on his way out! I was told that my pelvic bones must be on the smaller side, because the evidence was that it wasn't just my perineum holding back our son. Maybe this is why he came out at 35 weeks instead of full-term.
The Kaiser hospital staff was amazing! Nurses, lactation consultants, nurse practitioners, doctors, pediatricians, obstetricians? I loved having a variety of viewpoints, and so much great advice was offered to us over the course of the next three days in the hospital. Today (June 21st) is his due date, and he has gained over 3 pounds in the past 4 1/2 weeks so that now he is 8 pounds. He had to use a biliblanket for one night because his jaundice levels were high in his first couple days home, and he became the master of the nipple shield because his suction was not developed enough. We are almost weaned off the shield - we had a 36 hour run without it- but today We seem to have regressed. That's okay, we will get there. Other than that, my son is perfect. He is loving, hilarious, calm, easy, such a joy. He sleeps through anything - walks, restaurant meals... Photos here: https://s1291.photobucket.com/user/mylovelyll/library/?sort=3&page=1
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Water broke five weeks early!
mylovelyll
member
May 18, 2013 - 35 weeks pregnant - had a fun dinner with two pregnant couples we met at our birth class a few weeks earlier. Great food, fun conversation about pregnancy and lots of other topics. After taking some group belly photos, we all gathered at 11pm to say goodbye at the door of my friend's home when a gush of water soaked my pants. No warning signs. We gathered some stuff at home on the way to the hospital in San Francisco to get checked, felt calm and not in any pain or discomfort. The drive took about 20 minutes, so we arrived at about midnight.
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Re: Water broke five weeks early!
https://s1291.photobucket.com/user/mylovelyll/
library/?sort=3&page=1
Congrats on your son. I loved your story and cant wait to write mine in a couple months