Post by ThankfulSnail on Apr 26, 2017 18:25:14 GMT -5
Theo.dore Ma.rk was born Saturday, 4/22, at 12:21 am. He is 7 lbs 8 oz and 21" long. Tl;dr birth story:
I started having contractions at about 12 pm at work but they were not timetable and pretty far apart. I was noticing them but was able to work find all afternoon without letting on to anyone what was happening. Between 3:30-4:30, the contractions ranged from 7-9 minutes apart so I called the hospital before leaving work for the day; they told me to call again when they were consistently close together and/or I couldn't talk through them.
In the hour long car ride due to terrible traffic, the contractions went to 4-6 minutes apart. I still was able to function so I played outside with DD, took her to the park, pushed her on the swings, etc.
When we got home, I finally told DH what was going on and that my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. We ate dinner and by the time we were done, I was in significant pain and they were coming fast.
DH called the hospital and- surprise #1 that didn't go as planned- they had no beds for me at the hospital I'd been planning on delivering at. So we had to go to an entirely new hospital 20 minutes further away which we had never toured. It also meant I didn't get to take advantage of my original hospital's free doula program, which was disappointing. They also didn't think it was a good idea for us to wait an hour for DH's parents to get to us so- surprise #2- we had to take DD with us. She was so confused about why I wouldn't sing the "finger family" song with her during contractions and kept mimicking the pain noises I was making. Super fun.
We got to the new hospital and got a room. The nurse checked me and-surprise!- I was still at 3 cm. I was immediately terrified they were going to send me home and my contractions would stop, and we'd be sending DD with the in-laws for nothing. The nurse hooked me up to external monitors saying they'd monitor me for 20 minutes and the doctor would make a decision.
FIL must have broken several laws because he somehow made it to the hospital only 5 minutes after we did so I gave DD a big goodbye hug and it was finally just us. This is about when my contractions really picked up intensity. Baby wasn't fully in the posterior position but he was turned enough to cause coupling contractions- one would run into the other before I would get a rest.
When the 20 minutes were up, I was still only at 3 cm but due to the intensity of the contractions, the doc said to keep me on the monitor for another hour and we'd re-evaluate. I spent the next hour laboring some on my yoga ball, some on my hands and knees, and was surprisingly comfy sitting on the toilet. However, because we were trying to get baby to turn, I had to spend most of my time lying on my side with the peanut ball between my knees. It wasn't terrible, but I would have preferred to be more active.
After the hour had passed, at about 9:30, I was told that baby's heart rate was dropping at the end of each contraction, so I was going to have to stay on the monitors for the rest of my labor. I was disappointed, because I found the monitor to be constricting, but understood we wouldn't want to miss anything going wrong with the baby.
What followed was about 2.5 hours of me being mostly confined to the bed on either side, praying that I was actually making progress so I could try something for the pain- I still thought I might get sent home at this point, despite no one saying anything of the sort. DH was an amazing coach and got me through every contraction, and my playlist of calm music was a great distraction, but I was really struggling to get through each contraction.
At midnight, I was checked and I was at an 8! I immediately yelled out, "I NEED SOMETHING FOR MY PAAAIIN!" and was told things were going to move too fast for me to get an epidural but they'd get me set up for nitrous oxide. In the meantime, baby's heart rate was dropping more drastically during contractions so the doctor broke my water and hooked him up to the cranial monitors.
Here is where my memory gets the most fuzzy because the pains were so intense and I was being confined to my back, but basically due to the amount of stress baby was experiencing and because there was meconium in the waters, the doctor was literally using her hands to peel my cervix open so I could push. I was then told I needed to start pushing, there would be no nitrous for me after all.
I pushed on my own 3 times and with one more push with help from the vacuum, Theo was born.
I had wanted a med-free, or at least epidural-free, birth, and I'm really glad that's what I had prepared myself for, since in the end, I didn't exactly get a choice. I'm so proud of my birth but feel extremely lucky it was as short as it was- I don't think I could have made it if my labor was longer!
