Birth story
Catherine Rose was born on 9/29 at 4:11pm. She was 6lbs4oz and 18.5" long.
So, I'd been having contractions with some regularity since about 1am early Wednesday morning. Took my daughter to school that morning, did some walking and bouncing on an exercise ball to get through the contractions, noticed that I was losing some mucous plug, etc. Around 8pm or so on Wednesday, the contractions stopped. Just....bam. Maybe had one in an hour and a half? I was so mad. I should have just gone to bed but I took a bath and moped and didn't get to sleep until probably 10:30, mostly because I was waiting around to see if they'd start up again, which they didn't.
Woke up about an hour and a half later contracting again. I noticed they were pretty regular, and got up to time them. I still have the timer up on my laptop :) and it looks like I started at 12:13am with them coming about 3 1/2 minutes apart, lasting just under a minute. I left Mike in bed to bounce on the ball and just try to progress, since I was breathing through them fine I didn't see any reason we both needed to be up. They weren't really letting up and I was wondering if I needed to go in, so I decided to take a bath to see if they'd let up. I was shaving my leg when I felt something that felt like a joint popping back into place. I thought, "That was weird; wonder what the baby just did" and then felt three gushes of fluid come out. Ack! I called out to Mike (who had woken up a few minutes earlier) and told him I thought my water had broken; when I stood up I was sure it had, and he noted the time: 3:11am.
We got ready to head in to the hospital because they were coming fairly fast and furious by then, and I called my mom so she could join us. When we checked in, the lady at registration told me I was the calmest pregnant lady she'd ever seen; I was just really trying to breathe through the contractions and see them as part of a process. We went upstairs and they triaged me, where they discovered I was 2.5cm (THAT WAS ALL??? I was *so* disappointed) and also discovered that my blood pressure was in the 180s/90s range. It was suggested that I get an epidural right away as they were assuming my pressure (which I'd been monitored for throughout the pregnancy, and it had been pretty stable) was likely that far up just as my body's response to the pain. I was disappointed and didn't want to get an epi that early, but I knew my pressure was bordering on dangerous.
We got into our L&D room and they put me on the monitors. My pressure was still off the charts and getting the anesthesiologist in the room seemed to become a priority so that they could try to get me some pain relief to get my pressure down. The on-call doctor came by and went over the plan of action so far with me (get the epi, draw blood for pre-e labs), and then told me my doctor would be in soon. The epi was placed and I was feeling some better, but I could still feel pain and pressure.
Things start getting a little fuzzy here, so I'll just kind of skip to bullet points.
-My doctor came in and checked on me; it was determined that the epidural had slowed down my contractions and so he ordered pitocin, one of the things I was trying to avoid when I was wanting to not get an eipdural so early.
-My blood pressure continued to be dangerously high. When I say dangerously high, I mean like 190s/90s-100s. Magnesium sulfate was ordered.
-My doctor also did a cervical check and determined that the baby was OP and in brow presentation. More good news! :/
-The baby started to have late decels (thanks, interventions!) and I was flipped around a LOT. Left side to help my pressure, right to help her decels improve (they were better when I was on my right), knees to chest to try to get her in better position...all with still-terrible contractions and back labor.
So as the morning crawled into the afternoon, I started to sort of drift into another universe. It was really a bit of an out of body experience, as I could feel this horrible pain (the epidural was taking the edge off, I'm sure, but the pit was up to 13 at one point plus the baby's positioning all added up to me still feeling like someone was taking a hammer to my back and pelvis) and I knew people were talking to me and I was sometimes responding, but I was mostly just trying to make it through each wave of pain. My husband was so freaking fantastic through all of this; in between contractions he was rubbing my face and hair and feeding me ice chips and just being so encouraging...I couldn't have asked for better support. My mom was there too, and I kept seeing the two of them exchanging glances when I managed to keep my eyes open long enough and try to be coherent, but when I asked them what the looks were for they sort of brushed me off. I didn't know the decels were still happening every now and then and I sure didn't know my blood pressure readings were going as high as 201/122. That's what the looks were about. My mom is a mother/baby nurse and knew that things weren't looking so spiffy for us at that point, and Mike had gleaned enough to know the same.
