Shaina's Story- 9 lbs., 14 oz.- Hospital

9 lbs., 14 oz.

22.5 inches long

39 cm. head

Hospital

Mother's Height: 5' 6''

How was your pregnancy?

Very normal, no complications. A little swelling the last 3 weeks.

How did you feel about your upcoming birth?

At first I was scared, but I did Hypnobabies, which took away all of my fears. I knew I was going to have a big baby because big babies run in my family and all of the docs told me she was going to be big.

Description of your birth experience: I will post the long version after these questions, but here is the short version- I was planning a homebirth, but the day before I was due I woke up and I was bleeding, but I was not in labor. The bleeding continued throughout the morning and I still wasn't in labor and the bleeding was getting worse. I went to my doc and he could not find a reason why I was bleeding and confirmed I was not in labor or having any contractions, so he sent me to the hospital. At the hospital, the doc there wanted to do a c-section. I told her I needed to think about it and by the time she came back I was in labor. She said "let mother nature take its course." With a few more hiccups and 32 hours later I gave birth to Calise. I had a second degree tear.

How did you feel after the birth (first month)?

I felt great. I felt almost 100% better. The first week was rough. I had really bad hemorrhoids, which I think, were the worst.

How did you feel six months after the birth? One year? Now?

My baby is 2 months old and I feel great. I am pretty much back to normal with the exception of my stretch marks.

What did you learn from this birth? To listen to my instincts. Although I was bleeding I "knew" everything was going to be ok. I was stubborn, but next time I will be more stubborn and stick to my guns and not let the doc do things I do not like

Any words of wisdom to impart? The only way to know if a baby "won't fit" is to try. Don't listen to the docs. Give your body a chance to do what it is supposed to do. Listen to your instincts and listen to your body.

Long version of Calise's Birth Story

I was planning a home birth, but ended up with a hospital birth. Here is the story.
 
 
Tuesday May 6, 2008
            I woke up that morning and was spotting.. I also had a really bad cold and was coughing all the time. I did not want to miss much work so I went to work anyway. Once I was at work my boss looked at me and sent me home. Because I was feeling so crappy I changed my prenatal appointment to later this day. At the doctor I asked about the spotting and he said it was probably from the cervix dilating or effacing. There are tiny blood vessels in the cervix that can pop and cause bleeding when effacing or dilating and since I wasn’t bleeding anymore it was not a big deal and I went home.  He said he would be concerned if I soaked a pad in an hour with blood; I had only been spotting. At this appointment I was 50% effaced and not dilated at all.
 
Wednesday May 7, 2008
            I was still feeling really crappy with the cold I had. The cough was awful. I stayed home from work and rested.
 
Thursday May 8, 2008
            I felt better so I went to work.
 
Friday May 9, 2008
            4am    
I woke up for work at 4am, as usual. I went to the bathroom and there was a lot of blood in the toilet. I remembered what the doctor said on Tuesday, so I figured I was probably in early labor. I put a maxi-pad on, I emailed my boss and told him that I still wasn’t feeling well so I was going to stay home from work, and I emailed my doula asking about the blood(there was a lot of blood so I was concerned). The blood was not mucusy, it was fresh blood. I went back to sleep until 8am(ish).
           
            8am(ish)
My doula called me back and told me that I should not be concerned and I was probably in early labor. I should still keep and eye on the bleeding and make sure it doesn’t get worse. I was still bleeding at that point. I still had to wear a maxi pad, it was like a light period.
           
            9:30am(ish)
I started bleeding heavier. At that point I had been bleeding for over five hours and it was getting worse. I was really concerned, so I called the doctor’s office. The doc wanted me to come in to get checked out. I was NOT in labor at this point. I was not having any contractions. I had slight menstrual-like cramps, but I have been have very light cramping on and off for a couple weeks now..
           
 
            10:45am(ish)
I got to the doctor’s office. He did an ultrasound to see if the bleeding was from the placenta. It was not. I did not have placenta previa and the placenta was still attatched and looking healthy. He did an internal. I was 50% effaced and not dilated. From the internal he could not find the reason I was bleeding. He then wanted to monitor me for contractions and the baby’s heart rate. He put the straps on me and monitored me for 15-20mins. I had one contraction; it was a Braxton-Hicks contraction. The baby’s heart rate was fine the whole time. He then gave me the bad news. He did not know why I was bleeding and was sending me to the hospital. I was no longer a candidate for a homebirth and I was probably going to be induced later in the day, possibly a c-section. I was upset I did NOT want to be induced, I did not want to have a c-section, and I did not want to go to the hospital. He told me that I could not drive myself there and I had to get someone to pick me up. I did not tell anyone about the bleeding or that I was going to the doctor’s office. I did not want anyone to worry. I thought the doctor was going to tell me that I was in early labor and to go back home and he would see me later.  I called my mom at work to come pick me up. It was going to be at least 30mins because of where my mom works. I was really hungry. I had barely eaten all day. I wanted to get food before I went to the hospital because I knew they wouldn’t let me eat there.  The doctor told me not to eat anything while I waited. I went to Portillo’s, which was next door to the doctor’s office, and I ate a vegetarian sandwich and fries. I got two huge bottles of water because I knew I needed to be hydrated. I knew I needed to eat and I knew I need water if I was going to be having this baby any time soon.
 
            12:30pm(ish)
My parents arrived to pick me up and take me to the hospital. They were very worried. The hospital was about an hour away. During that hour I had two or three contractions, but they all felt like Braxton-Hicks. I was very upset and didn’t want to talk to anyone. I just prayed and prayed that my body would go into labor.
 
            2pm(ish)
We get to the hospital and I check in. The nurse straps me up to the monitors and they monitor me for contractions and the baby’s heart rate. No contractions and heart rate was fine. The doctor comes in. She does an ultrasound. Again, the placenta is fine.. Now the problem is that the baby is presenting her chin, bad position for a natural childbirth. She also does an internal and finds that I am 50% efface and 1-2cm dilated and still bleeding pretty heavy. She does not know why I am bleeding. She then proceeds to suggest a c-section. She said my cervix is not favorable for induction because if I got induced I would probably end up with a c-section anyway and the baby was in a bad birthing position, so she recommends a c-section. I told her that I was going to need some time to think about it. To go from a homebirth to a c-section….that was scary. I definitely needed to think about it. She said ok and left the room. I got moved to a different room to continue to be monitored. I think it was a triage room.
 
            6pm(ish)
At that point my mom, my dad, my sister, and my doula were all at the hospital with me. My sister was kind enough to go to my apartment to make me an overnight bag since I was not prepared for a hospital stay. My mom then called my aunt and my brother to let them know I was at the hospital and the baby was probably coming this weekend. At this point I was I was still bleeding pretty heavy. I kept moving into different positions to get the baby to move to head presenting instead of chin presenting. They continued to monitor me. When they came to check my blood pressure it was a little high (140/100)ish. That was a concern for the doctor so they put a hep-lock in and drew blood. They thought for sure I was pre-eclapmtic because I was so swollen also. Later to find out that I was fine and my blood pressure was borderline high. The doctor didn’t want me walking too much because of my blood pressure. I kept asking the nurses to walk. I wanted to walk, so we compromised and I would walk for 15mins and lay down for an hour. So as time went on I walked, then laid down with my butt high in the air, then walked and kept doing this over and over. I was determined to get this baby in a better position. At one point during a walk I had blood running down my leg. I was still bleeding pretty heavy. A little while later I started having contractions on my own. YAY!!!! They were 5-10 mins apart, not lasting very long, but it was progress. The doc still had not come to see me yet, so I went to the nurses and told them that I was having contractions and I thought I was in labor.  I kept walking and doing different labor positions. I wanted to get things moving along. One of the nurses came in to do an internal. I was 2-3cm dilated.
 
            10pm(ish)
The doctor never came back. She told the nurse that since I was in labor on my own then we were going to “let mother nature take its course.” I was really happy to hear that.  No induction and no c-section for now.
 
Saturday May 10, 2008
            12am(ish)-8am(ish)
It was getting late. My mother had really long labors, so I figured I probably would too. My doula went home for the night and so did my dad. My mom and my sister stayed with me. The contractions were getting more intense, but stayed at about 5 minutes apart. They moved me to a real labor and delivery room. It was much nicer and much bigger. The beds were all uncomfortable, but at least there was more room. I took a shower. That shower felt soooo good. I labored all night. At one point my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart lasting 45 seconds. I think this was about the time the bleeding slowed down. It never stopped, but when it slowed down it was more like spotting.  While I labored I walked a lot. I felt the need to keep moving. I walked until I couldn’t walk anymore or got too bored of the hallways. Then I went back to my room. In my room they had a bathtub(normal size) with jets. I was alternating between going in the tub, walking, and laying on my side in bed. Laying on my side made the contractions more intense. I knew they were doing something if they were more intense.. Going in the tub made my contractions slow down. I was pretty tired, so going in the tub gave me the needed break to regain my energy. I pretty much was listening to my body and doing what my body told me to do and doing what felt right. At 8am the doctor came in to check on me. I was in the tub. She told me to keep up the good work and think positive thoughts. My dad arrived a little while later.
 
1pm(ish)
The doctor wanted the nurses to check my progress. So the nurse came in and did an internal. I was 3cm dilated with a bulging bag of water. I was not making much “progress.” I was scared that they would suggest pitocen so I kept walking and doing different laboring positions. The nurse only asked me one time if I needed medication for pain. I politely declined.  A little while later my brother, his girlfriend, and my aunt came. My aunt came first, then my brother and his girlfriend. They brought food.  I was told I wasn’t supposed to eat, but I did anyway. How was I going to keep my energy up if I wasn’t allowed food? It’s not like I ate a ton. I would just have a bite of a bagel here and there when I felt like I needed it. Again, I listened to my body and ate when I felt like I needed to. I drank a TON of water. I did NOT want an IV, so I made myself drink a ton of water whether I wanted to or not.  At one point during my labor I was walking thinking that I can’t go on. I was so tired. I didn’t know if I could do another couple hours of this. I wanted to give up. I was just exhausted. I then reminded myself WHY I wanted to do a natural childbirth and, to be quite honest, a needle in the spine never once appealed to me. I never spoke those out loud. I felt like I had to look strong to stay strong. No one ever knew I had doubts. 
 
            5pm(ish)
Everyone was exhausted. Everyone was tired. Mom was taking a nap in the waiting area and left me with my dad and my aunt. My dad did something that no one should ever do to a woman in labor.  He decided it would be a good idea to turn all the lights out in the labor and delivery room, pull out the mattress, and take a nap. Wouldn’t have been a big deal except he was snoring and took up a lot of space. How annoying! I kicked him out. Then after that I got naked and stayed naked. No more men in my room!
 
            6pm(ish)
The doctor came in and was concerned about my progress. She said that I had been in the hospital for over 24 hours now and was not progressing fast enough and they may need to use Pitocin. As she was doing the internal, my doula arrived. I was 5cm dilated and almost fully effaced.  While the doctor was doing the internal my water broke, well I don’t know if it broke on its own or if the doctor broke it. She told me that while she was doing the internal she felt the head, but also felt part of the cord because of that I was no longer allowed to leave the bed.  A little bit after the doctor left the nurse came in with an IV. I told her I did not want the IV. She said the doctor ordered it. I told her that I am not going to get the IV. She said I would have to talk to the doctor about it. About 30 minutes later the doctor came in. I told her that I had drank more than eight bottles of water that day. She said that she didn’t care how much water I drank that I could not have drank enough to stay hydrated so I WILL get an IV. I lost that battle, I had no choice. I now had an IV in and because I was not tested for group B strep, they gave me the antibiotics for it. I did not want that either, but, again, got it anyway. Wasn’t that big of deal to me since I had the IV in anyway. I was afraid that because I had the IV in that they would try to push Pitocen on me.  So with the help of my birth team I was doing different laboring positions in bed.
 
 
            9pm(ish)
I was confined to the hospital bed, but that wasn’t going to stop me from moving and doing labor positions.   Because I wasn’t allowed to move from the bed they wanted to continuously monitor me. The doctor came in and said according to the monitor my contractions were not strong enough. They might have felt intense to me, but they weren’t doing anything. She also said that I need to stop moving so much in bed because the fetal heart rate monitor kept losing my baby’s heart rate. I knew my baby was fine though because she kept moving.  The doctor got frustrated with me and wanted to do an internal contraction monitor. I agreed to it because I was confined to the bed anyway. After the doctor put in the internal contraction monitor I noticed that she had taken another thing out. I asked what that was, and she said that it was for monitoring the baby’s heart rate internally. I said I do NOT want that; I do NOT want an internal fetal monitor. She waited until I had a contraction and could not speak and then put it in anyway. I was soooooo angry.  I was ok with the IV, I was ok with the antibiotics, I was NOT ok with the internal monitor, but there was nothing I could do about it since it was already in.  It still didn’t stop me from moving though. I still had to stay in bed, but I was still doing different laboring positions. (Ha-showed the doc). At this point I was 8cm dilated and fully effaced.
 
            11:30pm(ish)
I told my birth team that I want to be checked. I thought I needed to push. The doctor came and I was fully dilated with a little lip of cervix left. The doc told me that we were going to try to push past the last lip of cervix. I started to push. Oh my GOD, it hurt soooooo bad. Who knew that pushing was going to be the hardest, most painful part of childbirth. I had a very hard time pushing the right way. I thought it would come natural. I thought it was going to be easy. I was so wrong. At one point my team kept telling me to push and I screamed “I can’t, I can’t.”  The doctor said “well, there is only two ways this baby is coming out, I can either do a c-section or it can come out naturally.” I wanted to cry because it hurt so bad, but I did not want a c-section. I knew there was “a light at the end of the tunnel.” I knew my birthing time was almost over. I told the doctor I was doing this naturally.  The doctor then decided to give me pitocen to help with the last lip of cervix and give me more time.
 
May 11, 2008
            12:15am(ish)
After I was given the Pitocin I was in the squatting position and I started to push again. This felt much better. My body told me that I should be in the squatting position. It felt better to push than to breath thru the contractions.  The doctor and nurses were not in the room. The nurse came in to check on me and saw that I was pushing. The doctor came in quickly to check me. I still had a little lip of cervix left and the doctor wanted me to try pushing past the lip again, but I had to be lying on my back, flat on my back. I was not happy about being in this position, but I did it anyway. I knew I had to do it or worse things could happen. Pushing past the lip of cervix was the most painful thing. My mom told the doctor that I preferred to tear than to have an episiotomy and asked if the doctor would do a perineum massage. The doctor said ok and did the massage! After I pushed past the lip of cervix I got the urge to push. Pushing came much more naturally now. I wanted to push during every contraction. It felt much better to push than to breathe thru the contractions.
 
            2:02am
I was exhausted. I was tired, but finally Calise was born! 9lbs 14oz. 22.5 inches long. Head full of black hair and brown eyes. I had a second degree tear.