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- Aug 12, 2005
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Hi ladies! I finally got around to typing out my birth story. It maybe isn't the most coherent piece I've ever written but I think I got most of it down. Overall I was very happy with our experience. Alexandra did have to have a course of antibiotics after birth since my water was broken for almost 25 hours before birth, resulting in an extra day at the hospital for us but everything else went pretty well. We are, of course, super in love with her.
I am posting several pics, one the night we went to the hospital, one 4 days postpartum so you can see how much the belly goes down and how quickly (I lost about 15 lbs right off the bat which is baby, placenta, amniotic fluid, etc. plus fluids from the IV), one of her immediately after birth, one 3 days old (mittens) and one 4 days old (bouncy seat). First, the story:
Monnie's birth story!
Last time I posted was last Friday and we were talking about epidurals here! I had woken that morning feeling fine. I went to work and spent a couple hours there doing some paperwork, catching up on emails and phone calls, and giving some direction to those who will be doing parts of my job during my leave. I went home and started feeling antsy--I had planned to wait until Saturday to start really getting some things organized and ready for baby's arrival but for whatever reason I was feeling irritated that it wasn't already done and I just dove in to several projects. My husband was working on getting the patio he started last summer finished. I made him install the carseat instead. I finally lay down around 9 p.m. and was tooling around the internet when I felt a small gush of fluid come out of me. From that point on I experienced a series of those every few minutes and 20 minutes later told my husband I thought I had better call the doctor. He ran to the store to pick up some things we needed as well as snacks for the delivery room while I called the doctor who told me to go to the hospital, and then I drank a glass of red wine and took a shower. My hospital bag was already packed so we grabbed that and drove off. I stepped out of the car in the parking garage and although I had an overnight maxi pad on, my pants were totally soaked. Driving over bumps must've knocked a lot more water out of me! That kind of ticked me off.
Got settled in to the delivery room (which was quite posh) and the nurse started monitoring me for contractions. I was contracting every 2-3 minutes but not strongly enough to have any effect. This continued for an hour or two. My doctor showed up at 3 a.m., checked my cervix, declared me 2-3 cm and pretty much told me my options were to start Pitocin or start thinking about a c-section because if I did not start progressing that's what we were looking at. It took me until 7 a.m. to make the decision to finally get the Pitocin started. I was disappointed but ok with it because I was starting to worry that my labor wasn't progressing. Started Pitocin, then my nurse got pulled away to two emergency c-sections. For about an hour and a half, no one came back to turn up my drip. I finally asked my husband to get someone in there STAT because I knew I was falling behind the 8 ball. They apologized profusely, turned me up, then the doctor came to visit and told them to bump me up by twos every half hour. Things started to get a little hairy then. I had had NO sleep since the previous night (Thursday) and hadn't slept well for that matter. I had been eating and drinking, but not much and not enough to really keep up my stamina. I started contracting HARD and labored for about 2.5 hours with no pain meds. Finally my legs started shaking uncontrollably in every position we tried and I hit a wall both physically and mentally. I was tied to the IV pole which made it even harder to work through the contractions in the positions we'd practiced. I asked for Nebune, a narcotic that can take the edge off. (The difference between Pitocin contrax and natural contrax is not that Pit ones are worse than natural. The difference is that with Pitocin your brain doesn't produce the natural endorphins that it normally would that act as painkillers. Also, after the waters are broken there is no more "cushion" for baby's head between the pelvic bones--the head is just right there against them making it more painful.) The Nebune really didn't do much at all. I had another cervical check and had gone from 4 cm to 8 cm in about 1.5 hours. I was scared at this point. Scared of not being able to labor anymore and not having enough energy to push. Scared of getting an epidural although it was becoming increasingly obvious that I was going to need one. And angry! Mainly because of the way things had worked out--that I had been left without being turned up for too long resulting in having to dial up the Pitocin too much too fast. So at that point I did the smart thing and asked for the epidural. It was overall a good experience but still upsetting when I think about it.
As soon as that kicked in and I was almost completely numb (but could still move--the anesthesiologist did an awesome job), I took about a 20 minute nap. then it was time to push! I had my husband put on the harp CD I'd brought (I love harp music and if anyone recalls had a live harpist at my first baby shower). Sort of ties into her middle name "Celeste" ("celestial" etc.). Even the doctor commented on what peaceful music it was. We had the lights dimmed and it was just the 4 of us, me, my husband, the wonderful nurse, and the doctor who was an excellent pushing coach. I pushed for maybe 30 minutes and she was born, totally perfect, beautiful in every way. I had two 2nd degree tears, one above, one below, which didn't require many stitches. Baby latched on right away (I asked for her to be put on me immediately after birth) and then she had her tests and cleanup, etc. which were all good. Everyone who saw her at this point remarked on her full head of hair and her insanely long eyelashes. She came out gorgeous! I know I am biased but she really came through the birth no worse for the wear.
So that is the story of how Alexandra Celeste came into the world!
I need to write a post on aftercare and what you will go through postpartum in the days right after delivery. I was not prepared for the healing process whatsoever, had no idea it would be so difficult physically. Maybe someone has written about it here somewhere or on the newborn thread but i think it is a topic that deserves much more attention than it gets.
I am posting several pics, one the night we went to the hospital, one 4 days postpartum so you can see how much the belly goes down and how quickly (I lost about 15 lbs right off the bat which is baby, placenta, amniotic fluid, etc. plus fluids from the IV), one of her immediately after birth, one 3 days old (mittens) and one 4 days old (bouncy seat). First, the story:
Monnie's birth story!
Last time I posted was last Friday and we were talking about epidurals here! I had woken that morning feeling fine. I went to work and spent a couple hours there doing some paperwork, catching up on emails and phone calls, and giving some direction to those who will be doing parts of my job during my leave. I went home and started feeling antsy--I had planned to wait until Saturday to start really getting some things organized and ready for baby's arrival but for whatever reason I was feeling irritated that it wasn't already done and I just dove in to several projects. My husband was working on getting the patio he started last summer finished. I made him install the carseat instead. I finally lay down around 9 p.m. and was tooling around the internet when I felt a small gush of fluid come out of me. From that point on I experienced a series of those every few minutes and 20 minutes later told my husband I thought I had better call the doctor. He ran to the store to pick up some things we needed as well as snacks for the delivery room while I called the doctor who told me to go to the hospital, and then I drank a glass of red wine and took a shower. My hospital bag was already packed so we grabbed that and drove off. I stepped out of the car in the parking garage and although I had an overnight maxi pad on, my pants were totally soaked. Driving over bumps must've knocked a lot more water out of me! That kind of ticked me off.
Got settled in to the delivery room (which was quite posh) and the nurse started monitoring me for contractions. I was contracting every 2-3 minutes but not strongly enough to have any effect. This continued for an hour or two. My doctor showed up at 3 a.m., checked my cervix, declared me 2-3 cm and pretty much told me my options were to start Pitocin or start thinking about a c-section because if I did not start progressing that's what we were looking at. It took me until 7 a.m. to make the decision to finally get the Pitocin started. I was disappointed but ok with it because I was starting to worry that my labor wasn't progressing. Started Pitocin, then my nurse got pulled away to two emergency c-sections. For about an hour and a half, no one came back to turn up my drip. I finally asked my husband to get someone in there STAT because I knew I was falling behind the 8 ball. They apologized profusely, turned me up, then the doctor came to visit and told them to bump me up by twos every half hour. Things started to get a little hairy then. I had had NO sleep since the previous night (Thursday) and hadn't slept well for that matter. I had been eating and drinking, but not much and not enough to really keep up my stamina. I started contracting HARD and labored for about 2.5 hours with no pain meds. Finally my legs started shaking uncontrollably in every position we tried and I hit a wall both physically and mentally. I was tied to the IV pole which made it even harder to work through the contractions in the positions we'd practiced. I asked for Nebune, a narcotic that can take the edge off. (The difference between Pitocin contrax and natural contrax is not that Pit ones are worse than natural. The difference is that with Pitocin your brain doesn't produce the natural endorphins that it normally would that act as painkillers. Also, after the waters are broken there is no more "cushion" for baby's head between the pelvic bones--the head is just right there against them making it more painful.) The Nebune really didn't do much at all. I had another cervical check and had gone from 4 cm to 8 cm in about 1.5 hours. I was scared at this point. Scared of not being able to labor anymore and not having enough energy to push. Scared of getting an epidural although it was becoming increasingly obvious that I was going to need one. And angry! Mainly because of the way things had worked out--that I had been left without being turned up for too long resulting in having to dial up the Pitocin too much too fast. So at that point I did the smart thing and asked for the epidural. It was overall a good experience but still upsetting when I think about it.
As soon as that kicked in and I was almost completely numb (but could still move--the anesthesiologist did an awesome job), I took about a 20 minute nap. then it was time to push! I had my husband put on the harp CD I'd brought (I love harp music and if anyone recalls had a live harpist at my first baby shower). Sort of ties into her middle name "Celeste" ("celestial" etc.). Even the doctor commented on what peaceful music it was. We had the lights dimmed and it was just the 4 of us, me, my husband, the wonderful nurse, and the doctor who was an excellent pushing coach. I pushed for maybe 30 minutes and she was born, totally perfect, beautiful in every way. I had two 2nd degree tears, one above, one below, which didn't require many stitches. Baby latched on right away (I asked for her to be put on me immediately after birth) and then she had her tests and cleanup, etc. which were all good. Everyone who saw her at this point remarked on her full head of hair and her insanely long eyelashes. She came out gorgeous! I know I am biased but she really came through the birth no worse for the wear.
So that is the story of how Alexandra Celeste came into the world!
I need to write a post on aftercare and what you will go through postpartum in the days right after delivery. I was not prepared for the healing process whatsoever, had no idea it would be so difficult physically. Maybe someone has written about it here somewhere or on the newborn thread but i think it is a topic that deserves much more attention than it gets.
I'm terrified about water breaking first, and I would be so happy if I ended up with yours. And wow, what a perfect postpartum belly!!! Are you wearing your regular jeans already?
Way to make my head spin docs!!! She said "Either way, you'll be having this baby by next week" I said "So you won't let me go past 40 weeks?" She said "Most likely we will not" So what if my body isn't ready for an induction then either...I'm at risk for another c-section if it gets drawn out too long. Ugh! So now I have to go back for an NST again this Monday, they will check me internally again and see what's going on and go from there. She said we're basically going day by day for now. I'm not feeling any strong contractions, so I'm sure nothing will have changed by Monday. I had 2 minor contractions during the 1 hour NST today. Get it together body, I would just love to let this happen by itself!!!!
The June "boom" is in now in full effect! 
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