Go Veg

The Road to Vegetaria
2007-09-11 13:06:10 (UTC)

Birth Story

So Thursday afternoon after my membrane sweep I was having
very mild
contractions that just felt like menstrual cramping. They
picked up in
intensity around 10:30pm. I tried to sleep but couldn't. I
got Jon around
11:30 and he rubbed my back through them. I had some
diarrhea, yay. Jon
called our doula to give her a heads up. I decided to start
timing them
around 1am and they were at least 1 minute long, coming
every 3-5 minutes.
We called my midwife's practice and they told us to come to
the hospital.
I told Jon that I was pretty sure I'd be getting an
epidural, I think
because I was scared ... I knew the pain wouldn't be getting
any better.
In retrospect, I was doing fine handling the contractions,
but my fear
took over.

We got to the hospital close to 2am. The doula showed up and
we got
settled into a room. I was 4cm. I had to get hooked up to
the fetal
monitor, which sucked, because I think the added pressure
from the belly
band that held them in place made my pain a little worse. I
was getting
through the contractions alright, though I was still sure I
wanted an
epidural. My doula suggested waiting a bit, so I did. I
labored mostly in
bed while being monitored, and that made the pain worse. At
one point I
went to the bathroom and lost what looked like 15 mucous
plugs. ;)
Seriously, I couldn't believe the size of what came out of
me. I was
having trouble peeing, I just couldn't get much out.

My doula and Jon were so awesome. Although I usually wanted
to smack my
poor doula.... during contractions she'd quietly say "you're
doing this
for your baby, release the tension in your hands, let your
belly do the
work" and I just wanted to tell her to shut up. But when she
breathed and
moaned with me, it really did help to have that to focus on.

I was still asking for medication, and I almost gave in to
Stadol, but Jon
reminded me that I really wanted to avoid that, so I agreed
to wait until
the OB from my practice got there before getting the
epidural. The happy
medicine man even showed up and I had to send him away.

I finally did get the epidural at 7cm, around 5am. My doula
told me how
great I was doing handling the contractions, but I just
wanted to be done
with it all. I knew it would be getting much worse before it
got better
and I felt like I wanted to enjoy the birth and not be so
tense and
worried about the pain.

Once the epidural kicked in I definitely felt better and
relaxed in bed. I
was still contracting on my own, but labor slowed down. I
started to worry
that things wouldn't end well. They started a pitocin drip
to move things
along. I made it to 9cm and was so happy that Maya would
soon be here.
Then I somehow went back to 8cm and got stuck there. Also,
the monitor
kept showing Maya's heart rate slowing down with
contractions. They had me
change positions and flip sides and that did help. They also
had me
breathe oxygen and that helped a bit took.

At one point, I could hear the monitor's alarm go off and
all the nurses
and stuff rushed in and had me flip to the other side,
quickly. I got
scared... I just wanted Maya safe. Her heart rate had dropped
dramatically, but recovered a bit. I was back up at 9cm and
the doctor
decided that she wanted me to push. I heard the nurse say
that she thought
I could do it, and that gave me so much confidence. I really
wanted to get
her out vaginally.

Pushing is HARD. It's exhausting. I pushed through 3 or 4
contractions (I
don't know how some of you ladies managed to push for
hours!!!), and I was
feeling quite a bit of pressure so I was trying to work with
that and each
time Maya's heart rate dropped. The doctor thought that the
cord was
probably in a weird spot and getting compressed by the
contractions and
the pushing. She wanted to do a c-section.

I was really disappointed. My doula was so great, though.
She also had a
labor where she got an epi and ended up with a section, and
she was so
calming. I think I might've freaked out without her there.
Jon got changed
into scrubs and I was wheeled into the OR. I had been
shaking for a little
while -- I think that's a reaction to the epidural. So, I
was still
breathing like I was getting through contractions, trying to
calm myself
down. The experience of being in the OR was totally weird.
My happy
medicine man was there, though, and he was actually really
calming. He
upped the dosage so that I felt nothing (before I'd been
feeling my legs a
little). I was prepped, and Jon came in and they started. I
talked to him
through it to keep myself distracted. Lots of tugging and
pressure, it
felt so bizarre.

Finally, I felt a ton of pressure and pulling... and out she
came. I could
hear her little cries! Jon peeked over the curtain and was
crying, telling
me she's here. I saw her a little when they brought her to
be suctioned
and stuff. I was crying, asking if she was ok. She was. I
was so happy...
so happy. She was so beautiful and alert.

Jon went with her to the nursery to get her vitals done. She
got a 9 for
each Apgar. She was 7lbs 2oz, 20 inches long, born at
10:13am. I got
stiched up and wheeled back into my labor room. I rested,
but I just
couldn't wait to see Maya.

They brought her back in to me after about an hour. Jon and
my doula and
my were there too. She was so alert! And was rooting like
CRAZY. She kept
opening her little mouth and sticking out her tongue. I
immediately wanted
to feed her. The LC had stepped out for a second so I just
stared at her
while she was in my arms for a while. My doula was awesome.
I can't
believe how helpful she was thoughout the whole experience.

I tried to feed her after the LC came back. We hand
expressed some
colostrum and she seemed interested in that, but it turns
out I have
pretty flat nipples. Damn nips!! So I used a nipple shield,
which worked
like a charm.

We got settled in our postpartum room, made phone calls to
our families,
sent out texts, etc. The next few days are kind of a blur.
Her first day
and night were difficult. She was adjusting to life in our
world, and we
were trying to figure out what she needed. She cried a lot
and was
extremely fussy. Feeding wasn't always easy and she seemed
to get
frustrated a lot. She kept us up almost the entire first
night, and then
managed to conk out for 4 hours between 4 and 8am. The nurse
told us we'd
have to wake her up for a feeding, but there was no way in
hell we were
doing that.

The next day was great, and the rest of our time there was
pretty good
too. Maya seemed to pick up breastfeeding pretty well,
though sometimes
she still gets fussy when trying to latch. My milk came in
Sunday
afternoon. They were a little worried because she wasn't
peeing, but after
my milk came in that moved things along nicely. She started
gaining weight
back on Sunday I think.

We had Jon's parents visit Saturday and Sunday, but no other
visitors.
Recovering from the surgery has been really difficult for
me. Jon has been
absolutely amazing. I'm feeding her and sometimes holding
her for a while
after feedings, but he's doing everything else, and he's SO
good at it!
She responds to him in such an incredible way.

It's really hard for me to not be able to do what I want to
do, like pick
her up, change her, etc. It's hard for me to sleep because I
can't find
any position that's really comfortable. I'm taking pain
medication and it
does help, but it's still hard. I get my stitches out
Wednesday. I hope
this all starts getting easier soon.

Jon and I are so incredibly in love with this baby.




Ad: