Birth stories go here

[willow]

I saw the topic of birth stories in the weekly thread after hangry mentioned it and figured we could put them here as they happen!

Here’s mine.

We drove to the hospital early morning on April 16 for our scheduled c/s. I got barely any sleep the night before, I was pretty much wide awake starting at 4 am. Not sure if the babies seemed to know that they were getting evicted the next morning or what but they were insanely active all night too. Our oldest son was at my parents starting the night before.

It was super weird walking into the hospital in masks and the whole place was eerily quiet. It also took us 2 carts full of stuff because we had to bring everything in at once since my H couldn’t go out to the car again once we made it to the L&D unit. We were a clown car of stuff lol.

We got there around 7:30 and they hooked me up to monitor babies’ heartbeats and any possible contractions for a bit. The anesthesiologist came in and talked me through the procedure and I had to sign some forms. My doctor also came in to check on me. The surgery was scheduled for 9:30 but we got started a little late because they were waiting for one tech that was still in a different surgery.

They started with the spinal and they told me it wouldn’t be as bad as when I had an epidural with my first. To be honest I don’t remember anything other than hunching over for that because I was in so much pain from the contractions that blocked out anything else. So this spinal was uncomfortable for me. I kept involuntarily flinching when he was pricking me. It was so weird how quickly my legs started to numb up. After I was laid down and things were basically ready to cut me open, they let my H in. I started feeling pretty nauseous so the anesthesiologist gave me some zofran and it went away really fast.

It felt like the actual delivery of both babies happened super quickly. It was the most surreal experience to be awake and feeling them dig around inside me without any pain. When baby A was born, they dropped the blue drape so I could see him on my chest with the clear drape. That was quick and he was already screaming lol. Then baby B was born, still breech, and as he was pulled out he started peeing on my doctor lol. Baby A was born 10:20 AM and Baby B was born 10:22 AM.

We did some skin to skin while the doctor continued to work on my tubal removal and close me up. It felt like that took way longer than the babies’ birth. They took my H and the babies back to the room while they finished me up and then the anesthesiologist injected me with the TAP block.

And that was it! I was wheeled back to the room and was able to snuggle the babies immediately since they did really well with all their immediate tests. I am so glad I went with the c/s. The recovery has been slower than with a vaginal birth since it’s major surgery but I prefer that to the crazy long labor I went through with my son, lol.

Ok hangry you’re up!

[sdlaura]

Congratulations willow! Sounds like a pretty great experience. Just out of curiosity - did you decide in advance that the first baby delivered would get one name you had picked out, and the second would get the other? Or did you look at them and try to decide who got which name? I'm just interested in how that works!

[willow]

Apr 24, 2020 10:24:34 GMT -6 sdlaura said:

Congratulations willow! Sounds like a pretty great experience. Just out of curiosity - did you decide in advance that the first baby delivered would get one name you had picked out, and the second would get the other? Or did you look at them and try to decide who got which name? I'm just interested in how that works!

We decided we would wait to see them and see which one “fit” the names. I held baby B first when we got back to the room and after looking at him for a bit decided he looked like a Graham, and my H was pretty good with whatever I decided lol so he was also fine with it. So then baby A became Halden.

[hangry]

Ok, I finally got around to finishing this! It feels long for an uneventful birth, so bare (bear?) with me.

