I'm a mom :)

[wanderingback]

I delivered a healthy baby girl last week Thanks for all the well wishes! <3
Here is the long ass birth story....

Thankfully my pregnancy has been very straightforward and I had no health concerns. I was working out the whole time and generally feeling good. So after 38 weeks I started working from home and the waiting game started! I was walking, doing virtual prenatal yoga and prenatal dance class to try to keep me feeling good and get things moving.

On Wed morning, a little over 39 weeks, my partner got up early to go the bathroom, which he never does. As I was laying there I felt fluid and knew my water had started to break. My original labor plan was to labor at home as long as possible with my doula, so I was somewhat worried that my water would break prematurely and that's the only thing that went "wrong" during this pregnancy. Thankfully I was GBS negative, so I felt comfortable staying at home to see if contractions started.

So about 2 hours later I called my mom and dad to let them know (they live in a different state). Called my doula to let her know (she was coming from 2 hours away) and called my doctor. So for the day me and my partner walked all around the city and in between that I was bouncing and stretching on the yoga ball hoping to get contractions started and help with getting the baby in my pelvis/good position. My doctor said I could come in to her office in the afternoon to confirm my water broke and check fluid levels. So I did that, on ultrasound there was no fluid left and she said I was about 1cm dilated and 50% effaced (I was using herbs and a few other things to help with cervical ripening starting at 38w so maybe that helped?). My doctor said I should go to the hospital at 9pm since at that point it would've been over 12 hours since my water broke.

I was still hoping to get contractions started on my own (I really wanted to avoid an induction and pitocin), so 9pm came and I was thinking I was starting to feel a few things, so I didn't rush to get to the hospital. At 10:30pm my doctor called and was like they said at the hospital you weren't there yet. I said I know, I know, doctor's make the worse patients Anyway, we eventually made our way and I think got there around 11:30pm. My doctor wanted to do another cervical check, so I said that's fine, the resident did it and I was 2cm. So they said I could continue to just labor on my own overnight to see if things picked up.
So I kept moving overnight, walking in my room, on the yoga ball, stretching, etc to hope things got moving and help the baby descend. I told my partner it was ok to sleep. I think I slept for about 1.5 hours. In the morning I was still only having mild contractions. My doctor and the resident seemed like they really wanted me to get a foley bulb and start pitocin. I agreed to the foley bulb. I did not want to be tied down by pitocin. Foley was placed and by early afternoon was having more consistent contractions and I think I was a few more cm dilated, but not a ton of progress, so I talked to my partner (my mom also showed up at some point) and explained why I didn't want pitocin, but decided I didn't have much choice at this point. So I told my doctor and the pitocin started. So then I had to be on the heart monitor constantly (not wireless), which was so annoying and caused so many issues during the labor, but it is what it is. But I still was able to walk some in the room and be on the yoga ball. At some point I asked for a cervical check a few hours apart and I was 6cm both time, so I was like FUCK!

But my doula showed up, my partner was great and supportive, so I just kept moving to get the baby to descend down. I def didn't want an epidural becauase I didn't want to be confined to the bed. At one point I swear I had a contraction that lasted 6 minutes (my partner confirmed by looking at the strip!), so the doctor did turn down the pitocin. They said they were going to check me again at 11:30pm I think, but by 10:30pm I was starting to feel more pressure and the contractions were so close together and long, so I asked for another check. My doula was like no matter what the check is, you've got this and you're making progress. Thankfully they said I was pretty much at 10cm (2 residents checked me which I was not happy about and really didn't consent to, ugh). So anyway, I was like thank god!

I knew I wanted to push in an upright position, so I did that, which I found so helpful to not be constrained on my back. Eventually my doctor wanted to re-evaluate me, so I did lay back and she said I was pushing well in that position, so I stayed there for the rest of pushing. So eventually, I think it took about 45 minutes of pushing and the baby was born! We didn't know the sex, so after she was on my chest the doctor looked and announced it was a girl!

After that things got a little more interesting. We did skin to skin for an hour, but then my doctor said I was bleeding a lot and my placenta wasn't delivering on its own. So to make a long story short this part was probably just as painful as the labor contractions. She had to manually remove my placenta. She did call anesthesia and she gave me some morphine, not sure if it really helped and at this point my breathing and control of my pain was no longer working, I think my partner and mom were pretty freaked out because I was vocalizing a lot from being so uncomfortable. But eventually after her hand was in my uterus multiple times it was removed and avoided going to the OR. She said I lost about a liter of blood, but otherwise the labor and delivery there were no complications.

Since this is already so long, I'll stop there But things are overall going well. My partner is a great dad and I'm just taking it day by day! Thanks so much for all the well-wishes and thoughts up until this point. I'll prob eventually post 1 pic on IG, if you follow me to see how cute she is

[nsl]

First, CONGRAULATIONS!!! I'm so happy for you and your partner! Second, what an intense labor--glad that things turned out well in the end, but it must have been incredibly stressful at the time. I hope you're able to rest and recover while also enjoying your new daughter.

[cville]

Yayyyy! Congratulations and welcome to the world baby Wandering. ❤️

[chilerellanos]

Congrats!!!!!

I’m a L&D nurse, and I’ve been so invested in your pregnancy and have loved hearing your progress. It sounds like you really did have a great overall labor. Manual removal of the placenta alwyas looks so painful so I’m sorry you had to go through that!

Congrats again!

[minzy]

Ahhh congrats to the new mom and dad!!!! I hope you don’t mind me saying, but this feels like a whole board victory, and I’m vicariously excited for you like I was way back when when you told us you got accepted to medical school. Wonderful news, thanks for sharing. 😊

[sofamonkey]

Congrats to you! Glad things went so well, and that you were able to avoid a surgery. Glad you and your partner are getting settled in! ❤️❤️❤️

[7costanza]

Congratulations!!

[sequins]

Congratulations!!! So happy for you!

[Monica Geller]

Congratulations!!! Welcome to motherhood!

[TR]

Congratulations to you and your partner!!! I don't think I follow you on IG, but I'm sure she's beautiful! Lots of ups and downs in that story! I lol'd at the "doctors make the worst patients", was so glad you were able to stand up for what you did and didn't want during labor, and then said "JESUS CHRIST" out loud at the manually removing the placenta part! Glad everyone is healthy and doing well now.

[lilafowler]

Congratulations to you and your partner! I’m glad you are all healthy and getting into a groove. 😃

[smock]

Congrats!!! What an intense birth story – I'm so glad you and baby are doing well now!

[sugarbear1]

Congratulations!

[brooke77]

Congratulations!!

[aprilsails]

Congratulations and welcome baby Wandering! You’re a real trooper for hanging in there through such a long induction process. I hope you have a happy baby and a snuggly recovery.

[dexteroni]

Congratulations! I’m so happy for you and I’m glad everything worked out. That is a long damn labor capped off by what sounds like an excruciating procedure. I have to chuckle at your calm description of “vocalizing from discomfort.” I’d be like oh my GOD I was screaming in agony. Wishing you happy baby days ahead!

[dontlook]

Congratulations!!!

[rupertpenny]

Congrats!

I had the placenta (or at least part of it) manually removed with my first and even with an epidural it was awful.

[kadams767]

Congratulations!!

[dove]

Congratulations!

[HoneySpider]

Congrats!

[rikki]

Welcome to the world to your sweet baby girl! I’m sorry that the labor was an easier but I’m so happy for you!

[DotAndBuzz]

Congratulations!!

[emilyinchile]

Thank you for sharing your story! I'm sorry labor ended up having some less than ideal parts, and I hope you're healing well. So happy for you!

[joy]

Yay!!! Congrats!!!!

[seeyalater52]

Congratulations! I’m so so happy your baby is here!

[momin2013]

Congratulations! So happy for you!

[quesyrah]

Congratulations!

[Jalapeñomel]

Congratulations!!!

[MixedBerryJam]

Congratulations! I love birth stories in general and yours in particular, but I had to stop at the phrase “hand in my uterus” but I think I got most of the gist.