wavescrash
Mom to 3 girls.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2011
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Hannah Grace was due May 10th 2012 but as the pregnancy drew to a close, I grew more and more impatient to meet her. At 37w5d pregnant I had a prenatal appointment and asked my doctor to do a membrane sweep (I was 2cm dilated and 50% effaced at that time.) She agreed to do one because she said she doesn't think they work and said she'd see me the following week. After that appointment, I went and walked for about 3 hours and came home to bounce on my exercise ball. I didn't feel much of anything and felt like the sweep wasn't going to work. The next day I experienced irregular contractions that were lasting over a minute long and coming anywhere from 2-5 minutes apart. We went to Labor & Delivery who said I was 3cm dilated and 60% effaced. They had me walk the ward awhile but there was no change to my cervix so I was sent home and eventually the contractions stopped. The next day was uneventful and I figured the sweep was a failure. Late that night I felt a few contractions. During one of them I lost my mucus plug (gross I know) and for the rest of the night I kept feeling like my pants were constantly wet. I thought it may have been my waters leaking so my doctor sent me in to labor & delivery to be examined.
They said it was probably just discharge and expected to send me on my way. Sure enough it turned out to be that my waters were leaking (a high and slow leak) and I was admitted to the hospital on Friday morning at 2am to have my baby! I thought for sure they were going to send me home so it came as quite a shock. I called my family and woke them all up with the news. Around 4am they started my Pitocin drip. Not long after that kicked in did I ask for the epidural. She was back to back and let me just say that back labor is the worst!!
My Mom showed up at the hospital around 6:30am and then my sister came by an hour later along with OH's brother. They all stayed with me until after the delivery
My Dad also showed up at some point throughout the day and stayed until after she was born as well. Anyway... I kept stalling out at 3cm, 4cm and 5cm. At that point, they had another doctor come in to check me and see if she thought differently. She noticed that my waters hadn't leaked entirely and that was probably part of the problem. She broke the bag of waters and things progressed really quickly from there. About 2 hours later it was time to get things moving! When the nurse checked me and told me I was at 9cm, I lost it. I couldn't stop crying. I was very nervous (mostly about the pain) and very anxious. It was only a matter of minutes before I was fully dilated and we kicked everyone out of the room. I only kept OH and my Mom in there with me. They held my legs while I pushed.
The nurse kept saying what a great job I was doing pushing and honestly... it felt pretty easy unlike my first delivery where I had no idea what I was doing. This time I could tell when to push and I could feel the progress, I could feel her being born and it didn't hurt that bad. I mean, I still had the epidural to take the edge off but it wasn't too strong that I couldn't feel anything. OH said he watched almost the whole thing and was surprised he wasn't grossed out by it. He said he pushed it all out of his mind and just watched his daughter being born. We did skin-to-skin/kangaroo care for about an hour and nursed her for the first time. I had a first-degree tear and only a few stitches.
At discharge she was down to 6lbs and a little jaundice.
Breastfeeding is so much harder than I expected. I knew it wasn't easy but I thought it'd be better than it is. They say it takes 3 weeks to get it "right" and once you make it past the 3 weeks, you're golden... so I'm holding out hope we can last. We've supplemented with formula for a few bottles just because she wasn't eating but I hated giving it to her. I hated watching her spit up so much. I've been pumping so that I can get a few hours of sleep here and there and OH would be able to feed her. I'm also going to need to pump and store for when I have to go back to work and things like that. I also talked to a lactation consultant yesterday who was very helpful. After talking to her we've found a way that's working for us so far. But then again we'll have one great day of feeding followed by a terrible day so who knows! Oh & her umbilical cord fell off today as well!!
I also have really bad swelling of my calves, feet and ankles. It's pretty painful to be honest. I have pain in my back when I pump and a weakness in my left arm/hand. It's pretty weird but otherwise I'm recovering pretty well. I'm hardly sleeping but that will pass eventually... I hope.
L&D Stats
Admitted to L&D - 2:00 am, 3cm and 60% effaced.
