Post by Dramaphile on Oct 25, 2018 15:50:57 GMT -6
I’ll put a bit of a warning here, I had some post-birth complications that were kind of scary, so you may want to skip this till after your baby comes if you think it will make you anxious.
So, Saturday evening, I’m pretty sure my water sprung a leak. We were getting out of the car after having gone out to go order the new carpet for our house and we got lunch at a Greek restaurant and MH managed to smash my pinky in the car door while he was getting DD out. A little bit later, I had a small gush of fluid and a little blood. Had some more come out over the next couple of hours, but not much and it kind of stopped. Luckily, my pinky was fine it didn’t even bruise! My BFF came over to spend the night so she could be with DD if we needed to leave during the night. I had a few contractions here and there during the evening and then went to bed and around 2 started to have pretty regular contractions. Called my doula and got on my yoga ball and spent a few hours watching cooking shows. They started to get a little more intense, so I had her come around 5:30am. My BFF took DD to her house once she was up in the morning. Things slowed down again later in the morning and Mh and I took a nap and contractions got far apart. It took a while for them to pick up again, ended up taking a walk in the afternoon and that got things going, and my doula suggested I bake some cookies to stay on my feet and stay busy, so I made chocolate chunk cookies. By the time the cookies were done, I was at 4 min apart and pretty strong.
At that point, we decided to head to the hospital because I was very regular and strong. I had been worried about stalling out and ending up on pitocin since my water had broken already and was getting close to the 24 hour mark. I got to triage and they checked me and told me that there was no sign my water had broken. My theory is that I had a high leak that got corked, because I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I had leakage that was clearly not pee (it was pink) and then labor started several hours later. But I was glad they said my water was intact because that meant no time clock or rush to progress. But, I was at a 6 and they brought me to L&D. I labored for a bit in my room while they futzed with the monitors and then they asked me if I wanted the jacuzzi tub and I said yes. I lasted about 5 contractions in the tub and suddenly felt pressure that wasn’t going away and so I got out (tub was for laboring only).
Midwife checked me and I was at a 9, so I got off the bed and they raised it so I could lean over it. Then my water broke with a big splash and things got crazy. My body started pushing on its own, and it was super intense. I remember the midwife telling me to try to stop (since I was standing and she needed to get ready to catch him and I had no control over it at all. They got me on the bed and pushed on my hands and knees for a little bit, maybe 4 or 5 pushes, and then the nurse was having trouble keeping him on the monitor, so they needed me to get up in a kneeling position to get the monitor on him, but he had other ideas. As soon as I was lifted up, I had a crazy big push and he was out. It was so intense and fast and furious and I was reeling from the experience. She passed the baby up to me between my legs and he screamed right away. I held him under me for a bit on my hands and knees before they helped me turn on my side and hold him.
Then, once the placenta was delivered (I think not in one piece), I had excessive bleeding (postpartum hemorrhage) and the nurse and midwife had to work on me for what seemed like forever to get it under control. Thank god I had my doula there with me while J held the baby. It was excruciating to basically have my uterus beat up without any pain medication and almost worse than the birth. They finally got it under control with a pitocin drip and some other meds and a lot of horrible uterine massage and some manual extraction. Not an experience I would wish on anyone. J was really worried because he had a front row seat in the only chair he could sit in with the baby. But my midwife was a rock and kept everything under control and it didn’t escalate to needing a transfusion or emergency care. I did tear again (I think 2nd degree) because pushing was so quick and he has a big head. My midwife asked if I had an episiotomy with my first birth because apparently my tear scar was so straight.
When it was all over, J brought the baby back over and we cried with relief and got to have skin to skin and he latched on pretty quickly like a champ. I still have a lot of feelings to work through, DD’s birth was so textbook and I felt in control the entire time, and I felt so out of control at the end of this birth. They explained that basically I had a precipitous birth- from water breaking to baby being out was less then 20 minutes. Had my water broken at home, I would have probably had a baby on the kitchen floor or in the car. Caleb is perfect and we are so in love and can’t wait to go home and finally be a family together.
