OK, here goes. I went to work Wednesday morning (11/24),
to yet another chorus of co-workers walking by
saying, "Are you still here?" Since it was the day
before Thanksgiving,I was planning on leaving a little
early. But in mid-morning I started feeling "flu-ish"
- a little achy all over, and a bit feverish.
I e-mailed my boss that I was going home to lay down
and was annoyed that I may be getting the flu right
before I was due. I left work at 12:15 p.m.

I got home, ate lunch, and laid down.
I drifted for a couple of hours,
and I woke up feeling moderately to
heavily crampy. Just general AF like cramps,
a continuous sensation - not waves.
I got up to use the bathroom at 3 p.m.
and had a sizeable amount of bloody mucous.
Hmmm....
I thought.
Can mean something, can mean nothing.
I called DH to tell him. My cramps
continued, and around 4:30 I noticed that
my cramps seemed to get bad for several seconds,
then subside a bit. I wondered if they might be ctx.
I thought labor ctx would be real dramatic and obvious -
these weren't. I called DH to tell him he probably
ought to get home just in case. He was home around 5:00,
and I started telling him when I had these
stronger cramp sensations. He timed them for a few
and they were 4 - 6 minutes apart. Now, we're
supposed to call the Dr. when they're 5 min apart,
but that's supposed to be several hours after
I've been having ctx!
This was just an hour or so.
I decided to call the Dr., but felt silly about it.
I told him what I was experiencing,
and he said go ahead to the hospital
to be checked for labor.

Got to the hospital around 6.
She checked my cervix, I was still 3 cm
and 70%. That's what I'd been at my
Monday appt. She hooked me up to
external fetal and ctx monitor, and
said she'd check me in a hour or
so, and if no progress, I'd be going home.
I laid there 30 min or so,
then felt what I thought was the K-Y jelly
she used when checking my cervix oozing out.
I had DH get me some t.p. to wipe it - it wasn't mucousy,
just wet. I didn't think another thing about it
before more came out - and more, and more.
I realized my water was breaking.
We called the nurse and she did the paper strip
test, and sure enough that's what it was.
She checked me and I was up to 5 cm.
I then knew I was at the hospital to stay.

I'd been dealing w/my ctx pretty well.
They were painful, but not unbearable.
I was ready to use the multitude of techniques
we'd learned in classes - walking around, hot
shower, hands and knees, back massage from DH, etc.
And then our by-the-book nurse informed me that
since my water broke, I could do nothing
but lay on my side. Nothing. Couldn't lay on my back.
Couldn't lay on my other side. Couldn't sit
up. NOTHING. Now, DH and I spent hours and hours
in class and NEVER heard this. But she wouldn't
budge. After about another hour or two of ctx,
I was in such excruciating pain and so frustrated at my
inability to do ANYTHING about it, I asked for an epidural.
I was so mad at her at this point - I was just
crying from frustration. I felt dissappointed
that I decided to get an epi, but I felt so helpless!!!
Laying on your side for several hours is NOT
a good position to deal with pain!
The anesthisiologist was in soon and
gave me the epi, and immediately I felt better.
But then... all heck broke loose...

I guess it was the effect of the epi, I'm not sure.
By now the nurse shift had changed and I liked the new
one better. The Dr. (not mine, but the one on call)
was there. About 10 minutes after getting the epi,
the Dr. and nurse were re-positioning me to get the
h/b on the external monitor.
What follows, I was unaware of.
I was kind of spaced out at this time.
Apparently she lost the fetal h/b
for a minute or more, after it had
plunged to 80. My blood pressure had plunged
to 70/40. I went from wanting a
natural birth to having the following attached
to me: The epi, a blood pressure cuff, an internal
fetal h/b monitor, an internal uterine pressure
monitor (for ctx), a bladder catheter, a IV with fluids,
antibiotics, and ephedra to bring my b/p up,
and an oxygen mask. I was TOTALLY frustrated and spaced out.
Wonderful DH kept saying everything was
fine, I had no idea how concerned the Dr. and nurse were.
GOOD THING!
But after about 10 minutes, fetal h/b
and my b/p were normal again.
They eventually took that oxygen mask
off my face which was much more comfortable.
I should mention at this point that I had a slight
fever when I got to the hospital, by now it
had climbed to above 100.

Family had been there for a while,
and had been sent out during the
chaos. Once all was stable, they came
back in. We chatted for a few more hours.
I started feeling the pressure
from the ctx, but no pain. As it got
progressively more uncomfortable,
I sent my family out. The nurse was
checking me about every hour and I
was dialating about 1 cm an hour.
After about 2 a.m., she had me push a
couple of times to get my cervix
to fully open. I was 9-10 cm,
but those couple of pushes put me at a
solid 10 cm. She said get ready for 1 -
2 hours of pushing. We got started...

Dr. was back in the room by now. Every minute or so
I had a ctx, and I could feel them coming.
I was NOT in pain, but uncomfortable.
We would push about 3 or 4 times each ctx,
VERY hard. That's why I have
black eyes in the pix of me posted!
The pushing did it. I didn't use the
mirror - I just didn't want to see it.
But lo and behold, after only 27 minutes of pushing,
the head was out!
We were SO excited at this point!
About to meet this baby and know its gender!
Dr. spent about a minute
suctioning its mouth and nose,
then just eased it out - it didn't require another push.
Baby was back to us, and we looked down and saw
that little scrotum between the legs - A BOY!
I was kind of in shock.
I had really thought I was having a girl!
They put him on me right away, and we talked
and looked at him for a couple of minutes.
They took him over to the bassinet to clean and assess him.
In the meantime, Dr.delivered the placenta, and I had him
show it to me. It was neat!
If you can handle it, I recommend it!
I could see in a distant mirror that blood was pouring
from me like a fountain. POURING. I asked Dr., is that
normal? Apparently not! He just mashed my abdomen
a few times though and it stopped. He had given me an
episiotomy, so he spent the next few minutes stitching it up.
They then brought Trevor back to me. We tried to b/f,
but he wasn't interested.
They had taken his temp at the bassinet - 100.4.
Nurse told me we had just a few minutes and
they were taking him to the nursery due to his fever.
Family came in, passed him around, and in 20
minutes he was gone.
His fever when he got to nursery was 101.4.
I was SO WORRIED at this point.
My fever was now 102. I could tell by the nurse's face
that this wasn't good. They took their sweet time getting
me to a post-partum room,
and when I last checked his fever was still
high. It's about 5 a.m. by now, and
I'm exhausted. My temp had returned to 98.6.
DH was still with me and we
were crying and praying. I knew I had to sleep
and that it would make the next couple of hours pass by
quickly. I asked for sleeping pills
and they gave them to me.
I sent DH home, I was in a semi-private and
he couldn't stay. I drifted off in tears.
I woke at 7:30, and immediately called the nursery.
I asked about the Young baby, and the nurse
was like, "he's fine." I asked if that meant he
had no fever, and apparently
it dropped to normal within a
couple hours of delivery. I WAS SO RELIEVED!!!!!!!
I called DH to tell him.
He was too. I had them bring
him to me immediately and we breast fed.
Never have I felt so happy
and relieved to see someone!!!!
I'm tearing up just thinking about it.
His pediatrician had ordered some blood tests to grow
cultures to check for GBS (I am group-B strep +)
and E. Coli. He had Trevor on
2 antibiotics for the next 2 days.
Sure enough, in 48 hours the cultures were negative!!!
He hasn't had fever since, and we came home
Saturday afternoon.

We're doing well! B/f is going pretty well.
He's already above his birthweight!
They like babies to get back to their birthweight
in 2 weeks, and he did it in 4 days!
That's my BOY!!!!

I'll be around more telling you how it's going now
that we're home - but that's our birth story!

Take care all!

Andrea

I'm finally posting…Our little miracle,
Alyssa Lauren, arrived 3 weeks early…

On Saturday, November 27th,
my water broke around 3:30am.
I wasn't sure if it really was my water
because it did not gush, but came out in small waves.
I called the doctor around 5am and found out
the midwife was out of town for the weekend.
My girlfriend who I have known for over 20 years was on call.
She said to go to the hospital whenever I was ready
so I packed my bag and took a shower.
We got to the hospital around 6:30 am and then
tried the ph test to see if it really was my water.
The test never showed conclusive, the fern test
also did not show that it was my water
and I was only a fingertip dilated.
My girlfriend came in and did an u/s.
There was only a very small pocket of fluid left,
but I was not contracting.
They started me on pit and we
settled down for a very long day.
They kept increasing the pit because I was not
showing any contractions on the monitor.
Around 1:30pm I began cramping more and around 2:30
I asked the nurse for something to take the edge off.
I had nubain, but still no contractions on the monitor,
according to the nurse. At 3:45, I called the nurse
again because I was feeling a lot more.
Finally, she checked me and I was dilated to 5.
I asked for the epidural.
The anethesiologist wanted some blood work done
before he would give me the epi.
Around 4:30, I called the nurse again and
told her I needed to push.
My girlfriend, who was at the hospital doing
an emergency section came in to check me
and I was dilated to about 9 ¾!
She was so mad that I had not gotten my epidural.
She said this was stupid to wait for the labs
since the contractions were coming on top of
one another and I could barely catch my breath.
I got a shot of nubain in my arm
and then another one to my iv.
I finally began to push around 5:30pm.
The baby was stuck on my pelvis and at 0 station.
I had to push her down.
I ended up having an episotomy
and then on the next contraction
our little was born!
Alyssa Lauren arrived at 6:56pm.
She weighed 5 pounds 8 ounce and was 19 inches long.

DH and I are so in love with our little girl.
Being a parent is so wonderful!
My mom was here all last week and
DH's mom is here this week.
Tonight, I finally found some time
to get on the internet and compose her birth story.
I can't believe how time has flown!

