March Mommy's Birth Stories & Pics!
I am so sorry the old one got lost!! I went back and found Amy and Traci's birth stories, so will paste them below. I'll make sure this thread is here to stay!!!
*hugs*
Charlie
---------------------------------
Kennan Patrick
Do you even remember me? It's been a while. Here's my story...
I've been in and out of the hospital for the past couple of weeks or so. My blood pressure shot up when I was 30 weeks and we thought our baby would be born then. I was able to hold out and get the steroid shots (thank GOD) and then I stabled out for a week. They let me go home for bedrest, but I was back in the hospital a couple of days later. I had toxemia and the protein in my urine shot up to 13 grams. They thought they would deliver that night, but I was able to stable out for another couple of days, so I delivered at 31 weeks, but the baby was measuring 28 weeks.
Kennan Patrick was born 1/14/03 and he weighed 2lb 14oz.. just a tiny little guy. He's doing well. He didn't need any help breathing at all. They put him on some oxygen the first day, but he didn't need it and was off of it about an hour later. He's eating well now with a feeding tube and they even stopped his IV a couple of nights ago. The only problem he has is that he's so small he can't maintain his body temp. He's very precious and I can't wait to bring him home. I'm going to try to include some pics. The first one was taken the day he was born.
-Traci
It's a boy! Born 1/14/03 - 2lb 14oz
------------------------------------------------
Anya Elise
Here's the official "What the Heck Happened to You" story. Not for the squeamish or faint of heart (haha)...and I hope not to scare any first time moms.
On Thursday I went for my follow up appt. I figured she'd put me on bedrest for 7 weeks, until my due date. She pretty much took one look at my face and said "go home, get a toothbrush and meet me at the hospital". My eyelids, hands, feet and ankles were swollen. She did a quick urine dip and I was spilling a little protien, and my bp was pretty high.
I came home, called Ax and waited for him to take me in. We checked in and I was taken to labor and delivery. First let me just say that these rooms are pretty damned nice Anyway, I get put into LD and my doc shows up explaining that I might be pre eclampsic. She wants to keep me for observation overnight, check on me often, and decide what to do. At this point I figured I'd be on bedrest still.
At about 9pm, after bloodwork and urine dips and bp checks, she decided to put me on magnesium. My protien was high, so was my bp. I was hooked up to the mag at about 11pm. They put me on a catheter (ugh) and because of the mag, I had to have my bloodwork done every 5 hours. Yes, every 5 hours, someone came in and poked me. You should see my left arm. Anyway, the mag is a muscle relaxer, and those muscles include your brain and heart. I was put on it so that I would NOT have seizures. Interesting, huh?
Friday was kind of a daze. My protien was still there but kind of low, my liver looked fine, but my bp was way high. Dr. Cooper wanted to play it by ear and explained that she wanted Anya in womb as long as possible. I got my first steroid shot that day and we waited. And waited. Bloodwork ok, urine not good, bp not good. Dr. decided that the plan of attack was to wait until Saturday. If I've leveled out, home...if not, I'll either stay in the hospital until the birth, or we'd induce. On Saturday, they found a problem in my 4 am (yes 4am) bloodwork...my liver was spilling Uric acid. My protien had shot up to 8gms and my bp was high. I recieved another steriod shot that day, and a specialist came buy who told me he was recommending delivery. I was pretty upset. I didn't understand the severity yet I guess. Anyway, Dr. Cooper came by at 7pm that night, and they inserted a pill next to my cervix to soften it. I was 1cm.
On Sunday morning, my kidneys started to fail. Dr. Cooper said that there were no more games to be played; either we induce or there could be problems-permanet kidney/liver damage, death, etc. What a great talk. Axel was a mess. He said "there is no choice; induce her"...and they did. I got the second pill on my cervix at 9am. I was 2 cm!!! At 12:30, she came in to break my water. 1) THAT HURT. 2) I started having contractions then. She hooked me up to the pitocin at 1pm. So, I have mag going into my left arm via iv, pitocin in my right arm via iv (which they had to put in a wierd place since my veins were a mess from bloodwork) and I'm lying there just having contractions. My dad, brother, stepmom, 2 family friends and my aunt were all hanging out watching football. We were told it could take 13 hours to deliver. My brother was literally eating chex mix while I was having contractions.
At about 1:30, the contractions were bad. It wasn't like period cramps anymore, but period cramps on acid. I asked for the epidural. The myths you hear about the epidural aren't true. 1) It's a CONTINUOUS drip, so it can't "wear off". 2) It doesn't hurt. I mean yes, they are inserting something in your spine, but they numb it, and compared to contractions I say take the shot. Anyway, I told them I wasn't going to lie there for 13 hours in that kind of pain.
I got the epidural and wow...NICE. I just watched the monitor so it would let me know if I was contracting. I tried to sleep. My aunt left to do errands. My family watched football. At about 2:55, I told the nurse that I felt like my catheter was going to pop out; I felt pressure. The doc checked, and I had gone from 2 to 10 cm in about an hour. It was time to push. Everyone left but Ax and my stepmom, they threw my feet up in stirrups and everyone started going "push, push"....so I did. And she crowned and just sat there It did not hurt. I was so impatient. We sat there for like 4 mins....then I felt it again....I pushed again, and she just waited some more. This time it took 5 minutes, and I felt pressure again. They put me on oxygen and said to just go for it, and i did. I'm not kidding, this girl came FLYING out. She arrived at 3:04. I didn't have any tears...just "skid marks" according to the doc. They took her and wrapped her up. I can tell you that you wont worry about tears or what they're doing to clean you up-you just lie there watching them clean your baby.....which they did. I held her for a second and they took her away. Axel followed. They cleaned me up and at 3:30 I was on the phone with my mom. I felt fine. Tired, but fine. My dad took everyone out to dinner. My poor aunt stopped by at 5 to see how my progress was; I had to tell her I gave birth!
So, I stayed in the hospital until yesterday with chronic high bp. Everything else slowly came back; trace protien, not spilling uric acid...just high bp. I'm on bp medication right now.
Anya went to the NICU with her daddy following. When I saw her Sunday night I cried...I really felt like this was my fault. The doc told me that night that it wasn't; it was deliver or be on dialysis or die....I guess that helped. I had to be sedated Sunday night, I was so upset. The next few times I saw her I just cried. It's scary; tubes and wires everywhere. But I have to say, these NICU docs/nurses are amazing. They tell you everything. Last night, they let Ax change her diaper and I got to take her temperature. Nobody will give us an estimated time for her to come home. We're hoping for 3 weeks since she's doing well.....
That's it, that's what happened. If you're interested I can give you the side story of "Breastfeeding; Fear the Pump" and warn you to watch out for the La Leche league. Let's just say I'm attempting to pump and it's not working......
Amy Spaulding
Wanted to post this for pookiesbaby
If you have more to add to it, please feel free to add!
*hugs*
Charlie
pookiesbaby
After 7+ weeks of bedrest and 1 day out of bed, my water broke.
It happened at 2:15am on Tuesday February 4th. I was in such shock that it was really happening, I told my husband to go back to sleep because it really wasn't a big deal. Luckily he was the sane one and made me call the hospital immediately. After a quick shower and pulling some things together (my bag wasn't packed yet) we went to hospital for confirmation. They checked us iin and told us to rest until 7:30am since my contractions weren't hurting me. We tried to sleep and waited for my midwife to see us in the morning. My contractions were very regular, but not painful so we hung out and walked around for awhile. At 10:00 am my midwife decided to start pitocin since our baby was so early she didn't want to risk infection since my waters were quickly leaving me. Finally at 2:30pm I started feeling some pain so they checked me and I was completely effaced and dilated to 7cm, that is when I needed the drugs. They started with Fentenal via IV and after about an hour and 1/2 of that I wanted the epidural. By the time my epidural was placed ( I love the epidural man) I was 10 cm and ready to push.
