STM+ Birth Stories

Ecat504 · June 2020

By request of @crizz13

we all crave the birth stories. So if you have them, and you want to share them, post them here!

And let’s be honest we already know they won’t all be pretty so keep it real!

crizz13 · June 2020

Birth #1, Hospital, Vaginal Birth with epidural and forceps assisted
Gave birth at 39 weeks 4 days

DH and I had been together (dating) for 10 years so when we got married, I got off the pill and we weren't trying, but weren't preventing either. My cycles were super irregular so when I a positive test, I was on CD 50ish.

My pregnancy was pretty easy, no major issues just the regular, tired, uncomfortable, etc.

At 39 + 1 (a Saturday) DH and I went to dinner with my in-laws who were visiting. I remember feeling very large and that my stomach touched the table at dinner. After we finished the meal, I went to the bathroom and realized that I was spotting. I quietly told DH that we would have to skip dessert and we headed home. I started feeling some cramping in the cab ride home and was very uncomfortable. To be safe, we went to the hospital around 10pm and stayed for monitoring for a few hours. The baby was fine and I was sent home.

I went to work (I'm a teacher) on Monday and was very uncomfortable all day long. I sat through our faculty meeting though DH had been consistently telling me to skip it all day. As I was leaving, I made sure to leave my computer on my desk for my maternity leave replacement “just in case” I wouldn’t be back. I think deep down, I knew this was it. As I drove home, I called my mom, who I always talk to on the commute and hung up saying I had to “pull over to get something” when really I just had to hang up the phone because I was feeling so uncomfortable. I called DH and said that he should plan to not go into work tomorrow.

I started having actual contractions while watching tv and I kept timing them with an app on my iPad. I called the doctor around 10pm and she said it was up to me as to when we could come in to the hospital. It was the same doctor who had seen us on Saturday night, so she knew where I had been a couple of days earlier. I labored at home until around 2:30am and then we headed in. My contractions were inconsistent, but I had one that left me in tears so I decided, I’d rather just be at the hospital if things were going to happen. I was admitted around 3am at 4cm dilated. Everything was good and they broke my water around 5am to get things moving. About a half an hour later I requested an epidural. A resident anesthesiologist (who we later found out was a resident) came in and did it wrong so after another half hour, he came in to do it again (messed up again and had to have another guy come in). Once I had the working epidural though, I felt great and was able to sleep.

Around 10am they decided to give me some Pitocin because I wasn't progressing which they kept upping for the next few hours. While all this was going on, they kept watching baby's heart rate and kept commenting about "variability" and how her beats were fine, but they would go through periods of dips....so they kept making me change positions which would make it normal again. They also kept commenting about how my heart rate and blood pressure would every once and awhile skyrocket even though I felt fine.

My body took control and at 2pm I was ready to start pushing - the doctor was shocked that I was at 10cm because she hadn’t checked that long ago, but I knew I was ready. I pushed for about 30 minutes, but then had to stop at 2:30 because I spiked a fever, they had to put antibiotics in my IV and draw a ton of blood for cultures. They also did an EKG on me at that time and had me on oxygen.

I tried to push from around 3-4 and she just wasn't coming out fast enough. Basically she and I were both in pretty big danger if she didn't come out and fast.

I was told that we had the choice of trying to get her out with forceps or doing an emergency c-section. We decided that we would try the forceps but only would let them attempt for a few minutes. My doctor brought in another doctor who would be doing the actual delivery because she said this other woman was a high risk ob and she would rather her do it because she is the best at it. I said ok and then things got nuts.

In the span of about a minute, I went from having my two nurses and one doctor in the room to 16 people (DH counted) all in masks, goggles, full gowns, the works. It was the scariest experience of my life. Luckily, with the assistance, she came out in three pushes. DD1 entered the world at 4:28pm on November 11, 2014. She weighed 6lbs 8.5oz and was 18 inches long. They put her on me for about 30 seconds to dry her off and they the pediatric team took her away to evaluate everything. (A far cry from the plan of having her do skin to skin with me for the first hour of life) DH went with her to the NICU where she had to stay for two hours to get meds and tests done. In addition to the infection, she pooped during delivery and also had her cord around her neck. It took them about an hour to stitch me all up and stabilize me.

After I was stitched up, my wonderful nurses were able to get my parents clearance to come up to the delivery room. They had made their way to the hospital at some point during the labor process, but at my request did not come up while I was laboring. I was very emotional and just wanted to see my baby.

I got moved (in my bed) up to the postpartum floor around 7pm and once I was up there, FINALLY, we were reunited and they got us settled in a postpartum room. They continued to take Lila every couple of hours for the duration of our hospital visit to give her antibiotics and I had to remain hooked up to an IV for the same reason.

Post Partum

Holy crap, nobody warned me about how tough breastfeeding would be. I was in SO much pain from delivery and then experienced so much pain from nursing, recovery was rough. We made it through though even though she was a very high needs, velcro baby. The biggest challenges were not being able to put her down and not taking the bottle. I went back to work when she was 12 weeks and pumped until she was a year old. Nursed until she self weaned at 15 months.

I also experienced some PPA with this pregnancy. I was very sleep deprived and anxious about being away from her and about her sleeping safely.

Though I didn't feel it at the time, looking back on it, I definitely experienced some trauma from the way her birth happened and had to process it all while pregnant with my second daughter.

crizz13 · June 2020

Birth #2 Hospital Vaginal Birth, Epidural, Posterior
Gave birth at 40 weeks 1 day

I got pregnant with DD2 when DD1 was a little over 2 years old. Pregnancy was pretty good other than being exhausted all the time. I also was convinced prior to our NIPT that this would be a boy because I threw up every single day on my way to work this pregnancy until about 20 weeks. DD1 still remembers me keeping a plastic bag in the front seat of the car all those months.

The only other hiccup with this pregnancy is that I was much heavier than I was during my first pregnancy and they had me do the glucose screening earlier than they typically do. I passed after the 3 hour challenge, but somehow it stayed on my chart all the way up until labor that I had Gestational Diabetes and I was constantly telling providers every appointment that, no, I didn't. I also had to do alternating BPP and NST at the end of the pregnancy.

I had been losing my mucus plug for a couple of weeks and experiencing prodromal labor for at least a week and was getting very discouraged. I would be kept up in the early hours of the morning with regular, timbale contractions for a couple of hours...but nothing so intense that I would cry. A few times I was close to calling the doctor, but would get up to walk around and the contractions would slow and then stop. With DD1, I never even had Braxton Hicks and went into labor at 39w3d with almost no warning. To say I was impatient for DD2 to arrive is the understatement of the century.

All weekend, I was getting pretty regular and uncomfortable contractions in the early hours of the morning only to have them die down when I’d get up to walk around. The same thing happened Sunday night in to Monday morning. So I got up, got the threenager to preschool and went to work. Monday was my due date and I was very frustrated because everyone at work kept saying things like, “You’re STILL here?!?” I felt pretty good all day and made sub plans for Tuesday since we had already reduced DD1's daycare from 5 days a week to 3 days for the month of January.

From 2:30am Tuesday morning til around 4am, I was having pretty strong contractions every six minutes. Lila got up around 6:30 though and by that time they had slowed down to every 15 minutes. I was still uncomfortable enough that the prospect of being alone with DD1 for the day was a bit scary, so I asked DH if he could stay home too (which I never do).

By 8:30, I was feeling less movement which was making me paranoid, so I called my ob to see if I could come in earlier than my 3:15 previously scheduled 40 week appointment. They told me we they would be able to see me at 10am, so we had to rush since we knew we’d hit traffic and live about an hour away. We dropped DD1 off with her suitcase (Just in case this was it) with my dad (who works from home), called mom, and made our way to the appointment.

Contractions had slowed to every 20-30 minutes by this point, so I was just expecting to get checked to see how much progress had been made and talk induction. DH went to the bathroom at the office and came back when I had already been checked...When I was checked I was already 80% and 3cm, so my ob decided that at 40w 1d, I should just head over to labor and delivery! She asked, “Do you have your bags?” And “Are you ready to have a baby today?” The answer to both was an emphatic “YES!”

I was admitted to the hospital around 11am and got to my room close to 11:30. A couple waiting to be admitted commented how calm I was and a nurse said she didn’t believe I was having contractions as I didn’t seem in pain….My contractions weren’t significant enough, so they started a slow drip of Pitocin at noon. The doctor attempted to break my water but it failed and I got an epidural at 3pm (which was much more painful than I remember with the first) and by 5pm I was 8cm but the baby wasn’t far enough down, so the doctor had me lay a certain way on with a giant “peanut ball” in between my legs...it worked! I was ready to push at 6:30pm.

After pushing for an hour and a half DD2 was born at 7:57pm. 7lbs 10oz and 21 inches. I didn’t find out until afterwards from the nurse that I get a little bit of “street cred” due to the fact that I pushed her out posterior! I felt great afterwards and only had a couple minor tears.

Post Partum
We got to do skin to skin immediately and she began to nurse right away. My hormone crash is always around day 4 and I was super emotional. DD1 also regressed a little bit right when we got home with potty training, but everything got regulated pretty quickly. I sent DD1 to preschool a few days a week during my maternity leave and it was HUGE to have those days to bond with my second. She was an easier baby sleep wise but did have pretty severe reflux. She was diagnosed as a "happy spitter" and was having trouble gaining weight. We had her on meds for a little while before weaning her off of them because I didn't feel like it was making enough of a difference and she wasn't uncomfortable.

I went back to work after 12 weeks, pumped until 12 months and breastfed DD2 until I was mentally and physically done at 17 months old.

kitkatz1990 · June 2020

@crizz13 awesome birth stories!! I love all the details. I’ll kind of copy your format.

Birth #1 Hospital Vaginal Birth with epidural
40w6d - induction

So for a little back story, I was 21 when I got pregnant with DS and MH and I had been dating for about a year when we found out I was pregnant. I was a senior in college and was going through student teaching during my 2nd and 3rd trimesters...it was a pretty overwhelming period of my life and I remember that my supervising teacher was not very nice or understanding. Luckily I graduated in May and was able to spend the rest of my pregnancy at home resting. At the time we were living in a tiny little one bedroom house. I secretly miss those days a little bit, lol!

At my 40 week appointment, my OB strongly encouraged me to come in for an induction at the end of the week. That weekend was not his weekend to be on call so he wanted to go ahead and have me induced on Thursday morning so he’d be able to deliver me even if it took me a couple days. My birthday was Friday so I was really wanting him to come on Thursday so he could have his own birthday.

We checked into the hospital at 6:00am, and by 8:00am I was all hooked up to pitocin. I’m going to be honest that the details of this day are pretty fuzzy, it was almost 8 years ago and I didn’t really write anything down (unlike my next birth story, which has been told and retold dozens of times lol). Our families both trickled in over the course of the day and I had about 10 people in my room while I was laboring, lol. I remember that the nurse kept coming in and asking me if I wanted an epidural and I kept saying I was fine, I wasn’t really in much pain. Even though the contractions I was having appeared very strong on the monitor, to me it was never worse than an uncomfortable tightening (this detail is important later in my second birth story). Eventually sometime in the afternoon, they told me that the anesthesiologist was going to be busy with back to back scheduled c-sections so if I wanted one I’d better go ahead and get it or I might not have the chance, so I went ahead and got one. Everyone else left to go get lunch around that time. My blood pressure dropped and I got sick immediately after the epidural placement and they had to put sugar water in my IV but then I was fine and everyone came back in my room. At some point after the epidural they broke my water.

Around 8 or so I was starting to feel a lot of pressure and they told me I was fully dilated except for a small lip around my cervix. Around 9ish it was time to push. I practice pushed for a while and I remember joking and laughing between contractions with the nurses. They guessed that the baby was probably around 7lbs. Once the doctor came in and things were getting more serious, my epidural was no longer doing much to numb the pain. I had stupidly forgotten that you can push the button and administer more medicine. I pushed for a little while and once I got his head out, they realized he was a little bit bigger than they thought. He had really broad shoulders and they ended up having to give me an episiotomy to get his shoulders out. I remember once his shoulders were out they told me to look down and I could probably see him. I looked down and he had his little arms straight up and I remember telling MH “He has your nose!” Then I pushed a couple more times and he was out. They whisked him off and I didn’t get to hold him until after they had weighed him and everything, MH got to hold him first. He was 9lbs and 21 1/4 inches. He looked like a 3 month old baby, lol. Not chubby but just...solid and so broad.
Then everyone left me alone to take him to the nursery and get his first bath and my sweet precious MIL came in to check on me and helped me pee in a bed pan, lol.

The whole time I was pushing I kept talking about how hungry I was and how all I wanted was a coke so one of my nurses went and got me a sandwich and chips from the kitchen and bought me a coke herself out of the vending machine. It was the best meal I’ve ever had, lol. Nursing was definitely an adjustment and I only made it to 5 months. He had a really weak latch, which we didn’t realize until he was in kindergarten and we were talking to his speech therapist and she specifically asked me if he had a weak latch because his mouth and tongue muscles are weak. We always thought it was my supply because he was so big and he would nurse for like an hour and a half straight. He was a pretty good baby. I got to stay home with him until he was 14 months which was so freaking lucky.

kitkatz1990 · June 2020

Birth #2 Accidental Unassisted home birth
39w2d

Just a warning this is LONG

So this story is a little more fresh in my mind because people ask me to tell it all the time. My whole pregnancy I ASSumed I would not go into labor on my own and would need to be induced like I was with my son. Lol.

So in the weeks leading up to my DD’s birth, I had lots of BH. Tons more than with my son but I read that that’s normal and it was never anything timeable until 39w exactly. It was a Sunday, and I was having lots of BH that seemed to come every 10 minutes, pretty much all day. I was texting a coworker of mine all day (she was also pregnant, 3 weeks behind me and also with a girl. Our girls are still best friends to this day and actually that coworker is now our director). She kept telling me I needed to go to the hospital and get checked but I knew I’d be sent home with them spaced that far apart. I decided to take it easy, take a bath and see if they let up. I did go ahead and pack for the hospital just in case (yea I hadn’t done that yet...again naively thought I’d go past my
due date). They did let up that evening and I went to bed and went on in to work the next day. I did contract quite a bit that day but nothing that I could time and nothing that felt intense enough to be considered labor. I went home that day, sent my husband off to work (he works night shift) and put DS to bed (he was 2 1/2 at the time). I remember that I had washed a load of towels that night and just didn’t feel up to folding them and putting them away, and left the basket in the hallway outside of the guest bathroom. This detail becomes important, lol. I also remember that her car seat arrived that day (yes I know, I’m a procrastinator) and I took it out of the box and took a picture of it and texted my parents something along the lines of “Can’t believe I’ll have a baby girl in this car seat soon!” Lol. Soon indeed.

Went to bed that night, woke up a couple times to pee but didn’t really notice anything out of the ordinary. Then around 5am I woke up to a painful sensation that I can only describe as feeling like she was slamming her head into my pelvis. I did not notice any pain or cramping in my abdomen, just the pelvic pain. I got up and peed again, and sent a whiny text to MH about the pain. I got back into bed and it happened again. Then a couple minutes later, it happened again. The 4th time it occurred to me that it seemed to be happening every 5 or so minutes and I felt my stomach to see if it was getting tight. It was. I texted MH something about thinking maybe these were contractions. My 39 week appointment was scheduled for that morning at 9 and I was hoping these were real contractions and that maybe they would check me and I’d be in labor and be admitted.

I got up to pee again around 5:20 am and had my bloody show. All doubts about whether or not I was in labor left me at that point and I texted MH again “I’m definitely in labor, I just had the bloody show.” He was not responding to any of my texts. I found out later that he was in a part of the factory that didn’t have good cell reception. The pain at this point was getting a little worse and coming a little closer together, I was timing them on an app on my phone. I decided to take a bath and see if that would help. It didn’t, I ended up getting up and walking around every time I had a contraction and then I would sit back in the bath lol. I also remember thinking that I would still go ahead and go to my appointment that morning and be checked and hopefully have dilated a good bit. Then as things got more intense (everything intensified very quickly) I thought nah, I’ll go as soon as hubs gets home from
work around 7. Then a few minutes later nah, as soon as I get ahold of him he’s coming home and we’re going straight there.

DH finally called me around 5:55 and I told him he needed to get his ass home now, I wanted to get to the hospital and get an
epidural. Understand that at this point, I still thought I had hours left of this pain to go. After I got off the phone with him I got out of
the tub to get dressed. I also really wanted to call my MIL (my parents live an hour away and MIL is like 10min away) and get her to go ahead and take me to the hospital and MH could just meet us up there but I was never able to get myself to call her because at this point the contractions were on top
of each other. It felt like my hips were being split open, and I was walking around on my tiptoes like I could walk outside of my body, lol. At some point I remembered a friend from my son’s birth group telling us that the toilet is the best place to labor, because it opens up your hips so I sat on the toilet and it actually did help relieve the pain a little, FYI. Whilst sitting on the toilet, I suddenly realized that I was experiencing a burning sensation “the ring of fire” and suddenly realized holy cow, she’s coming out! It blew my mind because I truly did not thing I had progressed that much. I thought I still had many hours left. I jumped off the toilet and something in my brain was like “get towels” so I stepped out into the hallway where the basket of towels was and she was out in 1-2 pushes. I was standing up and just kind of reached down and pulled her out. It was some National Geographic shit! I grabbed some towels and wrapped her up and sat down and called 911. I had no idea wtf to do other than keep her warm. I didn’t want to call my husband because I was afraid he’d wreck trying to rush home.

I was initially a little panicky when I called 911 but I calmed down very quickly because she looked completely fine. She cried, she had great color and I could just tell, she was fine. I remarked to the 911 operator that I had gotten blood all over my hardwood floor and he told me I probably had other things to worry about, lol. After a couple minutes the EMTs and police arrived, and then we were faced with the problem of how were they going to get in. I really didn’t want them to bust my door down. My dog was in the back yard so they couldn’t go in that way. I didn’t *think* she’d attack them but what if she did? Lawsuit. I kept saying “My husband should be home any minute!” Lol. Just as I had decided I was going to attempt to crab crawl to the front door to unlock it, my hero (hubs)
arrived on the scene. I could hear him outside the door saying “this is my house, I live here. Hold on I’ll unlock it.”

Now keep in mind, at this point my poor sweet husband did not know that I had given birth. He had no way of knowing what horror scene was awaiting him on the other side of the door. He told me later that he had pulled onto our street and seen the flashing lights and just said “Oh no...” knowing it was going to be our house. But he was still thinking maybe I had called them but I hadn’t actually had her yet. So this poor man opens the door and I’m just sitting there in a pool of my own blood. He said it took him a minute to even process that I was holding a baby, lol! Bless him.

So yea, they cut the cord and loaded me up. They lined my brand new car seat with a towel and put my newly born drama
queen in it for the ride. MH called MIL over at some point during all this to get our 2-year-old (who peacefully slept through all of the uproar) and she was able to get a little peak at DD from the back of the ambulance. My hospital experience with DD was very different in that they no longer take the baby out of your room. She was with me the entire time we were in the hospital.

We ended up having to stay 48 hours because I had been group B strep positive and never got the antibiotics so they wanted to keep an eye on her. We had some nursing issues at first and she was having issues with her blood sugar, we actually ended up giving her just a tiny little trickle of formula to get a few extra calories in her but she figured it out and that’s the only formula she ever got. I nursed her for about 13 months and pumped at work for about 11 months. She made a dramatic entrance and she has been living up to that image ever since, lol.

So that’s about it, I am really hoping for a less exciting experience this time around and I hope there are medial professionals present this time!! I will probably be paranoid and be running to L&D with every twitch when we get towards the end, lol!

Edited to add...my phone record showed I called 911 at 6:15. So the whole thing happened in an hour and 15 minutes.

Ecat504 · June 2020

DD1 -
Born via planned c-section September 2014 at 39 weeks.

I got KO'ed in college by a guy who was not supposed to hang around as long as he did. Me and my HS sweet heart had just broken up and all the things happened. He was a good guy and very helpful and supportive (we ended up having a second baby and getting married, then divorced less than a year later - but we're for the most part super functional co-parents and have a pretty decent relationship! - but this is another story).

My pregnancy was mostly normal all the way through. I was a little queezy in the beginning but I don't think I was ever actually sick. Easiest pregnancy of my three hands down (also best NB baby ever - she tricked me into number 2 lol). My placenta grew in front of my cervix, but the doctors were all pretty adamant that it would correct itself before delivery and all would be ok. I had ultrasounds at just about every appointment to monitor it, and around 37 / 38 weeks they decided it wasn't going to move and we weren't going to wait any more. So they scheduled me a c section the following week and it went flawlessly.

The surgery was a breeze. The recovery was a breeze. The postpartum was not. I had PPA like no body's business. I was convinced everyone was trying to take her. I wouldn't let anyone hold her or any of her things (not her dad, not my parents, NO BODY) I was whacked out. It took probably over a year for that to resolve. I wasn't "depressed" just crazy. And you don't hear about PPA so I just thought I didn't have a problem..

DD2s pregnancy and birth were more of a nightmare, I'll be back to post that novel when I have a bit more time!

acdc1109 · June 2020

This thread is awesome! My the bump isn't working on my stupid work desktop so I'll have to come back later to post both of mine.

surlyjaneausten · June 2020

I love reading birth stories! I had a planned cesarean which for some reason made me feel like I didn’t have a birth story to tell. But statistically a good amount of us will have a C section and I liked reading about them beforehand.

I had a scheduled c section for breech presentation at 39 weeks 1 day. My surgery was scheduled for noon, and we needed to get there at 10:30 I think. I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything for six hours before my section. I set my alarm at 6 and drank a bunch of water. I also took sips in the morning because it just felt cruel. I was taken into a room where my surgeon (my husband’s best friend’s brother) came in to do an ultrasound to make sure baby was still breech. I feel like this gave me a false sense of hope. Turns out he was, of course, and I started crying. Then I got hooked up to an IV and started panicking. I wanted to pull it out and go home. They gave
me oxygen and my husband talked me down. My panicky moment was pretty cathartic in the end and I was able to calm down once we got to the OR. I got a spinal, which was no big deal surprisingly. I didn’t feel pain, just what felt like ice water pouring down my legs. They laid me down and my husband came in. Surgery was fast, baby came out screaming. They cleaned him off and brought him over and he started trying to nurse my collarbone! I was wheeled into recovery where my husband was doing skin to skin with him.

My first 24 hours were really rough. I ended up needing morphine so that I could finally sleep. I was really hurting. I hear of women being able to walk hours after surgery, that was not the case for me. They tried to get me to walk like 12 hours later and it was not happening. I hope this time if I get a c section I can be more on top of pain meds. I also want to request to be left alone as much as possible. The first night people were in my room literally every hour. I’m not sure how I was supposed to rest with that going on. About a week out I felt way better. I am aiming to attempt a vbac this time, but I also think it’s good to be prepared and know your options in case you end up needing a cesarean. I think there’s a lot of c section shame, especially in the natural birth areas of the internet and literature. This is not helpful and you’re not a failure by any means if you have one!! My husband’s aunt had a great perspective. She said that in the end it’s not your birth, it’s your baby’s, and they’re going to get here however they need to.

crystalmir91385 · June 2020

DD#1
Vaginal, Epidural, Episiotomy, all the tools

April 25 2014
We go to dinner with friends and are seated in a wooden booth. I am very uncomfortable the entire time, but chalk it up to the cushion less booth and the fact that I'm almost 39 weeks. On the way home (7ish) stomach is feeling tight, and I tell hubby things may be starting.
Light contractions start and aren't too bad. A little after midnight I tell hubby we should head over to the hospital to check things out. He decides he wants a shower first, so I double check bags.
We get into triage around 2am and contractions are about 5 mins apart and I'm dilated to a 4. We get checked in and try to get comfortable. Lo and behold my OB is out of town, so I get her partner, which is probably a blessing in disguise.
By about 5, I decide to ask for an epidural, things are tolerable, but being only 1/2 way, I could only imagine what was to come. Get my epidural about 20 mins later.
I finally fall asleep for 2 hours. When I wake, I am 100% numb from the breast down and can't move a dang thing. *cue panic attack*, yes really.
Anesthesiology comes back to lower the meds on my machine and says it should wear off a bit over the next 2 hours. (Spoiler alert, it does NOT)
The OB checks on me every so often, and I'm progressing, but contractions aren't doing much. She has me try to push off and on, but DD won't budge. Mind you, I can't feel anything, so who knows how well I'm actually pushing.
FINALLY around 11am, I reach 10 centimeters, but DD is still not descending oh look, she is posterior and after the OB repeatedly reaching up there and flipping her over she finally stays face down. Time for the real work (that I STILL can't feel). I have a nurse holding each leg, and another trying to help me sit up and bear down. After more pushing, I'm spent, and they give me oxygen, and threaten a c section.
Enter episiotomy, suction and forceps. Yes, really. Not all at once, one at a time to try and get the "stinker butt" out. (Actual name used by my OB)
FINALLY DD decides it's time to give up and make her appearance. All 8lb, 6 oz of her. I get sewn up, as they bring her over. I'm so exhausted I can barely hold her, but I somehow manage. Our first pictures together look NOTHING like I had hoped.

After recovering from labor, the first few hours with her go well, besides still being numb. Nurses check on me at about 3, to see If I need to use the bathroom. I still can't move, but my bladder is apparently full and starting to distend. So 3 lovely nurses lift me and help be urinate into not one, but 2 bedpans! I'm surprised I hadn't wet the hospital bed.
Remember how that epidural was supposed to wear off after a couple hours? Yeah... I wasn't able to get out of bed til about 530 pm, 10 hours after the epidural, 8 hours after it being turned down, and 6 hours after the machine being turned off after delivery.

Doesn't that sound like something to look forward to? Lol

crystalmir91385 · June 2020

DD#2
Vaginal, natural 2nd degree tear

Don't worry, this one was WAY easier. Lol

November 22 2016

I have a 10am ish dr appt. Hey look at that! I'm at 4 cm, 70%, and contractions are at 8 mins. OB tells me to go home and pack and come back in a few hours. She thinks that if my water breaks on its own, I won't make it back to the hospital in time.
Call hubby at work and tell him to leave at lunch. Call in to work, and call the MIL to get DD#1. Head into the hospital around 3. It is 2 days before Thanksgiving and the OB is PACKED!!
I get set up in triage, but after a while things aren't progressing so they won't admit me. I wait in triage til almost 6 when my OB makes it over. My OB says once she breaks my water things will get moving. The horrified nurse says she can't do that here, I'm not 39 weeks. To which my OB says "you better get her a room".
Needless to say, at about 620 I got one of the last TWO rooms.
At 630 my OB breaks my water. Mind you, she didn't even use the hook thing. She literally reached in, poked/pinched it, and woosh!!
Cue the most horrible contractions of my life. Remember DD1 where I felt nothing? Talk about a complete 180! All of the breathing classes, etc, went out the window. After 3 contractions I asked for an epidural. 20 mins pass, no epidural. 30 mins, no epidural.
I ask the nurse how to tell when it's time to push. She just says, "you'll know". So with the next contraction I try my best to relax and focus on DD and sure enough, I KNEW. I literally felt her drop into position. I call the nurse, who calls my OB. She walks in during the next contraction, and guess who comes behind her? Yep, the lovely anesthesiologist. You're too late buddy, move along.
My OB checks me. Yep, I'm a 10, and the head is right there. Cue mass chaos (at least it looked like it), of nurses running and getting everything ready. Meanwhile, I'm trying my darndest not to have this baby before my OB is gloved up.
3 more pushes/contractions and DD makes her entrance. The time? 715 pm, 45 minutes after my water broke. SOOO glad I listened to my OB and came back!

So what am I planning for #3? No idea! Lol I feel like I've had both extremes.

hedgepig · June 2020

Loving reading all of these!! I (like many others) heartily recommend The Birth Hour for more stories!

1st birth - vaginal, unmedicated, (almost) precipitous
Gave birth at 39w6d

I am going to go ahead and spoiler this, because it got way long. Also TW for loss in there:

MH and I had been together 10 years before we got married, and 4 more years before deciding to have kids. I went off birth control (which I'd been on for almost 15 years) and we tried for a few months with no luck. We took a couple of months off, then when we tried again, I got pregnant on the first cycle. I had gotten more serious and was tracking my temps and ovulation at that point. *TW* I lost that baby at 5 weeks. I got pregnant again right away the next cycle and lost that baby at about 11 weeks. */TW* It took another few cycles before I got pregnant again, and that one stuck! Pregnancy was easy - very little nausea, although plenty of food aversions during 1st tri, everything else went super smoothly. I was totally committed to physiologic/low intervention/unmedicated birth, but we don't really have a lot of options for classes around here. I read lots, did a lot of meditation, and had my bags packed full of all sorts of tools to help with labor pain.

Just to preface the birth: We live in the mountains, 5 miles up a dirt road, and an hour and a half from the hospital. I was due at the end of March, and while we don't get much snow here usually, it was the snowiest Spring I can remember. When it snows we have to walk in and out of our steep 1/4 mile driveway. That was super fun to do on and off in order to get to work in the weeks leading up to birth! I was pretty nervous about the long drive to the hospital, but also really didn't want to show up too early and be turned away, and since I was planning an unmedicated birth, I wanted to labor at home as long as possible,

At 39w3d I went in for my 39 week appt and consented to a cervical check. I was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced! MW asked if I wanted my membranes swept and I said yes. She said she'd be surprised if I didn't go into labor in the next few days, maybe almost immediately. I had some cramping and spotting that day and night, but nothing major. Same the next day and the next day. I DID have a lot of braxton hicks contractions, but I had been having them pretty regularly since around 20 weeks, so I didn't think much of it.

At 4:56 am on 39w6d I woke up to the feeling of a contraction and my water breaking (just a little gush). I woke up my husband and went downstairs to take a shower. Contractions started right away, and were like period cramps, but coming every 1 to 3 minutes and lasting for 45 seconds to over a minute. I dutifully timed them for an hour (because that's what you're supposed to do! 4-1-1!) and had some tea and toast. By the end of the hour things were getting intense, and they continued to be long and close together. I called the MW and she was like, "You had better head down, NOW!" I went to get my husband, who was in the shower and while I was in there I had a contraction bad enough that I couldn't breathe through it at all. MH heard me groan/scream and was like "Oh shit, we gotta go!" We hopped in the car and headed out. The drive was HELL. I was in the front seat and basically screamed through these back to back contractions all the way there (at least that's how I remember it - MH says I was way more in control than that). Each town we went through we had a debate about just going to the fire station to get the ambulance, but I thought we could make it. We rolled into the hospital, I managed to walk in and we got straight to triage. Someone checked me, and I was 10 cm and ready to go! I had gone through transition sitting upright and buckled into the front seat of the car. We moved to a delivery room and I started pushing right away, while the nurse tried to get an IV in me (eventually it worked, but it took a few tries). I pushed for a few minutes, but DS's heart rate was dropping and pretty quickly the MW looked me in the eyes very seriously and was said "Things are happening really quickly for baby and their HR is dropping. You need to push baby out, RIGHT NOW." So I did, and I got a partial 3rd degree tear for my trouble. They put him right onto my chest and MH got to announce the sex. I birthed the placenta without even really realizing it, but I was bleeding quite badly. MW stitched me up (which was soooooo painful!!) and they gave me some pitocin to help with the bleeding and got it under control. I didn't realize it at the time, but I guess that technically I hemorrhaged. Baby arrived at 8:26 am, exactly 3.5 hours after I woke up to that first real contraction. He was 8 lbs 12 oz and 21.5 cm long.

Immediate postpartum was good - I had lots of skin to skin with him, he latched ok, and I was all hopped up on joyous happy hormones. I was up walking around and had a shower right away (which was the best). We went home the next morning and it was this crazy unseasonably hot day (after all this snow no less). We had to stop on the way home at the pharmacy, and while we're there the battery in the car dies. Luckily FIL saved the day and we headed home. Night 2 was the worst, but after that he was a pretty good sleeper. I had some pretty serious pain from all my stitches (I asked MH how many I had and he just says, "a lot") and getting up and down off the couch to pick up baby was really hard. I was taking a lot of ibuprofen, and then the baby blues hit, and the combination of hormones and a lack of appetite and lots of ibuprofen sort of spiraled into a few bad days. I was just sad all day long, and felt like I had ruined our lives by wanting a baby because we'd never be able to do anything again. Eventually I figured out that the ibuprofen was hurting my stomach and making me not want to eat which make it all worse, so I stopped taking it and my appetite returned, and my hormones evened out a bit and I came up out of it. I still had this impending sense of doom in the late afternoon evening for a while longer, but that faded too.

Luckily BFing came easy (not to say it didn't hurt at first), and we had a super successful time - he nursed until just after his second birthday. I went back to work when he was 4.5 months, and he never did take a bottle, but we were able to just start solids a bit early, and I had to run out to BF him on my lunch break.

Needless to say, I'll be heading to the hospital at the drop of a hat this time, and really hoping that we make it!

name1109 · June 2020

All babies have been vaginal. But to any FTM who might read this. The real bottom line is healthy, safe mom and baby.

First babe: I was TERRIFIED. I avoided birthing classes, didn’t do breathing instructions (watched a YouTube video), and refused to pack a go bag. I labored at home as long as possible. The drive to the hospital was misery! I kept asking DH to narrate the drive. Poor guy. We got to the hospital, got the epidural, and had her 5-6 hours later. In there they said her heart rate was too low and would use forceps. I never pushed so hard in my life. I remember wanting DH to stop breathing while I was giving birth.

Second babe: 6-10 cm 15 minutes. That was just fast, exhausting and no epidural. Doc nearly missed her birth!

Third babe: Somehow I knew she was coming. I stopped working for the day and went for a 3-4 mile walk. I called DH, we went and got food. Then we went to the hospital, had the epidural and had her 8 hours later.

I swear I’ve forgotten a lot of detail...hence baby four. I want to do baby four naturally. But honestly just happy and healthy is my goal.

auburnvelvet86 · June 2020

DS #1
Vaginal, Induced, Epidural

My birth story leaves with me two takeaways when I look back on it. 1.) Always advocate for yourself and 2.) Don't become too married to what you think the "ideal" birth should be and feel proud of the birth you have

I'll put this in the spoilers since it's long.

At about 36 weeks, around when appointments became more regular, I started having a lot of swelling in my feet, ankles and legs. At my first appointment with my midwife, I pointed it out and asked if I should have any concerns. She said that swelling was only one sign of pre-eclamsia and that they mostly look at blood pressure now to gauge it. She also said that many women report "just feeling weird." I didn't find this last bit too helpful, but oh well. Over the next few weeks and appointments, the swelling got worse and my blood pressure rose. Each time I went in, I mentioned how I felt off about all of this. Typically my blood pressure is very low (like 100/60) so even though my blood pressure readings were coming in under the rates they looked for, I knew it was high for me. This was repeatedly dismissed (though I don't know what other "weird" feeling she was looking for that I wasn't saying!). Luckily, at my 39 week appointment, another midwife was subbing in for my typical lady. I pointed out all of my concerns, more forcibly this time. She agreed to do a urine test to check for protein. Sure enough, there it was and I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and started the induction process that night at 39w2d.

I had already been diagnosed as Group B strep positive, so between that and the pitocin, I had all the wires, tubes, and the belly band to monitor baby's heartbeat and contractions. The first few hours were no big deal. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions since around 22 weeks and these weren't much worse, as far as I could tell. Around 1 in the morning, the midwife came in and broke my water. After that, things progressed much more quickly and became much more painful. I was very frustrated by the entire experience at that point. I had wanted to try for a natural birth, try the tub, try walking around, try the ball, try all the things they recommend for natural pain management. But, as it turned out, the night nurse was not too up on her job and all of the monitors that were connected to me would constantly slip off if I moved around at all and she would come back in and scold me about needing them to be readjusted. In the middle of it, I pretty much locked myself in the bathroom, the one place where I could disconnect myself, and sat there through the contractions for about 45 minutes. At that point, the nurse had been bugging DH about getting my back on the monitors that I felt I had to come out. She also brought in a birthing ball at one point, but it was way too big and I could barely get on it, let alone without knocking off the stupid monitors once again. By this point I was so frustrated that I asked for an epidural. I had no way of actually doing any of the techniques I had wanted and felt very unsupported by the nurse who couldn't seem to adjust the monitors to allow movement and was militant about them remaining in place at all times, regardless of the fact that DS's heartbeat was super mellow the entire time.

I got the epidural and it was instant relief. I do remember feeling a lot of guilt about it, even in the moment, and even feeling compelled to apologize to DH about it. This is the kind of mommy guilt that I really, really want to stress FTMs to try to avoid. Looking back, it was incredibly silly of me to be so hung up on this one aspect when I had no control of so many factors and was doing my best. I was able to doze a bit, but again was being often woken up because of the monitors slipping off. *sigh* Eventually, the morning shift came in around 7 and I got a new nurse. She immediately scoffed at the monitor situation and fixed them right up. She also questioned why I had random pillows stuffed between my legs and brought in the peanut ball that is typically used. She was amazing.

Around 9, the midwife came in and said I was ready to push. After one or two attempts where I couldn't quite get the hang of it through the epidural, I started getting some good pushes in and DS arrived after only 25 minutes of pushing. I had two first degree tears that the midwife stitched up, though said were probably fine without, too.

Recovery was good, overall. It took a while for the epidural to wear off and one of my legs was fully numb for a good few hours. DS was middling at nursing, but I had good supply immediately and that also came fairly easily over the next few days. We were in the hospital for about 30 hours and checked out the next afternoon.

I remember that the post-partum blues really hit around day 2 or 3 after the birth. But after a few weeks of struggle, I started to feel better and probably, again, had it fairly easy in this department. I did end up struggling with BAA (breast-feeding aversion) throughout the entire year I fed him. I'm going to give myself more grace in this area, too, this go around.

So, like I said. Advocate for yourself: I pretty much had to insist on a urine test to catch the pre-eclamsia because my blood pressure, though high, never got over the numbers they looked for. But I knew it was typically low and this was abnormal for me. Second, your birth may not look anything like what you expected, and that's ok. I had no control over being induced, over being strep B positive, over which nurse I got and how competent or incompetent they were. All of these factors ended up with me having a birth that looked nothing like what I had imagined. But that said, it was also the perfect birth for DS. And frankly, this go around, I'm just going straight to the epidural as many of the downsides I had been scared of (longer pushing, more tearing) didn't hold true for me personally at all. But who knows! This birth could look completely different than even that plan! And that will be ok too.

ksd20 · June 2020

@auburnvelvet86 I love your (and others')
points about not being focused on the "perfect birth". That it's not to say, don't have a plan, but more so be open to alternate paths. My plan was bring healthy baby and mom home with the least amount of intervention needed.

It was Tuesday January 29th 2019, frigid cold with snow expected. I was 37+7. DH was driving us to work since we work about 3 blocks away from each other. As we back out of the garage I said I forgot my wristlet wallet but won't need it so just go.

At work everyone is asking when I'm due and how I feel. I felt great and expected to go to my due date 2/13 or even a week later. DH told a coworker that the baby would probably come today since we were expecting a snow storm.

Around 10:00 I was helping a patient stand when I felt a little discharge. Then again in a few minutes. I went to the bathroom. I didn't think it was pee or the usual discharge I'd been having. I posted in my F19 group asking what to do (thanks ladies!) and after soaking a pantry liner called the OB nurse line around noon. They told me to come over to get checked out, and I asked how immediate it needed to be since I had documentation to finish before leaving. Sooner rather than later was the response, preferably within the hour. I called DH and told him not to worry but that I needed to go to the hospital. He was there in about 2 minutes and left the car running outside the door. I took 40 minutes or so to wrap everything up and eat my lunch, told my boss I was going and headed to the hospital.

We went up to L&D, got a monitor on and swabbed. At 1:30ish I was 1 cm dilated and 25% effaced same as my appointment Friday. They came back and told me it was amniotic fluid so I was staying! They gave me cytotec (I think) orally to soften my cervix and got me settled in a room. DH brought my bag up from the car then went home to let Toffee out and to pack his bag.

Around 4:00 I was 3 cm dilated and kept walking the halls. I was just starting to feel sporadic contractions even though the monitor was picking them up every 10-15 minutes. During one of my rest breaks in the bed my water broke - felt a pop and gush. They started pitocin and by 7, I was 6 cm and starting to doubt I could do this. The contractions had ramped up and I was afraid of how bad it was going to get over the last 4 cm but didn't want an epidural so they gave me IV pain meds to "take the edge off." I fell asleep in the middle of a contraction and woke up 45 minutes later in the middle of another one complaining that the meds weren't working lol. I was a little fuzzy, telling DH my head felt funny. I think this is about when they started the antibiotics (GBS+).

Next I did side lying with a peanut ball for 30-45 minutes. Then I needed to change positions so I got into the jacuzzi bathtub for not quite an hour, fell asleep, and woke up needing to poop. The nurse convinced me that wasn't a good idea and I got back into bed a little before 10:00 while they asked if I wanted an epidural. I asked how far along I was while they paged anesthesia. They got there just in time for the resident to say I was at a 9 so no time for one now!

I felt a lot of pressure and told the nurse I needed to push. She called the OB and resident while she held one leg and DH the other and I pushed. The resident came in said the baby was crowning but told me to wait as I wasn't quite 10 cm dilated and she needed to gown up. She said she was going to step out to get the attending, I told her no she wasn't because the baby was coming. Another resident gowned up and a few pushes later out came my screaming, peeing baby at 10:12 pm. After a brief pause DH announced "it's a boy!" with me replying "I can see that." they put DS on my chest and DH did the delayed cord clamping. That was the most incredible feeling ever and we were both smiling, laughing and crying. I hardly registered delivering the placenta but did feel it when they stitched the grade 2 tear and a couple superficial tears of my labia.

We were able to snuggle for an hour or so before they cleaned him up since he came out yelling he didn't need to be evaluated by NICU even though he came so quickly after getting the pain meds.

PP

We stayed 2 nights in the hospital because it was the middle of a polar vortex and even though we wanted to leave ASAP, we weren't about to take baby home at midnight. He stayed in the room with us for the majority of the time. Although I do remember waking up at one point and him not being in the bassinet freaking out until DH told me he let the nurse take him to the nursery so I could sleep.

Breastfeeding went well for me initially (or so I thought). I had pain and cramping with the bleeding but a consistent routine of tucks pads and dermaplast and Tylenol/ibuprofen and colace helped. The stitches in my labia were more painful/ bothersome than the ones in the actual tear. I also remember peeing feeling strange for several weeks like my urethra was out of position.

He was slightly jaundiced and slow to gain weight due to inefficient nursing so we had a lot of pediatrician/LC visits the first few weeks/ months. But that's another story.

potofgolden · June 2020

Birth #1 Hospital Vaginal Birth, Epidural 40weeks

I think I had a pretty smooth birthing story because of an angel, my best friend that past away right a few weeks before I got pregnant. For 1, it was a girl, 2 she was born on her due date, bf was always timely, me not so much, and 3 she was born at 1:50pm, which is rib turn in time and born the same day as Houston Rodeo Cookoff. It was all her! 💓 I remember thinking of her as I gave birth.

February 23rd at exactly 40 weeks. She was born 6lbs12oz and 19.5 inches.

A few days before I had her we bought an exercise ball and I would bounce on it and watch tv or fold Laundry, I tried the eggplant Parmesan nothing was working. The night of the 22nd, I had salmon patties for dinner. I will be trying again with this one and DD loves Salmon patties now! Early in the morning the 23rd my bag of waters broke at 3:55 am. I was asleep and suddenly woke up and felt like someone had pulled a cork out of me. I jumped out of bed and water went everywhere. I woke up DH and said my water just broke. I went to go take a shower to clean up. As I was showering I felt a few contractions, but they were far apart. I threw everything I needed in the hospital bag; I hadn’t officially packed it. I decided nah on the makeup I look fine, however I never felt rushed to get to the hospital. I had been having mild contractions that were getting closer together and it had been about 2 hours since my water broke. My MNL was staying with us to help out and she took our picture before we headed to the hospital. Hoping to do this again too! The hospital was only about 15 minutes away. On the way to the hospital we were at a red light where across the street was the hospital... and boom here comes the first intense contraction. I was whining to DH just run the light! Since we arrived before normal hours we had to enter through the ER entrance. They put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me to a room to get my vitals while they got my room ready. I was already at a 6 and my contractions were hurting so I asked for my epidural. I had to wait! I got to my room and contractions intensified further I got to an 8 before I finally got the epidural all while going over all the consent questions. I remember about ripping Kara the delivery nurses Patagonia sweatshirt as I was getting the epidural and have contractions. I quickly got to a 10, but she had not dropped, they gave me picotin to help her drop, and let me try to push, she got stressed and my bp went up so they took me off of the picotin. My progress and pain has also slowed down quite a bit. She was apex causing issues and side back labor and had not dropped because her cord was around her neck. I was having a lot of side pain. They finally asked if I was ready to push. I got it the stirrups, DH got one leg and Kara got the other. I pushed with each contraction. I knew she was coming and Kara says stop pushing I’ve got to get the doctor for delivery, I said no I’m ready! The doctor came in just in time for the final push. In total I pushed for 26 minutes and she came out at 1:50 pm. DH and nurse Kara pretty much delivered DD on their own. The doctor did sew me up with a 2-tear and I was able to do the skin to skin while they sewed me up. They cleaned her up and measured her in the room and then she came back to me for bf.

She was able to latch, but I’m not sure if I was doing it right because the nip were hurting pretty bad in the next few days. They did have a jaundice concern so I had to supplement her with formula. She rarely had formula up until 5 months. I bf, no pumping for 5 months. When we bottle fed it was usually Hakka let down. I was super intimidated by the pump and all the parts.

DD was my rainbow baby. My angel baby’s due date was 2/25 and three years later it was the day we got to bring DD home from the hospital. As we were being wheeled out of the hospital I had tears of sadness and joy rolling down my face.

acdc1109 · June 2020

Finally able to get mine written!

DS1 vaginal, hospital, epidural, 38+4
38 week appointment at 38+3, I was unknowingly already 2-3 cm dilated so the doctor offered to strip my membranes and it worked well! I started having contractions around1am the following morning but I wasn't sure so I timed how long between contractions for an hour and after that I still wasn't sure so I timed how long the were lasting for an hour and I still didn't want to call the doctor so I waited one more hour before waking up DH (who had no idea any of this had been happening!). He wanted to take a shower and I was like "sure, whatever" well that was the wrong answer! By the time he was ready to go I was in so much pain! We dropped our dog off at my parents house and were at the hospital by 5 am. Had to go through the emergency room entrance because it was so early. I went to triage and when they checked me I was at about 6 cm. Didn't get my epidural until around 8 but right before i had asked for the pain shot (which i think is a narcotic) and i really wish i had just waited because it made me super sleepy and sluggish throughout the rest of labor and delivery. Fast forward a few hours and I was ready to push (I think around 10 or 10:15 am), pushed for about half an hour and DS was born at 10:44 am! We were team green so it was fun finding out at birth. Post partum healing wasn't terrible (no one warned me how bad peeing would be after delivery and I did tear so ouch!) but breastfeeding was awful! It hurt so badly even with the shield and for the first week I would cry when it was time for him to eat. We got through it and I breastfed/pumped until about 10months when my supply was just so low it wasn't worth the stress!
DS2 story coming soon but this one got so long I'm going to do a separate post!

acdc1109 · June 2020

DS2 also hospital, vaginal, epidural but 38+1
Let me just start with the fact that this was the most ideal labor/delivery experience ever! I'm hoping #3 is similar.
Went in for my 38 week appointment at exactly 38 weeks and I had been having contractions on and off for a couple of weeks so I kinda thought I would be dilated (experience from the first time!). Doctor checked me and I was 3 cm dilated and i asked if she would strip my membranes because it worked last time. I was also facing induction in a week due to GD so she was like "sure let's try it". Well, similarly to the first time I went into labor the next morning. So it's Saturday (10/6/18) and I woke up at about 8 and was having contractions. I timed them for a little bit but kinda assumed I would be heading to the hospital. DH came to see if I was up (bless him, he got up with our toddler and was letting me sleep) so I told him I was planning to call the doctor because I thought I was in labor. I swear he had all the stuff in the car in 5 minutes! Meanwhile, I call my mom and get in the shower. Then I ate breakfast and my mom came shortly after that. I hardcore stalled and was making DH and my mom nervous so we finally left for the hospital and got there around 11. I think I was 7 cm when I got to the hospital and the nurse I had was amazing! She made sure I got my epidural in like an hour! After the epidural was in place, i sent DH to the car for the bag and while he was gone the doctor came in and broke my water (I forgot this in the previous story but the doctor also had to break my water with DS1). After he broke my water he checked my cervix and was like "oh she's at 10 now". DH came back and I had to update him on the progress so he was very surprised! I wasn't quite ready to push so I labored like 30 more minutes and then felt ready. 5 minutes later DS2 was born. We were team green with him too, I thought we were having a girl but DH thought it was a boy so when he was born everyone was like so what's the baby, dad? And I'm like "oh you were right, honey! It is a boy!" Kinda stole DH's thunder there! 😆
I only had a minor tear and no stitches so recovery was a million times better. Breastfeeding still sucked but it was easier because I knew what to expect and I had better nipple cream. I nursed/pumped until 8 months and I didn't feel nearly as guilty switching to formula because apparently my supply starts to tank around 6 months. We'll see what happens this time!

drsddc · July 2020

DS #1

natural delivery at 41 weeks

I was extremely impatient to meet my baby especially since my SIL had her baby before me and I was due first! I spent the day cleaning my house and crying because it wasn’t fair that I was still pregnant (stupid hormones). I was starving and ate almost and entire bag of potato chips before crawling into bed.. should have given me a clue of what was to come. My husband crawled into bed and I rolled over to give him a kiss and thought I peed my pants. I went to the bathroom to discover my water had broke. I sat there wondering how long to wait before going to the hospital. My contractions started 3 minutes apart, so we decided to start getting ready.

I got to the hospital with contractions still 3 mins apart and dilated to a 3. I walked the halls until I felt the urge to “poop.” The nurse informed me that this actually meant it was time to push. I had gone from a 3 to a 10 in four hours. I was squatting to push and baby was coming really quickly. He was crowning and the doctor made me lay in the “birthing position.” My contractions stopped completely. After 1 hour, I had an episiotomy and then delivered minutes later. It was 6 hours from the time my water broke to when I was holding my baby. He was 1 week late but was born on my Grandpa’s Birthday who had passed away 2 years prior.

drsddc · July 2020

DS #2

natural delivery at 38 weeks 5 days

Since I was a week late with my first, I was not expecting baby for at least a week... surprise! I woke up in the night with what I thought were BH. I turned on the TV to help me fall back to sleep. My husband woke up and asked what was going on. I told him I was having BH because they weren’t painful at all. He told me to time them and turns out they were 7 mins apart and consistent. I called my mom who lives 2 hours away to start driving down because I didn’t know if I was in labor or not. It was 3 am and she got up, showered and drove down to be with my DS1.

I continued to be in denial about being in labor until I had the bloody show. I decided after this to head to the hospital. I arrived at the hospital dilated to a 3. The nurse wanted to send me home but my Dr was on her way to the hospital so she was going to talk to her first. The nurse made me a bubble bath to relax in until the Dr got there. The nurse was shocked when my Dr said to keep me there.

My water broke about 6 am when I was at a 4. I continued to walk the halls and sit on a yoga ball. The nurse came in the check the baby’s HR and I told her she needed to check me because I just went through transition phase. She didn’t believe me because it had only been 2 hours since I was at a 4. I had a contraction and started to push so she finally listened and checked me and baby was crowning. Everyone ran into the room for the delivery. I pushed for about 15 mins and delivered. So thankful my doctor was the one on call and that she knew my history. I live 40 mins from the hospital so wouldn’t have made it home and back again in time since I was only at the hospital 2.5 hours before I was holding my baby.

potofgolden · July 2020

I feel like I’m seeing a trend of earlier births for the 2nd baby. All these birth stories are getting me excited!

wychets · July 2020

Love this!! I should be working but this is more fun haha!

36 week, induced.

My blood pressure began to spike around 33 weeks so my doctor gave me BP pills, and checked my urine which
has no signs of pre E in it. Every week I would have to collect my urine for 24-48 hours and drop it off at the lab to check for protein, and every week I was fine. Well that is until I went in to drop off my 36 week urine, and the nurse checked my BP which was 180/100. Let me rewind just a bit...This was an 8am appointment and I was starvinggggg but told myself "I'll grab something right after this.." WRONG!!! They sent me upstairs to L&D to be monitored, during that time my BP continue to go up and my doctor decided it wasn't safe for me or DD and I should be induced.

All I could think about was eating, and that was NOT going to happen.

I was moved to a room, undressed,IV hooked up and induction was started on 12/22 at 130p. I progressed to 2 cm by 2am, and the nurse came in to insert a foley ball (boy did that thing hurt)but it worked and got me to 4cm. Things get fuzzy here, I remember getting an epidural and it didn't take so I got another one and was numb from the waist down. I had about 6 people in the room, my nurse kicked them all out except DH so I could rest, my mom thought it was a great idea to go to TJmaxx near the hospital in the meantime. Not even 30 mins later the nurse rolled me to my right side and I immediately had the urge to have a BM!! She said "Oh that means you're ready!!" I panicked and had DH call my mom!!! The nurses started prepping everything quickly and my mom was on her way. I had been induced at 130p on 12/22 and DD was born on 12/23 at 430p after pushing 4 times in 20 mins!

I had a very small tear that only required 3-4 snitches, but the biggest issue was my placenta would not come out!!!! They quickly grabbed DD off my chest, put pain meds in my IV, and I remembered looking down and seeing the doctors arm in my vagina all the way to his elbow, mind blown! They were finally able to get it all out and all was well.

I had some back pain from the epidural but other than that I felt great! My skin was glowing, my stomach had went down almost immediately, and I was able to shower, eat, and wear my own clothes.We went home on Christmas morning, wow that was almost 9 year ago and here we go again haha!

krystrist2014 · July 2020

Love all these birth stories ladies!!

Induction turned emergency cesarean at 41 weeks, 1/1/15 (my little New Years baby!)
40 week appointment showed no cervical softening, no dilation, and DD had not started to move down at all. I was incredibly emotional and upset about facing induction because I was terrified of having a csection and had read all the things about higher probability of csection with induction. They wanted to do an ultrasound at this appointment to check things out and I refused because they didn’t explain the need or reasoning behind it and it felt like an unnecessary expense. They instead asked me to come back for a non-stress test (NST)a few days later and gave me tentative induction date of 1/1 since they had a strict rule about not letting women go past 41 weeks.

NST went fine and I was told that if nothing happened on its own between then and 1/1 that I was to check in for the induction at 5pm New Year’s Day.

DD wasn’t coming on her own apparently so we checked in to hospital on New Year’s Day. We got in, did all the paperwork, got into gown, answered all their questions, got hooked up to monitors, they inserted the cervadil disk to get my cervix softened.

At this point I realized I forgot my phone. It worked out to have MH go back home and grab my phone because my parents and sister wanted to come in and visit and the hospital allowed a max of 3 visitors at a time. After MH left, my mom, dad and sister were in the room talking to me.

I could tell that the monitor was no longer picking up DD’s heart and hoped it had just slipped or she had moved. Tried to keep calm and keep talking with the fam but nurse rushed in to try and fix it. She wasn’t not having any luck finding her heart beat. She had me try turning on both sides before kicking my family out so she could have me get on all fours to see if that would change DDs position so they could get her heart beat on the monitor. By then there were like 3-4 nurses in the room helping. Still no luck. My OB was not at the hospital yet so they pages the hospitals on call OB. He arrived and informed me we were going to have a csection and a baby within minutes. MH was still in transit and I was scared. All I could do was close my eyes and pray as tears rolled down the sides of my face. I was in the OR alone and had to be put to sleep for the birth of my first baby because if there is not an epidural line already started then there is no way to quickly administer local anesthesia. The nurses and doctors did a good job of calming me down while I was in the OR and before I knew it, I was out. I woke up in the recovery room in extreme pain and a nurse told me my baby was healthy. I was in and out but MH eventually came and showed me pictures of our baby girl. After a long wait in the recovery room I was eventually wheeled up to the post partum room but they still had not brought me my baby!! MH and my parents had to badger the nurses repeatedly to get them to finally get their shot together and bring me my baby. I was in and out still so I didn’t realize how long this took but to hear them tell it, it was very frustrating.

Csection recovery was tough. It was extremely painful for weeks after and made caring for a newborn much more difficult. It also made affected my milk production. I also hadn’t prepared well for breastfeeding because I was unsure I would be able to due to a breast reduction I had years prior. I had a lot of postpartum guilt and anxiety. I relived the scary moments of nurses and doctors not finding baby’s heart beat every night. It had turned out that her cord was wrapped around her neck and she suffocated herself. I blamed myself for not getting that ultrasound they had asked to do at the 40 week appointment. I still have lingering sadness about everyone seeing and holding my baby before me and not being conscious for her birth. BUT, I agree with all those who have said to try and let go of ideas of having the exact birth you want because it is so unpredictable and the most important thing is for baby to arrive healthy. ❤️

wychets · July 2020

@krystrist2014 OMG I am so sorry you experienced that, but seeing the pics you post of your daughter she looks happy and healthy and none of those things makes you any less of a mother *hugs*

krystrist2014 · July 2020

@wychets thanks girl! She is definitely happy and healthy and we were so blessed that umbilical cord didn’t cause any real harm. ❤️ That birth was definitely a lesson for me.

potofgolden · July 2020

How horrifying @krystrist2014 I know I need to prepare myself for possibly having to be induced and C-Section just in case.

I’m just so anti induction and anti trust for the doctors wanting to do it. I’ve heard so many stories about c-sections because the doctor was going off shift. My doctor was on vacation, so I didn’t meet the delivery doctor until I was pushing baby out... so I guess you could say I’m not attached to the delivery doctor.

krystrist2014 · July 2020

@potofgolden I am right there with you, girl. I still have the underlying mistrust for inductions. I brought up that fear right away with my OB this time. It certainly didn’t help last time that I had moved to a different state in the 8th month of pregnancy!! So I really didn’t trust my doctors. This time I went with a practice that has an incredibly successful VBAC rate and very low csection rate and I genuinely trust them so much more. Despite how things went sideways last time, I feel like it gave me greater faith in God because I truly think that if we hadn’t been made to go in for that induction then Babygirl probably would have died at 41 weeks.

mtengl · July 2020

I am going to make mine short and sweet.
I was 39 weeks when I went into for my OB appointment, I was like can you please check to see if I am dilated because I honestly feel like something is going on (I had irregular contractions for several weeks every couple of days). She was shocked because I was 3cm dilated. She did a membrane sweep and was like it will be any day now so you might want to stop working.
I started having contractions (irregular at first) and my water broke on 39 weeks 2 days (so two days after my appointment). Gushed and gushed very dramatic. luckily I was at home. I took a shower, told DH to hurry up because I don't think this girl is going to wait long.
We got to the hospital about 2pm, I was 5cm dilated. I labored until about 3:30 then asked for an epidural. By 4pm I was happy as a clam, but at 5pm I told them I felt like I was fully dilated, midwife came to check and she was like yup you are, lets taper off a little bit and let the contractions even out a little bit and start pushing at 6pm. At 6pm she said okay you have 2 hours before this epidural is going to be worn off, I pushed until about 7:45pm ( I don't remember exact time she was born - terrible mom here) and she was out. I could feel a lot by the end but happy about this because it helped with pushing. I had minimal tearing and an easy recovery. I was blessed, and hoping this one goes well too. When I told my mom that my water broke she was like you get to that hospital now because we go fast!

crizz13 · August 2020

I just got through re reading these and I've got to say, I cried at an embarrassing number of them. So proud of our mamas and I am getting so excited for these N20 babies to start arriving.

laurenmicheley · August 2020

Honestly, reading these stories made me feel SO MUCH MORE comfortable about giving birth. As a FTM, I find it completely terrifying and reading about everybody's experiences has given me a lot of perspective that I can do this, too.

teachingbp · August 2020

Just found this thread! How great! I ❤️ birth stories!!

I was induced at 39 weeks for atypical HELLP. My BP had been creeping up since 30 weeks, but I had no physical symptoms, no headaches, no swelling, no abdominal pain. My last ob visit, Dr said let's do blood work to be safe. The next day I got a phone call telling me I was going to the hospital to have a baby. I am pretty sure I said, are you sure? Haha. I didn't believe it.

I get to hospital, get all set up, get more blood work. Dr comes in, checks me, luckily I was a "loose 2cm" dilated, 50% effaced, baby -2, so I could go straight to pitocin. As she's explaining everything to me, she said, "oh yeah, one more thing, you can't get an epidural, your platelet count is too low." (You need a count of >100k, mine was 90k). I said, "oh ok, well I wasn't necessarily planning on getting one, but I am interested in the nitrous". The nurse pipes up and says they are out of tubing. I think well isn't that dandy.

Around 5p they start the pit. It wasn't terrible. The worst was being hooked up to all the monitors! (I had planned intermittant monitoring and like no interventions). Then at 11:45p my water broke and if got real. I was checked around 1am and was 4cm dilated and thought man this is going to last forever!!

At 4:30am I felt like I was dying. I remember asking my doula what my options were bc I couldn't do this anymore. She said I should get checked and then we could go from there. So I got checked and I was at 10cm, 100% effaced, +1. I pushed for an hour - geez Louise that was hard. (I know many ftm push more than an hour, but I was exhausted!!). And little nugget was born!

The morals of my story are #1 you CAN do this. I had zero pain meds with being induced, it wasn't fun, but I survived and you will too! #2 if your BP is going up, demand blood work. #3 have a plan, but don't be married to your plan, things WILL change (like me wanting to do whatever I wanted in labor didn't happen bc I was hooked up to monitors.

mtengl · August 2020

@laurenmicheley my biggest advice is talk it out with your ob/midwife and make a plan but be open to the idea that things can easily change. A lot of the moms in my j19 group had planned these natural births with a doula and ended up needing inductions or csections. It is always helpful to keep in the back of your mind a back up plan or things will change but the biggest outcome is always healthy mom and baby

laurenmicheley · August 2020

@mtengl Thanks! I think I'm the opposite of a lot of moms (and I think FTMs in particular) as I definitely want an epidural and am open to having a c-section if deemed necessary. Mostly, I'm a bit freaked out by the pain of everything (I have cervical sensitivity) and can be a bit of a baby about it. My main goal here is to get baby out as quickly, safely, and comfortably as possible for the both of us.

babywiik · August 2020

@laurenmicheley I'm a FTM also and was super freaked out about giving birth. My midwife recommended that I learn everything I can about birth. I've been listening to positive birth story podcasts and they've really helped. To the point I'm almost excited for the birthing process🙈 well see if that lasts when things get real😉 at my last appt my midwife commented that I'm the most prepared FTM at 26 weeks that she's ever saw...so not sure what that means but I'm not so nervous anymore so I'll take it as a good sign.

hedgepig · August 2020

@babywiik I think the name of the game is being as prepared and knowledgable as possible, so you can try as hard as you can for the birth you want, and if things go sideways you'll know you did your best and made the right decisions for yourself and your baby. So, no regrets! I am definitely excited for birth, although nervous about lots of aspects of it too. It can be such a magical and empowering experience!

laurenmicheley · August 2020

@babywiik Yes, I've definitely been immersing myself as much as possible. I think there are different strokes for different folks - I am a Type-A personality and feel empowered by information. For me, learning what my options are and hearing about others' experiences has made a huge difference in making me feel comfortable about the whole thing.

vetgirl2011 · August 2020

@babywiik I’m a FTM and have been listening to The Birth Hour podcast recently. I agree that it seems less scary when you are more prepared for all possibilities. Do you have any specific podcast that you like best?

babywiik · August 2020

@vetgirl2011 I started out listening to "the positive birth story podcast" set up by a Swedish midwife (she speaks English 😉) and I've loved all of them! I'm almost done and then I'll move on to The Birth Hour. I dont know if there's one that stands out more than the rest but so many of them mention coping strategies and how to stay positive so I've been writing down some of their advice so I can remember later/give my list to MH for him to remind me if I want/need when I'm in labor. I like having a list of ideas of coping strategies which will also give me something else to focus on because I know I won't be able to think about it when the time comes.

vetgirl2011 · August 2020

Thank you @babywiik. I will definitely have to listen to the positive birth story podcast next! It’s also a great idea to write down some coping methods. I need to do that!

mikylee · August 2020

I have 2 boys and one more boy on the way. The differences between my two boys births were very different.
My first was a hospital birth. I was induced with Pitocin and it wasn't doing much so they broke my water and it got super painful. I got an epidural soon after and it only worked on the right side of my body my left side felt everything. When I tried talking to the anesthesiologist he straight up told me I was lying and refused to try re putting it in. I pushed for 20 minutes which is interesting when you can feel half and not the other half.

For my second I decided to have a home birth based on my previous hospital experience and research I had done. This was amazing and wonderful and what I would recommend to low risk mommas. I had done hypnobirthing classes and was able to use what I learned to have a painless birth. I woke up that morning and when I went poddy I saw I had the "bloody show" I was so excited and texted my midwife she told me I'd probably give birth sometime in the next 10 days. The whole day I felt off... not really sure how to explain it but my body just felt off/different than usual. I wasn't having contractions but I just felt off so I had my friend drive me to my previously scheduled appointment that afternoon just in case, I was 4.5 cm dilated. On the drive home I started having contractions every 5 minutes but they weren't very big. I got home and my friend helped me clean up my living room and inflate the birth tub. Later I made dinner, and during dinner I had to eat on my hands and knees with my plate on my chair lol. We put my oldest to bed a little early that night and soon after my midwife came to our house to check on me and found my cervix to be at 5 cm out my water had broken, a high tear so I was dribbling only a little and hadn't noticed. So she called her midwifery student to come over and assist. Soon after the student got their I went into active labor and got into the birthing tub. I was in what is referred to laborland, basically letting my instincts take over and being in a active but relaxed hypnotic state. I started pushing just doing what my body wanted (I didn't realize I was pushing until I heard my midwife whisper to her student and my husband that I was pushing lol). I pushed him out and then had to get out of the tub because he had a short cord and otherwise his head would've stayed underwater. I was in active labor for 1 hour 8 minutes according to my midwife and pushed for 3 minutes. My older son slept through the whole thing even though he shared a wall with the living room. It was beautiful and peaceful and I got to sleep in my own bed that night which is waaaaay more comfortable than a hospital bed.

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