Finally, my birth story. This is my birth story and I’m writing a Hospital Story on a different post because all of that needs to be said for sure. For now though here’s my birth story!
The day of my induction [May 1] I was, needless to say, very nervous. I was ready but also very anxious. My induction was scheduled for 8pm, so my husband [Ryan] and I went to town a little early just to hang out and spend some time together. He was trying to ease my jitters but I couldn’t stop thinking about 8pm. He was so sweet and took me out to my favorite restaurant.
I don’t know if it was nerves or the real thing, but I did begin having some very mild contractions the morning of my induction.
8:00pm May 1: We get to the hospital, get checked in and I’m whisked away to put on a gown and get into the hospital bed. The labor and delivery room was on the small side which I really liked- I’m not good with hospitals so it made it feel less “medically”
8:30pm May 1: I have a thing stuck in my arm, which I hated. I have very small veins and it’s always a pain in the ass for anyone to stick me. Luckily though the lady was really nice and found one on the first try. She numbed the area with a shot first because apparently the needle or whatever was really big.
Right after that, my midwife Meg inserted the cervidil, gave me a sleeping pill and told me to get some rest.
8am May 2: Some mild cramping but nothing intense. Meg checks my cervix and I’m only 2cm. Discouraging. She then inserted cerva…something else that’s in pill form and dissolves. It’s supposed to be a lot stronger and should move and soften my cervix more.
11AM May 2nd: I’m having real contractions now. They’re not crazy intense, but they’re bad enough that I need to breathe through them. They were coming at 2-3 minutes apart. I had Ryan put in a CD I bought of “Relaxing Rain”… Sounds of the rain with soft piano in the background. It sounds hoaky but it actually helped. An annoying part about this stage was that everyone and their mom was trying to come in to see me. I think everyone expected things to happen really quickly, which just made me feel like I wasn’t doing good enough. And really, I’m having contractions, who tries to come see you when you’re having contractions? The only people I wanted with me were Ryan and my mom. I know everyone was just trying to be a support but it led me to a mini break down. At one point I got up to walk and just stopped and cried on Ryan’s shoulder. Sobbing saying I didn’t think I could do it. Like saying that would do anything, I know, but it was just going by sooo slowly and painfully. My midwife came back and helped talk me down. She said I felt like a watched pot and needed room to breathe- so I’m pretty sure she has something to do with everyone randomly disappearing, which I appreciated.
4pm May 2: Contractions are still 2-3 minutes apart and intense. Meg says they need to be more regular and starts me on Pitocin. Which scared the crap out of me, but she assured me she was starting it on 2 [whatever that means?] and wasn’t trying to rush the baby out like most doctors would, she just wanted the contractions to be more consistent. They try to insert it into the thing in my arm and it wouldn’t work for some reason. 3 people came and poked around trying to figure out why it wouldn’t go into my veins. They called the IV Team [am i the only one who finds that they call themselves that hilarious?] and this obnoxious redneck woman tries pulling at it. “Oh I got it now” … “Ooops, pulled to far… I’m going to have to try to stick you some place else.” Are you kidding me? I’m in hardcore labor. Remember they “numb” the area with a shot each time. This bitch stuck me (not including the “numbing shot”) (Which hurt like hell btw) NINE times. NINE times trying to find a vein. This is the only time I got snappy with the staff. She was standing right there and I was crying and battling contractions and angry. I remember saying to my midwife ” Can we please just get the lady in here who did it before- the one who actually KNEW what she was doing.” That made redneck woman mad and she jumps in ” She’s busy right now” And I;m like I don’t give a… yeah. Anyway the lady I wanted came in with an ultrasound machine and found a vein. Then the Pitocin got going. Gah.
7pm May 2: This is “2”?! Holy crap. Each contraction hurt worse than the last. I was gripping my mom and Ryan’s hand through each one. Trying to breathe. Trying to imagine a beach. Anything just to get through. In between a contraction I got up to use the bathroom. I waddled back, toting my pitocin behind me. I started a contraction and sat on the edge of the bed. Mid contraction I felt a gush. The more intense the contraction got the more water gushed into the floor. My water broke. This was some encouragement i needed. I was glad my water wouldn’t have to be manually broken.
9pm May 2: These are the most intense contractions I’ve had. They were consistently coming and more painful each time. I had to breath through each one. Ryan or my mom would hold my hand, sometimes it would help to have Ryan breathe with me. The room felt so hot but the nurses and Ryan were wearing jackets because they said my room was really cold- I didn’t think so, I remember sweating like crazy.
9:30pm May 2: I’m having a lot of pain [obviously]. Meg checks my cervix and I’m 4CM dilated! Score. She tells me I can have an epidural if I’d like. Yes, I’d like, I’d love actually. Love everything except the needle in my spine thing but no pain sounds amazing.
9:45pm May 2: I hate needles. The only thing ok with the epidural needle is that it goes in behind you, so you don’t see it. The epidural man came in the room and started getting set up. He told me to sit on the edge of the bed and arch my back like a cat. This was very difficult to do with crazy kill you contractions. Staying still was close to impossible, but burying my head in Ryan’s chest and grabbing onto some random nurse’s hand I somehow managed to stay still enough for him to insert it. DEAR GOD it hurt. It was such a weird sensation. It felt like a needle going into my spine. This is where I was completely ridiculous. I was saying [loudly] “We’re never having sex again.” and “I don’t like you epidural man I don’t like you at all.” My mom and midwife were covering their mouths to keep from laughing. At the moment I was dead serious though.
