In case you missed it, Part 1 and Part 2.
When they first checked me at the hospital, after trying to do all of the annoying paperwork and questions, I was at a....7! I looked at my DH in shock. I couldn't believe it. I had only been in labor for 3 or 4 hours at home. And here I was at a 7 already! I did not think that was possible. The nurse quickly picked up the pace on things and stopped asking questions. I got a heparin lock put in (I didn't even feel it) and a bag of fluids for hydration and then our doula arrived. I can still picture her eyes bulging out of her head when we told her I was at a 7. They put a fetal heart monitor on to check the baby and then took it off to let me move around, changing positions, doing whatever I could to get comfortable.
I started getting really hot- I needed my hair pulled back because it was driving me crazy, I needed chapstick for my dry lips, and the doula was great to ask for ice chips and put a cool washcloth on my forehead. I also had tons of pressure on my belly and um....I don't know a nice way to say it, sorry....my but.t hole. Oh, so much pressure. I kept talking about the pressure over and over. DH and I laugh about it now, but I kept saying over and over how much pressure I had on "my ...hole." If you knew me IRL, you would know this is not how I talk in public. But for whatever reason, I felt it ok to constantly be talking about my ...hole.
I was constantly shifting positions in the bed and nothing felt good. I ended up laying on my left side, trying to focus and breathe through the contractions. DH was using the pasty roller on my legs because they were so tight and crampy (had been all morning). I just could not get my muscles to relax and I had pain shooting down my legs almost constantly. It was about at this point that I asked for pain meds and was told there wasn't enough time. I really wanted something to take the pain away. The doula was great getting me through that time when I desperately wanted relief from all the pressure and pain I was feeling.
When they first checked me at the hospital, after trying to do all of the annoying paperwork and questions, I was at a....7! I looked at my DH in shock. I couldn't believe it. I had only been in labor for 3 or 4 hours at home. And here I was at a 7 already! I did not think that was possible. The nurse quickly picked up the pace on things and stopped asking questions. I got a heparin lock put in (I didn't even feel it) and a bag of fluids for hydration and then our doula arrived. I can still picture her eyes bulging out of her head when we told her I was at a 7. They put a fetal heart monitor on to check the baby and then took it off to let me move around, changing positions, doing whatever I could to get comfortable.
I started getting really hot- I needed my hair pulled back because it was driving me crazy, I needed chapstick for my dry lips, and the doula was great to ask for ice chips and put a cool washcloth on my forehead. I also had tons of pressure on my belly and um....I don't know a nice way to say it, sorry....my but.t hole. Oh, so much pressure. I kept talking about the pressure over and over. DH and I laugh about it now, but I kept saying over and over how much pressure I had on "my ...hole." If you knew me IRL, you would know this is not how I talk in public. But for whatever reason, I felt it ok to constantly be talking about my ...hole.
I was constantly shifting positions in the bed and nothing felt good. I ended up laying on my left side, trying to focus and breathe through the contractions. DH was using the pasty roller on my legs because they were so tight and crampy (had been all morning). I just could not get my muscles to relax and I had pain shooting down my legs almost constantly. It was about at this point that I asked for pain meds and was told there wasn't enough time. I really wanted something to take the pain away. The doula was great getting me through that time when I desperately wanted relief from all the pressure and pain I was feeling.
In 45 minutes (by 12:50) I had gone from a 7 to a 9 and my water still had not broken. In my birth plan, I had said I wanted my water to break on it's own, but the doula agreed this was the only thing keeping me from getting to a 10. With her advice, I agreed to let them break my water, so that I could progress to a 10. They grabbed one of the OBs in the hallway (not my OB) to come in and break my water. Hello, random Dr. sticking a big metal hook thingy up there. I didn't even care. As soon as he broke my water... sweet relief. It was such a weird feeling to have all that warm water coming out of me, but it felt so good to have the bag of waters broken. I instantly had so much relief from the intense pressure on my belly, and I didn't even feel a thing when he broke it.
I started to feel the urge to push, but when they checked me, I wasn't quite at a 10 yet. There was just a tiny lip of the cervix in the way, so I tried getting on my hands and knees and then laying on both sides to get that lip out of the way and complete the dilation process. I probably did that for 30 minutes or so.
