Post by frodabaggins on Aug 18, 2016 6:29:00 GMT -5
Hi all! First of all congrats to everyone who had babies today and tonight, that's so wonderful!! And thank you Rama for being my labor buddy and super supportive!
Tuesday night the 16th I'd been having lots of strong BH contractions and before I went to bed, a bit of menstrual like cramping. But it was a fairly standard uneventful night and I woke up at 6, just kind of lying in bed reading. At 6:30 I had a long menstrual cramp that felt a bit different - then another one at 6:40. I got up with DS, saw that my hubs was still at home and started to go about the normal routine, feeding DS breakfast, packing his lunch and taking a shower. By the time I was out of the shower and getting DS dressed, things had intensified. I was needing to rock and vocalize through the contractions which were now coming two minutes apart and getting stronger each time. I called my doctor and told her what was going on. She said to come to the hospital and I answered, OK we're just going to drop DS off at school.
We didn't get far, though, before we realized it was time to go straight to hospital and have my mom come pick up DS and take him. Things were just getting too real, too fast!! Poor little guy, my son was listening to me going through the contractions with huge big eyes, looking quite nervous for me!
At the hospital we parked in the emergency room since it would be easier for my mom to find our car there. They brought a wheelchair to the door, but then somehow my fast pass, which I obtained at 30 weeks, didn't get me to the front of the line like it did last time. They were still asking me for my ID and insurance card and I was getting SUPER annoyed. I wanted to get upstairs, get an iv in, and get medication, STAT. Finally they were able to put me through and get going upstairs. As I got changed and really started to labor my mom showed up and took DS away to go to school - he was really scared by the urgency of everything and wouldn't give me a kiss or hug goodbye!! I felt so bad, but knew I had a job to do and I could comfort him later.
By this point it was like 8:35 and we'd arrived at 8:15 or so. I was in my gown, dripping sweat because the room was so warm, going through contractions standing and crouching. Literally BEGGING for an epidural. They said, we need to get your blood work back first, there are four people in front of you waiting for epidural, we need to check you first, etc. Basically, tough titty, you can't get one yet. I was checked and already at 5-6 cm. They placed the iv and gave me fentanyl which did nothing but make me dizzy af. Didn't touch the pain. Lying down was still unbearable at this point and I was moving around a lot, just repeating over and over again that I needed an epidural.
Eventually I crawled into the bed and they were able to monitor the baby better - I was allowed more fentanyl and I asked again about the epidural. She checked me and I was COMPLETE!! So no go on the epidural. It was go time. I was staring at my doc so terrified as she explained to me why. Objectively I understood, but it just seemed like something I could never in a million years do. Even though I had gotten this far on my own, actually going through with pushing a baby out sans medication sounded like the last thing in the world I could do, but I knew I had to do it. The quote "the best way out is through" popped into my head and I made the decision right there and then to stop being scared and trust my doc that it was going to go fast.
And it did. Shortly after that, I felt like I was going to poop and really thought I was actually pooping. Each contraction brought a more intense sensation that I was actually physically pooping on the bed even though my husband kept assuring me nothing of the sort was happening. I think I pushed a total of 10-15 times before they said "OK, last one!" I yelled something like "holy crap that hurts so bad!" and then felt intense relief and heard her cries!! She was instantly crying lustily with her eyes wide open. In fact she stayed awake for hours after her birth, just looking around at everything. The clock read 9:51,just over an hour and a half since we'd arrived.
I felt absolutely incredible - high, in fact, like I had just smoked a huge joint. Getting the placenta out Sucked though - everything after has felt that much more intense than the first time because then I had the epidural wearing off and didn't feel everything so intensely. I had a superficial first degree tear that my ob sewed up quickly, then she had to run to another delivery.
Baby latches decently when she's hungry, but is much more sleepy than hungry at this point. The nurses keep trying to get me to feed her but when she is hungry, she definitely wakes up and goes for it so I'm not sure what I'm accomplishing waking her up and getting her mad as heck at me! She's already pooped 4 times :-)
She's so, so cute with her dad's dark skin and dark hair. Big chubby cheeks and a very expressive little face. Totally 100% in love. She met DS earlier today and he was a little suspicious, but very sweet. And seeing my hubs with her melts my heart. He is smitten. Lots of love to all!
