Our Birth Story
Monday July 16, at 2am i woke up with what i thought was very strong contractions (hahaha) and by 3am we woke up my mom (who was staying with us) because the contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. I took a shower and we started getting ready to go to the hospital. The contractions began getting more intense and closer together, which by the way is not fun when you're driving over bumpy roads. When we arrived at the hospital I was checked for dilation and the nurse said "Well you're 4cm and we can get you your epidural!" So I let out a "Wohoo" and told them to get the doctor to put the needle in my back. It took about half an hour for the epi guy to get there but he was by far my favorite part of labor, this was a 5am. My midwife arrived right before the
epidural and I was very excited because out of the group of 4 midwives she was my favorite.
At 9am Christie (the midwife) broke my water since I had only progressed to 5cm up until that point. I labored comfortably with the epidural all day long. One downside of the epi was that my left leg completely feel asleep.. i was so numb i could barely move it.. that sucked. My progression during the
day was very slow and I didn't reach 8cm until 2pm and was almost 10cm at 4:30pm. At this point Christie had to leave since she had been on call for 48 hours and my least favorite midwife walked in... BOOOOO Well at this point the epi was to the point where I could feel pressure and a small amount of pain, but totally controllable for me. Well the midwife decided to turn off my epi completely and it started wearing off right away. The pain was excruxiatingly unbearable and I will NEVER let them turn my epi off like that again. It sucked big time. I pushed for 2 hrs and 45 mins the entire time begging for them to do a c-section, or reach in and pull him out because there was no way I was going to be able to do it. I was in so much pain, that I threw up on 3 seperate occasions. It was so painful that i couldn't get through the contractions and
push correctly. Finally at 7:24pm Landon made his arrival. I had a 1st degree external tear that took 3 stitches and ended up with a 'roid too. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his body and they decided he wasn't transitioning
as well as they'd like so he was taken to the NICU. He stayed in the NICU overnight, and "graduated" the next day around 3pm.
Now for the stuff they don't tell you.... (warning many many TMI's and some scary stuff) My whole body is sore, from the pain of no epi I had clenched my teeth so hard that as of day 3 post partum, my teeth still hurt. From my neck to my abs I'm super sore. My whole hooha area was swollen until today (3 days post partum) and not only do you bleed a ton but if you have stitches they sting anytime you moved the wrong was. My 'roid isn't that bad and feels
like pressure than any pain. I started breastfeeding about 5 hours after birth and let me tell you, it hurts, I don't care what anybody says.. my nipples were sore immediately. By 9am when the lactation consultant came to see me my nipples were already bleeding. She came to the conclusion that I have short nipples and Landon has a long pallet meaning he couldn't get my nipple
into his mouth far enough. She showed my how to use a nipple shield which helped a little bit but it was still painful every single time Landon fed. Landon ended up being jaundiced and the pediatrition reccommended I supplement with formula, and I now am exlusively pumping, which has helped my cracked nipple situation a lot. We've decided to continue doing this way since it works best for us. Here's big TMI - if you have cracked/bleeding nipples the first time you pump you may see blood.
All in all I will never allow them to turn off my epidural like that again. When I first did some practice pushes while the first midwife was with me, my epi was working perfectly, I felt all the pressure and only a tiny bit of pain.. there was no reason for the second midwife to turn it off on me. Her views of natural birth apparently were more important then my comfort. I'm sure this is not the case for all midwives... but I was disappointed with my experience.
I am so in love with my little man that it makes it all worth it...17 hours of labor and all.
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have!