In the midst of yet another awful night sleep of tossing and turning and bathroom trips, my contractions started. They started at 4 am and right away were strong and 3-4 minutes apart. I waited 15-20 minutes before waking my H to make sure it was real. So when I woke him it took him a while to get up to my speed. I needed to tell him step by step what to do until we got in the car. Fortunately, I was kinda amused by it.
We had arranged to call some friends and they were prepared for any time of day, but just so happened that night they both forgot to turn off the do not disturb setting. Oops. We had some other friends that had also offered so we called them and the wife came right over. We were lucky we didn’t have to call through a whole host of people!
So we got in the car at about 5 am and went to the hospital. Coming in, all I had was security ask if I had any symptoms. I said no, she asked me to sanitize my hands, and we were off to triage. Since it was early in the morning, the place was completely quiet.
In triage, the nurse checked me, I was only 3cm, but contractions now were 2-3 minutes apart. This was probably 5:30am. My OB also showed up at this time and told them I had precipitous labor so I should stay. I made sure to tell this nurse right away that I wanted an epidural and that I didn’t have enough time last time and didn’t want that to happen again.
They transferred me to L&D and attempted an IV for ABX but of course it took 3 tries because I have small veins. Finally got that in and they gave me my first and only dose of abx at 6am.
My OB and the resident checked me again at 630 and I was 6cm. Contractions were very strong and 1-2 minutes apart. Finally, the anesthesiologist arrived. I was so relieved that I was actually going to be able to get an epidural!! I didn’t want one with my first, but in hindsight, that labor experience was awful. I felt utterly out of control and didn’t even know what was going on during it. I wanted one with #2 but I went too fast and didn’t have time. That birth was also disorienting though not as bad as my first. So when they showed up to set me up, I was so happy. Felt like it took forever to clean me, dress my back, insert it, etc. And then, within a few minutes, it was working! The doc asked how it was and I told him sweet bliss, lol.
For the next hour and a half, my H and I were able to talk and laugh while my body did it’s work.
At 830, the OB came back in for another check and much to my surprise, he said I was fully dialated! I was in shock! My water still hadn’t broken, but he said it was bulging. The doc said we could wait a little while longer to see if t went on it’s own. He expected baby up come right out once my water broke.
He came back after 15 minutes and just said he would break it. I had been feeling tons of pressure especially during contractions, and was ready to just get this going!
They set up and my OB broke my water around 845/50. I pushed for 10 minutes and then baby was born at 9:01am! I may or may not have yelled, on two occasions, at the doctor just pull the baby out. He just calmly said no, and probably rolled his eyes, while telling me how to push. I should also note that my epidural had no impact on feeling the pushing and “ring of fire”. Don’t know if that’s normal. But that part still sucked!

I had skin to skin time right away and baby latched on quite easily. I did have some second degree tears so he stitched those up while I was feeding baby. We transferred to the post partum ward and my H spent the day with us. He left to go home at dinner time to relieve our friend. I FaceTimed with the kids that night and they were so excited to meet their brother!
There were no birth complications and blood work came back normal so we were discharged home about 26 hours after birth. My H brought the kids and picked up me and baby from the hospital.

Overall, it was a great experience. I am so relieved to not be pregnant anymore and to know I will never have to do that again!

TLDR:
Theo.dore Bron.x
April 22
9:01am
8lb 10oz
Vaginal delivery with epidural, 2nd degree tears

[sdlaura]

Congrats hangry! Out of curiosity, since you had the baby early in the morning, do you think if you had tried that they would have let you go home that night? I’m trying to figure out how realistic it might be for me to request that if the timing works out.

[hangry]

Apr 29, 2020 19:33:26 GMT -6 sdlaura said:

Congrats hangry! Out of curiosity, since you had the baby early in the morning, do you think if you had tried that they would have let you go home that night? I’m trying to figure out how realistic it might be for me to request that if the timing works out.

My hospital has a policy that they do blood work 24 hours after birth to check bilirubin levels. I, was also gbs+ so I think they monitor for fever/ signs of infection for 24 hours. With all that being said, I never even thought to ask if we could discharge early. So it’s possible they let you, or at the very least, you could discharge against medical advice if it was important to you.

[willow]

hangry That is interesting about the ring of fire thing - I had an epidural and vaginal birth with my first and I don’t remember feeling that. I remember feeling the crazy pressure as I was pushing but maybe I just didn’t know that I was feeling the ring of fire since I haven’t had a med free birth to compare it to lol.

[willow]

My hospital does the 24 hour testing too for the babies so I don’t think we’d have been discharged (if vaginal birth) before that either.

[trtlcrzy]

At my hospital I know there have been people that have gone home same day, but this was before covid so I don’t know if they would allow it how. My guess is you’d have to go back for lab work at 24 hours.

[hangry]

Apr 29, 2020 20:05:41 GMT -6 willow said:

hangry That is interesting about the ring of fire thing - I had an epidural and vaginal birth with my first and I don’t remember feeling that. I remember feeling the crazy pressure as I was pushing but maybe I just didn’t know that I was feeling the ring of fire since I haven’t had a med free birth to compare it to lol.

I’m guessing that there are different ways to do an epidural? Like, my legs felt completely normal. There was a clear segment that was completely numb (sternum to just below bump). I don’t know if that’s normal because my doc was kinda surprised that I needed not just one, but two doses of local anesthetic to sew up my tears. So maybe that’s why I felt more.

