so. i had a baby. another beautiful boy. whose labor and delivery and first hours after birth were nothing like his older brother, even though the pregnancies were the same (easy) and both birthdays started with the water breaking, but my body not actually wanting to go into labor.
i hadn’t had too many early labor signs with Liam, so had only really spent one day looking at birth stories on the internet. I was 37 weeks and 2 days. I expected to at least make it to 38 weeks (about when i had Aiden), and may be longer since i hoped to go into natural active labor instead of water breaking + no labor + pitochen.
i had been crampy all saturday, but i had been crampy before and nothing, so i did not think to much of it. saturday after ben, aiden, and i went to down town evanston to satisfy ben’s need for jamba juice and my desire to walk. turns out it was an art fair downtown, so we enjoyed walking around it, even though it was a tad hot.
i woke up at 3 on sunday morning feeling uncomfortable, but just attributed it to my obsession of whether the cramping was a sign. i looked at the internets. i went back to bed around 4. i was trying to get back to sleep and felt/heard a pop and knew that my water had just broken. i got out of bed quickly, though carefully. i got ben up, called the dr, and packed the rest of the stuff. Ben’s parent’s came over to be there for aiden and ben and I were off to the hospital. we got there around 5:15.
i was having pretty regular and some what painful contractions, so i had hoped that this time my labor would progress on its own. it did not. i just so happened that the ob was at the hospital and was the ob I saw on monday. he amuses me. i was 2-3 cm dilated. he was willing to let me wait to see if labor picked up, but kept on his theme of usually what happens last time happens this time (meaning i would need at least a little pitocin to stimulate labor). This theme was true only on the theme of labor STOPPING. annoying. i gave in to the pitocin faster this time b/c i knew. plus i went so fast on the pitocin last time that i just want to get started already. plus. i was hungry.
hahahahaha. oh pitocin, you tease.
i did not go fast. i went normal speed.
my theory is that with aiden his head was down on my cervix for at least a week before my water broke, so when my contractions started with him, his head did the fast work of opening the cervix (3 hours of pit), b/c he was ready.
with liam, he was still pretty high when my water broke, so the contractions had to open the cervix. the pitocin makes them HURT. also, he was turned around facing my front, hence a slower decent and a lot of pain in my back. but i was committed to out lasting the pain b/c last time it was so quick. and this time i was much more able to deal with them. I’m not sure why. but i was.
they hurt.
and they did not make speedy work of my cervix opening.
i wasn’t so much worried about the pain, as i was the fact that my bodies way of dealing with the pain was not relaxing and was preventing the progress of my cervix. by 5 or so, it had been more than 12 hours since my water broke and i became worried about the infection risk. not that i needed to deliver right then, but i wasn’t close.
oh, i should pause to say that my nurse way awesome. she was really supportive and actually hung out in my room a bunch chatting. and helping me weather the contractions. (sundays are the best day to labor. they are somewhat slow.)
anyways, through the conversation with my nurse, i told her my aversion to the taking of the narcotic was the fact it made me pass out last time. she said that they could just give me the stadol instead of stadol + other drug that helps with the nausea of stadol by making you really sleepy. i would take the nausea, leave the passing out. and it was nice. the contraction still hurt, i just didn’t care that much. i stayed awake and was lucid. and when it wore off it was apparent that it was not the magic bring on the baby drug. so i consinsted to the epidural.
i should pause and say i’ve always been more afraid of someone messing around in my spine then having some strong belief that “natural births” are the best. poooey. have the birth you have. i read WAY TOO MANY blog birth stories where women are all set on a natural birth and things don’t go that way and they are SO SAD. jesus. do you have a healthy baby? if yes, quit the whining.
anyways, the anesthesiologist was annoying, and the epidural didn’t REALLY WORK. it worked for like 4 contractions, and did NOT after that mainly b/c something during this whole time was the magic bring the baby on and he was ready. the ob made it this time.
(ALSO who annoyed me – the OB resident, who wanted to put an internal pressure monitor in, but instead of talking to me about why it was needed, she mentioned it to my nurse, who was awesome and said that i won’t want it. which was RIGHT. i did finally consent much later when things were very painful and the baby’s heart rate was dipping, and then it was too late as the baby was too far down (hence the whole dipping heart rate))
i pushed for a bit. the epidural helped a little, but it still hurt. pushing though, is awesome, as it doesn’t hurt as much b/c it is productive. this time, i was mentally all there. and that was awesome. i don’t remember much of aiden’s birth. liam’s birth was a whole other experience. feeling his head with my hand (that was strange). when i pushed his head out – it seemed normal that there was a head out of my body. and when the head was all the way out the dipping heart rate, which had resulted in the internal fetal monitor and oxygen for me, became apparent: the cord was wrapped twice around his next and he was holding it. crazy boy. not a big deal though, the ob cut the cord then commenting that it only mattered b/c it might make it hard for cord blood donation. so strange to be having a conversation during this. anyways. i pushed liam the rest of the way out, was able to see him come out and immediately held him.
the nurse cleaned him up just a little while the ob did the cord blood and delivered the placenta. the placenta, now it is amazing. it looks like a liver! at least the livers i see on tv! it was sooooo interesting to see it. i held liam for a while to get his temp up and for him to feed, which he did. and continues to do like a champ!
last time i said for this time: pitocin=epidural. i should have listened earlier. oh well. besides the anesthesiologist being annoying and it not really working, the epidural wasn’t as bad as i thought. i could move and feel and do a jig. this might be do to the short time the epidural was in place. i was cursing the anesthesiologist the whole time.
also: writing a strongly worded letter to those that say second labors last less then first
things that were better: this hospital now lets you have a “clear” diet while laboring, so i got jello and broths and juices all during labor, which was nice.
- i was much better at handling contractions
-epidurals aren’t as scary as i thought, though they it didn’t really work for me. so, don’t go getting one thinking it would make all things better
- though i do attribute me being more there during the delivery to the epidural, so i am happy i got one, though i want my money back. ; )