Post your Birth Stories!!

Jennifer - posted on 02/03/2011

My second child was born this past September. I chose a home birth with him to try and avoid some of the trauma from my daughter's birth:

Our birth story probably actually begins Monday evening, September 13 around 10:30PM. This was the first night I had anything that I could consider to be "real" pressure waves. Instead of the annoying tightening all over my belly, I started having what I would describe as period-like cramping in the very bottom of my abdomen. The cramps would build up and then fade away. It was nothing I'd even call painful, just different. I started timing just out of curiosity and had 3 that were 12 minutes apart, followed by 2 more at 10 minutes apart. Then they faded away and I drifted off to sleep.

I had also been walking around with pretty severe backache for several days by this point. I'd sit at my desk at work with a roll of stickers between the small of my back and the back of my chair to try and counter the pain. The backaches were pretty constant though, no matter what I did to try and remedy them. Tuesday night at bedtime, I noticed some new discharge when I went to the bathroom that resembled snot. I didn't want to get too excited and brushed it off as nothing. Wednesday morning though, I had some additional snot-like mucuous -- this time it was blood-tinged. I knew then that it had to be part of my mucuous plug and bloody show, and I couldn't help but get a bit excited. I sent my husband, Scott, a text message at work about it. He told me he had to ask some of the women he worked with what the mucous plug and bloody show were, but that every woman he talked to was absolutely convinced that labor was imminent. He tried to convince me to go home to rest, but I knew that the mucuous plug can regenerate and that it could still be quite some time before labor would begin. I stuck out the rest of the day at work with no other incident. I even stayed a bit later to get some extra things out of the way and went to fill up my gas tank, because Thursday evening we had another prenatal appointment scheduled with our midwife, Pam, and I knew I wouldn't have time between work Thursday evening and the appointment to fill up.

I got home shortly before 6PM, intending to make eggs for dinner as I did weekly. I ran to the bathroom and while in there, I had another "real" pressure wave. This time, however, I finally considered it to be painful. I let Scott know that plans had changed and asked him to fix my daughter, Maia, something simple for dinner and then went into the bedroom to lay down. Scott followed me in and asked me what was going on. I told him I thought I had just had a real pressure wave and that this might be it for real this time. We began to time waves and they were coming at regular intervals of 7 minutes. I decided to take a shower and it helped to dull the discomfort a bit. When I got out, I went back into the bedroom to rest a bit. My mom called at that point and I let her know I thought I was in labor. She asked about how far apart pressure waves were and how painful I thought they were and then urged me to call Pam.

I put in my first call to Pam at 6:30PM. Her husband answered the phone and said that she had forgotten her phone when she left the house. He asked for my name and said he would get a hold of her for me. After I got off the phone with Pam's husband, I decided to try a bath. Scott put on my Hynobabies "Fear Clearing" CD and I sat in the tub for about 10 minutes. I found that I was very uncomfortable in the shallow water though, and very quickly got out and returned to bed to wait for Pam to call. By 7PM, I still hadn't heard from her so I tried her phone twice with no answer. Somewhere in all of this, I also managed to let my sister, Kelly, and my pastor's wife, Cindy, know that I was in labor. My sister thought I was kidding as she was at work and wanted to be present for the birth. She tried to get someone to cover for her, and had actually found someone to do so, but my mom forbid her to make the hour or so drive in the dark due to her night blindness. Cindy asked us to contact her when things really picked up so she could get some sleep.

At 7:20, I called Pam's phone one more time and her husband answered again. I asked if he had gotten in touch with Pam yet and he said he had. I let him know that I thought I was in labor and he told me he would contact Pam again. She called from another phone at 7:30PM. I told her that my pressure waves were 6 - 7 minutes apart for the past hour and a half and that they were lasting about 40 seconds. Pam asked if I was able to walk or talk through them, and I told her that I felt as if I was having to concentrate through them as I was having them in my back and front simultaneously and also mentioned that I was stooling between every other contraction, so my body was definitely trying to clear itself out at that point. She told me that she was in West Bend (about 45 minutes from where she lives), but was heading back to Fond du Lac (another 45 minutes from us) to get her supplies and would be to me as soon as she could. I jumped back in the shower afterward while Scott got the bed ready with plastic and our birthing sheets and then I laid on my side in bed with a heating pad pressed to my back.

By this point, I was having to use focused breathing to get through the waves. When Scott was in the room, he would massage my back while I breathed. When he was out of the room attending to Maia or other things, I'd do my best to massage my own back through the heating pad during pressure waves. Scott put Maia to bed and then he came to lay with me and massage my back. The pressure waves were gradually picking up in intensity and coming closer together, but I managed to stay calm and somewhat relaxed through them all.

Pam arrived at the house at around 9:15PM. She checked the baby's heart tones through a pressure wave and found that he was holding steady in the 120's. She also asked if she could check my cervix and found that my inner os was dilated to 1.5 cm and paper thin, the outer os was dilated to 5 cm and that baby was sitting at 0 station. Then she and Scott got started setting up the birth pool. Scott would come in to check on me occassionally and help to massage my back through another wave. I remember that I was dozing off between waves by this point and only waking long enough to breath through the peaks. I was tired as I'd been up since 7AM that morning and hadn't had anything to eat or much to drink since 3:30PM that afternoon. The pool took awhile to fill as the water heater had to refill in between. Pam came in to check the baby's heart tones through a pressure wave about once an hour and Scott also mentioned to me that Pam was sleeping on the sofa between monitoring and while waiting to add more water to the tub.

I think it was after midnight sometime when I was told that the tub was full and they were just waiting for it to cool enough for me to get into it. My pressure waves were coming every 4 minutes or so at this point and were at the most intense that I remember them getting, although they were still bearable enough for me to simply breathe through and try my best to keep my body relaxed, which I found helped to keep them less painful if I didn't fight them or tense up. We thought I had quite awhile to go yet, but apparently we were wrong.

Just before 1AM, my pressure waves suddenly changed directions. I began to involuntarily bare down and my water bag broke across the bed. All plans for using the birthing tub were pushed aside. I began loudly insisting that I felt like I needed to have a bowel movement. Pam assured me that I probably didn't need to, that it was my baby getting ready to come out. She checked me in between pressure waves and found that I had a bit of a cervical lip left over. She told me she didn't really want me to push. However, when the next wave came, my body again began to bare down without any help from me. It was next to impossible to fight it and I remember loudly letting Scott and Pam know this. Pam told me that if that's what my body was telling me to do, then I should allow it.

The pushing pressure waves were far less painful than the waves I'd been having all night, and it actually felt like a relief to be able to push. I continued to push on my side with one foot on Pam's shoulder for 10 or 15 minutes. Pam told me to change positions if my body told me to do so and I told her I thought I'd like to try pushing on my hands and knees. I got up on my hands and knees and felt like it was much more effective. With the next push, Pam told me she could tell I was doing the right thing by being in that position.

Around this time, I told Scott to go and get Maia out of bed. Things had changed pace so quickly, I hadn't had the chance to call Cindy to have her come over, but I decided to have Maia come down anyway. Scott brought Maia down, but she seemed a bit confused and disoriented, so she went to sit in the living room. I continued to push on my hands and knees. Pam and Scott began telling me to push gently; the baby was coming. Controlling the pushes was tough, but I apparently managed to do it. Next thing I knew, as I roared the baby into the world (I least I felt like I was roaring -- Pam insisted I made nothing louder than normal birth sounds) I was told that the head was out, then the body. At 1:30AM sharp, Scott got to catch our baby, with right hand crossed over left shoulder and tucked under the chin. Scott is all about bragging up the awesome priviledge of catching his own child now. I heard a nice, strong cry almost immediately. Then, Scott passed the baby through my legs to me and Pam and Scott helped me to lay back on the bed. APGAR scores were 9 and 9.

I didn't even immediately think to check the sex as I was so in awe that I had actually done it. I had my home birth. I did it drug free. And I was surrounded by the people I loved. After a many second delay, I looked and discovered that I had given birth to a beautiful, perfect son. Scott and I had come to the agreement that I would be able to name a boy and he would name a girl. So I gave him his name, Eli Robert James, and cuddled him close. My placenta delivered at 1:37PM and sat in a glass bowl next to my leg as the cord remained attached to my beautiful boy. Scott went into the living room to get Maia and she still wouldn't come into the room due to the blood that was on the chux pads beneath me. Pam took care of that and covered me up so the blood couldn't be seen, and then Maia finally came to meet her new baby brother. She seemed afraid to touch him at first, but she was smiling and clearly proud to be a big sister.

Due to some excessive bleeding, Pam decided to give me a shot of pitocin. This wasn't particularly surprising as I recall some excessive bleeding with Maia's birth as well. We nursed for the first time around 2:00AM. I was surprised at how strong his latch was and so happy to see him alert and looking at me while he ate his first meal on the outside. Eli remained attached to his placenta until around this time. Pam wanted to be entirely sure it had stopped pulsing before cutting it. Once she was certain that all of the pulsing had stopped, she clamped the cord and Scott got to cut him free.

Eli was not taken from my chest for 2 hours. We spent the first hours of his life cuddling, and nursing, and getting to know eachother. During this time, I also received a second shot of pitocin, because I was still bleeding more than Pam liked. She cleaned me up, finding that I did have a small tear; however, she thought that we might be able to get away with allowing the tissue to heal on its own. She then took Eli from me to check his reflexes and get him weighed and measured. All of his reflexes were present. He weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 inches long. He had a 35 centimeter head and a 34 centimeter chest.

After measurements had been taken, Pam decided it was time for me to try and use the bathroom. Scott and Pam tried several times to stand me up, but I was far too light-headed from the blood loss. Pam checked more closely and discovered that the small tear was actually accompanied by a burst hematoma and it was found that this was likely the actual cause of the excessive bleeding. She decided to catheterize me first to empty my bladder since I was too dizzy to walk to the bathroom and couldn't convince my body to urinate on a towel that Pam had rolled between my legs. Afterward she stitched me up -- 4 stitches in all, but overall pretty minor. Pam didn't leave until after 7AM, when she was sure it was safe to do so. She promised to be back that evening to check on us and left me with an encouraging hug.

The birth of my son, Eli, was a healing experience for me. Maia's birth 6 years earlier had been very traumatic. Having my second child in the comfort and peace of my own home with only my husband and my guardian in attendance was exactly what I needed to move on and stop blaming myself for all of the things that had gone wrong the first time around. God's hand was truly on me throughout this pregnancy and birth. Praises to Him for the blessings I have received in the form of my beautiful son, Eli, the never-ending support of my husband, Scott, and the guardian angel and dear friend we have found in our midwife, Pam.

Jennifer - posted on 02/03/2011

My first child was born in 2004 when I was 18 (You'll totally be able to see that when you read the birth story -- it's painful to think I talked the way I did in there). Although at the time, I was just happy that she was born safely, over time the more I thought about the things that happened with her birth, the more traumatizing things were for me emotionally:



So on June 8th, I arrived at the hospital with my mom at about 6:50 AM. I was tired as hell cuz I really hadn't slept for shit the night before and I was really nervous. I even cried before I left home and my dad had to console me and tell me that everything would be fine. haha. Pregnancy hormones are so great! Anyway... I was preregistered at the hospital, so I just had to tell the people at the desk that I had arrived and they gave me my hospital bracelet and escorted me to Labor & Delivery. Right away, they took me to my birthing room. These rooms are HUGE and they are so nice. They've got an inviting environment so it isn't quite so intimidating. When I got to my room, I was given my hospital gown and then told that my doctor prefers that his patients receive an enema. That was pretty gross, but I can definitely understand why he'd want that. I wouldn't want my patients pooping on the table either. lol. The nurse on call did my medical history and then I got into bed and was hooked up to a fetal heartrate monitor and one to monitor my contractions. Then the waiting game began.

At around 8:00, the good doctor came in and broke my water after he checked my cervix. I was at 3 cm. That was definitely weird. I felt like I'd peed myself and I couldn't stop. The nurse gave me this HUMONGOUS pad to wear and when I got up to go to the bathroom to put it on, I leaked water everywhere. It was embarrassing as all hell. She didn't tell me that was going to happen! lol. I figured since they made me sit there for awhile that I had drained most of the fluid. Bleh. I soaked my socks and made a mess of the floor. My mom wanted me to walk the hallways but I kept feeling like I was going to leak out the sides of the pad, so I stayed in the bathroom for awhile just to "leak." Very interesting, let me tell you. I did end up walking for about 10 minutes, but that gets dull very fast. There's only so many places you can go when you can't leave the unit.

When I got back from walking, I got back into bed and they hooked me back up to the monitors. I was starting to feel the contractions, but they were pretty mild yet, so I was comfortable. The doctor came back at 9:00 to check my progress and my contractions were 7 minutes apart. He said he wanted to speed things up a bit, so he inserted this little capsule into my cervix saying it would cut labor in half. That was pretty uncomfortable, but oh well. I had to stay in bed for 20 minutes after that so it could take effect. I got out of bed after 20 minutes to go to the bathroom and to walk around some more, but I wasn't out of the room very long because it wasn't long before my contractions started coming 2 - 3 minutes apart. They were very intense and all in my back. I hardly felt anything up front at all. My mom was massaging my back and pushing inward on my hips to try and relieve the pain, but it only worked between contractions. I tried a number of different positions and I found that the one that worked the most was kneeling on the bed with my head down and my butt up in the air. I don't know why, but I layed like that for over an hour. lol. My mom and Chon kept taking turns on my back and Chon's mom, Carmen, just rubbed my hands and tried to soothe me. After awhile, nothing was helping anymore and with each contraction I was just crying and tryiing to focus on my breathing. I think I would've been fine had the contractions not been in my back, but this was some intense shit. I even got sick at one point and threw up all the Jello I'd had that morning.

The nurse kept asking me over and over if I wanted anything for the pain and I kept on refusing. I realy did want to do it naturally, but at 11:00, when she asked again, I was just miserable and I relented. I still refused the epidural and so she talked me into a cervical block. She called the doctor and checked my cervix. I was at 5 cm at this point. The doctor got there 5 minutes later and he whipped out this freaking HUGE needle. I almost passed out, but my mom assured me I wouldn't feel a thing. He stuck me with the needle (I think) 4 times total and I never felt it. I was very happy and I was able to sleep until nearly 12:00 after that because I couldn't feel the contractions at all. I woke up as the block began to wear off, but I was only feeling the contractions in my right side. My left was still numbed. I was in a lot of pain by 12:30 and the nurse checked my cervix again. I was shocked to hear that at that point I was already 9 cm dilated. So they called the doctor back to administer another block and then he asked me to give him a push. When I did, the baby's head slipped back away from the cervix so he told me to just rest for a few minutes. He went to go get prepped, they broke the bed down, and one of the nurses started me on oxygen. I started pushing regularly at about 1:00 PM. The nurses were telling me when to push since I was numbed again and I couldn't feel when I was contracting. They told me I was doing a great job and I was pushing really hard. The doctor was telling jokes between contractions and I was really happy about that. He made me laugh and made me feel more at ease. I love my doctor. He's seriously awesome. But after 15 minutes or so, they stopped me and the doctor asked me if he could help me out. Maia's heartrate was dropping into the 90's with every contraction and he was worried that she might be in distress. So of course I told him he could as long as it wouldn't hurt Maia. They got out the vaccuum pump and started using that with each contraction. He thought she'd be out in one push but the pump kept coming off of her head. After the third time it came off, he got off of the stool he was sitting on, kicked it backward and pulled with all of his might. Two nurses were pushing on my stomach with what felt like their full weight cuz it hurt like hell. lol. It took 4 or 5 tries to get her out, but eventually I saw her head between my legs. At 1:32 PM, 7 lb 3 oz, 20 in Maia was born. They put Maia on my tummy and all I could do was bawl my eyes out. I didn't even feel it when they gave me a shot in the hip to help with the bleeding.

The doctor delivered what he called "the big ugly" which was actually my placenta and then he stitched me up. I had had an episiotomy and I had never even realized it until he started with the stitches. lol. He kept asking me questions and telling me how well I had done, but I was hardly listening because I was busy watching the nurses with Maia across the room. Her APGARs were 9 and 10. I was in awe... seriously. I have never been so happy in my life. :o) Before he left the room, the doctor congratulated me and told me I'd done great before he tweaked me on the nose and told me he'd see me the next day to check up on me. Then I got to nurse Maia for the first time and that was awkward but wonderful. It was the first time I got to truly bond with my little girl.

Candi - posted on 02/02/2011

My due date was February 8th 2009 but I didnt end up having Amaya until February 12th. My mucus plug fell out on the 6th and I went to the hospital the morning of my due date and I was still at 0 cm and they sent me home after making sure everything was ok and I was hydrated again because they said I was dehydrated. So I went to my obgyn on the 10th and she wanted to go in that night to be induced to have Amaya because I had very little bit of amniotic fluid and only had enough left to go that night if possible, but MetroWest had no free rooms so they told my obgyn to have me call at 7:15 the next morning and they would tell me what time to go in at. After leaving that appointment Anthony and I were so excited that we got NO sleep that night. So I called the hospital at about 730 and they told us that we could go right up. So we got everything together called everyone my parents, and sister and Anthony's sister to tell them that we were going to the hospital to have Amaya. So we left his parents house and went to Dunkies to get food and drinks because I couldnt eat once I got to the hospital :(. I drove my self to the hospital and we were so excited that we were going to meet Amaya that day. We got to the hospital around 8:30 and started my pictosin around 9 and I was still at 0 cm. Then I started to have contractions about 10 maybe I dont remember what time they started because I was in and out of sleep. Then around noon they started getting really bad and I was only 2cm and the nurse I had gave me some medicine that was suppose to help with the contractions because it was too early for my epidural. Then from then on I was still in and out of sleep. Then about 3-4 my parents got there and then at 430 the nurse called my obgyn who was on her way to the hospital to see if I could have my epidural before she got there because the pain was so bad. And I was giving the ok from her and it didnt come quick enough lol. Once she got there I was only 4cm and that was at 5. Then after she checked me I remember talking to my parents for a few minutes before Anthony and I both passed out for a bit. At about 10 the night of the 11th I was finally 10 cm and started pushing, I couldnt even feel any contractions and the nurses told me that I should have been feeling the strong ones but I wasnt. I pushed for an hour and then took a break because I was in excruciating pain, from the pressure not the contractions then I pushed for like 5 minutes, then my obgyn looked at my mom and said she couldnt see me in that much pain any longer because Amaya wasnt dropping and I was screaming so she told my mom she was doing a c-section and I signed and Anthony was givin scrubs and I was off. That was at 12:30 and I delivered her at 1:05am and the 12th. Then about 30 minutes later I got to hold Amaya for the first time once I was stitched up and cleaned up. They took her out of the operating room to go do all the checks, put her on the warming table for literally 5 seconds and told Anthony she was perfect and didnt have to be on there, they gave her a bath or washed her off and what ever else they did then handed her to Anthony and said she was all set and they went back to our room where I was waiting. I was so happy that she was finally here and all drugged up at the same time and all I wanted was food but still couldnt have any until the next morning because I had a c-section. Then my wonderful life as a mom started and I would have it any other way. I felt great after going into my recovery room even though I just had a major operation. I was more nervious to do anything because I was afraid something was going to happen. Then the day we were suppose to leave something no parent ever wants to hear, we sent Amaya to the nursery for the night so we could get one last full nights sleep (that was only the second time we sent her all other nights she was with us, I cried both times we sent her but we had to because we both were psychically drained and the nurses told us to send her) then the nurse came in our room at about 630 to give my more pain meds and to tell me that Amaya was rushed to the NICU because she stopped breathing while they were feeding her. My heart sunk into my stomach and looked like I seem a ghost. I was in so much shock that it took me a few minutes to wake Anthony up and tell him. We werent able to go see her for about an hour and half because they were running all these tests on her. After a long stressful day and after being told that we may not be able to bring her home that night, we were able to leave about 5 with Amaya. And to this day I have NO PAIN what so ever where i had my c-section no numbness no nothing. I dont even feel like I had a c-section until I look down and see my little scar. Over all I dont remember my labor being that bad. We had such a great hospital stay and the nurses and staff were all amazing that I would do it all over again if I wanted more kids right now but we love just having Amaya and spoiling her.

(I said names because we know you) Sorry its so long but I started from the beginning like you did in your posts.

Nikki - posted on 02/03/2010

hello, i have an 8 month old son he was born may 31st 2009. i went to the hospital at 2:30 am with contractions 2 minutes apart. I sat in what they called the observation room until 7 am. My original plan was to have my birth natural. i made it until about 5 pm and at that time i reached 9 1/2 centimeters and thats when i decided i couldn't take the pain anymore so i asked for an epidural and now i am surprised that they gave it to me so close to ten. but after the epidural i was feeling really good...i didn't even feel them give me the epidural. any way after i reached ten they had told me to push and about 3 pushes later my son Andrew was born! It was very painful but all worth it. I almost fell asleep in between pushes...I was so outta it. lol. Andrew is my first child and I absolutely love being a mom. he is such the best baby ever!