I'm sorry I've been so absent, I've seen notifications that I've been tagged pop up but haven't gotten a chance to look at them yet. I can't wait to get caught up and back to chatting with you ladies!
I started having contractions at about 12 pm at work but they were not timetable and pretty far apart. I was noticing them but was able to work find all afternoon without letting on to anyone what was happening. Between 3:30-4:30, the contractions ranged from 7-9 minutes apart so I called the hospital before leaving work for the day; they told me to call again when they were consistently close together and/or I couldn't talk through them.
In the hour long car ride due to terrible traffic, the contractions went to 4-6 minutes apart. I still was able to function so I played outside with DD, took her to the park, pushed her on the swings, etc.
When we got home, I finally told DH what was going on and that my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. We ate dinner and by the time we were done, I was in significant pain and they were coming fast.
DH called the hospital and- surprise #1 that didn't go as planned- they had no beds for me at the hospital I'd been planning on delivering at. So we had to go to an entirely new hospital 20 minutes further away which we had never toured. It also meant I didn't get to take advantage of my original hospital's free doula program, which was disappointing. They also didn't think it was a good idea for us to wait an hour for DH's parents to get to us so- surprise #2- we had to take DD with us. She was so confused about why I wouldn't sing the "finger family" song with her during contractions and kept mimicking the pain noises I was making. Super fun.
We got to the new hospital and got a room. The nurse checked me and-surprise!- I was still at 3 cm. I was immediately terrified they were going to send me home and my contractions would stop, and we'd be sending DD with the in-laws for nothing. The nurse hooked me up to external monitors saying they'd monitor me for 20 minutes and the doctor would make a decision.
FIL must have broken several laws because he somehow made it to the hospital only 5 minutes after we did so I gave DD a big goodbye hug and it was finally just us. This is about when my contractions really picked up intensity. Baby wasn't fully in the posterior position but he was turned enough to cause coupling contractions- one would run into the other before I would get a rest.
When the 20 minutes were up, I was still only at 3 cm but due to the intensity of the contractions, the doc said to keep me on the monitor for another hour and we'd re-evaluate. I spent the next hour laboring some on my yoga ball, some on my hands and knees, and was surprisingly comfy sitting on the toilet. However, because we were trying to get baby to turn, I had to spend most of my time lying on my side with the peanut ball between my knees. It wasn't terrible, but I would have preferred to be more active.
After the hour had passed, at about 9:30, I was told that baby's heart rate was dropping at the end of each contraction, so I was going to have to stay on the monitors for the rest of my labor. I was disappointed, because I found the monitor to be constricting, but understood we wouldn't want to miss anything going wrong with the baby.
What followed was about 2.5 hours of me being mostly confined to the bed on either side, praying that I was actually making progress so I could try something for the pain- I still thought I might get sent home at this point, despite no one saying anything of the sort. DH was an amazing coach and got me through every contraction, and my playlist of calm music was a great distraction, but I was really struggling to get through each contraction.
At midnight, I was checked and I was at an 8! I immediately yelled out, "I NEED SOMETHING FOR MY PAAAIIN!" and was told things were going to move too fast for me to get an epidural but they'd get me set up for nitrous oxide. In the meantime, baby's heart rate was dropping more drastically during contractions so the doctor broke my water and hooked him up to the cranial monitors.
Here is where my memory gets the most fuzzy because the pains were so intense and I was being confined to my back, but basically due to the amount of stress baby was experiencing and because there was meconium in the waters, the doctor was literally using her hands to peel my cervix open so I could push. I was then told I needed to start pushing, there would be no nitrous for me after all.
I pushed on my own 3 times and with one more push with help from the vacuum, Theo was born.
I had wanted a med-free, or at least epidural-free, birth, and I'm really glad that's what I had prepared myself for, since in the end, I didn't exactly get a choice. I'm so proud of my birth but feel extremely lucky it was as short as it was- I don't think I could have made it if my labor was longer!
I'm sorry I've been so absent, I've seen notifications that I've been tagged pop up but haven't gotten a chance to look at them yet. I can't wait to get caught up and back to chatting with you ladies!