I got a serious case of the shakes, so even when I wasn’t contracting I was shaking uncontrollably. I did feel a lot better when I was knees to chest and able to rise onto my hands and knees for contractions, but rising up made my pressure go haywire so I couldn’t stay that way for long. They weren’t checking my cervix very often, but every time they did they found less progression than I expected, and it was disheartening for me to feel like I was doing everything I could to be relaxed and let my body work and it not respond. They kept telling me the slow progression and the extreme pain were from Catherine’s positioning, but that didn’t make me feel any better. I was also concerned because the hospital I was at only gives you 12 hours after your water breaks if you aren’t a first-time mom, and we were closing in on that pretty fast. I started to talk to my body when I was contracting, saying “open, open, open” and asking Catherine to please move down, please let me meet her as I struggled to deal with the shakes and the pain. Mike started to get emotional seeing me shaking and in such pain, but he stayed beside me and talked me through some of the worst of it. I remember saying to him and my mom, “I can do this right? I can do this?” and after they reassured me, reminding myself aloud, “I AM doing this. I’m doing this RIGHT NOW.”
I started to feel like I had something barreling down on my rectum and realized I was feeling the urge to push; I was too epiduraled up with my first birth to have ever even felt the pushing urge, so this was new and it was URGENT. I let the nurse know that I felt like I needed to push, and she checked me told me not yet, I still had some cervix left on the top and right side. Not pushing was EXCRUCIATING and really pretty impossible since my body was still sort of pushing without me. The nurse instructed me to take a deep breath in with each contraction and breathe short breaths out; Mike started watching the monitor to let me know when one was coming but I could usually feel them starting to build by the time he told me. It was so painful and so difficult to resist the urge to push that I found myself unable to even get my short breaths out at some points; my body just seemed to seize up and not function at the height of the contractions.
Finally, she told me I could start to push. I can’t even begin to explain the relief I felt just being able to push when the urge hit. Mike had one leg, my mom had the other, and I wrapped my hands around my thighs as I pushed. Mike did a great job of coaching me, so much so that the nurse asked later if we’d taken childbirth classes (we hadn’t) because he was so good at helping me. I thought with the OP brow presentation I would be pushing forever, but it wasn’t long before the nurse and my mom started telling me that they could see the baby’s head and how much hair she had. At some point, the doctor arrived and got into position; it felt like it had been a long time, but my sense of time was totally warped at that point so I don’t know how long I pushed before he showed up. Not long after he got there, I was able to get her head out; the doctor told me to hold off pushing for a second while he suctioned the baby and I was scared my body wouldn’t listen to him. I felt the rest of her body as she left me, and it was the coolest thing ever. I had taken my glasses off at some point, so everyone in the room had seen her being born and seen her little face and I started calling for my glasses because dammit, I wanted to see my daughter too! She was plopped on my chest along with her first poop and I just looked at her little face. I didn’t tear at all but Catherine did have a little red stripe down her nose, either from her trip out or maybe it’s just a birthmark; we aren’t sure. (Now she’s a month old and the stripe has faded; the pediatrician told us it’s an “angel kiss” and will eventually fade completely.) I was told later that I birthed her in less than 30 minutes, which I attribute to just being SO ready to get her out and end that pain!
I had to stay on magnesium for 24 hours after her birth and had to be monitored for my pressure longer after that, so although she was born vaginally on Thursday afternoon, we had to stay in the hospital until Sunday. I also had to have a catheter inserted Thursday night because my bladder wasn’t fully emptying, so I wasn’t allowed to take a shower until late Friday. That was very difficult for me, and I won’t even go into how much I hated the mag. I couldn’t sleep while I was on it, and I couldn’t focus on anything. I felt like a crazy person. Thing is, she’s a month old now and my pressure is STILL way too high. My doctor told me I was considered pre-eclamptic based solely on my pressure, even though my labs were okay. Despite the continuing pressure problems, occasional shortness of breath, and two numb toes I have since giving birth to her, I am totally proud of our birthing experience and just glad we made it through it. It’s funny to me that I resisted induction so strongly because I wanted to avoid interventions, then I went into labor on my own and had to have damn near every intervention I’d hoped to avoid. When it came down to it, it was more important to get her the hell out of me without either of us being harmed (or, in my case, having a stroke!) She’s an awesome baby who has chunked up nicely, and she looks JUST like her daddy. Big sister is nuts about her and we’re all just adjusting to having a new baby around. Life is good!
