Aug '07 Pregnant~TTC~Arrivals~Birthstories~Resources

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Originally Posted by Belle Honey

Well ladies, it's nice to be home and trying to feel like myself again. The birth didn't go exactly as planned, but all in all it worked out for the best.

At 1:40 a.m. Monday morning my water broke. I knew right away that this would likely be a problem for my planned natural birth because I had had no real labor symptoms. We went to the hospital immediately because I had tested positive for GBS and wanted to make sure we got the antibiotics in. I was only having really mild and irregular contractions and the midwives let me hold off until about 9:00 a.m. before they started me on pitocin. Luckily it only took a very small dose to get things rolling. However, I began by being dilated only to a 1 and the baby was only at station -1. Progress was really really slow and I had a fabulous support team in my husband and sister. Everything went great until about 5 hours later when I had only dilated to a 5 and the baby had barely descended (more about that later). I was feeling really quite discouraged at that point and finally relented and got an epidural. Interestingly enough, while I was sitting and waiting for the anesthesiologist for 45 minutes, I dilated to an 8! We didn't know until the epidural was already in. However, as events unfolded it turns out it was a good thing I had the epidural after all. I kept the epidural on low so that I could still feel contractions and be very aware of what was happening, but I did manage to get a little sleep while I finished dilating. Even when I was at a 10, the baby was only at station +1, so the midwife decided to see if the baby would descend over a couple of hours. Well, I finally started feeling the urge to push, and even though baby hadn't really moved any lower, they let me start pushing. I pushed for 2 and 1/2 hours! I feel for Mommy Buga Buga because I know she pushed for 3 and let me tell you, 2 and 1/2 was definitely my limit. I thought he was NEVER going to come out! As it happens, he came through the birth canal with his head SIDEWAYS! Who knew that was possible? The midwife couldn't get him to turn, but he finally decided to right at the end and I was able to push him out. They threatened us with the "f" word (forceps) and that seemed to do the trick. :) My midwife and the hospital staff were incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better team.

Although I really wanted a natural birth, with the difficulty in pushing him out I am glad I had the epidural in hindsight. My other problem was that I was under the impression that I was being fed saline and sugar through my iv, so I didn't eat much at all and I just completely ran out of energy about halfway through. Note to self for next time: eat even if you don't feel like it.

So baby and I and DH are home and doing well. Max is breastfeeding fabulously well and I am just waiting for my milk to come in. Here are some pictures of our little guy.

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Kaia (Kye-uh, although no one so far has had any problems pronouncing her name on the first try) was born @ 5:55 AM on the 8th of August AT HOME after 29 hours of labor. She was 5 pounds, 10 oz and 18 inches long with apgars of 9, 10 and 10. She had a compound presentation (Left hand was born at the same time as her head, ow) which caused the pushing stage to last 5.5 hours. We did a water birth and I would definately reccomend that to anyone, the water made the pain MUCH more manageable and of course since we were at home there was no option of drugs.
I'm not sure exactly when labor started - I woke up with contractions around 1AM on the 7th and walked out to get a heating pad at about 220AM and my water broke by the microwave. (FYI I had taken castor oil a couple hours before I went to bed ~ I was at 39 weeks and 4 days) I called everyone I needed to and was told to let them know when I couldn't talk through the contractions anymore ... that happened at around 6-630AM. Contractions to me felt like strong menstrual cramps with almost a sharp gas-pain mixed in. At around midnight (!) I started feeling a little like I needed to poo and was checked and told I was 9.5-10cm and to go ahead and start pushing whenever I felt the urge. (I never noticed a 'transition' time that was any worse then any other of the contractions) The pushing urge NEVER came! I had to just start pushing without it, and it felt pretty awkward but I got into a rythm with it after a couple of hours. I was able to sleep in between the pushing and rest because I was so relaxed in the water. (Actually, I slept in between nearly all of my contractions, even when they were 2 minutes apart!) I caught her myself and my husband cut the cord (We had a professional birth attendent who used to work in L&D for 8 years with us and my mom who has had 6 babies). Because of the compound presentation, I tore in two spots - a one degree tear and two degree tear -- I got three stitches total and they don't even bother me now. (Birth attendent stitched me up after she was born) It was exactly the birth I wanted, even with the 29 hours. Honestly though, I had no idea it was taking that long because I was so caught up in what I doing that I was not looking at the clock at all. I was SHOCKED when we figured out how long it had been!
In case anyone is curious, I weighed myself about 3 hours after she was born and I had lost exactly 15 pounds. Right now (3 days later) I look maybe 3-4 months pregnant. My stomach is not wrecked like I feared it would be! Hurray!
Anyways, Kaia is breastfeeding really well now and a incredibly happy and QUIET baby. We just love her to pieces. This was a really rambling post so if you are able to make heads or tails of it I congratulate you!

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Originally Posted by Whitn23

Oh ladies do I have a story for you. :D

So Wednesday night I was watching t.v and decided that I was tired enough to go try and sleep. That was around 11:30. When I got in bed I started having some contractions but didn't think anything of them because they were really irregular and only hurting in my lower belly like fake labor ones. I got up to go pee and when I wiped I had some blood. Not bloody show but blood. So I went to wake up A.J but before I could get him up for good I went back to the toilet because it felt like I needed to poo real bad. The contractions were hurting but not as much as I thought they would in labor. While sitting there I coughed and my water broke. Which I wasn't for sure it was my water because there was a lot of blood along with it. Freaking out I got A.J up and said I think we need to to the hospital. I called the oncall dr. and asked what he thought. He said it was bloody show and said to come in and he would monitor the baby. I laughed because I knew it wasn't bloody show. So off we went to the hospital having contractions the whole way..... I was still in denial at this point. :D Anywho, we got there and I had not registered so we had to wait and do that. Literally, I thought I was going to die when I was sitting there. I was sweating, shaking and really needed to "poo". (all signs of transition) I asked the lady if I really needed to be downstairs for this part because A.J was more than capable of handling it on his own. The b!tch told me YES! I was so pissed. Her keyboard stopped working thank the Lord and the other guy took me up. He asked me not to have the baby in the elevator, lol. Upstairs they asked me to get a gown on.... that was a job in it's own. My contractions at this point were close and hurt REAL bad. I sat on the toilet and actually used the bathroom. While still sitting on the toilet I stripped down and put my gown on. I got to the bed and the nurse asked me what I was at my last check. I told her 3-4 and completely thinned. She said oh and was like we better check you then. Literally as soon as she put her hand in to check me she was like wow, you are 10 cms. I still asked if I could have drugs even though I knew that I couldn't.
They had me start pushing probably 5 min. later. I was good at pushing said the nurse, so it didn't take long to get him out. I could of pushed him out sooner but it hurt so bad/ I didn't want to poo on the table. lol. After pushing maybe 9 times Logan entered the world screaming just like his momma was. (The entire 5th floor probably heard me screaming. :D ) I tore some at the very end but the 3 were small. Getting stiched up hurt like hell because the dr. was bad at giving me enough local.
The nurse was impressed and said that was the shortest labor she had experienced. I was happy with that. :D I was hooked up the comp. from 1:12 and had him at 1:49. Overall, I loved that it was short but it was scary because of the same reason. My dr. told me I better be camping at the hospital with the next one or else I will probably won't make it.
Also, I almost passed out when they got me up to use the bathroom. I was sitting on the toilet just swaying. lol. I lost a little too much blood so they pushed on my belly more (OW) and watched me a bit longer than normally they would have.
Logan is absolutely beautiful and a very good baby. He either breastfeeds or he doesn't. He is looking a little yellow today but not too bad. He's down to 6.8 from 6.14 which is good. We get to go home tomorrow! YAY. I'm ready to sleep in my own bed.
So that is my story if it doens't make sense I will blame it on the pain pills I'm on. :D

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Originally Posted by Bethany2

Hi, Ladies- I finally got a chance to post this. I hope everyone is doing well!!!

On Monday morning, I went in to the hospital because my contractions got painful and were 5 minutes apart. They sent me home after two hours of observation because I didn't move any further. I got very upset- I just wanted it to be time! And the resident examining me was not very nice-I swear she rolled her eyes when I started crying. I spent the next five hours with contractions at home. They got fairly painful and went to 3 minutes by 3pm. We headed back in to the hospital and from 10am to 3pm, I got to 7cm...I was VERY happy that I did all of that at home and could walk around, etc...The doctor's this time were so wonderful! I felt very comfortable.

After about an hour, I got my epidural- which I was worried about because the contractions were consecutive and I thought he might have said it was too late!!! But a mere ten minutes later and I was a whole different person! I was so relieved...my Mom, Brother and Matt’s Mom just sat and waited, we chatted, called relatives and laughed while I went from 7cm to 10cm...About an hour and a half later, I was ready to push- but my contractions stopped! So, we just waited for a little bit and things started up again...I only had to push for about 25 minutes and she came right out to meet us! She was born at 8:07pm. It total, 10 hours of labor...not too bad. I did have to get a pretty big repair, but at the time I didn’t care about anything! I had to get two internal repairs and a repair from an episiotomy. She was put directly on my chest and was wide eyed alert- just laying there staring at me!! My mom AND my brother were with me the whole time...Johnny, my brother, was such a trooper- I asked him several times if he was sure he wanted to stay, but he kept saying yes...he was very cute about the whole thing...everytime I had to hold my breath and push, he held his breath too!! Very funny. He did, of course, "stay behind the yellow line"- we instituted the phantom "yellow line" that began at my shoulders...so he was the hand holder and breath-holding partner!

I was just amazed by the whole experience and she is just wonderful! She sleeps all of the time...her first night home, she slept from 10pm to 4am, ate and then went back to bed until 7am...WooHoo!!! She is just content and makes funny faces...curls up on my shoulder and sighs...there is nothing better!

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Originally Posted by 2ndtimearound

Sorry it has taken so long. I have been lurking, but it has been a busy week learning to juggle a newborn and a 5 year old. We are doing well and Congrats on all the new babys and now that we have something resembling a schedule I should be able to post more.

Last Friday I felt "uncomfortable" and I had a 10:15 Doc. appt. On the way there I noticed I was having bearable contractions 7min. apart but being as though I was sceptical I just ignored them pretty much. While waiting in the room to be seen they started to get stronger and when the doc came in I told him. He checked me and I was at 4cm. He said that when they become 5 min. apart call back he did not want me to wait he thought I would go fast. He also told me that if I could come up with any excuse to come back that day he would NOT send me home but right over to be admited.

On my way home from the appt. I quickly went from every 7 min. apart to 5 min. apart already but I had to get home to take care of DD ( I had left her home with my mom babysitting) and since I had no idea I had left my stuff at home. I had already called DH to get his butt home from Buffalo ASAP (1hr and 1/2 drive time) now I just had to ship DD off to my SIL and she sped to get there. I called my friend to come and get me I needed to go back to the docs and I was NOT coming home. at 3 min. aprart we were on our way back to the docs.

I got there a little before 1:00. I was not smiling through my contractions anymore and when he checked I was at 5 already. I headed over to the hospital (right next door) and got checked in. By 2:00 I had my epi and I was so happy to be rid of that pain! I went from 5 cm to ten by 5:15. They broke my water, 7 min. and 4 pushed later Mylie was born 8lbs. 1oz. 20 1/2 inches healthy as can be.

My labor this time as a piece of cake and I was so relived after DD's labor I was so scared. So those of you who had it rough this time, don't worry it can get better. We are all adjusting to having a new little one around and she is such a good baby. I'm picture stupid so sorry I more than likely will not be posting any.

Thanks for reading,
Robin

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Thursday morning (8/9) I woke up at 8:15 to get ready for my 39 week OB appointment.. DH had already gone to work, and when I got up out of bed my water broke all over the floor! No question about it.. I called DH to come home to get me, and then called my Mom to have her head down since she was 4 hours away.. We arrived at the hospital around 9:30 where we proceeded to sit in triage for almost 2 hours.. My contractions weren't bad on the way in, but they were progressively getting worse as I sat there.. Just about the time when I was getting ready to go find someone to get us moving, a resident came in and asked about my "possible rupture".. I said "there's nothing possible about it!" She lifted the sheet up, agreed with my diagnosis, and they admitted me.. We got to our L&D room around noon, and when they checked me I was still about 3 cm. I told the nurse that I wanted something for the pain, and since I was so close to 4, she fought for me to get an epidural.. Plus they wanted to get some pitocin going, and I told them that I wasn't going to have any of that without some drugs.. I got the epi (ahhhhh!) and they started the pitocin.. After cranking the pitocin up a couple of times, they checked me again because I was feeling some increased pain through the epidural.. I was only up to 4 cm so they gave me a "boost" (whatever they called it, I forgot) and I felt alot better.. I rested and watched some TV for about 1.5 hours when all the sudden I felt a ton of pressure... I told the nurse that I needed to be checked again, and sure enough I was 9.5 cm dilated, 100% effaced, +2 station.. The doc came in and had me push, but I was having a tough time feeling the contractions through the pain of pushing.. I obviously wasn't ready yet, so we took about a half hour break to let the contractions do some work.. The doc returned and I started pushing again.. I pushed through probably 5 contractions and he was out!! :D The doc did all she could to stretch me, but I ended up needing a very small episiotomy to get his head out.. He arrived at 6:10pm, 10 hours after my membrane rupture.. 7 pounds, 13 oz.. 20.5 inches tall..

I tested positive for GBS, and had an increased temp during labor.. When Colin arrived, he had a bit of an increased heart rate, so they took him to the NICU for observation for a couple of hours.. They transferred me to my Mother/Baby room and I finally got to hold and feed him around 9:30pm.. I was worried about getting him to feed, but he latched like a champ!! We had to stay at the hospital for 48 hours because of the GBS so he could get some doses of antibiotics.. His cultures came back negative and they let us come home last night :)

Here's some pics of our little one.. The stuff in his head was his heplock for the IV antibiotics..

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Here's his cute head!!! :D

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Going home!!!

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Originally Posted by singlemomma807

Heya, girls. It's been a very, very long few days, but as I sit here, watching my son sleep soundly in his swing, I'm so at peace. I want to share our story with you. It's definitely a story about miracles and prayers! Also, sorry for the camera phone pictures. I will get some (real) pictures up very soon. We're having camera issues. :( A little warning - there is some pretty squicky, scary stuff in here. Just remember, it has a happy ending!!

On Wednesday, August 8th, I went into the hospital to begin cervidil treatments. My mom got me settled and went home; no need for us both to be sitting there! They got me started and I began the long journey that was my birthing experience. I woke up very early on the ninth, in severe pain. My mom and my sister got to the hospital around 5.30 am. I got up, walked around a bit, took a shower, and they started my pitocin drip around 6 am. I almost immediately doubled over. It was SO painful!! When they checked me around 9 am, I was dilated to a four and having very regular, painful contractions. The baby was doing SPECTACULARLY, his heart rate was perfect, he was perfect. I, however, was in terrible amounts of pain. They offered to give me my epidural then, but not knowing how long labor would be, I really didn't want to already have it. I opted for some Nubane, which made me very loopy. I was sort of sleep-talking to my mom and sister. However, I finally got a break from the pain. I went to sleep. About an hour later, I was dilated to a five. The drugs were wearing off, and I was in intense pain. Mind you, I have a VERY high threshold for pain tolerance. I broke my hand and laughed. I was almost in tears. Finally, I consented to the epidural.

This is where it gets a little scary. The epi-guy came in almost immediately (I think after reading so many birth stories, I was scared it would take an hour for him to get there!), and got me all set up. I felt fine, if a little nervous, until all of a sudden I fell over. I could NOT hold myself up. And then the overwhelming headache. OMG, I cannot begin to tell you how it felt. I literally wanted to tear my brain out to make it stop hurting. I threw up several times (once all over my poor sister....). Finally, they moved my paralyzed body into a prone position. The epi-guy had missed, nicking the dura with his needle. My brain was flooded with spinal fluid. This is a semi-common occurance with spinal blocks, but VERY rare with epidurals. Because he missed, the epi-guy had given me a spinal, not an epidural. Not only that, an hour later, I was in screaming pain again, but unable to move a muscle to find a position to lessen it. It was terrible. I was dilated to a six for EIGHT HOURS this way, lying completely paralyzed in bed, sobbing and screaming. Fortunately, I was so out of it because of the headache, I don't remember most of this. What I do remember is that toward the end of the eighth hour, the doctor came in to tell me that I had two options. One, I could opt for a second epidural, so that I could rest and we could wait and see if I would dilate on my own, or two, they took the baby by c-section because he was starting to show signs of fetal distress. I asked which she thought was better, and she told me that because he'd done so well so far, that she thought we should wait and see if relaxing and resting would allow me to dilate.

So, after eight hours of this agony, they pulled the first epidural catheter and gave me a second epidural. I passed out. An hour later, the pain woke me up again. It turns out, epidurals just aren't my thing. They don't work. Also, the first one kind of turned me off of them forever. It was so terrifying. After having slept for an hour, the nurse checked me. I held my breath, terrified. She gave me a HUGE grin, a gigantic hug, and said "you're at an 8!! We're going to have this baby vaginally!!" I was soooo relieved. As she was washing her hands after checking me, I suddenly KNEW. I laughed and said, "uh, it's time." She looked at me and shook her head, telling me no, no way, I was too slow a progressor, that it was just some pressure. I insisted, and she checked me again. Turns out, I was right! (Duh, when will doctors learn that women know their own bodies?) She phoned the doctor, who took FOREVER to get there. I was trying soooo hard not to cry, the pain and pressure were so bad. But we did it!! The doctor ended up having to give me an episiotomy because Caden got stuck, but after 18 hours of intense back labor, two epidurals, 45 minutes of pushing, and an episitomy that required more stitches than I want to think about, Caden Matthew Alexander was born on August 9th, at 11:36 pm. He weighed 6 lbs, 15 oz, and was 20 inches long. Because I cannot hold him due to the pain and the drugs I'm on, we haven't been able to breast feed. I'm sad about that, but he's doing very well on formula. We have to go get a special hearing test done on his left ear, because he hasn't been able to pass a basic hearing test on it yet. Other than that, he is absolutely perfect. We are completely in love.

I'll post some real pictures when I get my camera situation sorted out, but here are a few camera phone pictures until then.

My monkey, just minutes after he was born :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...key/Caden1.jpg


Just hanging out after the hospital photographer came in and took his pictures...
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So tiny... and such a grip! He loves to hold your hands when you cuddle him :)
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Originally Posted by CrochetingCricket

Here’s our birth story (finally!)

I went into the hospital as scheduled at 5:30 on Tuesday, August 7. The nurse checked me, and I had dilated to a 3. She also said I was having contractions (didn’t feel them at all.) By 5:45, both Lily and I were hooked up to monitors, my Hep lock was in place, and the nurse was getting ready to administer the Cervidil. Plans changed when - around 5:50 - both of our blood pressures dropped. The nurse started pushing IV fluids, and our blood pressures came back up, but the OB on call said no Cervidil after that. I suspect that the Hep lock had something to do with my BP dropping (I hate needles,) because I only had one other episode after that.

Around 10:00, they gave me a sleeping pill and started me on a low dose of Pitocin, which they upped around 3:00 on Wednesday morning. I didn’t sleep much because Lily kept moving away from the monitor, and a nurse kept having to come in and find her again. At 7:00 on Wednesday morning, my doctor came in, checked me (I was dilated to a 4 or 5 by then and starting to feel some of my contractions,) broke my water, and put an internal monitor on Lily.

For the most part, I only knew for sure I was having a contraction by watching the monitor. More out of curiosity than real need, I asked the nurse when I could have my epidural. She called the anesthesiologist and then checked me…and I was dilated to a 6! I got my epidural around 8:30 - right about the time the contractions started to hurt. I think most of the pain was tension, though, because I had noticed that every time I had a contraction, Lily’s heart rate would drop a little.

Except for getting nervous when I would see Lily’s heart rate drop, I was pretty content to just hang out in bed and wait. Mike was a little more anxious, however, and around 10:20 he asked the nurse how we were doing. The nurse checked, looked surprised, and said I was completely dilated…and that she thought she felt hair. She pulled down a lamp, and Mike got to see the top of Lily’s head. She asked me to try to push; I did, and she immediately told me to stop and called for the doctor, room setup, and the nursery team. My doctor came into the room at 10:40, I pushed one and a half times, and Lily was born. Come to find out, her umbilical cord was wrapped around an arm and loosely around her neck, which was why her blood pressure would drop whenever I had a contraction.

After being so easy going about being born, though, Lily decided to throw us a little curve ball. Early Thursday morning, her bilirubin levels started climbing, and the pediatrician recommended using a formula supplement to try to push the bilirubin out of her system. I hesitated because breastfeeding was going just as smoothly as labor and delivery, but I finally said okay. By Thursday evening, Lily - who had been spending just about all her time in our room - was confined to the nursery under a bililight for three hour stretches, only coming out to nurse. Her bilirubin levels were 14.8 when we left on Friday (our pediatrician let us bring her home, but only because I had already been discharged and we live an hour from the hospital.) Home health brought a bililight for us to take home and use. Yesterday (Saturday) we took her back to the doctor, and her levels were up to 19.6. The doctor warned us that we might have to readmit her to the hospital, but he wanted to wait until today to make that decision. We brought her home, stripped her down, put the bililight on her and kept her cradle in front of the sunniest window in the house, which required Mike to rearrange the living room furniture twice a day. It worked, though - the home health nurse came out this morning, and Lily’s bilirubin is down to a 16. We take her back to the pediatrician tomorrow, and with any luck her levels will have come down enough that we can take her off the bililight and reduce her supplemental feedings.

All in all, I couldn’t have asked for an easier labor and delivery. I had a grand total of three stitches, which I think have already healed. My flow has slowed down to almost nothing. My only complaints are that my ankles are STILL extremely swollen, and I have a horrendous case of the baby blues - to the point that I haven’t spoken to anyone other than Mike, Ian, and Lily’s doctor and nurse since coming home from the hospital. I find that if I avoid people, I feel fine - it’s just dealing with anyone other than my little immediate family that pushes me to tears. Fortunately, everyone except my mother understands. Mike has been absolutely wonderful, changing diapers and handling all the supplemental feedings. In fact, he’s a little sad that we may be ending them soon - he enjoys feeding Lily as much as I do. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have him to help me.

So…that’s it in a nutshell! We don’t have a digital camera or a scanner, so I can’t post pictures directly. However, my boss took a lot of pictures and posted them on her blog - www.loopsknitting.com/blog.

Good luck to all of you who are still waiting - and congratulations to everyone who had their babies while I was MIA!

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Originally Posted by Curlylocks

Ok... here it is in it's fully gory glory ;)

Some of you might remember my posts from the night before Olivia was born... I had a docs appt that day and after has some strong cramping and spotting. About 4pm I had a strong contraction, but didnt think much of it since I'd had contrax for the last two weeks and since I was having cramping anyway. The contrax continued and I didnt monitor them until later that night. I did sent DH for a nap cos he was really tired and I thought it might end up being a long night if I really WAS in labor. I looked after DD and put her to bed despite the strengthening contrax. At about 930pm we called my MIL to come over for the night just in case, and I called my OB who said to go in to L&D to be checked. My contrax were 7mins apart. When we got to the hosp, my contrax had retracted to 8-10 mins apart and I was worried they would stop. They monitored me and said they weren't really 'regular', but to go and walk for an hr and they would re-check. I was 2.5cm dilated (up from 2 at my appt). After walking around my contrax were about 4 mins apart, but no stronger, and no more dilation. THey confirmed I was in early labor, and said I could stay, but my OB knew I wanted to labor at home so they said that was fine too. We came home and went to bed. I tried to rest, but my contrax were getting stronger. At 4am I monitored them and they were about 8 mins apart. I had DH wake up to put on my TENS machine, which was INVALUABLE for aiding my pain relief and throughout my labor. I didnt take it off from this point on! With every contraction I could press my big red button and get a slight surge of electro-impulses that distracts the body mentally and physically from the pain (they are popular in the UK for labor). I went back to bed for a cpl of hours. The next morning I labored at home on my birthing ball and walking around until about 1130am, when I called the doc again although my CX were still only 7 mins apart. I knew I was running short on time and I had to get 2 doses of antibiotics since I am GBS positive. Sure enough, as soon as we got in the car, my CX strengthened and were 5 mins apart constistently. At my OB's office he checked me and said I was almost 5cm (nice). I went to check in at the hospital (you walk through a tunnel from my OBs to the hospital - it's almost the same building), and labored there on my ball and walking around. They hooked me up to an IV to get some fluid and for the antibiotics. I was managing it REALLY well! At almost 3pm I starting getting the shakes and I figured transition might be close. But I still needed muy 2nd dose of antibiotics, and I couldn't believe my active labor had gone so fast. I opted to get an epi at that point to slow things down a little since I needed my 2nd dose at 430pm. At 3.30 she checked me and confirmed I was 10cm. I was still at +1 so I could just relax. The epi didnt work too well and I could still feel every contraction, although it did take the edge off a little. I threw up a cpl of times (common in transition I think). I breathed through the contrax for the next hr, and they gave me a quick dose of antibiotics at 4.20. By 5pm my epi had almost completely worn off, and I was ready to push. Contrax were hard and fast - every minute. I had also started to get back labor for the first time, but couldn't quite get into a comfy position to try and change the baby's position - which I figured had changed from anterior to posterior (I was right). Pushing was hard and painful... but I only pushed for 20 mins, through about 4-5 contrax (they slowed down a little). Sure enough - she was face up (just like her sister) and chin up (rare to have this happen twice I am told!) I only got a small 2nd degree tear - I had a local so he could stitch me up. I was up and about an hr later... which I thought was not possible after my horrendous delivery of DD#1. AWESOME! A great experience - I am so glad I was able to go through so much meds free, and to experience the 'high' of transition and pushing. Olivia is perfect!
Here are some photos to go with my LONG story!

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http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w..._2740Small.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w..._2759Small.jpg

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Originally Posted by Pregnant~w/~Riley

Havent been able to go online until now, but our little girl was born august 4th at 3:15. She weighed 7 lbs 5 ozs and was 19 3/4 inches. I called up the doctor friday morning because I woke up that morning really early not feeling good at all. I had a really bad nauseating headache, felt dizzy and was extremely tired. Because I had high blood pressure problems for the past couple weeks they told me to come in and get checked out right away. At the doctors office they checked and I was 1 cm and a bleed really badly after the doctor checked me. They decided to induce me because that was my actual due date as well. We went straight to the hospital and the inserted something to get my cervix started. By the next morning when they checked me I was already 3 cm. They started pitocin at around 10:30am and by 1:30 i was 10 cm. They waited 1 hour for me to "labor down" because it was my first pregnancy and at 2:30 I started pushing. Riley was born at 3:15 pm.
Labor was a pretty good experience for me. It went pretty fast and I had an epidural once the pain started getting really bad. The worst part for me was that night after she was born when the epidural wore off. I had a grade 3 laceration! **ouch** But, I'm feeling much better now and it was all worth it to see our little girl!

Here is her picture when we were about to leave the hospital to go home:
http://a167.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...262d26f9f6.jpg

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