Post by violajack on Aug 15, 2017 19:28:28 GMT -6
I had trouble with my BP with my first pregnancy and a little bit with my second, so I was excited that it was holding normal this time. At my appointment Monday morning, it had spiked up just over 140 so they wanted me to come back to have it rechecked in triage later than afternoon. At 38w5d, the midwife was pretty sure they'd induce it if was still elevated, so I had my husband drop me off and take the kids home for dinner so he could take care of them while we figured out what was going on with me.
My BP was still elevated, so they put me on the monitors to see how everything was going. I'd been having contractions off and on for a week, and was having quite a bit of bloody discharge from a membrane sweep in the morning. The midwife had checked by feel in the morning and thought the baby was head down, but they still do a quick ultrasound to confirm and they found the head in my right side.
The conversation then changed from do we induce due to BP to talk of a version with immediate induction if successful.
Luckily, I was a good candidate. The baby was only transverse, there was a big pocket of fluid in my pelvis where the head needed to go, and it's my third, so my uterus was already soft. They wanted to try first without the meds to relax the uterus. We had nitrous on standby in case I needed pain relief, but I was able to make it through without and it worked! They got him head down, put me on my side on a monitor and everything looked good, so they put me in a labor room and started pitocin right away to get his head pushed down into the pelvis so he'd stay right way down.
My husband put the kids to bed, called a friend to stay with them overnight, and made it shortly after they moved me to the labor room.
From there, it was a pretty easy progression. Contractions were slow to pick up and become regular, but my water broke on its own a few hours in and then things took off. I got an epidural shortly after and only dealt with about an hour of intense contractions that I had to work through. After the epi, I went from 5cm to baby out in about an hour and a half. I started feeling a lot of pressure through longer contractions, so I called the nurse. She was sure I couldn't be complete yet, but there were some decels so everything went into high gear, another nurse, two doctors, an oxygen mask. They checked and the head was "right there" so 30 seconds of pushing all in one go and he was out.
My husband got to announce the sex and cut the chord and he was able to be home for our kids before they even woke up. 12 hours from showing up in triage to baby out and ready to move to post partum recovery. And because I showed up right before a shift change, I got to spend all 12 hours with the same nurse and she was really great. She listened to everything and really let me stay in control of the whole experience. It was the best birth experience of the three I've had.
Thanks for reading my story!
My BP was still elevated, so they put me on the monitors to see how everything was going. I'd been having contractions off and on for a week, and was having quite a bit of bloody discharge from a membrane sweep in the morning. The midwife had checked by feel in the morning and thought the baby was head down, but they still do a quick ultrasound to confirm and they found the head in my right side.
The conversation then changed from do we induce due to BP to talk of a version with immediate induction if successful. Luckily, I was a good candidate. The baby was only transverse, there was a big pocket of fluid in my pelvis where the head needed to go, and it's my third, so my uterus was already soft. They wanted to try first without the meds to relax the uterus. We had nitrous on standby in case I needed pain relief, but I was able to make it through without and it worked! They got him head down, put me on my side on a monitor and everything looked good, so they put me in a labor room and started pitocin right away to get his head pushed down into the pelvis so he'd stay right way down.
My husband put the kids to bed, called a friend to stay with them overnight, and made it shortly after they moved me to the labor room.
From there, it was a pretty easy progression. Contractions were slow to pick up and become regular, but my water broke on its own a few hours in and then things took off. I got an epidural shortly after and only dealt with about an hour of intense contractions that I had to work through. After the epi, I went from 5cm to baby out in about an hour and a half. I started feeling a lot of pressure through longer contractions, so I called the nurse. She was sure I couldn't be complete yet, but there were some decels so everything went into high gear, another nurse, two doctors, an oxygen mask. They checked and the head was "right there" so 30 seconds of pushing all in one go and he was out.
My husband got to announce the sex and cut the chord and he was able to be home for our kids before they even woke up. 12 hours from showing up in triage to baby out and ready to move to post partum recovery. And because I showed up right before a shift change, I got to spend all 12 hours with the same nurse and she was really great. She listened to everything and really let me stay in control of the whole experience. It was the best birth experience of the three I've had.
Thanks for reading my story!
