I had a baby!
Aug 14, 2016 17:11:56 GMT -5
Post by hummingbird125 on Aug 14, 2016 17:11:56 GMT -5
Okay - the following is crazy long and probably has a ton of typos, and parts may not make sense because I started writing it yesterday and didn't get a chance to finish until now, but I wanted to write out everything I could remember before bits and pieces started to disappear, so here you go :-)
TL/DR: Benjamin Cole was born at 7:19am on Saturday, 8/13. 8lbs 7oz, 20in long, at 41w 2d gestation.
First of all, I was originally scheduled to be induced at 7am Friday, but the hospital pushed my induction time twice, and after the 2nd time my mom called the answering service for my OB. Told her I was hysterical and very anxious and nauseous - all true. So that woman told us to head to the hospital and said she'd let them know we were coming. When we got there, they gave us SUCH an attitude and I was really upset, but they have us a monitoring room. Did nothing but NST for hours and hours and I was sooo worried they would send me home, but we finally got a L&D room. So basically, I would advise going to the hospital if they keep pushing or even cancel your induction - because if I hadn't been waiting there for a room to open up, I would probably not have gotten one at all on Friday. Ok, birth story time!
Once we got into a room my OB checked on me, I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced, so up another cm from Tuesday. I had been having noticeable but mild contractions since Thursday night, about 8 min apart, but thought they were probably just stronger BH. OB said he'd start me on pit shortly but wanted to let me eat a light dinner first. We ate, and then he took a look at my contractions and asked if we could just try breaking my water instead, and see if that kick-started anything. I was a bit overwhelmed with another change in plans (we were originally going to start with cytotec), but I agreed to let him break my water. Whoa - that was SO weird. Didn't hurt at all but was just, strange - feeling all that warm water squirt out.
Immediately afterwards, legit contractions began. Holy shit. Those hurt. It was all back labor, and they quickly jumped to every 4-5 minutes and about a minute to 90 seconds long. I pulled out my phone and plugged in my ear buds and listened to some Hypnobirthing tracks, which actually helped me focus and breathe through them. I stayed on my side or hand and knees through each one, while DH pushed/rubbed my lower back. After about an hour, I asked for the epidural. Half an hour later it was in and I was SO relieved. It gave me the shakes for a while and I started feeling pretty nauseous so I got a dose of Zofran for the nausea. I don't know how much that helped, but I didn't have any negative affects from it either.
I didn't really sleep all night long, in part because of the auto blood pressure cuff that made a noise and tightened every 10 min, and around 2am I started feeling my contractions again, and I was more aware of the catheter that had been inserted post-epidural. As I started getting more and more uncomfortable, my nurse came in and quickly requested a top-off of my epi and I got another dose of Zofran as well. My contractions were about 2-3min apart by now, and from the monitors I could tell that they were strong and very distinctive and consistent. On the screens you could see the NST's of each other labor room, and I was happy that mine seemed the sharpest and strongest at that point (when I came in they looked like nothing!)
Around 3:30am my OB finally came in the check me, and lo and behold, I was 8cm!!! I was hopeful I had made significant progress but had no idea what it would actually be. DH called my mom and sister and they drove up and got there around 4:30am. I was starting to hurt again and feel some pressure. The doctor checked me again by 5am and he was I was 10cm and fully effaced but baby wasn't quite all the way down yet. I labored down for about another hour/hour and a half until I was feeling a TON of pressure and kept telling everyone "I want to push! I think he's ready!" My nurse came back in with my OB (who wheeled in a computer to get some work done while waiting to be needed...), and showed DH how to hold one of my legs while she held the other, and we did a few practice pushes. It felt SO good to even be allowed those practice pushes. Then with the next contraction I started pushing for real. It was HARD. I got tired after the first few pushes, and didn't think I'd have enough energy to get him out. After about 30 min, the doctor got into position and pulled off the bottom portion of the bed.
With each contraction, DH and the nurse held my legs up and I grabbed behind my knees. The nurse instructed me to "curl up around the baby and PUSH" to a count of ten - I usually couldn't make it to 10, but did the best I could, and then I would take another deep breathe and do the same usually two more times until the contraction was over. It was exhausting - I put everything I had into each push and it still didn't feel like I was doing enough. I started losing it a little and told everyone I wasn't sure I could do this. My awesome nurse said "I need you to keep it together right now. You CAN do this. We're going to get this baby out. You need to give me everything you've got. Don't lose it now."
