I finally had a moment to write my beautiful birth story for my prenatal yoga group so I thought I'd share the same story on my blog for those of you who are inquiring. While pregnant this was one of my favorite things to do....read everyone else's story. I hope you enjoy mine. It was truly a day I will never forget!
Short Version: Miles Henry Anderson was born on 8/7 weighing in at 8 lbs 7oz (super convenient for mommy and daddy to remember!) and 20.5 inches long at 9:41am.
Long Version: Earlier in the evening I was feeling kind of 'off' and had some minor cramping. Even though it was minor my 'mommy intuition' told me to pay attention and to get a good night's sleep that night. We headed to bed around 10:30pm (rather than our usual 1pm bedtime). Good thinking on our part because at 1:30am I woke up to a pretty painful contraction. I thought maybe I just had to go to the bathroom so I stood up and felt a little gush of water. I waddled very quickly to the bathroom and right before I sat down another gush came out. I quickly looked to see if there was any blood or meconium and found nothing. Water breaking, clear fluid, check!
After that contraction I debated on waking up my husband but opted to wait until I had another contraction to see how far apart they were. 7 minutes later another contraction came and I woke him up. From there we started getting things ready. I leisurely took a shower, packed a few more of my things while the hubs got the car packed and ready to go.
Long Version: Earlier in the evening I was feeling kind of 'off' and had some minor cramping. Even though it was minor my 'mommy intuition' told me to pay attention and to get a good night's sleep that night. We headed to bed around 10:30pm (rather than our usual 1pm bedtime). Good thinking on our part because at 1:30am I woke up to a pretty painful contraction. I thought maybe I just had to go to the bathroom so I stood up and felt a little gush of water. I waddled very quickly to the bathroom and right before I sat down another gush came out. I quickly looked to see if there was any blood or meconium and found nothing. Water breaking, clear fluid, check!
After that contraction I debated on waking up my husband but opted to wait until I had another contraction to see how far apart they were. 7 minutes later another contraction came and I woke him up. From there we started getting things ready. I leisurely took a shower, packed a few more of my things while the hubs got the car packed and ready to go.
We labored at home and started timing. I was surprised at the level of pain I was in this early in labor. For some reason I thought my labor would be more progressive than immediate and it kind of freaked me out a little bit. The only way I could handle the pain was in the wide leg frog position while rocking back and forth - thank you prenatal yoga! At about 3:30am my contractions were timed about 4 minutes apart for an hour lasting about a minute each. 411! I was aiming for 311 like we had learned in the "Must have Tools for Labor" class. I managed to eat a few bites of applesauce for "energy" right before we left although eating was the last thing on my mind.
We checked into the triage room at Sutter Roseville and I was told I was at a "tight 3" which I was surprised and disappointed in since I expected my pain level to equal my dilation level. While in triage my contractions got increasingly stronger and closer together to the point that I was gripping the bed, gritting my teeth and asking (aka begging) to be checked in. Instead of 4 minutes apart they were now 2 minutes apart and my pain level was HIGH (at least in my book). Thankfully I was admitted.
We checked into the triage room at Sutter Roseville and I was told I was at a "tight 3" which I was surprised and disappointed in since I expected my pain level to equal my dilation level. While in triage my contractions got increasingly stronger and closer together to the point that I was gripping the bed, gritting my teeth and asking (aka begging) to be checked in. Instead of 4 minutes apart they were now 2 minutes apart and my pain level was HIGH (at least in my book). Thankfully I was admitted.
While walking from triage to the labor room she asked if I was opting for a natural or epidural labor. At this point both my husband and I both yelled out epidural!!! I labored in my room while they got me set up for the IV. My contractions sped up immensely even more than before and instead of 2 minutes apart they were now an excruciating 30 seconds apart offering me no relief between them. I barely had time to breathe through one contraction and do a cleansing breath before another one started - that was painful!!! 3 Hee's and a Who helped me get through those last rough contractions. When the anesthesiologist came in he asked the nurse if I was in 'transition' since I was shaking so much but she said she hadn't checked me again since triage and she would check again after the epi was administered. In my heart I was sad that I couldn't labor naturally for longer than 3 centimeters but the pain was too intense. HOWEVER, once my epi was in I was checked again and instead of a 3 cen I was at a solid 8 CENTIMETERS and she mentioned she could feel hair since he was so low. Say what?? I was shocked, happy and relieved at the same time. I'm pretty sure I yelled out something like "I knew I could do better than a 3"! Since arriving to the hospital in triage and checking into the labor room only 2.5 hours had gone by and I had gone from a tight 3 to a solid 8, talk about super speed labor!
After the epi was in, I rested for about 2 more hours and tried to nap to get my energy ready for pushing. I was told to 'get the nurse' once I felt rectal pressure but I was pretty numb and couldn't feel much. By the time my nurse rechecked me again at 8:00am I was at a 10, ready to go! Can't forget to mention that the fluids they were pumping me with made me feel super nauseous and I unfortunately threw up quite a bit. Secretly I was really happy that it all happened BEFORE I started pushing and that it was all out of my system. Could you imagine throwing up while pushing - not ok! My nurse mentioned that since he was so low that it wouldn't take me long to push at all which I think mentally helped me. I took a look at the clock and told myself I was going to do this in under an hour no excuses. It took a bit of practice learning how to push 'down' rather than with my abs, but once I was able to feel the pressure of my contraction I used that pressure to push and made awesome progress. I could literally feel him moving down through the canal and it was such great motivation for me. 40 minutes later mister Miles was born into this world at 9:41am - under an hour, yes! Towards the very end of pushing when only his head was out my husband heard my doctor call for NICU because his shoulder ended up getting caught at my pelvis. According to my doctor "due to my great pushing" he popped right outta there and NICU was cancelled, phew. I had a slight fever after laboring, therefore so did Miles but we were both back to normal that night.
Our nurses in post partum were amazing. I have so much respect for the staff at Sutter Roseville and felt so good about my entire delivery and stay. It was an amazing adventure I will never forget and feel so grateful that both my husband and I prepared ourselves with the labor classes to make our delivery smooth and efficient. Now we are just loving on this little boy and seriously spend so much of our day in awe that he is finally here and in our arms. We feel so lucky, so blessed and so very happy!!!!
After the epi was in, I rested for about 2 more hours and tried to nap to get my energy ready for pushing. I was told to 'get the nurse' once I felt rectal pressure but I was pretty numb and couldn't feel much. By the time my nurse rechecked me again at 8:00am I was at a 10, ready to go! Can't forget to mention that the fluids they were pumping me with made me feel super nauseous and I unfortunately threw up quite a bit. Secretly I was really happy that it all happened BEFORE I started pushing and that it was all out of my system. Could you imagine throwing up while pushing - not ok! My nurse mentioned that since he was so low that it wouldn't take me long to push at all which I think mentally helped me. I took a look at the clock and told myself I was going to do this in under an hour no excuses. It took a bit of practice learning how to push 'down' rather than with my abs, but once I was able to feel the pressure of my contraction I used that pressure to push and made awesome progress. I could literally feel him moving down through the canal and it was such great motivation for me. 40 minutes later mister Miles was born into this world at 9:41am - under an hour, yes! Towards the very end of pushing when only his head was out my husband heard my doctor call for NICU because his shoulder ended up getting caught at my pelvis. According to my doctor "due to my great pushing" he popped right outta there and NICU was cancelled, phew. I had a slight fever after laboring, therefore so did Miles but we were both back to normal that night.
Our nurses in post partum were amazing. I have so much respect for the staff at Sutter Roseville and felt so good about my entire delivery and stay. It was an amazing adventure I will never forget and feel so grateful that both my husband and I prepared ourselves with the labor classes to make our delivery smooth and efficient. Now we are just loving on this little boy and seriously spend so much of our day in awe that he is finally here and in our arms. We feel so lucky, so blessed and so very happy!!!!
Happy BIRTHday Miles, Mommy and Daddy love you so so much!
3 comments:
Aww! I've been dying to hear all the details about how your little Angel came into the world. I love that you gave a detailed description, I feel like I was there. I haven't heard many stories about childbirth from people that I know, but I am glad to hear yours went so well. That inspires me to be really prepared when Rob and I finally decide to start a family of our own. So happy for you and Gregg! Congrats, I hope you get a lot of time to cherish him :)
So thrilled to read about how it all went!! I just can't wait to see the three of you:) Keep the updates coming!!
awwwwww so awesome!!! loved reading... sounds like you did GREAT! PS... throwing up totally normal - I did too, twice. It's your body's way of responding to the GNARLY hormonal freak-out that you were experience prepping to push out a human! hahaha Anyway Bammie, hope you're all doing well and can't wait for more bloggy updates!! xoxo
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