[trtlcrzy]

Apr 29, 2020 20:51:51 GMT -6 hangry said:

Apr 29, 2020 20:05:41 GMT -6 willow said:

hangry That is interesting about the ring of fire thing - I had an epidural and vaginal birth with my first and I don’t remember feeling that. I remember feeling the crazy pressure as I was pushing but maybe I just didn’t know that I was feeling the ring of fire since I haven’t had a med free birth to compare it to lol.

I’m guessing that there are different ways to do an epidural? Like, my legs felt completely normal. There was a clear segment that was completely numb (sternum to just below bump). I don’t know if that’s normal because my doc was kinda surprised that I needed not just one, but two doses of local anesthetic to sew up my tears. So maybe that’s why I felt more.

There are definitely different dosages or levels that they set them at and generally it depends on the anesthesiologist. With DD1 I was numb completely and couldn’t feel my legs. With DD2 I was able to move my legs a bit but still didn’t feel anything but pressure while pushing.

[willow]

Apr 29, 2020 20:51:51 GMT -6 hangry said:

Apr 29, 2020 20:05:41 GMT -6 willow said:

hangry That is interesting about the ring of fire thing - I had an epidural and vaginal birth with my first and I don’t remember feeling that. I remember feeling the crazy pressure as I was pushing but maybe I just didn’t know that I was feeling the ring of fire since I haven’t had a med free birth to compare it to lol.

I’m guessing that there are different ways to do an epidural? Like, my legs felt completely normal. There was a clear segment that was completely numb (sternum to just below bump). I don’t know if that’s normal because my doc was kinda surprised that I needed not just one, but two doses of local anesthetic to sew up my tears. So maybe that’s why I felt more.

Oh interesting. For my epidural I was completely numb from the waist down so I couldn’t feel my legs at all, which is probably why I only felt the pressure and not any pain.

[sdlaura]

hangry I’ve been told that if I discharge against medical advice, insurance won’t pay the bill. I definitely don’t want that! We live like a half mile from our pediatrician’s office and a lab so I wonder if they’d let us do bloodwork there.

I’ve never liked staying in the hospital long anyway (i dislike someone showing up to check vitals the second the baby and I finally fall asleep), and then I think I’ll just be on edge more in a hospital setting this time with everything going on...I guess it can’t hurt to ask.

[sdlaura]

Another question hangry - did you tear more or less with the epidural than without (for your previous births)? I haven’t had much tearing with my first 3 births (1 stitch with DD and none with either boy), and I’m wondering if it was because I could feel everything - so didn’t push hard enough to tear. Just a weird theory so figured I’d ask what your experience was..

[danib]

Apr 29, 2020 21:43:07 GMT -6 sdlaura said:

Another question hangry - did you tear more or less with the epidural than without (for your previous births)? I haven’t had much tearing with my first 3 births (1 stitch with DD and none with either boy), and I’m wondering if it was because I could feel everything - so didn’t push hard enough to tear. Just a weird theory so figured I’d ask what your experience was..

Not hangry but I had significant tears with DS1. Like I was a mess. I asked the nurse after how bad it was, she hesitated and said "I've seen worse". I needed internal and external stitches and was 9 months before I was able to have sex again because they accidentally overlapped some layers (yup) because things were so swollen when they were stitching that they basically had to guess what was supposed to be connected...
Anyway DS2 I legit needed 2 stitches, that's it.
I had epidurals for both, so not sure what the difference was. DS1 I pushed for an hour (I did have less feeling with him), but it felt very calm and serene. DS2 I pushed for a few seconds, he was partially out before I even started, and it was intense and super painful. I would have expected the opposite amount of tearing based on how they came out. But my doctor did tell me that you usually tear LESS withh each subsequent birth.

[hangry]

sdlaura I had 4th degree tearing with my first, highly likely because they had to use a vacuum to get him out. (He got stuck and his heart rate was dropping and it avoiding an emerg C). So that tearing obviously had no impact on epidural or not. FTR, I did not have an epidural for that birth.

For my second, I also did not have an epidural and still ended up with second degree tears. My doc said that was likely because of a fast labor. 2.5 hours may not have been enough to fully stretch before pushing her out. I don’t remember if it was along the scar of the first tears or new spots.

Birth 3 did have an epidural and had 2 degree tears. This time, the tears were right along previous scars which the doc said was usual.

So based on my experience, no, I don’t think the epidural had any impact on tearing. I have also heard that tearing in second, third etc births is much less likely because your body already knows how to stretch out.

[sdlaura]

Thanks danib and hangry ! So interesting all the different variables that go into every birth! Also danib the tearing situation with your first birth sounds terrible - I'm sorry you had to deal with that

[danib]

Apr 30, 2020 10:40:26 GMT -6 sdlaura said:

Thanks danib and hangry ! So interesting all the different variables that go into every birth! Also danib the tearing situation with your first birth sounds terrible - I'm sorry you had to deal with that

we were on the verge of surgery to fix it 😬

[sdlaura]

danib, my BFF's husband was recently a juror on a case where they live in Portland, that involved a homebirth gone wrong. The woman's body was so messed up that sex wasn't possible, and she required multiple surgeries. The jury voted to award monetary compensation to both the wife and the husband.

[danib]

Wow that's intense sdlaura. I'm guessing hers was significantly worse than mine. I had my family doctor (who I trust) check it out and she didn't think it was necessarily a case of someone messing up, more likely that I was just so tore up and there was so much swelling that it was hard to know exactly how things should line up. That sounds so bizarre given the topic lol. But anyway, luckily we were able to avoid surgery and all is good now.

[fikafairy]

... and another reason why I'm not mad that all of my births will be c-sections. BIG no thank you to tearing!

[trtlcrzy]

I had epidurals with both of my previous labors. With DD1 I tore, they never told me the degree but I’m guessing 2nd. She was 9lb 3oz and I pushed for 3ish hours.

With DD2 I didn’t tear at all. She was 7lb 10oz and I pushed for 15ish minutes.

I’m hoping #3 will be closer in weight and labor time to DD2 but who knows.

[sdlaura]

I think maybe one reason I haven’t torn is that I’ve never really pushed. My body at one point just sort of took over and there was no way I could have stopped it from pushing, you know? That’s how I ended up having DS2 on the floor

[wasabi]

I had an episiotomy with my first. Which I’ve since heard doctors don’t really do anymore so I don’t know if I just had an old school doctor who didn't get the memo? I don’t know, but I didn’t feel anything then and I can’t tell now so I guess it’s whatever, lol.

[danib]

I saw my OB yesterday at 2:30. She asked if my hip was well enough to do the sweep (we discussed it last week) which it was.
So we did that and she said I was 3cm and 60-70% effaced, and she said she had to be careful not to break my water because it was *right there* and straining. She told me she would not be surprised at all if I went into labour within the day.

So I had a lot of increased pressure from the sweep (I was like shuffling my feet to walk) and then after a few hours started getting small cramps but nothing intense or timeable.

Shortly after 7pm they started getting a bit stronger and more frequent, though still irregular (5 min, 6 min, 10 min, 4 min, etc).

By 9pm they were getting quite painful. But it was weird because I wasn't getting the full belly tightenings that I recognize as contractions. It was really intense pain in my lower stomach wrapping around to my back. They started coming every 2ish minutes and I was struggling to walk so we headed to the hospital and got there around 11pm.

By the time I got through screening and up to the Case Room then hooked up for monitoring it was around 11:30. I got super worried when I looked at the contraction monitor because it really wasn't showing what I was feeling, so I thought they were gonna tell me my uterus was just irritated from the sweep. But when the doctor checked me I was 4cm and fully thinned so that got me admitted.

I got my epidural around 12:30 and the doctor checked me shortly after that once I got comfortable. I was 6cm already and so she broke my water. I had maybe 45 minutes of comfort and I started feeling the pressure and figured things would be happening soon.

At 2am I told my nurse I definitely needed to push and asked that she check me. I was fully dilated and he was right there. So I had a few good pushes. It was sooooo painful because the little rascal turned face up at the last minute and tore me pretty bad. He was born at 2:06 and was absolutely perfect. 8lbs 10ozs and 53.5cm long, he's quite the little chunker.

Already has a fantastic latch. Only concern is he is really big for gestational age so they need to monitor his sugars for a while. I'm feeling pretty good. I have a 2nd degree tear so I'm sure I'll be irritated by that as it starts to heal, and am pretty exhausted because I haven't really been able to sleep yet. Hopefully after lunch I can get a good nap in.

[txaggie08]

danib That's perfect timing with YH coming home.

My DD was a 'big baby' so they had to check her sugars for a while. I hate the heel pricks. ☹️

[sdlaura]

Congrats danib! Sorry about the tearing! We also had to do
Lots of sugar checks because mine was a preemie. Good luck!

