Cactusbaby birth story

[cactuscookie]

I posted before that last Monday night, I woke up at 3:45am feeling like I'd leaked fluid and having contractions that were 30 seconds long and about 10 minutes apart. They stopped when I got up for the day. I already had an appointment scheduled with my midwife for that morning, and she confirmed that I hadn't leaked amniotic fluid and said the liquid I'd felt was probably my mucus plug.

I had a few random contractions throughout the day, ramping up slightly in the evening, but they stopped shortly before I went to bed. Then, as soon as I laid down to sleep, they started again. They continued throughout the night. They were about a minute long and 6-7 minutes apart, but not getting closer together. I spent most of this time sitting on the couch, and when I started to doze off between contractions, I thought I'd try laying on the couch instead of sitting. Moving even slightly caused a contraction, plus laying down hurt, plus my contractions then jumped to 4 minutes apart. After about half an hour of this, at 4:30am, I woke up DH and called my parents to come over to stay with our toddler.

We got to the hospital around 5:30am. I was 5 cm dilated, 60% effaced. Things slowed down for a while, and started to pick up again maybe around 10am. At noon, the midwife checked me and warned me that it wasn't going to sound good but it was - I was now 5 cm dilated, 90% effaced. So we carried on. At this point, I was mostly sitting on the bed tapping a fit ball during contractions while DH counted. I tried nitrous oxide at some point, but it didn't help. The biggest problem I was having was that I was so, so tired. I was dozing off between contractions and then didn't have enough fight in me to battle through each one. I chugged a cup of coffee, hoping that would help wake me up. The midwife checked me again maybe around 2:15pm and I was fully effaced and 8-9 cm dilated.

The midwife suggested I stand up and lean over the raised bed, which was relatively comfortable. Soon afterward, I started to feel like I had to push. I was NOT encouraged to push yet, but it was basically impossible not to, and then - my water broke with a huge splash. That eased up the urge to push for a while at least. Then there was pushing, first while standing, then on all fours, then the midwife encouraged me to lay on my back so she could help. I thought pushing would be easier without an epidural like I had last time, but it was just as confusing as to whether I was doing it right and making any progress. After too much of this, the baby's heartrate had a couple scary dips and the midwife got super tough and was like, "YOU NEED TO PUSH OUT THAT BABY RIGHT NOW", and that was apparently the encouragement I needed and the baby was born at 3:37pm. And, as a huge added bonus, the placenta came out on its own, unlike last time, when I had to have a D&C right after delivery, because the placenta wouldn't come out.

So, the baby is great. My recovery is so much easier than last time. Our toddler is amazing with her baby sister. Newborns are hard, but we're hanging in there.

Eliza Sue:

[icedcoffee]

Adorable! Congratulations!

[miamigirl]

Congrats! She’s beautiful

[pandorica]

Congrats! She's beautiful and I love her name.

[aprilsails]

Oh she’s a cutie! You did a great job hanging in there for that long without any sleep! I hope you get some good rest, although I know that’s hard with a little one.

[pooh8402]

Congratulations! She's adorable!

[kellikans]

Congratulations! She's so beautiful, and I love her name!

[oliviapope]

Amazing, birth stories always make me cry lol

Eliza is on our list, so great name choice!

[brooklyn]

Beautiful! Congratulations!

[poppyseed]

So sweet! Love her name!

[ivy]

Oh my goodness, she is so precious! I’m so glad it went well and she didn’t make you wait another week! You’ve been in my thoughts, I hope you all are adjusting well.

[Smurfette]

Congratulations! I love her name!

[cherryvalance]

Congrats! She's so cute!

[suzv]

Congratulations! She is beautiful and i love her name!

[thom]

Love this photo!! I’ve been thinking of you and so glad things went well. Newborns are hard and amazing and everything feels crazy. Congratulations!!

[FishChicks]

Congratulations, she's so gorgeous!

[dreamcrisp1]

Congratulations!!

[latte]

Congratulations! She’s adorable!

[scm1011]

Yay, congrats on your beautiful Eliza!! <3

[KellyEasterbrook]

Congratulations!! She's adorable and I love the name. 

[vlinder]

Congrats!