Birth Story
I wrote this for one of the lists I am on yesterday when someone asked when was she born. LOL. Here it is, finally.
I went in for my induction at 6:00 pm on Thursday, March 2nd. They began misopropyl (I think that is right) to ripen my cervix, every 3 hours. However, after the second one, they became concerned about Ellie's heart dropping. The nurse came in and asked me if I was feeling my contractions and I said, "what contractions?". I guess I was contracting and her heart rate was dropping with contractions. They stopped the miso and waited till the other OB came in Friday morning (the OB on staff Thursday night was the OB I had "fired"...for just that reason, she didn't seem comfortable with my "high risks" and always wanted to wait and defer to the next specialist).
Throughout the night, about every 15 minutes or so, the nurse would have me move ever so slightly to my right or left side to try and help her heart rate...it was a very long night. My cervix barely changed throughout the night. I started at 1.5cm and in the morning I was 2.5. Finally the new OB came in and started the Pitocin drip. I continued to be contracting regularly every 3 minutes or so (as I had been all night supposedly), but truth be told, I never felt them until about 5:00pm. Every time the OB would pop in to check on me throughout the day, he would say I was obviuosly not ready yet as I was smiling, talking and laughing. My mom thought it quite funny that I was able to sleep through labour and took my picture one time. The OB wanted to break my water and get things going around 5:00. My cervix had only gotten to 3.5. I was really scared about breaking my water and I still wanted to try and wait it out. He agreed to let me. By 8:00, I was 4cm and he insisted that it was time to move things along (I had been on Pitocin for 13 hours by this point, and in induction for 26). He broke my water and inserted the internal monitors. My doula ran to have a quick bite to eat thinking that there would be some time before I really needed her and that it, being my first, could be a long labour.
I had been having almost no pain, and certainly nothing PAINFUL to this point, just uncomfortable. I went to the bathroom, and was in so much pain, I couldn't get out. I called from the bathroom for drugs. My doula made it back, probably about 15 minutes after leaving, and I was given some drug, narcotic I think. It did nothing for the pain, just made the room spin. I was in a lot of pain (I think mostly because it was happening SOO fast and such a drastic change from just 30 minutes before), and asked for that which I had been most scared of: the epidural. The epidural guy was in there probably about 5 minutes later and working on inserting it. He just got the needle in (but not the drip part of it), when I told everyone I had to push.
The nurse told me that wasn't possible and I told her, "I have never had a baby before, but I am quite certain I have to push now". They didn't have time to finish the epidural, gave me a quick bolus, checked my cervix and sure enough, at 8:45, I was now 10 cm and ready to go. At one point, the OB wanted to do an episiotomy, but I told him no. Then, by 10:00, he wanted to use the vacuum as Ellie's heart was dropping very severely (I could hear it just vanish sometimes...I don't know for how long it really was..but to me it seemed like minutes). I was scared of the vacuum, and so I pushed her out. LOL. (no episiotomy in the end..but a tear. I have no experience with recovery from an episiotomy, but recovery from the tear was nothing...I don't regret that decision at all)
I was truly blessed by an easy delivery for the most part. In my opinion, my labour was truly just those 45 minutes of going from 4-10 plus the slightly under 2 hours of pushing. When Eliana was born, they had the NICU staff and the respiratory nurse there in the room with the Ohio bed and everything, but she was fine and never left my room once!
She is such a great baby, so relaxed and content. I am really blessed.
Truly, as her name means, God has answered my prayers. :)
I went in for my induction at 6:00 pm on Thursday, March 2nd. They began misopropyl (I think that is right) to ripen my cervix, every 3 hours. However, after the second one, they became concerned about Ellie's heart dropping. The nurse came in and asked me if I was feeling my contractions and I said, "what contractions?". I guess I was contracting and her heart rate was dropping with contractions. They stopped the miso and waited till the other OB came in Friday morning (the OB on staff Thursday night was the OB I had "fired"...for just that reason, she didn't seem comfortable with my "high risks" and always wanted to wait and defer to the next specialist).
Throughout the night, about every 15 minutes or so, the nurse would have me move ever so slightly to my right or left side to try and help her heart rate...it was a very long night. My cervix barely changed throughout the night. I started at 1.5cm and in the morning I was 2.5. Finally the new OB came in and started the Pitocin drip. I continued to be contracting regularly every 3 minutes or so (as I had been all night supposedly), but truth be told, I never felt them until about 5:00pm. Every time the OB would pop in to check on me throughout the day, he would say I was obviuosly not ready yet as I was smiling, talking and laughing. My mom thought it quite funny that I was able to sleep through labour and took my picture one time. The OB wanted to break my water and get things going around 5:00. My cervix had only gotten to 3.5. I was really scared about breaking my water and I still wanted to try and wait it out. He agreed to let me. By 8:00, I was 4cm and he insisted that it was time to move things along (I had been on Pitocin for 13 hours by this point, and in induction for 26). He broke my water and inserted the internal monitors. My doula ran to have a quick bite to eat thinking that there would be some time before I really needed her and that it, being my first, could be a long labour.
I had been having almost no pain, and certainly nothing PAINFUL to this point, just uncomfortable. I went to the bathroom, and was in so much pain, I couldn't get out. I called from the bathroom for drugs. My doula made it back, probably about 15 minutes after leaving, and I was given some drug, narcotic I think. It did nothing for the pain, just made the room spin. I was in a lot of pain (I think mostly because it was happening SOO fast and such a drastic change from just 30 minutes before), and asked for that which I had been most scared of: the epidural. The epidural guy was in there probably about 5 minutes later and working on inserting it. He just got the needle in (but not the drip part of it), when I told everyone I had to push.
The nurse told me that wasn't possible and I told her, "I have never had a baby before, but I am quite certain I have to push now". They didn't have time to finish the epidural, gave me a quick bolus, checked my cervix and sure enough, at 8:45, I was now 10 cm and ready to go. At one point, the OB wanted to do an episiotomy, but I told him no. Then, by 10:00, he wanted to use the vacuum as Ellie's heart was dropping very severely (I could hear it just vanish sometimes...I don't know for how long it really was..but to me it seemed like minutes). I was scared of the vacuum, and so I pushed her out. LOL. (no episiotomy in the end..but a tear. I have no experience with recovery from an episiotomy, but recovery from the tear was nothing...I don't regret that decision at all)
I was truly blessed by an easy delivery for the most part. In my opinion, my labour was truly just those 45 minutes of going from 4-10 plus the slightly under 2 hours of pushing. When Eliana was born, they had the NICU staff and the respiratory nurse there in the room with the Ohio bed and everything, but she was fine and never left my room once!
She is such a great baby, so relaxed and content. I am really blessed.
Truly, as her name means, God has answered my prayers. :)
posted by Katrina | 5/30/2006 05:23:00 AM
1 Comments:
What a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it!
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