Okay... where was I?
According to Tim, Miss Nurse was chastised a bit by the stand-in doctor... first for calling her in too early... second for calling her in and not having "the table" or other nurses ready.
The contractions were really strong--there was just a LOT of pressure in my pelvis, along with the feeling of needing to push out a huge poop (aka the baby). I don't know if it was the strong pressure that got to me... it was more of the feeling that my legs/feet were cramping up. (I can get warts "burned" off my hands, no problem. But the minute one of my feet begins to cramp up, I'm screaming, "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" So I guess it just depends on what YOU consider "painful".)
Each time a contraction came on, and the "urge to push" began, it was a little hard for me to push "hard" because I felt like if I pushed too hard, it'd make my legs/feet cramp up. Does that make sense?? Anyway...
During each contraction, the doc would slowly count from 1 to 10 in three sets... I had to try and hold up my legs while pushing (AND curl my chin to my chest)... it was a workout! It was nice when Tim could help me hold one of my knees back, but I guess they eventually told him not too... supposedly it "worked" better if I held my own legs... ?
The doc/nurses would tell me "Push, push, push, push, push... Push Hard..." Honestly, it was slightly annoying b/c I had read in one of my books that the body could "push" the baby out on its own, and that if you LET it, you really didn't need to "push". Plus, you're more likely to tear-down-there if you push too fast before your body is ready to deliver the baby.
At one point, my doctor came into the delivery room and switched out the stand-in doctor. (Did I mention that my doc had a family emergency and probably wouldn't be there for the delivery? I guess once her family-thing finished up, she sped back to the hospital and made it just-in-time to deliver Olivia.)
Sometime during the pushing phase, I believe they turned the Pitocin back on to get the contractions more consistent and closer together so the baby would come faster (another "try-to-avoid" situation that some of my books mentioned).
There were points where I was thinking in my head, "I just want this baby OUT! I want this to be over!! When will this end?! Why didn't I just get the epidural? I can't do this anymore! This is all just a bad dream... this is all just a bad dream..." Yeah...I think I repeated the last phrase a few times as I kept my head buried in the pillow next to me. Yes. I kept my eyes closed, my head turned to the left, and my face buried in the pillow. I felt like an ostrich trying to hide my head in the ground (though i don't think ostriches really do that).
It was so annoying (at the time) to hear them say (I'm not exactly sure who "them" is), "Just a couple more pushes. She's almost out," and then to go through one or two SETS of 3 pushing-reps. I thought they said a couple more pushes!! Plus, I overheard someone say something like, "It may be a few more pushes," to someone else in the room.
When the baby was almost born, I think I heard the doctor say that she may need to cut (episiotomy). Honestly, I can't remember exactly what happened around this point... another couple of hard pushes and the baby came out!! (According to Tim, she thought I might tear, so she was thinking she may have needed to cut me... she gave me some numbing shots down there just in case, and then I was able to push the baby out with slight average/"normal" tearing. yeah! no cutting!) Oh, by this time, they had brought out the stirrups, and put my feet/legs in them. I think they made me feel like it was harder to push, though.
I don't remember feeling a "ring of fire" (probably b/c of the shot), but i do remember feeling the baby's limbs pass through... the only way I can imagine describing it would be giving birth to an octopus... it just felt like a lot of limbs being pulled out. Hahaha... kinda gross. sorry. She came out, they wrapped her up, then put her on my stomach. (We can't remember if Tim cut the U. cord before or after this... all he remembers is cutting the cord, and having the doctor tell him to put the scissors down...at least twice. I guess he was in a daze after cutting the cord.)
At the time, I was seriously just thinking, "I'm glad you're OUT!" But it was cool to see the baby's eyes and to see how alert she was. After a few moments, the nurses took the baby to clean her up and take her measurements, and to get a "good cry" out of her. It was a wierd sensation to feel them pull the placenta out.
The nurses began to clean me up, and my doc stitched up my tear. Afterwards, the only male nurse in the room (Rueben) cleaned me up! Slightly wierd...but whatever. My legs and body were shaking. I had gotten so HOT during delivery, but now that it was over, I was freezing! (We had turned down the A/C ealier.) And my body was just SHAKING! It continued to do so for at least an hour afterwards.
We stayed in the Labor/Delivery/Recovery Room for a while afterwards... most of the nurses and my doc left, and a couple nurses stayed behind to clean up and to finish up with Olivia. Tim had a great time watching her in her little bed-table thing.
Finally, our room was ready for us to "move into". I got up, got a new gown, I think I went pee, then got in a wheel chair and wheeled to our room. Finally getting into my hospital bed and getting comfortable was probably one of the happiest moments. :) Haha... the baby was out and healthy, and I could RELAX and ReCOUP!!
Showing posts with label contractions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contractions. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
SHE's HERE! - Part 2 - Labor
When we got to the hospital, we went up to the Labor and Delivery floor, and they took us to our Labor and Delivery room. Then we waited for our nurse.
The Nurse - It felt like we were in high school. And this girl was too-cool-for-school to talk to us. SO WEIRD! She really wasn't too interested in getting-to-know-you chit chat. She always seemed to be on the defense. She just seemed very I'm-the-nurse-you're-the-patient. Her attitude was a bit of "*I* do this everyday and know what's going on, so you just need to do what I tell you." We really should have asked to switch out for another nurse (but I guess the hospital was having a TON of peeps come in that "waited till after the weekend", and so they were pretty "booked").
Changed into a gown, got in bed. Nurse hooked me up to the IV. Monitored my contractions for a bit. SHE measured my cervix to be 3-4 cm dilated and 70% effaced. Hmmm... Well, I guess it ended up being for about 4 hours (but it went by quick). Our doctor actually had a family emergency up North, but was able to stop in and say Hi. The doctor actually wanted to get me on Pitocin at about 11am so that maybe she'd be able to get there (before heading north) to deliver the baby. But I wanted to hold out. The doc said we could walk around a bit, so we made two rounds around the floor, and some "steps" onto a stepping stool. At about 12:40, I decided to start Pitocin and got it going at about 1pm.
The contractions started becoming closer and more regular, but not unbearable. It was actually pretty cool listening to my HypnoBabies tracks and getting through the contractions. I would actually almost fall asleep between contractions because I was so relaxed!
It started getting "harder" as the contractions became stronger. I changed positions a couple of times that seemed to help at first. Sat on the exercise/birthing ball, stood and rocked with Tim...
The nurse checked me at one point...7 cm dilated.
After "rocking" with Tim a bit, and trying to find another comfortable position (like squatting), it was probably about 3, 3:30ish. The contractions were really strong. It just felt like really STRONG cramps right in my pelvis. I started feeling like I needed to pee... or that I needed to poop. The "cramps" were getting so strong that I decided maybe I should get the epidural. The nurse checked me to see how far along I was... she had a hard time determining... it was either 9cm...or gone. She called the doctor the see what she wanted to do, and I think (if I remember correctly), the doctor said I could start pushing if I felt the need.
I tried pushing on my side for a little bit, and then on my back. It was hard to do! Pulling my legs back, pushing through the contractions. The nurse yelling push push push... Some of the contractions were easier than others... some of them, the pushing felt good... some of them were so tough that I really didn't know how I would get through it.
It was a really interesting sensation... at one point, the nurse called the on-call doctor in, and other nurses. Ugh... maybe it's too close to the event for me to be thinking-back on all these things. :) Taking a break now.
The Nurse - It felt like we were in high school. And this girl was too-cool-for-school to talk to us. SO WEIRD! She really wasn't too interested in getting-to-know-you chit chat. She always seemed to be on the defense. She just seemed very I'm-the-nurse-you're-the-patient. Her attitude was a bit of "*I* do this everyday and know what's going on, so you just need to do what I tell you." We really should have asked to switch out for another nurse (but I guess the hospital was having a TON of peeps come in that "waited till after the weekend", and so they were pretty "booked").
Changed into a gown, got in bed. Nurse hooked me up to the IV. Monitored my contractions for a bit. SHE measured my cervix to be 3-4 cm dilated and 70% effaced. Hmmm... Well, I guess it ended up being for about 4 hours (but it went by quick). Our doctor actually had a family emergency up North, but was able to stop in and say Hi. The doctor actually wanted to get me on Pitocin at about 11am so that maybe she'd be able to get there (before heading north) to deliver the baby. But I wanted to hold out. The doc said we could walk around a bit, so we made two rounds around the floor, and some "steps" onto a stepping stool. At about 12:40, I decided to start Pitocin and got it going at about 1pm.
The contractions started becoming closer and more regular, but not unbearable. It was actually pretty cool listening to my HypnoBabies tracks and getting through the contractions. I would actually almost fall asleep between contractions because I was so relaxed!
It started getting "harder" as the contractions became stronger. I changed positions a couple of times that seemed to help at first. Sat on the exercise/birthing ball, stood and rocked with Tim...
The nurse checked me at one point...7 cm dilated.
After "rocking" with Tim a bit, and trying to find another comfortable position (like squatting), it was probably about 3, 3:30ish. The contractions were really strong. It just felt like really STRONG cramps right in my pelvis. I started feeling like I needed to pee... or that I needed to poop. The "cramps" were getting so strong that I decided maybe I should get the epidural. The nurse checked me to see how far along I was... she had a hard time determining... it was either 9cm...or gone. She called the doctor the see what she wanted to do, and I think (if I remember correctly), the doctor said I could start pushing if I felt the need.
I tried pushing on my side for a little bit, and then on my back. It was hard to do! Pulling my legs back, pushing through the contractions. The nurse yelling push push push... Some of the contractions were easier than others... some of them, the pushing felt good... some of them were so tough that I really didn't know how I would get through it.
It was a really interesting sensation... at one point, the nurse called the on-call doctor in, and other nurses. Ugh... maybe it's too close to the event for me to be thinking-back on all these things. :) Taking a break now.
SHE's HERE! Part 1 - Going to the hospital
Monday - Memorial Day. Tim had work off, so we all had a nice long weekend. After going for some Chinese food in Chinatown with some friends, we headed home, relaxed, then ran to Target to pick up some things. On the way home, Tim made a comment, "I hope she doesn't come at 3 o'clock on the morning. I'd be exhausted and wouldn't be able to drive you to the hospital," (or something like that... he was teasing). He also expressed slight sadness that Baby Girl wasn't born yet, and how he might need to go into work the next morning.
We stayed up until about 10:30pm, then headed to bed. Tim fell fast asleep real quick. I was in-and-out until about 1:00am. I'd get hot, I'd have to pee, I'd get thirsty, I'd get hot, reposition... I'd fall asleep for an hour here, an hour there. At one point, I noticed that my contractions were pretty frequent, so I finally got up and started noting the times. I was having slight (and non-painful) contractions about every 2-3 minutes apart. I also noticed some slight leakage that felt like it was NOT coming from my pee hole. :)
From about 1-ish to 2-ish, I kept a record of the time and started gathering extra things together in case we had to go the hospital. I also got on the internet to checkup on some work HR stuff, and to read my cousin's blog about HER recent labor and delivery.
It was close to 3am, and I thought how funny it would be if I woke up Tim and it was time to go the hospital (since the comment he made earlier). But then I decided that if it were a "false alarm", he'd be EXHAUSTED the next day if he had to work. I remembered reading in lots of my books (and online forums) that it's best to "labor" at home for a bit, and THEN go to the hospital. I was feeling really tired, so I decided to get back into bed and get some sleep. (Plus, I guess if my water HAD broken, I would REALLY know by laying down for a while, and THEN getting up.)
Tuesday - We both woke up at about 6ish. Tim mosied around for a bit, getting his work laptop ready and making some phone calls. He came over to crawl into bed with me and noticed my pad of paper with my contraction times written on it. I told him that I didn't know if my water had broken or not, but was thinking that it hadn't yet. He wanted to call the doctor...I didn't. But he did anyway. He called her at about 7ish, and JUST as he was hanging up the phone, it felt like the baby KICKED my belly (with a slight "pop" sound), and I felt a river of warm fluid running through my body towards the exit. Woah! I hopped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. It took us a little while to get a hold of the doctor again, after which she told us to head to the hospital.
We hit a little morning traffic, but made it to the hospital in great time... so fast, in fact, that the nurse assigned to us wasn't there yet. So we got another nurse (whose patient hadn't arrived yet). What an INTERESTING nurse (interesting, in this case, was NOT a very good thing). :)
We stayed up until about 10:30pm, then headed to bed. Tim fell fast asleep real quick. I was in-and-out until about 1:00am. I'd get hot, I'd have to pee, I'd get thirsty, I'd get hot, reposition... I'd fall asleep for an hour here, an hour there. At one point, I noticed that my contractions were pretty frequent, so I finally got up and started noting the times. I was having slight (and non-painful) contractions about every 2-3 minutes apart. I also noticed some slight leakage that felt like it was NOT coming from my pee hole. :)
From about 1-ish to 2-ish, I kept a record of the time and started gathering extra things together in case we had to go the hospital. I also got on the internet to checkup on some work HR stuff, and to read my cousin's blog about HER recent labor and delivery.
It was close to 3am, and I thought how funny it would be if I woke up Tim and it was time to go the hospital (since the comment he made earlier). But then I decided that if it were a "false alarm", he'd be EXHAUSTED the next day if he had to work. I remembered reading in lots of my books (and online forums) that it's best to "labor" at home for a bit, and THEN go to the hospital. I was feeling really tired, so I decided to get back into bed and get some sleep. (Plus, I guess if my water HAD broken, I would REALLY know by laying down for a while, and THEN getting up.)
Tuesday - We both woke up at about 6ish. Tim mosied around for a bit, getting his work laptop ready and making some phone calls. He came over to crawl into bed with me and noticed my pad of paper with my contraction times written on it. I told him that I didn't know if my water had broken or not, but was thinking that it hadn't yet. He wanted to call the doctor...I didn't. But he did anyway. He called her at about 7ish, and JUST as he was hanging up the phone, it felt like the baby KICKED my belly (with a slight "pop" sound), and I felt a river of warm fluid running through my body towards the exit. Woah! I hopped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. It took us a little while to get a hold of the doctor again, after which she told us to head to the hospital.
We hit a little morning traffic, but made it to the hospital in great time... so fast, in fact, that the nurse assigned to us wasn't there yet. So we got another nurse (whose patient hadn't arrived yet). What an INTERESTING nurse (interesting, in this case, was NOT a very good thing). :)
Friday, May 1, 2009
Contractions
So I've had less contractions...but I still have occasional ones. Here's a video of myself showing how tight my belly gets during a contraction...and how "soft" it normally is.
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