By 1:20 I still felt really strongly that I needed to push. My OB came in and said it was OK to try one push to see if I could get past that lip (I still wasn't quite at a 10). When she felt that I could, she gave me the OK to continue pushing as I wanted to. She did warn me at that point though, I still had a lot of work ahead of me pushing and it would probably still be an hour. An hour more! What! She left to let me work on the pushing. (Little did I know I'd have to push for 1 1/2 hours! Good thing I only thought it was an hour left.)
I was no longer feeling all the pressure and pain that I had before, however, which was nice. I actually had a little break between my urges to push, and I needed it. I quickly became tired from the intensity of the pushing. The doula was invaluable at this point, suggesting different positions that might be effective for pushing. I started with the semi-reclined position with DH and the doula each holding one of my legs, and then she suggested I try adding a birth bar to the bed. I spent a lot of time in the squat position. This felt more natural to me, despite the fact I was up squatting up on a hospital bed.
You don't practice pushing before the baby comes, but I just knew how and when I needed to push. That was the wonder of not being on pain meds. I was just following what my body was telling me to do, and my instincts guided me through. Evidently, I was a great pusher. In addition to trying to push the baby out, I also pushed out everything in my bowels. That was lovely. I'm squatting on the bed, trying to get this baby out, and I'm smelling my own poo. They don't tell you these things before you have a baby! The nurse kept having to change out the towels or whatever was under me. Lovely.
Pushing was hard, but DH and the doula were great in helping me use various position to get that baby out. I also had to take a break between each push because I was quickly tiring out. In addition to squatting, I also pulled on a towel that was wrapped around the birth bar. Evidently, I was too strong at this one because they only let me do a few pushes this way before they made me stop! The doctor was called to come back around 2:30 because the head was crowning. They broke down the bed and DH and the doula each hold a leg while I pushed when I wanted to. I thought the head crowning meant the baby was coming in a few minutes, but she was sort of stuck in there a bit.
I just knew I was going to tear based on how things felt while I was pushing, and I didn't want to feel that. I thought feeling myself tear down there would be an obstacle to pushing; as in, I didn't think I could push much harder or longer knowing that I was going to tear and feel it. So once the OB arrived, I asked her immediately to numb the area down there with a local numbing agent. Out comes this huge needle full of stuff and I didn't even feel it go in. Maybe I would have been OK without the numbing agent? I didn't know, but didn't want to take any chances.
The doula asked me if I wanted them to bring a mirror over for me to look at (and hopefully motivate me to keep pushing). I surprised myself by saying yes. I saw this head of dark hair...my baby! She has so much hair the OB was playing with the hair! Can you believe that? I also saw the blood from the tear, so I told them to get the mirror away after a quick peek! My girl had dark hair. I kept thinking of that image of her head almost coming out and I pushed like a mad woman for another 20 minutes. Her head was stuck/pushing up against my rec.tum, so I had to push her past that. The OB kept saying, "one more push and she's here." And I'd push, and push, and push (I was getting 3 pushes in in a row) and nothing. The OB even tried to stretch my vag. walls with her fingers to see if that would help get her out.
This played out until....finally...at 3:05pm, one final push and she actually did come out.
She was born exactly 3 hours after we had checked in at the hospital! I couldn't believe it. What a day and whirlwind 1st birth! I had successfully (and surprisingly) made it through an entire pregnancy and delivery without throwing up! Thank you, Jesus. I hate throwing up, but was fully prepared to endure the worst when pregnant. I was pleasantly surprised that nausea was the closest I came to vomiting.
I started to feel the urge to push, but when they checked me, I wasn't quite at a 10 yet. There was just a tiny lip of the cervix in the way, so I tried getting on my hands and knees and then laying on both sides to get that lip out of the way and complete the dilation process. I probably did that for 30 minutes or so.
By 1:20 I still felt really strongly that I needed to push. My OB came in and said it was OK to try one push to see if I could get past that lip (I still wasn't quite at a 10). When she felt that I could, she gave me the OK to continue pushing as I wanted to. She did warn me at that point though, I still had a lot of work ahead of me pushing and it would probably still be an hour. An hour more! What! She left to let me work on the pushing. (Little did I know I'd have to push for 1 1/2 hours! Good thing I only thought it was an hour left.)
I was no longer feeling all the pressure and pain that I had before, however, which was nice. I actually had a little break between my urges to push, and I needed it. I quickly became tired from the intensity of the pushing. The doula was invaluable at this point, suggesting different positions that might be effective for pushing. I started with the semi-reclined position with DH and the doula each holding one of my legs, and then she suggested I try adding a birth bar to the bed. I spent a lot of time in the squat position. This felt more natural to me, despite the fact I was up squatting up on a hospital bed.
You don't practice pushing before the baby comes, but I just knew how and when I needed to push. That was the wonder of not being on pain meds. I was just following what my body was telling me to do, and my instincts guided me through. Evidently, I was a great pusher. In addition to trying to push the baby out, I also pushed out everything in my bowels. That was lovely. I'm squatting on the bed, trying to get this baby out, and I'm smelling my own poo. They don't tell you these things before you have a baby! The nurse kept having to change out the towels or whatever was under me. Lovely.
Pushing was hard, but DH and the doula were great in helping me use various position to get that baby out. I also had to take a break between each push because I was quickly tiring out. In addition to squatting, I also pulled on a towel that was wrapped around the birth bar. Evidently, I was too strong at this one because they only let me do a few pushes this way before they made me stop! The doctor was called to come back around 2:30 because the head was crowning. They broke down the bed and DH and the doula each hold a leg while I pushed when I wanted to. I thought the head crowning meant the baby was coming in a few minutes, but she was sort of stuck in there a bit.
I just knew I was going to tear based on how things felt while I was pushing, and I didn't want to feel that. I thought feeling myself tear down there would be an obstacle to pushing; as in, I didn't think I could push much harder or longer knowing that I was going to tear and feel it. So once the OB arrived, I asked her immediately to numb the area down there with a local numbing agent. Out comes this huge needle full of stuff and I didn't even feel it go in. Maybe I would have been OK without the numbing agent? I didn't know, but didn't want to take any chances.
The doula asked me if I wanted them to bring a mirror over for me to look at (and hopefully motivate me to keep pushing). I surprised myself by saying yes. I saw this head of dark hair...my baby! She has so much hair the OB was playing with the hair! Can you believe that? I also saw the blood from the tear, so I told them to get the mirror away after a quick peek! My girl had dark hair. I kept thinking of that image of her head almost coming out and I pushed like a mad woman for another 20 minutes. Her head was stuck/pushing up against my rec.tum, so I had to push her past that. The OB kept saying, "one more push and she's here." And I'd push, and push, and push (I was getting 3 pushes in in a row) and nothing. The OB even tried to stretch my vag. walls with her fingers to see if that would help get her out.
This played out until....finally...at 3:05pm, one final push and she actually did come out.
She was born exactly 3 hours after we had checked in at the hospital! I couldn't believe it. What a day and whirlwind 1st birth! I had successfully (and surprisingly) made it through an entire pregnancy and delivery without throwing up! Thank you, Jesus. I hate throwing up, but was fully prepared to endure the worst when pregnant. I was pleasantly surprised that nausea was the closest I came to vomiting.
They immediately placed her on me and DH got to cut the umbilical cord. She looked so blue to us, but was screaming up a storm from the get-go, which told me she was perfectly healthy. One look at her and she was just perfect. I finally breathed a sigh of relief because even up until the delivery, I was still worried that something was going to be wrong with her. After our miscarriages, it was still impossible for me to believe that I was going to be a mom and have a healthy child.
When I was ready to have her cleaned up, they took her and cleaned her up. They did not give her a Hepatitis B shot like they routinely do because I chose to delay that. They did have to give her a Vitamin K shot and the eye ointment, but when I had asked my OB about it at my last appt., she had said I could just wipe the eye ointment off after it was applied! But because it was a state law, they had to apply it. Since I don't have gonorrhea or other STDs, I was quite comfortable wiping the eye ointment off immediately after they applied it!
DH got to hold her for a bit before giving us skin to skin time together and our first attempt at nursing. She had a strong suck and a decent latch from the beginning. How did she know how to do it? That amazed me. I did need the doula's help to start nursing. I had no clue what to do, and I had even taken a bre.astfeeding class at the hospital!
Her apgar scores were 8 and 9...perfectly healthy. She was 19.5 inches long and 7 lbs 3 oz. Just a perfect size! She was so alert, and as she stared into my eyes, I could hardly believe it. My daughter, our daughter...was looking back at me. It was almost as if I was dreaming, except I knew I wasn't and this was really happening.
