likeaustralia
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This is really long and detailed, but I know that I always liked reading others' details, so I just kind of tried to write as much as I could. Here it is:
Ethans Birth Story
6/30 I felt like I had the urge to urinate, almost like that over-full bladder kind of pain feeling, every seemingly every 5 mins all day long. I thought it was just baby pushing on my bladder, so it was annoying and bothering me, but I certainly didnt think I was in labor at the time. Now, I think these were probably early labor contractions that I was feeling, but didnt know it. I was also small amounts of egg white cervical mucus towards the end of the day (probably pieces of plug).
7/1 - I woke up around 2am to use the bathroom and had very slightly pink discharge. I was very nervous and didn't know what to do. I did nitrozine(sp?)/amniotic fluid test swab test because thought i might be leaking amniotic fluid and it came back dark blue (positive). I asked my husband to call my midwife and she said it sounded like I needed to go into hospital. I was freaking out because did not want to deliver in hospital.
My husband helped get everything together and calm me down. We got to hospital around 3 am and was put in triage room. I was put on fetal monitoring, toco (contraction) monitoring and blood pressure monitor immediately. Blood pressure was high because of stress and I was having mild contractions every 2-7mins.
[Sidenote: Because I had been seeing a CPM (midwife without hospital privilages), I knew I was going to deliver with whoever the on-call doctor was if I was in fact in labor.]
The overnight on-call doctor came in and checked me at some point a few hours into being in triage and said I was completely effaced and 3cm dilated. She also said it felt like baby was butt down and told me I'd need a c-section!! Her bedside manner was terrible and this made me very unhappy as I had wanted/planned for a completely natural birth.
At that point, they started an IV and sent an ultrasound tech to confirm babys position. Luckily, the doctor was wrong and baby was head down - big relief! I stayed in triage for a couple more hours as they weren't sure if I was really in active labor I guess, but contractions became stronger and more consistent quickly.
I was admitted around 8:30/9 and doctor checked me again and I was already 5-6cm. The same doctor who was in triage came to do this, but it turned out that it was the end of her shift and I was getting the next doctor, which was great, because I didnt like the night doctor at all.
My husband called my doula and she arrived a little bit after 10. [Sidenote: It turned out that my doula was attending another labor at the same hospital that night, so she actually had stopped by when I was in triage. We told her to go home and wed update her, so we had been texting with her throughout the time we were in triage.] Contractions were getting really close together at this point. My doula asked if I thought Id want to try the tub for transition and I said ok, so she said she would fill it up and just keep it warm until I got to that point so she wouldnt have to rush when I got there.
She started to fill tub and massaged legs, shoulders through contractions. I got up from the bed to get in the tub around 10:30/11, but sat on toilet because the water was too hot and I felt like I had to sit down to get through the contractions. Because I was moving around/leaning/etc, the fetal monitor wasn't picking up babys heartbeat and nurse was being really annoying trying to fix it while I was having contractions. I felt the urge to push quickly while sitting on toilet and they wanted to check me again fast.
I went back and had them check and was progressing fast. I laid back in bed and got through to 10cm probably by 11:30/11:45 and felt incontrollable urge to push. Lots of doctors/nurses were apparently in the room at that point, but I didn't know until after. All through pushing that same nurse was pushing the fetal monitor on me and getting in the way of doula helping me. [At one point, this same nurse all said, KEEP IT TOGETHER!!! I wanted to hurt her.] My doula was great about keeping her and probably others at bay though. My husband and her were on either side of me with support.
I pushed for what seemed like not very long at all. It was hard, but not what I expected really. I breathed through each contraction as much as I could, but also screamed to get through it some. Soon, I felt burning and doctor told me to slow down. I tried hard to concentrate and be controlled and baby was born a few pushes later at 12:15pm. The placenta came naturally 10-15mins later.
The baby was crying and pink. I watched the preemie doctor check him and only got to hold him for a couple of mins before they took him to the NICU.
I ended up with a fair amount of tearing, despite the control, and doctor didn't want to do repair with local anesthetic, so went under general sedation in OR for repair. I woke up and couldn't figure out where I was at first (very weird feeling). I stayed in OR recovery for 45mins or so and I talked to the doctor. She said even if I had had baby at birth center, it's likely I would've had to go to the hospital anyway for repair and blood loss. She also said with a narrow pelvis its unlikely I would've been able to deliver baby naturally or even vaginally at all at full term.
I went to recovery room and got more IV fluids, antibiotics through IV for repairs, and some Motrin. The nurses were very nice, a bit pushy with drugs (refused all but motrin). I got to go see go baby in the NICU around 7pm. He was on sipap machine and I didn't get to hold him.
7/2 - My catheter and IV out came out and I was feeling much better! The NICU nurse came to tell us baby was off sipap and would be watched for 4 hrs. If he was ok after that, we could hold him. We got good news he was off and we got to go in for an hour of skin-to-skin 2x after that. I was pumping every three hours and giving nurses some colostrum for him each time. At some point, I found out my CBC numbers were lower and was hoping they would be better tomorrow so I could get discharged.
7/3 I was still running on very little sleep and the hospital staff was relentless about coming for checks and such every 15mins. I was getting really tired of being there at that point, but the lab tech came before 7am to take my CBC blood sample again and I was fine with that because I wanted to be discharged asap! CBC was better and I found out I could go home! I had breakfast and lunch in the hospital, pumped a couple of times and got to hold and feed the baby and now Im home! Before we left, I dropped off some milk for his next feeding at 5pm. I pumped again at home and I got the most milk so far with this last pumping, so I am really pleased. We will go back to see him around 8pm tonight.
Ethans Birth Story
6/30 I felt like I had the urge to urinate, almost like that over-full bladder kind of pain feeling, every seemingly every 5 mins all day long. I thought it was just baby pushing on my bladder, so it was annoying and bothering me, but I certainly didnt think I was in labor at the time. Now, I think these were probably early labor contractions that I was feeling, but didnt know it. I was also small amounts of egg white cervical mucus towards the end of the day (probably pieces of plug).
7/1 - I woke up around 2am to use the bathroom and had very slightly pink discharge. I was very nervous and didn't know what to do. I did nitrozine(sp?)/amniotic fluid test swab test because thought i might be leaking amniotic fluid and it came back dark blue (positive). I asked my husband to call my midwife and she said it sounded like I needed to go into hospital. I was freaking out because did not want to deliver in hospital.
My husband helped get everything together and calm me down. We got to hospital around 3 am and was put in triage room. I was put on fetal monitoring, toco (contraction) monitoring and blood pressure monitor immediately. Blood pressure was high because of stress and I was having mild contractions every 2-7mins.
[Sidenote: Because I had been seeing a CPM (midwife without hospital privilages), I knew I was going to deliver with whoever the on-call doctor was if I was in fact in labor.]
The overnight on-call doctor came in and checked me at some point a few hours into being in triage and said I was completely effaced and 3cm dilated. She also said it felt like baby was butt down and told me I'd need a c-section!! Her bedside manner was terrible and this made me very unhappy as I had wanted/planned for a completely natural birth.
At that point, they started an IV and sent an ultrasound tech to confirm babys position. Luckily, the doctor was wrong and baby was head down - big relief! I stayed in triage for a couple more hours as they weren't sure if I was really in active labor I guess, but contractions became stronger and more consistent quickly.
I was admitted around 8:30/9 and doctor checked me again and I was already 5-6cm. The same doctor who was in triage came to do this, but it turned out that it was the end of her shift and I was getting the next doctor, which was great, because I didnt like the night doctor at all.
My husband called my doula and she arrived a little bit after 10. [Sidenote: It turned out that my doula was attending another labor at the same hospital that night, so she actually had stopped by when I was in triage. We told her to go home and wed update her, so we had been texting with her throughout the time we were in triage.] Contractions were getting really close together at this point. My doula asked if I thought Id want to try the tub for transition and I said ok, so she said she would fill it up and just keep it warm until I got to that point so she wouldnt have to rush when I got there.
She started to fill tub and massaged legs, shoulders through contractions. I got up from the bed to get in the tub around 10:30/11, but sat on toilet because the water was too hot and I felt like I had to sit down to get through the contractions. Because I was moving around/leaning/etc, the fetal monitor wasn't picking up babys heartbeat and nurse was being really annoying trying to fix it while I was having contractions. I felt the urge to push quickly while sitting on toilet and they wanted to check me again fast.
I went back and had them check and was progressing fast. I laid back in bed and got through to 10cm probably by 11:30/11:45 and felt incontrollable urge to push. Lots of doctors/nurses were apparently in the room at that point, but I didn't know until after. All through pushing that same nurse was pushing the fetal monitor on me and getting in the way of doula helping me. [At one point, this same nurse all said, KEEP IT TOGETHER!!! I wanted to hurt her.] My doula was great about keeping her and probably others at bay though. My husband and her were on either side of me with support.
I pushed for what seemed like not very long at all. It was hard, but not what I expected really. I breathed through each contraction as much as I could, but also screamed to get through it some. Soon, I felt burning and doctor told me to slow down. I tried hard to concentrate and be controlled and baby was born a few pushes later at 12:15pm. The placenta came naturally 10-15mins later.
The baby was crying and pink. I watched the preemie doctor check him and only got to hold him for a couple of mins before they took him to the NICU.
I ended up with a fair amount of tearing, despite the control, and doctor didn't want to do repair with local anesthetic, so went under general sedation in OR for repair. I woke up and couldn't figure out where I was at first (very weird feeling). I stayed in OR recovery for 45mins or so and I talked to the doctor. She said even if I had had baby at birth center, it's likely I would've had to go to the hospital anyway for repair and blood loss. She also said with a narrow pelvis its unlikely I would've been able to deliver baby naturally or even vaginally at all at full term.
I went to recovery room and got more IV fluids, antibiotics through IV for repairs, and some Motrin. The nurses were very nice, a bit pushy with drugs (refused all but motrin). I got to go see go baby in the NICU around 7pm. He was on sipap machine and I didn't get to hold him.
7/2 - My catheter and IV out came out and I was feeling much better! The NICU nurse came to tell us baby was off sipap and would be watched for 4 hrs. If he was ok after that, we could hold him. We got good news he was off and we got to go in for an hour of skin-to-skin 2x after that. I was pumping every three hours and giving nurses some colostrum for him each time. At some point, I found out my CBC numbers were lower and was hoping they would be better tomorrow so I could get discharged.
7/3 I was still running on very little sleep and the hospital staff was relentless about coming for checks and such every 15mins. I was getting really tired of being there at that point, but the lab tech came before 7am to take my CBC blood sample again and I was fine with that because I wanted to be discharged asap! CBC was better and I found out I could go home! I had breakfast and lunch in the hospital, pumped a couple of times and got to hold and feed the baby and now Im home! Before we left, I dropped off some milk for his next feeding at 5pm. I pumped again at home and I got the most milk so far with this last pumping, so I am really pleased. We will go back to see him around 8pm tonight.
.. you are one of the first people I "know" on here (since I have been on B&B - I remember telling you that I am a big Aussie fan and how I loved your name 
