*~*~* Kendra's (Lil Momma 1991) Birth Lodge*~*~*

Welcome and thanks for sharing. Will it help at all to tell you I have a step son who is 21. LOL ;)

Thanks for sharing your intro, Kendra. I am actually pretty young, too. I'm 25 and I already have two kids :) I'm sorry things didn'y work out with you and the baby's father. It sounds like your family will be a good support system for you, though.

What made you decide you wanted a natural birth?

Well my second L&D trip was just as uneventful as the first. I started having contractions yesterday at like noon and went in at about 6 and they where a minute to a minute and a half apart. Sadly still no progression. I am still at 1 cm. So they stuck me with and IV hydrated me gave me a huge does of antibiotics thru it to try and knock out the UTI hoping that this will stop all the contractions. When I found out there was no progression I wont lie i asked for some pain meds. I know it's really against what I wanted to do but I was miserable. I mean I can stand miserable if I am making progress and something is happening But I was just hurting like h*ll for nothing I felt like. So now I have two bruised hands (The nurse who did my IV SUCKED) that are being iced down. So now I'm pretty much on strick regulations to not do anything. Sweep, vacuum, move stuff in the babies room... I can sit on the couch or the bed and play on the computer. Joy.... Looks like my SIMS3 game is about to get alot of hours!!!

:( Well today going ok I guess. Emotionally I am pretty drained and physically I'm hurting. I know there a couple of you ladies who are going thru the same thing as me or somthing pretty similar with the constant contractions and honestly I just don't know how you do it. I'm miserable. I hurt and I honestly don't know if I can go another 3 to 4 weeks like this. I want my natural birth but my doctor also offered to induce me on December 13th if he isnt here by then. I know some of you ladies are against pitocin and to a point I am too. Tho I was a natural induced birth, my mom took pitocin and no pain killers. So isn't that still technially a natural birth aswell? I'd love some advice on how ya'll get thru the day. Or just some advice period.

Hang in there, Kendra! Try to take it moment by moment instead of looking at the next 3-4 weeks. That can be very overwhelming if you look at it all at once.

I've been dealing with prodromal labor for a few weeks. Taking it moment by moment has been key, as well as working on relaxation (prayer/meditation 3 times a day), and remembering that even if this isn't active labor, it is doing something. I try to pace myself and do a little at a time throughout the day and not run myself ragged. That makes it easier to deal with contractions. Hang in there and when you're tempted to give in to the pitocin, try to just think about making it through the next few hours without out it and try thinking about the cascade of interventions that can result from that. Hang in there! You are doing a great job for your baby!

:icecream: Now on to the fun stuff ladies! :)
This pregnancy:

Alright I got my BFP on April 14th.I had my first ultrasound on May 15th at about 8 weeks. I also got my first ultrasound and got to see my little gummy bear! :) and hear a heartbeat.

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/z...0002399248.jpg

After about 8 weeks I started to have tons of morning... afternoon... evening.... and middle of the night sickness. At 12 weeks I went back in and got another ultrasound because they were unable to find a heartbeat with the doppler everything was still going great and develpoing like it should. Another ultrasound at 14 weeks to check the growth and scans and stuff. Sadly they were unable to see anything to tell me for sure if it was a boy or a girl. Which stinks! On July 26th we had our anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks. I had been gussing from the get go that it was a boy..... and...

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...6150936457.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...50836079-2.jpg

Low and behold I WAS RIGHT :) Also later on that night I felt him move for the first time :) It was a great day. Also at this appointment I was 28 pounds lighter then I had been at the start of my pregnancy. This was the most weight I lost 28 pounds. I stuck around 128 for a good couple weeks after this. On August 13th I went into the doctors for a suprise appointment I went in with cold chills, fever, puking, and some major back pains. I went in the nurse took my temp which was about 102.8. Reguardless to say I didnt even get to see my doctor I was sent straight to the hospital. So I spent the next 5 days in the hospital on an assortment of drugs and medications treating a kidney infection.

So everything was pretty quiet up until about 34 weeks when I desided to move to California from Texas and it was absolutly crazy. It took me about a week to find a doctor and I ABSOLUTLY love her. She's the most natural birth friendly OB i have ever meet with. She has had 3 pregnancies and 2 of them were natural births :D I got another Ultrasound at 35 weeks due to lack of fetal movement. She gave me the ultrasound and hooked me up to the NST and everything was A-OK so little man was good to go on the baking for longer! Whoo hoo.

At 36 weeks I went to the hospital with false labor pains (I've already posted the story so Ill spare the details) and at 36 weeks 2 days I went back in with the same problems. So now I am on full blown bed rest... She's offered an induction as 39 weeks on December 13th so we will see how things go but honestly I am hoping I have him before the 13th.

Thanks for reading ladies :D

im sorry the pictures are soo big... I cant get them to resize!

I think that if all the contractions you are having are not getting your baby out, it is obvious that your body is not ready for labor, and induction is unlikely to work until your body is really close, anyway. With induction, there is the increased risk of c-section that goes down if you go into labor on your own. It is possible to have an other-wise drug-free birth with pitocin, I have read lots of stories of them, but I've had both pitocin and spontaneous labor, and I really feel that I would never choose pitocin unless I had no other choice. I haven't delt with anything as intense as what you are going through, though, so I can't say what I would do in your situation.

Thanks for sharing more details about your pregancy. What photo uploading site do you use? Someone might be able to help you figure out how to resize pics on it (I know photobucket if that is what you use), you also might want to figure out how to edit the u/s images to remove your last name...never know what kind of strange people might be on the internet.

Yea i use photobucket and I absolutly hate it. Alwasy have. Everytime I try to do something it freezes or it just won't save. So I gave up on it.

:confused: I've been so confussed this past week. I want that NCB so bad but I donno if I can mentally take the crappy days I've been having. Today I'm handling really well no contractions really (maybe 2 all togather?) but yesterday I was up at 5 am having contractions ever 1 to 3 minutes until like noon. I think it would be different if I was making some type of progress. I'm really good about waiting things out if I feel like I am getting somewhere with it but I kinda feel like I am stuck up the creek without a paddle and I have a hold in the floor of my boat. She said that once the UTI was gone that the contractions could stop and well that hasn't happened yet so blah. On top of all that I've been a toilet hugger the past couple days aswell. Seems like when the contractions get so bad that I start to puke. Stinks. I used to do the same thing when I had my period if it hurt to bad I'd get sick. I've gotten to a point like I feel like my body is failing me and that some how I am failing him. Maybe it's just part of being pregnant. The last 4 weeks? Being kinda miserable and thinking like this. I sat down the other day on the floor and started to fold his cloths. I couldn't even finish because the contractions started to get bad again. I have considered going back to L&D but I don't see a point. I'm pretty much going to wait until either A. my water breaks or B. I see a head popping out of down there. My next appointment is Tuesday and I am praying that I will have made some progress... Even if it's only a cm or effacing a little but. Thanks for the support ladies :) It's been helpin me alot

I also had a question for ya'll. I thought I lost my mucus plug 2 weeks ago but on friday I had some really funky looking discharge. It was 3 big clumps of dark brown gummy discharge. I was wondering if this was my plug? Or maybe left over blood from being checked on Wednesday? I was a little worried about it but not enough to call the doctor or anything. Any ideas of what it could be?

OOH I forgot to mention this in my post earlier but I figure it will give you ladies a good giggle. Last night I woke up with my pants soaked in water! Oh I was soo excited. I got up only to discover that my cat had knocked my glass of water over onto me. :D Kind of dissapointing but really really funny all at the same time. :D

From the heart loving big sister type pep talk ahead:

Don't induce. You are likely to end up with a c/s if your body and the baby isn't ready. I have a friend that was induced, had the epi since pit hurts like a b*tch (obviously couldn't move around), got *stuck* at 9cm, her baby went into distress, and she had to have her baby sectioned. If your baby is tolerating the pregnancy, all is well. The fake labor prepares your uterus for the real deal. I have been dealing with a month of the fake crap too (while maintaining a household of 4 kids , 3 of which need driven all over the place all day with preschool and such, one that crawls and tried to eat everything, and a DH) I did the same thing last time for a month too and had a pretty simple 6hr labor. I figure at this point in my life, this isn't about me and my comfort issues and I have to suck it up and deal. You will make it. I will too :) Hang in there, it is almost over. You so got this!