Max's Entrance into the World (Birth Story)
Mar 12, 2017 16:08:10 GMT -5
Post by kristhegirl on Mar 12, 2017 16:08:10 GMT -5
Yes, it's been 4 weeks - but I know people lurk for birth stories and I never did end up writing my first's, so here's Max's at least!
Max was born on Sunday, February 12th. The weekend before, my toddler had been a little sick - threw up a couple of times. Wednesday afternoon, I started feeling some stomach cramps, and that night I had some delightful bowel cleansing experiences and I threw up a couple of times. I figured I'd caught whatever my toddler had. I didn't have any contractions or any weirdness related to my pregnancy that night/the next day. I managed to stay hydrated enough to not even have any worse BH contractions than usual, and I felt movement at the normal level and times. I just felt like crap.
By Thursday evening I felt much better and ate a little food. Friday was pretty normal, too. Early Saturday morning, around 2:30am, I woke up from a contraction making my lower belly hurt. It was just uncomfortable enough to wake me up. I got up and peed and that seemed to help, so I laid back down. I kept having this "just barely painful" contractions until about 6:30 that morning, and then they went away completely. they were somewhat regular, but never more than 15 minutes apart. Saturday I kept getting completely painless BH contractions if I walked around too much, but they'd go away when I rested.
Late Saturday night, around 11:00pm, I was once again woken up by the just-barely-painful contractions. I was not happy, thinking it would just be a really long night, much like the night before. Once again the contractions were uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep through them, but they were pretty widely spaced (15-25 minutes, usually) and would go away for a bit if I moved or peed or drank water. They kept coming back, though, all night. Around 4:30 I was sitting up in a big chair we have and I thought, "Okay, I'll doze here until the next one and then I'll go take a bath, see if that helps." The next contraction came much quicker, and my lower back hurt with it, too. Then I got another contraction pretty quickly. Huh.
I downloaded a timing app and jumped in a bath. I timed contractions at one minute long, five minutes apart, until 5:00am. The bath was not helping. My doctor's paperwork said to call or come in if this pattern lasted an hour or more, but since I'd been having contractions all night I thought instead I should wake my husband and make a plan. I hilariously offered to drive myself to the hospital for monitoring because I could still talk through the contractions and I wasn't sure I wanted to wake my mom up so early to come watch our toddler. My husband wanted to know what was going on, though, too, so we called my mom at 5:26am. She only lives about 5 minutes away, so we were on our way to the hospital pretty quickly.
It's only about a ten-minute drive, but about halfway there I realized the contractions were definitely getting stronger, and I told my husband, "You better hurry." We get to the ER to check in and I have to sign paperwork for me and the baby. The contractions are making me feel quite frantic now. I'm sure my signatures on that paperwork tell a story - by the end I'm pretty sure it was basically my first initial with a line after it. My husband walked in from parking the car as I'm bent over at the desk, rubbing my lower back. This is the exact position in which I labored with my first for a long time, and that's when he knew this could be it.
the L&D nurse comes right down to retrieve me and I ride up to the second floor in a wheelchair. The contractions are very strong and I'm definitely not able to talk through them anymore. We get to triage, and a nurse hands me a pee cup and three alcohol wipes, and points me across the hall to another room with a bathroom and says I need to give a urine sample. I walk to the bathroom and start trying this, but my hands are shaking so hard I can't open the alcohol wipes. I kind of barely squat above the toilet, but there is so much pelvic pressure at this point I get like one drop into the cup and say fuck it. Right then, a contraction hits me that's so strong I kicked my pants/shoes/underwear off because I thought I might have a toilet baby. Luckily that feeling passes, but then I have to put my clothes back on to get back to triage.
I somehow get over there and then immediately change into a hospital gown, of course. Another really strong contraction hits and I am just crouching in pain next to the triage bed. I tell my husband to go tell them this baby's coming. A very nice nurse is trying to get me into the bed now. I can't move until the contraction passes, and then I kind of shakily crawl up on the bed and am on my hands and knees. I remember asking, "Can I just stay like this?" The nurse says no, of course.
Right then, my water breaks all over the bed. The nurse goes "Ah!" and runs out to get the other nurses. They tell me to lay down (in my water?? okay.) and a nurse checks me. "Oh. She's complete." I felt quite relieved after my water broke for a few minutes. I was wheeled quickly to a delivery room and had to scoot over onto that bed. Then the contractions started again and I was the screaming woman for sure. I remember telling them that I felt like pushing - I'm sure they were like, "No shit, lady. Your water just broke and you're completely dilated." The doctor on call, whom I'd never met, took a quick assessment and said, "The baby is right here. If you wanted to, on your next contraction, you could deliver this baby."
I pushed through two contractions and Max was born at 6:26am, weighing 6 pounds, 1.2 ounces at 35+6 gestation, exactly an hour after we'd called my mom to come watch our toddler. I found out later that my water broke at 6:08. All told, I was in active labor for less than two hours and had a baby on my chest 18 minutes after my water broke. My first pregnancy went to 41+3 and I was induced, so I had really no reason to think this would be it, or that labor would be quite so fast. As soon as they were done with me, a nurse poked his head in and told everyone to prepare for another incoming - a woman had ended up delivering at home unexpectedly. A few days later we learned that another woman had delivered in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. There was a big storm front moving in that day.
It was a crazy morning, but we're so happy we already have him. He did spend 8 days in the NICU for breathing troubles, mostly - first one of his lungs didn't expand (which was quickly rectified), and then he would stop breathing and his heart would decelerate when he was deeply asleep. He's better now.
The doctor noted that my placenta showed signs of a bleed after delivery, so it is possible I had a placental abruption. I had no bleeding prior to my water breaking, though. I learned later that the SCH I had in 1st tri (at 8 weeks, cleared up within another 6 weeks) may have contributed to preterm labor. Whatever the reason, I'm very glad everything worked out and I didn't have a car or toilet baby - looking back, it really could have happened!
Max was born on Sunday, February 12th. The weekend before, my toddler had been a little sick - threw up a couple of times. Wednesday afternoon, I started feeling some stomach cramps, and that night I had some delightful bowel cleansing experiences and I threw up a couple of times. I figured I'd caught whatever my toddler had. I didn't have any contractions or any weirdness related to my pregnancy that night/the next day. I managed to stay hydrated enough to not even have any worse BH contractions than usual, and I felt movement at the normal level and times. I just felt like crap.
By Thursday evening I felt much better and ate a little food. Friday was pretty normal, too. Early Saturday morning, around 2:30am, I woke up from a contraction making my lower belly hurt. It was just uncomfortable enough to wake me up. I got up and peed and that seemed to help, so I laid back down. I kept having this "just barely painful" contractions until about 6:30 that morning, and then they went away completely. they were somewhat regular, but never more than 15 minutes apart. Saturday I kept getting completely painless BH contractions if I walked around too much, but they'd go away when I rested.
Late Saturday night, around 11:00pm, I was once again woken up by the just-barely-painful contractions. I was not happy, thinking it would just be a really long night, much like the night before. Once again the contractions were uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep through them, but they were pretty widely spaced (15-25 minutes, usually) and would go away for a bit if I moved or peed or drank water. They kept coming back, though, all night. Around 4:30 I was sitting up in a big chair we have and I thought, "Okay, I'll doze here until the next one and then I'll go take a bath, see if that helps." The next contraction came much quicker, and my lower back hurt with it, too. Then I got another contraction pretty quickly. Huh.
I downloaded a timing app and jumped in a bath. I timed contractions at one minute long, five minutes apart, until 5:00am. The bath was not helping. My doctor's paperwork said to call or come in if this pattern lasted an hour or more, but since I'd been having contractions all night I thought instead I should wake my husband and make a plan. I hilariously offered to drive myself to the hospital for monitoring because I could still talk through the contractions and I wasn't sure I wanted to wake my mom up so early to come watch our toddler. My husband wanted to know what was going on, though, too, so we called my mom at 5:26am. She only lives about 5 minutes away, so we were on our way to the hospital pretty quickly.
It's only about a ten-minute drive, but about halfway there I realized the contractions were definitely getting stronger, and I told my husband, "You better hurry." We get to the ER to check in and I have to sign paperwork for me and the baby. The contractions are making me feel quite frantic now. I'm sure my signatures on that paperwork tell a story - by the end I'm pretty sure it was basically my first initial with a line after it. My husband walked in from parking the car as I'm bent over at the desk, rubbing my lower back. This is the exact position in which I labored with my first for a long time, and that's when he knew this could be it.
the L&D nurse comes right down to retrieve me and I ride up to the second floor in a wheelchair. The contractions are very strong and I'm definitely not able to talk through them anymore. We get to triage, and a nurse hands me a pee cup and three alcohol wipes, and points me across the hall to another room with a bathroom and says I need to give a urine sample. I walk to the bathroom and start trying this, but my hands are shaking so hard I can't open the alcohol wipes. I kind of barely squat above the toilet, but there is so much pelvic pressure at this point I get like one drop into the cup and say fuck it. Right then, a contraction hits me that's so strong I kicked my pants/shoes/underwear off because I thought I might have a toilet baby. Luckily that feeling passes, but then I have to put my clothes back on to get back to triage.
I somehow get over there and then immediately change into a hospital gown, of course. Another really strong contraction hits and I am just crouching in pain next to the triage bed. I tell my husband to go tell them this baby's coming. A very nice nurse is trying to get me into the bed now. I can't move until the contraction passes, and then I kind of shakily crawl up on the bed and am on my hands and knees. I remember asking, "Can I just stay like this?" The nurse says no, of course.
Right then, my water breaks all over the bed. The nurse goes "Ah!" and runs out to get the other nurses. They tell me to lay down (in my water?? okay.) and a nurse checks me. "Oh. She's complete." I felt quite relieved after my water broke for a few minutes. I was wheeled quickly to a delivery room and had to scoot over onto that bed. Then the contractions started again and I was the screaming woman for sure. I remember telling them that I felt like pushing - I'm sure they were like, "No shit, lady. Your water just broke and you're completely dilated." The doctor on call, whom I'd never met, took a quick assessment and said, "The baby is right here. If you wanted to, on your next contraction, you could deliver this baby."
I pushed through two contractions and Max was born at 6:26am, weighing 6 pounds, 1.2 ounces at 35+6 gestation, exactly an hour after we'd called my mom to come watch our toddler. I found out later that my water broke at 6:08. All told, I was in active labor for less than two hours and had a baby on my chest 18 minutes after my water broke. My first pregnancy went to 41+3 and I was induced, so I had really no reason to think this would be it, or that labor would be quite so fast. As soon as they were done with me, a nurse poked his head in and told everyone to prepare for another incoming - a woman had ended up delivering at home unexpectedly. A few days later we learned that another woman had delivered in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. There was a big storm front moving in that day.
It was a crazy morning, but we're so happy we already have him. He did spend 8 days in the NICU for breathing troubles, mostly - first one of his lungs didn't expand (which was quickly rectified), and then he would stop breathing and his heart would decelerate when he was deeply asleep. He's better now.
The doctor noted that my placenta showed signs of a bleed after delivery, so it is possible I had a placental abruption. I had no bleeding prior to my water breaking, though. I learned later that the SCH I had in 1st tri (at 8 weeks, cleared up within another 6 weeks) may have contributed to preterm labor. Whatever the reason, I'm very glad everything worked out and I didn't have a car or toilet baby - looking back, it really could have happened!
crazy (and awesome) how fast your whole experience escalated!! That's gonna be a fun story to tell him one day 