Danielle H
Subject: Katie's birth story

Okay, first an apology for taking so long to write
this. i have been pretty
exhausted and struggling with
breastfeeding. enough excuses...

went in to hospital at 5pm on wed the 20th and got
cervadil. contractions
started around 8pm and by the
time the nurse came to take out the cervadil at 4am,
the contractions were
3 min apart. i was sure that i
had made great progress and was shocked to find out
that i was only a
fingertip dialated. they started
pitocin at 4:30am and the contractions got stronger
and quicker. at 7am, i
was 1cm and they broke my
water. the contractions were coming 1 min apart -- i
couldn't imagine 9
more centimeters. i tried some
meds (don't know what) and the first time it took
the edge off; however, it
only lasted about 1/2 an hour. so,
at 8:30, i was in tears and begging for an epidural.
i was terrified, but
it was great. i then dialated to 8
centimeters at noon. i started feeling the
brcontractions and a lot of
pressure on my cervix. they turned up
the epidural for me (great relief) and i actually
slept for about an hour.
i had been up the whole night with
contractions and the sleep was much needed before
pushing. so, at 2pm, i
was complete and ready to
push. however, they decided to turn the epi down so
i could feel more. the
nurse came back at 2:30 and i
started pushing. however, i then spiked a fever, got
the chills and started
throwing up. so, at 2:45, they had
me stop pushing and went to call my dr. it was
determined that i was
dehydrated. so, they started iv fluids
and antibiotics. at 3:20, i started pushing and
katie came out at 5:13. the
pushing was incredibly intense
and my muscles were sore afterwards! as katie was
coming out, the cord was
around her neck. that was
terrifying to hear, but the dr and nurse were really
calm about it. katie
needed some oxygen and her lungs
cleared out, but by 5min, her apgar score was 9 (it
was only 5 at 1 min).

despite the less than fairytale birth, it was just
amazing to hold my
little girl in my arms. she is absolutely
perfect and all of the exhaustion is worth it.
hopefully i will have more
time to get back on line soon. i miss
everyone and hope that all is well. take care ladies
and know that what is
waiting for you at the end of
pregnancy is just amazing!

in case you want to check it out, we have more
pictures of katie .

Danielle

 
Benjamin is here!

Posted By: Heather & Benjamin born 10/15/99
Wednesday, 20 October 1999, at 8:35 a.m.

The birth of Benjamin…

I went to the doctor on Thursday
for a visit and an ultra sound.
The baby looked great.
Strong heartbeat… good size…
everything was a go for the section on Monday.
My cervix was very soft and I was having
intermittent contractions. Nothing regular,
but they were beginning to do something.
When we sat in the doctor’s office to
schedule the section, he found out
things were pretty booked for Monday morning.
So he asked if we wanted to have the baby
the next day, Friday, and we said YES!

So here it was 4:00, Thursday afternoon,
and I head over to the hospital for pre op.
They took blood, had me sign consents, etc.
DH and I got home around 5:30 and started
getting things ready for the next morning.
My sis stayed with my DS. We had to be at the
hospital at 5:00 am. … too early for a 3 year old.
So the next morning, DH and I arrived at
the hospital and I was taken to a LDR room.
There they started an IV drip (fluids).
At 7:00 the anesthesiologist came in
to do the epi. Ok, that hurt.
It was over quickly, so I shouldn’t complain,
but it did hurt going in. Mostly because
I was so nervous about it,
I kept tensing up.
At exactly 7:30 a whole group of nurses and
doctors came in. I couldn’t
believe they were on time!
They rolled me across the
hall to the O.R. and managed
to get me on to the operating table.
I just knew they were going to drop me!
LOL It is such a strange feeling to have
people moving you around when you can’t
feel your lower body. My DH was next to me
the whole time talking to the doctor;
they had really hit it off and were talking
electronics and politics. And I was like Hey!
I’m having a baby here! LOL

Well, at 7:52 my precious son was handed to me.
I couldn’t stop crying.
He was just so perfect.
He weighed in at 7 lbs and 12 oz and 20 ½ inches long.
He captured our hearts immediately.
Head full of black hair,
blue eyes and a beautiful olive complexion.
He looks exactly like my first
DS except for the hair and skin color…
his hair is light and his skin is very fair.
He has the longest fingers I have ever seen on a baby.

DH walked Benjamin over to the nursery and to meet the
family and I was put back together and
taken back to the LDR room. Once in the nursery,
Benjamin was placed in the window under the heat lamp.
My dad told DH to count his toes. And sure enough,
Benjamin has 12 toes! It runs in my dad’s family.
Well, since Benjamin was named after my dad
and has his toes, he is just beside himself!

LOL

For anyone considering a repeat section…
the recovery has been great. I can not get over
how good I feel. They only gave me an epi
that lasted 1 hour. So by 9:00, I felt great.
I was up by that afternoon and moving around.
I really am amazed. It was so much different
than the first time when I had labored all day.

We came home Monday and have been adjusting to
being a family of 4. So far it is going great.

Hugs to all and thanks for all of the wonderful
support I found here these past 9 months as well
as the year prior.

Love,
Heather and Benjamin Joseph