So, Saturday evening, I’m pretty sure my water sprung a leak. We were getting out of the car after having gone out to go order the new carpet for our house and we got lunch at a Greek restaurant and MH managed to smash my pinky in the car door while he was getting DD out. A little bit later, I had a small gush of fluid and a little blood. Had some more come out over the next couple of hours, but not much and it kind of stopped. Luckily, my pinky was fine it didn’t even bruise! My BFF came over to spend the night so she could be with DD if we needed to leave during the night. I had a few contractions here and there during the evening and then went to bed and around 2 started to have pretty regular contractions. Called my doula and got on my yoga ball and spent a few hours watching cooking shows. They started to get a little more intense, so I had her come around 5:30am. My BFF took DD to her house once she was up in the morning. Things slowed down again later in the morning and Mh and I took a nap and contractions got far apart. It took a while for them to pick up again, ended up taking a walk in the afternoon and that got things going, and my doula suggested I bake some cookies to stay on my feet and stay busy, so I made chocolate chunk cookies. By the time the cookies were done, I was at 4 min apart and pretty strong.
At that point, we decided to head to the hospital because I was very regular and strong. I had been worried about stalling out and ending up on pitocin since my water had broken already and was getting close to the 24 hour mark. I got to triage and they checked me and told me that there was no sign my water had broken. My theory is that I had a high leak that got corked, because I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I had leakage that was clearly not pee (it was pink) and then labor started several hours later. But I was glad they said my water was intact because that meant no time clock or rush to progress. But, I was at a 6 and they brought me to L&D. I labored for a bit in my room while they futzed with the monitors and then they asked me if I wanted the jacuzzi tub and I said yes. I lasted about 5 contractions in the tub and suddenly felt pressure that wasn’t going away and so I got out (tub was for laboring only).
Midwife checked me and I was at a 9, so I got off the bed and they raised it so I could lean over it. Then my water broke with a big splash and things got crazy. My body started pushing on its own, and it was super intense. I remember the midwife telling me to try to stop (since I was standing and she needed to get ready to catch him and I had no control over it at all. They got me on the bed and pushed on my hands and knees for a little bit, maybe 4 or 5 pushes, and then the nurse was having trouble keeping him on the monitor, so they needed me to get up in a kneeling position to get the monitor on him, but he had other ideas. As soon as I was lifted up, I had a crazy big push and he was out. It was so intense and fast and furious and I was reeling from the experience. She passed the baby up to me between my legs and he screamed right away. I held him under me for a bit on my hands and knees before they helped me turn on my side and hold him.
Then, once the placenta was delivered (I think not in one piece), I had excessive bleeding (postpartum hemorrhage) and the nurse and midwife had to work on me for what seemed like forever to get it under control. Thank god I had my doula there with me while J held the baby. It was excruciating to basically have my uterus beat up without any pain medication and almost worse than the birth. They finally got it under control with a pitocin drip and some other meds and a lot of horrible uterine massage and some manual extraction. Not an experience I would wish on anyone. J was really worried because he had a front row seat in the only chair he could sit in with the baby. But my midwife was a rock and kept everything under control and it didn’t escalate to needing a transfusion or emergency care. I did tear again (I think 2nd degree) because pushing was so quick and he has a big head. My midwife asked if I had an episiotomy with my first birth because apparently my tear scar was so straight.
When it was all over, J brought the baby back over and we cried with relief and got to have skin to skin and he latched on pretty quickly like a champ. I still have a lot of feelings to work through, DD’s birth was so textbook and I felt in control the entire time, and I felt so out of control at the end of this birth. They explained that basically I had a precipitous birth- from water breaking to baby being out was less then 20 minutes. Had my water broken at home, I would have probably had a baby on the kitchen floor or in the car. Caleb is perfect and we are so in love and can’t wait to go home and finally be a family together.
