Really (really) long belated birth story
Feb 28, 2016 14:26:42 GMT -5
Post by musicalsilver on Feb 28, 2016 14:26:42 GMT -5
I have serious issues with being concise. Enjoy (or just skip to the pictures)!
Having made it to 40 weeks, I was perplexed as to when in the world baby girl would make her entrance. She obviously was more comfortable than her big brother had been, who was born at 38w6d.
I spent the morning of 40 weeks doing some more cleaning. I’d been trying to keep the house in a state of readiness for me to be gone for a couple days, and that involved staying on top of the laundry (done the day before), keeping the fish-tank fresh, and generally a lot of cleaning. That morning I vacuumed and steam-mopped the kitchen again, and decided to take big brother on a walk/bike ride. It was pretty cool out, so we bundled up (I wrapped up and had my hand warmers in my shirt to fend of my Raynaud’s vasospasms). We originally set out to go to the new park, but DS changed his mind when we got down to the lake, and decided that visiting Nana and Cappy was in order. So we walked/biked on by the lake, and continued on to Nana and Cappy’s condo. We lucked out in that on our way we saw the power company replacing a power pole. It provided much entertainment (and a coloring book!) on our way to and from the condo.
We stayed at the condo for lunch, and made our way back home for quiet time. My hand warmers had given up by that point, so there was quite a bit of jogging on the way home to keep warm. DS found this terribly amusing, and it definitely helped him keep going. The brisk air and exercise made it so that DS actually went down for a nap (rare these days), so I had some quality time to relax and start some sourdough bread rising. I noticed I lost a little more of my mucus plug (a little bloody this time, unlike previous), and informed DH. He took this as an excuse to head home early and attempt to help move things along. After some hopefully labor-inducing (slightly awkward) sex, I did some more relaxing on the couch to take advantage of DS’s nap, and wait for my bread to be ready to proof.
I started to notice some cramping right around 3:20. This was about when DS got up from his nap, so I went and did our normal post-nap nursing session. After this, I let DH take over DS duty while I started baking and getting dinner (broccoli cheddar soup) ready. By 4:20, I started timing the contractions, and did that for an hour while I was cooking. We called Nana and Cappy to come and join us for dinner and to bring an overnight bag just in case this was the real deal. I brewed myself some extra red raspberry leaf tea to drink, also just in case. After an hour of timing contractions, which were fairly consistent at about 3ish minutes apart and 30s each, I called the OB office. I got a call back from Valerie, the midwife on call. She said to head on in (though she later said I sounded entirely to cheerful to believe I was really in labor). I wasn’t really expecting that (I assumed I’d labor at home longer), but I figured I’d get things ready, albeit slowly. We ate our dinner (though I was a bit nervous to eat too much, but I knew I’d want the energy!), and DH got his lat minute things together. We explained to DS over dinner what was going on in very general terms, and he surprisingly took it well. No tears involved in our leaving. I was a little too distracted to get too emotional about it, fortunately!
We had a very short and uneventful drive to the hospital around 7ish. The contractions weren’t bad. Mild period cramps, as I was expecting. We didn’t see many other folks walking in, which I took as a good sign for quick service (one complaint I’d heard about the hospital). DH was feeling rather nervous, and as per usual was cracking jokes. Thanks to the extra tea I’d guzzled before heading to the hospital, this led to a mild amount of peeing. Thanks, pregnancy! We were the only ones waiting to check-in, and had to fill out a few forms. So much for pre-registration! I suppose it would have been a much longer process, but still. We were sent back out to the lobby to wait some more, and I had to give in and use the restroom. I had plenty of time to do so. We waited five or ten minutes, but I was okay with it as after finally peeing, I was a lot more comfortable.
We were led to our triage room. I changed into the hospital gown, and the nurse came and hooked me up to the monitors. I was going to be monitored for 20 minutes just to see what was what. I think it wound up being a bit longer than that. I alternated between reading Outlander, checking my phone, and then DH set up his laptop to play some Supernatural. I was able to make it through the initial monitoring before needing to pee yet again. Contractions were holding steady at about every 3 minutes, 30 second apiece. They were starting to ramp up a bit in intensity, but nothing too bad. I had the unpleasant experience of getting my cervix checked next, which was at 4cm. Definitely all enough to get me officially admitted. However, we had to wait around a bit for a room.
