Birth Story! (added PIPs)

[laurack]

my due date (April 12th) came and went. No sign of anything happening. At one week overdue I had my first NST. All is well. A couple days later, another NST and an ultrasound to check fluid levels. All good. In desperation I began to eat a lot of pineapples, do squats, jumping jacks, bouncing, long walks (waddles) etc. etc. Anything! Except sex, lol. I knew at 42 weeks I would no longer be allowed to birth in the center and would have to go to the hospital.

At 41w 5 days I had a dose of prostaglandin gel (cervadil? Not sure if it’s the same thing), followed by an hour of monitoring which was terrible as the gel gave me almost immediate pain and lying there was hard. I left almost in tears but hopeful. It was working, the pain must mean that it was working! After 8 hours or so of increasingly bad pain, it eased off and then.. nothing. The next day I went in for another dose, this time the pain was EVEN WORSE. I swear I’d have taken an epidural if it was on offer. Instead I spent the day in the hot tub moaning and crying. It wasn’t even contractions really because it DIDN’T END. It was just constant terrible pain. Worst two days of my life hands down. That evening I went into the birth center demanding to be checked, convinced I must be several cm due to the horrible pain but nope. It was all for nothing and I was still ~1cm. An hour or so later, the pain subsided again. They gave me an ambien to help me sleep before my induction.

On the morning of the 26th, I checked into hospital at 7am. I was sad, but resigned to my fate. At 8am they started up my Pitocin drip, increasing a little each hour. After six hours of Pitocin I was having mild contractions for which I had no problem just laying down through. I was bored and hungry. I was saving all the music and watching movies etc. for when I had more pain and needed the distraction. Hubby kept eating things that smelled delicious. I was so hungry. Only allowed Italian ice and jello. After a couple of each I felt I’d rather eat nothing, than more of that.

I was checked at 2pm and found to be 3cm. The midwife decided she would break my water and see if that helped, obviously my body was resistant to labor, ha. The water breaking was gross. So much fluid, it just kept coming, ew. Then very shortly after the water breaking the contractions became much more painful. They were very close together, maybe 1-2 minutes apart. I started to walk the halls with all my damned apparatus bending over and breathing through each. Then soon after that I felt like I couldn’t even do that anymore. I began to feel a bit frantic as I wasn’t prepared for this rapid ramping up of pain and for them being so close together. I imagined it being much more gradual. I was bending over crying and moaning a lot. The midwife suggested perhaps I get in the tub so I tried that. Useless because it was a crappy shallow hospital tub not a lovely deep tub like I’d have had at the birth center. At this point I had become kind of a crazy person and my MIL had to leave the room. I was panicked and freaking out. The pain wasn’t what I expected, it was mostly in my back and hips and felt like I was being torn apart. Also at this point they seemed almost on top of each other, the contraction longer than the break. “Where’s my break?!” I screamed. Hahaha. So dramatic now looking back on it.

The midwife was so sweet! She was just amazing. While in the middle of my contraction I would scream, I need the drugs I need the drugs. And she would say “you must ask BETWEEN contractions, then you can have it”. When the contraction ended I would say.. “ok I’ll try one more” then seconds later “I NEED THE DRUGS” hahaha. Due to how crazy I was being, the midwife said she would check me again even though it had been only 1.5 hours since she broke my water and I was 3cm. “8cm” she said “This is transition!” I looked at hubby and cried in relief “I can do it then, I can do it”. I stopped asking for drugs. Shortly after that it was time to push! It was all happening so quickly. I was terrible at pushing clearly. We tried all positions, in the end on my back (the “worst” position) was best and that’s where I spent most of the time pushing. It was over three hours of pushing towards the end I was so exhausted I wanted a c-section. A doctor popped his head in and I may have been demanding a suctioning. The midwife told him that we were fine. I clearly remember the moment when she was crowning, I was told to “not push” for a few seconds but I couldn’t not push, I felt like I was literally being torn in two the pain was so bad! Then, out she came and it was the weirdest feeling. Sudden emptiness. No more pain. It was surreal.

“Let’s check the damage” the midwife said. “Wow. Come see this (to the nurse)” “wow”. What what is it?! I demanded. No stitches needed! I was shocked. Perhaps my very long drawn out pushing, and the midwifes constant massaging down there with oils helped me not tear.

Little Matilda Jane, born April 26th at 6.59pm, 11 hours after first drip of pitocon. 8lbs 20.5inches. A magical day.

I have to say in hindsight that I really think the two days of cervadil pain were worse than my actual labor. I mean obviously the intense pain of transition was unparalleled, but it was short lived which was what enabled me to get through it. I think next time I’ll just skip the gel and if necessary at 42+ weeks just go right to Pitocin. Though HOPEFULLY my next baby will just get the hell outta me after 40 weeks!

[laurack]

holy shiz that's long. Sorry!

[mrsjaymay]

Great story! Congrats on going pain med free! You're a champion!