At 6:36pm after 36 minutes of pushing, Benjamin Wil came into our life. He had to spend about an hour in the nursery to warm him up and increase his fluids as his
cord was wrapped around his neck during delivery, but by 8:00pm he was in my arms in our room where he stayed until we checked out on Thursday. Although he was 4 weeks early, he still was 6lbs 3oz and 19 1/2 inches long with lots of dark hair.
He is a dream come true.
Good luck to all you ladies anxiously anticipating your new arrivals. All the stretch marks, late night peeing,
heartburn and leaking boobs are definately worth it all in the end.
Victoria Rose
Wednesday afternoon I woke up with a bad bachache and contractions but just figured I had a bad back and BH's. Finally at 3:30 I called the Dr. who wanted me to come over. The NST showed contractions every 2 minutes and I have to say, they were pretty painful. My Dr. was leaving for New Orleans so I got his partner who was awesome. I was 50% effaced and fingertip dialated. She sent me to the hospital for IV fluid etc and when she got there to check me an hour later I was 3-4 centimeters. They quickly prepared for my c-section, so fast, DH missed it.
Our DD was born at 7:50 PM Wednseday night weighing 6 pounds and 19 inches long. She also developed a pneumothorax but fortunately it resolved on it's own without a chest tube. After 2 days she came out of the NICU and up to my room. Our DD's are thrilled with another sister!!! We came home today and boy is it nice to be home. It felt kind of funny though with everything, knowing it was the last time, made it a little more special I think. She has tons of black hair like her daddy and is so petite. She failed her car seat test yesterday, though and has to be in a car bed instead of an infant seat until March 16, her due date. I wish had a way to post pictures, but since I don't you'll just have to trust me on her cuteness quotient.
Guess that's it for now, I need to rest my incision.
As some of you know, I had my last day at work on Feb. 7th and was looking forward to 3 weeks of relaxation and planning before my baby arrived. On the 8th, my DH and I threw a baby shower for good friends of ours who are also expecting, so right away my maternity leave was already very busy. On the 9th and 10th my best friend from college helped me paint a mural on one of the walls in the baby room. We worked pretty long and hard on it but finally finished it. My DH told me to make sure and rest up the next day since it was obvious I was pretty worn out. So on Tuesday the 10th I basically lay around the house not doing much. Around 3:00 I decided to go grocery shopping since we didn’t have much stocked up and I wanted to get started on freezing some meals. Walking around the grocery store, I felt pretty good but by the time I got to the last aisle, I felt a pretty good contraction. A few days prior to that I had felt what I thought was constipation but turned out to be diarrhea, which was strange to say the least?? This contraction was very different than the BHC’s that I had many times before, because it was accompanied by strong pelvic cramping similar to constipation and menstrual cramping.
After I got home and unloaded the groceries, I laid down and started to listen to my body. Sure enough, around 5:00 I had another strong contraction. I tried to get into a different position to see if it would go away and could barely move! After that the contractions started coming at 7-8 minutes apart. I was expecting DH home from work around 6:30 so I basically timed my contractions until he got home. When he walked through the door I was literally in the middle of a contraction and told him so. He wasn’t sure how serious it was and basically played it cool, which was good for me because I basically just wanted to time the spacing of my contractions. He fixed dinner and I took a shower and by the time I got dressed the contractions were about 6 minutes apart. Around 9:00, I had timed the contractions at 5 minutes apart for an hour so I called the doctor. I also told DH that he better get that car seat figured out. It was my way of telling him that I was pretty sure this was the real thing. So, when I talked to the doctor on call, he said I should pretty much go L&D. I told DH, “well, I’m going to pack my bag” as he was unboxing the car seat. He looked at me like he thought I was joking because up to that point he still couldn’t believe this was the real thing.
So we packed up and got to the hospital by 10:00 pm. It took about half an hour to check in and my contractions began to feel much stronger. They monitored my contractions for an hour and confirmed that they were coming about 3-4 minutes apart, 2 cm dialated, and fully effaced. They then let me get up and walk around or whatever to ease the pain. DH thought walking up and down the hall would do me good but MAN! I thought my legs were going to give out. I tried the rocking chair and birthing ball but the constipation-like cramps made sitting down very uncomfortable. By 12:00 I was screaming for an epidural since nothing seemed to help the pain. They had to hook me up with an IV but that took forever because my veins are so hard to find. By the time they did I wanted something in my IV to ease the pain until the anesthesiologist got there. They gave me staidol, which made me sleep in between the contractions but still didn’t mask the pain of the contractions themselves. At least it took the edge off though.
Thank God! Finally I got the epidural, after 3 tries, and I was able to sleep on and off between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. They had to turn me over once an hour for the epidural to spread to both my legs. By 5:00 a.m. I was 5 cm dialated, but by 8 a.m. I hadn’t progressed, which bothered me a bit. But by 10:00 I was 9 cm! Don’t know why but I was happy. By noon, I was stuck at about 9.5 cm for the next hour, at which point I felt the urge to push, so they helped me push for 50 minutes. Finally, my doctor showed up about half way into pushing and delivered my baby at 1:41 pm. I only tore about an inch but only on the inside. I don’t even feel the stitches!
I’m recuperating very well and Everett is feeding voraciously. Breastfeeding is a whole new adventure but I’m doing pretty well with that too. Despite all the pain, everything is worth the little bundle in my arms.
My in-laws are here to help out and DH is great in encouraging me to take naps during the day. Hope you all enjoy the pictures!
Margaret Grace
On Sunday, Joe and I had friends over (actually we met through this website!) We had dinner and the boys played video games and Lisa and I just chatted about being a mother and things of that nature. When I got up to walk them to the door I felt a glub, glub, and I figured it was just more discharge. I had been having more and more in the last few weeks. The next day I went to work, and all day during class all was well until lunchtime and the same glub, glub thing happened but this time it was so much that it leaked through my jeans! It still didn't dawn on me that maybe I should be concerned. I had a girlfriend who rushed to the hospital thinking her water had broke when in reality she had just peed herself. Not wanting the same thing to happen to me I figured I could wait to ask questions at my already scheduled appointment with Dr. Bell at 4:15.
I met Joe at the doctor’s appointment. We did the usual, peed in a cup, my blood pressure was slightly elevated so I lay on my left side and waited for Dr. Bell. When Dr. Bell came in my blood pressure was fine but I explained to him what happened with my LOTS of discharge. He checked me and said I was 2cm dilated. This really surprised me because I wasn’t feeling ANY pain what so ever. He wasn’t sure if my water had actually broke because there wasn’t a whole lot of water. He swabbed me and took a look under the microscope. Sure enough, it was ameotic fluid and I had a small tear. He didn’t want to take any chances with me being group B positive so he said I was going to have Maggie tonight or tomorrow. I was stunned. I quickly explained to him and Joe that I couldn’t go to the hospital tonight because I didn’t leave my classroom ready for a sub. Both Joe and Dr. Bell said that the classroom would have to wait Maggie was making all the decisions now. So with that… Joe and I drove home and got things together to bring to the hospital. It was like a mad rush through the house. We were grabbing this and that and I think both of us were pretty much freaking out. I insisted that we at least stop by my classroom to print a few things for the sub, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Joe did take me to the school but all the doors were locked. So off to the hospital we went.
