I keep hearing stories from people about how fast their second labor was. I'm a little nervous! Like will I have time to wait for my DH to get home from work an hour away? Then I worry about false labor and calling him home to soon, I don't want him to waste any days of his leave. I just keep hoping things start over night when he's home.
I was in labor at midnight. Got to the hospital about 10:30am (and only then because I just felt like things weren't progressing from what was happening). She wasn't born until after 6pm.
Mine did start overnight. Unfortunately, the part between "definitely going to have a baby" and "having a baby" was not long enough to get to the hospital. Definitely have a good plan for dumping the kid with your most trustworthy neighbour rather than waiting on a friend to drive half an hour to your house.
Post by mrsGreeko on Sept 16, 2014 13:10:35 GMT -5
My first labor was 4.5 hours do keep that in mind.
My second labor was 2.5 hours.... With my first labor on the verge of precipitous I was warned to go as soon as contractions started. I was very nervous about delivering on the highway and actually had towels, gauze, emergency birth guidelines and stuff in the car. I kept telling DH that the only possible time I could go into labor was 4am because he would still be home (he left for work at like 6am), traffic would be light (I was 35ish minutes from my birth center with no traffic, but an hour or more with traffic), and I could get a good nights sleep before labor.
Guess what I started labor at exactly 4am. I know because the sprinklers start at 4am and I remember hearing them turn on as I finished my first contraction. I was holding my baby by 6:36am.
Remember there is a psychological component to labor as well ac a physical one. I bet you will be just fine.
First labor was 8 hours. Second was 6 from water breaking, 5 from contractions starting. The only reason it took "so long" the second time was that DD was breech, and a squishy butt dilates you a whole lot slower than a hard skull.
My first labor was about 13 hours, but I didn't get to the point of going to the hospital for the first 7 hours. With DD2, my labor was 5 hours total and I was having contractions 5 minutes apart within 15 minutes of the first contraction. If we had gotten to the hospital any later, my epidural wouldn't have helped.
My first labour was 5 hours from the water breaking until delivery.
My second labour I was induced because the baby was in distress. I was given Cervidil at 430pm. My water was broken at 7 pm and the baby was born at 745pm (approximately).
So start-finish on #2 was about 3.25 hours; but less than an hour after my water broke. I would absolutely have back-up plans for childcare.
I was in labor for 14 hours with the first and 8 hours with the second. I started having contractions at work and waited a while to see if it was real labor before leaving to go home. When I finally got to the hospital, I had enough time to get an epidural and gave birth 2.5 hours later.
Post by turtlegirl on Sept 16, 2014 13:21:18 GMT -5
My first labor was a 19 hour induction due to pre-e and I was not dilated at all when they started pitocin.
With my second I was having contractions about 5-10 mins apart all day long. Due to my history I went into the hospital that night for another induction and when they checked me I was already 3cm dilated and DS2 was born with literally no active pushing, he just kinda slid out 6 hours after they started pitocin.
Mine was the same amount of time as my first (3-4 hours). Number 3, now that was speedy The main difference between 1 and 2 was I went into labor on my own (induced for FTT with DD1), and I wasn't quite as nervous. I asked for an epi as soon as I got hooked up, so the whole experience was as pleasant as a labor can be.
Post by hopeful2012 on Sept 16, 2014 13:35:22 GMT -5
My first labor was 8 hours and started with my water breaking.
My second labor was about 3.5 hours, but I knew the night before that things were starting to get going (but not really painful, I was able to fall back asleep so nothing like actual labor).
I was 7cm dilated for 2+ weeks. I went into labor at 38w4d and was 9 cm when I arrived at the hospital having non painful contractions every 3-5 min. I ended up needing pitocin for an hour because I didn't progress despite my water breaking. Turns out baby was OP which slowed things in the end. I was uncomfortable for less than 30 min and my contractions never occurred closer together than every 3-4 min, even after starting pitocin.
Everyone was worried that I was walking around 7cm dilated with my second kid, including my OB. It turned out fine!
Post by ringstrue on Sept 16, 2014 13:47:36 GMT -5
I had the same fears as you but it was fine. We did opt to use a newer friend that was a few blocks away to hang onto DD instead of an old friend who was 20mins away (45mins round trip) and I was glad for that.
First: labor started at 7am, lasted 19 hours until 3am the next day. She was 10 days late. 2 hours of pushing.
Second: labor started at 2:42am and lasted 11hours until 1:33pm. He came day before his due date. 30 mins of pushing.
I wouldn't worry as much about false labor with the 2nd one. I was in disbelief about being in labor until my back contractions had been going for an hour, then they got really bad and hour after that. I could have used that extra time!!
Post by atarianna on Sept 16, 2014 15:24:50 GMT -5
My water broke and he was here within an hour. It was insane. Thankfully we were in the hospital. I showed up at 6cm but my contractions weren't showing up on the monitor so they weren't convinced it was real labor. It was.
Post by redpenmama on Sept 16, 2014 15:41:45 GMT -5
My labors were very similar. I checked in the hospital with both at 5 pm and had the babies at 2 am. The only difference was the labor leading up to the hospital: with DD, I had contractions, but my water never broke. With DS, my water broke unexpectedly and I didn't start contracting until I was en route. DD's labor was technically longer (19 hours from first contraction to birth vs. 12 hours from water breaking to birth with DS), but there was no rush with #2.
I only have one but I hope to God my pushing is faster than two hours next time around! These posts are actually encouraging to me, haha.
Yes, this was actually the biggest difference between mine. I pushed for an hour and a half with DD and through three contractions with DS. I think the first thing my H said when DS was born was, "Wow, that was efficient!"
With dd1 I was induced and my labor was 10 hours and that includes two hours of pushing.
With dd2 it took less then 30 minutes after my water was broken by my doctor for her to be born. It was discovered I was at 9cm at a appointment but wasn't in active labor. I was sent to the floor, waited for my husband, doctor broke my water and she was here in less then 30 minutes.
I can't decide if I'm more nervous about potentially having a super fast labor this time, or going heinously late and having a heinously long pushing time again.
Post by DarcyLongfellow on Sept 16, 2014 16:16:00 GMT -5
I didn't read any replies, so I may be repeating :-)
I think it's a matter of degrees. Labors usually get progressively faster, but not dramatically so. If your first labor was 24 hours, your second may be like, 20. A good friend of mine was in labor (including pushing) for a total of 2.5 hours with her first kid. For her second, she and her doctor were both pretty worried about her making it to the hospital in time, but she was fine.
I had to be induced with DD1, and then I was in labor for 15 hours. With DD2, I was in labor for maybe 12 or 13 hours (hard to say exactly when it started). But pushing was SO MUCH EASIER! 3 hours the first time. 3 pushes the second :-)
My first labor was about about 18 hrs, with like 5 hrs of pushing and a sunny side up baby.
Second labor: from the first time-able contractions to giving birth was about 6 hrs. The thing that really surprised me was that I expected the contractions to proceed in severity from mild to moderate to severe to delivery in a more gradual fashion, kind of like they did the first time around. Instead, I went from moderate contractions (~7 min apart), where I thought I could be hours away from delivery, to 3 min apart, horrifically painful contractions, and time to push, in literally a 10 minute time period. I was really lucky that I was at the hospital when that occurred, or I would have been having the baby at home or on the car. I had been in the hospital about 1.5 hrs when the baby was born. I think pushing still took somewhere near an hour, but it was chaos, so I'm not 100% sure. I get really nervous now when I see second time moms on here posting that they are having contractions 5-7 min apart and still haven't even dropped off their kids yet. My ob/midwives had told me ahead of time that they recommend that only first time mom's wait until 5 min apart - 2nd timers should go to the hospital more like 8-10 min apart. So yes...have a plan for a quick drop off if needed!
Oh, and both my labors started in the middle of the night, thank goodness, so I didn't need to deal with my husband getting himself home or anything.
Post by gibbinator on Sept 16, 2014 16:33:25 GMT -5
Mine progressed in intensity very quickly. I had regular uncomfortable cramps for about 5 hours but they weren't painful, just noticeable. But in the span of a half an hour I went from watching a movie and chatting on the phone perkily to collapsing on the floor trying to put on shoes and collapsing halfway into the car because contractions got so intense so fast. So essentially active labour, from the first painful contraction to birth, was about an hour long. We barely made it to the hospital.
With my first pregnancy I was in labour for 27 hours total, with active labour being 15 hours. So it was quite a difference! Ds2 also basically slid out in 2 pushes vs ds1 needing to be vacuumed out after 1.5hrs of pushing.