Long Awaited Birth Story
My unwritten birth plan was to have a water birth, which meant no pain medications. That was about it. I wanted DH to cut the umbilical cord after the placenta finished pulsing. That was the extent of our plans.
At midnight on May 1, I woke up to a loud popping noise coming from down below. I managed to get into the bathroom and saw that my water had broke. I called the midwife hotline and was told to come in even though I was not having regular contractions. We had to get to Woodbury in an hour because we were getting the last available room.
I woke up DH and we drove to Woodbury. The midwife on call was Rebecca, one I had never met before because she doesn't work at the clinic. That was all right though--I had been told that the midwives have weekly meetings and she seemed very familiar with my file. She recommended that I take something to sleep because I was only dialated "maybe 1 cm" and 80% effaced. I was able to dose off in between contractions, which still weren't regular.
The next morning, I was still only 1 cm dilated. DH and I walked around the hospital; I used the birthing ball, etc. The Patchwork Princess showed up to assist and by 3 pm I was dilated to 3 cm! That evening, there was a gush of amniotic fluid. Unfortunately, this contained meconium in a significant amount, which negated the water birth. I was still only 3 cm dilated.
The midwives began talking about pitocin, which I desperately wanted to avoid. However, my contractions were still not regular and they were having some difficulties monitoring the baby. I was given the choice to start pitocin or to take something to sleep again in the hopes that I'd be well rested by morning and maybe even further dilated. I took the sleep option and wound up even taking morphine because the irregular contractions weren't allowing me to sleep.
At 7:30 on Wednesday, May 2, the midwives ordered the pitocin. I hadn't dilated any further and they felt the baby was going to be distressed. I did try to labor in the tub, but even the water wasn't relaxing me--and I still wasn't dilating. Finally, I ordered an epidural. That was administered at 9:30. Within an hour I had dilated to 9 cm. I only had to push for about 45 minutes for Justin to be born at 11:24 am. They did have to perform a very small episiotomy--another procedure I had wanted to avoid.
Unfortunately, his heartrate had dropped and there was a lot of meconium, so DH wasn't allowed to cut the umbilical cord. They had to clean him up before he started to cry so that he didn't inhale what amounts to his own poop.
Okay, so nothing went according to our actual plan. However, we have a healthy baby boy and my recovery has been good. I was only slightly disappointed--what's important is the outcome no matter how we really got there.
The nurses and midwives were all amazing. We did have a small problem with nursing. Justin wasn't very interested in it. He prefered to suck his tongue to the roof of his mouth. He wound up losing 10% of his birth weight so we have had to see the lactation consultants and have a home visit from the county nurse. Our first full day at home, we had to nurse him every two hours and get him to take a full ounce. That was pretty crazy, but we did it and he has been able to nurse on his own schedule more or less now. He's already gained back his lost weight and then some.
At midnight on May 1, I woke up to a loud popping noise coming from down below. I managed to get into the bathroom and saw that my water had broke. I called the midwife hotline and was told to come in even though I was not having regular contractions. We had to get to Woodbury in an hour because we were getting the last available room.
I woke up DH and we drove to Woodbury. The midwife on call was Rebecca, one I had never met before because she doesn't work at the clinic. That was all right though--I had been told that the midwives have weekly meetings and she seemed very familiar with my file. She recommended that I take something to sleep because I was only dialated "maybe 1 cm" and 80% effaced. I was able to dose off in between contractions, which still weren't regular.
The next morning, I was still only 1 cm dilated. DH and I walked around the hospital; I used the birthing ball, etc. The Patchwork Princess showed up to assist and by 3 pm I was dilated to 3 cm! That evening, there was a gush of amniotic fluid. Unfortunately, this contained meconium in a significant amount, which negated the water birth. I was still only 3 cm dilated.
The midwives began talking about pitocin, which I desperately wanted to avoid. However, my contractions were still not regular and they were having some difficulties monitoring the baby. I was given the choice to start pitocin or to take something to sleep again in the hopes that I'd be well rested by morning and maybe even further dilated. I took the sleep option and wound up even taking morphine because the irregular contractions weren't allowing me to sleep.
At 7:30 on Wednesday, May 2, the midwives ordered the pitocin. I hadn't dilated any further and they felt the baby was going to be distressed. I did try to labor in the tub, but even the water wasn't relaxing me--and I still wasn't dilating. Finally, I ordered an epidural. That was administered at 9:30. Within an hour I had dilated to 9 cm. I only had to push for about 45 minutes for Justin to be born at 11:24 am. They did have to perform a very small episiotomy--another procedure I had wanted to avoid.
Unfortunately, his heartrate had dropped and there was a lot of meconium, so DH wasn't allowed to cut the umbilical cord. They had to clean him up before he started to cry so that he didn't inhale what amounts to his own poop.
Okay, so nothing went according to our actual plan. However, we have a healthy baby boy and my recovery has been good. I was only slightly disappointed--what's important is the outcome no matter how we really got there.
The nurses and midwives were all amazing. We did have a small problem with nursing. Justin wasn't very interested in it. He prefered to suck his tongue to the roof of his mouth. He wound up losing 10% of his birth weight so we have had to see the lactation consultants and have a home visit from the county nurse. Our first full day at home, we had to nurse him every two hours and get him to take a full ounce. That was pretty crazy, but we did it and he has been able to nurse on his own schedule more or less now. He's already gained back his lost weight and then some.