When we got there we processed in and went straight to L&D. My mind was just running with thoughts and questions and concerns and fears. It was like I was dreaming almost. They started off with the IV, which was a process. It took four times for them to get the darn thing started. I kept thinking to my self that if this were the most of my pain, I’d be well off. After the IV it was pretty much a waiting game from there. It was fun watching and hearing Maggie’s heart beat on the monitor but every time I moved or she shifted I would have to be readjusted. So, there wasn’t a lot of sleep for me since I couldn’t seem to sit still. By 7am not a whole lot of progress had occurred. The doctor came in and decided to finish breaking my water to speed up the process and also decided to let the pitocin run faster. At that point I was still 2cm. It wasn’t long before my true labor pains started to occur. My nurse, Gina, knew her job and at that point already had the epidural ordered and on their way. I guess she knew that I would be asking for it fairly soon. The epidural wasn’t all that bad. I just leaned over and felt a prick; it was very hard not to flinch. Within minutes I could feel the pain slowly go away. My legs were tired but not numb. Gina had me sit up and for most of the day I sat (like the queen) and went through labor with out feeling. About 3:00, I knew it was getting closer. The epidural was less effective and I felt a bit uncomfortable. I was dilated to an 8 and felt the contractions coming on strong. I got a booster shot of epidural and waited for about 30 to 45 minutes. It was then I felt the strong urge to push. Joe was so helpful, he helped me to remember to breath and he was such a good ringleader. The doctor showed up and I pushed and pushed and pushed some more. I could see Maggie’s head in the doctor’s glasses and out she come. It was pretty amazing. Here all this time I worried about the horrible labor stories, heard people scream and shout. But when they laid Maggie on my chest, there was no pain. I had this beautiful little miracle laying on me. Created by the love I share with my husband. I was in awe that my wonderful husband, who asked to stay in the waiting room, cried as he finally met our daughter. They whisked Maggie (and Joe) away to clean her up and check her vitals. I guess for me, this is when the more painful of the process occurred. I had slightly tore and needed a few stitches and I guess the doctor wasn’t all that gentle. There was a lot of tugging and pulling but I just kept my eyes on Maggie and Joe. Finally, they placed this little creature in my arms and she was all mine.
My life changed that day. I am now a mother. I finally understand what women have been talking about when they talk about motherhood. I understand my own mother a thousand times better. As I looked her I couldn’t help but think, someday she will figure out how much I truly love her. She will understand why there were struggles and hardships because I know they are in my path. No matter how painful or for me painless, it was all worth it to meet my baby girl.
I don't know how to post pictures... sorry. If you want to peak at my little one go to our web page at: mywebpages.comcast.net/jabradley
Rylan Christopher
I had been in the hospital the weekend of jan 29th, and then released on that sunday i as in for high blood pressure, spilling protein in urine, and all that fun stuff. SO I was being monitored. Well things were looking fairly decent they lemme go home on sunday. Well went back in for my monday appointment, and back to the hospital I went, my bp was 147/102 holy pooperz batman!!! And then after 30 mins of me being on my side my bp was 157/92 geez so she said your going back. And I was still spilling protein but only +1. And i stayed spilling +1 monday and tuesday, and I was uric acid was up to 6 and they don't like to see it past 4. Well my doc informed me she was going outta town, but the plan was to keep me in the hospital if i do well i can go home, but she'd like to have me stay in the hosptial. And if I went into preterm labor there was NOWAY she was gonna stop it, it's the bodys way of telling them it can't handle it no more. SO i was like alright good thing I got them steroid shots over the weekend. I didn't think i'd go into perterm labor. So I wasn't worried about it. Well tuesday night i noticed some brownish mucusy discharge(tmi i know) and I asked the nurse about it she said it was normal but I had a feeling it was part of my mucus plug. I had been having braxton hicks off and on all day. So well I went to bed at 10:30 am on wed i got up to pee, and well GUSH water all over the freaking floor and i Stood there like for about a min, thinking "OH Sh*T! that wasnt suppose to happen!" So I finallly paged the nurse after comming outta my shock. She took like 3 mins to come in, i was like argh come on im soakin wet here this sucks ass. So she comes in I tell her that my water musta broke i got up to pee and this happens, she said didja pee yourself? I was like umm NO lol. I still gotta go so that wasn't pee! Took them forever to confirm that was my water that broke geez like hmm i dunno 2 hours. WEll anyways around 5 I had gone to 2-3 cm dilated. And they gave me the sedation drug cause the contractions were starting to hurt. Made me feel drunk and like I wanted to pass out. Then about 6 i got my epi at still 3 cm dialated. How nice of them Anyways, I was only 4 cm then. And I stayed there till about 8. My epi didn't work at first man, that sucked ass i was feeling contractions on my right side but my left was numb lol. So when they started the pitocin i was like oh dear god gimmie more drugs, the anethesialogist or however you spell it almost got his ass chewed, he was annoying me very much with the same qeustion he gave me more drugs and ahhhh better! That was about 9 pm. I was 5-6 then. And then at like 9:45 i was 6-7 and then all the sudden i was 9.5 and then i was telling them I felt alot of pressure then everyone came in the room they propped my legs up and wa-la told me to push pushed for like 9 mins. and Rylan came into the world at 10:10 pm. I didn't choke no one I didn't yell at chris that I hated him, I didn't throw anything and I didn't bite no ones head off.
The Pickle's Birth Story
On Tuesday morning, I had an appointment with my OBGYN to check my blood pressure after my weekend of bed rest. It was still elevated, I had a little more protein my urine than the week before, and I had a horrible headache. So he decided that there was no point in waiting to have the baby. Things with me were only going to get worse until the baby was delivered and things with the baby were fine and we didn't need to wait any longer for her to be born. Even though, I had really wanted him to induce me so that I could finally have my baby, I really didn’t want to be induced. I didn’t want the hard Pitocin-driven contractions. I didn’t want an IV. I didn’t want the fetal heart rate monitor or the contraction monitor. None of those things worked into my natural birth plan. But I was so scared about my high blood pressure that I agreed to the inducement.
I checked into the hospital around 11 Tuesday morning. They started an IV to hydrate me and prepare me for the Pitocin and possibly the magnesium to manage my blood pressure. At noon, they added Pitocin to my IV and at 12:30 my doctor broke my membrane bag. The contractions began soon afterwards and were pretty regular. By 3:30, I was dilated 5 centimeters. Because of the toxemia, I had to have a blood pressure cuff on that took a reading every 5 minutes. Having so many things hooked into me made it really hard to be able to do my techniques that I had practiced and planned for to manage the labor pains. The pain was really becoming less like extreme discomfort and more like pain. I was really really upset I couldn’t take a shower. I craved warm water on my back.
Around 4 pm, they were having problems getting her heart rate readings on the fetal monitor. I thought it was mostly because I was walking around the room and swaying, etc. to manage the pain. The doctor told me that he wanted to use an internal fetal monitor because the baby’s heart rate wasn’t showing up anymore. By the time he put it on the baby at 5 that evening, I was completely dilated. They had me start to push because she was already crowning, but then they noticed that her heart was doing poorly. Her heart rate never recovered from the contractions and the pushing. It was down in the 90’s.
So, they prepared for an emergency c-section, which included an epidural (really nice), and called in more doctors and nurses. That part kind of scared me. Then I had an oxygen mask put on to help her breathe in case that was the problem. My doctor told me to try pushing one last time and he was going to suction her out. Sure enough there she came and the problem was with her heart came to light.
The umbilical cord was unusually short. They had to cut her cord immediately because they couldn’t lift her all of the way out of the birth canal. So her heart was actually fine, but she was just in distress because of the pulling on the short cord as she descended the canal.
Her apgar scores were 8/9. She had a point initially taken off because she was completely blue from the trauma, but was nice and rosy by the five minute test.
She is doing great now. She sleeps 3 to 4 hours at a time and eats like a champion. We even started pumping on Saturday and she is taking the bottle sometimes even though she likes breastfeeding better. She even tried a pacifier on Sunday and will take that to fall asleep. She doesn’t fit in clothes because she is so small. She came home from the hospital only weighing 5 pounds and 9 ounces.
Life is cheery though and overall, we think she is perfect.
Sarah and Don Our Little Pickle was born February 18, 2003 Moderator of Baby Shower Ideas Board
On 2/17/03 I went for my regularly scheduled doctor's visit. I was 37 weeks exactly. I had dilated just a fingertip but because of my swelling and bp going up my doctor told me to be back at the hospital at 4:00 p.m. for induction. At about 4:30 p.m. they gave me cytotec to soften my cervix. At 8:30 I had just dilated to 1cm so they gave me my second dose. I had been having cramping contractions all day the day before (Sunday) and they said that I must have been in early labor because at 1:00 a.m. my water broke on it's own. At 3:00 a.m. I was hurting, but not really badly enough that I thought I needed my epidural so I asked for something (a shot) for pain just to take the edge off. My nurse asked me if I wanted to go ahead and get my epidural since I had dilated to 3 cm. I agreed and so they gave me my epi and life was wonderful!!!! My doctor came in at 6:00 a.m. to check on me and I was dilated to 5 cm and he said he'd see me around lunch time because it would probably take until then to have the baby. At 7:00 a.m. I started feeling pain around my pelvic bone and they called anesthesia to give me a bonus of the epidural. Well, before anesthesia could get there I started feeling MAJOR rectal pressure. I had my dh call for the nurse and she said she was already on her way in there because the monitors indicated that the baby might be ready to be born. Sure enough in just one hour I had gone from 5 to 10 cm. (I did the same thing with my dd 11 years ago!) They rushed to call my doctor and he barely made it in time to deliver! I pushed 3 tiny times and Avery was born with the cord wrapped around her neck. We had decided to donate her cord blood so my dh didn't get to cut the cord so that was the only disappointing thing about her birth. She has a head full of black hair and scored 8 and 9 on her apgars. She was perfectly healthy. We stayed in the hospital until Thursday and upon our release we were told that Avery was borderline jaundice and needing a bili light at home. They decided to wait one day and had me take her to the pediatrician's office on Friday morning for another bilirubin check. On Friday, her bilirubin levels had risen to the critical level and Avery was hospitalized again for four days. She almost had to have a complete blood transfusion, but thankfully her levels started to drop on Saturday morning. We have been at home now (the second time) for 5 days and motherhood the second time around is awesome!!!!! I love my sweet baby girl!
AVERY NIKOLE SIGMON
FEBRUARY 18, 2003
7LBS. 10 OZ.
21" LONG
was born March 1st at 2:11am. He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz.
The Story:
Thursday night (27 feb) my husband and I went in to the hospital for our Parentcraft Class as usual. While there I mentioned to the midwife about the itchy rash I had. She suggested taking me up to the Labor Ward after class to have it checked out because it could mean something is wrong with my liver. So after class they bring us up there and take a look. They take my blood and decide to keep me overnight because if it was my liver, they would need to end the pregnancy and they would want to do that immediately. Unfortunately, this was a busy night in the Labor Ward so they had no beds left. They put me in a Delivery Room to sleep. What a nightmare! First of all I didn't sleep. I heard so many babies being born. There was also a very, shall we say, "vocal" woman giving birth in the room next to me. She scared the you-know-what out of me. I started thinking OMG what have I gotten myself into???!!! I guess she scared me into labor because at 3am I started having what I would later find out were contractions. I hadn't heard anyone describe it the way it was for me. It started out as a LOT of pressure on my bowels every 10 minutes for an hour and a half. It wasn't really painful yet, just a lot of pressure like I needed to have a b.m. I had my first "show" that night as well. Apparently all that mucous I had been losing for the past few weeks was just excess discharge.
Well that morning, my test results came back negative for liver problems. I told the doctor about the discomfort I was experiencing and he checked to see if I was in labor. He checked and told me I wasn't but I could go by myself. (I guess they were contemplating inducing me because of the severity of the rash) They asked if I wanted to stay a couple more hours and see if anything happened. Having not slept and not seeing any sleep in my future in the labor ward -- I voted to go home. But they put together a prescription fo rhte rash for me to pick up that evening. So I go home and try to sleep. Every 5 minutes I am up trying to have a b.m. It was getting really annoying and it was starting to get pretty darn uncomfortable too. After a few of these, I run the bath to try to alleviate the pressure. Didn't work. DH was coaching my breathing by now cause it was getting that bad. But, I just want to say for all of you who haven't experienced labor yet--it was never pain in my belly or in my back. It was in my bum! So time is going on, I'm out of the tub cause it isn't doing anythig but wrinkling me up. Still breathing through it not knowing if this was for real or not. I wasn't timing the contractions either because the doctor told me that morning that I wasn't in labor. Hours pass and we go pick up the prescription. I tell a midwife what's going on and she brushes me off and says theres nothing they can do until my contrax are 3-4 mins apart or my water goes. So I go home again. This time I'm timing these darn things cause there is no way I'm getting sent home again and they better not tell me I'm not in labor! So I labor at home for a couple more hours until I absolutely can not bear it anymore!! People are calligng our house left and right too. I'm like PEOPLE, I need my husband with ME not on the phone with you! We get the OK to go to the hospital after I call them practically in tears. They see me and KNOW I am in labor. Ask me about pain relief? I say - EPIDURAL!! (prior to this I was all about natural, try the water birth thing) So they do my internal and I'm 5 cm dilated - whoa! I suck on gas and air until the epidural man comes. Gas and air feels really nice, but doesn't do anything for the pain. Now, the epidural, THAT is pain relief!! I flinched when he was putting it in so he had to do it 2ce ( I was scared ), but once that sucker was in I was 100% better!! To be honest, I don't think I would have made it through the whole birth without it. DH sucks on the gas and air for fun while we watch a Jackie Chan movie and sleep and dilate. At 945 they break my water. 12 pm I'm fully dilated. The midwife lets me sit for another hour to let my uterus do as much of the work as possible on its own to minimize pushing. Just before 1am she lets me start pushing. That felt like as hard as I pushed, I was just missing that little bit extra to get the baby's head to pop. The epi was so good I couldn't tell when I was having contrax, just every now and then the urge to push. So an hour later (yeah) she says she might go get a doctor to see what we can do to assist. I knew what that meant--ventouse or forceps. I said NO! I'm GONNA do it! Let ME push him out! As exhausted as I was, I was even more determined! She did have to give me a little episiotomy cause my perineum just would not stretch over the head. Once she did that, I gave a good push and the head was out. Weird feeling pushing the head out! I sould like feel his face. It was scary. The shoulders were a little easier and then he just slipped out. DH was right down there assisting the midwife. He announced "Its a boy!" The whisked him away because there was meconium in the water. He was healthy though and I got to have him back! He screamed his little lungs out for the next 2 hours as I was getting my stitches. I only had 4 stitches, but it seemed to take forever to do.
Jack is a healthy little boy. Absolutely gorgeous! I am so in love! I am sore all over. My teeth hurt from clenching them. My upper arms hurt from I guess holding my legs back. My back hurts from the epidural. My bum and, well, my whole crotch hurts from the birth. My nipples hurt from trying to breastfeed. I can barely walk. I am slightly hunched, I am itchy from the "pregnancy rash" that has only been getting worse since giving birth. But I look at his sweet little face and it doesn't even matter.
He is soooooo cute. I am having problems getting my pictures properly uploaded on shutterfly, so as soon as I get something figured out I WILL post. He is so gorgeous and perfect I just can't wait to show him off! I am so happy he is here!
My advice-don't knock pain relief!
Hi girls. I'm writing this in between feeding time! So trying not to make it to long
First off I just wanted tosay congrats to all the new Mommys!!!! And for those still waiting, get some rest and enjoy those little kicks while you can, it wont be much longer now!
Wednesday 26th I got to work and wasn't feeling to well. I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest, so I went down and had the nurse check my blood pressure. It was normal but my pulse was running between 120 and 130.
I waited a while and called the doc, who told me to go into the office around 11:15.
Me and DH got there and had to wait a while since it was an emergency visit and not scheduled. Around 12 we were in a room and a midwife from the practice I hadn't seen before came in and did my internal exam, said baby had dropped a bit, but I wasn't dialated anymore. Then she did something in there that hurt. She said, I just stirred stuff up a bit. I was like, I thought you asked before you did that! LOL
She said just go home and relax and call if I get dizzy again. She said to expect some bleeding but not to worry.
Me and DH stop at subway then go home and I take a nap until about 3. I had put a pad on at the doc's office. When I woke up from my nap the pad was soaked and I had actually leeked out of it (tmi) It scared me to DEATH! I put another on and started get cramping.
I call doc and they say go to L&D right then.
We get there and the nurse hooks all the straps on me and the resident comes in to do an internal with a speculum (ouchie!) to make sure where the bleeding is coming from. He says it looks like it's just around my cervix and not my cervix and normal.
So while waiting for them to come tell me to go home me and dh are watching the little heart monitor for the baby. It was going from 120 to 140 but then started dropping until it wasn't there anymore. I was scared! alarms started going off and they had me lay this way and that way. It went back up finally and the nurse came in and said they want to induce me, but she kept saying she didn't think it was necessary and silly. Finally doc comes in and says he's worried. Just a feeling he has and he would rather induce now then me go home and something be wrong.
He did explain it would be a very very long process and would likely end in a csection. I had to sign all these papers agreeing and such.
So off to a room we go! Oh, all the IVs and tubes the hooked up to me! yowsers! The said my cervix wasn't ripe and not dialated enough, so the inserted this catheder thing in me and filled it with water. What a WEIRD feeling!!!!!!
They said they would come tug on it every hour until it came out.
I got a new nurse at this point.. thank goodness!! This one was WONDERFUL!
The first hour she tugged, second hour she tugged again and it came out. She was shocked! She checked me and I was a good 3 1/2 and 70% but cervix was still way high as was baby. She said it was going well but baby had to drop.
We got on the bouncy ball and rocker and she kept asking if I wanted something for pain. I said no.
They started pitocin earlier and cntx were getting intense by then. They starte REALLY hurting after the rocker and I finally asked for something. She said I couldn't have epi until 4 cent. so she gave me a half dose of nubain. Whooo wooooooo la la land! That was nice! It helped relax me.
She checked later and I was at 5 and ready for epi. Got that, no biggy! I had one spot on my right side of my tummy that I could feel cntx still. Taht was weird feeling them in just one spot. So they topped me off and I was numb! After this I was laughing and joking with everyone and happy as could be. They gave me a button to push that would top me off again if I needed it. Cool
I tried to sleep but was sooooooooo excited and nervous I was shaking (I think the epi does that anyway, so it just made it worse.) I was crying to DH for a while about hoping my Mom would make it. They were driving from Mississippi. But we figured they'd have plenty of time.
I started feeling pressure on my bum. Weird because I couldn't feel NOTHING down there at all. So called the nurse. She checked and was like OMG your at 10 and the head is RIGHT there! Don't push!
They paged my doc and had me do some practice pushes. I had just topped off my epi myself so I wasn't feeling nothing down there. But I had no intension of letting them take it out, so I mustarded everything I could and pushed like I had saw on the baby shows. They were so proud of me! And couldn't believe I cuoldn't feel anything down there!
30 min later the doc gets there and we get down to some serious pushing. They adjust the mirror for me and whoa!!! Seeing all that hair on her head was amazing!!
Her heart rate dropped again so he cut me real fast and made me push with everything and she came out screaming! They laid her on my chest and I was just bawling looking at her.
She just stared at me and cried Poor thing had been through so much!
Dad cut the cord and they cleaned her up a little and let her nurse.
My parents got there then. They had just missed it. But was there before they took her for weighing and such. So got to see her.
The doc delieverd the placenta and all I heard was something about there being a clot in the placenta and a darn good thing they induced me or it would have been bad news for both of us. I never figured out what caused it though.
I didn't ask how much he cut me, and I have been afraid to look down there. I just know it hurts like mad!!!! I have my little donut pillow I sit on and they gave me pain meds and such.
We got to move to a real room with more space where everyone could come. The hospital stay was tiring. I requested baby stay with us the whole time so I could breast feed easy. She was doing so good! We had our little routine but the nurses would come in to check her and wake her up from a dead sleep.
Friday night my Mom stayed with me instead of DH and it was a bad night. She had a tummy ache or something. We were both up all night with her.
We left Saturday morning around 10:30 and it felt so good to be home.
Bad news is Mom had to leave. My dad couldn't take next week off because someone already had put in for it, so he had to go back to work. I bawled my eyes out. I alwasy though mom would be there for me the first couple weeks after I had her to help me. But they left Saturday afternoon.
Lauryn is doing so well. She is a little squeeker and such a cutie pie. Me and DH are in love with her.
She looks just like DH! I call her Mini Jared
I just cant seem to catch up on my sleep. She is a 5 am baby. That is her fussy time. Poor thing. She get so worked up and stays up until around 7:30 then gets back up every 2 or so hours for feeding. But breast feeding is going very well.
My milk came in today Oh what fun! They don't stop leeking after she feeds. How embarrassing!
Well there is my update. Dad is taking off work to help out. He has done so well. Cleaning and even cooking and helping me up and down the stairs. I just want my body back to normal again. I feel so weak!
But this little angel is so well worth everything! She is beautiful and loves her Mommy. I just like to sit and cuddle with her on my chest. I sure do miss those little kicks in my ribs though!
Oh, I have a belly button again! LOL
Well you girls take care. Please forgive me if I don't post much until we get more settled into our routine. And forgive this being soooooooooo long!
I miss you girls!
*hugs*
Charlie
Lauryn Jace Fegan
5 pounds 12 ounces
18 1/4 inches long
8 and 9 apgars
Blue eyes and loads of brown hair! (heart burn during pregnancy theory held true)
Miranda's arrivalAs you all know I was scheduled to be incduced on Friday February 28th but apparently Miranda had other plans. Thursday morning my mom and SIL came down to help me clean the house and go grocey shopping.We decided to shop first to we went to Sam's club and was feeling pretty crappy. About 2 pm I started having contractions abou 12 minutes apart. We then went to burger king to get something to eat and the contractions were 8 mins apart we still had one more store to go to and by this time contractions were about 5 mins apart. The grocery store was packed but we were lucky enough to find a line that wasnt so long but the cashier said I am sorry mam but I am closing after the gentleman in front of you, I was like then you might want to turn off your light and put up your sign because I am about to have a baby and I dont have time for this @#%$! My SIL said "wow you are definitely in labor." Anyhow we came home ut groceries away and straightened the house quickly by now contractions were 4 mins apart I called my doc and they said come on in. I got to the hospital around 8 pm they monitored me for about 30 mins and checked me I was still only 3 cm dilated (same as day before) but since the contractions were coming on steady and strong and I was supposed to be induced the next day anyway they admitted me. Around 11:30 the contractions were pretty painful and I had dilated to 4 so i asked for some pain meds. They gave me a shot of nuben (sp?) which took the edge off for a while they told me if I wanted an epidural that was the the time to get one and although I had planned to NOT get one at this point I thought I would be able to manage the pain if it got any worse so I opted to get the epidural which I didnt think was painful at all. They checked me again at about 2am and I was 5/6 dilated and trying to sleep through contrctions that were about 3 mins apart and at that time they broke my water. Around 5 am they checked me again and I was still only 6cm and contractions had spaced out to about 5 mins so they started a pitocin drip and I am so glad they didn't have to fully use pitocin to induce because those contractions wer painful and nonstop. When a nurse checked me again at 6am I was still only 6 cm dilated and she said there was a "forebag" aparetly when they broke my water a part of the bag slid down and covered my cervix again which is why I wasn't dilating. The doc on call was not my normal doc so he said he would let me wait until she came in at 7am and see what she wanted to do. Well her shift may have started at 7 am but w/ all the other babies being born she didnt make it into my room until 9am at which point she removed the forebag and immediately I started to dilate again and by 9:50 was ready to push. I pushed for about 2 minutes (the MOST painful 20 minute of my life) and out she popped! She is absolutely perfect from head to toe (even the doctors said so). Amazingly enough I delivered all 9lbs 3 oz of her w/out an episiotomy or much tearing! I came home yesterday and we ae all doing great. So excited to be home with my little princess, Miranda Jean Kubilus born 2-28-03 @ 10:11 am !!!!
Macy's story!!
Ok, Macy is already a week old, but life is very busy now!!!
Here is our story:
Sunday night I went to bed as usual. Dillon was sleeping with me and started talking in his sleep about cookies! I went to roll over and felt a gush of water come out. It was 3:30 am. I got up and kind of walked around in a daze for a few minutes and tried to decide if it was really my water or if I peed myself!!! Well, I still had to pee, so I decided it was my water. Plus I continued to dribble all over the house - yuck! I woke up dh about 4am. He was shocked and in a daze. I was having no contractions at all yet, but we decided to call my Mom to stay with the boys and we would head to the hospital (good thing!). Mom got to our house at about 5am and we took off. The hospital is 46 miles away, and we arrived there about 6am. I was having moderate contractions every 4-5 min. on the way there. I was admitted and checked and I was 5-6 cm dilated. The contractions were getting really strong and fast! I got an IV med - nubain, I think - around 7:15am. This didn't help much at all. I started asking the nurse about the possibility of an epidural, but at the same time, telling them that the contractions were REALLY bad and maybe I should be checked. Well, they did and I was complete!!! The nurses kind of scrambled to get the room ready and call the dr. I could feel that the baby was coming fast. They were telling me not to push with the contractions - right! I was pushing and there was nothing I could do!!! Dr. came bouncing in - not my OB, but a very nice man - and two pushes after my legs were in the stirrups, Macy was born at 7:55am!!!! It was wonderful! After having two very long, hard, forcep/suction assisted births, it felt so good to do this myself. They put her on my stomach and I watched my dh cut the cord. She cried right away. I got to nurse her about 1/2 an hour later - she didn't leave the room, just got her vit k shot and wieght. I was in mid sentence telling the nurse that I didn't really know what I was doing in the nursing department, when Macy took my nipple and started sucking away like a pro! It was so neat!!! She is still doing very well with nursing! I got to come home the next day. We had to watch her for jaundice because of ABO blood incompatability, but there are no signs so far!
Congrats to all the mommies I have missed while recouperating!!!!!
Denise - 32 Darwin-34 Ben-14 Dillon-2 It's A Girl!! Due March 5, 2003
Re: March Mommy's Birth Stories & Pics!
Garrett Victor made his way into our world at 1am Monday morning (03/03/03).
I started to feel a bit crampy so my sister made me go to the hospital at 11:00pm to "get it checked out", since I have such weird labours. I was 8cm and feeling like I should go home. Needless to say, i was not allowed to go anywhere. I took this opportunity to tell the Dr, that I had decided, if I do want drugs, I didn't want any Demerol. He simply looked at me and said "that's ok, your too late for anything!". I was fine with that. I wanted to go totally natural anyhow. I decided to get into the tub at the hospital, since they made me stay and my cramps got a bit worse. Nothing bad though. The longest ctx I had was 36 seconds long and not very bad at all. It was sooo wierd. I was in total labour denial. It just never felt like labour and still doesn't feel like I went through it. We laughed and joked through the whole labour. Shortly after I got out of the tub, I was 10cm. I pushed a bit here and there and then let them break my water. Garrett followed my water and came right out. He had his hand up by his head. He's the blondest child I've ever seen!! His dad and I both have brown hair. Gotta love those recessive genes!
My Dr did end up missing the birth but his replacement was great. When my Dr did make it back, he checked Garrett and said our dates must have been off. He's big, but from the amount of vernix, hair on his body, soft ears and a few other signs, he was actually born at 37 weeks I about crapped my pants! He was 9lbs4oz 20.8"long. Good thing I didn't go to 40 weeks! We would have had an 11lb baby. He's nursing like a pro but I really need my milk to come in! He's a little piggy
Recovery has been a breeze. No tears or anything. I feel like it was a birth that I could only ever have dreamt about. I'm just so happy to have him in my arms
Re: March Mommy's Birth Stories & Pics!
Well, I went to the hospital on Sunday for gel application on my cervix. I ended up in labor and delivered the next morning at 7:59 am. Katherine Emma Fretz, 7 lbs 4 oz.
I started having cx at about 4:00 pm on Sun, but thought it was false. I was told to expect it. I timed them and they were 4 min apart and lasted 30 sec. A little too consistant, but still thought it was false. I had a lot of pink show and then I had a bunch of mini gushes. I wasn't sure if my water had broken or not. I kept calling my coach and ask her opinion. We were unsure. Then I started puking. The cx were now at 3 1/2 min and lasting 40 sec. Next was quite a bit of blood in the toilet. This scared me so I called my OB. You see, I have had false labor twice and really didn't want to go all the way to the hospital (40 min away) to have them send me home. Anyways, OB said to meet him at the hospital. When I got there, he took one look at me and said that I was in labor. My cx were at about 3 min apart and getting quite painful. He checked me and found that my water had indeed broken and my cervix was completely thinned. I was only a pin hole dialated. He told me that we would just try and let nature take it's course but would probably have to manually (stretch with his fingers) dialate me. He went and took a nap. This was at about 11:00 pm. I was given Nubane (sp?) to take the edge off the pain and when that wore off I was checked again. I was 2 cm dialated, which thrilled everyone as Dr. Mander didn't think I would get even that far.
DH showed up at 1:00 am (rented a car in Detroit and drove directly to the hospital). He ran into quite a few problems getting there. He was held up at the border, and the highway was closed when he crossed into Canada. Anyways, my cx were about a min apart. VERY painful. I requested an epidural. I got it pretty much immediately, which was nice, but it took a while to administer. I guess I have tough legiments in my back and he had a hard time getting it in. The worst part was that I had several cx and had to stay completely still. VERY tough to do. Anyways, I then took a nap.
I woke up an hour later (about 3:00 am) and felt quite a bit of pressure. I tried to get back to sleep but couldn't, so I called the nurse and asked if she could check me. She did and I was now 9cm! I went from 2 - 9 cm in about 1 1/2 hrs! She went to wake Dr. Mander and I was told to get ready to push.
I pushed from 4:50 to 7:30. She just couldn't make it past my pubic bone. I must say, pushing wasn't bad, not painful at all. Dr. Mander wanted to use the forcepts, I wasn't keen but he is the expert. I said sure and we went for it. This was bad. There was quite a crowd and they were all screaming Push or Stop constantly. As Dr. Mander and the Crotch Watchers kept yelling, I felt everything. Apparently, they turned down or off the epidural. I was violently shaking and I felt myself tearing. It only lasted 5 minutes, but it felt like atleast 1/2 hr. She was born at 7:59 am, scored 9 / 9 on Apgar, 7 lb 4 oz and a full head of hair. She looks like DH!
Nathaniel Matthew!!!
This is my birth story. LONG, I know!!!
On Monday, March 3rd, we wentt to the hospital to get induced. They used something called microprostel (I think – sp?) at 12:30 bc I was only 1 cm and 50% effaced. I was contracting about every 4 to 5 minutes on my own when we got there, but they weren’t very painful. The dr checked me at 4 o’clock and said I was a loose 1 cm and 60% effaced. DH and I spent the evening walking and trying to do things to pass the time. When I walked, my contractions would speed up, but bc of my fast heartrate I couldn’t walk too much. I also tried using a birthing ball, which was very comfortable and kinda fun. But the weird thing was it relaxed me so much, my contractions started really spacing out. So we had to give up on that before long. By midnite, the contractions were starting to hurt more, so the nurse gave me stadol in my IV. Almost immediately, I felt really dizzy and lightheaded. Then my heartrate started going down and so did my blood pressure and it became hard to breathe. They had me lay down on my left side and started putting a lot of saline in through my IV. Within in an hour, I started feeling better. I was really worried about the baby, but his heartrate stayed strong and he seemed fine. DH and I got a little sleep between 1 and 5 am. At 5 am, the nurse started me on pitocin. It wasn’t too bad and my contractions went from every 3-4 minutes to every 2-3 minutes.
At 7 am (Tuesday, March 4th), the dr came in and broke my water. Immediately, the contractions started really hurting badly. I told DH, “Make them put my water back!” Of course they couldn’t. I wanted an epidural then, but I was still only 1 cm, so they didn’t want to give me one yet. By 9 am, I was desperate the pain was so bad. On top of the regular contractions, I had the worst back labor because the baby was posterior. It was awful. Finally the dr said I could get the epi. Let me tell you – I LOVE the anesthesiologist. He is incredible!!! I felt better right away bc he gave me a boulus dose to stop the pain right away. I was able to fall asleep for a couple hours. By noon, the epi had worn off and I was in a lot of pain again. Dr checked me and I was finally making progress – 3-4 cm and 100%effaced. The anesthesiologist gave me an extra dose again in the epidural and I felt better by 1 pm. All afternoon I slept off and on. By 4 pm, I was 7-8 cm dilated. By 5 pm, I was 8-9 cm. Then the epi started wearing off again and I felt every single one of those contractions and the back labor. I begged for another dosage in the epidural, but they said no – I was too close to pushing and they wanted me to feel the contractions. Well, I sure felt them – no doubt about that!
Finally they had mercy on me and let me get another epi dosage. I fell asleep again and at 7 pm, they said I could start pushing. I was 10 cm, 100% effaced finally!!! I was excited, but the epi wore off again and it hurt like h***!!! I was so exhausted by then that I could hardly push, but I did bc it was the only thing that gave me any sort of relief from the contractions. They made me get on my hands and knees to push for a ½ hour bc they were hoping the baby would turn over into the right position. It was awful bc my legs were still partially numb from the epi and I could hardly keep my balance. Finally it was too much and I told them I had to turn back over. They said I was pushing really well. The baby just wasn’t coming down though. I was crying – it hurt so bad and the pressure was terrible. And yes, I did poop! LOL! And you know, I didn’t care at all. I told DH and the nurse to just shoot me now! I was begging for a c-section, but the nurse said no – we’re not even going to talk about that. You don’t need it. You can do it. I was like No I can’t! Good thing is, throughout the entire labor and pushing, the baby’s heart rate stayed strong and steady. At 9:30, the dr came in and said “I think we need to do a c-section. The baby just isn’t coming down.” I was like, “where’s the papers? I’ll sign now.” The anesthesiologist came back and upped the epi really well so I wouldn’t feel anything. I was really happy then. No more pain! I remember feeling one last contraction, thinking “this is really the last one. Thank God!!!”
They took me to the OR by 10pm. DH came in wearing scrubs and I had them take a picture of him – he looked so handsome. Obviously I was feeling better. When they started the surgery, it was weird. I felt them cutting me open, but it didn’t hurt. I tried not to think about it. DH was wonderful. He held my hand and was just so sweet and reassuring. My precious baby, Nathaniel Matthew, was born a few minutes later at 10:10 pm on March 4th, 2003 (my due date)! DH stood up to my surprise (he’s not very good with needles and with surgery) and watched them take Nathan out. He said it was the most amazing thing to see this little face come out that he had been talking to all these months. They pulled him out (that was weird to feel – a TON of pressure) and I heard everyone saying “WOW! Big baby!” He started screaming immediately and I started crying. It was so amazing. He weighed 9lbs13oz and was 20” long with a 14cm head circumference. His apgar scores were 9-9!! I was really happy bc I know c-section babies sometimes have a harder time breathing bc they weren’t squeezed through the birth canal, but my little sweetheart was fine.
Right after he was born, I started shaking like crazy so the epi man gave me something to stop it. It made me really drowsy. DH went with Nathan to the nursery and I pretty much dozed off. Turns out, Nathan was so big, my uterus tore where a major blood vessel was and I lost over half my blood volume. I was in surgery for almost an hour later. DH was really worried. It’s all a blur to me – I was too doped up and tired. At the end of the surgery, I started feeling pain, like them stitching me up. It really freaked me out. I told the epi man and he put something in my epi line right away and it went away.
A little later, I was awake enough and asked them to bring me the baby and I finally got to hold him. It was amazing.
The next morning, I was told I desperately needed a blood transfusion. I received 2 bags of blood that day. On Thursday, my blood levels were still dangerously low, so they gave me more blood. After that, my levels finally went up enough that they were in the “safe zone,” although they’re still really low even now. I think I must have had my blood drawn at least 3 dozen times during the 5 days I was in the hospital!
The c-section wasn’t that bad. Yes, my incision is sore and I have to be careful. I found that it hurt worse to stay in bed than to get up and walk around. It also helped get rid of the awful gas that came on Thursday. My doctors and nurses were amazed that I have done so well. I got out of bed by Wednesday night and started walking by Thursday. I told them I have a huge motivation – I need to get better so I can take care of my baby!
