Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Birth Story #2

Alright everyone, as promised, here is how our sweet little girl came into this world. I had previously stated that I was going to do this naturally since I didn't like how the first birth went with an epidural and petocin. This was one of the hardest things I ever did, but I did it and it was so worth it.

I ended up having contractions on Wednesday which seemed to stay consistent through Thursday, so my husband and I went in to the hospital on thursday just to be sent away. Apparently, even though they were consistent, they were not intense enough. We ended up leaving our son with his grandparents that night and we came home and had a relatively relaxing night with the exception of contractions off and on. Friday I hardly had any contractions, so we ended up getting our son and coming home. Saturday night I started feeling some contractions, so we called his parents who came to our house to watch our son since he was already in bed and off we went to the hospital again. Ended up that the contractions may have been intense, but not consistent. We were sent home again. We ended up going to his parents house since they live closer to the hospital and staying there with contractions off and on. Sunday morning, we went and had breakfast and basically just did a lot of walking and hanging out near the hospital since I was still having contractions. We finally decided that it was time to just go home since nothing was progressing. Sunday night around 1:30, the contractions were waking me up, so I told my husband we better at least head to his parents house and wait this out there because they were getting pretty intense. Our son was already staying the night with grandma and grandpa, so we called our doula and she suggested since they weren't bad enough that I could still talk, that getting rest was more important than taking another trip to the hospital. That night, I had intense contractions all night. My husband, however, being an attorney, had court Monday morning. He got up and went to court and I told him I would call him once they got really bad and we needed to go to the hospital. I laid in bed for a couple hours until I almost couldn't take it anymore. I called our doula and told her that I was ready to walk and do some exercises in relaxing because this was getting to be too much. She suggested I take a bath which acutally helped a lot. My husband got home and just before the doula was supposed to be at the house, I couldn't take it anymore and had to go straight to the hospital. I told our doula, I didn't want to walk, I wanted to go. She met us at the hospital, which by then, I was in pain and was able to skip triage altogether. I was so thankful for that especially since I had been there twice and turned down twice.

They admitted me and as soon as we got in the room, they checked me and said I was dilated to a 6! We ended up checking in around 10am. I didn't take any petocin, I didn't take any other medication. And it HURT! I wanted to call it quits and get an epidural several times, but our doula was able to bring me back and have me focus on my husband and get back on track. It was nice to be able to sit up and walk around and move more. I did alot of moving and it seemed to feel better to stand at times. By around 12pm, I was about done. We called the nurse in there to check me again and I was an 8. I told everyone I had to go to the bathroom becuase it felt like I had to pee really bad. The nurse said ok, but don't push. Don't push? I wasn't planning on it. She said that my cervix wasn't ready yet. I said, I don't want to push, I just want to pee. I got in the bathroom and thats when everything went blurry.

I remember I couldn't go to the bathroom and I was having contractions so bad that all I could do was let my husband hold me up as I hung on to him. I remember telling him I was going to get an epidural. I told him this was too hard and I was sorry but I could no longer do it. About then, I wanted to push. I told the nurse I was going to push and she came running in saying "no, no! You need to get back in bed!" Between our doula and my husband holding me up, I was just about to give way and push right there. Then my husband said he didn't know what came over me but I just said "fine!" in respose to the get back in bed comment and walked right over and got in bed. I didn't make it quite all the way in the bed though. The bottom half of the bed breaks off and at the time it was lowered, so I was laying on that and leaning on the top part of the bed when the nurse checked me and said "You're at a 10!" I went from an 8-10 in like 15 minutes and at this point it was too late for an epidural. I pushed a few times and my water broke, which was the feeling of I needed to pee. I pushed a couple more times and out she came at 12:53pm. For those of you who want more graphic details, you can ask me later about the pushing experience, but let me just say, I let my body guide me, I let it be in control and as a result, I didn't need any help or anything medically done. Once it was over, it was over. Thats why it was amazing!

I haven't had to go through any recovery. My body is still a little sore at times and I am tired, but thats mainly because I am up with a newborn at night. But my body hasn't had to heal itself, therefore all the energy my body has is going to my kids. That's what I wanted and thats what is most important. I feel so much better after this birth than I did my first. Our little girl and I came together and let nature take its course and it was wonderful. I'm not saying that drugs are bad and that I would never get an epidural again. But for me, going naturally was amazing and I hope that I can find the strength and courage to do it again with however many more kids we decide to have. I also have to say that none of this would have been possible if it weren't for an amazing husband who surrendered to the fact that I wanted to do this, who watched me be in pain and let me deal with it instead of wanting to solve the problem and give me meds to make me feel better and who held my hand, held me up and helped me focus in ways I never thought possible. He was the reason I was able to get through this and he was my inspiration. Our doula was also a God send. She helped me relax and helped with pressure points and made a hard experience a lot easier. She helped draw me in when I was about to quit and helped my husband and I get refocused on each other to get through the harder contractions.

All in all, this was an amazing experience and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Stay tuned for more posts about managing a household, 2 kids under the age of 2 and how we are surviving thus far.