Pitocin started - 4:10am
Waters broken - Approx 2:00 pm
Pushed for - 20-30 minutes
https://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3gcukevka1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
Our first picture together, just after delivery.
https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3g240quxN1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3er4kIa8S1qzzo2fo1_500.png
Birth announcement I made up.
https://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3eg47QE8P1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
Quite possibly my favorite picture of her so far.
https://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3d6i6489f1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
https://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m398k14DpK1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
https://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m37ap8QaO51qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
https://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m36hhnRPMp1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
They said it was probably just discharge and expected to send me on my way. Sure enough it turned out to be that my waters were leaking (a high and slow leak) and I was admitted to the hospital on Friday morning at 2am to have my baby! I thought for sure they were going to send me home so it came as quite a shock. I called my family and woke them all up with the news. Around 4am they started my Pitocin drip. Not long after that kicked in did I ask for the epidural. She was back to back and let me just say that back labor is the worst!!
My Mom showed up at the hospital around 6:30am and then my sister came by an hour later along with OH's brother. They all stayed with me until after the delivery
My Dad also showed up at some point throughout the day and stayed until after she was born as well. Anyway... I kept stalling out at 3cm, 4cm and 5cm. At that point, they had another doctor come in to check me and see if she thought differently. She noticed that my waters hadn't leaked entirely and that was probably part of the problem. She broke the bag of waters and things progressed really quickly from there. About 2 hours later it was time to get things moving! When the nurse checked me and told me I was at 9cm, I lost it. I couldn't stop crying. I was very nervous (mostly about the pain) and very anxious. It was only a matter of minutes before I was fully dilated and we kicked everyone out of the room. I only kept OH and my Mom in there with me. They held my legs while I pushed.The nurse kept saying what a great job I was doing pushing and honestly... it felt pretty easy unlike my first delivery where I had no idea what I was doing. This time I could tell when to push and I could feel the progress, I could feel her being born and it didn't hurt that bad. I mean, I still had the epidural to take the edge off but it wasn't too strong that I couldn't feel anything. OH said he watched almost the whole thing and was surprised he wasn't grossed out by it. He said he pushed it all out of his mind and just watched his daughter being born. We did skin-to-skin/kangaroo care for about an hour and nursed her for the first time. I had a first-degree tear and only a few stitches.
At discharge she was down to 6lbs and a little jaundice.
Breastfeeding is so much harder than I expected. I knew it wasn't easy but I thought it'd be better than it is. They say it takes 3 weeks to get it "right" and once you make it past the 3 weeks, you're golden... so I'm holding out hope we can last. We've supplemented with formula for a few bottles just because she wasn't eating but I hated giving it to her. I hated watching her spit up so much. I've been pumping so that I can get a few hours of sleep here and there and OH would be able to feed her. I'm also going to need to pump and store for when I have to go back to work and things like that. I also talked to a lactation consultant yesterday who was very helpful. After talking to her we've found a way that's working for us so far. But then again we'll have one great day of feeding followed by a terrible day so who knows! Oh & her umbilical cord fell off today as well!!
I also have really bad swelling of my calves, feet and ankles. It's pretty painful to be honest. I have pain in my back when I pump and a weakness in my left arm/hand. It's pretty weird but otherwise I'm recovering pretty well. I'm hardly sleeping but that will pass eventually... I hope.
L&D Stats
Admitted to L&D - 2:00 am, 3cm and 60% effaced.
Pitocin started - 4:10am
Waters broken - Approx 2:00 pm
Pushed for - 20-30 minutes
https://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3gcukevka1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
Our first picture together, just after delivery.
https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3g240quxN1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3er4kIa8S1qzzo2fo1_500.png
Birth announcement I made up.
https://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3eg47QE8P1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
Quite possibly my favorite picture of her so far.
https://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3d6i6489f1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
https://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m398k14DpK1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
https://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m37ap8QaO51qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
https://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m36hhnRPMp1qzzo2fo1_500.jpg