The OB pulled the placenta out. That was a weird feeling. It looked weird too...sort of flat, like the size of a paperback book. That is what kept my baby alive for 9 months? The OB also stitched me up with needles and "thread" that were entirely too long and course, but I tried not to think about it because I was holding my baby. They also massaged my uterus...ouch! That was extremely uncomfortable.
I was surprised R came out quite clean; I expected her to be much more covered in blood, but she wasn't. Her hands and feet were pruney, but she looked "well-baked" they said. The rest of her skin was tight, not wrinkly. We nursed for a bit and then they made us move upstairs at 4:30pm, which was annoying. I would have preferred to finish nursing before being moved, but our "hour" in Labor and Delivery was up, and I needed to be moved out. I actually stood up with help and sat in a wheelchair. They placed my bundled baby on my lap and away we went...down the hallway to the bumpy elevator and up to our mother and baby room. I could have done without the wheelchair and bumpy ride!
We entered our room where we would stay for the next 2 days. And it was there that the "adventure" began.
Stay tuned for more about our hospital stay in the next edition of "The Birth Story."
When I was ready to have her cleaned up, they took her and cleaned her up. They did not give her a Hepatitis B shot like they routinely do because I chose to delay that. They did have to give her a Vitamin K shot and the eye ointment, but when I had asked my OB about it at my last appt., she had said I could just wipe the eye ointment off after it was applied! But because it was a state law, they had to apply it. Since I don't have gonorrhea or other STDs, I was quite comfortable wiping the eye ointment off immediately after they applied it!
DH got to hold her for a bit before giving us skin to skin time together and our first attempt at nursing. She had a strong suck and a decent latch from the beginning. How did she know how to do it? That amazed me. I did need the doula's help to start nursing. I had no clue what to do, and I had even taken a bre.astfeeding class at the hospital!
Her apgar scores were 8 and 9...perfectly healthy. She was 19.5 inches long and 7 lbs 3 oz. Just a perfect size! She was so alert, and as she stared into my eyes, I could hardly believe it. My daughter, our daughter...was looking back at me. It was almost as if I was dreaming, except I knew I wasn't and this was really happening.
The OB pulled the placenta out. That was a weird feeling. It looked weird too...sort of flat, like the size of a paperback book. That is what kept my baby alive for 9 months? The OB also stitched me up with needles and "thread" that were entirely too long and course, but I tried not to think about it because I was holding my baby. They also massaged my uterus...ouch! That was extremely uncomfortable.
I was surprised R came out quite clean; I expected her to be much more covered in blood, but she wasn't. Her hands and feet were pruney, but she looked "well-baked" they said. The rest of her skin was tight, not wrinkly. We nursed for a bit and then they made us move upstairs at 4:30pm, which was annoying. I would have preferred to finish nursing before being moved, but our "hour" in Labor and Delivery was up, and I needed to be moved out. I actually stood up with help and sat in a wheelchair. They placed my bundled baby on my lap and away we went...down the hallway to the bumpy elevator and up to our mother and baby room. I could have done without the wheelchair and bumpy ride!
We entered our room where we would stay for the next 2 days. And it was there that the "adventure" began.
Stay tuned for more about our hospital stay in the next edition of "The Birth Story."
Great story! Way to go, Mama!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement beforehand!
DeleteLove reading your birth story especially the honesty...the good and the not so great! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
You're welcome! Hopefully it gives you some things to think about and help prepare when your due date gets closer!
Deleteyeah! I love your story! The hole part had me laughing so hard! you are too funny!
ReplyDeleteYeah, crazy what will come out of your mouth and surprise you!
DeleteYou have more honesty in the birth story than most ... I love that! Even all the not-so-pretty stuff. I'm glad you had a short labor and your body knew what to do. I can't imagine what is going to happen next!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all the details, you had me laughing...even though it is freaking me out too. I couldn't push my baby out but am hoping too this second time round.
ReplyDeleteSO glad this is finally up!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAh! You people with your short labors!! :) This brings back memories for me too. I tore and honestly didn't feel it at all (I'm pretty sure the epidural was basically worn off at that point because believe me I was feeling everything else!!) :) :) It's all quite the miracle, isn't it. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat story!!! Thanks for sharing. I love how nobody tells you how gross it can get! Lol
ReplyDeletelove!! and reading this brought back memories for me too except I felt at 5cm what you were feeling at 7+...daggone pitocin. I have to laugh at the ...hole thing too haha... it's funny what we say/do in the intensity of the moment!
ReplyDelete