Just after she was born:
In the hospital:
One month old:
So, I'd been having contractions with some regularity since about 1am early Wednesday morning. Took my daughter to school that morning, did some walking and bouncing on an exercise ball to get through the contractions, noticed that I was losing some mucous plug, etc. Around 8pm or so on Wednesday, the contractions stopped. Just....bam. Maybe had one in an hour and a half? I was so mad. I should have just gone to bed but I took a bath and moped and didn't get to sleep until probably 10:30, mostly because I was waiting around to see if they'd start up again, which they didn't.
Woke up about an hour and a half later contracting again. I noticed they were pretty regular, and got up to time them. I still have the timer up on my laptop :) and it looks like I started at 12:13am with them coming about 3 1/2 minutes apart, lasting just under a minute. I left Mike in bed to bounce on the ball and just try to progress, since I was breathing through them fine I didn't see any reason we both needed to be up. They weren't really letting up and I was wondering if I needed to go in, so I decided to take a bath to see if they'd let up. I was shaving my leg when I felt something that felt like a joint popping back into place. I thought, "That was weird; wonder what the baby just did" and then felt three gushes of fluid come out. Ack! I called out to Mike (who had woken up a few minutes earlier) and told him I thought my water had broken; when I stood up I was sure it had, and he noted the time: 3:11am.
We got ready to head in to the hospital because they were coming fairly fast and furious by then, and I called my mom so she could join us. When we checked in, the lady at registration told me I was the calmest pregnant lady she'd ever seen; I was just really trying to breathe through the contractions and see them as part of a process. We went upstairs and they triaged me, where they discovered I was 2.5cm (THAT WAS ALL??? I was *so* disappointed) and also discovered that my blood pressure was in the 180s/90s range. It was suggested that I get an epidural right away as they were assuming my pressure (which I'd been monitored for throughout the pregnancy, and it had been pretty stable) was likely that far up just as my body's response to the pain. I was disappointed and didn't want to get an epi that early, but I knew my pressure was bordering on dangerous.
We got into our L&D room and they put me on the monitors. My pressure was still off the charts and getting the anesthesiologist in the room seemed to become a priority so that they could try to get me some pain relief to get my pressure down. The on-call doctor came by and went over the plan of action so far with me (get the epi, draw blood for pre-e labs), and then told me my doctor would be in soon. The epi was placed and I was feeling some better, but I could still feel pain and pressure.
Things start getting a little fuzzy here, so I'll just kind of skip to bullet points.
-My doctor came in and checked on me; it was determined that the epidural had slowed down my contractions and so he ordered pitocin, one of the things I was trying to avoid when I was wanting to not get an eipdural so early.
-My blood pressure continued to be dangerously high. When I say dangerously high, I mean like 190s/90s-100s. Magnesium sulfate was ordered.
-My doctor also did a cervical check and determined that the baby was OP and in brow presentation. More good news! :/
-The baby started to have late decels (thanks, interventions!) and I was flipped around a LOT. Left side to help my pressure, right to help her decels improve (they were better when I was on my right), knees to chest to try to get her in better position...all with still-terrible contractions and back labor.
So as the morning crawled into the afternoon, I started to sort of drift into another universe. It was really a bit of an out of body experience, as I could feel this horrible pain (the epidural was taking the edge off, I'm sure, but the pit was up to 13 at one point plus the baby's positioning all added up to me still feeling like someone was taking a hammer to my back and pelvis) and I knew people were talking to me and I was sometimes responding, but I was mostly just trying to make it through each wave of pain. My husband was so freaking fantastic through all of this; in between contractions he was rubbing my face and hair and feeding me ice chips and just being so encouraging...I couldn't have asked for better support. My mom was there too, and I kept seeing the two of them exchanging glances when I managed to keep my eyes open long enough and try to be coherent, but when I asked them what the looks were for they sort of brushed me off. I didn't know the decels were still happening every now and then and I sure didn't know my blood pressure readings were going as high as 201/122. That's what the looks were about. My mom is a mother/baby nurse and knew that things weren't looking so spiffy for us at that point, and Mike had gleaned enough to know the same.
I got a serious case of the shakes, so even when I wasn’t contracting I was shaking uncontrollably. I did feel a lot better when I was knees to chest and able to rise onto my hands and knees for contractions, but rising up made my pressure go haywire so I couldn’t stay that way for long. They weren’t checking my cervix very often, but every time they did they found less progression than I expected, and it was disheartening for me to feel like I was doing everything I could to be relaxed and let my body work and it not respond. They kept telling me the slow progression and the extreme pain were from Catherine’s positioning, but that didn’t make me feel any better. I was also concerned because the hospital I was at only gives you 12 hours after your water breaks if you aren’t a first-time mom, and we were closing in on that pretty fast. I started to talk to my body when I was contracting, saying “open, open, open” and asking Catherine to please move down, please let me meet her as I struggled to deal with the shakes and the pain. Mike started to get emotional seeing me shaking and in such pain, but he stayed beside me and talked me through some of the worst of it. I remember saying to him and my mom, “I can do this right? I can do this?” and after they reassured me, reminding myself aloud, “I AM doing this. I’m doing this RIGHT NOW.”
I started to feel like I had something barreling down on my rectum and realized I was feeling the urge to push; I was too epiduraled up with my first birth to have ever even felt the pushing urge, so this was new and it was URGENT. I let the nurse know that I felt like I needed to push, and she checked me told me not yet, I still had some cervix left on the top and right side. Not pushing was EXCRUCIATING and really pretty impossible since my body was still sort of pushing without me. The nurse instructed me to take a deep breath in with each contraction and breathe short breaths out; Mike started watching the monitor to let me know when one was coming but I could usually feel them starting to build by the time he told me. It was so painful and so difficult to resist the urge to push that I found myself unable to even get my short breaths out at some points; my body just seemed to seize up and not function at the height of the contractions.
Finally, she told me I could start to push. I can’t even begin to explain the relief I felt just being able to push when the urge hit. Mike had one leg, my mom had the other, and I wrapped my hands around my thighs as I pushed. Mike did a great job of coaching me, so much so that the nurse asked later if we’d taken childbirth classes (we hadn’t) because he was so good at helping me. I thought with the OP brow presentation I would be pushing forever, but it wasn’t long before the nurse and my mom started telling me that they could see the baby’s head and how much hair she had. At some point, the doctor arrived and got into position; it felt like it had been a long time, but my sense of time was totally warped at that point so I don’t know how long I pushed before he showed up. Not long after he got there, I was able to get her head out; the doctor told me to hold off pushing for a second while he suctioned the baby and I was scared my body wouldn’t listen to him. I felt the rest of her body as she left me, and it was the coolest thing ever. I had taken my glasses off at some point, so everyone in the room had seen her being born and seen her little face and I started calling for my glasses because dammit, I wanted to see my daughter too! She was plopped on my chest along with her first poop and I just looked at her little face. I didn’t tear at all but Catherine did have a little red stripe down her nose, either from her trip out or maybe it’s just a birthmark; we aren’t sure. (Now she’s a month old and the stripe has faded; the pediatrician told us it’s an “angel kiss” and will eventually fade completely.) I was told later that I birthed her in less than 30 minutes, which I attribute to just being SO ready to get her out and end that pain!
I had to stay on magnesium for 24 hours after her birth and had to be monitored for my pressure longer after that, so although she was born vaginally on Thursday afternoon, we had to stay in the hospital until Sunday. I also had to have a catheter inserted Thursday night because my bladder wasn’t fully emptying, so I wasn’t allowed to take a shower until late Friday. That was very difficult for me, and I won’t even go into how much I hated the mag. I couldn’t sleep while I was on it, and I couldn’t focus on anything. I felt like a crazy person. Thing is, she’s a month old now and my pressure is STILL way too high. My doctor told me I was considered pre-eclamptic based solely on my pressure, even though my labs were okay. Despite the continuing pressure problems, occasional shortness of breath, and two numb toes I have since giving birth to her, I am totally proud of our birthing experience and just glad we made it through it. It’s funny to me that I resisted induction so strongly because I wanted to avoid interventions, then I went into labor on my own and had to have damn near every intervention I’d hoped to avoid. When it came down to it, it was more important to get her the hell out of me without either of us being harmed (or, in my case, having a stroke!) She’s an awesome baby who has chunked up nicely, and she looks JUST like her daddy. Big sister is nuts about her and we’re all just adjusting to having a new baby around. Life is good!
Just after she was born:
In the hospital:
One month old:
