Disclaimer for anyone thinking of having a natural childbirth with no pain meds...I think there were several factors that made it more difficult for me. 1.) I have a fairly low tolerance for pain. 2.) I'm quite petite (barely over 5') and Olivia was sooo not petite. 3.) the contractions were never more than 5 minutes apart, most of them right on top of another so I had no break. 4.) I didn't practice the relaxation techniques that I learned.
Having said that, here's how it all started:
Wednesday, 12/30 I went to my 39 week prenatal check-up. She checked my cervix, and told me I was 2 cm dilated and 90% effaced. She said that didn't mean I'd go into labor right away, just that my body was doing it's job preparing for it. She said some cramping and bleeding after this exam would be normal. So off to work I went, pretty happy that in the next week I might have the baby. I get to work and noticed the cramping I was feeling felt like contractions, and they seemed to be coming in waves about 10 minutes apart. I tried to ignore it for a few hours. But the time was getting closer, and then I lost my mucous plug (eewww). So I called Derek, who asked if I thought I could drive myself home. I did, so I gathered as many loose ends together as I could, and left. Of course everyone at work was saying I might be in labor, and I was wondering it myself. I called my midwife who told me to take a hot shower, drink water and lay down to see if that stopped them. And if they got to 5 minutes apart, come in.
So I did that, and sure enough they seemed to stop. So I read a book (the entire thing, actually. Couldn't put it down), and went to sleep. But somewhere in the 1 a.m. timeframe, the contractions came back and started coming a lot faster. I have this app on my itouch that keeps track of contractions (way handy) and so starting at 2 a.m. I started timing and by 3 a.m they were on average 4 minutes apart and a minute long. So off to labor & delivery we went, got there around 4 a.m. I think. I was checked and they said I was 4 cm dilated. So I got checked in and by this time the contractions were even closer together. Things are a bit of a blur from this point forward.
At some point I started panicking from how fast the contractions were coming and how painful they were, plus I felt extremely nauseous. So Paula offered me an anti-nausea med and half a dose of IV pain meds. I decided to get it, but it wasn't much of a help. Basically all the IV drug does is make you feel like you've been drugged, but you still feel most of the pain! I was just too tired to complain much about it (guess this is more for the people around the woman, haha). But it did get me calmed down for the hour or so that it lasted. So I think around 8 a.m. I was checked and was 8 cm. At this point I was repeatedly saying I couldn't do this anymore, and I even started to get up and say I was going home!! Hahaha wouldn't that have been nice.
So from 8 to 9:30 I finished dilating. I was probably annoying Paula because after every contraction I was asking to be checked! I just wanted the pain to stop. Paula massaged my back during each contraction, and Derek held my hand and talked me through each one. One thing that got me through was the mantra, "it's just one day." Then finally I felt the urge to push and I was fully dilated. So that adventure began. I thought I'd get relief from pushing, and I will admit it was better than the dilating contractions, but the pressure is insane, and it didn't go away after the contraction was gone. And ring of fire, whew! Took and hour and a half of pushing but Olivia finally made it out! Things weren't quite smooth after that though.
The cord was around her neck so they had to get her color normal and make sure she was okay, but she was. Then Paula saw that I was bleeding profusely, and thought I might be hemorrhaging. So she starts smooshing my stomach to get my uterus to contract, and wow that freaking hurt! Then she had me hooked up to pitocin. Bleh! So as it turns out, I tore like a mofo. Paula was all business at this point and yelled at me for questioning the pitocin. She called in another midwife to help stitch me up because she couldn't do it alone. A couple hours later they got me up to use the restroom but I knew something was wrong right away. I felt hot and nauseous and then things started fading. I was immediately sweating and Derek told me later that I turned white as a ghost. The nurse came in with smelling salts to keep me conscious (who knew they still used those!) and I vaguely thought of Nicole Kidman and Moulin Rouge. It was hard to stay with it, but they got me in a wheelchair and back to bed. So I had to stay in the bed for a day, and I'm still on a restricted schedule for two weeks, but I'm feeling much better now.
So that's the almost all natural birth of Olivia (aside from the half dose of IV meds). I didn't ask for an epidural at any point, but honestly I'm not sure I'd do it the same if I could do it over! But none of it really matters now because Olivia is here and healthy and generally happy (though she's crying right now). :) Things will just keep getting better!
1 comment:
Congrats!!!
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