Major Sai joined us yesterday 2.17.17 at 22:17. Weighing 7lbs2oz
Labor story is too long hopefully I will share more later once I have processed it all. But all total I was in labor for right at 24 hours.
Was tried to be coerced into an induction, signed out of hospital AMA, went into active labor on car ride home. Progressed quickly but then went with the epidural. Labored for 14 hours. Then 21 minutes of pushing and he was here!!!!
So overjoyed that little man is healthy and as far as I am concerned just beautiful.
Me: 36, H: 37 FTM, 2 Furbabies married 03/17/07 lived in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and NYC due: 2/15/17
@krob I'm so glad you went into labor on your own- I know that was important to you. Congratulations! Major is adorable and all that hair!!! Those cheeks!
Congratulation!! Look at all that hair! He's just adorable. You got such a beautiful first family photo!! I hope you're getting all the sweet snuggles!
Thank you all for the well wishes. I am so far behind but I am so happy that the Febuladies are having what seem to be mostly positive experiences. I am in the middle of night 3 of cluster feeding and need to do something to stay awake, so I decided this was great time to tell my birth story.
This is probably going to be long.
Wednesday night I had a few gushes of what felt like watery discharge. Talked to my doula and she said since I had an appointment Thursday am, if it didn't happen again just talk to my OB about it.
Thursday morning at the OB office we thought for a second maybe I had a slower water leak. Then found out it wasn't the case. Was dialated 1cm and 70% effaced. my doctor recommended me walking around the city some to see if "leaking" continued. if so she wanted me to go to triage to get checked again. i did as she requested and felt a bit more discharge that had increased from what I felt earlier.
We consulted with our doula who was worried that they would try to induce me due to my age and being 40w1d.
Arrived at triage at 6pm. Got in triage bed at 6:45pm. No one came to do exam until 9:00pm. Leakage was not my membranes. I was ready to get up and go home. Hour later a resident came in and told me they had seen son heart rate deceleration on fetal monitor. Mind you I had been hooked up to this monitor for over 3 hours now. Also any deceleration that was happening was very minor. HR never went below 110 and never for longer than a minute. I had done an NST earlier that day for an hour at OB office and they saw no cause for action. Because of deceleration they wanted to induce. We asked for a few minutes to think about it. We asked to speak to our OB, spoke with out doula, said a prayer and I shed a few tears. I felt like i was being pressured into this induction. When we had mostly made up our mind but still had a few questions we asked to see the resident. 2 more hours went by before someone was "available" to speak with us. By this time H and I both were pissed. I felt like their actions and words were not matching up. They made it seem like I needed to be induced right away, yet we mostly just sat around waiting. Then they told me there were no beds currently available and that until then I would just stay in triage waiting to get a bed to be induced. That was enough for me to decide to leave. We signed out of the hospital Against Medical Advice (AMA) including signing a super dramatic form which included the words fetal demise.
All this time I was beginning to have contractions that were picking up in intensity and rhythm but nothing crazy. We got in a car to head home, eat some food, get some rest and reset. I had a ultrasound set for the next day at the hospital anyway.
As soon as we got in the car my contractions picked up. By the time we got home (20min) they were about 4min apart and pretty strong. It was about 12:30am at this point. I got in a bath and H orders takeout. Contractions got even stronger and bath didn't help. I got out and got into a shower. While is shower contractions started coming 2-3min apart and even stronger. We called our doula to get her opinion on what we should do. She was with a pre-e induction, listened to me labor through a couple contractions and told us to call her back up. Called back up doula, she listened to me as well and decided she could either come to our house or meet us at hospital. We asked her to come to the house. About 45 min later she arrived and I had been still at 2-3min apart. She got me back in the shower and listened in. She agreed that i was really working hard and gave me the option to stay at home longer or head to hospital. The ride home had been pretty tough and I wasn't looking forward to doing that again in even more pain so I said let's go.
Arrived back at hospital and triage at 3am. They checked me I was at 3cm. They were ready to admit me but still had no beds. Hooked me up to fetal monitor and IV. It has been my plan to do intermittent monitoring and no IV, but due to "deceleration" they wouldn't allow it. I knew this was going to greatly impact my ability to go unmedicated. This meant no shower/bath and no real walking. Uh oh. Contractions were really picking up at this point. Around 5am I had an earth shattering contraction that broke my water. It was unreal and honestly one of my favorite parts of the experience. It was so primal. Every nerve ending in my body shot off. They checked after that and I was at 5.5cm. I asked for laughing gas which helped some. Still no room available. This is when i began to lose it a bit. The pain was unreal and I was stuck in the bed due to all the machines I was hooked up to. I told them when we got to the room I wanted the epidural. It was a sort of sad moment, but I was also completely sure. Waited another hour. It was beginning to get so out of control they were considering giving me the épi in triage which is apparently against protocol but they didn't know when a room would be available.
Finally got into a room. And it wasn't even a real delivery room. It's a laboring room used for mom's who aren't planning to deliver. Same as regular room but much smaller. Pretty much every staff member commented on the small size of the room and how nothing was where it was supposed to be.
