Hello ladies
Sorry it has taken me so long to update, DH and I just got home this morning with baby Izzy. HUGE thanks to Jennifer not only for posting the few updates we did send, (hubby says sorry LOL) but for posting the pictures as well!
I'm not going to write up my full birth story now, but I did see that many of you noticed the hospital card in her pictures and knew we were planning a home birth, so I will share some details while she is napping (as much as I can, anyway!)
As you all probably remember, she hadn't turned or dropped before I went into labor. My water broke some time early Tuesday morning (between 2 and 10, but it was a leak so we aren't sure...) and I started having contractions around 5AM. At first I was convinced it was bad gas pain or more prodromal labor, but by 7AM I realized that the pains were coming at regular intervals so I decided to get up and start timing them. Contrax were about 3 minutes apart, and lasting about 30 seconds each. I woke DH up around 8, and called my mom and the midwife to let them both know that things were getting started.
The midwife kept in touch by phone, and came over to assess me around 2PM. I was still in early labor, but 3CM dilated and baby had turned and dropped, so she decided to stay anyway. By 4:30 or so, I was in full active labor, laboring away at home with hubby. It was wonderful... We spent time walking around the block, swaying and breathing through contractions, relaxing alone together in the backyard... I will always remember my labor as a beautiful, relaxing, calming time - I couldn't have asked for it to have gone better.
Around 10PM, she did another check expecting to find me at least 6CM dilated but probably closer to 7. She found that baby had turned completely posterior, facing my belly instead of my back, and had gone back up. I was only 4.5CM dilated - I had only progressed 1.5 CM since 2PM, which wasn't enough progression for 8 hours of labor. We had to sit down and discuss what to do, since I wasn't progressing fast enough. She suggested I get into some positions and walk some stairs to try to get baby to turn and drop, and gave me an hour before she would check again.
At around 12, actually 2 hours later and after she had gotten hubby to pack a hospital bag just in case, she checked me again. I was only 5CM dilated. Half a CM wasn't enough, considering baby was still completely OP and floating. She recommended we go to the hospital, so I had a good cry with hubby and decided to pack things up and go.
I had about 7 contrax on the way to the hospital, each getting worse, but I think that was more because I was in "I give up" mode - I thought I was headed for a c-section, and that my magical home birth plan was out the window. I almost considered asking to be put out for the birth because I didn't care anymore, it was pretty depressing...
We got to the hospital around 1AM and they checked me in, ran some bloodwork, and ordered an epidural because I was having crazy back labor. They checked me at around 2:30 and I was still only 6CM but breathing through the contractions, and baby was tolerating them well (they had me on the external monitors because the anaesthesiologist wanted some records before giving me the epidural.) They were getting bad, but I still had no drugs other than laughing gas which did nothing but make me nauseous...
I got the epidural around 4, maybe 4:30 and was having some pretty bad contractions... Waiting for that to kick in was the worst labor - I was kneeling over the head of the bed screaming "I can't do this anymore!" at the nurse (the poor girl LOL)
Around 4:30 they started to check my freezing levels because I was feeling like I had to push, and they thought maybe it would help her turn... I was only frozen up to my knee on one side, and up to my calf on the other. They told me to try and push anyway to help her position, and at around 4:45 they went to check baby's position. I was hearing them talk about not wanting to give me oxytocin because baby's heart rate was getting too high, my BP was getting too low, and discussing a c-section... I just kept pushing (on my back, no less) with every contraction. And yes, I did poop on the bed LOL.
When they checked me, I heard the midwife say "I can't feel anything there..." and of course I thought they were referring to baby not being low enough, thinking she was still floating. Images of scalpels floated through my head, of course. She had the doctor on call check me, and I heard her say "no, I don't feel any cervix either - she's fully dilated." OMG
They told me to start pushing harder, guiding my pushing but I still wasn't frozen when they checked again (thigh and knee, barely higher than before.) I pushed for about 10 minutes, through 6 contractions, with 6 or 7 pushes on the last contraction - and she was born at 5:02 AM! 7 lbs, 0.5 oz, 18.5 inches long.
Completely posterior (face up).
The doctor was completely amazed how fast I did it (of course I was just doing it to avoid a c-section LOL) especially since I only had one small first degree tear, and it was inside, near the top of my vagina - NOT the perineum (so there you go, girls - prenatal perineal massage works! Thanks DH
LOL)
About 5 minutes later, the afterbirth came, baby was checked by a pediatrician, I was checked and then they started to stitch me up. Right about when they started to stitch me, the epidural finally got up to my hips
- I pushed out a completely OP baby in 10 minutes with NO pain relief. THAT was intense, let me tell you... LOL
They put me on IV antibiotics since I had started to run a fever, and got baby to the breast around 6AM. She started suckling right away, and we've had some challenges latching on the left side (the IV was hindering my ability to position her properly) but things are definitely getting better!
I had to spend the night in the hospital to finish my antibiotics, baby slept like a dream the first 18 hours to give us some rest and then started fussing with some gas (I think it might be dairy since I'm lactose intolerant but had a fair bit at the hospital,) not sure but we'll keep going!) and then we got home at around 11:30 today. She's been fussing with some gas, but is finally sleeping after 8 poopy diapers in her first 36 hours (eating like a champ!) and lots of nursing! We're perfectly healthy and happy, and ready to enjoy our first night at home as a family.
Well I guess I did get to type up my whole birth story... Thanks for listening, girls! Baby is still sleeping, but that's a good thing! Hubby keeps telling me how amazing I was, the midwife too - recovery is a bit slow going, but not too much bleeding (I had a small placenta) it is mostly just the epi site that feels like a bruise, and of course my pelvis feeling like I just squeezed out a 7 lb OP baby LOL
I'll post more pictures soon, we've been taking them by the truckload of course! Thanks for all the well wishes both here and on Facebook, I've been thinking about you girls!
I hope the next girl gets an easier labor than I did LOL but it was all so worth it, and I did get my amazing experience after all
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Beautiful birth story so glad everything went and is going perfectly 
LOL
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and 2-4-2012, chemical 
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