Baby Bee's Birth Story
As referenced in the title this is a birth story....if you don't want to hear about a birth.... run away now.
After being born insanely early at 29 weeks myself I was uber nervous that my own baby would be premature. I fretted, worried and generally prayed really hard daily for baby bee to stay up. That all ended at 37 weeks when I decided that I wanted my baby out NOW. Despite all the well meaning advice and home remedies my little stubborn one was not moving. I went into my 40 week doctor's appointment and left in tears after being told I would be induced at 41 weeks to the day.
Alas the day finally came and I rolled up to the hospital at 5 am feeling like the small killer whale I looked like. My mom met us at the hospital and we checked in rapidly since it was really early in the morning. I arrived in my labor room feeling no contractions and having my baby still firmly lodged in my rib cage. My first labor nursebutchered my arm started my IV and gave me my first round of cervadil to start my labor. It's given every 4 hours so we settled in to wait for something to happen. We did my favorite early morning activity- watching the Today Show- and reading magazines. James had cooked me a huge breakfast so I wasn't too hungry at that point. After 4 hours there was no movement and another dose of medicine. Mom and James take turn eating out of the room since I was not pleased to be hungry and drinking broth. And then still no movement. And we played cards and I texted with anyone that was available. After about 10 hours I started having some contractions and they were painful. Oh were they painful. I was not ready to be confined to my bed and thus not wanting my epidural yet. I asked for some pain medication. My nurse brought me some narcotics and oh my gosh it felt like 6 glasses of wine in 3 seconds. I went back to watching my action movie on the laptop happily not in pain and high as a kite. Only problem was I had a mad head bob, was slurring my words and then got violently ill. I was happy at this point that there was nothing in my stomach. The meds wore off quickly and I was not ready to sign up for another round of that loveliness.
I was checked again and was a fingertip dilated. There were tears at that point. I felt all the contractions were doing nothing but causing me pain. Another 2 hours and I was ready to crawl the walls with pain. My nurse suggested an epidural and I felt like a sissy asking for an epidural with no dilation. I got over it after another contraction and they called the drug guy. It took him two tries to get it in- thanks for the two sticks buddy- but it did bring some relief. My nurse checked me after the epi and I was 3 cm so I felt a little better about life. The doc came in and broke my water and told me to go to sleep while I could. If anyone ever says that to me again I will cheerfully rip out their throat because that is an ominous sign for me.
We turned out the lights and everyone bedded down. I could still feel a lot of pain and was confused. Didn't I just get an epidural? I hit the button to release more medicine. Turned over. Hit the button again. It locked me out. More pain. I start crying. And everyone is up again. It's been 15 minutes. Happy naptime people. I am convinced my epi came out. We call the nurse and she checks me and generally looks shocked that my baby has descended all the way into the birth canal and is ramming her little head against my cervix that isn't dilating fast enough. She explains that the epidural won't take away that pain and basically I just have to live with it. Poor Baby Bee continues to try to reach the exit that won't open and I live in misery for hours. My mom demands more sugar free jello on my behalf and I suck down some ice tea. James paces around and tries to distract me. At hour 18 I reach 4 cm. Again I'm in tears because everything is going so slowly. I'm exhausted, in pain, starving and no end in sight. We start some pitocin to get things moving quicker. I tell James I don't know if I can do this again and we may only have one child.
The next two hours are a tour of pain, suffering and I have basically blocked it out. They check me again and I'm at 9 cm and wanting to push. Of course the nurse yells at me not to push like the baby is going to fly out or something and starts setting things up. She slaps an oxygen mask on me and I give James an evil eye every time he puts in back on my face after I tear it off. I have James on one leg and my mom on the other. I get the go ahead to push and of course I push for another 2 hours. Bless my leg holders because it was a long time to be doing that. My doc comes in and suggests I rest. I tell him to turn up the pitocin and I need no rest. I want the baby out. Now. They oblige. The doctor offers me a mirror and I almost fly off the bed telling him no, no, no. James tells me he can see her head and my first questions was her hair color. He tells me it's dark and I smile because that's what I wanted. The doc tells me if I have a small episiotomy then I can have my baby on the next push and I scream at him to do it. He looks surprised, does and we have a baby!
They place her on my chest and I lose it. I mean lose it. Sobbing all over my squalling baby. James is crying. My mom is crying while trying to take photos. It was generally a very lovely moment. Except for having the doctor between my legs sewing me up at the same time. We do skin to skin, breast feed and pass her around to be held. I tell James that this wasn't so bad and we can have more children. Poor baby Bee arrives with a 3 cm lump on her head from ramming against my non-dialating cervix for so long but other than that is perfect, beautiful and ours.
After being born insanely early at 29 weeks myself I was uber nervous that my own baby would be premature. I fretted, worried and generally prayed really hard daily for baby bee to stay up. That all ended at 37 weeks when I decided that I wanted my baby out NOW. Despite all the well meaning advice and home remedies my little stubborn one was not moving. I went into my 40 week doctor's appointment and left in tears after being told I would be induced at 41 weeks to the day.
Alas the day finally came and I rolled up to the hospital at 5 am feeling like the small killer whale I looked like. My mom met us at the hospital and we checked in rapidly since it was really early in the morning. I arrived in my labor room feeling no contractions and having my baby still firmly lodged in my rib cage. My first labor nurse
I was checked again and was a fingertip dilated. There were tears at that point. I felt all the contractions were doing nothing but causing me pain. Another 2 hours and I was ready to crawl the walls with pain. My nurse suggested an epidural and I felt like a sissy asking for an epidural with no dilation. I got over it after another contraction and they called the drug guy. It took him two tries to get it in- thanks for the two sticks buddy- but it did bring some relief. My nurse checked me after the epi and I was 3 cm so I felt a little better about life. The doc came in and broke my water and told me to go to sleep while I could. If anyone ever says that to me again I will cheerfully rip out their throat because that is an ominous sign for me.
We turned out the lights and everyone bedded down. I could still feel a lot of pain and was confused. Didn't I just get an epidural? I hit the button to release more medicine. Turned over. Hit the button again. It locked me out. More pain. I start crying. And everyone is up again. It's been 15 minutes. Happy naptime people. I am convinced my epi came out. We call the nurse and she checks me and generally looks shocked that my baby has descended all the way into the birth canal and is ramming her little head against my cervix that isn't dilating fast enough. She explains that the epidural won't take away that pain and basically I just have to live with it. Poor Baby Bee continues to try to reach the exit that won't open and I live in misery for hours. My mom demands more sugar free jello on my behalf and I suck down some ice tea. James paces around and tries to distract me. At hour 18 I reach 4 cm. Again I'm in tears because everything is going so slowly. I'm exhausted, in pain, starving and no end in sight. We start some pitocin to get things moving quicker. I tell James I don't know if I can do this again and we may only have one child.
The next two hours are a tour of pain, suffering and I have basically blocked it out. They check me again and I'm at 9 cm and wanting to push. Of course the nurse yells at me not to push like the baby is going to fly out or something and starts setting things up. She slaps an oxygen mask on me and I give James an evil eye every time he puts in back on my face after I tear it off. I have James on one leg and my mom on the other. I get the go ahead to push and of course I push for another 2 hours. Bless my leg holders because it was a long time to be doing that. My doc comes in and suggests I rest. I tell him to turn up the pitocin and I need no rest. I want the baby out. Now. They oblige. The doctor offers me a mirror and I almost fly off the bed telling him no, no, no. James tells me he can see her head and my first questions was her hair color. He tells me it's dark and I smile because that's what I wanted. The doc tells me if I have a small episiotomy then I can have my baby on the next push and I scream at him to do it. He looks surprised, does and we have a baby!
They place her on my chest and I lose it. I mean lose it. Sobbing all over my squalling baby. James is crying. My mom is crying while trying to take photos. It was generally a very lovely moment. Except for having the doctor between my legs sewing me up at the same time. We do skin to skin, breast feed and pass her around to be held. I tell James that this wasn't so bad and we can have more children. Poor baby Bee arrives with a 3 cm lump on her head from ramming against my non-dialating cervix for so long but other than that is perfect, beautiful and ours.
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