October 2012 Weddings
mana8503
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
E's Birth Story (cookies to anyone who makes it through, LONG)
Eliza's birth story:
Sunday night, while reading before bed I started to have pain. After real (pitocin) contractions, I can't even tell you they were different from the Braxton Hicks ones I was having for weeks. Jeff went to get up for work, and I told him I wasn't sure if that was a good idea. His run was 5 stops in Richmond (4 ish hours away). So he called off work that night. We walked they got stronger and time-able, so I was sure it was the real things. Nope, they fizzled out even after walking another lap around the block. So I went back to bed around 2.
After breakfast the next morning, I decided to walk the baby out. I did 3 laps, which is about a mile. Gave up, and we watched some OITNB. 1130, Jeff got his run for that night and we went to take a nap. While reading I felt the gush. I told Jeff I either peed myself or my water broke. I have NEVER seen Jeff get out of bed so fast! He was up getting me a towel, and getting dressed telling me to call the doctors. I just sat on the toilet dumbfounded lol. I called the nurses line and actually got a person not a machine! Told them water broke and they told us to go on down to L&D!
In triage, we found out I wasn't even 1 cm dilated and no contractions. The stop watch started though since my water broke. I got to my room and they started my penicillin (I was group b strep positive) and pitocin. I started having contractions, but with pitocin, I couldn’t walk around because I was hooked up to the monitors. When they got stronger I asked for the birthing ball. I used an exercise ball at home so I knew this helped relieve some pressure.
I was getting a lot of back pain, which turned into full on back labor around 9 pm (when the Eagles started playing). I do not wish this on ANYONE. I asked for the epi then, but they wanted me to labor on my own until 5 cm, which was my plan, but MAN I was not progressing and the midwife didn’t want to keep checking me with the GBS, which I never heard of, and I was running a slight fever.
Then I got the shakes. They checked my blood sugar, and it was a little low so I got to have a turkey sandwich, which I really don’t remember eating. It didn’t help the shaking and they said some people just shake during labor. This slowed down after the epi, but never stopped until a few hours after delivery.
I don’t remember anything but pain from there until I got the epi around 1130 (when the Eagles game was over). I was like what?! They just started playing. My back pain was so intense they showed Jeff a spot on my back and another on my hips to push when the contractions started that helped, sometimes. So I was just yelling “BACK” “FRONT” “HIPS” “GET OFF ME”. Back/hips when I wanted him to push there, front when the contraction wasn’t in my back, and get off me when nothing is working and I didn’t want to be touched.
I think I was crying for the epi at that point. Only the nurse could be with me, and by that time she was my BFF. I seriously just cuddled into her arms while I got epi. And finally, the pain was manageable. And by manageable I mean - I didn’t feel a thing. Nurse wanted me to sleep, but I couldn’t… I kept making sure Eliza was doing ok on the monitor. Nurse finally said sleep, but if you see me reach for this packet then things are bad. So I slept, well, between her 30 min checks.
Around 1 am, she came flying in and put an oxygen mask on me and said she’ll explain in a minute. Longest few minutes of my life. Here the pitocin was giving me 6 back to back contractions that I couldn‘t feel with the epi, and that wasn’t giving E enough time to breath and her heart beat dropped. So nurse turned the pitocin off until the midwife came to assess. They let E rest and restarted the pitocin at a very low dose and started to up it back up.
By 8, They finally rechecked my progress - 6 cm. They said if it was 0 progress I was getting a c section. So I was happy for that 1-2 cm difference. It was also shift change for the midwife and it was my favorite one. The other one was ok, but this one was WAY more personable. Around 9 my blood sugar dropped again, so I got apple juice :-D.
By 10, I started getting the urge to push and nurse checked me and said I was 10 cm! I was so happy! We got ready, did some practice pushes, waited for midwife. Did some real pushes, and she checked where the baby was. That’s when she found a small lip of cervix left. She wanted me to try and not push until it was gone. By this time my epi wore off, but I didn’t say anything thinking I was pushing and I’d be ok. No epi, pitocin contractions = hell again. And since I started pushing my body kept waiting to, but they said pushing could inflame the lip. I was crying trying not to push. Finally nurse had me on all fours, yea modesty is totally out the window, and with every contraction pushing on my back. That somehow stopped the urge to push.
At 1-130, they checked me again - lip is way bigger than they thought. I was 25 hours after my water broke, fever was still there, and E’s heart beat was still dropping with contractions. They gave me oxygen again, and Midwife suggested a c section because we were both not in good shape anymore and with no progress. I cried. And not even because I had my heart set on a vaginal birth, but I got so far and felt like I was quitting. Jeff and I talked and he begged me to do it so we both would be ok.
They re-dosed my epi, but now I was numb from the boobs down. I got rolled into OR, and I think the anesthesiologist felt bad for me. I couldn’t stop crying or shaking, everything from the last 25 hours hit me. I just wanted Jeff back with me. Anesthesiologist got glauze to wipe my eyes for me and kept saying I‘d be ok. Even the midwife came back to tell me it was all ok. Then Jeff came in looking like the Michelin man. He had this white suit on, white hair net and had to have another hair net around his beard. I laughed, only he could find a way to make me laugh at a time like that.
They checked I couldn't feel, then at 2:04 on Sept 16th, we heard Eliza cry. And I cried harder immediately. Jeff just laughed and said that’s our baby girl! I wanted to see her so bad, Jeff was peaking over telling me she had hair, and the nurses were saying how beautiful she was. They handed her to him and he just looked and looked at him. He was talking and she just listened, no crying. Then he moved her to see me, and it was the best moment of my life. I told her that her daddy wasn’t the Michelin man, I promise.
They rolled me over to the bed again, and I looked over and saw Jeff giving the baby to the midwife and sitting down. He doesn't do well with blood that‘s not his, and saw the instruments on the trays… BUT he didn't pass out. I got our baby after that. In recovery, I finally got my skin on skin, and we started nursing right away. A lactation consultant came in to help. One good thing about the c section was I was in the hospital until Friday, so I got all the help I needed breastfeeding. My parents came back to recovery to see our new addition. Then she got a bath, and we were settled into our room again. That night I got my favorite nurse again and she was such a big help along with Jeff being the perfect daddy.
So, all in all, nothing like I thought. But like the nurse told me, it’s not the journey it’s the destination. We are both healthy and that’s all that matters.
Re: E's Birth Story (cookies to anyone who makes it through, LONG)
So happy you and baby are doing well. I got a little teary eyed reading that. Congrats and she is super adorable. Enjoy your time home with her, I hope you have a long mat leave!
Thank you for sharing, i got teary eyed at the end too!
I also was given pitocin bc I wasn't progressing and my water had broken and back labor, its NO joke!
And ladies, I highly recommend an epidural!
@WillyH19 I am jealous of you. I really wanted to go med free, but it didn't work out for us