Nathan is very healthy. He passed all the tests and he only lost 7 oz and is already starting to gain it back. He is so alert sometimes, looking all around with his big blue eyes. He is so precious. It’s still hard to believe when I look at him that I am his mother. It is the most amazing feeling in the world. I am so happy. I told DH that even though I had a really rough time, I would do it all again in a second for little Nathan. It was so worth it. I am finally a mother. I am so happy!
Re: March Mommy's Birth Stories & Pics!
Ella Carolina
born March 4th...due date March 10th
6lbs 13 oz
20 inches
I went in at 6 am on Tues March 4th to be induced, trying for a VBAC. They got my piticon started at 7:40 am, not so bad, so I thought......I started having some light contractions up until 10 am, my doctor broke my water, that's when the real contractions started and may I just say "OUCH" (the worst pain I've ever felt) I got my epidural shortly after, which did not take correctly, it only numbed my middle to left side, so I still felt every contraction on my right side, I was having contractions every 1 1/2 min and I had really bad back labor. I had to wait 30 min for the epi man to come back to fix it because he was sent to do a c-section. Once he came back and finished it up I was just fine. I progressed to 4 1/2 cm really fast and was 95% effaced, but I never progressed past that, I stayed that way from about 11am to 4:30, so at 4:30 they decided the best thing to do was a c-section. I was sent over to the OR immediatley and got my epi topped off to numb me up to my chest and at 5:33 pm Ella Carolina made her entrance to the world. My c-section went great and my doctor actually cut out my old scar and gave me a brand new one, and this one looks so much nicer! It looks like someone took a pencil and drew a little smiley lip, it's very tiny compared to my old one, I went in yesterday and got my staples taken out and I'm doing really, really well. After my c-section we found out that my pelvic bones are just too small and can't fit any size baby through there, so I would have had to have a c-section both times no matter what, so atleast we know that for the furture if we decide to have any more.
Tracy
#1 Micayla Anne 8/23/00
#2 It's a Girl! EDD 3/10/03
arriving date 3/4/03
Re: March Mommy's Birth Stories & Pics!
Joseph Chace Born 03/01/03
I sit here at the computer typing one handed, Chace is in my other arm getting a bit fussy! It is amazing how your heart just aches when they cry!
When I went to the OB on Feb 28th my Dr told me she was going to strip my membranes. She said she was on call that weekend and she may as well see her own patients in the L and D! It was uncomfortable but not painful when she did it. This was about noon.
DH and I went to lunch after and shopping. We then went home and had company over and went to eat with a friend about 8:30 pm. All was well.
I went to bed pretty sore about mid ight not knowing I was in labor! I just thought that stripping the membranes made me sore! About 2 am I woke in more pain and took a couple extra strength Tylenol! A little later I thought maybe I should see If I could time the pains.......this was my first time around and I hadn't had much in the way of BH contractions and didn't really know what to look for. Well at 6:30 in the morning I told DH I was going to call the Dr. I was very sore but not in unbearable pain. She told me to shower and then go to the Triage at the Hosp and get checked out.
At 8:00 am they checked me out. I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 5. Contractions every 4 mins. My water was bulging. They admitted me right away and by 10:20am I had my epidural! It took about 5 tries to get it in the right spot....apparently I have a sensitive back! After that I was on a drip and did not feel another pain til It was time to push!
About 5:30pm I felt the need to push, 55 mins after I started pushing at 6:16pm our beautiful little guy came into the world! He weighed in at 7lb 11oz and 20 1/2 inches long! He was bright eyed stayed awake for a long time! He scored 9's and passed all his newborn screens! He has long black hair and steals your heart right away!
I couldn't love him more! I will try to get some pictures to post soon......something I am not very good at! But will try to accomplish so you can see him!
Re: March Mommy's Birth Stories & Pics!
Here are a couple pictures from Everett's one month portrait shots. I can't believe it's been a month already! Then again, it seems forever since I had more than 3 hours of undisturbed sleep.
Re: Everett Lloyd
holy pooperz batman!!! And then after 30 mins of me being on my side my bp was 157/92 geez so she said your going back. And I was still spilling protein but only +1. And i stayed spilling +1 monday and tuesday, and I was uric acid was up to 6 and they don't like to see it past 4. Well my doc informed me she was going outta town, but the plan was to keep me in the hospital if i do well i can go home, but she'd like to have me stay in the hosptial. And if I went into preterm labor there was NOWAY she was gonna stop it, it's the bodys way of telling them it can't handle it no more. SO i was like alright good thing I got them steroid shots over the weekend. I didn't think i'd go into perterm labor. So I wasn't worried about it. Well tuesday night i noticed some brownish mucusy discharge(tmi i know) and I asked the nurse about it she said it was normal but I had a feeling it was part of my mucus plug. I had been having braxton hicks off and on all day. So well I went to bed at 10:30 am on wed i got up to pee, and well GUSH water all over the freaking floor and i Stood there like 
Anyways, I was only 4 cm then. And I stayed there till about 8. My epi didn't work at first man, that sucked ass i was feeling contractions on my right side but my left was numb lol. So when they started the pitocin i was like oh dear god gimmie more drugs, the anethesialogist or however you spell it almost got his ass chewed, he was annoying me very much with the same qeustion he gave me more drugs and ahhhh better! That was about 9 pm. I was 5-6 then. And then at like 9:45 i was 6-7 and then all the sudden i was 9.5 and then i was telling them I felt alot of pressure then everyone came in the room they propped my legs up and wa-la told me to push pushed for like 9 mins. and Rylan came into the world at 10:10 pm. I didn't choke no one I didn't yell at chris that I hated him, I didn't throw anything and I didn't bite no ones head off. 
The Pickle's Birth Story
At about 4:30 p.m. they gave me cytotec to soften my cervix. At 8:30 I had just dilated to 1cm so they gave me my second dose. I had been having cramping contractions all day the day before (Sunday) and they said that I must have been in early labor because at 1:00 a.m. my water broke on it's own. 
At 3:00 a.m. I was hurting, but not really badly enough that I thought I needed my epidural so I asked for something (a shot) for pain just to take the edge off. My nurse asked me if I wanted to go ahead and get my epidural since I had dilated to 3 cm. I agreed and so they gave me my epi and life was wonderful!!!! 
My doctor came in at 6:00 a.m. to check on me and I was dilated to 5 cm and he said he'd see me around lunch time because it would probably take until then to have the baby. At 7:00 a.m. I started feeling pain around my pelvic bone and they called anesthesia to give me a bonus of the epidural. Well, before anesthesia could get there I started feeling MAJOR rectal pressure. 
I had my dh call for the nurse and she said she was already on her way in there because the monitors indicated that the baby might be ready to be born. Sure enough in just one hour I had gone from 5 to 10 cm. (I did the same thing with my dd 11 years ago!) They rushed to call my doctor and he barely made it in time to deliver! 
We had decided to donate her cord blood so my dh didn't get to cut the cord so that was the only disappointing thing about her birth. She has a head full of black hair and scored 8 and 9 on her apgars. 
She almost had to have a complete blood transfusion, but thankfully her levels started to drop on Saturday morning. We have been at home now (the second time) for 5 days and motherhood the second time around is awesome!!!!! I love my sweet baby girl! 
Re: March Mommy's Birth Stories & Pics!
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies