Tell me your labour stories

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I am going to share my stories with you because some of the above seem a little intense. First baby…water broke at midnight…arrived at the hospital an hour later to a shot of demerol and an epidural. Woke up to push. Son born 9am.

Second child was a bit of a pain in the butt but just as easy. Heartbeat was a bit low so they induced. Wasn’t working after a few hours so again…epidural, shot of demerol…c section. Baby Girl.

If you want them, don’t let anyone talk you out of drugs. As a friend of mine said…I did natural child birth for my first child and nobody clapped. Knock me out for the second one.

22

There comes a point, as Solfy says, where the most important thing is getting the baby out now. With my son, I was wheeled into delivery. Behind the doctor was a window, where three sailors (Navy hospital, I assume they were corpsmen) were staring at me. So they had a bird’s eye view of paradise, to put it bluntly.

I. Did. Not. Care. One. Little. Bit.

23

Tee hee. A friend of mine was shocked to learn that I gave birth stark staring naked. Both times. So was I, sort of. I didn’t plan on doing it that way. She said, “I always thought I would at least wear a top or something.” So did I, until I got out of the tub ready to push. My husband asked if I wanted to put a shirt on.
Shirt, yeah, that’s what I was worried about. Let’s retain our modesty and not let anyone see our boobies while a person is emerging from our nether region.

Birth is an awesome headrush now matter how you do it, I think.

24

Only one so far, and not the birth experience I was hoping for, but it got my son here healthy, so I’ve come to terms with it. I had originally planned on a natural waterbirth with my midwives at a small, very pro-natural-birthing hospital.

Went into labor at 39w6d around 1:30 AM after having off and on contractions the day before at work (which I didn’t tell anyone about because I’d been having them for two weeks at that point). Didn’t wake my DH up until 3:30 AM, sat watching our Pay Per View marathon of EastEnders on DishNetwork until then, timing the contractions :D. It at least caught me up for the week.

Woke up my husband, told him I was in labor, but the contractions were between 4 and 6 minutes apart. We timed them for another hour, and called the midwives around 4:30 when they started coming 3 and 5 minutes apart. (The irregularity was because my son was posterior). Midwife knew he was in a posterior position (since we’d been trying for weeks to get him to turn his stubborn little butt around), so she told me to go ahead and come on in to the hospital.

It was a 45 minute drive to our hospital (because of choosing the midwives as opposed to an OB, and this was the hospital I wanted to deliver at). Checked in at emergency and had to pee. After being followed into the bathroom by the 2 nurses in triage to make sure I wasn’t giving birth in the toilet, I was taken up to L&D where I was the ONLY PATIENT THERE (one of the other reasons I love this hospital). They checked me, and I was barely 1 1/2 cm, but since the contractions were coming fast and furious - 2-4 minutes apart at this point, they decided to keep me and have me walk around for awhile to see if that helped me dilate more.

From 5 AM to 5 PM, I went to a whole 4 cm unmedicated. There was a Stargate marathon on Sci-Fi that day, and we half-watched it while I swore a lot. I wasn’t offered any pain medication, I was offered the birthing ball, my husband, the nurses and midwives did a lot of massaging, etc. The birthing ball helped to a point, but my contractions were coming right on top of each other with very little progress at this point. So they gave me a shot of Nubain, which didn’t help the pain, but made me feel like attending a Grateful Dead concert :smiley: .

Finally around 9 PM and 5 cm, I decided on an epidural - I already knew my waterbirth was out because of needing to be monitored (there was concern that he had passed his meconium already, but it turned out that he hadn’t). I had spent nine months telling my midwives I wanted an epi under NO CIRCUMSTANCES. So when the nurse came in at 9 and I asked her to tell J, my midwife, that I would like to get an epidural, she tried to give me a pep talk. I believe my exact words, in the middle of a painful contraction, were “PLEASE TELL JULIE I WOULD LIKE THE FUCKING EPIDURAL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.”. Julie knew I was serious if I was asking for it, so she took me seriously, which I appreciated.

The epidural had me dilated to 10 by about 9 AM the next morning (honestly, that whole night passed in a haze because the pain was gone and I was exhausted.). But he was high and wouldn’t descend. I pushed for awhile, and he wasn’t budging. Finally, my midwife told me (after about 34 hours of labor) it was time to think about a C-section, and I immediately began to cry, but agreed with her - I was just too tired to keep going and I was starting to worry about the stress on my baby.

So they got me ready, gave me the heavy duty epi, took me into the OR, and started cutting - and I felt it - I was in so much pain they had to stop cutting. So to top it off, I had to be put under for the birth and my husband was kicked out of the delivery room. However, my son arrived healthy except for a few small breathing issues and blood sugar issues that were corrected quickly.

I met him 5 hours later (due to the above issues), and regardless of his rocky entrance into the world, he latched on and took to breastfeeding immediately.

I’m really not trying to scare you - births can be so, so different, and my anesthesiologist said that out of the hundreds of C-sections he’s been in, I was only the second who had to be put under for one. There was a lot of healing to do, though, because I was so set on having a certain type of birth experience, and every monitor, every pain medication, every epidural felt like I was failing. And now I know that’s not the case - I brought a healthy baby boy into the world, and he is my greatest success (although talk to me again when the toddler years are over :stuck_out_tongue: ). I’m hoping for a natural VBAC next time (meaning a different hospital, which I am very disappointed about because the hospital staff, my midwives, and the OB who performed my C/S could not have been more wonderful.), but I’m not going to beat myself up like I did this time if it doesn’t happen. I just want a healthy baby.

Sorry. That was long. I need an editor :D.

25

Hahahaha. My only birth experience has been as coach for my very good friend, who lived with me and my husband throught the last four or five months of her pregnancy. She had also stated her express preference to NOT have an epidural or any pain medication throughout her birth planning, and had asked me and her on-again/off-again girlfriend to promise to question her if she were sure if she asked for an epidural. However, she didn’t plan on her bundle of joy being face-up and causing back labor for several hours before turning the right way around. When she said, “I want an epidural,” L and I glanced at each other over her and I let L take the heat and say, “Are you sure you want…” My friend raised her head and commanded, with that ever-so-slight susurration of demonic possession in her voice, “GET. ME. THE. FUCKING. EPIDURAL.” L high-tailed it out of the room and I’m not sure what she told the staff, but the anesthesiologist was in there in less than five. :slight_smile:

Also, my friend had a fantastic nurse… who kept oiling and stretching the vagina through the late stages of labor. It seemed rather odd and intrusive to me the observer, but like most moms have mentioned, you could have the LSU Fighting Tigers Marching Band coming through there and you wouldn’t notice a thing. It was for the best, because my friend had no tearing whatsoever, for her first birth. Her doctor was impressed.

26

In a nutshell, 2 babies. Labor and delivery were very similar for both.

With my first son labor lasted about 3 hours. Natural birth.
He made his appearance on March 24th at 9:45 PM.

With my second son labor lasted about 3 hours. Also natural birth.
He came into my life on March 26th at 9:56 PM.

If you want to read longer versions of their birth days, I posted most of what I remembered 4 years ago in my journal.

Thing Number One (posted in 2004)

Thing Number Two (also posted in 2004)

Congrats and good luck!

27

I just thought of another thing that is not quite as pleasant for an expectant mother to hear but was still funny.

All during the birthing classes my wife refused to pay attention to the lessons or really participate in the exercises. She kept telling the class that she was getting an epidural and didn’t need to know any of that breathing crap. Everyone laughed but the instructor wasn’t amused.

