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My birth story!
Hi ladies!
Thanks to Karllen for letting you all know my daughter was (finally!) born! We are home and doing great, and she is adorable. :-) I wrote up my birth story for the bump, so here it is if anyone is interested:
Sorry, it's long! I'm writing it also for myself so that I can remember everything that happened - I absolutely loved my labor experience and I don't want to forget a second of it!
My due date was August 31. On September 7, a full week late, I went to the doc for an NST and a BPP. Everything looked great, and the doc was fine with me waiting it out a bit, with an induction scheduled on September 12 if nothing had started by then. I was 2 cm dilated, which was exciting because I had been ?fingertip? or 1 cm since 36 weeks. During the exam, the doc stripped my membranes and tried to stretch me a bit, to see if he could get anything going. He gave strict ?doctor?s orders? to eat a spicy meal and have sex that night, and was hopeful that that would work.
I had consistent BH contractions throughout the rest of the day (about 8 minutes apart) but they weren?t painful so I wasn?t that optimistic that things were getting started. That night, DH and I followed the doctor?s orders and went to sleep. I woke up at 2:30 am with what I thought was a tummy ache due to the spicy Thai curry I had, went to the bathroom and tried to go back to bed. But that wasn?t going to happen ? I realized that my ?tummy ache? was actually coming in pretty consistent waves, so I got out of bed, turned on an episode of Law & Order, and decided to time them. At this point, I felt like I was having a really bad reaction to spicy food, and the pain was coming about 4 minutes apart. After an hour of this, I decided to wake DH. My doc had said to call if the contractions were five minutes apart, one minute each, for one hour ? but I really was still not 100% sure that I wasn?t just having a stomach ache from dinner!
DH and I sat in the living room and continued to time the contractions ? now they were getting stronger and only 3 minutes apart. We called the doc and he told us to head to the hospital, so we started getting ready. It was so surreal and we were surprisingly calm ? DH took a shower, I did my makeup (I wanted to look nice in all the pictures!), we fed the cats?.finally we got out the door and were on our way.
We got to the hospital around 4:30am and were in a room by 5:00. At this point the contractions were extremely intense. The doctor checked me and I was dilated to 4 cm. When I first arrived, I told them I wanted to hold off on the epi for a little longer, but within minutes I was ready for it! The biggest problem I had was that they were forcing me to lie down because they were not getting a good read on the baby?s heartbeat when I was standing, but laying down made the contractions feel ten times worse and actually last a lot longer.
They tried to get my IV started, but since I was so swollen, three different nurses poked me in five different places before they were able to get it in. That was the most painful part of the labor! Finally, at 6:40, the anesthesiologist came in and by 7:00 I was on my way to blissful numbness! The worst part of the epi was staying still during the contractions, other than that it did not hurt a bit!
After the epi, the doc checked me again and I was already at 6 cm. But the baby was still very high up, at -2 station. By 8:30, I was 9 cm, and by 9:30 I was completed dilated and effaced. I was so proud of my body for moving so quickly all on its own, even after I got the epidural! But, since the baby was still high, I couldn?t start pushing until I felt a little pressure which would mean she was moving down.
A little after 10:00 I told the doc I felt some pressure ? I was seriously numb so it was slight, slight pressure, but it was something. So, we started pushing. It was nothing like I expected! I would tell the doc when I felt the pressure, she would confirm a contraction was coming by looking at the monitor, I would do three or four big pushes and then I would rest and we would all chat! Super calm and laid back in between contractions ? with DH at one leg, the nurse at the other, and the doc down below, we were calmly chatting like we were in a coffee shop!
The doc kept asking me to push a little further each time, because she wanted to get the baby?s head past my pelvic bone so she?d stop sliding back up after each push. Finally, she was past it. I did a big push and the doctor told me to stop. Then she asked me to do one more little push ? and Gabriella literally flew out of me! DH said my face was priceless ? neither of us realized how close she was to being born, so to see her in the doctor?s arms all of a sudden was a shock! My first words to DH were something along the lines of ?Shut up!! How did that just come flying out of me????
Gabriella Anna was born at 10:50, after 40 minutes of pushing and 8 hours of labor. She had had a bowel movement in utero, so they had to suction her up right away to make sure no meconium got in her lungs. But she came out kicking and screaming (the doctor actually said to her ?Stop screaming for a second, I need to suction you!?) and got a 9/9 on her APGAR test. At birth she was 8 lbs 1 oz, and 20? long. I had a second degree tear which is not bad considering how fast she came out!
She is beautiful and perfect and her father and I are completely in love with her.
Re: My birth story!
Bubblegum Explosion
Our New Home! Renovation Underway! The Law Nest
TTC Journey
7/2008 - begin TTC
7/2009 - began charting
9/2009 - Dx Endometriosis
10/2009 - HSG/SA (Normal)
12/2009 -6/2010 - Lupron #1 & 2
Sep-Nov 2010- Clomid Cycles #1&2 = BFN
Dec 2010 - Clomid Cycle #3 = BFP (1/11/11);no h/b (2/10/11); D&C (2/23/11)
5/11-6/11 - herbal tea regime = BFN
7/24/2011- herbal tea regime = surprise BFP
Emerald Nuts Midnight Run (4m) 1/1/12
Coogan's Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks Run (5k) 3/4/12
Colon Cancer Challenge (15k) 4/1/12
Purple Stride NYC (5k) 4/21/12
Run to Combat Autism (5k) 4/29/12
RnR Philadelphia (Half Marathon) 9/16/12
LOL. My thoughts too! Again, congrats!
Congratulations to you and your husband and your beautiful Gabriella. When reading your birth story, it brought back a few memories for me. Although my son was born many years ago, there are some things that I can remember about his birth...especially the part about having sex to stimulate the process. I also woke up in the middle of the night with a stomache-ache, thinking it was the huge hero and potato salad that I had for lunch. Boy was I wrong!. Instead I got a beautiful baby boy.
I am glad that all went well for you and that you and the baby are fine. Much love, laughter and happiness for your new family.
Wow, how awesome!! Congrats to you guys!!
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Congratulations!! She's absolutely beautiful!
And I have to agree - reading your birth story brought back all the memories of my birth. I had a very similar experience of calmly chatting in between contractions! haha. Great story and I can't wait to see more baby pics!!
Happy Birth Day Gabriella!!