Today is my birthday, so I'm going to publish Bubby's birth story.
Around 7:15 Wednesday evening, I started having regular contractions. They weren't very painful, but they were a little intense. Aunt Mo and Uncle B had to go home to have their new water heater installed, so I called my next door neighbor to see if she could stay with Precious until my mom could get to the house. My mom drove in from church and got to the house around 11:30. At 1:30, we left for the hospital.
I went into triage, and my contractions got further and further apart. This was the typical scenario of unfamiliar surroundings slowing down labor... The triage nurse told me they'd give me an hour to walk around to get things going again. Knowing where this was headed from my first labor, I asked her what she would recommend if I wanted to go natural. She told me to labor some more at home, and to come in when contractions were stronger and closer together.
We got back home at 3:00 and collapsed into the bed. I dreamed that someone had punched me in the stomach and broken my water. I woke up at 5:30 thinking, "I wonder if my water has broken?" Sure enough, it had. And that's when the contractions really started getting painful and intense. My technique for dealing with them was this: I set up the husband pillow against a wall and leaned against it for a supported squat during contractions (with the obligatory towel, of course).
When contractions started, I took a deep breath in my nose, and exhaled through my mouth, reminding myself to relax every muscle (and eyebrow) I could think of. This technique that I got from the Sears' book got me through all of my contractions, except for the last two transition contractions. Basically, I looked asleep, in very focused relaxation.
We knew rush hour traffic would be bad on the way to the hospital, and we wanted the trip to be as short as possible. So, we held out at the house until 9:00 that morning.
Triage was packed out, as the hospital was shooting through their previous record of 400-something births per month to 512 for the month of August. So, I had to wait in the second floor waiting room with active labor contractions. It wasn't so bad just sitting in the wheelchair, and I doubt most of the people in the room knew I was about to have the baby. New Daddy brought us snacks from the deli downstairs, because the last time we had eaten was when we woke up at 5:30.
I was in triage for about 30 minutes, where they determined that I was already dilated to a 5, was 80% effaced, with Bubby's head at the minus 2 station. That was very good news. Contractions were 3-5 minutes apart, and very intense.
I got to the labor and delivery room and wanted to try out the jacuzzi for the pain. But then, the doctor wanted to monitor Bubby's heartbeat through some contractions. So, I got on the birthing ball. After I had been on the birthing ball for two, very unmanageable contractions (transition-- but I didn't know it), I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. We ripped off the monitors.
After I got to the bathroom, the nurse checked me and said I was a seven. She left, and I had to push. New Daddy panicked, and I showed him the emergency button next to the toilet. He told the nurse, "She's pushing! Is she supposed to be pushing?"
"I'll be right there!" she responded.
The nurse came running in, muttered an unrepeatable word, and started calling all of the backups she could think of. "Don't push!", she told me.
"I've got to!", I replied with my teeth clenched through the pushing contraction.
"Well, you've got to get off the toilet!"
"You'll have to move me!"
And then, in a miracle-moment, New Daddy whisked me off my porcelain throne, whirled me through the air, and plopped me on the bed in a supported squat, where our son was born no more than a minute later. I had gone from a 7 to delivery in six minutes, and the nurse caught Bubby. The doctor got there in time to deliver the placenta and to congratulate us.
Giving birth naturally was an awesome experience! I'm really thankful for all of the false alarms, because I really was working towards delivery, and the actual event was very short. I was in the labor and delivery room for just a little over an hour. Going natural gave me a much richer experience than being induced and having an epidural, where I was practically asleep during transition. I'm glad to have had it both ways, so I know that going natural was far better for me!
Around 7:15 Wednesday evening, I started having regular contractions. They weren't very painful, but they were a little intense. Aunt Mo and Uncle B had to go home to have their new water heater installed, so I called my next door neighbor to see if she could stay with Precious until my mom could get to the house. My mom drove in from church and got to the house around 11:30. At 1:30, we left for the hospital.
I went into triage, and my contractions got further and further apart. This was the typical scenario of unfamiliar surroundings slowing down labor... The triage nurse told me they'd give me an hour to walk around to get things going again. Knowing where this was headed from my first labor, I asked her what she would recommend if I wanted to go natural. She told me to labor some more at home, and to come in when contractions were stronger and closer together.
We got back home at 3:00 and collapsed into the bed. I dreamed that someone had punched me in the stomach and broken my water. I woke up at 5:30 thinking, "I wonder if my water has broken?" Sure enough, it had. And that's when the contractions really started getting painful and intense. My technique for dealing with them was this: I set up the husband pillow against a wall and leaned against it for a supported squat during contractions (with the obligatory towel, of course).
When contractions started, I took a deep breath in my nose, and exhaled through my mouth, reminding myself to relax every muscle (and eyebrow) I could think of. This technique that I got from the Sears' book got me through all of my contractions, except for the last two transition contractions. Basically, I looked asleep, in very focused relaxation.
We knew rush hour traffic would be bad on the way to the hospital, and we wanted the trip to be as short as possible. So, we held out at the house until 9:00 that morning.
Triage was packed out, as the hospital was shooting through their previous record of 400-something births per month to 512 for the month of August. So, I had to wait in the second floor waiting room with active labor contractions. It wasn't so bad just sitting in the wheelchair, and I doubt most of the people in the room knew I was about to have the baby. New Daddy brought us snacks from the deli downstairs, because the last time we had eaten was when we woke up at 5:30.
I was in triage for about 30 minutes, where they determined that I was already dilated to a 5, was 80% effaced, with Bubby's head at the minus 2 station. That was very good news. Contractions were 3-5 minutes apart, and very intense.
I got to the labor and delivery room and wanted to try out the jacuzzi for the pain. But then, the doctor wanted to monitor Bubby's heartbeat through some contractions. So, I got on the birthing ball. After I had been on the birthing ball for two, very unmanageable contractions (transition-- but I didn't know it), I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. We ripped off the monitors.
After I got to the bathroom, the nurse checked me and said I was a seven. She left, and I had to push. New Daddy panicked, and I showed him the emergency button next to the toilet. He told the nurse, "She's pushing! Is she supposed to be pushing?"
"I'll be right there!" she responded.
The nurse came running in, muttered an unrepeatable word, and started calling all of the backups she could think of. "Don't push!", she told me.
"I've got to!", I replied with my teeth clenched through the pushing contraction.
"Well, you've got to get off the toilet!"
"You'll have to move me!"
And then, in a miracle-moment, New Daddy whisked me off my porcelain throne, whirled me through the air, and plopped me on the bed in a supported squat, where our son was born no more than a minute later. I had gone from a 7 to delivery in six minutes, and the nurse caught Bubby. The doctor got there in time to deliver the placenta and to congratulate us.
Giving birth naturally was an awesome experience! I'm really thankful for all of the false alarms, because I really was working towards delivery, and the actual event was very short. I was in the labor and delivery room for just a little over an hour. Going natural gave me a much richer experience than being induced and having an epidural, where I was practically asleep during transition. I'm glad to have had it both ways, so I know that going natural was far better for me!
Here he is, just born:
Comments
Hmm--not too different from your birth, was it? (grin)
I Love You!