Post by sarasansh on Sept 14, 2015 20:42:20 GMT -5
Here's how Miss Margaret came into the world!
All weekend I'd been having irregular contractions, a lot of which were more uncomfortable than the BH ones I'd been having for weeks. On Sunday we took Robin to a local fair and I suffered through walking around with no place to sit for 3 hours in hopes it would get something going. I was also super cranky on Sunday--noticeable more cranky than I'd felt recently.
Fast forward to about 9:30 Sunday night. H and I were watching TV. I got up to pee, come back, and about 2 minutes after I sit back down my water broke! It was a total movie theater big gush. I hopped up and MH didn't know what to do so I had to tell him to go get towels. We called the doula, the hospital, and my parents. Because I'm GBS+ I can't labor at home with my water broken.
Contractions start just before we leave for the hospital around midnight. Still mild by the time we get up to L&D and get the hep lock and start the antibiotics. Nurse checks me and I'm a 3! I was surprised because I'd been a 1 on Wednesday at the doc. Get my antibiotics and a heartbeat strip on the baby and then I'm free to labor around the room.
For some reason, even though my contractions were definitely getting worse, I was afraid they were going to check me and I'd be a 4 and then I'd look like a big baby, so I kept downplaying them. Finally H got nervous and called the doula to come in around 3:30.
Doula gets there around 4:15 just as it's time for me to be on the monitor again. At this point I'm getting almost no break between contractions. Part of me is thinking I'm in transition and part of me is still downplaying it all. Nurse checks me and I'm a 7! I have to go through transition lying on the bed which sucked big time. I go from a 7 to 10 with a lip in 20 minutes and peed everywhere during transition.
I started pushing around 5 and of course she was posterior so she would slide back after I'd push her down. It turns out I HATE pushing. Pushing sucks. I hated every minute of it. By the end I kept asking the doctor to just help pull her head out. Thankfully he was very chill and actually said to me, "I'm not going to take your birth experience away from you."
When I finally pushed out her head she came out transverse (looking at my thigh) and the doc turned to H and asked him if he wanted to pull her out. H hesitated and I was so over pushing I said "I'll take her out!" and reached down and pulled her out and onto my chest. In retrospect it was a really cool moment, but at the time all I could think was " I am so done having a baby in my vagina!"
Second degree tear that took about 10 minutes to sew up. Little girl likes to eat! She has a super strong suck too. She latched on while she was on my chest at L&D and that was that.
Overall I'm still processing the fact I met my goal to go med free. This whole experience was so so different from Robin (40 hour induction, epidural, episiotomy, vacuum birth) that it's almost like I've never given birth before. It's definitely made me feel very "I am woman hear me roar!"
Here's another shot of baby girl.
All weekend I'd been having irregular contractions, a lot of which were more uncomfortable than the BH ones I'd been having for weeks. On Sunday we took Robin to a local fair and I suffered through walking around with no place to sit for 3 hours in hopes it would get something going. I was also super cranky on Sunday--noticeable more cranky than I'd felt recently.
Fast forward to about 9:30 Sunday night. H and I were watching TV. I got up to pee, come back, and about 2 minutes after I sit back down my water broke! It was a total movie theater big gush. I hopped up and MH didn't know what to do so I had to tell him to go get towels. We called the doula, the hospital, and my parents. Because I'm GBS+ I can't labor at home with my water broken.
Contractions start just before we leave for the hospital around midnight. Still mild by the time we get up to L&D and get the hep lock and start the antibiotics. Nurse checks me and I'm a 3! I was surprised because I'd been a 1 on Wednesday at the doc. Get my antibiotics and a heartbeat strip on the baby and then I'm free to labor around the room.
For some reason, even though my contractions were definitely getting worse, I was afraid they were going to check me and I'd be a 4 and then I'd look like a big baby, so I kept downplaying them. Finally H got nervous and called the doula to come in around 3:30.
Doula gets there around 4:15 just as it's time for me to be on the monitor again. At this point I'm getting almost no break between contractions. Part of me is thinking I'm in transition and part of me is still downplaying it all. Nurse checks me and I'm a 7! I have to go through transition lying on the bed which sucked big time. I go from a 7 to 10 with a lip in 20 minutes and peed everywhere during transition.
I started pushing around 5 and of course she was posterior so she would slide back after I'd push her down. It turns out I HATE pushing. Pushing sucks. I hated every minute of it. By the end I kept asking the doctor to just help pull her head out. Thankfully he was very chill and actually said to me, "I'm not going to take your birth experience away from you."
When I finally pushed out her head she came out transverse (looking at my thigh) and the doc turned to H and asked him if he wanted to pull her out. H hesitated and I was so over pushing I said "I'll take her out!" and reached down and pulled her out and onto my chest. In retrospect it was a really cool moment, but at the time all I could think was " I am so done having a baby in my vagina!"
Second degree tear that took about 10 minutes to sew up. Little girl likes to eat! She has a super strong suck too. She latched on while she was on my chest at L&D and that was that.
Overall I'm still processing the fact I met my goal to go med free. This whole experience was so so different from Robin (40 hour induction, epidural, episiotomy, vacuum birth) that it's almost like I've never given birth before. It's definitely made me feel very "I am woman hear me roar!"
Here's another shot of baby girl.