Tuesday night the 16th I'd been having lots of strong BH contractions and before I went to bed, a bit of menstrual like cramping. But it was a fairly standard uneventful night and I woke up at 6, just kind of lying in bed reading. At 6:30 I had a long menstrual cramp that felt a bit different - then another one at 6:40. I got up with DS, saw that my hubs was still at home and started to go about the normal routine, feeding DS breakfast, packing his lunch and taking a shower. By the time I was out of the shower and getting DS dressed, things had intensified. I was needing to rock and vocalize through the contractions which were now coming two minutes apart and getting stronger each time. I called my doctor and told her what was going on. She said to come to the hospital and I answered, OK we're just going to drop DS off at school.
We didn't get far, though, before we realized it was time to go straight to hospital and have my mom come pick up DS and take him. Things were just getting too real, too fast!! Poor little guy, my son was listening to me going through the contractions with huge big eyes, looking quite nervous for me!
At the hospital we parked in the emergency room since it would be easier for my mom to find our car there. They brought a wheelchair to the door, but then somehow my fast pass, which I obtained at 30 weeks, didn't get me to the front of the line like it did last time. They were still asking me for my ID and insurance card and I was getting SUPER annoyed. I wanted to get upstairs, get an iv in, and get medication, STAT. Finally they were able to put me through and get going upstairs. As I got changed and really started to labor my mom showed up and took DS away to go to school - he was really scared by the urgency of everything and wouldn't give me a kiss or hug goodbye!! I felt so bad, but knew I had a job to do and I could comfort him later.
By this point it was like 8:35 and we'd arrived at 8:15 or so. I was in my gown, dripping sweat because the room was so warm, going through contractions standing and crouching. Literally BEGGING for an epidural. They said, we need to get your blood work back first, there are four people in front of you waiting for epidural, we need to check you first, etc. Basically, tough titty, you can't get one yet. I was checked and already at 5-6 cm. They placed the iv and gave me fentanyl which did nothing but make me dizzy af. Didn't touch the pain. Lying down was still unbearable at this point and I was moving around a lot, just repeating over and over again that I needed an epidural.
Eventually I crawled into the bed and they were able to monitor the baby better - I was allowed more fentanyl and I asked again about the epidural. She checked me and I was COMPLETE!! So no go on the epidural. It was go time. I was staring at my doc so terrified as she explained to me why. Objectively I understood, but it just seemed like something I could never in a million years do. Even though I had gotten this far on my own, actually going through with pushing a baby out sans medication sounded like the last thing in the world I could do, but I knew I had to do it. The quote "the best way out is through" popped into my head and I made the decision right there and then to stop being scared and trust my doc that it was going to go fast.
And it did. Shortly after that, I felt like I was going to poop and really thought I was actually pooping. Each contraction brought a more intense sensation that I was actually physically pooping on the bed even though my husband kept assuring me nothing of the sort was happening. I think I pushed a total of 10-15 times before they said "OK, last one!" I yelled something like "holy crap that hurts so bad!" and then felt intense relief and heard her cries!! She was instantly crying lustily with her eyes wide open. In fact she stayed awake for hours after her birth, just looking around at everything. The clock read 9:51,just over an hour and a half since we'd arrived.
I felt absolutely incredible - high, in fact, like I had just smoked a huge joint. Getting the placenta out Sucked though - everything after has felt that much more intense than the first time because then I had the epidural wearing off and didn't feel everything so intensely. I had a superficial first degree tear that my ob sewed up quickly, then she had to run to another delivery.
Baby latches decently when she's hungry, but is much more sleepy than hungry at this point. The nurses keep trying to get me to feed her but when she is hungry, she definitely wakes up and goes for it so I'm not sure what I'm accomplishing waking her up and getting her mad as heck at me! She's already pooped 4 times :-)
She's so, so cute with her dad's dark skin and dark hair. Big chubby cheeks and a very expressive little face. Totally 100% in love. She met DS earlier today and he was a little suspicious, but very sweet. And seeing my hubs with her melts my heart. He is smitten. Lots of love to all!