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Sep. 29th, 2006 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ocelotThis post brought to you courtesy of Miss Nurse-A-Lot. If she keeps this up, I'm gonna have to improve my sleep nursing skills.
This is the briefish version (haha, I wish. It's long and probably boring. I'll make a link straight to the toilet part, since that's the only really dramatic bit.), while it is fresh in my head. I'll do the official story with pictures and all later.
After a day of the previously posted about pre-labor symptoms, my water broke at about 4:30AM. Thankfully just a trickle this time, so the bed wasn't soaked like it was with Leif.
I tried to go back to sleep, but that wasn't happening, so I got up, showered, started a load of laundry (since it wasn't going to get done if I didn't do it then), and drank some cold juice to try to get baby moving, which it did, relieving any worries about a prolapsed cord.
Around six I managed to get a little sleep, then fidgeted around for a while, repacking my bag for the 60th time and eating and so on, until Leif woke up at 9 (late for him, not sure why) and we got him over to a friend's house for the day. That was really hard. I did NOT want him away from me. But it made more sense than trying to keep up with him all day and then having to drive him in the opposite direction before going to the hospital.
After that, we went and got jamba juice and wandered around Borders for an hour (yay for the adult diapers a friend sent!) to try to get things going a little. I wasn't having contractions at all really at this point, but that's how it had gone with Leif, so I wasn't particularly concerned. After an hour or so I got tired, so we went home and I napped.
A contraction woke me after a while, so I got up and bounced on my exercise ball and walked around and so on. They remained pretty weak and irregular (every 10-20 minutes or so), and I was getting a little discouraged. Labor with Leif had been well underway by that point. We decided to head to the hospital, since it had been 12 hours since my water broke and my GBS status wasn't known. I also talked to my husband about some (not birth related) fears that I had, and he pointed out something I hadn't thought of. After that, the contractions started picking up.
After they recognized me at the hospital (where I volunteer) everything went really smoothly. They monitored me for half an hour or so while I sat on a birth ball, then took that off for good.
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koyote went to get some stuff he forgot, and I managed alone ok until he got back, though I immediately taught him to do the double hip squeeze for back labor when he returned, and that helped a lot.
The contractions started getting stronger and closer together. At the start, I could rock on the birth ball through them. Then I had to stand during contractions. Then I gave up on the ball entirely.
The doctor finally came in around 7, did a sterile speculum exam, and said I was at 4cm. This was a bit depressing. The contractions were about 2 minutes apart at this point and hard to handle, and my mood had changed from talkative to standing in the corner pressing my head against the wall between contractions, so I thought I had to be further along.
She did say I could go in the tub when I reached that point (hospital policy is 5cm), so that was good.
She also checked the baby's position, and it wasn't too terrible, so I figured back labor is just how I experience labor, and not necessarily due to positioning (had it with my first as well).
So I kept going. They'd promised dinner, but it never arrived, so they brought a sandwich when I was just past the point of being willing to eat. Oh well. (I ended up eating it afterwards)
They also started the IV, which was unfortunately not the pleasant and happy experience of the earlier blood draw (really!)
It got really hard to deal with. I whined and complained and yelled atkoyote and said I couldn't do it and didn't want a baby and privately wished for an epidural or c-section and all that stuff.
The nurse checked me, and I was at 6cm, which was depressing again, but she started filling the tub, so that was something to hold onto.
A bit later (the tub takes about half an hour to fill, so less than that) I started feeling a little pushy, so she checked me again, and said I was complete on one side. Oops, no tub for me, but that's good news. It also confirmed the feeling I had that I'd like to lie down on my side, so I did. The next contraction I was REALLY feeling pushy, and started saying "baby nurse baby nurse" over and over in an incoherent attempt to getkoyote to get the nurse. So he did, and she checked again, and I was indeed ready to push.
I asked to use the toilet so I wouldn't be trying to push past a full bladder. She said "No pooping!" and I assured her that wasn't my intention. But then the next contraction hit and I didn't really have a choice. About pushing, that is. I don't think I pooped.
I yelled tokoyote that the baby was coming. He tried to get me off the toilet, but that wasn't happening. Another one hit (well, it never really ended at that point), and I reached down and the head was right there. So I incoherently yelled that to him and he got the nurse back in, but the baby's head was out before she got into the bathroom. I held it there until the nurse showed up, and then we got the rest out without her touching the water at all.
She came out yelling and already making hungry signs, so I gave her the boob, and she stayed there for the next several hours, with only a brief interruption after the first two hours or so for the routine checks and stuff.
I don't remember any Ring of Fire. No fear after the initial push. I had two small skidmarks and maybe a slight tear at my episiotomy scar, but nothing that required stitches, despite the speed of the delivery, which makes me both proud of my perinium and even more pissed at the damn OB who cut me the first time.
I'm pretty thrilled with how things turned out, as is the nurse, since it was her first catch.
She was really tiny, and I worried at first that she might not be ok, but I was assured she was, and that my placenta was just fine, too. I guess that's just the size I make them (within a few ounces of my own birth weight, actually).
She weighed 6lbs 10oz, and is 20 inches.(1 oz less and 2 inches longer than Leif, though I don't remember him being quite this small), with brown hair and blue eyes. She's starting to slow down on the nursing, but is still doing very well. Such a relief after the problems we had getting Leif started (he was very sleepy at first). She's even received compliments on the clarity of her urine.
We actually had a different name picked out, but Astrid had been floating around my head for the past few days, andkoyote agreed it fit better. In other words, basically the same way we ended up naming Leif. This is why we don't announce names beforehand :)
I'm feeling great today. A little sore and tired, but much better overall. I feel like the happy mommy hormones are kicking in much more this time. No separation is a good thing.
And that's about all!
This is the briefish version (haha, I wish. It's long and probably boring. I'll make a link straight to the toilet part, since that's the only really dramatic bit.), while it is fresh in my head. I'll do the official story with pictures and all later.
After a day of the previously posted about pre-labor symptoms, my water broke at about 4:30AM. Thankfully just a trickle this time, so the bed wasn't soaked like it was with Leif.
I tried to go back to sleep, but that wasn't happening, so I got up, showered, started a load of laundry (since it wasn't going to get done if I didn't do it then), and drank some cold juice to try to get baby moving, which it did, relieving any worries about a prolapsed cord.
Around six I managed to get a little sleep, then fidgeted around for a while, repacking my bag for the 60th time and eating and so on, until Leif woke up at 9 (late for him, not sure why) and we got him over to a friend's house for the day. That was really hard. I did NOT want him away from me. But it made more sense than trying to keep up with him all day and then having to drive him in the opposite direction before going to the hospital.
After that, we went and got jamba juice and wandered around Borders for an hour (yay for the adult diapers a friend sent!) to try to get things going a little. I wasn't having contractions at all really at this point, but that's how it had gone with Leif, so I wasn't particularly concerned. After an hour or so I got tired, so we went home and I napped.
A contraction woke me after a while, so I got up and bounced on my exercise ball and walked around and so on. They remained pretty weak and irregular (every 10-20 minutes or so), and I was getting a little discouraged. Labor with Leif had been well underway by that point. We decided to head to the hospital, since it had been 12 hours since my water broke and my GBS status wasn't known. I also talked to my husband about some (not birth related) fears that I had, and he pointed out something I hadn't thought of. After that, the contractions started picking up.
After they recognized me at the hospital (where I volunteer) everything went really smoothly. They monitored me for half an hour or so while I sat on a birth ball, then took that off for good.
koyote went to get some stuff he forgot, and I managed alone ok until he got back, though I immediately taught him to do the double hip squeeze for back labor when he returned, and that helped a lot.The contractions started getting stronger and closer together. At the start, I could rock on the birth ball through them. Then I had to stand during contractions. Then I gave up on the ball entirely.
The doctor finally came in around 7, did a sterile speculum exam, and said I was at 4cm. This was a bit depressing. The contractions were about 2 minutes apart at this point and hard to handle, and my mood had changed from talkative to standing in the corner pressing my head against the wall between contractions, so I thought I had to be further along.
She did say I could go in the tub when I reached that point (hospital policy is 5cm), so that was good.
She also checked the baby's position, and it wasn't too terrible, so I figured back labor is just how I experience labor, and not necessarily due to positioning (had it with my first as well).
So I kept going. They'd promised dinner, but it never arrived, so they brought a sandwich when I was just past the point of being willing to eat. Oh well. (I ended up eating it afterwards)
They also started the IV, which was unfortunately not the pleasant and happy experience of the earlier blood draw (really!)
It got really hard to deal with. I whined and complained and yelled at
koyote and said I couldn't do it and didn't want a baby and privately wished for an epidural or c-section and all that stuff. The nurse checked me, and I was at 6cm, which was depressing again, but she started filling the tub, so that was something to hold onto.
A bit later (the tub takes about half an hour to fill, so less than that) I started feeling a little pushy, so she checked me again, and said I was complete on one side. Oops, no tub for me, but that's good news. It also confirmed the feeling I had that I'd like to lie down on my side, so I did. The next contraction I was REALLY feeling pushy, and started saying "baby nurse baby nurse" over and over in an incoherent attempt to get
koyote to get the nurse. So he did, and she checked again, and I was indeed ready to push.I asked to use the toilet so I wouldn't be trying to push past a full bladder. She said "No pooping!" and I assured her that wasn't my intention. But then the next contraction hit and I didn't really have a choice. About pushing, that is. I don't think I pooped.
I yelled to
koyote that the baby was coming. He tried to get me off the toilet, but that wasn't happening. Another one hit (well, it never really ended at that point), and I reached down and the head was right there. So I incoherently yelled that to him and he got the nurse back in, but the baby's head was out before she got into the bathroom. I held it there until the nurse showed up, and then we got the rest out without her touching the water at all.She came out yelling and already making hungry signs, so I gave her the boob, and she stayed there for the next several hours, with only a brief interruption after the first two hours or so for the routine checks and stuff.
I don't remember any Ring of Fire. No fear after the initial push. I had two small skidmarks and maybe a slight tear at my episiotomy scar, but nothing that required stitches, despite the speed of the delivery, which makes me both proud of my perinium and even more pissed at the damn OB who cut me the first time.
I'm pretty thrilled with how things turned out, as is the nurse, since it was her first catch.
She was really tiny, and I worried at first that she might not be ok, but I was assured she was, and that my placenta was just fine, too. I guess that's just the size I make them (within a few ounces of my own birth weight, actually).
She weighed 6lbs 10oz, and is 20 inches.(1 oz less and 2 inches longer than Leif, though I don't remember him being quite this small), with brown hair and blue eyes. She's starting to slow down on the nursing, but is still doing very well. Such a relief after the problems we had getting Leif started (he was very sleepy at first). She's even received compliments on the clarity of her urine.
We actually had a different name picked out, but Astrid had been floating around my head for the past few days, and
koyote agreed it fit better. In other words, basically the same way we ended up naming Leif. This is why we don't announce names beforehand :)I'm feeling great today. A little sore and tired, but much better overall. I feel like the happy mommy hormones are kicking in much more this time. No separation is a good thing.
And that's about all!
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-29 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-29 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-29 10:52 pm (UTC)I don't get compliments on the clarity of my urine!
My aunt had a baby more or less on the toilet, but she actually got in the car and my uncle drove them, baby half out, to the nearby hospital. The fifties were a wacky decade.
Yay for you. :)
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Date: 2006-09-29 11:04 pm (UTC)I think the 4cm was around 7:30, and the check that claimed 5cm (not 6cm, IIRC) was 20 till 9pm. 20:40 (Astrid was somewhere between 21:08 and 21:11, we have consensus reality of 21:10, but there is not a clock in the bathroom). first "nurse baby push nurse baby push" contraction was about 21:00.
I remember telling the nurses at the station the first time I went out that this was what had happened last time. everyone telling us we had hours and then jess needing to push and within 20 minutes having a baby present. (I remember 4 contractions last time, 3 this time (counting the last multiple ongoing thing as one)
The delivery nurse was sweet, and not unskilled, but was having a klutz day and dropped two slides, bumped a few things, and totally hosed the IV. (now, i've had a lot of IVs, and some of the military and Veteran's Administration peeps are butchers, but I've never had someone shred one wrist to uselessness and drop multiple tablespoons of blood out of the other before getting everything set.) Really nice and decent nurse, but a really bad sticking day. (In retrospect, the whole attitude change happened right then, though jess never got as bad as she thinks. And only for an hour anyway)
Astrid came SO FAST and SO EASY no one had time to get there. And the only reason our nurse got her first catch was that jess let her, Jess had the baby in her hands and wasn't letting her complete the drop.
Post partum, Jess is and has been a champ. This time we went from owwwy to "dude, I had a baby, almost solo, and she's nursing 20 second later." to "yeah, the placenta and clots are going to hurt, but you can't break my mood so nyah"- seriously happy mom, seriously great patient after the delivery.
And the cord was funny, wrapped bandolier fashion diagonal over left shoulder and right ribs, with another wrap around right arm. no choking at all, but an odd look.
And Astrid is already a daddy's girl, quiets down fast when I get her in my arms. (not that she's really fussy, but she's a nursing monster of japanese movie proportions.)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 01:43 am (UTC)