Had to wait another hour for the anesthesiologist. It was excruciating. Sometime after 7am I finally got the good stuff. Once I got the epidural everything calmed down. H was able to take a nap. I never quite took a good long nap, most just catnaps. I did have some side effects from drugs. Vomited 3 times over course of labor. I absolutely hate vomiting. So this was a thing for me.
Epi slowed down labor and I wasn't progressing anymore so we had to add in pitocin. It's crazy this was the exact road i didn't want to go down, but here we were. My OB and nurse did a fantastic job of managing between the two and we got things moving along.
Finally around 6pm they checked me and I was fully dialated and effaced but baby was still at Station 0. I began to feel some pain through the pressure of my contractions but I was ok with that because I wanted to participate as much as I could in the experience. Then the epidural machine ran out. Then they couldn't find key to refill it. Someone left with the key!!!
I began to feel everything. Ouch! Especially after HOURS of no pain. To get me some relief they injected me with some drugs which were more powerful than the epi drip. Then they found the key and refilled the drip. Now I was really doped up and once again couldn't feel anything. So we had to just wait. Baby had dropped but I couldn't feel it.
Finally around 9:30pm i got some feeling back and began feeling contractions and low rectal pressure. I told them to get the doctor I was ready to try pushing. With a little assistance from my OB on the first couple of pushes I got the hang of it and 20 min later he was here! Pushing was by far my fave and I felt like a champ at it.
All in all nothing went the way we planned but overall I am thrilled with my labor experience. I had an excellent support team. The hospital nurses were incredible my doctor was wonderful. The rest of the hospital staff left something to be desired but we dealt with it as it came.
Sorry for the novel but I wanted to make sure I documented all of it.
Oh @krob that hospital and staff sounds soooo infuriating. I'm sorry you couldn't enjoy (if you can "enjoy" labor) labor and delivery the way you had hoped for. I think you're pretty awesome for putting up with so much BS. But your baby is a doll... and I still can't believe all that hair!
I was going to be that person to lecture you on car seat clips but you probably weren't even in a car
i cant believe what a shit show your hospital was. I was so excited to go drug free with my first and ended up on every drug possible. It feels like you did all that work for fate to laugh at you
@PerraSucia we weren't in a car. but please lecture away. we know absolutely nothing about car seats and haven't done much research because we will rarely be in one. Please tell me everything I need to know or send links.
Me: 36, H: 37 FTM, 2 Furbabies married 03/17/07 lived in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and NYC due: 2/15/17
@PerraSucia we weren't in a car. but please lecture away. we know absolutely nothing about car seats and haven't done much research because we will rarely be in one. Please tell me everything I need to know or send links.
The chest clips should be at armpit level , you shouldn't be able to pinch the harness straps, and the warm outfit is adorable but too puffy for the car seat. You want to put them in the car seat without the coat and put stuff over them to keep them warm. I'm kind of jealous you don't have to deal with the car seat that much!
I love the little outfit (I bought the same one in gray, even though I know he will only get to wear it like twice if I am lucky) and just one last note for the car seat- even if you are not in a car its best to have baby properly buckled, as its a risk for positional asphyxiation if they can slide to a side or down. It's great that he won't be in one much- without being in a base (in the car or in a stroller) to be at the proper level a car seat isn't actually very safe
I also have that same puffy outfit in pink. However Scarlett is tiny and the thing would swallow her whole, and it's mid February but outside its 65°+ so it's not looking like she'll be needing it anytime soon anyway. Congratulations on your sweet little boy, he's beyond perfect!
Our primary NICU nurse is the only reason we learned anything hands on about car seats. I was kind of shocked at the lack of hospital-provided education, but I guess maybe informing people is beyond their scope or a liability.
ETA thank you for sharing your birth story! I got frustrated by the delays even reading it...I couldn't imagine experiencing those delays! Seemed like a "hurry up and wait" situation. And not having the key...how frustrating!
Re: krob AW thread **UPDATED W/ BIRTH STORY**
First BFP: 12/16/13
EDD: 08/23/14
Baby BOY born: 08/29/14
Ben and Maggie - 4/10/09
Mia - 6/16/11
Surprise! due 2/23/17
Major looks adorable! And you look great!
FTM, 2 Furbabies
married 03/17/07
lived in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and NYC
due: 2/15/17
@MLRocha it is pretty incredible how each one has his own path.
FTM, 2 Furbabies
married 03/17/07
lived in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and NYC
due: 2/15/17
i cant believe what a shit show your hospital was. I was so excited to go drug free with my first and ended up on every drug possible. It feels like you did all that work for fate to laugh at you
FTM, 2 Furbabies
married 03/17/07
lived in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and NYC
due: 2/15/17
straps we had no clue about. thanks for the info!
FTM, 2 Furbabies
married 03/17/07
lived in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and NYC
due: 2/15/17
However Scarlett is tiny and the thing would swallow her whole, and it's mid February but outside its 65°+ so it's not looking like she'll be needing it anytime soon anyway.
Congratulations on your sweet little boy, he's beyond perfect!
ETA thank you for sharing your birth story! I got frustrated by the delays even reading it...I couldn't imagine experiencing those delays! Seemed like a "hurry up and wait" situation. And not having the key...how frustrating!