Birth story
I woke up at 6:30am on June 30th to a gush of fluid. I thought I peed myself in my sleep or something. Went to the bathroom and as soon as I sat down I felt another gush. I sat around and waited until my OB's office opened to call them and ask what to do. They redirected me to L&D. L&D said that since I had no contractions really to call back at 2pm, or come in if anything changed.
At 2pm, contractions started picking up a touch but were still very irregular (4-5 every 5 minutes, then nothing for a half hour, repeat). They said that unless my contractions pick up before then, to come in at 6pm to get checked out.
By 5pm they were at around 5 minutes apart and steady so we headed in. Once I lay down to be monitored or a half hour they slowed down again to 7 minutes apart. They detemined that my water did break, and admitted me since I was already at 4cm and it had been 12 hours since my water broke. I was offered pitocin right away to get things going and declined (my husband was the one actually to be adamant about them not pumping me full of chemicals). They sent me into a delivery room around 7pm to get set up and said a doctor will be in at 9pm to check on progress, and that an anesthesiologist will be in within the hour to talk to me about my pain relief options. They made it seem like I still had a long way to go.
Shortly before 9pm I started feeling the contactions change. They jumped from every 5 minutes, to every 2 minutes, and were well over a minute long. I couldn't be still during them. I was thrashing and moaning and begging my husband to call them in, and get that damn anesthesiologist. By 10pm no one had shown up yet, and at this point I was crying because I just wanted some relief.. even if talking to someone about what can or cannot be done.
I laboured on the toilet for a bit because it had a bar behind it and it was helping to pull on it. I was making quite a bit of noise and finally a nurse (not even my designated nurse) came to check in to find out what was happening. They checked me very roughly, not even giving me enough time to relax before (that was probably the worst part of the night for me). It was established that I was at 7cm, I was once again promised that a doctor will be in shortly to talk about pain relief (I seriously would've taken a tylenol and pretended that it helped at that point lol). A half hour later I was once again on the toilet and realized that I had a lot of pressure and was almost bearing down, at this point I could literally not control what I was doing. It was happening so fast and there was absolutely no rest time between the contractions. I told my husband that I felt like I had to push and he went to call the nurse. A doctor finally came at this point, I was checked and was at 10cm, but with a lip of cervix remaining. They told me to pant through the contractions and not push and left again at 10:45ish.
At 11pm my body started pushing on its own. No amount of panting was helping. The only relief was screaming my head off. In between contractions I kept falling asleep. FINALLY at 11pm Noel was able to get a nurse in to check again if I could push yet. I had hoped to push on my hands and knees, but I was at this point unable to get up. During the contractions I had to use all my strength not to push yet, and as soon as they were over, it was like I was knocked out cold.
The nurse determined I could push and the doctor came in and told me to push three times with each contraction. I did my first three pushes while the doctor was still examining me (she wanted to make sure he was coming down ok). Then the next three pushes were on the next contraction and I felt him coming down really fast and got scared and stopped. lol. When the next contraction came I said screw the three pushes and just pushed once and didn't stop. I felt him crown and heard the doctor say "here comes his head" and I braced myself to be lying there with a head stuck between my legs until the next contraction like I've seen in most other birthing videos, when suddenly I felt total relief and everyone was rushing around and my son was in the doctor's hands and screaming. He literally flew out. LOL
He was whisked away (Noel went with him) for about 30 seconds during which I delivered the placenta, and then he was put on my chest while I was being stitched. I had a small second degree tear, I think I got something like 2 stitches. We were at the hospital for 2 nights and discharged friday morning.
I'm completely in awe, yet completely overwhelmed. Breastfeeding has been off to a rocky start and we're still getting the hang of it. He latched on wrong at the beginning and really hurt my nipples and I'm still healing now. We were supposed to attend a breastfeeding class at the hospital, but everything's been cancelled for the holiday weekend. :( To add to that I'm still all swollen, including my breasts, which prevents him from latching on perfectly every time, so it's a long tedious process about every 3rd time that involves lots of crying from him while I attempt to put him on the boob unsuccessfully for about 10 minutes until it finally works. Because the latch isn't always as perfect as it could be, he's further damaging my boobs about two/three feedings a day. The other feedings go very well.
I ended up going to ER yesterday because I had bright red bleeding and passed a clot the size of a large plum. I called and they wanted me to come in to take a look at it and make sure it's not placenta. The nurse who was tending to me in the ER has two small kids and she actually showed me a lot of tricks for breastfeeding and it's really helped. My milk finally came in yesterday too, so at least I get more than an hour's break in between feedings now (most of the time). So the verdict - definitely clot, not placenta, and I should rest more... and it helped me with breastfeeding a lot.
And a pic for you guys!
first family photo:
Going home!
At 2pm, contractions started picking up a touch but were still very irregular (4-5 every 5 minutes, then nothing for a half hour, repeat). They said that unless my contractions pick up before then, to come in at 6pm to get checked out.
By 5pm they were at around 5 minutes apart and steady so we headed in. Once I lay down to be monitored or a half hour they slowed down again to 7 minutes apart. They detemined that my water did break, and admitted me since I was already at 4cm and it had been 12 hours since my water broke. I was offered pitocin right away to get things going and declined (my husband was the one actually to be adamant about them not pumping me full of chemicals). They sent me into a delivery room around 7pm to get set up and said a doctor will be in at 9pm to check on progress, and that an anesthesiologist will be in within the hour to talk to me about my pain relief options. They made it seem like I still had a long way to go.
Shortly before 9pm I started feeling the contactions change. They jumped from every 5 minutes, to every 2 minutes, and were well over a minute long. I couldn't be still during them. I was thrashing and moaning and begging my husband to call them in, and get that damn anesthesiologist. By 10pm no one had shown up yet, and at this point I was crying because I just wanted some relief.. even if talking to someone about what can or cannot be done.
I laboured on the toilet for a bit because it had a bar behind it and it was helping to pull on it. I was making quite a bit of noise and finally a nurse (not even my designated nurse) came to check in to find out what was happening. They checked me very roughly, not even giving me enough time to relax before (that was probably the worst part of the night for me). It was established that I was at 7cm, I was once again promised that a doctor will be in shortly to talk about pain relief (I seriously would've taken a tylenol and pretended that it helped at that point lol). A half hour later I was once again on the toilet and realized that I had a lot of pressure and was almost bearing down, at this point I could literally not control what I was doing. It was happening so fast and there was absolutely no rest time between the contractions. I told my husband that I felt like I had to push and he went to call the nurse. A doctor finally came at this point, I was checked and was at 10cm, but with a lip of cervix remaining. They told me to pant through the contractions and not push and left again at 10:45ish.
At 11pm my body started pushing on its own. No amount of panting was helping. The only relief was screaming my head off. In between contractions I kept falling asleep. FINALLY at 11pm Noel was able to get a nurse in to check again if I could push yet. I had hoped to push on my hands and knees, but I was at this point unable to get up. During the contractions I had to use all my strength not to push yet, and as soon as they were over, it was like I was knocked out cold.
The nurse determined I could push and the doctor came in and told me to push three times with each contraction. I did my first three pushes while the doctor was still examining me (she wanted to make sure he was coming down ok). Then the next three pushes were on the next contraction and I felt him coming down really fast and got scared and stopped. lol. When the next contraction came I said screw the three pushes and just pushed once and didn't stop. I felt him crown and heard the doctor say "here comes his head" and I braced myself to be lying there with a head stuck between my legs until the next contraction like I've seen in most other birthing videos, when suddenly I felt total relief and everyone was rushing around and my son was in the doctor's hands and screaming. He literally flew out. LOL
He was whisked away (Noel went with him) for about 30 seconds during which I delivered the placenta, and then he was put on my chest while I was being stitched. I had a small second degree tear, I think I got something like 2 stitches. We were at the hospital for 2 nights and discharged friday morning.
I'm completely in awe, yet completely overwhelmed. Breastfeeding has been off to a rocky start and we're still getting the hang of it. He latched on wrong at the beginning and really hurt my nipples and I'm still healing now. We were supposed to attend a breastfeeding class at the hospital, but everything's been cancelled for the holiday weekend. :( To add to that I'm still all swollen, including my breasts, which prevents him from latching on perfectly every time, so it's a long tedious process about every 3rd time that involves lots of crying from him while I attempt to put him on the boob unsuccessfully for about 10 minutes until it finally works. Because the latch isn't always as perfect as it could be, he's further damaging my boobs about two/three feedings a day. The other feedings go very well.
I ended up going to ER yesterday because I had bright red bleeding and passed a clot the size of a large plum. I called and they wanted me to come in to take a look at it and make sure it's not placenta. The nurse who was tending to me in the ER has two small kids and she actually showed me a lot of tricks for breastfeeding and it's really helped. My milk finally came in yesterday too, so at least I get more than an hour's break in between feedings now (most of the time). So the verdict - definitely clot, not placenta, and I should rest more... and it helped me with breastfeeding a lot.
And a pic for you guys!
first family photo:
Going home!