Well, this will be pretty short and sweet - my
labor was a LOT faster than I expected!
I had my normal prenatal visit on Wednesday the
26th. Once again, I heard the dreaded "no change" when he checked my cervix. We
DID start discussing what we'd do if I went over (he was using my ultrasound due
date of March 4th.) His plan was that after March 5th, I'd come in every 2 or 3
days, to monitor my placenta, and only after the 15th would we discuss inducing.
Needless to say, I left his office a little
depressed. Stopped by the grocery on the way home, and the cashier looked at me
and said "Are you OK?" in a really odd way. I assumed she thought I was going to
drop the baby at any second, so I told her the doc was convinced it would be at
least another week. She looked at me again and said "Oh no, it won't be!"
SO, I get home, call hubby, and tell him. Have more contractions during the day,
nothing out of the ordinary. Hubby gets home just after 8pm. I'm still having
contractions, and they are a little stronger, but hey, I've been having them
since January. I'm NOT getting my hopes up at this point!
ANYWAY, I manage to sleep pretty much all night,
but woke up about 3am and knew that the contractions were different. I wanted to
wait until a "decent" hour, because we had to take our girls to a friends house,
so I tried to not move around too much. Once hubby and the girls were up at
around 7am, I kept telling Ron "Oh, it's another couple of hours before we need
to go....at least!" Well, about 9:30 am, I changed my tune and agreed to go. The
contractions were about 7 or 8 minutes apart, my doc had wanted me to go when
they were 10. Dropped off the girls, and got to the hospital a little after
10:00.
I was only dilated to 2. Boy, was that
depressing. I was having contractions about 6 minutes apart, though, so with
this being my third, they admitted me. Here, you labor in what is pretty much a
normal room (with a roommate, even!), until they are convinced you are close,
and then you go to a delivery room. So I'm sitting on the ball, which I LOVED!
It really helped with the pressure I was feeling between contractions. During a
contraction, I would either bounce lightly on it or rock, whichever felt better
at the time. My water broke while I was on it, though. Right before that, I told
hubby that they really needed to come check me, and then a contraction started,
so I wouldn't let him leave the room to go get a nurse. My water broke during
that contraction. (Funny, the nurse walks in and says "how do you know your
water broke?" I'm wearing sweatpants, and they are soaked to my knees, and got
even worse when I stood up to go to the bathroom. There's a puddle on the floor.
How did I know? lol!) That was just after noon. I was still only dilated to 3,
but the contractions very quickly intensified, and they moved me to the delivery
room at 1:50. I was 8 cm then, and the midwife asked me if I could go ahead and
push once or twice, which I tried but it hurt, so I refused. I had been given a
shot of something to help with the pain, and it wasn't helping, so she gave me
something by IV, which really didn't help much either, but while she was hooking
it up I could feel his head. I immediately wanted to push, but the midwife
wanted me to wait so that I wouldn't tear. Well, I'm NOT a good patient, and
wasn't listening to her, so she ended up holding him back since I wouldn't
cooperate. (Thank goodness she did, I ended up with two stitches compared to
looking like Frankenstein with both my girls.) Braedon was born at 2:39 pm, and
had Apgars of 9 and 10. He weighed 3550 grams, and was 54 cm long. Once he was
out, the pain medication started working, and I felt GOOOOOD!
I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to
at least labor in the tub, but everything happened SO fast that I didn't really
get a chance to ask about the tub. Braedon does look like his daddy, but doesn't
have a lumpy head like I mentioned in my pregnancy journal! All in all, I'm just
glad that labor waited until my husband was home.
Submitted by: Jonetta (from the old message boards)
March 2003
Heart and Hands : A Midwifes Guide to Pregnancy and Birth
by Elizabeth Davis
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