Ethan's Birth Story
Submitted by ceah_84
Ethan's birth story begins at week 35 when we had our routine ultrasound to measure/estimate his birth weight. The scan went great ... or so we thought. The tech was sweet, asking us about the nursery, if we had picked a name (we didn't know the gender) and things like that. As we were packing up to leave, she kindly asked us to stay in the waiting room and she would send out a copy of the report with us. At the time, I wasn't sure why, but we took it and left.
Within two hours of leaving that office, our OB called to inform us that we needed to go STRAIGHT to the hospital. We were scared but were assured that they just needed a better machine to look at baby. We did as we were told!!
This is when we found out baby was measuring extremely small for his age and I needed to get as much rest as possible. SO I DID!! For the next seven days, I was in and out of the OB's office and hospital getting NST and in-depth ultrasounds. Things were looking great, the OB told me that as long as I wasn't in pain or leaking fluid, we would keep this up as long as possible.
The morning of week 36, I was great ... relaxing, watching TV, eating nonstop to fatten up baby. Round noon, phone rings, I get up and I feel a little leak ... I think OK, it was bound to start ... BLADDER PROBLEMS. I relieve myself and continue watching TV. Next time I stand, same thing. I think to myself, OK, maybe something else is going on. By dinner, I have freaked myself out so much I get my friend to take me to the hospital.
After the nurse assessed me, she said the test to determine your water breaking wasn't positive so she'd have the doc look at me and we would go from there. Two hours go by and he FINALLY comes in! He quickly checks the chart, checks my dilation (1 cm) and tells me (this is when it gets exciting!!!) "I have seven beds and nine women labouring ... and now YOU! If you say your water broke, I guess it did! Walk the halls till I have a room for you and we'll deliver this baby!
So that is what I did. Walked the halls till midnight (still 1 cm/no contractions). Oh, before I forget, the doctor also said (an hour or so into my marathon walk), "Oh, you're still here ... I'm tired so you'd better keep your legs closed till 8 AM when I go home"!!
At midnight I finally got a room. They hook me to an IV and tell me to sleep. 2 AM comes around they wake me to say induction is starting. Here is your first PICT ... we will slowly increase the amount till morning and see how that works. 8 AM came and went and I felt NOTHING!!!
At 10 AM, a new doc/resident arrived to assess my progress. 2 cm and some contractions but I don't feel a thing. They notice on checking dilation that its HARD ... implying that my water has broken and baby's head is just plugging things up! He just decided to test if it REALLY is the baby's head or we are just imagining things. But he promised that he would be gentle and wouldn't break my water. They were thinking that it wasn't due to the LACK of labour. WHOOPS ... guess you aren't going home ... as my bed fills with water. ;(
By noon, I felt some slight pain but nothing I couldn't handle. 3 PM rolls around and I am slowly getting uncomfortable! By 6 PM, they check my progress AGAIN ... still 2 cm!! LAME! Now I get the C-section talk!! They explain that I've been on the highest dose and nothing is happening, they want to see where I am at shift change. If I'm NOT at 4 cm, I am heading down the hall. BOOOO!
At 11 PM, they checked me again. The resident came toward my head and said, "Give me a high 5, I just pushed you to 4 cm. See you at 8 AM and we'll have a baby by lunch tomorrow!!!
I'm thinking, YAY!!! I really didn't want to get cut open. They offer me an epidural and I passed on it cuz I wanted to see how far I could get without it.
Five mins later my pain went from a 5 to 20!! I thought to myself, I can't survive the night with this pain and NOT have a baby. So I ask for the epidural ... luckily, the doctor was circling the ward and I was the only laboring mom and he was BORED!!
They tell me to stand up, strech, then sit down, and we can get the show on the road. I stand up ... baby DROPS as I sit down. I am basically on his head. Thankfully, he got it on the first shot and I was laying back down within a minute or two. Two contractions later (by this point it seemed like they NEVER stopped), I said, "WOW I need to push!" They all laughed and carried on with what they were doing.
One more contraction came ... I INSISTED they check (somehow very calm through the pain and madness). They check 6 cm and plus 1 effaced. By the time she had time to write in my chart, I shouted, "I'm pushing an I can't stop." Checks again. Nurse says, "IT'S GO TIME!"
Seven pushes later, I delivered my 5-lb., 2-oz. baby boy Ethan!
Epidural didn't take ANY effect till he was 15 mins old.
So quick breakdown:
11 PM: 4 cm, 60 percent effaced
11:15 PM: 6 cm and plus 1, then 10 cm and GO TIME within a min or two
11:21 PM: Completely delivered. Placenta was less then 5 mins later.
All natural, no pain meds. If I knew I would deliver in 30 mins, I wouldn't have bothered with the epidural. Next time, I am soooo doing it meds-free ... I'm a warrior!!!
Read more birth stories or share YOUR birth story now!
Within two hours of leaving that office, our OB called to inform us that we needed to go STRAIGHT to the hospital. We were scared but were assured that they just needed a better machine to look at baby. We did as we were told!!
This is when we found out baby was measuring extremely small for his age and I needed to get as much rest as possible. SO I DID!! For the next seven days, I was in and out of the OB's office and hospital getting NST and in-depth ultrasounds. Things were looking great, the OB told me that as long as I wasn't in pain or leaking fluid, we would keep this up as long as possible.
The morning of week 36, I was great ... relaxing, watching TV, eating nonstop to fatten up baby. Round noon, phone rings, I get up and I feel a little leak ... I think OK, it was bound to start ... BLADDER PROBLEMS. I relieve myself and continue watching TV. Next time I stand, same thing. I think to myself, OK, maybe something else is going on. By dinner, I have freaked myself out so much I get my friend to take me to the hospital.
After the nurse assessed me, she said the test to determine your water breaking wasn't positive so she'd have the doc look at me and we would go from there. Two hours go by and he FINALLY comes in! He quickly checks the chart, checks my dilation (1 cm) and tells me (this is when it gets exciting!!!) "I have seven beds and nine women labouring ... and now YOU! If you say your water broke, I guess it did! Walk the halls till I have a room for you and we'll deliver this baby!
So that is what I did. Walked the halls till midnight (still 1 cm/no contractions). Oh, before I forget, the doctor also said (an hour or so into my marathon walk), "Oh, you're still here ... I'm tired so you'd better keep your legs closed till 8 AM when I go home"!!
At midnight I finally got a room. They hook me to an IV and tell me to sleep. 2 AM comes around they wake me to say induction is starting. Here is your first PICT ... we will slowly increase the amount till morning and see how that works. 8 AM came and went and I felt NOTHING!!!
At 10 AM, a new doc/resident arrived to assess my progress. 2 cm and some contractions but I don't feel a thing. They notice on checking dilation that its HARD ... implying that my water has broken and baby's head is just plugging things up! He just decided to test if it REALLY is the baby's head or we are just imagining things. But he promised that he would be gentle and wouldn't break my water. They were thinking that it wasn't due to the LACK of labour. WHOOPS ... guess you aren't going home ... as my bed fills with water. ;(
By noon, I felt some slight pain but nothing I couldn't handle. 3 PM rolls around and I am slowly getting uncomfortable! By 6 PM, they check my progress AGAIN ... still 2 cm!! LAME! Now I get the C-section talk!! They explain that I've been on the highest dose and nothing is happening, they want to see where I am at shift change. If I'm NOT at 4 cm, I am heading down the hall. BOOOO!
At 11 PM, they checked me again. The resident came toward my head and said, "Give me a high 5, I just pushed you to 4 cm. See you at 8 AM and we'll have a baby by lunch tomorrow!!!
I'm thinking, YAY!!! I really didn't want to get cut open. They offer me an epidural and I passed on it cuz I wanted to see how far I could get without it.
Five mins later my pain went from a 5 to 20!! I thought to myself, I can't survive the night with this pain and NOT have a baby. So I ask for the epidural ... luckily, the doctor was circling the ward and I was the only laboring mom and he was BORED!!
They tell me to stand up, strech, then sit down, and we can get the show on the road. I stand up ... baby DROPS as I sit down. I am basically on his head. Thankfully, he got it on the first shot and I was laying back down within a minute or two. Two contractions later (by this point it seemed like they NEVER stopped), I said, "WOW I need to push!" They all laughed and carried on with what they were doing.
One more contraction came ... I INSISTED they check (somehow very calm through the pain and madness). They check 6 cm and plus 1 effaced. By the time she had time to write in my chart, I shouted, "I'm pushing an I can't stop." Checks again. Nurse says, "IT'S GO TIME!"
Seven pushes later, I delivered my 5-lb., 2-oz. baby boy Ethan!
Epidural didn't take ANY effect till he was 15 mins old.
So quick breakdown:
11 PM: 4 cm, 60 percent effaced
11:15 PM: 6 cm and plus 1, then 10 cm and GO TIME within a min or two
11:21 PM: Completely delivered. Placenta was less then 5 mins later.
All natural, no pain meds. If I knew I would deliver in 30 mins, I wouldn't have bothered with the epidural. Next time, I am soooo doing it meds-free ... I'm a warrior!!!
Read more birth stories or share YOUR birth story now!
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