(no subject)
OK, birth story. It's 6am and I've only had a few hours of sleep tonight, so forgive me if anything is confusing.
11/30/08-
Sunday morning, Jon and I woke up at 6:30am. We had to call the hospital to make sure they weren't full of naturally laboring moms. They had room for us, so our 7:30am appointment was on. I had gotten a touch of instestinal distress from dinner the night before and had only slept a few hours, so I was a zombie (much like I am right now!). I choked down some toast. When we stepped outside to go, we got to admire the beautiful little snow that had fallen the night before- it was so pretty!
At the hospital, we put in a room where the vertical blinds were broken and wouldn't close. I was like, "uh-uh, that isn't going to fly" because I knew we'd want some privacy and some darkness during the day. Our 1st fabulous nurse, Trish, moved us into the room next door, which was much nicer (a corner room).
So, Trish examines me and because my cervix had dilated to 1 cm, we got to skip the 12hr cervical treatment and get started on the Pitocin right away. After drawing 5 vials of blood and installing my IV, we got to start our exciting day of watching the IV drip. It was probably 9:30 or 10 by then.
At some point they decided that they'd break my water. When the house doc arrived to do it, I had just gotten back into bed from peeing and lo and behold, my waters broke on their own! That was very cool. A lot of women have to have the doc break the water. The doc was being handed the hook they use to do the procedure and she was like, "hey wait a minute."
Pitocin levels are gradually increased so that they only have to use as much as you need to start contractions. Normally, the mother has started contracting by the time the level reaches 10. I didn't start until 20. It was around 7:30pm then, I think. My mom had been there a few hours by then. We went ahead and asked her to leave so we'd have some privacy to do various pain-relief techniques.
I tried sitting on the birthing ball but it was annoying me. I only lasted for about an hour of real contractions when I was asking Jon if it was too soon to ask for the epidural. (1 min long and 2 minutes apart = only 1 min between each = ouch! Pitocin makes even early contractions faster and harder.) I was only 2 cm dilated so it would have been too early had my labor been natural. As it was, since I was on the Pitocin, sure, bring on the epidural!
Getting the epidural put in was the most painful thing. They ask you to sit on the edge of the bed and curl your back over as much as possible. When you are super pregnant, there isn't much room for curling over! It took the anestheseologist a few tries to get inbetween my verterae in the right spot. Once it was all installed and pumping drugs, it was only a few more minutes of contractions (that I could feel, that is!).
The epidural was AMAZING. I couldn't feel any contractions. My legs were tingly but moveable still. I promptly passed out from exhaustion. On an epidural they need to rotate the side that you are sleeping on every half hour because the drug actually moves around your body by gravity. If they left you on one side, you'd start feeling pain on the side that is "up". The nurse did a great job of keeping me rotated.
After a few hours, apparently Margot's heartbeat slowed a touch, so I was put on oxygen to keep the baby well. That is really common on the epidural, so I wasn't freaked out (thank you, childbirth class!). I just went back to bed, lol.
12/1/08-
Early Monday morning, I'd noticed a change: when a contraction came, I could feel what felt like the baby's head pressing down. Yup, once they checked, turned out I was fully dilated. It was time to wake up and push!
I swear, I only pushed for less than 10 contractions total. It was awesome. I couldn't feel any pain, but I could feel that pressure. Jon and the nurse held my legs up while we pushed for 3 counts of 10 each contraction. I was a great pusher, apparently. So good that I had to stop pushing because Dr Philpott (my OB) hadn't gotten there yet (he lives about 10 minutes away, I guess). They had me stop right before the push that would send the baby's head out. I got to see what it looked like in a mirror, and that was awesome.
So, Dr P arrives and I push once and Margot's head came out. They suctioned her all out and I got to hear her squeek for the first time. Another push and she was out! Jon agreed to cut her umbilical cord. Dr P collected the cord blood for donation to Cardinal Glennon's cord blood bank like I'd requested. Margot got all cleaned up by the nurses. Placenta came right out the next contraction (no pushing required).
I was dealing with uncontrollable shivers at this point (they'd started towards the end of labor and got worse after the birth). If you look at the pictures of us after the birth, I am positively green colored! My blood pressure was really low so I was told to lay back down all the way so I wouldn't faint. The nurse had to hold Margot up to me to breastfeed her since I was too faint and you have to get them started early before they fall asleep.
All in all, it was the best labor! I told Dr P that I could have a baby every day, lol.
She is waking up right now so I need to feed her. I will continue the story later!
11/30/08-
Sunday morning, Jon and I woke up at 6:30am. We had to call the hospital to make sure they weren't full of naturally laboring moms. They had room for us, so our 7:30am appointment was on. I had gotten a touch of instestinal distress from dinner the night before and had only slept a few hours, so I was a zombie (much like I am right now!). I choked down some toast. When we stepped outside to go, we got to admire the beautiful little snow that had fallen the night before- it was so pretty!
At the hospital, we put in a room where the vertical blinds were broken and wouldn't close. I was like, "uh-uh, that isn't going to fly" because I knew we'd want some privacy and some darkness during the day. Our 1st fabulous nurse, Trish, moved us into the room next door, which was much nicer (a corner room).
So, Trish examines me and because my cervix had dilated to 1 cm, we got to skip the 12hr cervical treatment and get started on the Pitocin right away. After drawing 5 vials of blood and installing my IV, we got to start our exciting day of watching the IV drip. It was probably 9:30 or 10 by then.
At some point they decided that they'd break my water. When the house doc arrived to do it, I had just gotten back into bed from peeing and lo and behold, my waters broke on their own! That was very cool. A lot of women have to have the doc break the water. The doc was being handed the hook they use to do the procedure and she was like, "hey wait a minute."
Pitocin levels are gradually increased so that they only have to use as much as you need to start contractions. Normally, the mother has started contracting by the time the level reaches 10. I didn't start until 20. It was around 7:30pm then, I think. My mom had been there a few hours by then. We went ahead and asked her to leave so we'd have some privacy to do various pain-relief techniques.
I tried sitting on the birthing ball but it was annoying me. I only lasted for about an hour of real contractions when I was asking Jon if it was too soon to ask for the epidural. (1 min long and 2 minutes apart = only 1 min between each = ouch! Pitocin makes even early contractions faster and harder.) I was only 2 cm dilated so it would have been too early had my labor been natural. As it was, since I was on the Pitocin, sure, bring on the epidural!
Getting the epidural put in was the most painful thing. They ask you to sit on the edge of the bed and curl your back over as much as possible. When you are super pregnant, there isn't much room for curling over! It took the anestheseologist a few tries to get inbetween my verterae in the right spot. Once it was all installed and pumping drugs, it was only a few more minutes of contractions (that I could feel, that is!).
The epidural was AMAZING. I couldn't feel any contractions. My legs were tingly but moveable still. I promptly passed out from exhaustion. On an epidural they need to rotate the side that you are sleeping on every half hour because the drug actually moves around your body by gravity. If they left you on one side, you'd start feeling pain on the side that is "up". The nurse did a great job of keeping me rotated.
After a few hours, apparently Margot's heartbeat slowed a touch, so I was put on oxygen to keep the baby well. That is really common on the epidural, so I wasn't freaked out (thank you, childbirth class!). I just went back to bed, lol.
12/1/08-
Early Monday morning, I'd noticed a change: when a contraction came, I could feel what felt like the baby's head pressing down. Yup, once they checked, turned out I was fully dilated. It was time to wake up and push!
I swear, I only pushed for less than 10 contractions total. It was awesome. I couldn't feel any pain, but I could feel that pressure. Jon and the nurse held my legs up while we pushed for 3 counts of 10 each contraction. I was a great pusher, apparently. So good that I had to stop pushing because Dr Philpott (my OB) hadn't gotten there yet (he lives about 10 minutes away, I guess). They had me stop right before the push that would send the baby's head out. I got to see what it looked like in a mirror, and that was awesome.
So, Dr P arrives and I push once and Margot's head came out. They suctioned her all out and I got to hear her squeek for the first time. Another push and she was out! Jon agreed to cut her umbilical cord. Dr P collected the cord blood for donation to Cardinal Glennon's cord blood bank like I'd requested. Margot got all cleaned up by the nurses. Placenta came right out the next contraction (no pushing required).
I was dealing with uncontrollable shivers at this point (they'd started towards the end of labor and got worse after the birth). If you look at the pictures of us after the birth, I am positively green colored! My blood pressure was really low so I was told to lay back down all the way so I wouldn't faint. The nurse had to hold Margot up to me to breastfeed her since I was too faint and you have to get them started early before they fall asleep.
All in all, it was the best labor! I told Dr P that I could have a baby every day, lol.
She is waking up right now so I need to feed her. I will continue the story later!