Quantcast
Channel: I'll Sleep When They're Grown » hospital
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Guest post: My other cousin’s second birth story.

0
0

You may remember a guest birth post from KE, my other cousin-in-law, in December of 2011.  Well, KE has had her second son and I need to hurry up and finish sewing a baby blanket to send up to her.  (Spoiler alert: I haven’t started.)  She knows how much I covet birth stories and sent me this delightful tale of popping out a human and I almost felt like I was there.  Please do enjoy.  My notes are in green.  ~Jells.

————————

Big brother L and baby R.

Big brother L and baby R.

R’s birth story actually starts way way back, but I’ll give the short version of that. With both of my boys, I did the genetic screening, not because I was worried about either of them having any issues, but because it’s non-invasive, my insurance pays 100% of it, you get a high resolution sono with a DVD, and they can usually tell you the gender at 12 weeks. With R, though, the blood test results said that one of my proteins was in the bottom 5% of the normal range which could put him at risk for low birth weight. The specialist recommended a sonogram with him (and a DVD) every month so he could monitor R’s development. Oh darn, more sonograms! It was extremely evident very quickly, though that this was not the case with my baby. At one point he was measuring close to 3 weeks bigger than average. This (+ the stress of buying, moving into, and having my baby shower at our new house) caused me to start having contractions at most every 30 min around the clock at only 30 weeks. You can imagine the number of times that I convinced myself that R was coming right now. (Um…I would go a little crazy!) At my 35 week appointment, they said that I had already dilated to 1cm and by my 37 week appointment I was at 3, giving me even more evidence that R’s birthday was fast approaching. I had spent close to 9 weeks thinking “any day now”, so by the time I actually did go into labor I didn’t trust myself.  

I went to work that day and I was, of course, having contractions. Some of them were stronger than my normal ones and made me pause for a second, but it wasn’t consistently strong. I had an appointment with my OB that afternoon, so I figured she’d tell me if I was in labor or not and I planned on asking her about inducing me since I was approaching 39 weeks. On the way to the doctor, I tried timing the contractions so that I would have some data for her, but I had a really hard time. They started with back pain, then my belly would tighten, then, with a soft belly I would have sharp pains down the sides or across the bottom of my belly, then more back pain. I couldn’t tell what was part of which contraction!! Ugh.

At my appointment, my doctor checked me, labeled me a “good 3cm”, and stripped my membranes. You’ll have to google that one if you’re curious because I have no clue what that means. (I didn’t have this done but I have known a few real and blog friends to have it done.  The OB or midwife pokes her finger in the cervix and separates the sac from the side of the uterus near the cervix.  The separation releases hormones instead of using Pitocin or the whatnot, which can lead to a snowballing of medical procedures instead of letting mama’s body do what it knows how to do.  *gets off soapbox*)  My doctor said it helps move things along. She told me that I was far enough along that she felt comfortable inducing if I wanted to, and suggested Fathers Day weekend. I very slyly mentioned that the next day was my birthday AND my mom’s birthday. She said we could do that, but we’d have to be sneaky about it. She was booked all day with scheduled deliveries and surgeries, but if I went to the hospital with “a complaint” she could admit me and induce. We were all so excited to have 3 generations all born on the same day!  (And let’s not forget it was my 8th wedding anniversary as well!)

Well, as soon as I left the doctor’s office I could tell that stripping my membranes was indeed moving things along. Stronger contractions, sharper pains. After a trip to Walmart to make sure we had enough food for L, our 18 month old, they were getting to the point where I was having what I call “don’t-touch-me-don’t-talk-to-me” contractions, and I started to think that maybe I was in labor after all!

We went ahead and put L to bed around 8:30, but two 5 minute long contractions later, we called my sister to come stay with him so we could go to the hospital. (This sister is Jamie, whom I’m sure you’re all familiar with by now from her own blog and frequent appearances on ISWTG Blog.)  At this point I was just hoping we would make it to midnight.

