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A tale of two births...


i want to tell you my daughter's birth story, but to do so i have to explain my son's.

laine was a scheduled induction, because the little stinker didn't want to leave the warm oven he was cookin' in.

i was so stressed out about being induced. i wanted a totally natural experience with no drugs of any sort. i wanted him to come out when he was ready (even though i was more than ready for him to come out). on the day of his induction my water broke in the e.r. while i was being admitted. this was a blessing because i knew it meant that my contractions would happen more naturally and they'd hold off on giving me pitocin.

i had done all my homework with laine. i took birthing classes, read books, watched movies, all that good stuff. we brought music to calm me, and a ball to try and work thru contractions on.

that was not how it was going to go. after 5 hours of horrid back labor and being stuck on my side i only was at 2 cm. now, in a modern hospital they typically won't let you labor past 12 hrs if your water broke, so i was in a time crunch. oh, and did i mention that i was also vomiting too?! ah, the beauty of child birth. at that time the nurse told me they'd be doing pitocin.

long story short....i got the epidural.

and the gates of heaven opened and the angels we're singing the hallelujah chorus! amazing.

best idea. ever. 3 hours later i pushed for 30 mins and got my son out!

8 lbs. 12 oz.
now. jump ahead to cora.

i know better now, that there are these yummy drugs at the hospital and i fully wanted them!! i didn't do classes again (why bother, i'm getting the drugs anyway), and i definitely didn't bring a birthing ball with me. little did i know...

on wednesday, september 14th my dr. thought he'd play a funny joke on me and stripped my membranes during my exam.

don't ask what that is, you don't want to know. if you know what that is, well, you know what that is.

anywho. i started having contractions a few hours later and had a really hard time sleeping that night. i was up almost all night timing everything (3-5 mins apart) and around 5 a.m. on thursday, september 15th i woke the sleeping hubby and said, "i think i'm going to have the baby today, let's go to the hospital."

we got to the hospital at 6 a.m. (remember this) and was admitted. i was checked and only at 2-3 cm dialated. after three hours and a lot of walking around, some doctor decided it wasn't enough progress for him to keep me and that i should go home.

so home we went. and we slept for about 3 hrs. around 2 p.m. my son came back to our house to nap and i tried to lay down. except, i kept getting these really strong contractions. funny. i was told i wasn't in labor, yet i'm pretty sure contractions are a part of labor.
but what do i know, i'm not a doctor.

at around 4 p.m. i couldn't lay down or really get comfortable and with every contraction i was moaning and groaning and they hurt like hell! so, i got in the shower and clung to the cool wall while the hot water pounded on my poor back that was taking a beating yet again. (i am praying none of you ever have back labor. it's from the devil.)

by 5:00 i knew this was no joke and we needed to think about going back to the hospital. i couldn't stand, lay down, squat, or anything so, we called to talk to the L&D nurse on call, and she made the decision for me to come back in. so the little man got picked up by grandma and off we went again.

at 6:45 p.m. (12 hours later) we arrived BACK at the hospital! i chose to walk up to the L&D ward because the idea of sitting in a wheelchair made me want to scream. but at that point my contractions were at max 2 mins apart and i had to stop and death grip my husband to get thru them.

when i finally got in a bed they checked me and i was 6 cm dialated!!! which made me excited, and then at the same time nervous because i wanted those yummy drugs and 6 was really close to 10 and they won't give them to you if you're too close to 10.

20 mins later i thought my water broke and the nurse checked me during a contraction (not the best idea. i don't recommend it.) and i was now an 8. which meant NO EPIDURAL!!! the contraction after that i had a crazy urge to bear down and when i did my water broke. she checked me again and i was fully dialated with the baby already making her way down the canal.

now, let me pause here, to tell you that though the new doctor was on the floor when i arrived, somehow in the 30-40 mins of me going from a 6 to a 10 she decided to go home. so they told me wait.

wait. wait to push a baby out with no drugs when you can feel everything including your body telling you to get that baby out. that was a funny joke.

thankfully i am a really good listener. sort of. i may have pushed a little one time. but then they all yelled at me to breath. and by all i mean all 7 people that rushed into my room because i was going to have a baby any min.

when the doctor walked in, three contractions (and a lot of screaming) later i had my daughter.

8 lbs 7 oz.

so, from start to finish walking in the door the second time i had my daughter in 1 hr and 10 mins. thank goodness we didn't wait for my water to break!!!! we'd have had a home birth.

in reference to the screaming, apparently there was labor and delivery hospital tour going on for future mommies and they all heard me screaming and moaning while pushing her out...the nurse doing the tour had to re-assure all of them that everything was okay due to the looks of panic on their faces. she explained that i didn't have an epidural and that's why i was making those noises. i'm pretty sure they'll all get an epidural. sorry girls. didn't mean to scare ya. :)

all in all neither birthing experiences went the way i wanted, in fact they were total opposites,
but no matter what i got my babies out of it. and i do love them so!

2 comments:

  1. So crazy! And so awesome! Great job, Amy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel your pain!! I had one accidentally natural as well. Epidurals are the best invention on the entire planet!

    And I remember the screaming women when I went through the 'tour' of the hospital. A bit alarming!

    Congratulations! She is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete

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