Birth Story

[Guest guest]

I've forgotten what it's like to have a newborn in the house... throw in a 19

month old who is attached to me 24/7 and sprinkle w/ a 6 1/2 year old who needs

to know she is still her number one girl and you can see it's been a busy 6

days!

Let's start off with the morning of Wednesday, December 31, 2003. DH and I

show up to the hospital around 7:45 and proceed to Admitting. From there we

proceed to Labor & Delivery, feeling contractions but not really thinking

anything of them.

Once in L&D I'm asked to change into a gown and give a urine sample. Turns out

I have bloody show, something I didn't have when I woke up in the morning.

Good sign things are going to happen today. Give the urine sample and it turns

out I'm seriously dehydrated, a specific gravity of 1.8 . Of course everyone

asks, " Why are you so dehydrated? " .

Our Doula arrives right around this time.

Because I plan on doing natural unassisted childbirth, getting me back to a

hydrated status is important so I'm requesting an IV to rehydrate me. Problem

is, I'm so dehydrated, they can't find a vein. L&D nurse opts out, IV nurse

opts out and it comes down to an anesthesiologist to come in and find a vein.

Only vein he can find is on the back of my hand...we go for it, knowing it's

going to make the labor process a lil hampered since one hand will not have free

range.

IV is running and we're done with the initial monitoring. I get up and start

walking the halls. Come back to the room for a protein shake and around 9 am,

my water breaks. Continue to walk the halls... now at a faster pace.

10 am and my OB, who is fully aware of my birth plan and my request for no

pitocin, calls my L&D nurse and requests Pit to be started. I refuse it and so

she calls him and he in turns calls into my room to speak with me. He explains

he's concerned about the risk of infection as time goes by after the water

breaking and since my contractions are so far apart, he wants to start me on

Pit. I refuse and tell him I want to re-evaluate at 12 noon. He then

explains he was on-call the night before and was up most of the night and didn't

want the same thing happening tonight. I ignored that statement and

reiterated that I would re-evaluate myself in 2 hours and decide if " I " want

Pit. Needless to say, he didn't sound like a happy camper but this birth

process is mine and not his.

DH, Doula and myself continue to walk the halls... contractions getting stronger

but still far apart, like 18 minutes.

11:40am, we head back to the room for 20 minutes worth of monitoring. DH

decides to grab some lunch in the cafeteria since nothing really is happening or

progressing. Wouldn't you know it, he leaves and contractions start strong

out of nowhere. They are like 4-5 minutes apart, lasting more than a minute

each and extreme. About 11:50 am, Nurse comes in and wants me on the birthing

ball because I'm having decels after each contraction. I get on the birthing

ball and contractions are really strong, coming every 4 minutes but I'm still

having decels following each contraction. I then get off the ball and onto all

fours on the floor. At this time, 12:05 pm, DH walks in and is wondering how I

could be so far into labor so quickly.

OB comes in a few minutes later and attempts to do an exam while I'm on all

fours...it's obvious here he's out of his element and not used to doing pelvics

in this position! lol I ride out the next contraction and move to the bed

where the squatting bar has been set up. I'm 5-6 cm dilated at this point.

OB walks out, either to go to his office (across the hospital parking lot) or ?

Doula and DH are now working on acupressure points on the soles of my feet to

decrease the intensity of pain w/ each contraction. At this point, 1:20pm, I'm

having contractions every 2 minutes, in transition and really unable to

communicate to them since I'm trying to ride with each contraction. This

acupressure technique really works because while DH was holding my hand and

Doula was feeding me ice chips, they missed on one contraction from the onset

and there was a definite difference in pain!

1:40 pm, nurse does a pelvic to see how far dilated I am after I'm

begging/moaning " I wanna push " . She quickly says, " Ooops, hello baby! " and

calls from the bedside to get my OB here right away.

1:47 pm, OB appears, and I'm ready. Having more decels w/ contractions and

following contractions so I'm placed on a 100% non-rebreather, in hopes the

oxygen will take away some of the stress on the baby. After 2, maybe 3 pushes,

a Lorelle makes her entrance into the world... at 1:51 pm . Hearing that

it's 1:51, I've already started my humorous side and asked DH if we should

change her middle name to Baccardi. I guess I'm the only one in the room that

got sick on Baccardi 151 while in college. I thought it was funny being that

it was New Year's Eve and the time was 1:51.

a was immediately placed on my chest while she proceeded to pass a nice

quantity of meconium all over me! lol Dh cut the cord once it stopped

pulsating and she latched on like a pro. Just an interjection here, my first

two never did that and in fact, bf'ing was a nightmare because of latch

problems. Happy to say, 6 days out she nurses wonderfully!

Apgars 8 & 9 (Elevation of 5700 feet, you're not going to see an Apgar of 10).

10 min Apgar did go down to 7 and she was given supplemental O2 while remaining

on my chest. Required that for only about 10 minutes and was good to go

without oxygen.

She remained on my chest for about an hour until the nursery came to give her a

bedside bath, vitals, weight, etc... 7lbs 10 oz, 21 1/4 inches long.

Well that's about it for now. If anyone needs or wants to email me, email me

directly at linda@... - for some reason I've been bouncing w/ Yahoo

Groups since the 1st and after submitting 5 reactivation requests, I'm still

unable to remove the bounce.

~

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