LC's Birth Story (bpargood)

bgoodbpar · July 2014

Bear with me, I'm a wordy writer.......

As of Monday I officially came to the conclusion that I would go passed my due date and I need chill out and accept it before I have an anxiety attack. And that's cool. I was planning stuff to do with DS this week..and YIKES the fair opens Wednesday too! SCORE, I could get some good eats before I'm home bound with a newborn. SWEET.. Funnel cake.. turkey leg... deep fried oreos......alll the food! Screw the heartburn..

This is literally what I was thinking of Tuesday morning at 5 am when I couldn't sleep. I was having the typical bedtime contractions I had been having for 2 weeks.

Then... did I just pee on myself??

I had never had the privilege of pregnancy induced incontinence so I was super confused. It wasn't a lot so I got up, actually used the bathroom, changed my undies, and got back in bed. 10 minutes later it happened again. I was still in denial of water breakage and chalked it up to a 2nd round of peeing uncontrollably checked it out changed undies again and got back in bed once more. By 5:30 fluid started coming out every time I contracted and contractions had started to come closer together. That's when I finally was like "oh crap! my water actually broke." I told DH and it was all pretty nonchalant and we were both super calm. I called my Mom to come stay with DS who was also awake at this point. Had DH call L&D, and they gave me the green light to head on in. We took our time though and didn't leave the house until 8:30 or so.

After I had 9 contractions in an hour at homeI thought the hospital ride was going to be hell, but as soon as we left the contractions stopped completely. L&D triage checked and confirmed my water had broken and I was sent to walk for 2 hours since I was literally not contracting at all.

Me and hubs walked to the cafeteria and had breakfast and walked the Kaiser "Thrive Path" a few times. Race-walked in the hallways. I had maybe 5 real contractions that whole time and they were not strong at all. sighhhhhh. I had been hoping to avoid pitocin but it was looking imminent. So we walked somberly back to L&D for the infamous cervical check to see how things were going. I was 2 cm a week prior so i was just hoping there was at least 1 more cm or something to show progression. To all our surprise I was at almost 5 cm! Yay! But because I wasn't contracting regularly at all my midwife recommended I go for the pit. Since I was progressing on my own I agreed to go with it.

OMG--pitocin contractions really do SUCK!

5 minutes after they turned on the pit my contractions were coming every 1-2 minutes with a few right on top of each other. Holy Hell was that painful. Pain was one thing but the lack of recovery between is what made it practically unbearable. 30 minutes in I asked for the epi but I had to get through a bag of IV fluid before they would give it to me.

Painfully got through the bag and the anesthesiologist was called to do my epi at 1pm. This is where is gets fun. This jerk asked me to tell her if I feel anything sharp after she numbed me. I did, immediately. She numbed me again. Nope still feel the needle.. numbed me a third time. Finally couldn't feel the sharpness of the epi needle and she finished up. My nurse got me set up in the bed all while I was struggling with the continued back to back contractions but I knew the epi would kick in soon so I muscled through.

Wellllll that part didn't quite happen.

This effin epidural was only working on my left side! I felt everything on my right, including my nurse putting in my catheter. My nurse let the anesthesiologist know and told me in the meantime to press the button for the extra dose of meds to help it kick in. Over the next 30 minutes my nurse had me press that damned button 3 times (you can only press every 10). I'm just on my side clutching my face trying to get through the contractions that now felt worse and spread to my back (on the right side only of course). And I swear I could feel the catheter pressure...

oh wait.. pressure?

Nurse suggests we check our my progression. Midwife was right outside and comes in to check. Barely gets a finger in and says Oh Snap, you're complete! And baby's head is right there.

Time to set up the room. The funny part-- because of the extra doses from the epidural my left leg was DEAD. I tried to move to put my legs in the stir-ups and my left leg plopped of the bed. I LMAOd. Hubs helped get it back up and we were ready to push.

With DS I pushed through 3 contractions and had him out in 25 minutes. Me and midwife joked and bet to beat it. Pushed through the first contraction..WE SEE LOTS OF HAIR...

Waited for the next contraction which took forever compared to the back to back ones I had just minuted prior. I had to break the silence and whispered "AkWaRd SiLeNce" and made everyone laugh. Pressure came back, pushed once more and popped out (I felt the pop) and we heard a nice squishee/squirtee sound of fluid come out right behind her. Oh and no tears this time! Lovely!

Anyway... London Claire was finally here on 7/8/14 screaming her head off at 7lbs 8oz and a nice long 21 inches. 8 and 9 APGARS... breastfeeding great and a lot.

We are in LOVE to say the least!

Thanks for reading our story, and thanks for all the support through the last several months. J14 is awesome!