[sdlaura]

I realized I didn’t do one of these. Last Thursday night/Friday morning at 36+3 I woke up at 12:15 am and thought I had peed myself a little bit. No big gush or anything. I went to the bathroom and then stood up and more came out. That’s when I realized it wasn’t just pee. Called the on call line and they said to get our stuff together and come in. They explained on the phone that I should go in through the ER and DH should wait in the car while they assessed me and made sure I was staying.

I woke DH up and told him what was happening and we took probably 30 minutes packing and getting ourselves together. My kids are great sleepers and the toddler is locked in his room, so we decided to not wake my parents up right away (their condo is less than 5 min away), and left a note for DD on our bed to call us if she or anyone woke up. My parents already struggle a bit with watching 3 kids and don’t do well on limited sleep.

Went to hospital, DH dropped me off, I got a mask and they took me to L&D. Probably got there between 1:30 and 2 am. Checked me into room, nurse put on PPE and nasal swabbed me for COVID. As she entered more info in the computer the negative result came back and I took my mask off. Then called DH and he came up. I met with midwife and we all talked about what we could do to get contractions going and how long we had till they would worry about infection. Checked me and I was 2 cm. We did spinning babies exercises, took showers, etc etc. it took a looong time to get anything going and was super frustrating. At 5 am we called my parents and they went to our house before the kids woke up.

At like 6 or 7 am the nurse suggested a little balloon In the cervix and they put that in. At probably 9 am the balloon has expanded my cervix to 5 cm but I still wasn’t having regular contractions. We started to talk about a low dose of pitocin. I hadn’t had any meds with my first 3 births (with all of them I just had contractions and didn’t get to hospital till 8/9 cm) and was worried about going natural if I had stronger contractions. I told the nurse I wanted to wait one more hour before deciding. The nurse came back 30 min later to ask if we should start the pitocin. I was nice but wanted to be like ‘what part of we’ll decide in one hour did you not understand?’

At that point luckily things started moving and contractions intensified. So really labor was probably from 10 am on and baby was born at 12:08 pm. I much prefer to go through transition while I had things to do like get to the hospital rather than just sit there on a room while it’s Happening because I noticed the pain a lot more. But then baby was our and all was well except my herniated disc No tearing. We made it clear we wanted to go home ASAP and spent the next 24 hours getting through all the tests and requirements to leave. Got home at 3 pm Saturday.

[wasabi]

So my 36 week us showed that my placenta was still too low lying to attempt a vaginal birth, so I was scheduled for yesterday morning. It was pretty overwhelming because I was sure I had a few weeks left before he was coming.

We got to the hospital at about 5:45am, and they got started with getting my IVs in and then I just had to wait to be wheeled back to the OR. The wait seemed like it was FOREVER. And then the anesthesiologist gave me some Zofran and other nausea type meds in my IV I think, and I don’t know if it was the medicine but shortly after that I got really nervous/uncomfortable. I kept telling myself I’d never do this again, lol. I think I may have gotten in a quick nap before they finally took me back. I got the spinal, which wasn’t bad at all. I was super worried about being able to feel anything during the c/s. But I guess they know what they’re doing, ha. They put the sheet up and got to work. It was incredibly strange feeling them push around But it wasn’t painful. Miles was born at 8:49am and was 6lb 2oz. I was so happy he was bigger than I thought he’d be based on the u/s.

They took him to get all his vitals and everything, and started stitching me up. It felt like it took forever before I finally got to hold him. But soon enough everything was done and we were able to get to the recovery room and just chill. He’s been nursing ok, but he’s very sleepy and doesn’t like to open his mouth too wide so it’s been a little bit of a challenge. I’m sure once my milk comes in it’ll get better. SO has been wonderful with helping.

The recovery so far has been eh. I wasn’t able to pee on my own which was an unexpected issue. Like I had pee but it wouldn’t come out. I guess my bladder got lazy after the spinal. So I had another catheter put in, but they just took it out a few minutes ago and I peed on my own 🙌🙌 I’m super sore but have been trying to move around as much as possible.

Anyway, sorry if that’s a bit all over the place, here’s Milo!

[willow]

Look at the little blondie wasabi! How long did they wait to take your cath out after surgery? I had the pee problem too but the issue was they didn’t wait the 24 hours added surgery to take the initial cath out. Apparently that is the hospital standard and the nurses were doing something different, and the charge nurse got mad when she heard because I had to be given 3 straight caths and then another 24 hour full cath which was all very unpleasant.