By the time we got checked in at the hospital, it was 9:30. The only thing that helped with the pain was to walk around during contractions. (Yes!  Get moving during labor – laying on the bed only makes you get tense and it’s much harder to endure.)  The very sweet nurse tried to tell me that I had to lay on my back in the bed for about 20 min so she could get an accurate reading on my contractions. After watching me attempt to do this one time, she said I could at least sit up. My fantabulous husband, B, swooped in with some lower back massage that helped me make it through the contractions while sitting down. This became my new favorite coping technique since I could slump all of my body weight on B and focus only on my belly. While trying to ask me the hospital admission questions, the nurse realized that maybe I was further along than anticipated and moving rather quickly. She stopped with the questions and decided to see how much further I had progressed. I was at 5cm. I’m pretty sure I asked for the epidural not long after. At some point the nurses moved me to a bigger, better equipped room closer to the nurse’s station. After that, I had 3 nurses on me trying to take blood, hook me up to the IV, get the supplies together and get ahold of the doctor on call. The anesthesiologist came before they ever got all of my blood work back and my mom followed him in the door. My mom! Thank goodness!

B left me to my mom while the anesthesiologist did the epidural. He went to make phone calls and send texts to family (and of course post something on Facebook!) It had all happened so fast we didn’t have time to tell anyone that R was coming!

The doctor came in while I was getting the epidural and as soon as that was done, she wanted to check me again. She asked me if I wanted her to break my water and “move this thing along.” It was somewhere close to 10:15 or 10:30, so I told her about the birthdays and that I was hoping to make it another hour and a half or so. She admitted to me that she wasn’t sure I would make it that long. I was in no state to make decisions. I told her I would do whatever she suggested. So she checked me, and in about an hour, I had gone from 5cm to almost 9cm! This confirmed her suspicions, so she broke my water. I was still feeling some pain with my contractions even with the epidural. I felt some serious pressure on my tail bone that hurt very badly. I told the nurse this, and suddenly the doctor was back and they were telling me it was time to push! Wait, what? The epidural was supposed to slow things down! Where was my break from the pain?! This is where my memory goes seriously fuzzy. I know it hurt. A lot. I know they pulled some handles out of the depths of the bed for me to pull on. They helped for a bit, but then I pulled so hard my arms went numb and I had to quit using them. I know the doctor told me to get mad and cuss. Big time. I screamed the F word and that helped too. I could feel myself making progress in pushing. R was moving down the birth canal. After 10 contractions or so, maybe 30 pushes, the doctor told me to look down and I saw her pull him out. He was screaming bloody murder from the second his head came out. They did their checks on him, then laid him on my chest. He looked just like his big brother. He was 7lbs 12oz and 19.5 in long. And the little stinker came at 11:15 pm, just 45 min shy of my birthday. It was less than 4 hours between the onset of (painful) labor and R’s arrival.

While they were cleaning up the room, the nurse finished my hospital admission records. She told me that she didn’t think the epidural had really kicked in at all. I have to say, I agree. I am a self-proclaimed weenie when it comes to pain. I was begging for the epidural at 4cm with my first baby. I kinda feel like Wonder Woman now.

R1

R2

That’s a big baby for being over a week early!  Good job, mama!  Now, I’m going to say it because I just can’t help myself – I told you that you could do it without the help of an epidural!  And you’re so (rightly) proud of yourself for doing it!  He’s gorge, KE.  Just gorge.  I can’t wait to come up there to meet him and hold that baby.  If memory serves, when I came up to Denton and held baby L at 6 weeks, it was the week I found out I was preggo.  I took the test at Jamie’s house, in fact.  But I did swoop in and get him to sleep on my shoulder.  I felt pretty awesome at my baby whispering techniques even though I had a toddler EB at that point.  

Thanks for sharing, KE!  Congrats!

Jells



Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images