Anyway, we went to labor classes and watched lots of videos of births, which was fascinating and was worthwhile. Our friends, Erik and Jess were due with their baby 3 weeks before us in the beginning of October and we were due October 21st. They went into labor on Friday, Oct. 8 or Saturday, Oct. 9 and Ava Marie was born about 3 a.m. October 11th at their home. Mat and I were awake in bed when we received the text, because I told Mat that I thought I might be having labor contractions about an hour before.
Turns out that was the case.
We had the weekly appointment with the doctor that Monday afternoon and when we went I was dilated to a 1. I asked if I would be able to go to work on Wednesday and Dr. Lisa said probably not. Monday morning we walked around the neighborhood while having contractions and we did the same thing Tuesday morning. The contractions started getting stronger and Mat's sister, Sara, who was going to be our doula came over around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. or thereabouts.
We went to the hospital about 3:30 or 4 on Tuesday afternoon and checked in. At this point I was dilated to a 6. I had requested a water room and it wasn't available when we showed up, but one looked like it would be available in an hour, so we just labored in the one room for a bit and then moved over to the water room. Which was amazing to be able to have the contractions in the water, it was very relaxing, which might have been to relaxing, because by 9 or 10 that night I had only dilated to an 8. By 1 or 2 a.m., I was exhausted and when I found out I hadn't dilated any more, that I was still at an 8, I requested an epidural as I was exhausted.
When they came in a couple hours later with the epidural and were explaining all the side effects, I was so exhausted that I was surprised that they had me sign the documents to say it was okay, because I was thinking I am not in a coherent state of mind, shouldn't Mat be signing this paperwork?
It was great to have the epidural, so that the 3 of us could rest for a few hours. I do have to say that I would rather not have needed it. Once they put it in, my left leg just felt horrible like a piece of hot red meat (a ham hock, is how I have been describing it, although I don't know how a ham hock feels!)
Around 6 a.m. or so on Wednesday morning I started pushing and Brie was born at 9:26 a.m. Our doctor was amazing, she really helped to have a great labor and Mat and Sara were awesome support. The doctor had the nurse* turn down the epidural medicine so that I would be able to know when to push and feel the contractions, which was great to be able to do that. It took forever for the pushing part because my contractions were never getting really close together. So, she had me push 5 or 6 times during each of the contractions to see if it would help get the baby out. I guess the contractions normally come quicker, like every couple minutes or less and mine were about every 4 to 5 minutes. (So, LOTS of rest time!) Mat was glad that he'd seen a lot of birth videos because according to him, he was staring at the top of the head for so long and it seemed so small that when it popped out and was blue and big, he could see that as being surprising if he hadn't seen the videos. One benefit of a long and slow "pushing" part of labor was that I didn't tear. Sara also said that Dr. Susan also applied counter pressure which helped. Dr. Susan was great at telling me when to push and when not to push to help with that as well. Our healthy baby girl was born at 9:26 a.m. at 6 pounds 15 ounces and 20 inches long. We named her Gabriella Lauren Levine. Gabriella was a name we both liked and could agree on. Lauren is the feminine version of my dad's middle name, Lorin.
*Turns out this labor nurse knew Mark and Sara. The care at Mission Hospital was phenomenal and invaluable. I appreciated all the nurses and lactation consultants who helped us while we were there. I was very grateful that Mat and I decided to stay the additional night.
Brie, on her birth day with Ava, who is 3 days old and is our friend's Erik and Jess' baby.
No comments:
Post a Comment