I'm back! I know, I know, it's been a while since regular posting. But to be fair I didn't really start blogging until I was well and truly pregnant. So on March 19th when I gave birth to my son I didn't think it was a big deal to take a break. However I've taken time to write down my labor story so I can have the memories. I also wanted to write this post because I lived on blog labor stories before I gave birth. I'm not the type of person that is willing to go through ANY pain for ANY reward so I just got more and more nervous as I got closer to my due date. I want to write this post for those mamas.
And as my life is now focused on my son I'm going to be doing more posts about being a mama; month updates, working with a baby, balancing life and baby, balancing wife/mom roles, raising conservative kids in a liberal world, Catholic mama stuff. I'm excited for this new direction and I hope you'll join me for the ride!
So onto my labor story!
March 6th, 13 days before my due date I went to my OBGYN who told us that I was dilated to a 2! He went on to tell us that we would probably not make it to my due date and that Baby would be born in the next 7-10 days! That night Tim and I went out to celebrate thinking that this would probably be one of the last dates we would have before Baby made his/her arrival. OH HOW WRONG WE WERE!
Every day following I just kept waiting and waiting to start labor. I was one of the few lucky women who didn't really have any Braxton-Hicks so I kept thinking I was going to be eternally pregnant. Trust me every woman gets to a stage when she is just DONE being pregnant. She's tired of feeling huge and waddling around, anything would be better than this. That's when it's almost time for baby! If she doesn't feel that way yet, it's not time for baby. Just saying. You can tell from my picture that I'm feeling tired of this by now.
The following Monday we had a follow-up appointment and I was sure that I would have dilated further and been ready to go. The doctor checked me and... NOTHING! I had not dilated even a little more! I was so frustrated I almost started crying in the room. So we went back home to continue waiting around for Baby to show up. I know that you're probably thinking, "hey, you're still ahead of the curve, you're due date isn't for another week!" Yes, but once you get an idea that you're going to be early each day that gets close to due date feels like you're late. Also my doctor had been predicting that Baby would be over 8 lbs and for a small woman (I'm 5'2'') already scared of labor pain this was just terrifying to think of a late/bigger baby. My husband and I started trying a bunch of old wive's tales on getting labor started. We had heard from a friend that being intimate had started labor for her but can you imagine trying to get in the mood at 9 months pregnant.
Finally Friday night (3/17/17) my husband got home from work and I decided it was worth a shot. We had invited friends over for DnD that night and around 7 P.M. I started having more intense contractions. They were intense enough that I couldn't focus on playing a game so our friends just sat around and chatted with us to distract me from the pain. Throughout the night the contractions were intense enough and I was excited that labor was actually starting that I couldn’t sleep much. I was up most of the night getting things cleaned and ready to go in case we needed to leave for the hospital before my clothes were folded! Contractions at this point were anywhere from 13-20 min apart.
Now in all the blogs I read there was much information about how contractions felt. Wave-like was about the most information I could find. Wave-like? We are not on a beach vacation, we are pushing a small human out of a tiny hole! So how do I describe contractions? They're not insurmountable, that's the main thing. Now I don't know about you but when I smash my toe on a table it doesn't just stop hurting, it throbs! So that's what I thought contractions would be like, an intense pain followed by a throbbing pain until the next contraction hit. But honestly between contractions I may have felt tired or worn out the longer labor went but I didn't hurt. It was almost as if I didn't have any pain at all in between contractions. I understood how women could actually rest between contractions. So if you are pregnant and reading this know that you can get through it. There is something sort of encouraging about knowing there is nothing to do about it. It's going to come, it's going to be intense and then it's going to stop. And honestly the most intense pain only lasts 30 seconds or so. Another really thing that was really helpful was having my husband timing contractions. Hearing him talk me through it was so relieving. He tell me when it was peaking and when it should be finishing. He'd warn me when the next one was coming. So ladies, get your men involved!!
By Saturday morning we knew we were officially in labor! We called our families to let them know Baby Bean would be here by the end of the weekend and they all got on the road since our families all live a minimum of 8 hours away. Tim had gotten a little sleep and I had gotten even less so we were both pretty tired. By 10 A.M. I realized that while I was handling the contractions pretty well I was having pretty intense back pain that did not go away in between contractions. I wasn't able to prepare for the next contraction because of the pain and it was wearing me out really fast. A friend told me that her baby was posterior during her labor and it caused her a lot of back pain and back labor. So I started thinking my baby might be in the same position. Even though my contractions were between 3-10 min apart at this point we called my doctor because I was in so much discomfort from the back pain. We were suppose to wait until my contractions were 5 min apart for 2 hours before checking in. He told us to head into the hospital to get checked out.
