Went into labor with my daughter around 2 AM, stayed at home as long as possible. Made the 45 minute drive to the hospital with contractions really close together around 7 AM. I was 8 cm. dilated when I got to the hospital, but my water hadn't broken. So after waiting it out, getting my dose of group B strep antibiotics, I decided to opt for the epidural. Waited a little while for the doctor on call to arrive to give the epidural, and it was probably close to 10 AM by the time I actually got my epidural. After some more waiting (luckily more comfortable at this point), The baby didn't really seem to be dropping so my midwife decided to break my water around 4 PM. Turned out my bag of water was what was dilating me, so I then went down to only about 2 cm. dilated. Did some more waiting to see what would happen and also added some pitocin to my already packed IV of antibiotics, pain meds, and epidural. And around 8PM decided I would try pushing to see what happens. And pretty much all that happened was I pushed baby down far enough to get completely stuck. Called in another doc to try a vacuum, but he decided it would be best to do a c-section. Not really having any idea what was going on at this point, 9:30ish, I cried my tons of tears and said ok. Had a catheter put in, which is fun when you are trying to push a baby out whose head is completely stuck in your cervix. I had also realized that through all the moving while pushing, my IV that had (not sure what its called) but epidural drip in it had come out. So I was now starting to feel everything that was happening. Got wheeled down to the OR, but for some reason they couldn't get the door opened (WHAT??) So I laid in the hallway screaming that I wanted to push and feeling all the contractions, while they found someone to open the door to the OR! (We were at a small, rural hospital in PA, pretty sure I was the only one there having a baby at the time). Then little did I know I had to wait for the anesthesiologist to come back to give me the spinal for the surgery since all these people were on call at this time of night! Waited I think a good 20 minutes for that. C-section went well, for a c-section, and of course I got a quick glimpse of my baby girl, who was then sent upstairs with my husband, while I was sent to a recovery room, where I pretty much laid by myself shaking for an hour.
So needless to say when I found out I was pregnant with baby #2, I knew I wanted things to be different. I started by finding a new set of midwives, who deliver at a different hospital, are pro-VBAC, and have a great relationship with the hospital staff!
My baby boy was due on May 9th, and I knew exactly when I got pregnant, so I really thought he would be born fairly close to the 9th. However, my 20 week ultrasound put my due date at May 18th. Throughout my pregnancy, my belly measured a few weeks smaller than where it "should be". I am rather petite so this made sense to me. But my midwives monitored closely. Between my size and the fact that the ultrasound said May 18th, my husband and family were pretty certain that I was not going to have this baby until mid May. But towards the end of my pregnancy, I "knew" that he was coming sooner rather than later.
Saturday April 29th, I started having some early signs of labor and spent most of the day preparing for the birth of our baby. I really thought it was happening. But when Monday rolled around and I still wasn't in labor, I shrugged it off as gas pains, or just being tired. I started feeling a little better by Tuesday and had so much energy.
Wednesday May 2nd, Had a regularly scheduled midwife appointment for my 39 week check up. She first asked me if I have any questions for her and I asked her "Is it time yet?". I am not sure what the procedure normally is, but I never had a vaginal exam at the end of either pregnancy to check if I was dilated, etc. So we went through the motions, checked the baby's heartbeat which was great, checked to make sure the head was headed the right direction, and measured my belly, which was way smaller than the last measure ( I think I measured 33 cm and the week before I was 35 cm.) So she knew that the baby had dropped, but she didn't really make it seem like baby was coming anytime to soon. She also gave me my paperwork for my induction if I would need one on May 24th!!! I politely told her that if I was still pregnant on May 24th I may lose my mind :) and we went on our way.
Baby girl and I went to the grocery store and with this energy I had all of a sudden, I decided to buy tons of meat and produce to make some meals and freeze them over the next week before our baby boy arrived. We also stopped at Chick-Fil-A to fulfill the pregnancy craving, yum.
When I got home I unloaded the groceries, and then it was nap time for baby girl. Took her up to bed, laid with her and read stories, and tucked her in. I went into my bedroom and sat down at the computer, and all of a sudden felt so exhausted. I sent a text to my husband that said something along the lines of "my head is telling me to do a million chores, but my body is telling me to nap." So I napped. Probably for about 2 hours.
Baby girl woke me up around 4:30 and I went to go to the bathroom. Had some spotting of blood when I peed, which I had never had before. So being a little paranoid I decided to call my midwife at 4:45. She told me that if I wasn't having any contractions and it was only a little blood that it was normal. And at 4:45 PM I still wasn't feeling any contractions, I just felt really really tired. My husband came home from work around 5:45 PM and I think baby girl and I were still snuggling in bed. But we decided to get up and go downstairs to find something for dinner. We heated up some leftover pasta casserole, but I couldn't even eat any of it. As I sat with my family for dinner around 6:00 PM I decided that maybe I was having a few contractions, but they were pretty far apart and not very strong. Since I had some spotting, and was feeling contractions I started really thinking that labor was happening. So I headed upstairs to pack my bag for the hospital, tie up some loose ends, and clean up. I called my midwife back to let her know I was in labor, and she told me that whenever I felt ready I could head to the hospital and she would meet me there. I called my mom to give her a heads up that I thought I would probably need her help in the morning. My contractions still weren't very strong and if I was in labor it would probably be morning until I headed to the hospital, because that's how much time I had with my first baby....should have known better!
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| 39 weeks, contractions were just beginning |
Around 7:30 PM, My hubby put a movie on for our baby girl and tucked her in bed so we could run out the door as soon as back up arrived. My mom was still 45 minutes from our house at that point! So thankful we had some good friends close by to come over and help out!
We pulled up outside the hospital at 8:30PM. Someone brought a wheelchair out to the car and wheeled me inside, while my husband parked the car. So there I sat in the lobby of the hospital, feeling very ready to push a baby out while a nice receptionist kept asking me questions to make small talk, not realizing that I really could not talk at that point. After about 5 minutes, but felt like 20 minutes, they pushed me up to the labor and delivery floor where I then had to get out of he wheelchair and head into a "waiting room" to get checked in. I tried to stay calm, but I don't think anyone, including myself realized how far along I was. Thankfully we only sat there for a minute or two when they WALKED us to a delivery room and got us all set up. (that was a really LONG walk down the hall)
As much as I had told myself I wanted to be mobile during the labor in hopes of avoiding another c-section, the second I saw that bed to lay in, that was all I wanted to do. So I laid down and hung on to the railing for dear life during my contractions. The nurse of course had a million questions for me, that I could barely answer, I finally remembered that I had my birth plan written out in my bag and motioned for my husband to get it out. I don't think I opened my eyes at all during any of this. I do specifically remember the nurse asking which doctor was going to see our baby when he was born, and I thought I had worked that all out before we got there. I was told there were doctors on call that would see the baby, however, apparently that wasn't the case. So as I am ready to push the baby out my husband is on his phone with the insurance company finding a doctor that is in network to see our baby when he is born since our pediatrician is to far away to come to the hospital.
I laid through the contractions for quite awhile while they hooked up monitors and gave me an IV for my group B strep antibiotics. (which I still regret getting). My midwife was in and out of the room for the first hour we were there, and I just labored it out through the contractions (and listened to my husband on the phone with the insurance company, not exactly the background noise I wanted during my labor). After about an hour of answering questions, squeezing the railing, sucking on some ice chips, my midwife came back into the room. She had read my birth plan and asked the nurse to unhook the monitors so that I could move around a little bit and possibly start pushing. I tried to change my mind, but being the awesome midwife that she is, she reminded me that I wanted to be mobile and it would help get baby moving in the right direction. Well all she got out of me was a roll over to my hands and knees to try laboring that way. After about 2 minutes I decided to lay back down! My midwife then left again for a few minutes and I continued to have really really strong contractions.
I hadn't opened my eyes much the entire time we were there, so I didn't really know who was in the room (hoped my husband was still there), but I was kind of waiting for someone to tell me it was time to push. At around 10:00 PM (ok I really have no idea what time it was but that sounds about right), after some really painful contractions, the nurse finally said to me, let me know if you need to push. I immediately yelled "I need to push!" So she called for my midwife to come back in along with some other nurses, again didn't open my eyes have no idea who was there. And the pushing began.
After a few pushes, I could definitely feel things moving along. I pushed through maybe 4 or 5 contractions when my midwife told me reach down and touch my baby's head. Not having that experience with my daughter, it made things much more real for me and I guess you could say I kind of "woke up" a little. I feel like I had been in the room hearing everything that was going on around me, but was sort of in a state of delirium. I think I also had "c-section" in the back of my mind. I was confident in myself, but really wasn't sure I would be able to have a vaginal birth, so I was waiting for them to tell me it was time for the section. So once I felt his head, I knew it was "go time" and really began pushing...and yelling. My midwife told me several times that yelling was not going to get the baby out, pushing was. :)
Ok, the rest of the story is a little graphic, but hey its all part of the story right!
My midwife realized I was tearing, kind of in the wrong places, and had torn my urethra. Still not sure what that means or how that works. In my birth plan, I had stated that I didn't want an episiotomy, but when she realized where I was tearing, she recommended making a cut so that I wouldn't tear more "up top". At that point I really just wanted the baby out, so on the next contraction she made a cut. And if I wasn't awake before that, well I was definitely awake now...Just a reminder since this is a long story, NO epidural! On the next contraction, I pushed my baby boy's head out and they told me reach down to help pull the rest of him out. It was really an out of this world experience that I can't put into words.
And as soon as I pushed him out I helped pull him up to my chest. Completely different experience than simply catching a quick glimpse of your baby before they whisked her away like with my daughter's birth. And of course he started screaming, pooping, and peeing all at the same time. That's my boy! I still felt like I was there in the room taking everything in, but it was such a surreal experience that I didn't really move or say anything for awhile, just held my baby. I do clearly remember my hubby looking at me and saying "You did it babe!" I think he was as surprised as I was that I didn't need another c-section!
A few minutes after everyone was cleaned up (and stitched up in my case), we began our new breastfeeding adventure! So amazing how they automatically know what to do!
(And on another note, it has taken a lot of courage for me to decide to post this photo, I am very self conscious, especially with breastfeeding, but have learned so much through my breastfeeding experience with my daughter. And to help take the "uncomfortableness" out of breastfeeding I decided to post this amazing, God given experience to hopefully help "normalize" breastfeeding and not feel so ashamed to feed my baby!)
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| Our Baby Boy, 6 lbs. 12 oz. 18 1/2 in., just minutes old :) |
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| Baby Blake and his Daddy! |
Can't wait to do it again...hahaha j/k
