So on Monday night I had contractions starting around 7pm. I thought maybe they were BH but they were more painful - not like take my breath away, just noticeable. I started timing them and they were anywhere from 5-7 minutes apart but usually only 45 seconds long…so I thought, no biggie…took a bath, didn't go away, but didn't really intensify. Went to bed but couldn't really sleep - hard to time and sleep, lol.
At 11:55 I felt what I thought was the baby punching me in the cervix but then felt a definitive 'pop' and new immediately that it was my water breaking. I managed to jump out of our really low Malm bed pretty quickly and only got a bit IN the bed, most of it on the floor, which DH then stepped in when he got up, lol, poor guy. Since I was BGS positive we had to go in when my water broke.
It took us about 45 minutes to get our stuff together and get to the hospital…DH had to write some notes for work the next day and make sure a supply teacher was going to come in. I fed the cats…etc…by the time we got to the hospital it was 12:45 and my contractions were closer together (4 minutes) and much more painful - not to the point of making me want to die, but I had to stop each time I had one. They took one look at me in the assessment area and knew I was a 'keeper' and just told me to strip because I wasn't going anywhere.
The resident looked at me at 1:15 and I was already 5cm dilated. I made a very quick decision that I wanted an epidural based on the pain I was in at that point - I could handle that pain but probably not much more.
I can't remember what time I had the epidural done at but it was done by 2 - 2:30 and at that point was somewhere between 6 and 7cm. And that's when it suddenly wasn't' so awesome anymore.
My epidural initially worked for about 45 minutes. Then, it didn't. They said I was in more pain than I should have been based on how much I had been given so the called the anaesthetist back and he pulled the catheter out a bit because apparently that can help. It did, for another 45 minutes. It was on a drip, and my 'boosters' every 15 minutes AND then they gave me extra and that was the part that would last 45 minutes and then wear off…it was like my body metabolized it all really quickly. Going from 7 - 10 was horrible, essentially my boosters would give me relief for 4 of the contractions and then the next 3 would be horrible. The anesthetist came in an apologized and said that I was just one of those people who didn't take to the epi well…my feet were tingly, heavy, they knew it had worked based on my reaction to ice but it wasn't cutting much of the pain. Part of it was because my pain was mostly pressure pain due to the baby's head's positioning (transverse)…so…yeah, it sucked, but what do you do? lol. At one point when they assessed me I flinched and they were all like "um, you can feel it when we touch you there?" and I was like, "yeah, completely" and they told me to prepare for a painful birth. Awesome, lol. I laughed because I had friends who had slept through dilation after getting an epi and there was NO WAY I could have slept, I could barely breath through most of the contractions.
So I got to ten - it took 5 hours. At 7:25 I started to push. This is where the head's positioning became an issue. It created a lot of pressure, and I was already in back labour (my right hip had been an issue before birth and this intensified during labour). I pushed for 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was horrible, lol. Once she got to wherever she needed to be for the docs to come in, they came (I can't remember where she needed to be because I couldn't conceptualize where she was within my body). The docs came in, I had two first year residents and my OB, and a NICU team because there was meconium in my fluid, and my nurse, and DH - it was busy in there. So at some point it became clear I was going to tear, and there were signs I was going to tear through my urethra and they didn't want that so the cut me, and then she was essentially there…you know, ring of fire, horrible pain, etc…but she was there - head hurt a lot, shoulders a bit, rest fine, placenta was just uncomfortable. Because of the meconium issue I didn't get to be with babe right away, but it was only minutes before I got some chest to chest. DH did get her first though, bugger, lol.
My OB had to leave to go do a c-sect for twins in distress so I asked if the residents if they were going to sew me up. They said that since my OB had done the cut she probably would. I told them if they wanted to do it to learn, that was fine with me. That was my mistake, not because they did a bad job, but because it took her 45 minutes to do it as my OB (who came back from her c-sect) gave her instructions. I couldn't have left labour and delivery yet anyways but it was just long and annoying. But they have to learn, so that's fine. It was just a stage two tear but DH did look at it while they were sewing me up and he said I was a MESS down there, lol.
I was all pumped to be out within 24 hours but Baby G had other plans for us. She lost a normal amount of weight initially but her bilirubin results were higher than they wanted. Then the second day her bilirubin was stabilizing but she continued to lose weight. I was struggling to breast feeding because she would latch but not suck. We did a lot of spoon feeding her…my milk actually came in really quickly but her sucking wasn't good til the Thursday (she was born on Tuesday morning)…but we got to leave on Friday when her weight rebounded a bit and her BR results were still good.
Yesterday was her first check up and her weight is still low (28th percentile) so we go back in a week…she is feeding fine though…every 2-3 hours like a champ. She has her nights and days mixed up, as many newborns do, but other than that she is doing great. My recovery is fine…my stitches are fine I think, my butt on the other hand - yeah, not so much - those hours of pushing destroyed it. Oh well.
First pic was day 1, second was when we went home, third was last night.
Congrats on your beautiful baby girl! You're so awesome (and maybe a little crazy?) for letting the residents get hands on experience with this sort of thing. Hope you recovery quickly!
Congrats on your beautiful baby girl! You're so awesome (and maybe a little crazy?) for letting the residents get hands on experience with this sort of thing. Hope you recovery quickly!
My dad's a doctor (neo/peds) and I grew up in hospital settings. I was also at a teaching hospital, tier 1. The students need to practice, it is how they learn. I knew they were 1st year residents but I also knew my OB was watching, guiding them. In the realm of difficult procedures, I figured stitching a tear/episiotomy cut was pretty easy. I was happy that my anesthetist was a 5th year resident, lol.