Welcome to Thursday Birth Day! My hope is that this series will help to encourage women who may be expecting their first baby or their second/third/fourth/etc. These posts will provide some real life experiences that we can all appreciate and maybe even learn from. I also hope for this to be a place where women who have gone through birth can have a place to share their beautiful stories.
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Baby Alivia's Birth Story
On August 7th we were anxiously awaiting my induction on the 9th. Justin was at work and I was home with my Gram and the kiddos. It was a seriously lazy day. I wanted to nap all day but I tried to take a snooze in my bed and failed. I fell asleep for about 10 minutes on the couch but then had to make the kiddos lunch. Around 3pm I headed to bed again to try and nap, I had dinner in the crock pot so I had some time to kill. Shortly after I finally fell asleep Justin called to say that he was on his way home. I got up to put rice on the stove to go with my crock pot dinner then headed into the bathroom to pee. I finished, washed my hands, got to the door, and my legs were soaked. I called for my gram to get me a towel as I had been washing all of them but she couldn't hear me over the tv. The kids were even farther from the bathroom so they couldn't hear me either. I couldn't leave the bathroom and risk getting amniotic fluid all over the carpets so I sat back down and figured I'd call Justin. After that I called Labor & Delivery to let them know I'd be coming in. I spoke to them for almost 20 minutes so that they could be prepared for me. I then called my gram's cell phone but she didn't answer. That's when I remembered that I had rice on the stove and decided to make a run for it with wet pants to turn the stove off and grab a towel.
Fast forward a tiny bit and Justin and I are settling in at the hospital. I had Gestational Diabetes, was GBS Positive, and had the bi-lobed placenta. I had one-on-one nurse care because of all of this so the nurse hardly left the room. I wanted another drug free labor and delivery but with the GD I needed hourly testing & fluids with sugars. With the GBS I needed antibiotics for at least 4 hours. Then I needed round the clock monitoring of the baby which meant the second she was off the monitor the nurse would push the belt into my belly harder. She was driving me nuts! By 7pm I was finally hooked up to everything and was allowed out of bed. I sat on the birthing ball for quite a while because I was only 2-2.5 centimeters when I arrived. I felt the contractions but they weren't painful. The nurse asked about my other deliveries and on the night went. I remember the 4th time they checked my sugar (that meant it had to be 10pm) I was shocked at how fast the time was flying by with little pain.
Shortly after the 10pm check I asked to use the bathroom again but the nurse said she wanted to check me first. Into the bed I went and of course that contraction HURT. She reached for my tonsils and said I was 5 centimeters, I felt so defeated! I had been having all of these easy contractions and of course they weren't helping me progress quickly and baby was still high. Boo. So I headed to the bathroom where I had two good contractions that were super painful. While I was in there I heard the nurse calling for a delivery table (with all of the gadgets and gizmos) and she was telling Justin not to touch anything blue. I heard them counting items on the table, and came out to see them finishing up. I thought they were a bit premature with the delivery stuff... I was only 5 centimeters!
I got back on the yoga ball for a good contraction and told my nurse that my body was starting to push on it's own. She had me get back into bed so that she could check me. That's when the bad contractions started. The contractions that you try and breathe through, then you end up moaning a bit on the exhale. I asked the nurse if it had been 4 hours yet for the antibiotics, she said it almost was. No sooner than she declared me an 8 with a 'melting cervix' I got the shakes. I reassured Justin who looked scared out of his mind at my shaking. "It's just the final stages, it's normal! I'm ok!" The nurse typed something into the computer and said she had to grab something but if I felt the urge to push to call her asap. The second she walked out my body pushed down hard and I let out a curse. I think that's when I told Justin that I couldn't do this. I crawled into bed as the nurse said, "If she pukes we are checking her again" and right on cue I puked. No checking needed as the doctor walked in and could see Alivia's head. I asked for a pillow behind my back and the nurse put it behind me only half way. You had better believe that I told her about the pillow placement after that contraction! haha!
The doctor told me that I could go ahead and push if I wanted and I started talking a mile a minute explaining that I never actually had to push a baby out. They always just sort of come out on their own; I told her I didn't think I could do it. She told me to try so I did and I felt myself ripping as I counted, "1, 2, 3" in my head so I stopped. My body did not like that and gave me a killer contraction. The doctor told me that one push would bring us our baby. Well I have seen enough episodes of the baby story and I know that they say that over and over for hours and hours sometimes. So I asked if she could see the baby's head. She said she could. I then asked if she was sure one push would do it and explained again that I never pushed before. She assured me that one push was it and asked if I wanted her to count. I think I snapped at her when I said, "No!" I HATE the whole counting thing. So I gave it one big push, felt everything rip, and out Alivia's head came. Then she was stuck. The easy shoulders were not budging. And the contractions were killing my back so I pushed and said, "Please just pull her out!" and out she came. Little stinker thought coming out with her hand by her head would be fun which made her shoulders harder to deliver.
She was placed on my chest, her umbilical cord got to pulsate until it was empty, Justin cut his first cord, and we just stared at our precious girl. After about 45 minutes we realized that we didn't have either camera out. Things had went so quickly that we forgot! Whoops! Alivia Pagie was born at 11:15pm and weighed in at 7lbs. 2oz. and was 19.5" long. They got Livi cleaned up while I got up and used the bathroom and change my gown. Then we all settled in for a long night of nursing, with little to no sleep. I was exhausted, but I remember the nurse commenting on my make-up (which I hardly had any on) and Justin saying, "Babe, your hair looks really good." I told him to "shut up" and he explained he was serious. He snapped some photos of us and I must say that compared to my other kiddos I looked great. I remember being so swollen after their deliveries, hair up like a 'hot mess', and just plain exhausted. Maybe the quick delivery played a part? Anywho... the nurse was apparently curious so she pulled up the computer logs for the evening. She then told us that from the time I was checked to be 5 centimeters to the time of Alivia's birth, only 45 minutes had passed! So very thankful for a quick delivery as I didn't have pain meds!
Our doctor was awesome and showed us the sac with the bi- lobed placenta. I wish we had the camera out because it was super cool. Nothing like the scary stuff they speak of, it was inside the sac all nice and cozy near the big placenta with a super thick vessel attaching the two. Not sure how you wouldn't deliver both being they are both in the sac, but better safe than sorry I guess.
