July Birth Stories

SmashJam · May 2018

Post your the story of your little one's birth here! We are all excited to hear all about it!

PLEASE DO NOT POST COMMENTS ON THIS THREAD, ONLY BIRTH STORIES. That way we don't get falsely excited for new stories and come back to a bunch of congrats and questions.

CONGRATS OR QUESTIONS ABOUT BIRTH CAN BE LEFT IN A DIFFERENT THREAD, SUCH AS "RANDOMS" OR OTHER CHECK IN THREADS.

stillcozy · May 2018

@BumpAdmin @BumpCaitlin @bumptara can we get this stickied?

SmashJam · June 2018

@BumpAdmin @BumpCaitlin @bumptara sticky please!

crabcake18 · June 2018

My twins came so fast it’s hard to know where to start! I’ve been crampy and could feel really low movements lately which reminded me of ds1 after he dropped. No consistent labor signs and they boys were being monitored at ultrasound/NST appointments so we tried not to worry. We had a family day on Memorial Day just us and ds1, and I was thinking that I wished it would be June already, it felt like an important time milestone for keeping the boys on the inside and developing. At 11pm on 5/28, my water broke, I was 32 weeks and it was scary but I knew what had happened. Mil came to stay with ds1 and DH and I tried to get things together. I was gushing a lot so we left for the hospital ASAP. The water was clear so I felt positive. We had to go to a different hospital with a nicu. We spent awhile in triage and they didn’t have my paperwork so I had to be swabbed for GBS/tested for water presence and it was so painful, I was at 1cm. They talked about stopping my labor and keeping me pregnant but my body was really progressing and I could feel contractions starting. They seemed to catch on that things were changing as I got paperwork together. Finally we were taken into l & d. I tried to use the bathroom but it was painful and I felt pressure increasing. I got back onto bed and was checked and was complete! I wondered how I wasn’t screaming in pain, needed to breathe deeply but it was manageable. since i have was twins we had to deliver in the OR, it was intimidating and DH was in scrubs which was added to the intensity, I really wanted a vaginal delivery. The Ob held me in place while I got my epi placed. We waited for contractions to come and I started pushing. Hayden was born quickly and I got to see his little body, he cried and I was amazed to see that even though he was three pounds he looked bigger somehow, it was incredible. We waited for Nolan to move down and I was worried he had gone breech as it was so quiet but I would get to deliver him the same way and I was so happy. They broke his water and it was like a water balloon went off! A few more pushes and he was here and crying too. DH went to be with the boys and we waited for my placenta which took about half an hour. In four hours, I’d delivered my twins, it was so fast. Seeing them in the nicu was, IS very hard, being home without them is too. I miss them being on the inside with me. They are making progress and I’m pumping for them which feels great. They look so much like ds1, just in mini form. I’m so happy to have three little guys now. Any positive thoughts headed our way are appreciated. Laura

knottie9f2468e8835387e9 · June 2018

I went in for a normal appointment on Wednesday 5/30 at 35 weeks 2 days and my blood pressure was 150/110 and it was late in the day and they wanted my labs back immediately so they sent me over to L&D. There my blood pressure was 165/100 and my doctor came to discuss induction deeming me severe preeclamptic. I got my I.V.s done and got moved from triage to a real room and not long after I was having a cervical exam and having cervidil placed. I was at 0 cm and 0 % but everyone assured me this was normal because my body wasn't ready but that we had to get this going. I'm so glad we started the process when we did because my symptoms only got worse, I was having pounding headaches and blurry vision and my feet, legs, hands and arms are still insane looking days later from being so swollen. We waited the 12 hours for the cervidil to work while I was hooked up to magnesium to keep me from having a seizure, which is good that I didn't have any seizures but the mag made me so weak and also made it so I was totally confined to the bed because I was a fall risk. At the next cervical exam I hadn't progressed but my cervix was softening so they did a mezo (spelling?) Cervical suppository which lasts 4 hours, I started having some cramping with this one and when they checked me I was at 1 cm. We did another mezo with no progression and then a cervidil for overnight. The next morning still no progress they did another mezo and 4 hours later I was still 1 cm. At this point we're at 48 hours if trying to get me past 1 cm so they decide to try the balloon. This in the top 3 for most horrible pains I've experienced (and I've had a bone marrow biopsy) I was basically flying off the bed away from the doctor. Once it was placed it was still awful and uncomfortable but I started to get used to it after like 4 hours. I started having contractions and timing them, they were sometimes 5 minutes apart lasting 30 seconds and other times 2-3 minutes lasting 90 seconds. I started to get hopeful that the balloon was doing its job. The contractions were really painful because of the pressure from the balloon but i stuck it out without any pain med other than Tylenol for my headache. After the first 12 hours they checked me and said I was 3 cm 90% but that often times the balloon stretches you out more than you actually are and that it could go back down a bit when they remove it. The deflated the vaginal side of the balloon and left the cervical side in place for another 12 hours. When my doctor came to remove it and check me I went right back down to 1 cm. My doctor explained that we could try another mezo (or 3, max I could have would be 6, so another 12 hours) and that we couldn't really start pitocin because my cervix wasn't anywhere near ready and it would just exhaust me for no reason. So at this point with how bad my symptoms and blood pressure had gotten and how exhausted I was from basically being strapped to a bed and hooked up to magnesium for 3 days I opted for a c section. It took about 4 hours to get into the O.R. and I was pretty shaky from the mag and from nerves by the time we got to go. I hated that I had to wait so long to have my husband in the room but luckily my doctor is super nice so she kept me calm chit chatting and joking around with me. The spinal epidural was a lot less scary than I was anticipating and I haven't had around adverse reaction to it. My husband was brought in and I could tell he was pretty panicked seeing me basically crucified on the table, but he looked really cute in his scrubs. The procedure went really quick and really well and my son was born at 4:58 p.m. on Saturday June 2nd at 35 weeks+5 days weighing 5 lbs. 12 oz. I only got to see him for a minute before the nicu doctors took him and the rest of the procedure seemed to take a lifetime while I was waiting to know how he was doing. In recovery I got to have my mom and my husband sit with me and half way through my husband got to go see our son in the nicu, not gonna lie I was pretty jealous and if I could have felt my feet I would have insisted on going too. I didn't get to see him until 11:30 that night and only got to sit and hold him for like 10 minutes because they had to put him back in the incubator. It was and still is so hard sleeping away from him but I love all the nicu nurses and I've been able to nurse him every 3 hours since Sunday. I'm going to be staying in Ronald McDonald House after my discharge because we live 45 minutes from the hospital. I still don't know when he's coming home but he's doing so well and he gets stronger everyday. I'm still so in shock that I get to be his mom

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5020794/uploads/editor/fd/c97g7bdx0sih.jpg

hayhay93 · June 2018

Sorry it took me a couple days to get this story up.

On Wednesday, June 6th, I went to my final appt. with my OB, I was scheduled for c-section on June 12th. My blood pressure was pretty high so they had me lay down on my side for a retest, they had a medical student check it the 2nd time and I could tell she couldn't get the cuff on right and said it was miraculously down to 120/80. I had been feeling crappy for 2 weeks with stomach pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, etc. I mentioned it to my doctor but he wasn't very concerned and sent me home. Luckily, Thursday I got a call from the hospital saying they needed to do a retest on my blood for the blood disorder I have, but their policy is to also monitor bp and do NST. My bp was high and kept raising higher. My doctor was out of town but the on call doctor admitted me and tried to bring down my bp with magnesium, with the intention of waiting to do my c section until the next day so that they could give me a clotting agent for my blood disorder. My blood levels didn't get any better and I was informed that I wouldn't be allowed to be awake or have anyone in the room with me during c-section. It was really scary and as I was strapped to the table I was seriously wondering if I would make it out alive or if River would but when I woke up, my mom was holding River and I got to see his sweet little face for the first time. They immediately handed him to me for skin to skin contact. The OR nurses said that somehow River had turned breech since my last ultrasound on Tuesday and that he didn't want to come out lol. It took them a minute to get him breathing but once they did, he did really well and has passed all of the tests so far with flying colors. So his official birthday is 6/8/2018, 37 weeks 5 days. He was the exact length and weight I was as a baby; 7 lb 15 oz, 21 inches!

Thank you to all of the ladies that encouraged me throughout this pregnancy. Coming back to California was one of the best decisions I've made as we've had wonderful doctors and the support of my friends and family. I never would have come back if it wasn't for some of the women on here. Also, kudos to second time moms. This c-section has me thinking I'm an only child's mama

ethnomusicwhat · June 2018

I went in for my scheduled NST on Thursday (scheduled because I'm AMA and my midwives do twice weekly testing for AMA's past 36 weeks). Baby's heart rate wasn't varying as much as they wanted (this had happened before), but new this time was that his heart rate was decelerating with contractions. So, over to the hospital for more monitoring. The trend continued at the hospital, so my midwife made the call to start my induction then and there, rather than waiting for the scheduled induction on Tuesday.

We started pitocin at around 5:30 pm; at this point I was still around 3.5 cm dilated, which I'd been since Tuesday. After a few hours on the IV, and sitting on a ball, I was slowly, slowly progressing. My midwife wanted to keep things slow, since I had extra amniotic fluid, and she didn't want to break it until baby had descended far enough to stay down once my water broke, and also avoid a possible cord prolapse. The problem is that the extra fluid also makes my contractions less effective. However, by about 12:30 am, in the middle of a set of contractions that were requiring some focused breathing with my midwife by my side, my eyes popped open--my water actually broke on it's own. (This is my third baby, and the first time that's happened!) Things moved slightly faster after that.

I asked for IV pain meds at around 3:30 or so when the contractions became more than I could handle through breathing. They gave me Stadol, which really only seemed to make me sleepy; my husband was slightly amused that I would put his hand in a death grip during a contraction, and literally be snoring as soon as the contraction was over. This went on for about an hour until I felt like I needed to push; I was only at 9 cm, but my midwife said I could push through if I wanted. I tried to deliver on my side, but baby's head wasn't coming down enough, so onto my back I went. This, oddly, seemed better for him. He was facing neither up nor down, but sideways, so once his head was in the birth canal, my midwife had to start turning him. Amazingly, he was out with about 4 contractions worth of pushing, all 9 lbs 3 oz of him. While I managed not to tear, he did end up with a fractured left clavicle, and some fluid in his lungs. They were able to do the basic exam while he was on my abdomen and we waited for the cord to stop pulsing, (he was crying, but also making noises that cued them to the fact that he had breathed in some fluid) then they brought in NICU to suction him. Thankfully, that was all the intervention he required, and they brought him right back to me for some skin to skin time.

We're home now, and his shoulder is a bit better every day. I'd forgotten how much I hated the after birth cramping; unfortunately, it really is worse the third time around. Motrin is my new best friend, as is lots of water and lots of peeing. Now to settle in to a routine of naps, pumping, bottles, and watching my big boys love on their new little man.

stillcozy · June 2018

Here it goes

So we arrived at the hospital a little before 6am. I got my labs done and and iv placed (after three failed attempts and one blown vein resulting in a huge bruise). Everyone was so comforting and kind. I got prepped and walked into the OR and was really nervous. My OB held my hand as I got the spinal placed. She is seriously the best. Once I was prepped and draped they brought my husband in and he sat right next to me and held mh hand. I had not even realized they had started so that was a positive. She born about 7 minutes later, coming into the world screaming. I burst into tears immediately upon hearing her cry. What an amazing thing to witness her entering the world.

Once she was brought to the warmer the nurse showed us her cord. Which looked good but had TWO complete knots in different places but thankfully loose. They said if I had tried for a vbac it would have ended in an emergency c section in the best case scenario but could have been so much worse. I did get sick a few times during the second part of the surgery but my anesthesia nurse was amazing and he immediately gave me zofran and suggested pain meds which he started early when he could tell I was feeling really uncomfortable during the surgery.

She is beautiful stork bite and all. we are so incredibly in love. She is latching really well which was a struggle for me with dd. They are paying close attention to my supply and helping me so much. I am so so grateful for such a caring and comforting dr, and nursing staff.

kc1293 · June 2018

I had been having some cramping Saturday to Monday. When I woke up on Tuesday, they were becoming more painful. I went to work as they weren't too bad, and they weren't close enough. Contractions kept coming at work all day, but again nothing timetable. I left an hour early to go home and soak in the tub. That felt great! Finally, DH said he was forcing me to go to the hospital. Dropped the kids off at the IL's and made our way to the hospital. Arrived a little after 8 pm. Cervix check was 5 cm. Asked for an epidural. By the time the anesthesiologist came, I was already wanting to push and wouldn't be able to sit still for the epidural. My Dr was in the OR doing a c section and it took a minute for them to get another doctor. By the time the Dr came in, one push and she was out at 9:30 pm. He had to break my water, and I saw the gush go everywhere! So a little over an hour at the hospital. Definitely my fastest delivery. Any ladies who do med free births, you are bosses! I was 38+5 weeks. She was 6 lbs. 6 oz. 19 inches. Excited for her to meet her big brother and sister!

kbernal2021 · June 2018

Woke up at 255 am and had to pee per usual around this time. Got back in bed and felt a small gush, didn't think much of it other than I hadn't fully emptied my bladder so I brushed it off. Felt another small gush and figured I better get up and check so I went back to the bathroom and sat down on the toilet to take my shorts off/change my underwear. I noticed I had lost my MP in full along with the bloody show so I went to grab a liner when my entire water burst into the toilet. I knew it was time so I called my mom, my husbands sgts and drove myself to the hospital. My husband was able to catch a 530 am flight which landed at 1030. I informed l&d of my situation regarding my husband so the nurses tried to stall labor as much as possible by doing no pitocin, and no cervical checks. Given my history of fast labor we decided for me to basically stay in the same position until DH arrived. Epidural was placed about 8 am and I was able to rest until my husband got there at 1115. I was checked and was 6 cm so they turned me on my left side to reposition and I immediately felt pressure, checked again not even 5 minutes and I was 9 cm. Nurse ran out of the room to grab something and I was ready to push literally a minute later. 3 pushes and at 1143 am our sweet girl came into the world weighing 5 pounds 4 oz and 18 & 1/4 inches long. The nurse said had dh been here when I went in at 3 am my labor would have only been an hour or two! She ended up being the 6 percentile for her gestation age of only 38 weeks 3 days, but no NICU time, they are just watching her blood sugars to be sure she's not hypoglycemic. Overall she is so tiny but oh so perfect in every way and big brother is completely in awe of his baby sister!! Wishing you all a happy and healthy rest of your pregnancies and it's been such a blessing bumping with you all

catftm2018 · June 2018

My story, it’s a long one but has a great ending

I was scheduled on 6/21 at 10am to be induced. Due to a diagnosis of Oligohydramnios (low amniotic fluid). My fluid was at a 3 after my weekly BPP test on 6/19, (normal is 6-25) so they gave me two steroid shots and scheduled my induction.

