[Chelnae6]

Sunday 4/18/10
-At night I felt like I was about to start my period. Except it wasn’t off and on, it kind of just stayed. I was also achy with backaches and mild stomach cramps here and there. I looked up backaches and found out about back labor.

Early in the morning it woke me up like every 20 minutes. Except sometimes it was in my back, sometimes my stomach, sometimes both.

Monday 4/19/10
Had NST and the “contractions” I had went away. Lani wasn’t moving during the NST (she was sleep) so I had to go to the hospital in order to get a longer NST. During the 1st NST the doc stretched me to a 1 since I my cervix was soft. I kept having the back labor but it wasn’t picking up on the contractions monitor (UGH). Lani started moving around so we left.

Tuesday 4/20/10
Around 12:00 am I started having back labor that was coming every 10-15 minutes and hurting. I could no longer sleep so I went down stairs and just found ways to manage through them by getting on all fours, bouncing on exercise ball, walking around, crawling, etc.

Around 3:30am I couldn’t take it anymore and called Will (he was at work) and told him that I couldn’t take it anymore. I woke up my mom and she helped me get through them. About a half an hour later, we got in the car and went to the hospital where Will met us. Every 2-5 minutes they were coming and it was hurting like crap. They ER workers decided to admit me since I was clearly in pain and I was overdue. Standing, sitting, nothing relieved the pain.

The doctor checked me and I was 1.5cm and my cervix was high. She was going to try to break my water but it hurt so bad for her to find my cervix. My back labor lessened some but was still coming every 10 -20 minutes. It seems like anytime I made any sudden moves, I had a back contraction that HURT like HECK!!! One thing that relieved me was sitting backwards on the toilet (straddling it) and holding on to the back of the toilet seat.

I suffered through the painful back labor for the next few hours while they switched doctors and nurses. It felt like somebody took a knife and was moving it across the bottom of my back. I doubled over in pain everytime I felt it.I roamed up and down the hall with my mom in the meantime. Around noon, the doc came in and checked me and said that I was still 1.5cm and that they were going to start me on pitocin and the nurse recommended I get an epi b/c back labor is 10x worse than regular labor and once the pitocin kicks in, it’s going to get worse. They also strapped a contraction monitor and baby heart rate monitor to my stomach. I gladly obliged to the epi. I didn’t care about going med free anymore, I just wanted to get relieved of the pain.

Around 1:30pm they gave me the pitocin and waited to see if it would do any progress and it did so around 2pm they gave me an epi (I cried b/c I was so overwhelmed by everything but then my mom started crying and I told her to be strong). The epi took on my left side but not on my right side so they had to give me the epi again b/c moving the tube did nothing to relieve the pain. They also inserted a catheter b/c I couldn’t get up to pee. They also inserted a contraction monitor that looked like a pen beside my cervix. I was sooo tired that I just about fell asleep while they gave me the epi again. I slept from 3pm to 6pm where I woke up to pain contractions in my uterus. It felt like my uterus was contracting and banging against the contraction monitor which hurt like HECK! I screamed and screamed until they removed it from out of me. I was tempted to take it out myself b/c they didn’t want to. Eventually they removed it but the pain was still there. I tried to get them to take out the catheter too but they couldn’t. We later found out that it was Lani’s head banging against my cervix and I was 3cm dilated. It felt like I had to pee mixed with somebody taking a stick and sticking me in my cervix. They increased the pitocin to get me to a 10 b/c I was in sooooo much pain that I could’ve slapped everybody!!! Almost cursed my mama out! Lord knows I’m glad I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have been living to write this. They also discovered that I was GBS positive so they had to give me an IV.

Around 7:30pm I felt like I was about to poop and she checked and said that I was 6-7 cm dilated. 30 minutes later, I was an 8-9 and felt like I had to push but when she checked me she said that my cervix was swollen at the top probably from me trying to push and told me not to push. So I’m telling myself, not to push knowing that I want to push soooo bad!!! Around 8:20 I was a 10 with a cervical lip and the doc was doing a c-section so t hey didn’t want me to push, I almost cursed the nurse out but asked if she was about to deliver b/c Lani was coming. She told me to hold it so I tried my best to but eventually I couldn’t hold it anymore so they set everything up and as I was about to push, the doc came in. I pushed for about 10 minutes. During those 10 minutes, the nurse asked if I wanted a mirror to see Lani being born. I figured it was a cool opportunity so I agreed. They got the mirror and I couldn’t see anything. Eventually they moved the mirror so that I could see. BOY OH BOY WAS THAT NOT A PRETTY SIGHT! My face lit up and I immediately say “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!! I don’t wanna see, put it back put it back!!!” (talking about the mirror) Everybody burst out laughing at me, but it was a GRUESOME sight, seeing her hair and head almost about to come out!!!

Eventually I pushed and they figured it would take me no time to get her out since they could tell that I had muscles. After 10 minutes of pushing her head came out sunny side up and boy oh boy did she have A LOT of hair and a big dome in the back of her head. Hence the horrible backlabor. I looked at her for the 1st time and all I could do was look at her, look at Will and say “She looks JUST LIKE YOU!!!” and then they let me hold her while I talked to her and admired her. She didn’t cry but she was alert and taking the world all in. But since she didn’t cry they had to take her back and monitor her. She was born at 8:47pm at 5lb11.9oz and 18 inches long. I had a 1st degree tear and I was cold and tired b/c of the epi.

When it was time to move me to post pardum they were surprised at how well I moved to the bathroom. Although they wheeled me to post pardum I got up and walked to the nursery to see my heaven. Once I got back to the room, I eventually fell asleep.

[A*LOT*OF*HOPE]

Thanks for sharing our birth story!!!! Im sorry labor was so painful for you!! I can not wait to see more pics!!

[CandaceDianne]

What a story! I am tired just from reading that! Im glad Lani decided to FINALLY make her entrance into the world....congrats mama!

[Trannyfromtheuk]

Wow, what a entrance into the world

[Mars]

I'm so sorry about the back labour. I think you did great with all that went on. Congrats again!

Now, bring on more pics of the beautiful Lani.

[LisanAndy]

Sounds like a very eventful labor! I was also told to hold my baby in with no pain meds at 10 centimeters for 20 mins while someone else was being delivered.... AGONY LoL. Even thought you want to push SO BADLY you try not to but your body forces her down and out... it's so impossible LoL. She's gorgeous Chelle, I'm so happy for you

[~*sierra*~]

thanks for sharing your story! what a beautiful story, and ur such a strong mama!

cant wait for more pics of ur lil cutie pie!

[sara~b]

I hope Kalani decides to take it a little easier on mommy from now on! She must have quite the little personality already to have caused so much trouble!

[amazing_love]

You did a great job Chelle! Sorry about all the pain. Congrats again on your beautiful baby girl!!

[freesiangel]

You did an amazing job mommy!!! I'm sorry about the back labor, but so happy you have your sweet little girl now!

[alicenwonderland]

I'm sorry you had such a rough labor! You are a strong woman! And little Kalani is soooo beautiful!

[**Jenn**]

You did a great job Chelle!!! Congrats again!!!

When I was in labor with Liam they told me not to push because the dr. wasn't ready--worst 10 minutes by far! I told Ian if anyone ever said that to me again I'd tell themm to f**k off and push my baby out!

[Resi]

Great job! I had to laugh about you looking and then telling them to take the mirror away. I watched with a mirror while pushing for 3 hours and it wasn't pretty at all.

[*krista*]

Great job mama! And you had me laughing with the mirror thing too... although I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time. You have more patience than I do. If someone told me to wait to push I think I would tell them where to stick it. I'd have DH catch the baby if I had to! I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

Anyway, congratulations again Chelle!!!

[Chelnae6]

Thanks ladies. Resi - you're a better woman than I am! NO WAY could I have looked at that thing for 3 hours. 2 seconds was enough for me!

[Angelaosaurus-rex]

LOL I would not want to see either! Glad she is here and healthy and our doing well!!! Thanks for sharing!

[IamMom]

congrats chel....so proud of you! Your princess is absolutely beautiful!