Finally my mom said she thought she could see his head, and the doctor said it was right there and asked if I wanted a mirror to see (NO, I did NOT). At least I knew something was happening at that point. After a few
More pushes he started crowning and while I didn't feel whole "ring of fire" (thank you, epidural) - I could feel immense pressure and stretching. My OB said he needed to do an episiotomy to help get him out and I said "do whatever you have to do!" I did feel some sharp pains as he was snipping me, but at that point, all I cared about was getting baby out. After that, it took two super strong pushes with everyone - OB, nurse, DH, my mom, and my sister - yelling "he's right there! Push!!!", and his head was out. I found out later that the cord was wrapped around his neck twice, so the OB cut it right then and suctioned his nose and mouth. With the next contraction I pushed once and his shoulders and the rest of him slid right out and and someone said "he's out!" The relief I felt was overwhelming - holy shit I actually did it. They put him to my chest and started wiping him down and I think the first thing I said was "oh my god, he's cute!" and I started crying. I just couldn't believe he was actually OUT and not just a giant annoying belly any longer. I passed the placenta and then the OB stitched me up while I was holding baby, but I really didn't notice any discomfort at that point, I was just too overwhelmed with the tiny human crying on my chest.
We had an issue with his blood sugar dropping way too low yesterday afternoon, so he did spend the night in the NICU and we're supplementing with some formula until my milk comes in. He is a lazy eater, whether on my boob or with a bottle, but we had a really good latch at 3pm today where he stayed on for about 10 minutes. We'll just keep practicing and hope that when there's a bigger reward for him, he'll stay on longer.
Physically, I'm feeling a lot better today than yesterday, but it's still rough. Everything down there is very, very, tender and getting out of bed has been a struggle since I'm just so aware of... All of it. My leg and shoulder muscles are all crazy sore as well, so I'm walking like a 90 year old with arthritis. Hoping a few more days of rest and LOTS of help from DH and my mom help me feel human again. Taking a shower today helped a ton in that regard.
Emotionally, I still don't think it has sunk in that I'm a mom, DH is a dad, and this tiny perfect human is our son. We are completely in awe of him and I feel like I could just stare at him forever. Other than the episiotomy, I am so happy with how the birth went. My pain was managed well, but wore off enough before "go time" so that I could feel what was happening and knew exactly where and when to push. I am a super emotional person and get anxious and overwhelmed easily, but I feel so proud of myself when I think about how labor went. I didn't cry or scream at all, I breathed through contractions and moaned and just stayed in my own little zone. Feeling like there was just NO WAY I was going to push this baby out to "OMG he's out? And right in front of me?" was just the most incredible, empowering thing I've ever experienced. Seeing my DH holding his son and crying was probably the second-most incredible thing.
We're due to go home tomorrow morning, which is exciting and terrifying all at once. I'm probably going to be too overwhelmed to do much TCFing for a little while, but hope everyone is doing well and everyone has smooth labors and deliveries and as few induction & c-section cancellations as possible!
TL/DR: Benjamin Cole was born at 7:19am on Saturday, 8/13. 8lbs 7oz, 20in long, at 41w 2d gestation.
First of all, I was originally scheduled to be induced at 7am Friday, but the hospital pushed my induction time twice, and after the 2nd time my mom called the answering service for my OB. Told her I was hysterical and very anxious and nauseous - all true. So that woman told us to head to the hospital and said she'd let them know we were coming. When we got there, they gave us SUCH an attitude and I was really upset, but they have us a monitoring room. Did nothing but NST for hours and hours and I was sooo worried they would send me home, but we finally got a L&D room. So basically, I would advise going to the hospital if they keep pushing or even cancel your induction - because if I hadn't been waiting there for a room to open up, I would probably not have gotten one at all on Friday. Ok, birth story time!
Once we got into a room my OB checked on me, I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced, so up another cm from Tuesday. I had been having noticeable but mild contractions since Thursday night, about 8 min apart, but thought they were probably just stronger BH. OB said he'd start me on pit shortly but wanted to let me eat a light dinner first. We ate, and then he took a look at my contractions and asked if we could just try breaking my water instead, and see if that kick-started anything. I was a bit overwhelmed with another change in plans (we were originally going to start with cytotec), but I agreed to let him break my water. Whoa - that was SO weird. Didn't hurt at all but was just, strange - feeling all that warm water squirt out.
Immediately afterwards, legit contractions began. Holy shit. Those hurt. It was all back labor, and they quickly jumped to every 4-5 minutes and about a minute to 90 seconds long. I pulled out my phone and plugged in my ear buds and listened to some Hypnobirthing tracks, which actually helped me focus and breathe through them. I stayed on my side or hand and knees through each one, while DH pushed/rubbed my lower back. After about an hour, I asked for the epidural. Half an hour later it was in and I was SO relieved. It gave me the shakes for a while and I started feeling pretty nauseous so I got a dose of Zofran for the nausea. I don't know how much that helped, but I didn't have any negative affects from it either.
I didn't really sleep all night long, in part because of the auto blood pressure cuff that made a noise and tightened every 10 min, and around 2am I started feeling my contractions again, and I was more aware of the catheter that had been inserted post-epidural. As I started getting more and more uncomfortable, my nurse came in and quickly requested a top-off of my epi and I got another dose of Zofran as well. My contractions were about 2-3min apart by now, and from the monitors I could tell that they were strong and very distinctive and consistent. On the screens you could see the NST's of each other labor room, and I was happy that mine seemed the sharpest and strongest at that point (when I came in they looked like nothing!)
Around 3:30am my OB finally came in the check me, and lo and behold, I was 8cm!!! I was hopeful I had made significant progress but had no idea what it would actually be. DH called my mom and sister and they drove up and got there around 4:30am. I was starting to hurt again and feel some pressure. The doctor checked me again by 5am and he was I was 10cm and fully effaced but baby wasn't quite all the way down yet. I labored down for about another hour/hour and a half until I was feeling a TON of pressure and kept telling everyone "I want to push! I think he's ready!" My nurse came back in with my OB (who wheeled in a computer to get some work done while waiting to be needed...), and showed DH how to hold one of my legs while she held the other, and we did a few practice pushes. It felt SO good to even be allowed those practice pushes. Then with the next contraction I started pushing for real. It was HARD. I got tired after the first few pushes, and didn't think I'd have enough energy to get him out. After about 30 min, the doctor got into position and pulled off the bottom portion of the bed.
With each contraction, DH and the nurse held my legs up and I grabbed behind my knees. The nurse instructed me to "curl up around the baby and PUSH" to a count of ten - I usually couldn't make it to 10, but did the best I could, and then I would take another deep breathe and do the same usually two more times until the contraction was over. It was exhausting - I put everything I had into each push and it still didn't feel like I was doing enough. I started losing it a little and told everyone I wasn't sure I could do this. My awesome nurse said "I need you to keep it together right now. You CAN do this. We're going to get this baby out. You need to give me everything you've got. Don't lose it now."
Finally my mom said she thought she could see his head, and the doctor said it was right there and asked if I wanted a mirror to see (NO, I did NOT). At least I knew something was happening at that point. After a few
More pushes he started crowning and while I didn't feel whole "ring of fire" (thank you, epidural) - I could feel immense pressure and stretching. My OB said he needed to do an episiotomy to help get him out and I said "do whatever you have to do!" I did feel some sharp pains as he was snipping me, but at that point, all I cared about was getting baby out. After that, it took two super strong pushes with everyone - OB, nurse, DH, my mom, and my sister - yelling "he's right there! Push!!!", and his head was out. I found out later that the cord was wrapped around his neck twice, so the OB cut it right then and suctioned his nose and mouth. With the next contraction I pushed once and his shoulders and the rest of him slid right out and and someone said "he's out!" The relief I felt was overwhelming - holy shit I actually did it. They put him to my chest and started wiping him down and I think the first thing I said was "oh my god, he's cute!" and I started crying. I just couldn't believe he was actually OUT and not just a giant annoying belly any longer. I passed the placenta and then the OB stitched me up while I was holding baby, but I really didn't notice any discomfort at that point, I was just too overwhelmed with the tiny human crying on my chest.
We had an issue with his blood sugar dropping way too low yesterday afternoon, so he did spend the night in the NICU and we're supplementing with some formula until my milk comes in. He is a lazy eater, whether on my boob or with a bottle, but we had a really good latch at 3pm today where he stayed on for about 10 minutes. We'll just keep practicing and hope that when there's a bigger reward for him, he'll stay on longer.
Physically, I'm feeling a lot better today than yesterday, but it's still rough. Everything down there is very, very, tender and getting out of bed has been a struggle since I'm just so aware of... All of it. My leg and shoulder muscles are all crazy sore as well, so I'm walking like a 90 year old with arthritis. Hoping a few more days of rest and LOTS of help from DH and my mom help me feel human again. Taking a shower today helped a ton in that regard.
Emotionally, I still don't think it has sunk in that I'm a mom, DH is a dad, and this tiny perfect human is our son. We are completely in awe of him and I feel like I could just stare at him forever. Other than the episiotomy, I am so happy with how the birth went. My pain was managed well, but wore off enough before "go time" so that I could feel what was happening and knew exactly where and when to push. I am a super emotional person and get anxious and overwhelmed easily, but I feel so proud of myself when I think about how labor went. I didn't cry or scream at all, I breathed through contractions and moaned and just stayed in my own little zone. Feeling like there was just NO WAY I was going to push this baby out to "OMG he's out? And right in front of me?" was just the most incredible, empowering thing I've ever experienced. Seeing my DH holding his son and crying was probably the second-most incredible thing.
We're due to go home tomorrow morning, which is exciting and terrifying all at once. I'm probably going to be too overwhelmed to do much TCFing for a little while, but hope everyone is doing well and everyone has smooth labors and deliveries and as few induction & c-section cancellations as possible!