Upon our arrival to the hospital on 6/21 they were crazy backed up. First with people there for complications and then so many people came in that were in active labor. So we waited to even be seen in triage for a long time. At one point the Midwife from my practice saw me and stopped to speak to me. She explained they were waiting on a bed to check me in triage and literally had to wait until some labor rooms became available. She said it was just a crazy night and lots of babies decided to come. She gave me the option to go home- but I was so excited I just told her I’d wait it out.

Waiting game:

They finally took us to triage at 1PM, (they also told me to eat whatever I wanted and to bring snacks so I was fine with waiting lol. Baby was doing great but then we waited until 6:30-7pm for a labor room to open up. When it finally did I had already felt like we’d been through so much lol but it was only the bringing.

Induction:

They started out by trying 12 hours of Cervidil. It’s like a tiny string that gets inserted vaginally. You can’t take it out for 12 hours. After they insert it you remain laying down a minimum of 2 hrs. They gave that at like 11 pm so it was bed time anyway. So they came to check on me at 11am. 6/22 I had no change. I think I wasn’t dilated at all to begin with.

Attempt #2 was a vaginally inserted Cytotec. Took that and no change to my cervix.

Attempt #3 was an orally inserted Cytotec.

Attempt #4 was another orally inserted Cytotec.

Attempt #5 6/23 1cm dilated. This was some form of balloon torture where they inserted balloons one near babies head and one outside and inflated them. This was supposed to get me to 4cm dilation and then fall out. The doctors that inserted it hurt so bad. I was crying and in agony. The damn thing fell out when I used the bathroom 4 hours later and I believe started pitocin.

Attempt #6 2 cm dilated. My doctor came in and explained she truly felt that the first balloon thing did not work and wasn’t inserted correctly. She said it should not have hurt and she assured me she would do it quickly and painlessly. (She did)she stopped the pitocin because it was not making me have contractions.

She then inserted it then had me start pitocin again. No sooner did she insert the balloon properly that I started to feel all the contractions. It went from zero pain, to me crying and screaming our in agony. I didn’t even know what was wrong with me. I was begging for pain meds. For some reason I hadn’t felt any of the contractions leading up to that so when I finally felt them they were so strong I nearly passed out from the pain.

Then I got an epidural. I wish I would have told them no cervical checks and an epidural before anything. Everyone told me to wait to get the epidural because of this or that. Well I got it when I was 2 cm and I am so happy that I did. After that I felt no discomfort during exams and overall just felt more relaxed.

My contractions did not pick up, after a million checks I got to 4cm and my doc broke my water in hopes my body would take care of the rest with the pitocin. That went on for another 2-3 hrs with no successful progression.

My doc then came in to discuss a c-section. On this last attempt babies heart rate was very high 177–185 range with no decelerations to normal.

Attempt #7 C-section- so we needed to do a c-section it wasn’t emergency but they also didn’t want to wait any longer then absolutely necessary. My experience with that was also very positive. I discussed with my doctor that my only birth plan was to listen to Whitney Houston once contractions started. She then said she would try to play it on the OR it depends what selection they have. We get to the OR, and my doctor says OMG you won’t believe what’s in the CD player, she said The bodyguard soundtrack!!!! At that moment I knew all would be okay, I knew that was the sign I’d been waiting for. In about 20 mins my beautiful sweet baby boy was born. I had no pain or anxiety during the surgery. I was very groggy in recovery, but I’d spend a day with an epidural then straight to the OR and more meds. That’s all I have for now!!! Good luck ladies with your labors!!

TBH: even though this lasted so many days I never ever got discouraged or wanted to rush it. My doctors were on board with that and that made me feel like we literally tried it all and didn’t just jump to do a c.

Its been so nice to meet you all ans bump with you!! Good luck and safe and speedy births to you all!!!!

millpe · June 2018

Okay I finally (maybe) have time to write this out. I've started this 3 times already!

I had a normal appointment Friday (6/22). I was already monitoring my BP at home after a 24 urine sample came back with elevated proteins earlier in the week. At that point my BP was still normal I had only had one borderline reading at home and my urine was negative for protein. My dr told me she thought I was developing pre-eclampsia and that I would have appointments twice a week and to keep taking my BP at home twice a day. I was also 3cm (from completely closed the week before). DH was playing in a softball tourney over the weekend (and ended up blowing out his knee - but that's a whole different story!). I was out and about and in the heat all weekend and Sunday evening my BP was elevated so I ended up in L&D for monitoring. Urine came back negative for protein and baby was perfect so I was discharged on bedrest.

Monday morning (6/25) I called my dr's nurse line knowing she was out just to update her and check if they wanted me to be seen sooner or just stay on bedrest. The on call dr had me come in for what I thought would just be a quick lab and BP check. My urine was still negative, BP was still elevated, platelets had started to drop, and I was 4cm. My dr was consulted and she made the call to induce me that day! I didn't get to go home, so luckily I had my hospital bag packed and in the car but DH had nothing!

Checked into the hospital around 1pm and got the IV and everything ready just waiting for the orders. The on call dr came in and went over the plan. First cervix check I was at 5cm (before starting any interventions!). Around 2pm I was started on magnesium to reduce seizure risk for my elevated bp, then I did the first round of antibiotics (GBS positive). When they broke my water around 3pm I was already 6cm! Everybody was amazed I was progressing on my own (I think he would have come this week even without the induction). Because of this i refused the pitocin (or rather asked to wait).

I didn't feel much for the first couple hours even though I was contracting and progressing. Around 5:30/6 the contractions became painful so I requested an epidural which I got around 6:30pm. After that I was still feeling a ton of pressure and changed positions a couple times before having them check me again. I was 9.5 with just a sliver left. What seemed like just a couple minutes later a new nurse came in and said she thought it was time to push. I pushed through 2 contractions and he was crowning so they called the dr in - not pushing while waiting was almost as bad as pushing! Once the dr was there I pushed through 1.5 more contractions. Beckett made his arrival at 7:30pm! Just 4.5 hours after getting my water broke and 7lb 11oz after being estimated just over 6lbs a few days before. He stunned everyone! He has been the most perfect and healthy baby!

I had to be on magnesium for another 12 hours after delivery so it was great to be able to finally get up after being in bed 18+ hours! My BP finally came down the evening of 6/26 so we were discharged 6/27 and are now home as a family!

pretzellover · June 2018

Like many of yours, my birth story has been a windy road. I’m AMA (38); finally conceived by IVF after many years of struggling; and have a platelet disorder which is hereditary & causes major bleeding risks.

Despite getting SPD, developing severe diastasis early and having hemorrhoids for 2/3 of my pregnancy, I felt things went pretty well! until... week 31 when I learned baby was huge (head 93rd percentile & abdomen 90th); week 35 when I discovered my flaky high-risk Ob wasn’t high risk after all; and Week 36 when I learned the baby was breech. This all resulted in a general anesthesia CS at 38+1, which my OB didn’t hold back in harping on the risks to me bc of blood loss & ‘potentially catastrophic outcomes’ for me or baby (bc of increased trauma & bleeding from a CS when I don’t clot efficiently).

Leading up to yesterday’s procedure I was a mess. Like borderline catatonic. Completely terrified of the risks my Ob kept mentioning, and feeling helpless bc the hematologist said my condition is hereditary with no pre-emptive treatmenr options. Everyone who vaguely knows me and those who have the misfortune of riding beside me on the subway saw me meltdown the last 1.5 weeks!

For my CS yesterday (3 hours delayed bc of busy hospital), they had blood and platelets in the OR ready to go for a transfusion and my surgical team was 9 people, including 2 Obs and 2 anesthesiologists! While it’s still early bc of high complication risks of internal bleeding (and I have some weird uneven swelling and possibly worrisome symptoms today), I am beyond grateful to have woken up to my baby boy and DH. Baby as 8lb 3oz, and 90th percentile (I’m 5’6 and petite; husband 6’5”); not sire he’d have made it out on his own regardless! It’s been a bit of a rocky start to breastfeeding bc I didn’t see or hold my baby for almost 3 hours post CS & all hes wanted was sleep so far. Curious what today brings!

Thanks for all your support ladies. Even when I was just lurking, this community helped keep me sane and get through lots of ups downs this year!

ETA 2x bc in trying to be brief parts of this made no sense!

itsagalsworls1024 · July 2018

A week later and finally getting around to posting this...Theres a little back story bear with me ...

Between 6/23 & 6/24 we were at 2 outdoor parties and I had small headaches throughout the weekend. Sunday night i woke dreamt about a headache i was having it was that bad. When I woke up on 6/25 I knew it was going to be a rough day. I went about my normal routine DS to daycare and off to work. Around 11:45 i called my OB office because the headache was getting worse and I wanted to see if they wanted me to come in earlier than my 230 appointment. .We played phone tag so I just went to my appointment as normal, I told the nurse about the headache as she took me back for the usual checks,weight, BP and urine. when my OB came in i told her about the headache. My BP was elevated in the 140s/80s range. She told me "you earned a trip to triage, sign these consent forms in case we deliver you".

Fast forward an hour and we got settled into triage, I wasnt 100% sure we were going to be having a baby until the OB on all for my office walked in, she said they discussed my history. 1 prior high BP, with protein in urine and contracting so this time i was dubbed pre eclamptic and we were just gonna deliver the baby at 37 + 4. I was excited, DH looked like he was gonna pass out. we let our parents know. DS was with my mom, And then the ball got rolling. I was given 2 tylenol in hopes of avoiding magnesim(which was successful).

we walked over to the OR around 730pm and I Instantally started to get more nervous as soon as I walked in my legs were literally shaking. the anesthesiologist was amazing he explained how I was going to feel and what i was feeling, from there everyone dideverything they could to keep me calm and explain what was happening. My husband was brought in and at 804 PM my daughter was born. I started to feel nauseous and they took care of that right away. DH cut the cord(he wasnt allowed to do so with DS) and they stayed with me in the or until we moved to recovery.

Once in recovery we did skin to skin and she latchedimmediately. She has been nursing like a champ since.Its been a crazy week, but we are settling in as a family of 4 nicely.

Good luck on the rest of your pregnancies. cant wait to read your birth stories!

Edited because mobile didnt post the whole story... good times.

wildtot · July 2018

Here it goes...
We had been on a cleaning spree all weekend and Monday. So a bunch of bending and carrying going on. Throughout Monday i kept seeing pieces of blood MP and discharge. Towards the end of the afternoon early evening i stated to notice more frequent and painful contractions but not too timeable. Around 7pm despite resting and drinking water my contractions were about 6/7 mins apart and 45s to 1 min long. By 9pm i called the nurse to see if i should come in since i also has the bloody stuff coming out. By this time my contractions were stronger and i was almost crying. We got so lucky that our sitter was willing to come stay at our home while DS slept. So we headed to L&D at 930pm. I was literally crying through contractions! I was disappointed to hear that i was only dilated to 2cm and 80% effaced. Unfortunately my ob was not on call so had to proceed with another for my c section. I am about disappointed with the doctor i got. All my wishes of making it a memorable moment went out the door because she didn’t do that stuff. So no light dimming, no clear curtain but i got my music and immediate skin to skin. Also got my tubal while in there.

Collin was born at midnight! And he looks like a smaller version of his brother. He’s doing well with nursing so far and is a very good sleeper! I’ll be leaving recovery soon. H will have to go home for a bit so DS doesn’t get weirded out without one of us when he wakes. We’ll also need to find someone to stay the night with DS Tuesday night because my parents don’t arrive till Wednesday morning.

jbosch30 · July 2018

I was scheduled to be induced on July 2nd... so my husband was going to go visit his daughter who is at Governor's school for the summer on July 1st.... which is 1.45 hours away from our house.... well of course on July 1st I woke up at 5:15 am with what I am sure are contractions (I was induced with my first so I didn't know what natural labor felt like) I didn't want to wake my husband for fear it was false labor and prevent him from leaving at 6:15... but at 5:45 when his alarm had gone off I had already had 5-6 contractions..
I had to tell him of the possibility. We decided to let him take a shower and start actually counting in the next 15 minutes I had 4 more contractions. We decided to head to the hospital.

