Sunday, April 4, 2010
The end.
From this point on, my "we're expecting a baby" blog will be discontinued. I am no longer expecting a baby, but I have one. Back to our regularly scheduled programming at This is the Diary of Sara. See you soon.
My birth story. Warning. Graphic.
As the months dwindle down to weeks and then down to days, the expectant mother finds herself relentlessly researching the experiences of her peer mothers. Did their water break in public? How long was their labor? Did the doctors use a vacuum? How did that epidural feel going into their spine? These questions consumed my every waking thought in those last few weeks. I want to write down my experience in order to help inform other expectant mothers and to share with my friends and peer mothers because the shared experience is important. I impressed and shocked myself with what I was able to "put up with" and I think every woman must feel that same way, no matter what her birth experience was, once she gives birth to her baby.
So, let us begin.
Last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I walked. I walked and walked and walked. I was told that walking could get things moving and I had been having pretty irregular contractions on and off for days. Sometimes they'd be every 5 minutes, but then I wouldn't get another for 40 minutes. I knew that there was no way that's what labor was like so we waited. And ate spicy food. I tried all the little things that they tell you to do, minus the castor oil, eww. That brings us to Friday, March 26. I went to the doctor for a non-stress test where they listened to the baby's heartrate and judged that he was perfectly fine and healthy and would just come out on his own. During my sonogram they estimated that he was 8 lbs 7 oz and doing great. Armed with this information I was a little defeated and felt like taking some chances, so I did what any reasonable overly pregnant lady would do and went to the movies. By myself. I mean, tell me that doesn't sound like the perfect set up for a water breaking story??? Anyway, no water break, but I did enjoy the movie.
Friday night we invited friends over to watch a bad movie, a standard practice for Friday nights, and I was having some contractions. I barely paid attention to the movie, which arguably may be the worst we'll ever watch together as a group, because my contractions were coming pretty regularly and they were more intense than I'd felt before. I got up and paced and braced myself during the tough ones and a little over halfway through the movie I told Mark that I think that we're facing the real thing. We stopped the movie and ran around like crazy to put together our bags and headed out to the hospital. When we got there I filled out some paperwork and they got me into a triage room where they were going to check my progress and see how I was doing. I was only dilated to 2-3 cm but my contractions were regular at 2 to 3 minutes. The doctor asked about my pain level, which wasn't through the roof, but was headed that way. Basically they wanted a reason to put me in a room, they were going to just send me home if I wasn't ready to commit to an epidural right there on the spot.
I got put into delivery room number 9.
Things got under way a couple of hours after we got into the room. The anesthesiologist came by with my epidural, which Mark had to leave the room for, and my pain level decreased significantly. It felt about as weird as I expected and didn't exactly hurt. It felt exactly like what it was, a needle into your spine, followed by the insertion of a tube carrying medication that quickly numbed your lower body. As all the doctors, nurses, and housekeeping ladies kept chanting, "epidurals help with pressure, not with pain". If I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me throughout my hours of labor, I'd have at least $23. The next 12 hours or so were very slow going, I was dilating extremely slowly, my cervix continued to thin slowly, and the baby was making a VERY slow descent. It was all pretty frustrating because the contractions continuted regardless and were getting worse and worse. I had a hard time sleeping but was able to sleep in 15 minute spurts throughout the night and throughout most of Saturday. The doctors kept checking me, I was at a 4, then a 5, then a 6 for approximately 6 hours straight. I stayed at a 7-8 throughout most of Saturday evening and only into Saturday night did some doctors start saying the words 8 and 9. Only one side of my cervix ended up dilating all the way to a 10, the other, well... it was stretched for me by one of the doctors. Yeah, this is the part of the story that gets a little graphic, so, just take notice. I had to get my epidural boosted 5 times throughout my labor because it wasn't strong enough for what I was going through. I cried and tried to keep it to myself but my doctor said that I should speak up if I was in that much pain. At one point I cried terribly hard and wanted to give up. Mark was supportive and amazing and my doctor came in and listened to me talk but actually said to me, "who told you labor was easy?" Boy did she have a point. She was gruff and harsh, but right. I respect her very much. I had terrible waves of unbearable contractions Saturday night and into Sunday early morning.
Around 2:00 am on Sunday morning I told Mark that I felt like I was going to "take a shit on the table" and apparently those are like the magic words in the labor and delivery department, so the pushing got to start. It felt a little bit like the movies where everyone coached me on when to breathe and how long to push. My biggest fear was pushing for like 2 hours, but when all was said and done, I pushed for 4. About 2 hours into pushing I wanted to take a break for a few minutes and at that same time an emergency C-section was happening next door that called all doctors to the OR. I was told in their absence that I was allowed to "passively push" which, let's be honest, means push. At this point Mark was my hero, constantly wiping down my forehead with a wet washcloth and constantly feeding me ice chips and also helping me through my passive pushes. I'm not sure the doctors expected me to make any progress while they were gone but when one came back nearly 30 minutes later she could see his head and said, "oh wow, he's got light hair and is fair skinned like Mom". That kind of report gave me the strength to get through the final stretch, literally stretch. I pushed and once they really saw his head enough all this commotion started happening. The bed I was sitting on was lifted, broken down, new stirrups were lifted into the air, the doctors all put on protective clothing (one had a face mask on!) and there was a LOT of activity. This next part was the real hard pushing and I could tell I was almost done. I could feel everything and it was almost an out of body experience. I pushed his head out and was told to wait while they got the cord in the right position and then the very next push the rest of his body came flying out. Like, flying out.
The doctors were very quiet and all business as that point because the umbilical cord was around his neck and he wasn't coming to very quickly. His little body looked lifeless but a few seconds later he screamed and I heard my son cry for the very first time. I couldn't even believe it. Mark and I stared at each other and were just in awe. The next 45 minutes were dedicated on me delivering the placenta and stitching me up. One word, "wow". No one talks to you about how painful that part of the process can be. If every inch of the placenta isn't removed your uterus will continue to bleed and you could be in need of a blood transfusion in no time so they have to really get all up in there to make sure that it's all removed. It may have been the most painful part of the day for me.
When I look back at all 32 hours of my labor, it's the farthest thing from what I expected my experience to be. I'm so proud that I went in there and kicked ass. I wavered a few times and wanted to give up. Luckily I had a doctor who had no time for backing down or taking the "easy" way out (read: C-section). I'm so glad she wasn't listening during my lowest hour when I said, "I can't do this anymore". Mark pushed me through every minute of it and I couldn't be luckier to have such an awesome husband.
Labor: 32.5 hours
Pushing: 4 hours
Baby: 8 lbs 5.9 oz; 21 in
APGARS: 8/9
Name: William Harper Laughlin
Pure. Love.
So, let us begin.
Last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I walked. I walked and walked and walked. I was told that walking could get things moving and I had been having pretty irregular contractions on and off for days. Sometimes they'd be every 5 minutes, but then I wouldn't get another for 40 minutes. I knew that there was no way that's what labor was like so we waited. And ate spicy food. I tried all the little things that they tell you to do, minus the castor oil, eww. That brings us to Friday, March 26. I went to the doctor for a non-stress test where they listened to the baby's heartrate and judged that he was perfectly fine and healthy and would just come out on his own. During my sonogram they estimated that he was 8 lbs 7 oz and doing great. Armed with this information I was a little defeated and felt like taking some chances, so I did what any reasonable overly pregnant lady would do and went to the movies. By myself. I mean, tell me that doesn't sound like the perfect set up for a water breaking story??? Anyway, no water break, but I did enjoy the movie.
Friday night we invited friends over to watch a bad movie, a standard practice for Friday nights, and I was having some contractions. I barely paid attention to the movie, which arguably may be the worst we'll ever watch together as a group, because my contractions were coming pretty regularly and they were more intense than I'd felt before. I got up and paced and braced myself during the tough ones and a little over halfway through the movie I told Mark that I think that we're facing the real thing. We stopped the movie and ran around like crazy to put together our bags and headed out to the hospital. When we got there I filled out some paperwork and they got me into a triage room where they were going to check my progress and see how I was doing. I was only dilated to 2-3 cm but my contractions were regular at 2 to 3 minutes. The doctor asked about my pain level, which wasn't through the roof, but was headed that way. Basically they wanted a reason to put me in a room, they were going to just send me home if I wasn't ready to commit to an epidural right there on the spot.
I got put into delivery room number 9.
