Post by ampaints on Jul 26, 2015 10:00:30 GMT -5
I know I updated throughout my labor, but I felt the urge to also have a birth story so it's not so all over the place. I feel like this will be long, I promise to throw in pictures at the end!
We had planned and prepped for a med free labor and birth. We knew we might have to adjust because, well life. I was also GSB positive.
On 7/21 I had my 38 week appointment. I opted to go ahead and have my first cervical exam because I'd had cramps here and there and wanted to see if they were doing anything. Nope, I was still closed with a thick cervix. Not going to lie, I was disappointed.
I head into work and have a pretty stressful day between work stuff I needed to get done and personal stuff that kept popping up. Right about 4:15 I felt a gush. At first I thought it was just discharge which had increased lately again. I go to the bathroom to find I'd soaked through my panty liner, panties, and the shaper. At this point I figure I had had a fun pregnancy moment and wet myself. I grab the extra clothes I had in my car and went back to change so I could finish the day. When I start to change I realize I didn't wet myself and I'm still leaking. Time to go. After letting my boss know I call H who is on the way to the store after work. I get him in time to tell him not to get groceries since we're going to the hospital. His reaction was "Oh shit!"
I get home and H had finally packed his hospital bag. We eat something really quickly and I double check my bags and away we go.
At triage they are able to quickly determine it is af I'm leaking and let us know we're not leaving until we have a baby! I was still closed and thick like the morning when checked. We had already let H's parents know, they were heading home from Norway and sad they would get back and the baby would be here already.
Once we got into a room and monitored we saw that contractions had started. After monitoring a friend dropped by to visit. We chatted for a while, painted my nails, and then walked after the next round of monitoring. My midwife had a round of cervadril ordered which meant I had to labor in bed while it was in. Since it was midnight I got a mild sedative and pain killer to let me sleep for a while. I woke up here and there and at around 5 was up for good. The contractions were getting stronger so I tried to figure out how to deal with them in bed. I got a pretty good rhythm of moving my hips and had H massaging my hips as well. They were every 1.5-2 minutes and we were seeing some bloody show so we thought things were progressing. The cervadril fell out early so I went ahead and got a shower (warm water was amazing!) and labored on the ball for a while. When it was time to monitor again the midwives had changed and my favorite came on duty and in to check how I was progressing. After 20 hours I was just at 1. I had been laboring for 20 hours by this point and there was now meconium in the af. It was time to start pitocin.
I knew that we had a somewhat limited time frame. My midwife was not pushing birth by 24 hours after water breaking, but the longer I labored the higher the risk of infecting for myself and the baby grew. I decided to get the epidural at this point, I was tired, already uncomfortable with how close the contractions were, and knew they weren't going to go super slow in kicking up the pitocin. I got the epidural and managed to rest a little more while they kept increasing the pitocin. They found the max level I could tolerate and were really happy with the contractions. They checked me a few hours later and I was still at 1.
The midwife comes back in so we can talk over our options again. My water had been broken for 24 hours and we really needed to get things moving. We decided to try the balloon catheter. After three hours my midwife came back to check it and I had progressed further than they thought. Generally the balloon gets you to 5, I'd passed that and made it to 7! The energy in room changed because we all thought this was it! I had a few visitors and H and I were just so ready to meet the little one. We gave everyone the update, told his parents to go home from the airport and we'd call them when we were closer to push time.
My midwife started more frequent checks, still a 7. I got a little more sleep and then my nurse started coming in and moving me more, little one was having since dips in heart beat with contractions. They we're hoping this showed I was getting closer, I was starting to feel kind of nauseous so we started thinking transition. My nurse kept asking if I was feeling pressure.
It was now about 30 hours after my water broke and after the last hour we did another check. Still a 7. My midwife was really getting concerned and advised she'd been speaking to the OB on call and wanted him to check to gets his thoughts on if I was going to progress further. I was happy it was an OB I'd seen several times over the years and know him to be honest but not pushy. He checked and let us know that he thought my body had gone as far as it was going to. I only had to look at H to know we both knew it was time for our baby to be born. We'd tried for a long while but we were both growing more concerned the longer it played out. Within 2 minutes my room was hopping. They got me prepped and into OR as quick as possible. As they were getting me ready I asked the OB to please let H tell me the sex of the baby. That was the only part if my birth plan I had any chance of still getting at that point in time. That's also the only time I actually cried.
In the OR the anesthesiologist was great. He held my hand and talked to me until they let H in right as they were starting the surgery. My midwife also came in to support us. I was scared as crap at this point because I'm having surgery, how is my baby, and how did I end up with this birth. I was pretty out of it with the drugs and kept my eyes closed most of the time. Then I heard the doctor telling H to look and see what the baby was. It took a couple of times to get H to tell me, he later said it's because the baby was still passing meconium right into me and he was worried what that would do to me. Then he told me "it's a boy, we have our Miles." I finally opened my eyes to see H smiling at me. They took Miles to get suctioned and checked out due to the meconium (there was a ton of it!) H went to be with Miles and the anesthesiologist came back and held my hand until H came back and I got my first look at my son. I was honestly too out of it to really grasp the moment. They took a few terrible photos of the 3 of us that I have forbidden from being shared. It took a while to get me out back together and cleaned out, but the doctor took great care to ensure I was good. I was bleeding quite a bit so I got pumped with more drugs to make it stop.
We finally got wheeled back to the room and I got to hold Miles. The nurses immediately helped me to work at breast feeding. It took a bit to get him to latch and I was mostly just a lump. There was one nurse who kept helping and we made it happen. I'm so thankful to her that we did because I really think that helped put us on a good path to breast feeding.
The doctor came in. Apparently Miles was presenting face up with his head thrown back, so he had started to engage in my pelvis, but couldn't get down to help me fully dilate. Apparently my pelvis is also really narrow. The OB told me I can attempt a Vbac with later pregnancies, but to be very careful. If we had tried to deliver tiny little Miles vaginally it could have ended up dangerous for us both.
H and I have talked a lot about the birth and how it came it since. We are both honestly fine. We didn't feel pressured at any point and feel that we were allowed to make the calls. Neither of us expected to be allowed to labor as long as we did either. We feel that we ended up with the only birth that would have resulted in a healthy Miles and me.
Congratulations if you read all that!
TLDR- wanted med and invention free. Ended up with meds and interventions. Still alright in the end.
Miles b McCartney born 7/23 at 12:10am 6lbs 21"
We had planned and prepped for a med free labor and birth. We knew we might have to adjust because, well life. I was also GSB positive.
On 7/21 I had my 38 week appointment. I opted to go ahead and have my first cervical exam because I'd had cramps here and there and wanted to see if they were doing anything. Nope, I was still closed with a thick cervix. Not going to lie, I was disappointed.
I head into work and have a pretty stressful day between work stuff I needed to get done and personal stuff that kept popping up. Right about 4:15 I felt a gush. At first I thought it was just discharge which had increased lately again. I go to the bathroom to find I'd soaked through my panty liner, panties, and the shaper. At this point I figure I had had a fun pregnancy moment and wet myself. I grab the extra clothes I had in my car and went back to change so I could finish the day. When I start to change I realize I didn't wet myself and I'm still leaking. Time to go. After letting my boss know I call H who is on the way to the store after work. I get him in time to tell him not to get groceries since we're going to the hospital. His reaction was "Oh shit!"
I get home and H had finally packed his hospital bag. We eat something really quickly and I double check my bags and away we go.
At triage they are able to quickly determine it is af I'm leaking and let us know we're not leaving until we have a baby! I was still closed and thick like the morning when checked. We had already let H's parents know, they were heading home from Norway and sad they would get back and the baby would be here already.
Once we got into a room and monitored we saw that contractions had started. After monitoring a friend dropped by to visit. We chatted for a while, painted my nails, and then walked after the next round of monitoring. My midwife had a round of cervadril ordered which meant I had to labor in bed while it was in. Since it was midnight I got a mild sedative and pain killer to let me sleep for a while. I woke up here and there and at around 5 was up for good. The contractions were getting stronger so I tried to figure out how to deal with them in bed. I got a pretty good rhythm of moving my hips and had H massaging my hips as well. They were every 1.5-2 minutes and we were seeing some bloody show so we thought things were progressing. The cervadril fell out early so I went ahead and got a shower (warm water was amazing!) and labored on the ball for a while. When it was time to monitor again the midwives had changed and my favorite came on duty and in to check how I was progressing. After 20 hours I was just at 1. I had been laboring for 20 hours by this point and there was now meconium in the af. It was time to start pitocin.
