Again, this birth story contains some graphic descriptions, so stop here if you don't want to read about it!
Birth
Story
Anya
ClaireJune 4, 2010
7 lbs., 7 oz., 21 in.
Born at 40 weeks, 6 days according to dating ultrasound, 40 weeks, 2 days according to ovulation
I started cramping and contracting
that day. I had had contractions off and
on for about a week but these contractions never stopped. That evening they were between 3 and 5
minutes and lasted at least a minute each time.
They weren’t very painful but I had heard so many stories about other
peoples’ labors not being painful until the end. In the back of my mind, I knew it had to be
too easy but we went to triage anyway just to be sure we weren’t further than
we thought. Once we got there, I was
told I was at the same dilation and effacement as at the appointment earlier
that day, so I was told that I was still in early labor. They allowed us to walk a little but after
about 30 minutes we decided to just go home and try to get some rest before
active labor started. My OB was on call
and he tried to give me some Ambien to help me sleep but we had decided that if
we weren’t in active labor by morning, we were both going to work, so I wanted
to make sure I wasn’t too drowsy in the morning.
That night we got home probably around 1:30 am and went to bed. Of course, my husband, Eric, was able to fall
right to sleep but my back hurt so I had to go sit on an ab ball for
awhile. When I finally got back to bed,
I only drifted in and out of sleep, but never really got any good sleep due to
having to get up to pee what seemed like every 10 minutes. Things were getting more and more mucousy and
I ended up losing what I’m almost positive was my mucous plug over the next few
hours. I didn’t realize how much of that stuff there is…pretty disgusting!
I woke up at 5 the next morning with a really strong urge to have a
bowel movement. In the back of my mind,
I knew it could be a contraction but I wasn’t sure if it was that or that I
just had to go to the bathroom. Several
minutes later, I had the same feeling, so I decided they were contractions, and
they were much stronger this time. I
woke Eric up and we both ended up calling into work because there was no way I
could go to work this way, even if I wasn’t in active labor yet. I used the ab ball and massage to get through
some of them and I ended up getting in the shower as well, which was wonderful
with the contractions. We had had our
bags packed from the night before so we just had to add a few more things to
it. We got dressed and packed up all the
last minute things in between contractions because they were lasting over a
minute and were 3 to 5 minutes apart. In
retrospect, I wish we would have stayed home a little longer, but this being
our first time, we had no idea how far we were and with some of the
contractions being 3 minutes apart and lasting as long as they did, we didn’t
feel comfortable staying home. When we
got to the hospital, I was 4 cm, so I was admitted and given a room. My OB offered to break my water but I told
him I wasn’t ready for that. I felt like
we needed to be more in control of the contractions we were dealing with now
before doing something that would intensify them.
Eric and I used a lot of the techniques we had learned in our birthing
classes and all the books we had read.
What worked the best was the “slow dance” position where I wrapped my
arms around him and swayed side to side.
We turned on some music to help and I found different focal points
around the room to cope with the contractions.
We did this for about 6 hours and I was still not quite to 5 cm, but
very close. The problem was that I was soooo
tired. I hadn’t really eaten in over 12
hours and I hadn’t had any kind of good sleep in over 24 hours. I tried to lay down between contractions but
if I wasn’t up and already swaying by the time they hit, they were really hard
to get through. Because I was plugged
into the IV, I found it difficult to move around and get up in time. (Even though I was negative for GBS, my
screening had been over 30 days so I had to have the antibiotics anyway, which
required the IV.) After talking it over
with Eric, we decided that it would be best for me to get the epidural, simply
because I wasn’t progressing as quickly as I would have liked and I was already
so tired that I was afraid once we got to the pushing stage, I wouldn’t have
the energy to push my baby out. My fear
was that it would result in a c section and the ultimate goal (besides a
healthy baby) was to be able to have a vaginal birth. We requested the epidural and then had them
notify my OB that we were now ok with my water being broken.
We got the epidural around 11:15/11:30, before my OB made it down to
break my water. The hardest thing about
it was sitting still through contractions while they were putting it in. I did not like the way my legs felt and the
fact that I couldn’t get out of bed, but I know the contractions would have
been way worse than that. It reminded
me of one of those dreams where you are trying to get somewhere but your legs
don’t move fast enough. I could still
move them and feel them but they were very lethargic when I tried to move
them. I could also still feel the
contractions, and though I wouldn’t necessarily describe them as painful, they
were certainly uncomfortable.
Eventually, my water started leaking on its own before the OB ever made
it to the room; however, my bag was still bulging so he did eventually have to
finish breaking it.
While all this was going on, my contractions had slowed to 6 to 9
minutes apart, and they wanted to put me on a small dose of pitocin. I really did not plan on being on pitocin but
they explained to me that this was merely an augmentation, not an induction,
and that my risk of c section was still low since my body was already doing
what it was supposed to do. They assured
me that this was just to regulate the contractions a little more so that I
could progress faster. I agreed to it
and after I was given the pitocin, it only took a couple of hours to get to 9
cm. At that point, I had a really strong
urge to push but was told not to just yet.
After a little while, the nurse told me to go ahead and push if I got
the urge, and eventually we got to 10 cm.
It was probably around 2:30 or 3:00 when we started actively
pushing. I had originally thought I
wouldn’t care about using the mirror, but the nurse had it brought in just in
case, and it really did help me to push more effectively because I could see
the baby’s head moving in and out of the opening. The nurse also did perineal massage to try to
keep me from tearing. The nurse gave me
15 minutes breaks occasionally so I could rest up for the next pushing round,
but the baby actually moved further down if I just relaxed and let the
contractions do their job. By the time
the nurse came back, she decided to call for the “table” which also apparently
meant the birthing team, because within minutes, tons of people showed up and the
room was transformed in a matter of minutes.
When the OB showed up, I asked what was going on, but she just told me
that we were close enough for the doctor to be here.
We kept pushing and when the baby crowned,
they asked if I wanted to feel her head.
I didn’t think that I would care about doing that but when they asked, I
thought, “what the heck?” So I did and
it was actually kind of cool to be able to feel her before she was even
officially born. I ended up also having
an episiotomy. We had discussed this
with our doctor beforehand and had already decided that we were ok with
this.
We continued to push, and as soon as her little head completely
emerged, she was already crying. Of
course, she had to be suctioned because there was meconium in my water earlier
that day. When she finally came out all the way, it wasn’t even from me pushing
her; she just kind of slipped out randomly and ended up ducking her head and
doing a forward roll onto the table, and the doctor caught her feet first. They held her upside down for a minute to get
the blood flowing, showed me that she was a girl, which is what we were
expecting, and then I finally got to hold her. She was absolutely beautiful,
even though her hair was a matted mess!
The nurse was able to do a lot of things she needed to do while I was
holding her. Eventually, they took her
for a few minutes to do some things they couldn’t do while I was holding her (I
don’t even remember what it was…) and I immediately asked Eric for a Snickers
bar. I was so hungry! We allowed our family to come in and see her
for a few minutes but they were kicked out of the room after a few minutes so
that I could breastfeed her. Lactation
came and we were able to get our little girl latched on right away. She was a natural from the very beginning,
though we did have to fix her latch somewhat before leaving the hospital. I
knew if it continued to be painful, it would increase my chances of giving up.
Now Anya is almost 6 and a half months old. We are still breastfeeding
and she has just started solids. So far, she’s had sweet potatoes, avocado, and
bananas. She loves to eat, babbles to anyone who will listen, rolls and scoots
to get places, and will probably be crawling any day nowJ It is hard to believe it has already been over a half
of a year, but I still remember the day she was born like it was
yesterday. Labor was labor and it was
painful at times, but I really actually enjoyed the whole process.
No comments:
Post a Comment