We checked into triage and they told us that I had dilated to 4 cm. and that Baby was indeed posterior. My doctor decided to admit us to try and help Baby turn even though 5 cm. is considered active labor. We got checked into our room and met our nurse Angie around 11 A.M. She told us she had just clocked on for her 12 hour shift so she would be our nurse when Baby was born. So our family was on our way, we had met the nurse who would help us through labor and delivery. We thought for sure Baby would be here before our families got here and long before Nurse Angie clocked out... (to be continued)
And as my life is now focused on my son I'm going to be doing more posts about being a mama; month updates, working with a baby, balancing life and baby, balancing wife/mom roles, raising conservative kids in a liberal world, Catholic mama stuff. I'm excited for this new direction and I hope you'll join me for the ride!
So onto my labor story!
March 6th, 13 days before my due date I went to my OBGYN who told us that I was dilated to a 2! He went on to tell us that we would probably not make it to my due date and that Baby would be born in the next 7-10 days! That night Tim and I went out to celebrate thinking that this would probably be one of the last dates we would have before Baby made his/her arrival. OH HOW WRONG WE WERE!
Every day following I just kept waiting and waiting to start labor. I was one of the few lucky women who didn't really have any Braxton-Hicks so I kept thinking I was going to be eternally pregnant. Trust me every woman gets to a stage when she is just DONE being pregnant. She's tired of feeling huge and waddling around, anything would be better than this. That's when it's almost time for baby! If she doesn't feel that way yet, it's not time for baby. Just saying. You can tell from my picture that I'm feeling tired of this by now.
(SUPER PREGNANT)
The following Monday we had a follow-up appointment and I was sure that I would have dilated further and been ready to go. The doctor checked me and... NOTHING! I had not dilated even a little more! I was so frustrated I almost started crying in the room. So we went back home to continue waiting around for Baby to show up. I know that you're probably thinking, "hey, you're still ahead of the curve, you're due date isn't for another week!" Yes, but once you get an idea that you're going to be early each day that gets close to due date feels like you're late. Also my doctor had been predicting that Baby would be over 8 lbs and for a small woman (I'm 5'2'') already scared of labor pain this was just terrifying to think of a late/bigger baby. My husband and I started trying a bunch of old wive's tales on getting labor started. We had heard from a friend that being intimate had started labor for her but can you imagine trying to get in the mood at 9 months pregnant.
Finally Friday night (3/17/17) my husband got home from work and I decided it was worth a shot. We had invited friends over for DnD that night and around 7 P.M. I started having more intense contractions. They were intense enough that I couldn't focus on playing a game so our friends just sat around and chatted with us to distract me from the pain. Throughout the night the contractions were intense enough and I was excited that labor was actually starting that I couldn’t sleep much. I was up most of the night getting things cleaned and ready to go in case we needed to leave for the hospital before my clothes were folded! Contractions at this point were anywhere from 13-20 min apart.
Now in all the blogs I read there was much information about how contractions felt. Wave-like was about the most information I could find. Wave-like? We are not on a beach vacation, we are pushing a small human out of a tiny hole! So how do I describe contractions? They're not insurmountable, that's the main thing. Now I don't know about you but when I smash my toe on a table it doesn't just stop hurting, it throbs! So that's what I thought contractions would be like, an intense pain followed by a throbbing pain until the next contraction hit. But honestly between contractions I may have felt tired or worn out the longer labor went but I didn't hurt. It was almost as if I didn't have any pain at all in between contractions. I understood how women could actually rest between contractions. So if you are pregnant and reading this know that you can get through it. There is something sort of encouraging about knowing there is nothing to do about it. It's going to come, it's going to be intense and then it's going to stop. And honestly the most intense pain only lasts 30 seconds or so. Another really thing that was really helpful was having my husband timing contractions. Hearing him talk me through it was so relieving. He tell me when it was peaking and when it should be finishing. He'd warn me when the next one was coming. So ladies, get your men involved!!
By Saturday morning we knew we were officially in labor! We called our families to let them know Baby Bean would be here by the end of the weekend and they all got on the road since our families all live a minimum of 8 hours away. Tim had gotten a little sleep and I had gotten even less so we were both pretty tired. By 10 A.M. I realized that while I was handling the contractions pretty well I was having pretty intense back pain that did not go away in between contractions. I wasn't able to prepare for the next contraction because of the pain and it was wearing me out really fast. A friend told me that her baby was posterior during her labor and it caused her a lot of back pain and back labor. So I started thinking my baby might be in the same position. Even though my contractions were between 3-10 min apart at this point we called my doctor because I was in so much discomfort from the back pain. We were suppose to wait until my contractions were 5 min apart for 2 hours before checking in. He told us to head into the hospital to get checked out.
We checked into triage and they told us that I had dilated to 4 cm. and that Baby was indeed posterior. My doctor decided to admit us to try and help Baby turn even though 5 cm. is considered active labor. We got checked into our room and met our nurse Angie around 11 A.M. She told us she had just clocked on for her 12 hour shift so she would be our nurse when Baby was born. So our family was on our way, we had met the nurse who would help us through labor and delivery. We thought for sure Baby would be here before our families got here and long before Nurse Angie clocked out... (to be continued)
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