Baby jcprn
May 30, 2015 15:33:49 GMT -5
Post by jcprn on May 30, 2015 15:33:49 GMT -5
Sorry in advance for the long post but I want to be able to come back and read this and remember exactly what happened.
So. I told everyone that I came into contact with throughout my pregnancy that no way would I be delivering early. I was convinced that LO was going to be late. I had a relatively complication-free pregnancy and my mom was 2 weeks late with myself and my 2 sisters. Well, LO made me a liar.
On Friday 5/22 (37w 3d) at 1230 am DH let the dogs out for the night. I woke up and was about to get up to pee when I felt a gush of liquid. I went to the bathroom and after peeing I came out with my wet underwear and pants in hand and said to DH "I either peed my pants or my water just broke." After trying my best to figure out if it was pee or amniotic fluid I changed my pantyliner and laid back down for a while to see what happened. Meanwhile, DH and I are googling "how do I know if my water broke?" When I felt another gush a little while later and saw that it was clear fluid I called my OB. The OB on call told me to come in to the hospital to get checked.
Figuring that I'd be stuck there if I really was in labor I decided to take a shower and finish packing my bags. While I was doing that DH was installing the car seat base in my car at 2am. We got to the hospital around 330-4am and they took me into a triage room to be checked.
After determining that it was amniotic fluid, they started me on IV fluids and antibiotics because I was GBS + and an OB resident came in and told me that they would be starting me on pitocin to start contractions since I hadn't had any yet and it was a risk to the baby that my water broke being GBS +. I was thinking to myself bullshit because I was sleeping before it broke, not moving around a heck of a lot at home after, and since I had been in the hospital I was confined to a bed. I asked her if it was really necessary to start Pitocin or if I could try to walk around to get the contractions started. She VERY RELUCTANTLY said that I would be able to walk. I was given a 2 hour window for the contractions to start before they really pushed the Pitocin on me but about a half hour into walking/ practically running around the postpartum unit they started around 430-5am.
I planned on trying to go med free, even took hypnobirthing classes to prepare me. I wanted to see how labor felt and if I could hack it. I don't know what I expected contractions to feel like but holy cow mine were super intense. I tried my best to breathe through them and was really struggling/ crying/ moaning. DH was in tears because I was in so much pain. At that point I made the decision that I wanted to enjoy the birth of my baby and there was no way that was going to happen with feeling the way that I did so I asked for an epidural around 9am when my mom and sister came and was so happy that I did. An anesthesia resident was the one to do it and I could tell he missed a couple times but he finally got it and it was so good. They administered a dose into the spinal space and then pulled back the catheter into the epidural space where it stayed delivering a steady stream of the medication but I was also given a button to give myself a bolus dose of medicine every 10 minutes if I needed it. I didn't feel any contractions after the spinal but after an hour that wore off and I was able to feel the contractions very mildly and throughout all of labor I probably only hit the button 4-5 times.
They almost didn't give it to me because they thought that there was no way I was far enough along to get it. The nurse checked me sometime between 12-1. No one had checked me before then at all because of the GBS they didn't want to introduce anything to the baby. She said "Oh the baby's head is really low" and then "Oh wow you're pretty much fully dilated." Turns out those crazy intense contractions were really really effective. At 215pm I started pushing. It felt so good to hear my mom, sister, and DH telling me what a good job I was doing and DH saying "Oh my god! Baby has so much hair!" DH told me later that he heard the nurse saying to someone "Her body just knows exactly what to do." Considering I was pushing for about an hour and 15-30 minutes, it didn't feel nearly that long. The nurse kept having to readjust the monitor lower and lower on my belly for the heart rate as I was pushing the baby lower and lower. Finally after one round of good pushing the nurse quickly called the doctor and residents in and before I knew it I was pushing the baby out.
Gri.ffin Wol.fe was born at 37w 3d on 5/22 at 3:33pm, 6 lbs 12 oz, 19 inches long and absolutely perfect.
I had told them ahead of time that I wanted DH to announce the sex and as the baby came out he was crying saying "It's a boy! It's a boy!" and he actually cut the umbilical cord, which up until then he said he wouldn't do. They immediately put him skin to skin for a good amount of time while they waited for the placenta and it felt SO GOOD to push that last thing out! They took him to the warmer for a short amount of time to assess him while they stitched up a small tear.
I have never felt such love for another being, it's so overwhelming. And having him against my skin makes me feel so complete after our journey of infertility. I fall in love with DH even more every time I see him with the baby and how he always wants to hold him and be so loving with him. He has been extremely helpful around the house doing dishes, cleaning when company is coming, changing diapers, waking up with the baby when he's fussy so I can sleep, and feeding from a bottle when I have to pump. Breastfeeding has been a challenge but we're working on it and so far everything else is going really well. I'm so happy how everything turned out even though it didn't necessarily go as planned.
So. I told everyone that I came into contact with throughout my pregnancy that no way would I be delivering early. I was convinced that LO was going to be late. I had a relatively complication-free pregnancy and my mom was 2 weeks late with myself and my 2 sisters. Well, LO made me a liar.
On Friday 5/22 (37w 3d) at 1230 am DH let the dogs out for the night. I woke up and was about to get up to pee when I felt a gush of liquid. I went to the bathroom and after peeing I came out with my wet underwear and pants in hand and said to DH "I either peed my pants or my water just broke." After trying my best to figure out if it was pee or amniotic fluid I changed my pantyliner and laid back down for a while to see what happened. Meanwhile, DH and I are googling "how do I know if my water broke?" When I felt another gush a little while later and saw that it was clear fluid I called my OB. The OB on call told me to come in to the hospital to get checked.
Figuring that I'd be stuck there if I really was in labor I decided to take a shower and finish packing my bags. While I was doing that DH was installing the car seat base in my car at 2am. We got to the hospital around 330-4am and they took me into a triage room to be checked.
After determining that it was amniotic fluid, they started me on IV fluids and antibiotics because I was GBS + and an OB resident came in and told me that they would be starting me on pitocin to start contractions since I hadn't had any yet and it was a risk to the baby that my water broke being GBS +. I was thinking to myself bullshit because I was sleeping before it broke, not moving around a heck of a lot at home after, and since I had been in the hospital I was confined to a bed. I asked her if it was really necessary to start Pitocin or if I could try to walk around to get the contractions started. She VERY RELUCTANTLY said that I would be able to walk. I was given a 2 hour window for the contractions to start before they really pushed the Pitocin on me but about a half hour into walking/ practically running around the postpartum unit they started around 430-5am.
I planned on trying to go med free, even took hypnobirthing classes to prepare me. I wanted to see how labor felt and if I could hack it. I don't know what I expected contractions to feel like but holy cow mine were super intense. I tried my best to breathe through them and was really struggling/ crying/ moaning. DH was in tears because I was in so much pain. At that point I made the decision that I wanted to enjoy the birth of my baby and there was no way that was going to happen with feeling the way that I did so I asked for an epidural around 9am when my mom and sister came and was so happy that I did. An anesthesia resident was the one to do it and I could tell he missed a couple times but he finally got it and it was so good. They administered a dose into the spinal space and then pulled back the catheter into the epidural space where it stayed delivering a steady stream of the medication but I was also given a button to give myself a bolus dose of medicine every 10 minutes if I needed it. I didn't feel any contractions after the spinal but after an hour that wore off and I was able to feel the contractions very mildly and throughout all of labor I probably only hit the button 4-5 times.
They almost didn't give it to me because they thought that there was no way I was far enough along to get it. The nurse checked me sometime between 12-1. No one had checked me before then at all because of the GBS they didn't want to introduce anything to the baby. She said "Oh the baby's head is really low" and then "Oh wow you're pretty much fully dilated." Turns out those crazy intense contractions were really really effective. At 215pm I started pushing. It felt so good to hear my mom, sister, and DH telling me what a good job I was doing and DH saying "Oh my god! Baby has so much hair!" DH told me later that he heard the nurse saying to someone "Her body just knows exactly what to do." Considering I was pushing for about an hour and 15-30 minutes, it didn't feel nearly that long. The nurse kept having to readjust the monitor lower and lower on my belly for the heart rate as I was pushing the baby lower and lower. Finally after one round of good pushing the nurse quickly called the doctor and residents in and before I knew it I was pushing the baby out.
Gri.ffin Wol.fe was born at 37w 3d on 5/22 at 3:33pm, 6 lbs 12 oz, 19 inches long and absolutely perfect.
I had told them ahead of time that I wanted DH to announce the sex and as the baby came out he was crying saying "It's a boy! It's a boy!" and he actually cut the umbilical cord, which up until then he said he wouldn't do. They immediately put him skin to skin for a good amount of time while they waited for the placenta and it felt SO GOOD to push that last thing out! They took him to the warmer for a short amount of time to assess him while they stitched up a small tear.
I have never felt such love for another being, it's so overwhelming. And having him against my skin makes me feel so complete after our journey of infertility. I fall in love with DH even more every time I see him with the baby and how he always wants to hold him and be so loving with him. He has been extremely helpful around the house doing dishes, cleaning when company is coming, changing diapers, waking up with the baby when he's fussy so I can sleep, and feeding from a bottle when I have to pump. Breastfeeding has been a challenge but we're working on it and so far everything else is going really well. I'm so happy how everything turned out even though it didn't necessarily go as planned.
