I guess I'll be a cliche, a first time mom starting up a baby blog. Given that I've decided not to return to work until the next school year, I need a little something other than my LO (that's little one for you new to the baby board lingo) to occupy my mind, certainly not my time though!
I've started blog posts for weeks now. But "we're" only just getting good at napping now [read - mom realized baby has a major case of FOMO and will not nap on her own]. So I've saved the drafts and closed them, unsatisfied with what they said and how I said it.
So I decided during this current nap to give it a final go, try to get this blog up and running by writing my basic birth story. It likely won't be quippy or cute but it's nice to just get it down on paper so to speak.
LO was due on December 14/15. At my 40 week appointment the nurse told me little other than I hadn't made much progress since week 39. She didn't tell us the size of the baby either, only that she was sitting awfully high up (code for induction waiting to happen). No mention of position of the baby - although I had heard the word "anterior" at a previous appointment and erroneously thought they were referring to the baby.
Due date came and went. We ate the spiciest foods this side of the Potomac and I bounced on a birthing ball for hours to try to move the baby down and induce labor. No sign of baby at 40 weeks meant scheduling an induction for the evening of Monday the 21st, a week late.
On the evening of the 19th we were headed to bed and I felt what I thought was a contraction. The doctors asked me weekly if I felt contractions - but as a new mom I thought I just felt an insane amount of baby movement. This movement was different. I mentioned it to Jackson and he said something to the affect of "hopefully she can hold out until morning!" half-jokingly. I hadn't felt any symptoms of labor yet! But he decided to take a shower just in case.
And then I heard/felt a pop, and my water broke. I won't share details but it was a lot - I don't know what I would have done if it had happened in public. Not glamorous at all.
We called the doctor who told us to labor at home until contractions got closer together. We dispute her next instruction (I was in a lot of pain and may have misheard her). I *think* she said go to the hospital by 3 AM regardless.
Contractions never got closer so we drove to Fairfax hospital bright and early on the 20th. Because my water broke I was admitted without many questions; apparently there's a risk of infection if your water breaks so the doctors only really give you 24 hours to deliver.
I'm glossing over the pain at this point. In triage I decided to nix all my glorious plans to birth naturally in favor of an epidural. Which was a good thing, too, because I was also pumped full of pitocin to try to encourage labor to move along. In hindsight the only downside to the epidural was the catheter. GROSS. Catheters are awful.
After the epidural and initial round of pitocin I felt pretty good. Husband and my mom hung out for hours while we watched Up All Night on the mac. But labor wasn't progressing. Which meant more pitocin.
My family and I watched the contractions get more intense. But the baby wasn't moving down into position. I was out of my epidural too - see there's a button that allows you to give yourself more doses as needed. But I had run out. The nurses told me the doctor wanted to wait and see if the baby moved down if we stopped the medication.
And then I labored for several hours more - almost 13 hours later - without medicine, with strong contractions. This led to pain and frustration for everyone involved. Eventually a nurse on a shift change came in and ignored the doctors orders to give me some more.
Eventually, again hours later, the doctor arrived (fresh off of two emergency c-sections) to tell me not only had the baby not moved down, but that she was OP and large, which meant she was unlikely to come out on her own.
18 hours after my water first broke I had an "unplanned" c-section. And our LO arrived into the world! It was a very emotional, somewhat frightening experience. The amount of drugs in my system in the end would have knocked out a linebacker. But we got our DD (that's darling daughter, in baby board terms) and that's all that matters.
I've started blog posts for weeks now. But "we're" only just getting good at napping now [read - mom realized baby has a major case of FOMO and will not nap on her own]. So I've saved the drafts and closed them, unsatisfied with what they said and how I said it.
So I decided during this current nap to give it a final go, try to get this blog up and running by writing my basic birth story. It likely won't be quippy or cute but it's nice to just get it down on paper so to speak.
LO was due on December 14/15. At my 40 week appointment the nurse told me little other than I hadn't made much progress since week 39. She didn't tell us the size of the baby either, only that she was sitting awfully high up (code for induction waiting to happen). No mention of position of the baby - although I had heard the word "anterior" at a previous appointment and erroneously thought they were referring to the baby.
Due date came and went. We ate the spiciest foods this side of the Potomac and I bounced on a birthing ball for hours to try to move the baby down and induce labor. No sign of baby at 40 weeks meant scheduling an induction for the evening of Monday the 21st, a week late.
On the evening of the 19th we were headed to bed and I felt what I thought was a contraction. The doctors asked me weekly if I felt contractions - but as a new mom I thought I just felt an insane amount of baby movement. This movement was different. I mentioned it to Jackson and he said something to the affect of "hopefully she can hold out until morning!" half-jokingly. I hadn't felt any symptoms of labor yet! But he decided to take a shower just in case.
And then I heard/felt a pop, and my water broke. I won't share details but it was a lot - I don't know what I would have done if it had happened in public. Not glamorous at all.
We called the doctor who told us to labor at home until contractions got closer together. We dispute her next instruction (I was in a lot of pain and may have misheard her). I *think* she said go to the hospital by 3 AM regardless.
Contractions never got closer so we drove to Fairfax hospital bright and early on the 20th. Because my water broke I was admitted without many questions; apparently there's a risk of infection if your water breaks so the doctors only really give you 24 hours to deliver.
I'm glossing over the pain at this point. In triage I decided to nix all my glorious plans to birth naturally in favor of an epidural. Which was a good thing, too, because I was also pumped full of pitocin to try to encourage labor to move along. In hindsight the only downside to the epidural was the catheter. GROSS. Catheters are awful.
After the epidural and initial round of pitocin I felt pretty good. Husband and my mom hung out for hours while we watched Up All Night on the mac. But labor wasn't progressing. Which meant more pitocin.
My family and I watched the contractions get more intense. But the baby wasn't moving down into position. I was out of my epidural too - see there's a button that allows you to give yourself more doses as needed. But I had run out. The nurses told me the doctor wanted to wait and see if the baby moved down if we stopped the medication.
And then I labored for several hours more - almost 13 hours later - without medicine, with strong contractions. This led to pain and frustration for everyone involved. Eventually a nurse on a shift change came in and ignored the doctors orders to give me some more.
Eventually, again hours later, the doctor arrived (fresh off of two emergency c-sections) to tell me not only had the baby not moved down, but that she was OP and large, which meant she was unlikely to come out on her own.
18 hours after my water first broke I had an "unplanned" c-section. And our LO arrived into the world! It was a very emotional, somewhat frightening experience. The amount of drugs in my system in the end would have knocked out a linebacker. But we got our DD (that's darling daughter, in baby board terms) and that's all that matters.
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