The midwife on call came by to say hi. She said hopefully I’d deliver on her shift. I was sad to hear that sentiment, since her shift ran until 7am! I sure as heck hoped the same, as I was expecting a similar labor experience as with DS (about 7 hours).
Baby was having some decelerations with contractions, so they wanted to give me an IV bag of fluids to hopefully help. Getting the IV was terrible. DH was making terrible faces on the first couple attempts, but I told him he really needed to quit that. Fortunately he was able to eventually restrain himself, but it didn’t give me a lot of confidence in what was going on! The IV was eventually placed, and I got the half a bag of fluids. DH put my socks back on for me, as despite the super warm l&d ward, the bag of fluids was cold! It was apparently helping, but they wanted to have me finish out the bag just to be safe.
After finishing the bag, they took me off the monitors and told me to go walk the halls around 9ish. I felt like the bag of fluids might have helped baby girl, but the contractions were not as noticeable anymore. I put my shoes and socks back on and DH and I set off. There was nowhere too interesting to walk, unfortunately. Around and around and around and around in circles we went. We stopped for several pee breaks for me (this time thanks to the bag of fluids), and to pick up our books. We amused the nurse stationed at the desk greatly, strolling arm in arm and both of our noses buried in books (not our phones!). Heading back for yet another pee break around 10:30, we were told that we finally had a room! We packed up our stuff and headed to the room. I got re-hooked up to monitors (which showed my contractions were doing the same old same old pattern, but were a bit stronger), and they started setting up the room while we waited for my midwife. She wanted to break my water to get things going. I figured why not? I was anxious to get the show on the road. I had only progressed to about a 5 by this point, and at around 11 the midwife did break my water. Super uncomfortable, but I could immediately tell the difference in the strength of contractions. The midwife said she’d be back in two hours to check on me.
DH hooked up his iPad for me with Hulu, and I was able to catch up on the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Maybe a questionable decision to be watching a medical drama, but it did a good job of distracting me from increasingly really uncomfortable contractions. By the end of Grey’s I had to have DH by me, and was squishing his hand thoroughly through contractions and groaning. They were strong. And I was starting to maybe feel some pushing pressure? I couldn’t really tell, but by midnight, we decided to call the nurse for a check (keeping in theme, the nurse wasn’t expecting much since I sounded so cheerful).
By the time the nurse got there, we discovered I was at 10cm, and I was definitely feeling the need to push. However, thanks to the thunderstorm outside the phone system was acting up, and they were having trouble getting my midwife back to the room. I was ready to start pushing before they had everything set up, but I had to wait. Which was okay, because while I *wanted* to push, I didn’t *really* want to, as I knew that was the worst part of this painful process.
The broke down the bed and set up the stirrups, which I swear were some sort of torture device. They held my whole lower legs, and it was a super uncomfortable angle. I was fighting them, which I think didn’t help the pushing process. I remember from labor with DS that I just felt useless at the pushing process, so while I had some experience under my belt, I still didn’t feel that great at it. I think I did quite a bit more screaming this time around. I was encouraged when not too long into it the nurses started getting my gown reading for skin to skin. I pushed baby girl very nearly out, but just couldn’t make it all the way. Hearing the midwife tell me to cool it on the pushing so I didn’t tear too badly was music to my ears. However, hanging out waiting for the next contraction with baby girl so far down the birth canal was very unpleasant to say the least. On the last contraction, I apparently turned white and they had to start me on some oxygen, but I finally pushed her out (20 minutes total of pushing). So much relief. Apparently she had her cord wrapped around her neck once (which explained the decels with contractions).
The placenta delivery wasn’t too terrible, but the pushing on my uterus was a bit worse than I remembered with DS. There was some concern that there was a bit of placenta retention, but fortunately that was not the case. The midwife debated whether or not I “needed” a stitch or two for my wee little first degree tear (that wasn’t bleeding anymore), but in the end decided to go ahead and do it. Just as weird/unpleasant as I remembered (feeling the stitches tugging), even with topical anesthetic.
Baby girl was a wiggly little active thing right away. She was apparently so active that she was wiggling the pulse-ox monitor into thinking that her O2 levels weren’t great. So after an hour of skin to skin with lots of nursing, they brought in a NICU team to look her over. Fortunately, they concluded it was indeed the monitor, not her. She was fine (thank goodness)! Her Apgars were 8 and 9 (just like big brother), and when they finally did her stats, she was 7lbs9.2oz and 19.5” long. Her eyelashes and eyebrows are super light blonde, and the rest of the hair on her head varies between very blonde and light brown.
So here she is ... our little Z.oe R.ose!
Having made it to 40 weeks, I was perplexed as to when in the world baby girl would make her entrance. She obviously was more comfortable than her big brother had been, who was born at 38w6d.
I spent the morning of 40 weeks doing some more cleaning. I’d been trying to keep the house in a state of readiness for me to be gone for a couple days, and that involved staying on top of the laundry (done the day before), keeping the fish-tank fresh, and generally a lot of cleaning. That morning I vacuumed and steam-mopped the kitchen again, and decided to take big brother on a walk/bike ride. It was pretty cool out, so we bundled up (I wrapped up and had my hand warmers in my shirt to fend of my Raynaud’s vasospasms). We originally set out to go to the new park, but DS changed his mind when we got down to the lake, and decided that visiting Nana and Cappy was in order. So we walked/biked on by the lake, and continued on to Nana and Cappy’s condo. We lucked out in that on our way we saw the power company replacing a power pole. It provided much entertainment (and a coloring book!) on our way to and from the condo.
We stayed at the condo for lunch, and made our way back home for quiet time. My hand warmers had given up by that point, so there was quite a bit of jogging on the way home to keep warm. DS found this terribly amusing, and it definitely helped him keep going. The brisk air and exercise made it so that DS actually went down for a nap (rare these days), so I had some quality time to relax and start some sourdough bread rising. I noticed I lost a little more of my mucus plug (a little bloody this time, unlike previous), and informed DH. He took this as an excuse to head home early and attempt to help move things along. After some hopefully labor-inducing (slightly awkward) sex, I did some more relaxing on the couch to take advantage of DS’s nap, and wait for my bread to be ready to proof.
I started to notice some cramping right around 3:20. This was about when DS got up from his nap, so I went and did our normal post-nap nursing session. After this, I let DH take over DS duty while I started baking and getting dinner (broccoli cheddar soup) ready. By 4:20, I started timing the contractions, and did that for an hour while I was cooking. We called Nana and Cappy to come and join us for dinner and to bring an overnight bag just in case this was the real deal. I brewed myself some extra red raspberry leaf tea to drink, also just in case. After an hour of timing contractions, which were fairly consistent at about 3ish minutes apart and 30s each, I called the OB office. I got a call back from Valerie, the midwife on call. She said to head on in (though she later said I sounded entirely to cheerful to believe I was really in labor). I wasn’t really expecting that (I assumed I’d labor at home longer), but I figured I’d get things ready, albeit slowly. We ate our dinner (though I was a bit nervous to eat too much, but I knew I’d want the energy!), and DH got his lat minute things together. We explained to DS over dinner what was going on in very general terms, and he surprisingly took it well. No tears involved in our leaving. I was a little too distracted to get too emotional about it, fortunately!
We had a very short and uneventful drive to the hospital around 7ish. The contractions weren’t bad. Mild period cramps, as I was expecting. We didn’t see many other folks walking in, which I took as a good sign for quick service (one complaint I’d heard about the hospital). DH was feeling rather nervous, and as per usual was cracking jokes. Thanks to the extra tea I’d guzzled before heading to the hospital, this led to a mild amount of peeing. Thanks, pregnancy! We were the only ones waiting to check-in, and had to fill out a few forms. So much for pre-registration! I suppose it would have been a much longer process, but still. We were sent back out to the lobby to wait some more, and I had to give in and use the restroom. I had plenty of time to do so. We waited five or ten minutes, but I was okay with it as after finally peeing, I was a lot more comfortable.
We were led to our triage room. I changed into the hospital gown, and the nurse came and hooked me up to the monitors. I was going to be monitored for 20 minutes just to see what was what. I think it wound up being a bit longer than that. I alternated between reading Outlander, checking my phone, and then DH set up his laptop to play some Supernatural. I was able to make it through the initial monitoring before needing to pee yet again. Contractions were holding steady at about every 3 minutes, 30 second apiece. They were starting to ramp up a bit in intensity, but nothing too bad. I had the unpleasant experience of getting my cervix checked next, which was at 4cm. Definitely all enough to get me officially admitted. However, we had to wait around a bit for a room.
The midwife on call came by to say hi. She said hopefully I’d deliver on her shift. I was sad to hear that sentiment, since her shift ran until 7am! I sure as heck hoped the same, as I was expecting a similar labor experience as with DS (about 7 hours).
Baby was having some decelerations with contractions, so they wanted to give me an IV bag of fluids to hopefully help. Getting the IV was terrible. DH was making terrible faces on the first couple attempts, but I told him he really needed to quit that. Fortunately he was able to eventually restrain himself, but it didn’t give me a lot of confidence in what was going on! The IV was eventually placed, and I got the half a bag of fluids. DH put my socks back on for me, as despite the super warm l&d ward, the bag of fluids was cold! It was apparently helping, but they wanted to have me finish out the bag just to be safe.
After finishing the bag, they took me off the monitors and told me to go walk the halls around 9ish. I felt like the bag of fluids might have helped baby girl, but the contractions were not as noticeable anymore. I put my shoes and socks back on and DH and I set off. There was nowhere too interesting to walk, unfortunately. Around and around and around and around in circles we went. We stopped for several pee breaks for me (this time thanks to the bag of fluids), and to pick up our books. We amused the nurse stationed at the desk greatly, strolling arm in arm and both of our noses buried in books (not our phones!). Heading back for yet another pee break around 10:30, we were told that we finally had a room! We packed up our stuff and headed to the room. I got re-hooked up to monitors (which showed my contractions were doing the same old same old pattern, but were a bit stronger), and they started setting up the room while we waited for my midwife. She wanted to break my water to get things going. I figured why not? I was anxious to get the show on the road. I had only progressed to about a 5 by this point, and at around 11 the midwife did break my water. Super uncomfortable, but I could immediately tell the difference in the strength of contractions. The midwife said she’d be back in two hours to check on me.
DH hooked up his iPad for me with Hulu, and I was able to catch up on the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Maybe a questionable decision to be watching a medical drama, but it did a good job of distracting me from increasingly really uncomfortable contractions. By the end of Grey’s I had to have DH by me, and was squishing his hand thoroughly through contractions and groaning. They were strong. And I was starting to maybe feel some pushing pressure? I couldn’t really tell, but by midnight, we decided to call the nurse for a check (keeping in theme, the nurse wasn’t expecting much since I sounded so cheerful).
By the time the nurse got there, we discovered I was at 10cm, and I was definitely feeling the need to push. However, thanks to the thunderstorm outside the phone system was acting up, and they were having trouble getting my midwife back to the room. I was ready to start pushing before they had everything set up, but I had to wait. Which was okay, because while I *wanted* to push, I didn’t *really* want to, as I knew that was the worst part of this painful process.
The broke down the bed and set up the stirrups, which I swear were some sort of torture device. They held my whole lower legs, and it was a super uncomfortable angle. I was fighting them, which I think didn’t help the pushing process. I remember from labor with DS that I just felt useless at the pushing process, so while I had some experience under my belt, I still didn’t feel that great at it. I think I did quite a bit more screaming this time around. I was encouraged when not too long into it the nurses started getting my gown reading for skin to skin. I pushed baby girl very nearly out, but just couldn’t make it all the way. Hearing the midwife tell me to cool it on the pushing so I didn’t tear too badly was music to my ears. However, hanging out waiting for the next contraction with baby girl so far down the birth canal was very unpleasant to say the least. On the last contraction, I apparently turned white and they had to start me on some oxygen, but I finally pushed her out (20 minutes total of pushing). So much relief. Apparently she had her cord wrapped around her neck once (which explained the decels with contractions).
The placenta delivery wasn’t too terrible, but the pushing on my uterus was a bit worse than I remembered with DS. There was some concern that there was a bit of placenta retention, but fortunately that was not the case. The midwife debated whether or not I “needed” a stitch or two for my wee little first degree tear (that wasn’t bleeding anymore), but in the end decided to go ahead and do it. Just as weird/unpleasant as I remembered (feeling the stitches tugging), even with topical anesthetic.
Baby girl was a wiggly little active thing right away. She was apparently so active that she was wiggling the pulse-ox monitor into thinking that her O2 levels weren’t great. So after an hour of skin to skin with lots of nursing, they brought in a NICU team to look her over. Fortunately, they concluded it was indeed the monitor, not her. She was fine (thank goodness)! Her Apgars were 8 and 9 (just like big brother), and when they finally did her stats, she was 7lbs9.2oz and 19.5” long. Her eyelashes and eyebrows are super light blonde, and the rest of the hair on her head varies between very blonde and light brown.
So here she is ... our little Z.oe R.ose!
