Community› The Bump Month Clubs› December 2010 Moms
December 2010 Moms
New Discussion

Alden's birth story

theuntaggablektheuntaggablek member
in December 2010 Moms

At Miss Muffin's request, here's baby A's birth story. It's super long and ultimately uneventful ? you don't have to read it!  I never wrote out S?s birth story and forgot lots of details, so I wanted to get it down.

DS 1 was born a day after his due date, so we figured the baby was probably going to come around his July 4 due date. I had been feeling more cramps, contractions, and groin pain than I remembered in the final weeks with Sebastian, though, so I asked the NP to do a cervical exam at my 39-week appointment on June 27.  She said I was 1 cm. dilated. I left the appointment thinking that #2 was probably going to come around his due date.

Since I felt crappy that day, I skipped going to the office and came home to do some baby prep. DH was also home, putting together a bag of stuff for the hospital, and I noted a few things I still needed to get for the hospital bag and planned to go out to get them. I felt lousy enough that DH urged me take a nap before running errands. I did. Then I picked up DS at daycare early, took him to the grocery store to get a watermelon and some things for dinner. When we got home, I made a big salad of mango-cabbage slaw to use up some cabbage we got in our CSA share ? yummy.

After DS?s bedtime, DH and I talked a bit about whether the baby might come before my parents? anticipated July 1 arrival.  I laid down at 10:45. It was at that point I realized that the ?cramps? were coming every.ten.minutes.  So I ran downstairs to tell DH that I really didn?t think my parents were going to make it before the baby. He had just finished a beer.

Chaos ensued. DH was jittery and wanted to call the doctor and rush to the hospital right away. I wanted to wait to make sure it was real and labor at home as long as possible. And I didn?t want to call in a friend to watch Sebastian until we were sure. We both were running around the house getting stuff for the hospital bag. We flipped to the ?labor? chart in our old Bradley manual and crammed. I convinced him I could take a shower first (which, of course, sped up the contractions and just made him more nervous). The doctor called back, and said to come to the hospital, so we called our friend and she came to the house in a flash. I grabbed some yogurt and granola and we headed to the hospital ? a short drive in the pouring rain.

The plan, as for the first baby, was to go natural ? and I?d done it for DS 1, so I had some confidence, but we hadn?t been really prepping for labor this time. On the way walking into the hospital, I had a few contractions. As we registered around midnight, I had a few more. But once they got the fetal monitors on, things slowed down ? as they had with DS 1. The nurse on the night shift was Tina ? who I remembered from my first labor as a good one. I asked her when her shift ended (7 AM) and hoped I?d be done laboring by then!

While slow, labor was constant, and got pretty intense. On the plus side, I was strep B negative this time, so no IV. On the down side, the stupid fetal monitors restricted my movement, and I had to be on them for at least half of every hour. I took most of the monitored contractions in an upright seated position because I could labor that more comfortably than laying down, but without making the monitors fall off. When the nurse took the monitors off, we walked down the hallway, but that was pretty rough and labor was progressing more rapidly. When we got back to the room, I draped my body over the back of the bed, and labored that way.

By this point, it was like 3 AM, I was feeling pretty crappy, and the doctor came in to check. I was at a 5. She mentioned it was the point of no return in terms of drugs. My gut sank, but last time, the last stage of labor had gone pretty quickly, so I thought I was getting close and could take it. I tried a few more positions, but none were as comfortable as the back of the bed, so I stayed there. As things got more intense, I asked DH to tell me stories or draw mental images - during each contraction to keep my mind off the pain. He did awesome at evoking images of dew-covered grass and turtles sunning themselves (he?s a biologist), but at some point, I asked him to go brush his teeth, because his breath seemed really stinky to me!

At around 4 AM, the nurse said she?d be back in an hour. Things got really intense and I started really feeling like I wanted to push. The nurse came back, the dr. checked and said I was at an 8, but annoyingly I could only labor sitting up again because of the blasted fetal monitors. I started saying really loudly, ?I want this to be OVER, NOW!??which prompted the nurses to come back in and set up the instrument table.

Finally, my water broke around 5 AM, which felt really good, but was also really disgusting, because I was sitting in it. I begged for a different position (I wanted to squat, like I had with DH). They put the squat bar on the bed. As I pulled down on the squat bar, I was still supporting myself with my thighs, which was rough, since I had to push longer than with DS 1, and I was feeling really tired by that point. It was intense, but finally, the baby was born at 6:06 AM!

Alden was purple, and didn?t cry right away, which freaked me out. I didn?t need any stiches this time, which was a great change, and allowed me to focus on the baby. Once he was on me, Alden latched & ate like a champ. Thankfully, we finished it all within Tina?s shift after all! By mid-morning, we were calling relatives to surprise them with news of a June baby and by that night, Sebastian came to meet his little brother!

image
Report Reply to Post

Re: Alden's birth story

This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"