I knew that we had a somewhat limited time frame. My midwife was not pushing birth by 24 hours after water breaking, but the longer I labored the higher the risk of infecting for myself and the baby grew. I decided to get the epidural at this point, I was tired, already uncomfortable with how close the contractions were, and knew they weren't going to go super slow in kicking up the pitocin. I got the epidural and managed to rest a little more while they kept increasing the pitocin. They found the max level I could tolerate and were really happy with the contractions. They checked me a few hours later and I was still at 1.
The midwife comes back in so we can talk over our options again. My water had been broken for 24 hours and we really needed to get things moving. We decided to try the balloon catheter. After three hours my midwife came back to check it and I had progressed further than they thought. Generally the balloon gets you to 5, I'd passed that and made it to 7! The energy in room changed because we all thought this was it! I had a few visitors and H and I were just so ready to meet the little one. We gave everyone the update, told his parents to go home from the airport and we'd call them when we were closer to push time.
My midwife started more frequent checks, still a 7. I got a little more sleep and then my nurse started coming in and moving me more, little one was having since dips in heart beat with contractions. They we're hoping this showed I was getting closer, I was starting to feel kind of nauseous so we started thinking transition. My nurse kept asking if I was feeling pressure.
It was now about 30 hours after my water broke and after the last hour we did another check. Still a 7. My midwife was really getting concerned and advised she'd been speaking to the OB on call and wanted him to check to gets his thoughts on if I was going to progress further. I was happy it was an OB I'd seen several times over the years and know him to be honest but not pushy. He checked and let us know that he thought my body had gone as far as it was going to. I only had to look at H to know we both knew it was time for our baby to be born. We'd tried for a long while but we were both growing more concerned the longer it played out. Within 2 minutes my room was hopping. They got me prepped and into OR as quick as possible. As they were getting me ready I asked the OB to please let H tell me the sex of the baby. That was the only part if my birth plan I had any chance of still getting at that point in time. That's also the only time I actually cried.
In the OR the anesthesiologist was great. He held my hand and talked to me until they let H in right as they were starting the surgery. My midwife also came in to support us. I was scared as crap at this point because I'm having surgery, how is my baby, and how did I end up with this birth. I was pretty out of it with the drugs and kept my eyes closed most of the time. Then I heard the doctor telling H to look and see what the baby was. It took a couple of times to get H to tell me, he later said it's because the baby was still passing meconium right into me and he was worried what that would do to me. Then he told me "it's a boy, we have our Miles." I finally opened my eyes to see H smiling at me. They took Miles to get suctioned and checked out due to the meconium (there was a ton of it!) H went to be with Miles and the anesthesiologist came back and held my hand until H came back and I got my first look at my son. I was honestly too out of it to really grasp the moment. They took a few terrible photos of the 3 of us that I have forbidden from being shared. It took a while to get me out back together and cleaned out, but the doctor took great care to ensure I was good. I was bleeding quite a bit so I got pumped with more drugs to make it stop.
We finally got wheeled back to the room and I got to hold Miles. The nurses immediately helped me to work at breast feeding. It took a bit to get him to latch and I was mostly just a lump. There was one nurse who kept helping and we made it happen. I'm so thankful to her that we did because I really think that helped put us on a good path to breast feeding.
The doctor came in. Apparently Miles was presenting face up with his head thrown back, so he had started to engage in my pelvis, but couldn't get down to help me fully dilate. Apparently my pelvis is also really narrow. The OB told me I can attempt a Vbac with later pregnancies, but to be very careful. If we had tried to deliver tiny little Miles vaginally it could have ended up dangerous for us both.
H and I have talked a lot about the birth and how it came it since. We are both honestly fine. We didn't feel pressured at any point and feel that we were allowed to make the calls. Neither of us expected to be allowed to labor as long as we did either. We feel that we ended up with the only birth that would have resulted in a healthy Miles and me.
Congratulations if you read all that!
TLDR- wanted med and invention free. Ended up with meds and interventions. Still alright in the end.
Miles b McCartney born 7/23 at 12:10am 6lbs 21"
Thanks for sharing your story. Wish you could have had the birth you imagined, but so happy for you that everything turned out well in the end. Enjoy that sweet little guy!!