10pm May 2: I apologize to epidural man and tell him I like him. I tell him I like him VERY much. No pain. It was wonderful. My midwife told me to sleep, and upped the pitocin. From then on out the pitocin was upped every couple of hours. My legs were numb. Such a strange feeling. The nurse had to empty my bladder with a catheter. I don’t want to think about how this was done. I held Ryan’s hand and thankfully felt nothing. She did this every four hours. I was able to sleep. I actually think that was the last time I was able to sleep to this day lol.
6am May 3: Something’s wearing off. I feel pressure and on coming contraction. The nurse calls the epidural man and he gives me a more concentrated dose of epi and it’s all ok. They also show my a button I can push every ten minutes to give me more epidural juice. Seriously? A button I can push for more!!? Exciting.
8am May 3: Meg checks my cervix. It doesn’t hurt this time. I’m limp and numb. Something close to being drunk only a LOT better ha. Meg says I’m NINE CM!!!!! 9!!!!!! The thought still gets me excited. Meg’s off duty now and has to go take appointments. The next midwife is my 2nd fav, Alisa, And she’s amazing. I think I prefered her above everyone for the pushing part.
9am May 3: Alisa comes in and I tell her and the nurse that my epidural is wearing off, I can feel pressure from contractions, they tell me this is good. That’s not good are you kidding me!? This is a bug reason why I wanted an epidural- for the pushing a kid out of my vagina part!? I look for my button- and they’ve taken it away!? Bitches! Really though, it was good I could feel just what I needed to. I needed to feel contractions so could push.
Watching the contraction screen, and listening to my body, Alisa tells me when to push. My mom holds back a leg and Ryan holds back a leg and I take a deep breath and push. Alisa is amazing. She lets me go at my own pace, she doesn’t raise her voice, she stays amazingly calm which helps me to no end. All she says is “You’re doing great” “Push push push keep going you can do it” and she says it very softly. As the head gets further down the nurse brings in a mirror. I didn’t think I wanted a mirror, but I did want to see the head crowning. That’s all I wanted to see. I just wanted to see that I was getting somewhere.
Alisa is rubbing arnica oil around where the baby’s head is crowning and I really think this helped me from tearing too badly. The nurse wheeled in a cart with scissors and other things and I was like “Oh please don’t cut me.” lol I think I meant “I really don’t want an episiotomy.” But whatever. Alisa was like “Oh don’t worry I’m not- I haven’t done one of those in almost 10 years!” Amazing my midwives are. The scissors and stuff was for the baby’s cord. I was that close.
I felt a big contraction coming on and with a strength I didn’t know I had in me I pushed as hard as I could. I just closed my eyes and pushed and imagined my little girl entering the world. Then, in an instant, I hear a sweet little cry and I feel her body leaving me and being placed on my stomach, cord still attached. She was so warm and precious. I cried so hard. I didn’t know I’d get so emotional. But I put my hands around her sweet chubby, wet, little body and sobbed. “Hello there, hey sweetie.” That’s all I remember saying to her and she stopped crying.
After the cord stopped pulsing, Alisa clamped it and Ryan cut it. When they lifted her up I got to see her sweet face. Her chipmunk cheeks and double chin were the cutest most precious things I’ve ever seen. She was truly beautiful. Breath-takingly beautiful.
While Ryan got to hold her for the first time. I pushed out the placenta and Alisa said it, and the cord looked amazing. After that wasn’t so wonderful, as the nurse pushed extremely hard on my tender uterus to expel some blood clots. This hurt almost worse than labor, no exaggeration. It was terrible. She kept forcing her weight down onto my lower abdomen and it hurt like nothing else. But she did get all of the blood out and my uterus began to shrink down some.
Alisa told me I had some minimal tearing and said she could do little stitches and stitch it up if I wanted, or I could just “keep my legs closed” and it would heal on its own. Uh, I vote keep my legs closed. So thankfully I didn’t tear really.
After Ryan held her I got her back and was able to nurse her. She latched right away and was very alert and awake. So sweet. She was born May 3, 2010 at 11:26AM. They weighed her and my chunky monkey weighed 8lbs 2oz, 20in long and her head was 14in around. She’s so sweet, she has little rolls. She’s like a water baby. I love it.
After that it was a blur. I was overwhelmed with all I needed to process, really.. And partially drugged out on epidural. I couldn’t move my legs, so the nurses had to wheel me into the bathroom to pee. That was a task for my fat butt. I was forced to weigh and I gained 80 POUNDS this pregnancy. 80 pounds. Jesus. Well worth it, but dang, I have my work cut out for me. (I’ve already lost 30 though, somehow, by the way, go me.)
Anyway, I may add to this later. I don’t expect anyone to read the whole thing- this is more me processing than anything. Daisy is beautiful. I’m totally in love. I knew I’d love her, I didn’t expect to FALL in love with her though. She’s so beautiful.
Over all I feel her birth was great. A lot of pain, a lot of waiting, but I felt supported and safe and I’m fortunate I didn’t have to have anything major done. Plus, I got an adorable pudgy baby.
Chronicles of my life as a new mom soon to come (:
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