Things got under way a couple of hours after we got into the room. The anesthesiologist came by with my epidural, which Mark had to leave the room for, and my pain level decreased significantly. It felt about as weird as I expected and didn't exactly hurt. It felt exactly like what it was, a needle into your spine, followed by the insertion of a tube carrying medication that quickly numbed your lower body. As all the doctors, nurses, and housekeeping ladies kept chanting, "epidurals help with pressure, not with pain". If I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me throughout my hours of labor, I'd have at least $23. The next 12 hours or so were very slow going, I was dilating extremely slowly, my cervix continued to thin slowly, and the baby was making a VERY slow descent. It was all pretty frustrating because the contractions continuted regardless and were getting worse and worse. I had a hard time sleeping but was able to sleep in 15 minute spurts throughout the night and throughout most of Saturday. The doctors kept checking me, I was at a 4, then a 5, then a 6 for approximately 6 hours straight. I stayed at a 7-8 throughout most of Saturday evening and only into Saturday night did some doctors start saying the words 8 and 9. Only one side of my cervix ended up dilating all the way to a 10, the other, well... it was stretched for me by one of the doctors. Yeah, this is the part of the story that gets a little graphic, so, just take notice. I had to get my epidural boosted 5 times throughout my labor because it wasn't strong enough for what I was going through. I cried and tried to keep it to myself but my doctor said that I should speak up if I was in that much pain. At one point I cried terribly hard and wanted to give up. Mark was supportive and amazing and my doctor came in and listened to me talk but actually said to me, "who told you labor was easy?" Boy did she have a point. She was gruff and harsh, but right. I respect her very much. I had terrible waves of unbearable contractions Saturday night and into Sunday early morning.
Around 2:00 am on Sunday morning I told Mark that I felt like I was going to "take a shit on the table" and apparently those are like the magic words in the labor and delivery department, so the pushing got to start. It felt a little bit like the movies where everyone coached me on when to breathe and how long to push. My biggest fear was pushing for like 2 hours, but when all was said and done, I pushed for 4. About 2 hours into pushing I wanted to take a break for a few minutes and at that same time an emergency C-section was happening next door that called all doctors to the OR. I was told in their absence that I was allowed to "passively push" which, let's be honest, means push. At this point Mark was my hero, constantly wiping down my forehead with a wet washcloth and constantly feeding me ice chips and also helping me through my passive pushes. I'm not sure the doctors expected me to make any progress while they were gone but when one came back nearly 30 minutes later she could see his head and said, "oh wow, he's got light hair and is fair skinned like Mom". That kind of report gave me the strength to get through the final stretch, literally stretch. I pushed and once they really saw his head enough all this commotion started happening. The bed I was sitting on was lifted, broken down, new stirrups were lifted into the air, the doctors all put on protective clothing (one had a face mask on!) and there was a LOT of activity. This next part was the real hard pushing and I could tell I was almost done. I could feel everything and it was almost an out of body experience. I pushed his head out and was told to wait while they got the cord in the right position and then the very next push the rest of his body came flying out. Like, flying out.
When I look back at all 32 hours of my labor, it's the farthest thing from what I expected my experience to be. I'm so proud that I went in there and kicked ass. I wavered a few times and wanted to give up. Luckily I had a doctor who had no time for backing down or taking the "easy" way out (read: C-section). I'm so glad she wasn't listening during my lowest hour when I said, "I can't do this anymore". Mark pushed me through every minute of it and I couldn't be luckier to have such an awesome husband.
Labor: 32.5 hours
Pushing: 4 hours
Baby: 8 lbs 5.9 oz; 21 in
APGARS: 8/9
Name: William Harper Laughlin
Pure. Love.
William Harper: The Beginning
Here's a short video that Mark shot only moments after Will was born and cleaned and wrapped up. He's adjusting to life outside the womb and I won't lie, it's pretty darn cute.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Introducing William Harper Laughlin!
So, yeah, I've not written. It's not you, it's me. Well, honestly, it's someone else. I've met someone named Will who has stolen my heart and my ability to blog regularly. He's an adorable little 5 day old nugget and I can't get enough of him. Please pardon the interruption in my regularly scheduled check ins. I'll be back soon.
xo.
xo.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Due dates come and go.
Just like good men, ha! Just kidding. I seriously never thought I'd be writing about being pregnant after my due date had come and gone, but here I am, it's March 26, 2010 and I am still pregnant. I'm trying to stay busy but unfortunately mother nature decided to bring winter back today so my daily walking of several miles looks impossible. Yesterday, while walking through the city, I had about 2 hours of contractions lasting about a minute that were each about 5 to 7 minutes apart. We thought it was go time in a serious way. Mark left work early and everything. Once I stopped moving around, unfortunately, the contractions died down too. I woke up once an hour all night but overall things have been slow since yesterday evening. I hope this is the big warm up to the big finale. C'mon, kiddo!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
T minus one.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
