Baby R's Birth Story
Sept 20, 2018 14:06:39 GMT -6
Post by Nymeria on Sept 20, 2018 14:06:39 GMT -6
Finally got around to writing this up!
Tuesday night (Sept 11) while doing the dishes I suddenly noticed a heavy feeling in my pelvis which I now assume was baby dropping. Other than losing some of what appeared to be my mucus plug the few days prior I hadn't had any signs things may happen soon so I didn't think too much about the new feeling.
I woke up early the next day (Sept 12 - 38w6d) around 12:45am to contractions about 10-15 min apart. For some reason I didn't think they would last so I kept trying to fall asleep between them. Around 4:30am I finally gave up trying to fall back to sleep and headed downstairs to watch TV. Since the contractions hadn't stopped or slowed down I pulled out my work laptop to fire off a bunch of emails to my team with some last minute status updates and to let them know it was looking like I wasn't going to be back to work.
The contractions were getting closer together and more intense when C woke up to his alarm at 5:30. He came downstairs looking for me and I told him I had been having contractions all morning. He asked how far apart they were and I realized I hadn't been timing them for a while. After realizing they had jumped to 5 min apart and were lasting 1 1/2 min I called my OB's office and left a message for the on-call OB while C let his brother know he wasn't going to be at work and talked to his mom about coming to pick-up R for the day. Dr H was on call and called me back not long after having left the message with the operator saying that if the contractions kept up by the time C's mom arrived for R that we could head to the hospital.
When C's mom arrived around 6:30am the contractions hadn't slowed and were coming closer than 5 min apart at times so my mother-in-law took R to her house and we headed to the hospital. I had been hoping to go med-free this time but unfortunately I had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with back labor again (although thankfully this time I actually was getting a bit of a break between contractions!) and I decided pretty quickly while waiting to be evaluated in triage that I wanted an epidural again. When the midwives in triage came to check me it turns out I was already 7cm and fully effaced with waters bulging!!
Things started to move very quickly from there since I was so far along and while I don't remember how long it actually took I was moved upstairs and got the epidural pretty fast. The anesthesiologist even gave me a spinal/epidural combo to make sure the meds hit before it was too late. Not long after getting the epidural Dr H came to check on me and I was fully dilated. She also confirmed at this point that baby was sunny-side up, which once again explained my back labor. I had thought my water had broken while sitting up to get the epidural but it hadn't so Dr H broke it for me and they left us for me to labor down a bit. Unfortunately baby had passed meconium in utero so Dr H said there would have to be a NICU team on stand-by for the deliver in case he had any breathing issues.
Around 9:30am Dr H returned and said since I was fully dilated and effaced and baby had dropped further that if I could show I could push effectively with the epidural in place we could start pushing instead of waiting for the urge to push. Apparently I remembered how to push from delivering R because my pushes were effective from the very first one. I had asked for a mirror to watch myself push like I had done with R and I'm sure that helped focus my attention too. I was doing a great job pushing but Dr H said baby's heart rate was starting to drop from pressure on his head and she recommended an episiotomy to get him out. The overall conversation was quick and is a bit fuzzy looking back but I agreed to the episiotomy and the second she cut baby came flying into this world at 10:01am.
He started screaming basically the second he was born so the NICU team was sent away pretty much right as they arrived and baby was able to placed on my chest for immediate skin to skin. He even nursed for the first time less than 45 min later! Baby R was born on Wednesday, September 12 at 10:01am at 38w6d after 9 hours labor and a 1/2 hour of pushing. He was 8 lb 0.6 oz and 19 3/4 in long with a 13.6 in head circumference.
I ended up with a 3rd degree episiotomy/tear and it took quite a while to stitch me up. Thank goodness I had gotten that epidural!! There was some extra bleeding but nothing overly concerning. I was given a good amount of pitocin and an extra shot of something in my leg to help slow the bleeding just as a precaution. I was able to hold and nurse R the whole time they were fixing me up so he was a nice distraction.
Tuesday night (Sept 11) while doing the dishes I suddenly noticed a heavy feeling in my pelvis which I now assume was baby dropping. Other than losing some of what appeared to be my mucus plug the few days prior I hadn't had any signs things may happen soon so I didn't think too much about the new feeling.
I woke up early the next day (Sept 12 - 38w6d) around 12:45am to contractions about 10-15 min apart. For some reason I didn't think they would last so I kept trying to fall asleep between them. Around 4:30am I finally gave up trying to fall back to sleep and headed downstairs to watch TV. Since the contractions hadn't stopped or slowed down I pulled out my work laptop to fire off a bunch of emails to my team with some last minute status updates and to let them know it was looking like I wasn't going to be back to work.
The contractions were getting closer together and more intense when C woke up to his alarm at 5:30. He came downstairs looking for me and I told him I had been having contractions all morning. He asked how far apart they were and I realized I hadn't been timing them for a while. After realizing they had jumped to 5 min apart and were lasting 1 1/2 min I called my OB's office and left a message for the on-call OB while C let his brother know he wasn't going to be at work and talked to his mom about coming to pick-up R for the day. Dr H was on call and called me back not long after having left the message with the operator saying that if the contractions kept up by the time C's mom arrived for R that we could head to the hospital.
When C's mom arrived around 6:30am the contractions hadn't slowed and were coming closer than 5 min apart at times so my mother-in-law took R to her house and we headed to the hospital. I had been hoping to go med-free this time but unfortunately I had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with back labor again (although thankfully this time I actually was getting a bit of a break between contractions!) and I decided pretty quickly while waiting to be evaluated in triage that I wanted an epidural again. When the midwives in triage came to check me it turns out I was already 7cm and fully effaced with waters bulging!!
Things started to move very quickly from there since I was so far along and while I don't remember how long it actually took I was moved upstairs and got the epidural pretty fast. The anesthesiologist even gave me a spinal/epidural combo to make sure the meds hit before it was too late. Not long after getting the epidural Dr H came to check on me and I was fully dilated. She also confirmed at this point that baby was sunny-side up, which once again explained my back labor. I had thought my water had broken while sitting up to get the epidural but it hadn't so Dr H broke it for me and they left us for me to labor down a bit. Unfortunately baby had passed meconium in utero so Dr H said there would have to be a NICU team on stand-by for the deliver in case he had any breathing issues.
Around 9:30am Dr H returned and said since I was fully dilated and effaced and baby had dropped further that if I could show I could push effectively with the epidural in place we could start pushing instead of waiting for the urge to push. Apparently I remembered how to push from delivering R because my pushes were effective from the very first one. I had asked for a mirror to watch myself push like I had done with R and I'm sure that helped focus my attention too. I was doing a great job pushing but Dr H said baby's heart rate was starting to drop from pressure on his head and she recommended an episiotomy to get him out. The overall conversation was quick and is a bit fuzzy looking back but I agreed to the episiotomy and the second she cut baby came flying into this world at 10:01am.
He started screaming basically the second he was born so the NICU team was sent away pretty much right as they arrived and baby was able to placed on my chest for immediate skin to skin. He even nursed for the first time less than 45 min later! Baby R was born on Wednesday, September 12 at 10:01am at 38w6d after 9 hours labor and a 1/2 hour of pushing. He was 8 lb 0.6 oz and 19 3/4 in long with a 13.6 in head circumference.
I ended up with a 3rd degree episiotomy/tear and it took quite a while to stitch me up. Thank goodness I had gotten that epidural!! There was some extra bleeding but nothing overly concerning. I was given a good amount of pitocin and an extra shot of something in my leg to help slow the bleeding just as a precaution. I was able to hold and nurse R the whole time they were fixing me up so he was a nice distraction.
