The birth story.
Today is my first day home alone with the girl, so I'll take the time that I can get to the computer while she's asleep to at least get this started.
To begin at the beginning, we rocked up to the hospital at 4pm Tuesday afternoon (the 13th). At 5pm I had prostaglandins applied to ripen my cervix. I was no where near going into labor myself so we had to start from scratch. On a geeky note, normally prostaglandins are put in as a gel, which can be a problem if things go to fast and need to be stopped. I got a new thing called Cervadil that has the prostaglandins on a piece of tape that can be yanked out if needed.
At about 7pm I started pre-labor. Nothing particularly dramatic or consistent, I could knit most of the way through the contractions. We got about four and a half hours sleep that night between the excitement and my being a bit uncomfortable. At 5 am the Cervadil was taken out because you can only have it for 12 hours and the contractions started to be a bit stronger and more consistent coming about every 6 minutes or so. The Cervadil could have put me into labor proper, but it didn't. At this point we were moved from our room on the maternity ward to the birth suite. The Cervadil did move things along enough for my waters to be broken at about 8am. The hook for that doesn't look anything like a crotchet hook by the way, maybe like a special tool for weaving.
Having my waters broken definetly started things and we were off into the first stage of labor. Pretty quickly I was really uncomfortable on the bed and had hoped into the shower, sitting on a chair. I had told the midwife we had in the morning that I wanted to use a swiss ball and she said that I could use it in the shower, which was wonderful. The contractions had really ramped up after my waters where broken but I could still keep on top of them. They were about every 4 minutes and lasting about a minute each. When one started I would hand the shower nozzle to Mr b^3 so he could concentrate the heat on my lower back while I held onto my lower belly. I remembered hearing of a singer who had managed her labor pain by singing her scales, so inspired, I would sing one note through a contraction, concentrating on keeping the note constant and to keep singing and to not let it slip to moaning or screaming. We kept on this way for about 3 hours pretty well. I was still pretty happy between contractions, though was having to concentrate pretty hard during them.
The OB came back to examine me at about 11am. I was only about 3cm dilated at that point, which wasn't going fast enough, so I had to start on a Syntocinon drip. I'd asked a friend who'd had an induction a couple of months ago if she had any tips. She said "If they start you on the drip, pray." Really encouraging. I had to be continually monitored on the drip, so I couldn't stay in the shower. I opted to try on the swiss ball with a heat sack. This didn't work so well partly because it was hard to keep the sack in position. My OB and the midwife were apologetic that I couldn't stay in the shower, but I had to be monitored.
We found out a couple of hours later that Penelope was posterior (her spine against my spine). Posterior labor is more painful than anterior labor and is about a 1 in 500 occurrence. Syntocinon makes labor more painful because it stimulates strong contractions. You can probably see where this is going.
Thats it for today. Stay tuned for more.
To begin at the beginning, we rocked up to the hospital at 4pm Tuesday afternoon (the 13th). At 5pm I had prostaglandins applied to ripen my cervix. I was no where near going into labor myself so we had to start from scratch. On a geeky note, normally prostaglandins are put in as a gel, which can be a problem if things go to fast and need to be stopped. I got a new thing called Cervadil that has the prostaglandins on a piece of tape that can be yanked out if needed.
At about 7pm I started pre-labor. Nothing particularly dramatic or consistent, I could knit most of the way through the contractions. We got about four and a half hours sleep that night between the excitement and my being a bit uncomfortable. At 5 am the Cervadil was taken out because you can only have it for 12 hours and the contractions started to be a bit stronger and more consistent coming about every 6 minutes or so. The Cervadil could have put me into labor proper, but it didn't. At this point we were moved from our room on the maternity ward to the birth suite. The Cervadil did move things along enough for my waters to be broken at about 8am. The hook for that doesn't look anything like a crotchet hook by the way, maybe like a special tool for weaving.
Having my waters broken definetly started things and we were off into the first stage of labor. Pretty quickly I was really uncomfortable on the bed and had hoped into the shower, sitting on a chair. I had told the midwife we had in the morning that I wanted to use a swiss ball and she said that I could use it in the shower, which was wonderful. The contractions had really ramped up after my waters where broken but I could still keep on top of them. They were about every 4 minutes and lasting about a minute each. When one started I would hand the shower nozzle to Mr b^3 so he could concentrate the heat on my lower back while I held onto my lower belly. I remembered hearing of a singer who had managed her labor pain by singing her scales, so inspired, I would sing one note through a contraction, concentrating on keeping the note constant and to keep singing and to not let it slip to moaning or screaming. We kept on this way for about 3 hours pretty well. I was still pretty happy between contractions, though was having to concentrate pretty hard during them.
The OB came back to examine me at about 11am. I was only about 3cm dilated at that point, which wasn't going fast enough, so I had to start on a Syntocinon drip. I'd asked a friend who'd had an induction a couple of months ago if she had any tips. She said "If they start you on the drip, pray." Really encouraging. I had to be continually monitored on the drip, so I couldn't stay in the shower. I opted to try on the swiss ball with a heat sack. This didn't work so well partly because it was hard to keep the sack in position. My OB and the midwife were apologetic that I couldn't stay in the shower, but I had to be monitored.
We found out a couple of hours later that Penelope was posterior (her spine against my spine). Posterior labor is more painful than anterior labor and is about a 1 in 500 occurrence. Syntocinon makes labor more painful because it stimulates strong contractions. You can probably see where this is going.
Thats it for today. Stay tuned for more.
Labels: birth
posted by nellie @ 8:32 am
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