And I'm pretty sure that Cervidil is something they put in have to remove later. I bet it was p-gel that they gave you. Either way, sorry it was so horrid!

Happy Birthday sweet Matilda!

[Deleted]

Awesome story! And yes newborn photos please

[bean47]

I got a good chuckle at your DH eating delicious things! I'm with Gisa, you need pictures!

[katfco]

Thanks for sharing your story. I love reading all the different experiences people had. I tried the hospital tub too and it was so shallow it felt like I was laying in a puddle (of course, being huge didn't help).

[laurack]

sorry the pips are so crappy they are from my blackberry..

[imimahoney]

Thank you for sharing, great story! What hospital did you deliver at? Anna Jaques is near you, right?

[carawestt]

Nice job on going med free, especially with that damn cervadil and pitocin. Bad quality or not, we need to see newbie Matilda!

[laurack]

Apr 26, 2013 10:14:04 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

Thank you for sharing, great story! What hospital did you deliver at? Anna Jaques is near you, right?

Beverly hospital! It's about a mile from my house!

[shevacc]

You're a rock star, laurack! Great birth story. I was also pretty crazy in transition -- they told me I was going to meet my baby soon and I told them that I didn't care, I just wanted it to be OVER! DH teased me about that afterwards.

I'm with @pcloadletter, where are the cute M pics???

[imimahoney]

Apr 26, 2013 10:18:38 GMT -5 laurack said:

Apr 26, 2013 10:14:04 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

Thank you for sharing, great story! What hospital did you deliver at? Anna Jaques is near you, right?

Beverly hospital! It's about a mile from my house!

Oh, right! So nice that it is so close by. 

[helicase]

You are one tough cookie. Thanks for sharing your story.  Matilda was/is ADORABLE!

ETA: Saw the pics!

[laurack]

Apr 26, 2013 10:19:22 GMT -5 shevacc said:

You're a rock star, laurack! Great birth story. I was also pretty crazy in transition -- they told me I was going to meet my baby soon and I told them that I didn't care, I just wanted it to be OVER! DH teased me about that afterwards.

I'm with @pcloadletter, where are the cute M pics???

I remember hubby saying oh I can see her head, do you want to reach down and feel her head? and I was like "NO!" I was so delirious I didn't give a crap about my darn baby I just wanted it to be over! When they put her on me I was out of it and couldn't even register that this was a BABY!

[ashleydl83]

CH at "I NEED THE DRUGS". I can only imagine all the things L&D people hear.

Matilda is so beautiful!

[carawestt]

So cute!!! She looks exactly the same as she does now.

[laurack]

[charlielove]

Look at her sweet little face! So precious! You are one strong mama for going that long overdue and making it through w/o meds.

[thedahliharpa]

Way to go mama!

I hope you can avoid the cervidal/pit in the future.

Was your birth center affiliated with the hospital? I'm just wondering if you delivered with your MW or if that whole plan got squashed.

[laurack]

Apr 26, 2013 11:52:35 GMT -5 thedahliharpa said:

Way to go mama!

I hope you can avoid the cervidal/pit in the future.

Was your birth center affiliated with the hospital? I'm just wondering if you delivered with your MW or if that whole plan got squashed.

Yes they are affiliated, it's in the hospital campus so if necessary people can be transferred very quickly during labor, and for monitoring they hook you up ever hour I think during labor, for a few minutes and the info is transmitted over to the hospital.

whether you go to hospital or birth center you are attended by the midwife on call.

i really hope I get to go to the center next time!

birth center

[thedahliharpa]

Apr 26, 2013 12:00:47 GMT -5 laurack said:

Apr 26, 2013 11:52:35 GMT -5 thedahliharpa said:

Way to go mama!

I hope you can avoid the cervidal/pit in the future.

Was your birth center affiliated with the hospital? I'm just wondering if you delivered with your MW or if that whole plan got squashed.

Yes they are affiliated, it's in the hospital campus so if necessary people can be transferred very quickly during labor, and for monitoring they hook you up ever hour I think during labor, for a few minutes and the info is transmitted over to the hospital.

whether you go to hospital or birth center you are attended by the midwife on call.

i really hope I get to go to the center next time!

birth center

I hope you do to! It looks awesome.

[Deleted]

Great story! I can't imagine going 42 weeks. You are my hero!

[musiclover]

LOVED this, funny and sweet story
She was such a gorgeous newborn, and wow with no tearing, sooo jealous. I wish I had someone massaging my vag with oils, lol.

[laurack]

Apr 26, 2013 12:44:55 GMT -5 musiclover said:

LOVED this, funny and sweet story
She was such a gorgeous newborn, and wow with no tearing, sooo jealous. I wish I had someone massaging my vag with oils, lol.

Lol! Yes i had planned to do the perineal massage myself while pregnant but I never did as I was a bit weirded out by the idea. But there's no room for feeling weird about things in labor! If I'm gonna poop on the table while my husband watches, I'm sure not gonna feel weird about some lady massaging my vag with oils! Hehe