Birth Story

After doctor stripped membranes St. Patricks day, early labor began on the way home. Although I didn't realize it till later that evening! From there things really started to intensify. Baby was sitting (I'm guessing, and they think) spine to spine for most of my labor...and as a result I was having HOOOOORBLE back/hip labor.

When contractions got to about 4/5 mins apart for the hour (4-1-1) we headed out to the hospital about midnight. Actually I had a few that were two mins apart & I think Anthony was worried I'd progress fast & he'd be delivering little one at home or in the car ;).

After being at the hospital for about 7 hours (and not dialating past 4, but 100% effaced) they said I had two option, take Pitocin or go home and see if I could relax enough to let contractions be productive. Well, we went home! We used different positions, counter pressure, breathing and tried visualizations. After laboring there till about 10pm, I had a few spurts of contractions one on top of another, long, and very strong. Anthony decided we should go to the hospital again.

So, now it's about 10:40p, I'm dilated to 6 and contractions are so strong I have my mom and hubby both doing counter pressure/pressure points for pain along with breathing/relaxation/etc. They admit me and I continue to contract...position changes didn't seem to make any difference in severity or help move baby around but if I laid on my left they came fast, strong and long so that was my most common position. Figured that would help things progress fastest.

Finally about 4:30a I started getting so tired I was unable to relax during cont. and I'm now panicking and the contractions aren't dilating me again. I discuss it with Anthony and we decide considering the time, level of pain, lack of sleep and now lack of food too that I need rest...and the only way we were able to do that was drug intervention. We discussd it till about 6am, as well as tried all sorts of the techniques we learned too...last resort but it worked. I was able to get an hour and a half of sleep and I felt like a brand new person. While sleeping my water broke and I dilated to 8/9 but cont. slowed down (which we expected) so we allowed doc to use a very low dose of Pit to get the last 1-2 cm. I responded so well to a 2ml per hour drip they had to turn it off after only an hour and within the following hour we were almost ready to push!

They came in about 2/2:30 and I was ready to go! Oh, and the funny part? Only after intervention and RIGHT before pushing did baby flip around so she was face to spine. Started pushing by 2:45, 3ish and by 3:41pm she was out! I did get 2nd degree tears, and stitches but she was a big baby! The doc/RNs did all the stretching inbetween and with pushing they could have.

Looking back I'm very satisfied with how things went. I'm not sure I would have had the energy, perseverance to make it through to pushing her out if we didn't decide to take the interventions. I'm very happy knowing we did all we could, and used all our Bradley knowledge to help us through those first 48/50 hours.

Considering how long we waited to do interventions I wasn't on meds for very long, she still came out very alert/rooting, and I was still very alert & so overly emotional! I was amazed...at all of it. All in all I feel the two interventions we did have were worth it instead of being so exhausted I couldn't push her out and risking a cesarean.

What a wonderful and miraculous experience! She was 8lbs 9oz, 21 inches long and well worth all the pain & labor. :)


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