Emily was due June 24th. I had either Braxton Hicks or real contractions for several weeks prior to her arrival. My last midwife appointment was June 23rd. I remember telling her that I had been having contractions every 10 minutes on and off for several days previous. I continued having those contractions, but they never got closer together.
At my appointment we discovered that Emily turned sideways!! No way to vaginally birth a baby that is sideways. Immediately after the appointment, I called an acupuncturist and had a session that day and also the next. I also kept an ice pack on the top of my uterus to encourage her to turn head down. And the acupuncturist also gave me a moxabustion stick to use on the points to relax the uterus (on your little toes)
Well, it worked. I think she turned on Thursday after the 2nd acupuncture appointment. To verify her position, my midwife ordered a non-stress test and ultrasound on Monday the 28th. She was head down – HOORAY! And she passed the non-stress test, moving around all over the place during it. I had contractions 10 minutes apart.
I decided to go grocery shopping at Wal-mart. I walked and walked and walked! When I got home, the contractions were getting more painful. But all of a sudden at about 9:30, they stopped.
Then I woke at about 12:30am with more contractions – starting at about 8 minutes apart, and by 1:30, they started being about 6 minutes apart. We decided to call for our child care and were off to the hospital. We got there about 2:30 and I was 2-3 cm dilated, contracting every 3-5 minutes. I was instructed to walk the hallways to dilated more. UGH! I walked for an hour and after that hour was at about 4 cm. They said after I got my IV fluid in, I could get my epidural. I was really looking forward to it!
So, about 4:30am, I got my epidural – which was actually more painful than my other two experiences. She was threading the catheter against a nerve going down my right leg – weird feeling. But the relief was bliss. After the epidural, my contractions lessened a bit in frequency, so we decided to break my water (after discovering I was 6cm). She monitored me for another hour or so. She wanted the contractions closer together, so she put pitocin in the IV drip. She set it for 1 ml per hour. The contractions picked up. And I started feeling them. Last time, with Zach I had the same sensation – except that was when I suddenly when from 5 cm to 10cm and ready to push. So, the midwife thought the same thing happened and I was ready to push. NOPE. I was only 7 – 8 cm. They called down for the anesthiologist to refresh my epidural. He arrived 30 minutes later. But it was too late. He did administer the dose, but it did not have time to take effect. I was soon experiencing full force contractions – made more frequent by Pitocin – and I was not a happy camper! It was very painful and I do not react well to this pain. I became very anxious, sweaty and shaky. Then suddenly, the urge to push came. It was very intense – but I also was very scared to push without pain relief. (The extra dose did not take effect until about ½ hour after she was born and it made my right leg numb until 1am!)
The midwife said I was only 9cm, but I had to push. She helped by stretching the lip as I was pushing Emily out. I think I only had about 3 good pushes and she was here. She arrived at 12:47pm. Her Apgar scores were 8/9 (whatever that means LOL). She measured 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 21 inches long. She has LOTS of black hair. And no, I did not have heartburn.
She is absolutely adorable. She seems to be very calm and very patient. She is an excellent nurser and is very happy that my milk has come in now. She was very alert after birth for about 3 hours. Then she slept and slept and slept. She didn’t wake until about 11pm and only nursed for a little while. Then slept again. I am not a huge fan of hospitals and asked to be discharged after the first day. And I was. The first night home was rough. Miss Emily was getting hungry and my milk hadn’t come in yet. She was nursing for 3 straight hours while I slept in the rocking chair/ottoman. She only slept for about a half hour and would try to nurse again. It was a pretty rough night. But my milk started to come in and she started sleeping longer periods of time. Last night was restful. She nursed and slept and nursed and slept… All seems to be going well now.