Well, they had to induce my son early, in fact several weeks before we had finished the classes. When we got to the hospital they gave her the epidural along with the drugs to induce labor. Unfortunately the anesthesiologist didn’t do a good job and she felt every contraction. Her thighs were numb and the surface of her belly was numb but the parts that counted felt everything. She had 7 hours of Pitocin amplified labor. It made the contractions come faster and stronger. I actually watched several of her contractions max out on the graph. I remembered everything the instructors had told us and kept her focused. She made it through, though, and delivered our son.

While she was resting, I went over to the school where the birthing class was meeting. I told them we had our baby and that mother and child were OK. One of the moms asked how well the epidural worked. You should have seen the horrified looks on the expectant mothers’ faces and the smug looks on the instructors’.

28

I have to tell a funny story about my MIL and my SIL.

SIL was having either Ivynephew 1 or Ivynephew 2, I can’t remember. Both BIL and MIL are in the room with her. SIL is exhausted, and begins to cry. MIL soothingly tells her to go ahead and cry.

BIL snaps back, “No, she needs to focus and breathe.” Which is correct, but MIL got miffed and left the room. How dare her son-in-law not allow her daughter to cry during labor!

Different generations, I guess. MIL had three C-sections, probably spent two weeks in the hospital recovering, and FIL wasn’t there for the births.

29

Oooh, thanks a lot, Slypork. :smiley:

My favourite story so far is from Bear With Me, and it was a quoted anecdote. The listener was in early labour, and walking the halls. She and another woman kept meeting, waving, and walking by. A couple of hours later the other woman was in transition, and the listener heard woman #2’s husband saying, “You’re doing well, honey. You’re doing really well!”

The other woman screamed back, “I am not fucking doing well, you fucking asshole!”

30

I can say with full confidence that I will never experience labor, but here is my sister’s labor story.

(Incidentally, it’s eight months old, and she would probably be a little perturbed if random people started commenting on her baby blog, so please don’t, in case you’re tempted.

31

One caution I would give, if you decide to do an epidural: remember that it doesn’t wear off as soon as you deliver! And until it wears off, your legs won’t work.

I had an employee once who was one of those unfortunates for whom the epidural was administered, and suddenly her stuck-at-4 cervix dilated to 10 with one massive contraction. Baby was out, washed and bundled, Mom was stitched up, and the baby put into the bassinet next to her bed, and then everyone filed out to let Mom and Baby rest.

And then the baby started to cry.

Completely forgetting that she had even *had *an epidural (because she delivered before it took effect), she tried to get out of bed to fetch her baby. Broke an arm and her nose, poor thing. All her “joyous mother with babe-in-arm” photos feature two black eyes and a cast!

32

I was overdue and my entire family was in full-on panic mode, seeing as they all drop babies prematurely. So it seemed like I spent every day for the last few weeks constantly reassuring my well-meaning mother and sisters that I was just fine and didn’t need to go get checked at the hospital to know that I was, in fact, just fine.

Labor finally started with my water breaking in the wee hours while we slept. I’d taken a nice long hot bath and at first I thought maybe I was having some sort of residual leakage. Then I shifted slightly and realized I was holding Niagara Falls in with just my thighs, leading to a very careful poking of the husband to Get Me A Towel butshhhdon’tshakethedamnbedhurryupbecareful!

After much gushing, we started giggling excitedly because we knew we couldn’t get sent back home this time. Called the doc and then my mother, she was so ready to go she hung up on me mid-sentence and beat me to the hospital.

Arrived about 6:30 in the morning, but no contractions yet that I could feel. After they conclude I’m not likely to extrude a baby immediately, they encouraged me to start walking around the maternity floor. More and more family members kept showing up, donuts and coffees materialized with them, a party in the family lounge that I got to attend for about 30 seconds in between laps. As soon as I’d sit down, someone else would leap up to lead me back to the walking.

Except for why my closest sister decided I couldn’t go thru labor with my hair a mess and sat me down to french-braid it for me. By then the contractions were happening about every 7 minutes, painful but not deadly, and each time my belly seized I’d bend over it and there Sis went bending over with me, hands tangled in my hair.

Right after that they had me lay down for a half-hour monitoring, then TPTB decided I wasn’t progressing despite the regularity of the increasingly painful contractions so they gave me pitocin and something sleepy-making in an IV, this was at 11 am. Stayed hooked up to the monitors and zoning between pains, kept asking if it was time to push but being told that I wouldn’t deliver until the next day. At 12:45 a nurse came in to do a scalp monitor on the baby and went “Holy crap, that’s a lot of hair this baby’s got, hang on!”

I told them I needed to push, hmph.

Chaotic panic as they searched for a doctor, any doctor, to catch, two pushes and blammo, a health 8’14" baby boy.

33

As a birth junkie*, I know exactly how she feels. At that moment she realized that, rather soon, lots of people would be trying to take pictures of you and the baby, and while you might not care right then what your hair looks like, when you’re choosing the birth announcement picture, you’re going to care more than you like to admit!
*Other people’s, preferably!

34

I think she might have just needed to be doing something for me, anything, even if it really wasn’t important. Watching a loved one be in pain sucketh, even when you know it’s temporary and for a good reason and all that.

But I do have very neat hair in all the pictures, yep. :smiley:

I forgot my funny anecdote part:

So it’s chaos time, the baby is crowning, nurses are rushing about like headless chickens since they hadn’t readied any of the equipment, my mother and husband are being pressed into service as stirrups…and in walks a very befuddled looking Doogie Hauser, being led by a nurse talking 90 mph as she gives my stats and explains/defends not realizing how close I was.

I’d discussed an episiotomy with my doctor, as we discussed all the variables. He went over the pros and cons and how he would do various things to try to prevent tearing but would make the call as the situation presented itself as to whether to do an epi or not. This I felt okay with, I trusted him and his years of experience and all that.

Except my doctor is miles away, and Doogie is trying to get gloves on while Cathy Chatty confuzzles him with her rapid fire speech, and I realize that the decision needs to be made Right Now. I thought “Excuse me for interrupting, but the pressure has grown severe and I fear tearing, if someone could perhaps do the oiling stretching gig I’d really appreciate that right now, or if you think an episiotomy is called for then so be it, but let’s stop with the chatter and take a look at me, shall we?”

What came out was a pained scream of “Cuuuuuuuuuut Meeeeeeee!”

Everyone stops like they’re freeze-framed to stare at me for a moment, my mother kind of slaps my knee gently in an admonishing manner and then they snap back to ignoring me. Why would asking for an epi embarrass/anger Mom? Who knows, I certainly can’t handle any more verbalizing at this point.

Over rushes Doogie, out comes the baby, everyone’s crying happily, in rushes the family from the hall and it’s about two hours later when one of them starts teasing me about saying “fuck” in front of God and everybody.

:confused:

But I didn’t, and if I did I could have because I was making a person, but I didn’t!

Turns out everyone thought that’s what I said instead of CUT me. As if!

35

:eek:

36

I’m really enjoying all your stories! I haven’t read them all, but I wanted to post while I’m still at work. Heh.

I was four days overdue and way sick of being pregnant. We had heard of the orgasm=labor, so took care of some bidness. (Just manually, I couldn’t get my head around actual sex!) Nothing happened.

About two hours later, around 10:00 pm, I went to the bathroom. On the way back, I felt some liquid running down my leg. My water had broken! Immediately, I went into non-painful-what-felt-like-Braxton-Hicks contractions about a minute apart. OMG! We freaked out. We had been told to get to the hospital when they were like five minutes apart! So we arrived at the hospital around midnight, and they put me in room. They checked on me often, but I never dilated! After fifteen hours, with nothing to eat or drink but ice chips, they started me on Pitocin. Here came the strong contractions. Ow! Nothing was working to get me to dilate, though. By this time I was freaking starving too, but they wouldn’t let me eat, the bastages. Oh yeah, at one point I had my husband brushing my long curly tangled hair, and I yelped kinda loudly. You shoulda seen those nurses running! :smiley:

After another seven hours, the baby was getting a little distressed, and they said they wanted to do a C-section. I was so relieved that something was going to happen I readily agreed. The nurse came in to shave me down there, and I started shaking all over. I asked her not to cut me!

So I had a C-section and it was all over. I had a perfect baby boy - 8lb 12oz. I was on drugs for a while, but when they told me that I couldn’t breast feed while on meds, I stopped. I remember I had a bad dream, and got out of bed and went down to the nursery to make sure he was ok. The nurses were very nice.

I stayed for five days, and was treated very well! They showed me how to breast feed. Another memory I have is taking all his clothes off, including diaper, and he pooped all over the bed. Oops! I apologized to the nurses who had to clean things up. I just wanted to make sure everything was there! :smiley:

There’s nothing like giving birth. And as someone upthread said, no two births are alike. (I only had the one baby, though.)

37

Ooops! :smack:

See, the mere memory of the trauma messed me all up there. That’d be a normal 22" baby, at 8 lbs and 14 oz. :smiley:

38

Lissla, I hope your labor (or even labour) and delivery goes as well as mine did: about 4.5 hours from first labor pain to delivery, and a perfect, healthy baby boy as the result. It really was easier than I had anticipated. Not that I’m rushing out to do it again or anything.

Why Not mentioned the young maternal age deal and I have to agree. I was 16 when I gave birth. If nothing else, I was in great physical shape.

39

Reporting for my wife: long.

The first problem was lateness. We were living in Princeton, right above another couple whose baby was due a day before ours. Their’s came on time, and was just about out of high school before ours even began. The doctor just said he must have misunderestimated the due date.

We were just about to go to bed when her water broke. No problem, except that she started throwing up with every contraction. Since things were leaking from both ends, I got a bucket. I called the doctor, and when things settled down a bit we drove to the hospital, not far, with the bucket.

One positive thing - when you walk into a hospital with a wife barfing into a bucket, they don’t mess around about getting you into the labor room. Clearly they like their nice clean floors. This was about 1:30 am. People seemed to be stacked in the corridors that day, so it was good we got there early.

My wife did the usual cursing of my existence for getting her into this mess, and barfed. They gave her some pain killers, she barfed some more. And on and on and on. They brought her lunch. She barfed. I ate the lunch. (I have a strong stomach.)

Finally, at about 4 pm things started happening. She was hooked up to a fetal heart monitor, which was giving erratic signals. I figured the connection was bad, but as things progressed they discovered this and decided it was a real problem. I never saw anyone move so fast. She was hussled into the high tech delivery room, I was exiled to a window, and they delivered by forceps, it being too late for a C-section. It turned out our daughter had a heart immaturity, which pretty much immediately fixed itself. This was 26 years ago, and there’s never been a problem.

Well worth it.

Now, our second was also late, but it was just before Labor Day so the doctor decided to induce her. We were in the hospital at 8 am and done by 5 pm. We even got to play with the deck of cards we brought. BTW, they had “THROWS UP” in large friendly letters on her chart. A much simpler experience.

Anyhow, good luck. It’s worth it. (Especially when you just watch. :slight_smile: ) Now, if you want real drama I can tell you about our Golden’s last litter, which involved a race to the hospital just like on TV.

40

Or you could be like me who manages to metabolize stuff fast. While the epidural was in I went to the bathroom several times, walking from my bed to the bathroom with minimal help (I moved slow, Mom held one arm and I held onto the IV pole with the other and that was more for balance than support) and other than being helped to shower right after I had delivered the placenta and was stitched up (some small tears) and wheeled to the room where I spent the next day and a half, I moved under my own power.

Of course I’m an odd duck and metabolize certain drugs fast, as my dentist can attest to from when she filled cavities last time. :slight_smile: