I was set to be induced on 8/27 at exactly 39wks. A few days before, I was having strong contractions...had contractions that were the real deal for more than a week. Friday showed up and it seemed like I would have to go through the induction...
I was supposed to be at the hospital at 630am, but they had no room at the hospital for us. Apparently, so many babies were being born that day. They called back at 7am to tell us to go in. It took awhile in traffic and when we got there there we had to wait. I saw my dr in the hall and he asked why I wasn't in a room yet. It was about 830am when I saw him and he was coming to break my water.
I finally got in a room at 915 and got started with an IV and pitocin at 930am. I started feeling what I call baby contractions and I told the nurse each time she came in to up the dose on the pitocin because they weren't doing anything. I probably get what I deserve next because of that.
My obgyn told them to break my water ASAP but they didn't want to. GRRRR
He also told me to get the epidural very quickly and they didn't want to give it to me until they broke my water. Oh, I was 70% effaced and 3.5cm I think...about the same from days earlier. I thought I would be more effaced because of my heavy contractions on the night of the full moon.
They came to check me at 12pm and I was 100% effaced and 4.5cm I think. The nurse broke my water.
Oh, my dr a few days earlier told me that he predicted I would have the baby between 12pm and 4pm but closer to 12pm (had I got induced at 7ish).
I had given my obgyn some hell about being at the birth and he promised he would. I had seen him for 16 or 17 years and I was always the patient in his office waiting hrs for him while he attended to people giving birth. He didn't deliver my son as I went before induction on a weekend.
Back to labor...
When they broke my water I told them to line up the anthesiologist...that always takes forever.
Well from 12pm to 1pm was the worst pain of my life. I can see now that the epidural did work last time even though I still felt pain. It was agony. I was't yelling but I told my DH that he better get the nurse and get my epidural ASAP or some pain meds. I wasn't too happy with the nurses as they didn't come in at all the whole hr and I was not on the monitors as I kinda ripped them off and I was sitting up and they don't work well. Even with no baby or contraction monitoring, the stupid nurses didn't come in. If you are a nurse, I am not saying all nurses are stupid, they just really messed up in my case.
After my DH called them a few times, they finally came in at 1pm with the anesthesiologist. I stood up on the side of the bed and told the nurse that I had to go BM or I was ready to push the baby. She was shocked. I was holding her so tight...kinda serves them right, but I don't envy their job. She quickly checked me and saw I was 9cm. To recap, I went from 4cm to 9cm in less than an hour!!!! She called the dr and told him to come ASAP...he was doing a circumcision but quickly ran over. At this point my contractions are on the scale of worst pain ever and coming every 1 to 2 minutes. That whole hr...it was every 2minutes or less.
I thought I was too late for the epidural and they told me that they had given it to people at 10cm(!!!!). It was hard for them to do it since my contractions were every 1 minute. My obgyn came in when I was getting the epidural and asked me if I wanted to wait 5 minute or push now. I told him I would wait to get some affect from the epi. They gave me a quick dose and it was semi quick to take affect.
I don't know how long I pushed for, but to me it was less than 10min, maybe even 5 minutes My obgyn asked if I wanted the mirror and I said yes. I probably shouldn't have because it was kinda not the best sight in the world. I know ppl say that childbirth is beautiful, but...He thought it was great incentive to get me to push. It did kinda help to see how I was doing on pushing. Last time I was able to see feel the contractions and push when they came like you should...this time the epi was too new that I couldn't feel the contractions but the dr just told me to push all the time.
It was a quick labor and that is good, but I wish I had had the epi longer. Kudos to the medication free mamas, not sure how you do it especially for multiple hours at a time. I complain, I had a quick labor.
Baby came at 1:21pm.
I got to hold her immediately and me and my DH asked the nurse if she was a girl as we didn't check right away. I got to breastfeed her right away and that was awesome. She did great. She is already a much better feeder than my son was.
My DH got to cut the cord. I am sooooo happy that my obgyn got to deliver her.
I should have written this down sooner as I am sure I forgot some details. I hope my readers made it this far.
Issues/Thoughts
Baby Girl has jaundice problems, but she had blood jaundice which isn't related to breastfeeding. My son had mild jaundice. Hers is much worse and we are doing the light treatments on her (which is hard while trying to BF). BFing is going so much better this time around. I may still have supply issues, but so far so good. She isn't too sleepy on the breast like my son was. I kinda used to blame the epidural and hte pain meds on the sleepiness of my son, but my drs say that ibuprophen can't do that. Who knows? I do think she didn't have time to get much of the epi in her system before birth. I am taking a low dose of motrin and I really am minimizing taking anything. My pedi said that moms in pain don't make as much breast milk, etc. So I did take her advice into account too..
I am a probreastfeeding hospital. What does that mean? Well, they don't give out the formula free diaper bags anymore. Bummer...I still wanted that even though I will BF because I know I will have to supplement probably at some point. Oh, I am having to supplement because of the jaundice..makes it go away quicker. So far she has gotten 5 oz, so not too bad for 3 days of life...This time I did use the SNS right away (that is the thing that you breastfeed and give formula at the same time. I think that helps instead of straight formula from a nipple as I did with my son. My obgyn gave me free samples of formula and i have some home if needed. I guess it is a good thing that they don't give the ton of formula samples out...
We named her S.ienna and she was 7lbs 1oz at birth and 19.5 inches.
My DH and I decided to do two hrs in the nursery on two different nights. I have mixed feelings about this. My BFing books (I got a free book from work) says to room-in with the baby. I did that last time the whole time as I was a worried mama. This time we took a break to get more sleep. I will say that baby girl is a much better sleeper so far. She is a very different baby from my son. On both nights that she went tot he nursery for 2hrs, they kept her more than 2 hrs which kinda pissed me off. I think it can hurt your supply by doing this, but it DOES help sleep and energy level. I didn't do it my last night (had to stay longer due to jaundice) and she was a quiet baby.
She did lose weight. About 2% the first night, 8% on the 2nd night, and they said if she reached 10% they would have me supplement. I started to supplement before this happened anyway because it pushes out the bad jaundice in her system. Like I said, I've only give her so little and still was able to breastfeed at the same time.
Things are going smoother hte 2nd time around...labor was more difficult but recovery has been easier.
Thanks for the support everyone! I really enjoy having an online community of friends.
