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Christmas Eve birth story!

mcwifeymcwifey
in Birth Stories

On Monday, December 22, I went to the OBGYN for my weekly appt (due date of December 27, the upcoming Saturday).  My midwife checked me and I was between 1 and 2 cms. and still thinning out (The week before I was at 1 cm. and 50% effaced).  Up until this point I wasn?t having any contractions at all and really was feeling completely normal.  I was convinced I was going to go overdue and was completely annoyed because I wanted a 2008 baby!

I went back to work and started to feel very crampy and started spotting.  I thought this was just completely normal due to my internal, even though I didn?t spot at all after my internal the week before.  Later that night, I started having contractions.  I was excited because I finally was able to tell that they were contractions!  I felt like a moron before because I had no idea what a contraction even really felt like.  They weren?t timetable but I would say I was getting them around every 15 minutes or so.  They were uncomfortable, but not very painful.  I stayed up all night with them thinking that it might really be it.  I finally got about 2 hours of sleep and then decided to go ahead and go to work ( I work at a bank), because I didn?t want to just sit home all day thinking about the contractions.  My last day was scheduled to be Wednesday the 24th, so I thought I would just try to stick it out.  I still was having contractions throughout the day, but they had definitely slowed down to just a few an hour.

I got home around 6 and ate dinner with my DH.  Right after dinner, I started having more painful contractions and they were coming about every 10 minutes or so.  I really wanted to go to bed because I was just exhausted from not having any sleep the night before and working all day.  There was no way I could fall asleep though because the contractions were painful enough that I had to jump up and walk around during them to ease the pain.  They kept getting closer together.  I was tryin everything to try to ease the pain, I took a bath, bounced around on my exercise ball, and just walked around.  Nothing was really helping.  Finally, around 11:00 I called my midwife to let her know that my contractions were about every 5-6 minutes and getting stronger.  She said I could go ahead and go to the hospital and have the nurses check me.  If I was at least a 3 they would go ahead and keep me and she would go meet me at the hospital. 

I was nervous, and we wanted to wait until at least 12 to get to the hospital to avoid being charged the extra day, so we just hung around for awhile and packed and got ready.  I was so nervous that I could barely talk to my husband, I just kept thinking about how painful it was already, how could I possibly give birth!  We got to the hospital around 12:45 and a nurse checked me.  I really thought they would probably send me home but much to my surprise, I was dilated to 4 cms!  Wow, wasn?t expecting that!  So we officially got checked in and started calling our families to tell them (my family was in Chicago, about 2 ? hours away, so they needed to get on the road).  An hour or so later, my midwife arrived and she checked me and said I was at 5 cms.  My contractions were now coming anywhere from 2-4 minutes apart, some of them very strong, and some very bearable.  I told the midwife that I wanted to get an epidural.  She tried to talk me out of it, but I was not budging on this.  I wasn?t dealing with the pain well (even though I looked like I was) and I really wanted some relief. 

I got the epidural (not too bad, the worst part was the numbing shot at the beginning, very sharp pain), but then I felt great!  I know it was a good decision for me to get the epidural and I wouldn?t have changed my mind about it.  After I was finished, I was able to lay down and rest (we were exhausted).  It was 4a.m. by this point and I was still at 5 cms.  35 minutes after I layed down, the midwife came over and checked me, surprise surprise, I was at 9-10 cms!  Wow, we were shocked at how fast I was progressing.   I still had a lip of cervix left, so we needed to wait for awhile and let that go away.  I was also having a ton of bloody show (so they say, I couldn?t feel a thing).  My midwife decided to break my water then. 

After about 2 hours, I pretty much stopped contracting, so they decided to give me pitocin to progress me.  Finally, I felt the urge to push at 7:05.  I was a little ticked because my midwife came back in the room with a cup of Starbucks, lol, but whatever.  I decided to let my MIL stay in the room with DH and I.  She stood behind me and DH stood next to me.  I never thought I would want a mirror to see what was going on, but I?m glad the nurse had one, because I really feel like it helped me know how hard to push and it gave me motivation.  Right away she was all the way down and crowning.  I could see her head of dark dark hair (weird b/c we thought she was going to have blond or light brown hair!).  After 15 minutes of pushing, Hailey Anne S was born.  She was absolutely beautiful and it was just the most surreal moment of my life.  I loved her instantly and just couldn?t believe that DH and I created this perfect little innocent human J  I had a very small tear because when she came out she stuck her hand up and through instead of leaving it down.  My MIL left and we spent the next hour and a half trying to nurse and just hanging out together. 

Finally, the nurse took her over to weigh and measure her.  I knew she?d be small, but wow, she was only 5 lbs. 13 oz. and 19 inches long.  She was so tiny!  My recovery has been pretty good.  I?ve been moving around a lot and I?m just very very sore.  It?s been very hard to poop since delivery, I would definitely recommend getting some colace to help you out.  I could not live without that little water bottle they give you to use after you pee, it helps out so much.  Breastfeeding is going well, she?s a great latcher, but I need to use a nipple shield.  I just ordered the Lansinoh double electric breast pump, it?ll definitely help me sleep more because DH will be able to feed her sometimes.

 Good luck to everyone, it's all worth it :)

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