We arrived around 715- at this point my contractions were getting painful and hard to walk. They quickly put me in a room and saw I was 7cm and 90% effaced and her head was extremely low causing constant pain/pressure.
They said I was too far for regular meds but would have to wait for an epidural due to it being Sunday and they only had one anestiologist and he was down in trauma.... I wont lie I screamed,cried, and cursed for the next 2.5 hours... I was begging for meds or a c-section anything... the nurses and dr were honestly panicky and pissed that I couldn't be helped... that the hospital was so understaffed... finally at around 10:45/11am I recieved my epidural... immediately I felt no pain.. all gone... the checked me at that point I was ready to go... I pushed my daughter out in 3 contractions and can admit I felt nothing it was glorious at that point... she was born 11:22am 6lbs 14oz and 20.5 inches long- I love her so much- but i wont lie this labor was much more traumatic than my first...(where I felt no pain all day because of meds and epidural, but felt pain at the actual delivery because of the epidural wearing off) I hope that doesn't scare new moms- more of a lesson- dont wait or take your time if you want meds.

sm05-2 · July 2018

I was originally scheduled to have my c-section on Monday, July 2nd, but had been having early contractions since Wednesday and Thursday of last week, so I suspected something was up, even though my cervix was closed. On Friday I relaxed with a book, but by the evening my contractions were getting stronger (my contractions felt like period cramps). When DH and I went to bed, they were 6-8 minutes apart, a 45 seconds to a minute long, and strong enough to keep me from sleeping, which my medical team said would be a good reason to call, since I was supposed to avoid active labor.

So I called my OB’s office after hours and was dismayed when they called the OB on call at the hospital and that person advised me to take a warm shower, drink plenty of fluids, and only call back once my contractions were five minutes apart. I argued with the nurse about it, and she said that if my contractions were still preventing me from sleeping after showering, etc. to call back and they would take me in for observation. Contractions still hurt, so at 3:30 am Saturday they let me go to triage.

Had a painful cervical check there and was dilated 2 cm. They wanted me to wait another couple of hours to determine whether I was in active labor, so they kept monitoring me through my painful contractions. Then the original OB who saw me left, and the new one thought I had dilated further, but wasn’t sure, so she wanted one more hour of observation before determining whether to proceed with the section. Finally after another hour she determined I was dilated at 4 cm, and let DH and I know to prepare to deliver shortly (fortunately we had brought our hospital bags with us!).

After another hour or so I was in the OR about to get my spinal. I was nervous about it because there was a woman in there barking orders to the anesthesiologist and nurses telling them to do things a certain way in a loud voice, so she was making everyone nervous, but there was just a little stinging with the lidocaine and a little pressure with the other needle (I spoke about my crazy cat with the nurse holding my hand).

The OB on call said they would talk me through the procedure as they were doing it, but this is where things get blurry, because I don’t remember them doing that. They brought DH in and I felt like I was having an out of body experience, I could barely feel any tugging. As they’re about to deliver the baby in what feels like only five minutes into the procedure, the anal woman yells “A LOT OF PRESSURE!” but I didn’t feel that much but knew the baby would be out in the world soon. Then I hear baby Mira’s first cries—she has a pair of lungs!—and I was so relieved. One of the surgical staff brings her behind the curtain so that DH and I can see her, and the staff person makes a joke, saying, “Boy, she certainly didn’t miss out on any snacks!” She looked beautiful and huge and ended up weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces. DH cut her cord and held her by my head as they started patching me back together again. DH and Mira were made for each other—he immediately starts talking to her and cooing at her—and I cry a little bit.

I’m being discharged from the hospital tomorrow. I won’t lie, my recovery is a painful one, I’ll leave more details in the c-section thread soon. But it’s all so worth it for our beautiful baby girl, and I’m so glad we could welcome her into the world.

emsned · July 2018

I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, July 2nd, at 6:00 am. (My due date.) My husband was with me the whole time. I got started out on the IV with Pitocin right away. They started it in low doses and raised it every half an hour. My cervix was checked and I was at about 4 cm when I first arrived. The plan was to start Pitocin, get regular/strong contractions, and then break my water around lunch time. I was told the epidural would be administered around the same time as my water breaking. But things almost never go according to plan, do they? The nurse asked me to switch from side to side in bed to see if different positions would get my body and the baby to make some progress in the right direction. I was definitely getting stronger contractions as the Pitocin was being increased, but then baby’s heart rate started dropping a little bit after each contraction. So they checked my cervix again and I was only at 5 cm. They turned down the Pitocin back to where we started so that we could give baby a break. Then they slowly increased it again after baby was showing a steady heart rate. The contractions dropped dramatically when they slowed down the Pitocin and never really got back to where they had been. I sat on a birthing ball and walked around the hallway to try to get baby down farther into my pelvis and help contractions do their job. My obgyn was there to deliver that day, but right before coming to break my water there was an emergency with one of her other patients. So I had to wait another couple hours for her to get back, meanwhile basically laying around with moderately easy contractions and wondering if I would ever get to deliver that same day. Well, my dr came back to break my water at about 3:20 pm, and it was a huge gush of warm amniotic fluid. I immediately started feeling really intense/excruciating contractions. I asked for the epidural seconds after having the water broken, but apparently the anesthesiologist literally just went home. Just my luck. So they called another anesthesiologist but they were 30 minutes away and told the nurses that there was traffic. It didn’t matter. I knew within 15 minutes that my contractions were too close and too painful anyway. There was no way on earth I would have enough time to get the epidural, let alone sit still long enough to have the needle put in. These contractions had me writhing in pain, and I could feel all of the pressure coming down. My husband was talking to me, telling me anything he could think of to help take my mind off the pain. I had made it to 7-8 cm about 20-30 minutes after my water broke, and my nurse was trying to have me roll over onto my hands and knees to relieve the pain. The contractions only got worse though and the pressure made me want to push. I stayed in that position for a little while because my nurse was massaging my lower back, but I knew if I didn’t turn over for my next contraction that the baby was coming out. I turned over onto my back and my dr was about to have me lay down to have my cervix checked. But I just said “I have to push, I’m sorry!” And then my body totally took over. So my dr said “okay, I guess we’re having a baby!” And my body just involuntary started pushing this baby out during my next contraction. I could feel the head move out, but my contraction stopped. I tried pushing on my own once, but nothing happened. The next contraction took over again and before I knew it, my baby had fully emerged. Someone said “Do you want to say what it is?” And my husband said “It’s a boy!” They laid our baby boy on my chest for the next hour while they had me deliver the placenta and they stitched up a little tear from pushing. He latched on to my breast pretty quickly. We named him Hunter, and he was a whopping 8 lbs 14 oz! I still can’t believe how quickly he was delivered after my water broke, or how crazy-different the delivery feels compared to when I had an epidural for my previous birth. I’m so thankful Hunter is finally here and his daddy got to be present for the birth.

acunamatada · July 2018

For two weeks I had been woken up almost nightly with timetable, uncomfortable contractions that fizzled away. My 1st came a week early, as my due date with this LO came and went, I got extremely frustrated.

On 40+3 I woke up around midnight to mild contractions and had to pee. I went back to bed, didn’t bother timing them because I was so tired. I woke up to a small gush in bed at 1am, thought for a second I peed myself, made it to the bathroom before I had another gush and some MP. By then I knew my water had broken. I switched over a load of laundry and the floodgates opened and I lost a lot more AF. I called my mom and sister, my sister started her way over to my house to stay until DS woke up. Then I woke up DH. He went back to bed (must be nice).

I had somewhat painful contractions ranging from 2-6 min apart, we decided to go into l&d around 5 because my last labor was so fast, even though I wasn’t terribly in pain. I got checked and was only 4cm+70%, not much progress from the 3cm+70% I had been for two weeks. We walked to breakfast at the cafeteria and came back an hour later, by then contractions had picked up and I decided I didn’t want to do this without drugs again. Checked around 8, I was 6+80%. I signed the consent for nitrous gas like I had last time and preemptively signed the consent for an epidural should I decide the gas wasn’t enough.

I got admitted, got the gas as soon as I got settled but it didn’t help other than make me dizzy. Within 15 minutes I asked for an epidural- by now contractions were almost 2 min apart, almost back to back but I hadn’t been checked since triage- it had only been half an hour or so. They made two attempts at an epidural, first was wonky and my ears were ringing, second only took to my left side. By the time they finished attempt #2 and had me lay on my side to try and disperse the medication, they realized that the catheter had started coming out, so I felt everything on the right, and 50% or so on the left. I wish I skipped the epi all together, in the end it was more painful sitting for the procedure with how long it took for how much relief I got from it. They offered me some spinal block or to retry the epi, but wanted to check me first.

By then it was 9:50. And what do you know, baby’s head was right there and ready to go! In a haze I asked him what that meant, how many cm was I? To that he said you’re having a baby it’s time to push! I told them I couldn’t do that because I hurt too much to move lol.

The l&d nurse promised me I wouldn’t have to push for 2.5 hours like I did with DS. She was right, not even 5 contractions later baby Fiona entered the world. It was the most amazing moment, DH, LO and I all cried. She is 7lbs 9oz, 19.5in- smaller than her big brother was, even though she came a week an a half later, now I see why she took her time!

LO was rooting almost immediately, and latched as soon as I could get a good position after delivering the placenta and getting stitched up (got away with a 1st degree tear this time). She nursed for almost an hour before they weighed her and began working on her, then we went to the pp room. She’s so precious, I’m still in awe that she’s ours and we get to bring her home. DS met her this afternoon and was such a sweetheart, I can’t wait to see what a great big brother he’s going to be.

ckmb_1250 · July 2018

Congrats on everyone’s beautiful stories! I had waited to read any until I had my own, so I am still working through them. Baby GIRL was born 7/6 at 5:42 am and I haven’t slept yet

I let my Dr do a cervix check the first time on 7/2 & was 2cm, +2, posterior cervix. I lost a big hunk of MP the morning of 7/4 and more on 7/5 throughout the day, but was still just feeling ‘crampy’ so I didn’t know what to think. My doula was convinced baby would come soon & had me make one last chiro appt for morning of 7/6.
The evening of 7/5 I was going to bed around 9:30 and noticed some more intense cramps. Around 11:30 I woke up and noticed they were consistently every 10 mins, but still felt more like cramps, not what I’d imagined contractions to feel like. I dozed in and out the next couple hours, thinking if it didn’t get any worse I’d still plan to go to my chiro appt in the morning

but around 1 I felt a cramp and a popping feeling, then noticed a lot of fluid. I wasn’t convinced at the time it was my water breaking but it surely was. The cramps got more intense & closer together over the next hour until 2am when I decided I should wake my husband up and text my doula. At this point I started thinking this may be it, but was continually preparing myself for it to get much more intense. My plan was to stay home as long as possible to avoid intervention so I was in no rush. I sat on the edge of my bed while my husband timed contractions and texted my doula, and soon found that I was wanting to grunt/ push down during them. I think my doula was skeptical so I eventually just yelled to my husband “call her!” and after listening to me over the phone she suggested I check my cervix myself. I found that I could get about an inch in and feel baby’s head, so it quickly became a rush to the hospital while I was holding back pushing which is INTENSE. I think I had about 3 contractions in the car, one on the bench in front of the hospital, and one sitting in a wheelchair in line to check into l&d until someone grabbed me and got me to a bed. Miraculously my Dr was on call that night, I got on a bed and pushed for about 20 minutes before baby girl was born. I’m so happy and still in disbelief at how perfectly it all happened. I had a stubborn placenta and quite a bit of bleeding so Dr had to manipulate it out, which was not pleasant, but no more heavy bleeding since. Baby girl loves to nurse & has somehow had 2 wet / 2 dirty diapers on day one, now if only she’d give me a chance to sleep!

kat029 · July 2018

I was at 37 weeks when I went to the doctor and found out I was 2 cm dilated and ‘thinning out’. The baby had dropped by then – along with it, a new set of complications. First, naturally, was lightning crotch, a jolt of pain. Then, contractions. Fake ones, real ones, steady ones, not so steady ones. Nightime insomnia, and to throw it in there, I was working with a fake-it-til-you-make-it smile. I had a really good support group at work, though, and I can’t complain too much about it.

I lasted another 9 days like that. I thought each new day was going to be the day, but any serious contractions eventually fizzled. I went to my scheduled doctor’s appointment. He did the normal tests, and after 9 days of the contractions, they turned out to not be doing too much. I was still only 2 cm dilated. I did have high blood pressure, that he confirmed twice (once at the beginning of the appointment, another at the end after some calming alone time). He told me then to head to the hospital. He was going to put me on Cervidil for the night, meet up with me in the morning, and start the Pitocin.

DH met me at the house. We ate a dinner. Then checked into the hospital. Compared to my last pregnancy, it’s a pretty large and beautiful hospital. I was given a room immediately, and within the hour, the nurse gave me the Cervidil. I didn’t know what to expect with it, so I was a little un-prepared. There were two parts to the medication. The first one is placement, which feels like a dilation check (only worse), and the second one is like a tampon feeling contraption. After insertion, I had to laid down flat on my back for two hours. That part was harder than it sounds. Since the baby was lying on a nerve, I had spikes shooting down my body and they wouldn’t let me shift to one hip. Once the two hours were up, I felt totally different. My outer vag felt more swollen and heavier than anything I’ve experienced – almost like it was beaten/bruised. I also started feeling heavy period cramps. Contractions happened consistently, but they weren’t as painful as the ones I experienced at home (not yet…)

Over the night, I may have gotten 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I wish I would’ve packed pillows from home. The discomfort from the Cervidil wasn’t so bad, but there was a combination of things preventing me from sleeping – mainly cords, beeping monitors, and not being in my own ridiculously comfy bed.

The next morning, around 8 AM, they started on the Pitocin/Oxycotin. I was barely 3 cm dilated by this point, and the effects of the Cervidil (mainly the super swelling) was gone. The Pitocin drip got the contractions going stronger and more frequent. Not unbearable pain. They continued to increase the amount of Pitocen every 30 minutes, but it didn’t see the change how strong the contractions were. At 2 PM, I dilated to 4 cm. Still played the waiting game. By 6 PM, my contractions felt weaker than they did at 10 AM despite going from about 8 milliunits per minute to 28. Also at 6 PM I noticed a little blood when I went to the bathroom. By this point, I’ve only been allowed ice chips. I’ve officially been at the hospital for 24 hours. I’m hungry, but surprisingly not grumpy. Despite how different my pregnancy was with my first son and this son, I can’t help but laugh at how similar the laboring experience has been up to this point.

They talked about breaking my water since 2 PM, and I’m not sure why we didn’t move forward with breaking my water then. I’m not in a hurry though, and I worry that if we push things too quickly, it could be harmful for the baby. At 6:25 PM, they broke my water. It was surprisingly soothing, and contractions started coming on harder. A lot harder.

I hit 7 cm around 10:30 PM, and I got my epidural then. The epidural was incredible. All my pain was gone immediately. I was able to talk and converse with the people in my room (my mom actually came! I didn’t think she would, but she did).

Around 12:30 AM on the 7th, I was fully dilated. The baby was still higher than they thought it would be and I didn’t really have the ‘urge’ to push. I always thought it was weird how you could have no pain what-so-ever, but you still felt the overwhelming need to push. The nurse wanted to see if we should get the doctor or wait for the urge, and asked me to push through the next contraction. I did. She got the doctor and everything blurred. I pushed with each contraction, and with this being my second child, the pushing came much, much easier for me. At 1:09 AM, Clyde Alexander was born – all screaming 8 pounds 5 ounces of him. The placenta came soon after, and I cradled my new little love. I had a 2nd degree tear. There’s such a difference in pain between my first son, which was a 3rd degree tear, and my second son.

morethanamama · July 2018

Sorry for the novel!!

I turned 39 weeks on Saturday June 30 with zero labor signs, and at my 38 week appointment I was still closed and zero effaced.

On Sunday, I woke up to some period cramps and got excited that as something was at least happening. We ran errands and went to the beach and I started getting uncomfortable, the cramps felt more like light contractions and they had a pattern. I walked on the beach and went up some pretty steep stairs to go back to the car. We even checked out an open house that afternoon and I did more walking.

Went out to eat and at that point I had stopped thinking about timing the "cramps".

However, once I got home at 10pm it became clear that there was a pattern to what I started to suspect were contractions. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 8:30am on Monday and thought maybe this was false or maybe early labor, but that I should try to track these and let the doctor know. I didn't say anything to my mom and let her go to bed.

I was up with DH for at least 3 hours, the pattern was still 8-6 minutes but they were lasting 30 seconds and for most I really had to focus on the breathing and get into different positions to get past them but not of them were really painful.

I told DH to sleep and that I would try to track on my own and maybe sleep through them but it was impossible. They were coming roughly every 6 minutes.

In the morning, I had breakfast and told DH and my mom to prep for the hospital just in case. We headed to the doctor's for the usual NST and fluid check. I was also supposed to have a cervix check (how convenient!). I was 4cm! I couldn't believe it. So on to the NST we went. This is where things got a little difficult.

I had felt baby move all night but he was not cooperating at the NST. We tried a few things and I felt like he was totally fine. However, the doctor was not happy with his heartbeat changes. He said baby was definitely coming soon but suggested to check into the hospital and start pitocin to speed things up.

I pushed back as hard as I could. Said baby was moving and he was just lazy and he agreed that could be the case but also he medically could not confirm that baby was doing well. It was a very hard decision but I decided to follow his advice. However, I asked for a couple of hours before going to the hospital and he agreed.

I checked in with my doula and she was also confused about why they would want to induce since my body was doing its thing. She also told me not to feel bad as I would probably need very little and told me she would meet me at the hospital.

We checked in at 12:15pm. We explained the situation to the nurse and she was also confused...she checked me and I was almost 5cm by then. I refused the fluids and got hooked to the monitor for a bit just to confirm the movements. Lo and behold, baby looks great. The nurse is confused. She says I am technically there for an induction and this doesn't look like an induction. We tried to ask for nipple stimulation with a pump instead but the issue was that I was basically now taking up a room for what was supposed to be an induction so if I were to go a different route then I'd have to go home.

In my heart I felt like baby was fine and I was right but I was also getting stressed and tired so I decided to see what the lowest dose of pit would do.

I got a wireless monitor and was able to walk around. DH and the doula took turns walking with me. It was hard but I was still able to walk through the contractions. Idon't think my mom was expecting to be there in the room through the whole thing but we were too deep into things to send her away.

The doula also had me try a couple of positions on my side to stretch my hip, but after a while I felt like I was starting to feel to safe in the bed and was afraid I was not going to get up anymore.

Once the pit got to 3 (it was upped every half hour) I started to have a lot of back pain with every contractions. I was checked and I was almost at 6cm by then. However contractions were still not 3 min apart as they wanted. They gave me an option to break my waters or up the pit, and I opted for the pit because I wanted to have another cervix check. At that point, things got real. The back pain was pretty unbearable. I could not control my breathing anymore. I started telling DH maybe I needed some pain meds. He helped me get through it but I was starting to get delirious. Then all of a sudden I felt the urge to push. Of course my waters we're intact so they said not to push and that they would break my waters.

That was the most painful thing. The bag was bulging and was pretty much ready to break but it also meant they could not get to my cervix to see where I was at. My Dr was not there yet as he was waiting for me to be ready to push. This made me mad because there was another doc there to break my waters and I was so desperate to push I just wanted her to deliver the baby but she said no, she would break my waters and I'd be on my way. Yeah, try to do that between contractions that are 2.5 min apart...it was sooooooooo uncomfortable but she finally did it and at that point I was almost 9 cm. But with every contractions I wanted to push and honestly they had to coach me through it. I had forgotten everything I learned, I was in pain and delirious! Doctor came and I managed to get coached to push for roughly 40 minutes, only thought in my head being I would finally meet my boy. Doctor almost threatened to use the vacuum because I was only able to push twice with every contraction. So I had to toughen up and after 45 minutes there he was! Back pain was gone and I was smiling from ear to ear! DH and my mom cried like babies. DH and I looked at each other and we both decided "Milo Luca," was his name!

Dr told me I had two minor tears but I didn't even care about the stitching. Back pain was gone and baby was healthy! We did skin to skin and lateched him on, he took the breast for a bit and I was able to hand express some colostrum. I delivered the placenta quickly and it was confirmed the cord was marginal. Stitches didn't hurt at all.

We got over an hour in the l&d room, almost 2 before being moved. I held baby on my skin as he got the hep b and vitamin k (we refused the eye ointment). I was warned he may need formula because he was small but guess what his blood sugar was great and between the colostrum and the skin to skin it kept growing and it was always perfect.

Overall from the first "contraction" on Sunday to delivery it was an 18 hour deal! And the only awful part was the last 2 hours.

I have to say I have a new respect for pain meds. I'm glad I went epi free, it was nice to be walking around and feeling my limbs afterwards. But it did hurt like hell...I think I'd be ok with doing it again but I might consider a birth center. I think my gut was right about baby being ok in the beginning and that I did not need pitocin but at least it made things faster which ultimately I'm ok with. DH and the doula were super supportive and I'm glad we hired her.

michelle_bird · July 2018

After consecutive weeks of no cervical changes and shooting pains in my right groin, DH and I consulted with my OB and decided to induce on 40+1. We checked into the hospital at 5 am that morning to get started on blood work and paper work. My OB came in at 7:15 and I was at 4 cm, 80% effaced and -1 station. I was having contractions every 8-10 minutes but didn't feel them so she went ahead and broke my water to get things started, plus approved me for intermittent monitoring and a liquid diet.

I had to be monitored for a bit after so DH ran to get me some coffee (no milk). There was a lot of water and I was still gushing more when I moved around so I showered a bit until it slowed. Then I was able to put on a pad and walk the floor for about an hour. Our neighbors had their baby boy the day before so I stopped by her room to say hi and meet him. Then we kept walking until 8:35. Another round of monitoring and baby looked good but my contractions were still only 5-6 minutes apart and my cervix hadn't changed so we started pitocin around 9:00.

The lowest rate/dose they would do was 4 mg and within 5-10 minutes I could definitely feel the contractions getting stronger so I moved to the birth ball while we watched HGTV. The plan then turned into dialing up the pitocin until I was in active labor and having a good contractions rhythm. First bump went to 6 mg and I had to start concentrating and breathing through the contractions (around 10:15 am) that were coming every 3 minutes, officially in active labor. I started to think about an epidural but wanted to poop first so I spent some time in the bathroom. Then I asked for the epidural around 10:45 am, but had to get 1-2 bags of saline first. During that time she also bumped my pitocin to 8 mg and started hanging and swaying on the bed side and cursing at the bag of pitocin between contractions. My nurse checked and I was only at 5 cm.

The anesthesiologist came around 11:15 am and got it placed. Once I was able to sit back, but before it fully kicked in, I was surprised because I still felt a lot of pain, not just pressure. It was manageable, but I told the nurse and she had me "push the button" for an extra boost. She also backed down the pitocin to 4, bless her, because she said I was in a good rhythm. At 11:45 I told her that I still felt pain, mostly in my vaginal area and the need to push. She put in the catheter, then checked me and said "oops, should have checked you first, you're complete". So, she went to call my doctor who said she would be there in 10 minutes. Of course, she came strolling in around 12:30 pm - luckily the epidural did keep me from feeling that I had to push, even though I was still feeling pain and the need. We did 3 practice 10 second pushes, then after 5 10 second pushes DS was born at 12:35 pm! His cord was wrapped tightly around his neck twice and it took him a few seconds to start crying which freaked me out, but he was fine. My OB made a comment about it being a good thing we induced that day as opposed to waiting. He was 7 lb 15 oz and 20.25" long! I had a tiny 1st degree tear that my OB opted not to repair.

I did get the shakes after delivery which was very annoying. Not sure if it was from the epidural or the zofran, but it finally went away after getting a warm blanket in post partum.

bearrosebudbutterflyrainbow · July 2018

On July 10th, I started to feel consistent contractions. I was 40 weeks and 1 day (the extra day overdue felt like an eternity). I hadn't had many, if any, signs of early labor until that day. By 11:00 PM, we had called the hospital for the second time and told them I didn't think I could labor any more at home. We got to the hospital a little after 12:00 AM and officially checked in on July 11th. I was only dilated to 2 cm and they put me on a morphine sleep in a triage room.

By 6:00 AM, I was feeling more and more pain and we began making laps around the hospital. We got moved to a labor and delivery room and they soon started an epidural. I had a very difficult time getting cervical checks and they thought an earlier epidural would put me at ease. I was soooo happy to get the epidural and, honestly, thought it was less painful and easier for me to get than the initial IV. I had felt a lot of anxiety over the needle and thinking about holding still, but looking back on it, it was one of the easiest parts. They eventually started Pitocin and broke my water. I only progressed to 3 cm, and the doctor who checked next said I could be between 2 and 4 again.

In the late afternoon, they noticed that baby's heart rate would drop after contractions. We tried changing positions many times. By 10:00 PM, the doctor made the decision to do an emergency C-section. I thought I would be a lot more anxious and scared, but I tried to remain steady and calm. They let my husband stay with me the whole time. I am so glad that he and the nurses advocated for that because they often have the father stay out while they prep the mother in the operating room. My husband was (and continues to be) an amazing support. By the time I got into the operating room, it was nearly 11:00 and they were speedy to get baby Benjamin out. That felt like 5 minutes. His cord was around his neck, so I am so glad they did the C-section and got him out safely. We were able to do skin-to-skin as soon as he got out and he rested on me while they closed me up. That was the long part!

After getting out of surgery, Benjamin was able to nurse for a whole hour. I was so happy that he latched quickly, it was one of my biggest concerns when I found out he would be delivered C-section style. We got almost a whole day with him and, then, began to notice he was breathing fast every now and then. After a couple checks, he ended up going for a chest x-ray and bloodwork. There was some fluid in his lung and they can't rule out pneumonia, but it could also be amniotic fluid. They decided to move Benjamin to the NICU. He has had a couple events were he wouldn't breathe. We love him so much and are both trying to keep positive for Benjamin. He was able to nurse for an hour and a half in the NICU just a bit ago and I feel like that is a really good thing. Any thoughts or prayers are welcome. We are praying his health is getting better and we'll be able to take him home soon. It is so hard to be patient and we just want to hold him and love on him. Being a mom is the best feeling ever and we love this boy like crazy.

flockofmoosen3 · July 2018

Overnight between July 13 and July 14 I started feeling cramps with my BH, but things were light and sporadic. I was 39 weeks + 2 days. Last Tuesday I got a membrane sweep and while it produced a lot of discharge, nothing else happened. So the cramps were new. Throughout the day of July 14 I rralirea that the cramping was growing in intensity and the BH were becoming real contractions, still easy to talk and move through. We even succeeded in having DD1's lemonade stand out and she made some good business.
Around 2p I started bouncing on a ball for contractions while watching Brooklyn 99 for some comic relief. We were kind of waiting for my sister to arrive at the airport at 7p. Around 3:30p or 4p I called the doctor to find out if not feeling her move much was normal, but the doctor said to come in right away. We got ready and waited for my neighbor to come over to watch the kids and took off.
I signed in to triage at 5:10p and baby sounded good on the monitor. My contractions continued to intensify, and I was about 6cm with bulging water, so they kept me.
By 6p I was in my L&D room and they let me continue to labor on my own, while calling anesthesia for the nitrous oxide, which took a while to show up and really didn't work, like I never felt drowsy at all. I did not get pitocin, and they didn't break my water until I was about 7/8cm. When they finally did it, I got up to 10cm with a lip within like 5 minutes.
Contractions were getting really hard and about 1-2 minutes apart but I stayed pretty alert and between them I was able to say polite things to the nurses and doctors and DH and they were all like, "wow, you're like the poster child for labor and being so sweet!"
Finally I was given the go ahead to start pushing if I felt like it and that was intense! I pushed her out in about 3 contractions with a nice 30sec break between them. Pushing her out without meds was crazy tho! Felt like the hugest poop ever, especially when they had to hold her still to unwrap the cord around her neck. I literally said, get her out! Then another hard push and out she came, all 7#10oz and lots of meconium in the fluids. DH accidentally saw the flood that came out after her but he seemed okay, and cut the cord. I did not tear, which is awesome and without the meds I feel great. I didn't want to get out of bed for a while tho...just needed a break.
She has dark hair like her brother did when he was born (but he is now light blonde). She is nursing well and has been super calm.
DH is currently trying to sleep in the dinky chair bed in our recovery room, but I suspect he won't make it all night before he wants to go home. He plans to go home in the morning to see the kids and bring them baby treats. He will bring them and my sister here to see the baby, and we will name her.
DD predicted July 14 and she was right!!

zande2016 · July 2018

Well all along I wanted this labor to be different than my first, and I definitely think I achieved that goal, for better or for worse haha. Many of you probably know what I was schedule for induction to start the night of 39+5 (Wednesday) with cervical ripening and then induction of labor on 39+6 (Thursday). We were told to be ready to go Wednesday at 5 and to wait for the hospital to call. 8:30 pm rolled around and the hospital finally called to tell us they were full, and to ask for permission to call in the middle of the night if something opened up. I popped two Benadryl and went to bed with my phone ringer on high next to me. I felt bad because my mom was there for our son and had to sleep on our futon plus i felt like my H and I were wasting our leave time. I never wanted to be induced but I literally tried everything in the book to try to get him to come on his own and for medical reasons we’d reached the end of the line. I didn’t want to be induced but at that point I felt it was our only/safest option and just wanted to get the show on the road. Thursday rolled around and no call...called my midwives office at 8:30 when they opened and was told they were trying to figure it out. Waited around all day, was told I may have to wait til Monday, called the MFM to Notify him since this was against his medical recommendation. Finally around 1 I was called by the hospital and told to come at 3. Got to the hospital at 3 and more waiting ensued while they cleaned our room. I felt nervous about how things would go since they were so busy. Literally every room was full and babies were being born left and right!

At 4 we settled into our room, the MFM came in and confirmed for me that he had spoken to L&D and insisted they get me in that day, as waiting until Monday was not an option (they don’t do inductions fri thru sun). Midwife came in, Checked my cervix and I was still 2cm. We discussed doing 12 hours (3 doses) of Cytotec orally. She told me to order food while we wait for the Cytotec since the nurses wouldn’t let me eat once we started it. I was continuously monitored all night on the Cytotec. There was a misunderstanding about continuous monitoring,
as the midwife told me it only had to be for 3 of the 4 hours I was on it, and the hospital nurse rudely informed me that this was not hospital policy and I was to be hooked up for the whole 12 hours. This was the first of two bad L&D nurses we had. I requested and got the only portable continuous monitor which was super important to me because I wanted to be able to walk around and get into/our of the shower and tub. I was told it was mine, which turned out to be a lie. More on that later.!

Cytotec gave me some decent contractions that were getting painful and close/regular, but never developed into active labor. They kept fizzling out on me. My H slept peacefully through the night (but of course complained to me about how uncomfortable his couch bed was in the morning) but I was pretty uncomfortable all night. Around 7 they took me off the monitor for an hour and told me to shower and order breakfast while we waited for the midwife to come check me. While we were waiting for our food another nurse came in and told me she needed to “borrow” the portable monitor and that I would need to share it. My new nurse came on and she was awful. When I asked her about why the monitor was taken from me, she said I lost priority to it when I was unhooked for the hour break and another mom claimed it! This was totally not what the midwife told me, she said once it was in my room it was mine. The nurse was nasty and said my midwife group needed to stop promosing their patients things the hospital couldn’t deliver on. Clearly there is tension between the hospital nurses and my midwives. So this set a sour tone for the day and I was really scared of being put on pitocin without the option of being mobile. I knew pit contractions would be intense and I’d need to be able to move around to deal with it.

The midwife finally came around 9 (an hour late, yay more waiting) and said I had dilated to 3 cm. I was bummed this meant we reallly should start pitocin to get things going. I lost it and had an emotional breakdown because of the loss of the portable monitor and needing to go on pit. The bad nurse kept asking when my doula was coming, which we had decided she’d stand by until active labor since it was just waiting around at that point. I felt she didn’t want to really deal with me so she wanted my doula there. Anyway the plan was to start 1 unit of pit and go up slowly. The nurse and midwofe left and more waiting....after 2 hours and me calling the nurses a few times plus my H physically going to ask for her, she finally came in at 11 and asked what I wanted. I said I thought we were starting pit, it’s been 2 hours and nothings happening. She said oh yeah I’m getting it now. Wtf? This was the beginning of this nurse neglecting me all day. I finally got hooked up to fluids and pit a little after 11, and the nurse wasn’t coming in to increase the dose at all. Nothing was happening, contractions were staying 5-7 mins apart and super weak, and it was clear the dosage needed to go up to do anything but again the nurse was just not doing a Dam thing. After 5 hours on pit I was only at 5 units and still nothing was happening. On the one hand I appreciate being slow and conservative with it, but on the other my body wasn’t going into labor and it all just felt like a huge waste of time. The doula finally came around 5:30 because my H finally called her and said I was having a tough time advocating for myself with the hospital staff and even though I wasn’t in active labor, we needed some emotional support. She came and really made all the difference. Also that horrible nurse left at 7pm and the new nurse made all the difference too. She was like girl, I’m going to put you into labor, dont even worry about it.

Around 6:30/7 my midwife came in with the portable monitor!! She talked to the woman who took it from me and convinced her to give it back. Yay! We went for a long walk around the floor with my H and doula and it was mentally amazing to get out of that room. When we got back my new amazing nurse noticed My IV got infiltrated, so the pit and fluids were going into my arm tissue and not my veins. Contractions were dying down. My arm and hand were super swollen. She fixed it and we had to restart pitocon at 1 unit (we’d gotten up to 9 over the course of 8 hours) but the nurse said it was good because stopping and restarting from 1 could push me into labor. She was in there like clockwork turning my dose up every 30-60 mins and she came through on her promise to get me into labor. I am convinced if the day nurse had done her job, my baby would have come a lot sooner than he did. The doula had me walking the floor, bouncing on the ball, rocking etc while we upped the pit and contractions were finally getting stronger and closer. At 11 pm the doula suggested we all try
to rest since things would be picking up and this was our chance to get some sleep. The second I settled into bed and the doula was sticking pillows between my legs, I felt a gush. My water had broken! No rest after all!

The midwife checked me for the first time since 9am and I was 4 cm. She confirmed my water broke and it was starting to flood me from her reaching in there. Contractions were picking up now and we decided to walk some more to keep things going. I was having to stop and breathe through tough contractions. I labored for 4 hours with my H and doula, and I was handling the really intense painful contractions pretty well. I was getting 2-3 minute breaks and was feeling like I could do this. Then around 3:30am things changed. My pit was up to 14 units at that point (max my hospital/midwife goes to is 20, so this was pretty high), and contractions were coming sometimes 2 mins apart but sometimes 30 seconds apart. I was getting no relief and no break. We tried the shower which helped a lot but the monitor kept losing the heartbeat and the nurse had to make us get out. Next the midwife decided to check me again and I was still a 4! She could see things were getting intense, and helped us get into the tub and figure out how to keep the heart rate on the monitor without losing the signal. After 20 mins of laboring in the tub, I realized I couldn’t do this anymore. I thought I had to be in transition because I literally couldn’t go on and felt like I was going to die with every contraction. I also wasn’t getting the relief I needed from the tub and I knew this was our last trick for dealing with pain. I started begging for the epidural and my doula and H were doing their best to be supportive and steer me away from it since they knew it was my goal to avoid it. At that point I honestly didn’t care. I neber could have imagined the pain I was in and I decided if I wasn’t close to 10 cm i was getting it. I was screaming and cursing through every contraction and begging for the epi. I sat on the toilet threw a few contractions and thought the baby was coming but then I ended up pooping. While my H held my hands and tried to tell me not to get the epi. First time pooping in front of him and I didn’t care at all haha. I was screaming at him that I was getting it and he better support me dammit. It was all very dramatic and movie like lol.

The doula went and got my midwife and got me into bed. I was shaking uncontrollably, from the intense labor and hormones. I screamed through some more contractions in bed and demanded the epidural with every break. The midwife came and asked if she should check me, I told her if I wasn’t 9cm I was getting the epi, so she checked me. I was 5cm. That was it, at that point I knew beyond a doubt there was no way my body could relax and dilate 5
more cm in this pain and I wouldn’t make it through hours and hours of this to get to 10. So they called the anesthesiologist and those contractions waiting for him were pure torture. He came pretty quickly and got to work. He missed on the first try and I was screaming through the worst contractions of my life plus his needle hitting a nerve in my back and sending shooting nerve pain all over my back and leg. At the same time. I was telling the nurse I was dying as she tried to hold me still. Finally, it was in and they layed me down. Instant relief. I was shaking beyond control but pain was subside. I was delirious. My right side was totally numb and left was still feeling contractions so I lied on my left side to try to even it out and we all went to sleep. It was around 4am. I was waking up every 2 mins with contractions on my left side which were painful but bearable. The nurse kept coming in and telling Me to push the button to increase the dose. She assured me I was nowhere close to pushing so I had time to let the numbness wearoff before pushing. Then a little before 6, the midwife came in and asked to check me. I was so confused because she had Checked me at 4 and I was only 5 cm. She said she could see from the monitor that the baby was being squeezed down and she had a feeling she needed to check me. Sure enough I was 10 cm and baby had finally dropped to 0 station. it was time to push! I told her I couldn’t, my legs were too numb. She said we’d try a couple practice and if I couldn’t push effectively we could wait a little. Well after a couple practice pushes she said I was pushing really effectively so let’s do this. I pushed for 15 mins and he was out! Only a tiny skid mark that needed one stitch, which I think was partly due to my midwife massaging my perineum between pushes. Baby went straight on my chest and after some stimulation he was crying. Boy was I relieved since my first came out not breathing. His cord was wrapped twice around his neck, and I now glad I got the epi so my body could relax and dilate and get him out before anything bad Happened.

We did skin to skin, delayed cord clamping, and then H cut the cord. Owen had some fluid that needed to be suctioned and they wanted to get his Apgar up so they took him to the warmer for a few mins. Then he came back to me and we did skin to skin for 2 more hours. He nursed within 30 mins. They checked his blood sugar for the first 12 hours and he did great. No more checking now, he passed! He’s nursing great, latching every few hours and doing so well. He’s had 5 meconium poops and 3 wet diapers already in his 18 hours. (First poop was right after he was born as soon as he was placed on my chest haha).

So far I feel pretty good about my labor and delivery. It wasnt what I wanted but I feel like I did everything i could and advocated for myself. My doula said I was the best epidural pusher she has ever seen lol. The midwife said my body was in such intense labor when I got the epi, which explains why the pain was completely unbearable, and that really only came To light how hard my body was working once we saw how fast I dilated. Now that i typed out that incredibly long novel (thanks for reading if you got this far!) I am going to try to let it all go and focus on my new baby and my family of 4 ❤️

lem5344 · July 2018

So it's taken me awhile to get back and write this but luckily it is short and sweet! On 7/5 I had some contractions throughout the day at work but wasn't too concerned and was able to pretty much ignore them. At my appointment that evening the Dr said I was already at 4 and thinned out. I was surprised but trying not to get too excited because everyone is quick to remind first time mom's that babies usually come late and labor is longer. Friday 7/6 I didn't have any more contractions or any other signs of labor. We went to the movies and jokingly tried some pineapple after hearing it helps move things along. We got home around midnight and I went to sleep. Woke up at 3:30am with contractions....still not too concerned with them (I was thinking BH) but decided to time them after feeling two in a row. My timing was iffy but they seemed to be in the 511 range and were getting a little stronger. I called the Drs to see what I should do. The midwife on call said just to wait it out until morning because I wouldn't be in active labor till 4cm. Informed her that I was 4 cm two days ago and she agreed I should come to the hospital so they could check me. Got to the hospital at 4:30am. At this point I was sure it was actual labor, I just didn't know how far along I was. Got checked in the triage room and immediately taken to the delivery room because I was 10cm and it was go time! In the delivery room they were trying to wait for the midwife to get there. She finally arrives, breaks my water quickly, and tells me I can finally push. 45 mins of pushing and at 6:57 am he was born. Immediate skin to skin for an hour and a half. I couldn't have dreamed up a better labor and delivery - a week early, spontaneous, quick, no tearing or complications and pain med free (which was one of my goals). I will pass along some of the magical labor dust and hope for perfect deliveries for all of you!

comealongponds · July 2018

We hit the day before my due date and both DH and I were convinced she was never going to come on her own. Saturday nigh DH was in the mood to bake so he started prepping dessert and mozzarella sticks while I finished up bedtime with the boys. At 630, we each took a toddler and headed upstairs to put them down. About four steps up I felt a pop and a step or two after that I started feeling my water trickling. Told DH it was go time and we put the boys down and called BIL & SIL to babysit so we could leave for the hospital.

I gathered the last few things for my hospital bag, put on some Depends (highly, highly recommend if your waters broken and you don’t want wet pants by the time you get to the hospital). Got triaged, started IV antibiotics for GBS and settled into my room. At that point I was having inconsistent mild contractions so they had me start walking the halls to see if we could move things along. Within a few hours contractions were picking up and getting more intense so I asked for the epidural and got it around midnight. I was at 2-3cm and 50% effaced but because my contractions were coming so close together they didn’t want to give me any pit yet (I was having 6 in 10 minutes!). I made it to 5cm and fully effaced once the epi was in and I could relax and then stalled there for about 2 hours. I did spike a fever, which baby did not like so she was pretty tachy for a while as they tried to get my temp down. We started pit and increased it to 6ml/hr and that was all I needed to get the rest of the way!

By 730am I was complete except for a lip the OB was able to stretch out of the way so we started some practice pushing since I was feeling pressure with each contraction. Of course the OB was done at 8, so they did a quick handover at my bedside and the new guy stepped in with his resident. About this point Summer was having some pretty significant decels with each push that she was struggling a bit to recover from so we started talking assisted delivery. After a few more pushes we agreed on forceps with episiotomy to help her along. Lucky (unlucky?) for me, the tv mounted in the room gave me a perfectly reflected view of everything going on so that was an interesting experience. OB got the forceps into place and on the next contraction we got her out in four pushes at 0834. I could not believe how massive she was! They put her right up on my chest to towel her off while the OB delivered my placenta and started stitching me back together.

Within a few minutes I got very light headed and nauseous as my blood pressure bottomed out at 70/30 from blood loss. They pumped me full of 4L of fluid and I ended up getting a bag of iron because my hemoglobin had dropped to 81 from 128. We did skin to skin for a bit while the OB stitched, then they took her to weigh and measure and otherwise check out (we had NICU RN, pediatrician, the whole team there because of my fever and her decels) while they stabilized me a bit more. They gave her back to me once I was not in danger of passing out anymore and she latched and fed for almost an hour while the OB finished up (the episiotomy didn’t work as well as he wanted so I ended up with a 2nd degree tear too) but so far recovery hasn’t been too bad! She is such an amazing baby, she’s feeding super well and sleeps amazing inbetween feeds. She even gave me a five hour stretch last night after cluster feeding for a couple hours!

cseley321 · July 2018

Cecilia Ann was born today! I am not sure how to do a spoiler, but TW, TW

we almost lost her...

I came in for my csection which was set for 7:30 am. They had my belly hooked to a heart monitor to observe her prior to surgery. The anesthesiologist came in to discuss the procedure and while she was talking, the baby's heart rate dropped to 50 and wouldn't go up. The nurses unhooked me and ran my bed to the OR. They didn't have time to do the spinal, so they started getting ready to put me under general anesthesia. They had to shove the tube down my throat and actually started cutting before I went under because there was no time to wait...

I found out when I woke up that she was blue in color and wasn't breathing. They got her breathing and put her on machines to help. She stabilized and I woke up shortly after. I was in the worst pain I have ever experienced, it made my first labor and csection with the failed epidural like a walk in the park. They hooked me up to morphine and got the pain under control, and now everyone is doing great.

The doctors said nothing was an apparent cause, ie, no cord around her neck or anything. Their best guess is that she was pinching off the cord by having her head pressed up against the cord and my bones.

Everything is fine now, but if we hadn't been hooked to the monitors when we were, the outcome would have been much worse.... I can't believe how incredibly lucky we are.

paytonpedro · July 2018

Sorry in advance for the novel, this birth was truly not how I thought it was going to go. But, I’m just glad he’s finally here.

This may need a trigger warning if you have not yet had your baby.
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I was scheduled for induction for 7/16 at 7:15 pm. Pulling into the hospital, we were having a conversation about how some women only push twice and baby is here and I said that would never be me. Haha. Once we got up to the room and settled in, the residents checked me and I was 4cm. I had been having contractions most of the day and they were registering 2-4 minutes apart but then went to 2-3 minutes apart. They weren’t really painful at all. They started the pitocin at 11pm at 2 out of 20 and wanted to get me to 10 before breaking my water. For about an hour we talked about starting the epidural but I was hesitant because I wasn’t really feeling any pain... yet. After she upped my pitocin twice (to 6), I just decided to do it before things got bad and it was difficult to sit still. After getting the epidural, I laid on my side with the peanut ball for a while. The nurse walked in to see how I was doing and by the time she got to the other side of the room I felt a “pop” and my water had broken. At first I wasn’t 100% sure because it felt like I was just peeing myself but it was definitely my water. And I may have also been peeing myself. The nurse checked me and I was 7cm dilated. They had to turn down the pitocin because I was having too many contractions at that point. I had also started feeling contractions again so the anesthesiologist came in and upped the epidural. It didn’t help at all and contractions continued to get more and more painful. At this point it was probably like 1am. The anesthesiologist came in again around 2:15-2:30 to up the epidural and it helped calm me down for a very little bit but things just got more and more painful. The nurses then had to catheterize me to empty my bladder so it wouldn’t rupture while I was pushing. I felt it all. It took them 2 tries because baby was so low so the second time they had to simultaneously push him up while inserting the catheter. I was 10 cm dilated and ready to push by the time they were finished. It was probably around 3am. It was also found that I had a swollen cervical lip from my body starting to push on it’s own prematurely. I screamed through contractions for like 15 minutes. It was primal and terrible. The doctor just kept telling me I needed to calm down and push but I was so worked up at that point I physically couldn’t calm myself. I couldn’t breathe and started turning blue. My epidural had completely failed. Finally, the constant contraction I had been having let up and I was able to catch my breath. My next contraction I pushed with all my might and got his head out. I stopped for a second and gave it another push and out came the rest of him. Despite feeling what felt like my urethra splitting in 2, I didn’t end up tearing at all. And I got him out on one contraction in 2 pushes. Traumatizing is kind of an understatement. I think I can honestly say it was one of the worst experiences in my life. Hats off to anyone who wants to try that, but it was not on my bucket list at all. They laid the baby on my chest and I was still having contractions and actually told them “I don’t want him”, and I didn’t do skin to skin until the placenta had passed and the contractions stopped. He started nursing about an hour later and had been doing so good ever since. He is worth the horrible experience, but really makes me consider having any more. I’m not sure I could do that again.

kmac103 · July 2018

Trigger Warning: Severe Hemorhaging

Also, sorry for the super long story. I am long-winded lol

Let me start by telling you what my birth plan was and WHY it was that way. My plan was to spontaneously go into labor at some point by or before 42 weeks. I was in no rush. I was enjoying being pregnant even though it was a million degrees with no AC lol I wanted a natural childbirth with no medical interventions (unless there was an emergency of some sort). The reason I wanted this birth was because when I was pregnant with my son (I had him in 2015) I had a myriad of problems. I was in and out of the hospital the entire pregnancy. Ultimately, at 38 weeks, my BP was consistently in the triple digits even with medication and there was protein present in my urine, leading to an induction for pre eclampsia. I was able to have a natural birth with him, however, I was on medicine/monitors/IVs the entire 17 hours of labor. I wasn’t even able to stand up out of bed to go to the bathroom. It was the hardest experience of my life and I was DETERMINED to never have a baby in that manner again.

All seemed to be going my way throughout the entire pregnancy this go around, leading me to believe my birth plan was within my grasp. I had started my second pregnancy 100 pounds lighter than I was with my son and in better shape than I was back in my military days. I had zero complications and zero complaints. The doctors saw me every 6 weeks to say hey and send me on my way. I had one ultrasound to check baby’s organs and that was it. I was gaining a TON of weight despite working out 6 days per week and eating healthy but my doctors and I chalked it up to how my body makes babies and I kept doin what I was doin.

Until week 36. That was the first time my doctor mentioned induction for fear of my BP spiking. She said we would address it later if it became an issue. Week 39, my second provider told me the induction was actually to prevent developing pre e for a second time. The longer my pregnancy continued, the higher the likelihood of pre e complications during labor and delivery. After talking to my husband we decided the safety of our second child was worth more than me having my spontaneous labor experience. I was scheduled to be induced two days later, on the 12th of July.

I was already 4cm dilated but baby was high so my hopes of just getting my water broken to get things moving were out the window. They recommended Cytotec to get things going. After that the plan was to break my water and see if my body would take over. I took the oral Cytotec (even though I preferred cervadil as they used it to induce me with my son and it worked beautifully for me by putting my body into full blown labor within an hour of its placement). The Cytotec did its job but baby was still too high so my water would not break when the doctor tried to do it manually. At this point he started pitocin which I was wanting to avoid at all costs. Still, the process was going and it was too late to stop it lol

We started pitocin and things got serious. It wasn’t hard and fast contractions as I expected but I was relying on my 2.5 year old, my husband, and the Trolls playlist to keep me in control and walking/bouncing around on the yoga ball. I did this for about 6 hours while the dosage was gradually increased. They never checked me to tell me “where I was at” and they never asked me if I wanted pain management. I also didn’t ask so I was at least sticking to my plan SO FAR. The doctor came in a little while later, induction had started at 7 am and at this point it was about 5 pm. He was able to break my water and omg there was SO MUCH AMNIOTIC FLUID. I felt SO GOOD afterwards. Until the first contraction hit. Oh man I was HURTING. I kept doing my breathing, walking, swaying, singing, trying to NOT succumb to the pain. After an hour and a half, I couldn’t stand the pain anymore and started crying telling my husband I was going to ask for an epidural. I said I “knew it was nowhere near time to push and I just couldn’t do this for another however many hours”. My nurse came in and tried talking to me but I was basically sitting and ignoring everyone, totally internalising because I was hurting.

At this point I sat on the bed and turned to lay on my side, almost in the fetal position. My body was telling me I needed to do something. I told the nurse I needed to push and since I sad it so calmly she said “it’s not time yet hun, we will let you know”. Well, my body knew what it needed to do lol I involuntarily started pushing. I was apologising and crying to my nurse AS I was pushing and she was calling for the doctor to hurry and trying to get the mesh panties off that I’d been laboring in because the baby’s head was pretty much out. Three solid pushes later, my baby’s head and right hand were out (she was born with her hand next to her face lol I think they called it a compound hand?). One more push and we found out that baby was a girl! That feeling of relief from the pain of transition was glorious. My nurse started apologising to me for not believing me that I needed to push. She said I was being way too quiet and calm to have been ready. Guess my internalising worked a little too well!

Anyway, Everything was great for about 5 minutes. Hubby cut the cord after a few minutes and the doctor started checking me for tears. I had no tears, everything seemed good to go until I started hemorhaging. I was still doing skin to skin when the doctor made it clear we were in a serious situation. My husband was right by my side as people were running around frantically trying to control my bleeding. My 2.5 year old must have known to stay chill because he sat on his chair watching a movie and didn’t make a sound or get in the way the entire time. I don’t even know what all happened because I was very it of it but ultimately, it was about 4 hours before I was pronounced stable. The entire time, though, I was in the perfect position to see the reflection of everything happening in the glass of a picture on the wall. There was so much blood. My doctor pretty much had his entire hand inside of me trying to stop or at least slow the bleeding. They started giving me blood clotting meds and who knows what else. I started reacting terribly to all the medications and was shaking uncontrollably and vomiting. After I was given to all clear, it was another 3 hours before I felt normal. I had my daughter at 6:47 pm but wasn’t allowed to stand up until midnight because I was still bleeding too badly.

I know that there is no way to avoid complications like this and there is no way to predict them but it was definitely the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me and I NEVER want to go through something like this again. I am so grateful that I had such an amazing medical team taking care of me. All I can think about is “what if I’d had my spontaneous labor and not made it to the hospital in time”. I’m just glad that I never have to know the answer to that “what if”.

hillbillywife · July 2018

I’ve been wanting to write this down since his birth but we’ve been busy and my arms have been full!

I was scheduled for induction early on 7/13 but they warned me that if they were busy they’d delay me. I must have freaked myself out about not getting to go into the hospital because I woke up at almost 3 am with pretty intense contractions. I timed them from bed for a while before I didn’t want to lay down any more. They started off about 10 minutes apart but when I got up and walked around they were only about 2 minutes apart. I’d never been in labor before so I called into the hospital around 3:30. Heard from the on call doctor around 4 and she said to come on in. I was pretty uncomfortable at that point so we hustled and got out the door (luckily we took my kids to my in laws the night before last minute). We got to the hospital and I managed to get into a wheelchair so my DH could wheel me to the elevator. I thought I could probably walk up to L&D but I’m glad I didn’t because it would have taken forever. I got into a room right away and the nurses started getting me hooked up to the monitors and stuff. I didn’t want to lay down for them to find baby well so they did their best to find him with me sitting on the edge of the bed. They did a check and I was 7 cm already! They asked if I wanted and epidural and I said YESS! I was super lucky because although I needed to wait till I got blood work and fluid done there was an anesthesiologist in L&D. The nurses were fabulous at advocating for me and making sure I got my epi!

When the anesthesiologist came in, he scared my H into not wanting to be in the room for the procedure so he left for a bit and my nurse tried to help me stay in position (it’s so hard while you’re contracting!) Anesthesiologist finally got the epi placed and I was sooo much more comfortable around 6:30. H came back in and we relaxed for a while and decided on Lo’s middle name. Almost right away I could feel lots of pressure during a contraction but not the contraction itself. I told the nurse a bunch of times that I could feel it and she said “yeah, it’s probably not time yet, you’ll know when it’s time to push” so I kept it to myself for a while. Well after not too much longer I could tell that my body was trying to get this baby out so I told my H that he needed to go find a nurse. When they got back I got checked and was fully dilated with bulging waters. The doctor came in to break my water and then kind of all hell broke loose. My body started pushing right away so they got me into position to practice pushing. There were like 5 or 6 people in the room and they all watched my practice push and jumped back and told me to stop pushing and threw the bed apart and my doctor got her gown on in record speed and got my legs up on stirrups. Not even 20 minutes after my water broke little man launched into the world! I’m not sure If I had my epidural long enough or if it wasn’t placed well or what happened but I could feel every second of pushing and was pretty much crying because it hurt so bad. But I didn’t tear and baby is healthy! I was so amazed not only to go into labor on my own (on my due date!) but also how fast the whole thing went. It was the craziest morning of my life!

zg49 · July 2018

My OB scheduled an induction for 39 weeks a couple months ago because with DS my body dilated to 6cm by 39 weeks but I never went into active labor and had to be induced with him so we assumed the same might happen for baby #3.

I woke up Tuesday morning (July 17) with mild contractions and when we got to the hospital and all hooked up they could see that I was having contractions already. They started me on pitocin to get things moving quicker and at 830am my OB came in to break my water.

She checked me and I was still only 2cm like I had been for a couple weeks, she broke my water but then kept digging (to put it gently) up there. When she stopped she said she was going to get an ultrasound machine because she wanted to check if those were suture marks she was feeling. Well lo and behold, she was feeling a butt. Baby girl was frank breech.

Since my water was already broke and since I had an anterior placenta this pregnancy there was no option for trying to turn DD so I could deliver vaginally so our planned induction turned into an unplanned c-section. I was terrified to say the least but they got me in right away (Not emergent just had a room ready) and baby girl was out by 9:58am!

Recovery has been tough because cause she couldn’t be with me for 2 hours afterwards and I’m still in the hospital for pain and DD losing too much of her birth weight so I am struggling quite a bit. The positive is baby girl and I are healthy and happy and we should get to go home today!

runsomewhere · July 2018

With no labor in sight we scheduled an induction for 40w4d. We arrived at the hospital around 7:30am. I was really upset when they checked me and I was 50% effaced and maybe 1.5-2cm dilated.

Had the foley balloon placed around 8:30 and started a low dose of pitocin right after. I started feeling a little pressure soon after but no pain. A couple hours in after slowly increasing the pitocin I was sitting in bed talking to DH and felt my water brake. Nurse confirmed it was my water, she also checked the balloon which came out at this point. I think the next time I got checked I was 4.5cm.

After my water broke I started having long contractions every 2-3 minutes. They still weren't painful just a ton of pressure in my bottom. Totally weird and different than with my DD. L&D was crazy busy and they told me they had some C sections coming up so if I wanted to get an epidural now was a good time.

I got the epidural. Like with my last labor, getting the epi put in was the most painful part of the entire thing. Worth it but a horrible 10-20 minutes. It hurt so bad I started crying and telling DH to please take me home lol.

Once that was done I got to relax. I did have issues with my blood pressure crashing super low but they were able to bring it back up with medication. Also, I could feel and move my legs while being pain free which I loved.

By 7 the evening I was feeling a TON of pressure in my bottom with each contraction, like a bowling ball was going to rip through my butt. I mentioned it to the nurse but said I had no urge to push and figured we had a bit to go but when my OB came in and checked me he said I was at a 10, baby was right there and it was go time.

I kept telling him no I wasn't ready because I felt no need to push and I was so scared of my butt would seriously split in 2. Finally I agreed to start pushing and baby was out in 6-7 minutes.

Baby got placed on me right away while I delivered the placenta and got stitched up. I have a small tear in my perineum bu nothing too bad. Recovery has been a breeze so far and I'm so thankful for these wonderful nurses.

elizabethrn87 · July 2018

Came in for induction at 8:30 AM. Checked and was a “loose one” and 50-60% thinned. Waited to hear the game plan and at 11:30 we started pitocin. Around 2-3 pm I got up to pee and my water broke. Contractions were bearable but painful and close together. Check and I was 2cm. Got my epidural around 4:30-5. Contractions still consistent. Nurse checked and I was a 6. 20 min later and I was dilated. Doctor had me wait to push until she got there so maybe 15 min. I pushed 3 times through two contractions and out she came. 6:54pm She had shoulder dystonia but we haven’t had any issues they said. She was 7 lbs 8.8 oz ( DD was 5 lb 13 oz). She has a poor bruised face. She is HUgE to me compared to my daughter and staff think I’m nuts when I say she’s huge. She has latched well so far. Coughing up mucous though because she did t get a good “squeeze” in the birth canal since she came so fast. I had a second degree tear.

AlwaysMrsS · July 2018

On July 19, we got to the hospital at 5:30 for my scheduled c section. I was taken to my room and admitted without any problems. Then at 7:25, as the anesthesiologist was double checking I didn’t have any questions, my dr walks in to let us know he has a mom that has been laboring all night with a baby that is not behaving, so he needs to do a c section on her first. We were bumped and on standby. The nurse comes in and explains the earliest they’ll be able to do my c section is 10, so dh goes and grabs breakfast while I take a nap. Anesthesia doesn’t have time to do another until 12:30, so we wait. At 12:20 I get taken to the OR, and as soon as my spinal tab is done, they prep me like a pit crew. Jacob Ryan was born at 12:51. The nurse pulled down the drape so dh could watch him come out, and seeing his face was incredible. They showed him to me, and after they checked him and cleaned up, they put him on my chest for skin to skin. Once I was ready to go back to my room, they handed him to dh, and they led the way. I recovered in my room, and was allowed to breastfeed almost immediately. It was so awesome to be able to recover with dh and Jake with me. Best c section experience out of my 3. We are now home and doing well.

Sarafuss · July 2018

On Tuesday, July 17th I went to my regularly scheduled 8:00am NST appt. I was supposed to bring all three kids with me because my mom couldn’t watch them. At the last minute, I decided to drop the toddler off at the sitter and just suck it up and pay her because I knew he would be all over the place. I’m so thankful I did that! So I took the big kids and they sat for the NST with their iPads and headphones like they always do. About 15 mins into the NST baby started doing this rapid breathing that I could see from the outside and the machine started alarming because her heart rate dropped below 110 (I can’t remember/don’t know how low it dropped). The nurse ran over and she calmly had me roll onto my left side and then my right. She had me changing positions to try and get the heart rate back up which it wasn’t doing. She told me “I have to call the Dr. but I can tell you right now you’ll need to go straight to triage”. I was so stressed but was trying to remain calm. Within a couple minutes another nurse came in and quickly walked us over to triage. My kids were oblivious to the situation (because, iPads) and I told them to hurry because we had to make sure the baby was okay.

We got into triage and they hooked me up to the monitor there and baby was doing fine at this point, thankfully! I was worried they would need to take me back for an emergency c-section or something and no one would be with my kids. The MFM came in and I was so happy to see this particular dr. because she’s awesome and she delivered my 2nd baby. There are a couple of MFMs in the practice that I don’t like so it was a huge relief that she was the dr. on call that day. She said that baby looked good now but they wanted to induce because they didn’t want that to happen again and she was safer out than in at this point (38+4). I agreed and they started to get me admitted. They placed the IV and and checked me and said I was 1cm and 50% effaced, and cervix was very soft. Which is what I had been since 36 weeks. I called DH to get the bags and come to the hospital and I called my Dad to come get the kids. After that cervical check I started having contractions on my own. The plan was to break my water and start a low dose of pitocin and see how things went. They wanted to break my water and make sure her cord wasn’t in the way rather than letting my water break on it’s own since I had a high fluid level. Which is likely what caused her to have the long decel during the NST (she compressed her cord). When I got to my L&D room at 10:00am the chief resident checked me and he said I was 2-3 cm and 60% and having contractions about every 10 mins. He tried breaking my water but couldn’t get to it at that point. My Dad showed up at about 10:45 to take the kids. Resident checked me again at 11:00 and said I was at 4cm and he was able to break my water this time. They started pitocin then as well. It was started at a 4 and they increased it a little every 30 mins. I think the highest it got was 14.

DH got there at 12:00 and I was feeling good still. I was feeling the contractions but they didn’t hurt. We walked the halls for awhile (with my giant diaper since my water had been broken). Then I was bouncing on the birth ball because I was feeling the contractions a little more and I had pain going down the back of my right leg. Bouncing on the ball helped a lot and around 2:00 I started getting more uncomfortable. My plan was to wait as long as I could to get the epidural because in my last two births I got it early and it wore off in transition. I told my nurse that I wanted to be checked and I would decide if I wanted the epi or if I would wait longer. Well it got really crazy in L&D as a couple women needed emergent c-sections and the woman in the room next to me was pushing. It was now 2:30 and no one had come in. I told DH to go tell them that I wanted the epidural for sure now and didn’t need them to check me first. They said they would let anesthesia know. At 3:00 I was moaning through contractions which were every 2 mins and feeling a lot of pressure. I feel like I was handling the pain well though despite how intense it was. Finally the nurse came in to check me and anesthesia got there too. She said I was 6-7 cm. I said “ok, I need my epidural now!” DH told them, “I can tell you this baby will be here in like 15 mins”. In my last two births, it went really quickly once I hit 7cm and he could tell by the way I was acting that it would likely be the same this time.

It was really difficult sitting still for the epidural but the nurse was holding my hands and talking me through it. I could feel my body trying to push and she recognized that and said I’m going to call Dr. Smith because I think this baby is going to be here very soon. I laid down on the bed and told the anesthesiologist that I didn’t feel any differently and the epi wasn’t working. I could move everything normally and didn’t feel numb at all. The Dr. came in and she check me and it really hurt so I knew the epi wasn’t working. She said I was 10cm and baby was right there. The anesthesiologist gave me another dose of meds in my epi line and that started working immediately.

I started pushing and could feel the burning sensation of her head crowning but it was definitely dulled compared to what it would be without meds. I pushed for 2 contractions and she was here! It was so crazy fast. My epidural was placed at 3:45 and the extra dose was given about 10 mins later. And then she was born at 4:03pm. The whole induction was 5 hours from when they broke my water and started pitocin at 11:00am. She was 6lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long.

I didn’t have any tearing and she latched on right away. She was actually trying to do the breast crawl which was so cool. My recovery has been amazing and I barely had any swelling (maybe because she came so quickly?). This was by far my favorite birth experience and I feel so proud of myself for going without the epi for so long (but thankful it worked for the pushing stage lol!). She is the perfect addition to our family and she definitely makes me feel like our family is complete.

krystlerr · July 2018

This is way overdue but here we go...

I had been feeling mild cramping since Sunday 7/8. After we were displaced out of our home due to the power outage from Friday 7/6 to Saturday 7/7 and it being 114 degrees, I figured it was just cramping and didn’t think much of it. We had been house hopping from our parents and it was just stressful. On Monday night 7/10, I still felt a lot of cramping and we took our dog for a walk and after I felt a bit off but went to bed on the couch like I had been doing the past week because it was the only place I could get comfortable.

I woke up at 4:30am on 7/10 to wet pants and at first wasn’t sure if it was sweat or I peed myself. So I went to the bathroom and noticed some pink tinge. I woke up my dh and we called the hospital and were told they didn’t have space for us and that we had to be diverted to a different location. Mind you, we were never warned this could happen. Our original hospital is 7 min drive from us and we were being told to go to the Hollywood location which could be a 30-45min drive depending on traffic. I was so upset and trying to keep it together since I knew I wouldn’t see any of the midwives, nurses or doctors I had been meeting with. I also had to remind my husband to pack his hospital bag. I had just made a list for him the night before of things we still needed to do. I hit 37 weeks on 7/10 so we thought we had at least a few more days to get things together. I also was still working since my job doesn’t allow you to go on maternity leave until 38 weeks. In the flurry of getting everything in the car, I realized we almost forgot the car seat! Our poor dog was so confused too and was just pacing around trying to leave with us.

Luckily there was no traffic yet at the time. I called my mom and she got dressed to meet us at the hospital. We got there about 5:30am. I was dilated 3cm and admitted quickly. We then just had to wait and see how far I could dilate without help from meds. But since my water broke we were told that we had to have him within 12 hours since you can develop an infection. The nurse let me order breakfast since I wasn’t on any meds yet. So I got French toast, walked around the hospital for a while and bounced on my ball. They couldn’t keep checking my cervix so it was kind of just a guessing game. The midwife on shift did some acupuncture on me to see if it would help speed things up naturally. She left the needles in for way too long and I was getting restless, she told me to keep them in for 10 more min but it ended up being like 45 min. When we asked where she was, they said she was at lunch! After she took the needles out, they suggested I order lunch. They didn’t want to check me again until 6pm. That was the longest stretch. I walked some more and my contractions were coming in a lot stronger and more painful. They suggested I take a warm shower so my dh and I went in and I sat in the water for almost an hour it felt like. At around 3pm I tried eating my lunch but the contractions were still bad. They then decided to give me pitocin which made my contractions that much worse. I also was a bit annoyed bc my dh’s family were in the room and I really only wanted my mom and dh there. I didn’t want an audience going through contractions. I tried my best to breathe through it but the contractions were still so bad. I was hanging on to the rail of my bed trying to work through them. Then around 6pm they checked me again and still only 3cm! I was delirious at that point and requested an epidural which I don’t regret at all. I should’ve gotten some sleep then but of course my dh’s family were all piled in my room. At one point there were literally almost ten people in the room and I wanted so badly to just have privacy.

Finally at 10pm I was checked again and was only 5cm dilated. They said it would take a while before I would need to start pushing, probably not before 6am. Our families decided to go home and my mom went home to shower and change and planned to be back around 5am. Her and my dh were the only ones I wanted in the delivery. But I developed an infection and a fever so I had to go on antibiotics and from 10pm-12am my nurse came in a couple of times because the baby’s heart rate was decreasing and she had me switch sides to see if it would help. The third time the doctors came in and checked me around 12:30am and I was 9 1/2 centimeters dilated. They also inserted the internal fetal monitor to keep better track of baby’s heart rate. I immediately had my dh call my mom to let her know the progress and that they expected I would start pushing around 2am. Luckily she had just showered and rushed back. At exactly 2am the nurse had me start pushing through contractions. I will say taking Pilates throughout my pregnancy helped some during pushing. I remembered to tilt my pelvis as I pushed and the nurse said that was helping a lot. The doctor came back to check my progress at 3am and thought we had another hour to go before I was ready but with more pelvic tilts and pushing we were ready 20min later. She paged the doctor and the team came in. It felt like out of a movie. There were three doctors and my nurse with me. A pediatric team on the side since I had a fever and infection and my mom and dh along with some other staff in the background. The doctor had me push a couple of times slowly and by 3:26am he was here. They laid him on my chest and we all burst into tears. I still remember that feeling of having so much pressure right when he was about to come out. It was really emotional. Even my nurse cried! My dh cut the cord and they took the baby to the panda to examine him bc of the fever. He was 6.45 lbs and 19 1/2 inches. It took a while for the doctor and the team to deliver my placenta which they had to take to pathology to test for the infection and I had a second degree tear and it felt like the stitching took forever. But it was finally over!

We got to have our golden hour of skin to skin and decided on his name, Evan Daniel. We had Evan as our only name option besides from possibly naming him after my husband and Daniel is after my maternal grandpa who passed away when I was in the eighth grade.

The whole experience was not what I imagined and we know next time to be a lot more strict on who to allow in our room. But despite what didn’t go as planned, I’m so grateful for my healthy baby boy and the support we have had thus far.

noideawhatshesdoing · July 2018

This is so overdue, but I've just been so overwhelmed that I keep starting this and never had time to finish.

At my appointment at 39 + 5 I was only 1cm and 50% effaced, since I'm AMA, the recommendation was to induce. We wanted to give it a few more days and see if LO would come on his own but also made the appointment for an induction on 7/7 at 8pm which would have been 40 + 2. We were expecting to be at the hospital for days trying everything to get things going, LO had very different plans. We didn't tell my family we were scheduled for a induction because we didn't want to be bothered with having to provide updates, etc. The plan was to have breakfast with my grandparents and then just hang out and relax until it was time to go to the hospital.

On 7/5, my due date, I finally started losing some MP and woke up with some cramps, just uncomfortable not super painful, but I never get period cramps so it was exciting to think my body was finally doing something. These fizzled out to nothing a short time later. Just more MP on 7/6 and no other early labor symptoms. 7/7 I woke up feeling a little uncomfortable, about 7am I started to get what I thought were just really bad cramps, about 15 minutes into that, realized they were coming in a pattern and they were timeable. They didn't fit what anyone had ever described to me as contractions so I thought it was just bad cramps at first. Before I realized the cramps were contractions, we went to get some coffee and by the time we got to the coffee shop I was in considerable pain and hopped in the shower as soon as we got home to see if that would help at all. DH called my grandparents with some excuse about a headache for why we weren't going to make it to breakfast. I could barely get through a shower before the contractions had changed to a body splitting pain that had me on all fours on the bathroom floor by 8am. My dog ran downstairs to herd DH upstairs to me. At 8am, DH called L&D to let them know we were coming in and the woman into the phone was moving in such slow motion and asking so many questions and while that was going on and I was on hands and knees butt naked on the floor, bloody show started, and the pain started to feel like I was being ripped apart from the inside. DH got fed up with the phone and just said "We're coming in right now" and hung up. My dog had come into the bathroom while all this was going on and I'm pretty sure he thought I was bleeding to death because the bathroom was a mess. No time to clean it up, tossed on a dress and shut the bathroom door to be cleaned up later, got in the car and DH drove like a bat out of hell to get me to the hospital. He made a few illegal maneuvers, but I'm thankful he did because I really didn't want to deliver in the car.

DH pulled up at the curb about 9am, ran to get a wheelchair, barely got me in it, and raced me to the elevators. Meanwhile my water broke so now I'm gushing all sorts of body fluids through the lobby, the elevators, everywhere. Still desperately trying to breathe through the pain. Got to L&D, the receptionist took one glance at me and I was swept away to triage before even being admitted. Contractions were one on top of each other by this point. I was 6cm and 100% effaced. They grabbed a new wheelchair that hadn't been covered everything coming out of me. Got me into a birthing suit and contractions were now coming so fast I could hardly breathe, but somehow managed to howl and scream like some sort of hell beast while I leaned forward on the bed sort of doing a modified squat/dolphin pose sort of thing. Bare ass to the wind, and hallway. By 9:30 I was 9 cm and felt an incredible urge to push. The midwife kept telling me it wasn't time, and DH was standing behind me helping hold me up through the contractions.

I don't even remember the IV going in, and no clue how the nurse got it in with all my writhing. They were able to get the first round of antibiotics going because I'm GBS positive. For the next hour and a half I was basically doing squats and DH says when they told me not to push I started to raise up on my toes while still doing squats. I don't even remember that. I do remember getting so hot I ripped the gown off me and was just in my birthday suit screaming at one point though. At 11am they finally gave me an epidural and a spinal block because it was the only way to slow me down enough to be able to get the second dose of antibiotics otherwise I don't think they were going to give it to me. Trying to stay still while they got the spinal going was so difficult, DH gave me his fist to hold because I had to be so still. I just about broke his hand. He was rock solid for me the whole time. As soon as the spinal started to work, it was like a whole new experience. Now that I no longer felt like I was being ripped apart by hot fire irons and could breathe, they finally started the admit process, 2 + hours after I came in. Signed the consent form for the spinal block and epidural after getting them. DH was finally able to go actually park the car. I was also able to finally see the carnage that was my room, and the hallway and the two wheelchairs I had pretty much destroyed. We hadn't eaten anything since the night before and I only managed a sip of my coffee when things started to get real, but the nurse said that was probably a good thing because otherwise I probably would have vomited otherwise.

Also got a break while my body worked it's way through the last centimeter. Had a chance to watch a world cup game and relax a bit before it was time to start pushing at 3pm. Pushed for a little over 2 hours before LO would finally come out. He was crowned almost the entire time and came out with the biggest bump/swollen spot. The midwife was of course the one we never got a chance to meet in all my appointments, but he was exactly the right midwife to be there for me that day. And the nurse I had was great too. They both got my odd humor and once I had the spinal block and the epidural once the spinal wore off, we made all sorts of crass jokes in between all the pushing. LO has a lot of hair and I had made a comment that I was going to give him a little mohawk when he finally came out, to which the nurse responded "too late, I already did that". We were all cracking up and each time I laughed LO moved a little further. At one point we were laughing so much that another nurse came in very confused at what was possibly going on in my room. Finally after 2 hours of pushing, LO finally came out at 5:21pm. Gave me a second degree tear and skid marks apparently, but he's cute so that's forgiven.

Precipitous labor is no joke and was scary as hell because there just wasn't time for my mind to start to cope with all the stages since they are all taking place so fast. I've always said I was a one and done sort of gal when it came to pregnancy, and after my labor, I really never want to do it again. It was pretty traumatizing.

zombiehoohaa · July 2018

LO had been hanging out extremely low since 36 weeks. I was already dilated to 1cm and 50% effaced at 36 weeks. OB told me I wouldn't last another 2 weeks. Well 39 weeks rolled around and I was still pregnant and even more uncomfortable. My main ob was on vacation, so the ob I saw at my 39 week appointment said I was 2 dilated, 70% effaced and stationed at 0. She also did a sweep however said because of how low baby's head was she gives me a 50/50 chance of it doing anything. She said when I saw my ob the following week, I'd be induced then. I left that appointment feeling like there was no end in sight and I was going to be pregnant for eternity. Ha! The next morning I woke up to some cramping and thought nothing of it because I typically got cramps after a cervical check. Went to the bathroom and was spotting with some mucous discharge. Still didn't think anything of it. A couple hours later (10am) I started to really cramp and having lower back pain. The lower back pain was intense from the get go. I started tracking all of it. I texted my sister and dh letting them know contractions were happening and they were lasting 60-70 seconds, 7-10 minutes apart. This went on for hours...my sister ended up coming home early so that I wouldn't be alone. The contractions got worse...all in the lower back. I called l&d just to be told to call back when they were 3-5 minutes apart, lasting for 60 seconds for an hour straight and are "unbearable". Wtf...fine...so I decide to try to lay down through these because the back pain is just so intense. I start to doze off when the damn contractions feel like they are coming every minute. I try getting on all fours to see if this will help...nope...lay back down on my side and ride them out. Sure enough they've increased to every 4 minutes. I get up and feel a tiny gush however I'm thinking it's just the discharge that's been coming out. I call l&d just to be put in hold for 5 minutes longest 5 mins of my life. The nurse tells me to come in. I walk downstairs to take a shower and tell my sister its go time. Her response: "there is a very distinct amniotic fluid smell and you reek of it". Okay...so I shower (which felt AMAZING through a contraction), put in depends (highly recommend) and head out the door. As we are leaving I call DH's boss to tell him to have dh meet me at the hospital and then I call my mom to tell her the same. My sister is one of the slowest, granny style drivers but not today. Today, she was driving like a mad woman. Even when a douchebag truck cut us off causing us to almost miss our merge. She was a badass. Lol We get to the hospital and I decide I want to walk into the hospital and up to the 3rd floor...wth was I thinking?!?! Get into triage and am told to strip and put on the gown. As I'm going to throw depends in the trash, my sister stops me to say they will test the discharge for af. Sure enough, my water broke. So I was being admitted. The room had no supplies in it so the nurse kept having to leave. Apparently they were super busy they only had enough time to clean the room but not restock it. The monitors they put on my tummy weren't working properly. By this time its 5pm and the ob on staff comes in to check me. 2.5 cm dilated, fully effaced and now stationed at 1. The contractions are still pretty intense and on my lower back. Dh and my mom show up almost at the same time. Normally they only allow 1 person in triage however because we were waiting for a room, they allowed all all 3 of them to stay. The nurse finally comes in an hour later to tell me my room is 10 steps away...she's a liar and a twat. That room was around the corner and down a hall. Not fun when you have af coming out, going through contractions, and having to hold the blue pad so you don't leak. Plus, she was walking fast. I cursed her out in my head plenty of times during this "10 step walk".
We get into the room, set me up and give me a mobile monitor. That was actually pretty cool to have. I kept apologizing because it felt like I was peeing myself and it was embarrassing. I was repeatedly told to stop apologizing and being embarrassed because it's the af and it's going to come out. My mom and dh tagged team walking me through each contraction. Thank God for them! The lower back contractions are like your hips are being ripped apart and then some. HORRIBLE!!! I was offered some pain meds because I wasn't able to get an epidural yet. Finally at 9pm, the ob comes in to check me and asks if I want an epidural. I politely said, yes, please. This made everyone laugh. I'm soooooo happy I got the epidural!!!! The process was easier than I expected. It didn't really hurt and it kicked in right away. I was told I'd need to be rotated from side to side every 30 minutes to make sure the epidural worked. They also put me on pit stating the epidural causes my contractions to slow/stop. By this time I tried to nap, however my body had other plans. I was chattering and shaking non stop. The nurse told me not to fight it because it will only make things worse. My mom then tells me that this happened to her every time she was in labor (4 times). My sister also said this happened to her. Apparently it's our adrenaline kicking in. Around 10pm the midwife comes in, introduces herself, checks me and says she is going to put an internal monitor in to get a better reading of baby's heart rate and my contractions. At this point my contractions are every minute and spiking to 14. I don't feel a thing and its glorious!! The midwife doesn't tell me how far I've progressed. She just said she'd be back to check on me in a few hours. I finally start to doze off...next thing I know it's around midnight or a little after. The midwife comes in to do a check. She doesn't even stick her fingers in half way, when she pulls back out and says, "I'm going to room 8 and when I get back we're having a baby". Everyone except me were bouncing with excitement. I kept thinking holy shit, this is happening. The midwife came back in 10 mins later applied an oil and massaged every time I pushed. At one point she told dh to wash his hands up to his elbows and hurry back. When he returned she took his hand to feel the baby's head. Next thing you know he is helping pull her out. Amelie Violet was born at 1:11am, weighing 7lbs 12oz and 20 inches long. 45 minutes of pushing with a total 14.5 hours of labor. I have a small tear on each side of my inner labia. In love is an understatement.

Edit: Logged into tb on computer to fix typos. May have missed a couple...

babygagnon2018 · July 2018

7/24 went in for my 40 week and was 1 cm dilated at 70% effaced. doc was able to do a membrane sweep. left and a few hours later had cramping and was uncomfortable but went about my day shopping and getting stuff done. that night into 7/25, woke up all night needing to pee like usual every hour and would have a contraction. at around 4/430 they started to get more intense so at 5am i took a bath. went downstairs to lay on the couch so DH could sleep. 6am started timing the contractions which were 8-10 mins apart. 7am came and they were 4 mins apart lasting for 30-45 seconds. This literally went on until about 10am when DH insisted I call the doctor. I called and they said to come in and get checked. Went in, only at 2cm and the doc (mine was off so saw some other lady) pretty much laughed and said “oh this is nothing” i tried to make it clear i only went in bc DH wanted me to- but it was just uncomfortable and I felt embarrassed. although i did folllow their contraction 5-1-1 rule. i asked when i would know when to come back and she said im having the frequency but just not the intensity- so when they get more intense, to come back.

Around 830pm I started to really feel the pain and DH took me to L&D. They checked me and I was 4cm so they asked me to walk around for an hour before being admitted. Walked, got admitted and stayed at 4cm for a while. Finally got to 5cm and asked for the epidural. Hurt like hell but so worth it. After the epi things slowed so they started pitocin, first 2 then 4 then 6 then 8. Checked me and within 1 hour I went from 6cm to 8cm- AWESOME right?! ....not so much. They went to turn me so the epidural could evenly distribute and all the sudden LO heart rate dropped, spiked, dropped and spiked then stayed high. Docs stopped pitocin but no change in LO heart rate. Told me it was dangerous for her to be in there and needed to get her out ASAP and the only option was a c section. I was horrified, scared and kept refusing. DH told me we needed to do what was best for the baby and everyone promised me I wouldnt feel a thing.

Went in for the c section which they said would be 30-45 mins. Went to take baby out by the head and all the sudden she flipped and they could not get her out. Finally at 6:08pm she was born 7lbs 8oz and 19 1/2 inches long, bht had issues breathing. Thank goodness she was fine.

Afterwards doctors came in and gave us 2 pieces of information/news that again, were unexpected.

I had developed post partum preclampsia. Apparently super rare since the “cure” for preclampsia is giving birth. My BP was perfect my whole pregnancy and no protein was ever found in my urine. I am at risk for seizures and need to be on high BP meds for the next 6 weeks.
LO was born with bi lateral hip displasia. Her hips were not fully formed and essentially can pop out. Luckily it was found right away and can be treated with a brace for the next 4-6 months.

A bunch of my worst nightmares came true but she is the best thing in the entire world and I had no idea how I lived before having her.

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