The birth of son number 1 was about as ideal as one can expect a hospital birth to go. Let me preface this story by saying that I did not enter into motherhood with any disdain for hospital facilitated births, but now I do! If you don't feel the same way, lovely. Hopefully your experiences have been better than mine....
The contractions for son #1 started half-way through the day on my due date. We had company over that day, another expectant mother who was due about a 10 days after me but would go on to have her son a little over a week late. We had a good chat, took a belly to belly picture, and I declined going to shoot a few games of pool because my back had been hurting off and on for the last hour or so. Who tries to play pool at 9 months pregnant and how would I even bend over the table to shoot?! We said good bye and I sat down to rest a bit.
I started timing my back aches, because they were starting to feel like menstrual cramps, and it turns out I was having contractions, all in my back, but I was able to go to sleep at about midnight that night. I woke at about 3, when the contractions were closer together and more regular, called my boyfriend (gasp, we weren't married or living together?! Surprise, no - we were married when son #1 was 5 months old), told him to get dressed and get over to my father's house to drive me to the hospital. I took a shower, watched a movie, ate a sandwich (all with my father peeking in on me to see if I was okay). My boyfriend finally arrived and we got to the hospital at about 5:30 a.m.
I checked in and told the nurses I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart. They did the usual, hooked me to a monitor so they could evaluate, and once they did, they checked my cervix to find that I was only at a little over 1. Apparently, you can't be admitted to the hospital "in labor" unless you are dilated to a minimum of 3! Guess I would have learned that had I taken a birth preparedness class, huh? pssshhh....
So walking I went. Almost 2 hours of that and they finally officially checked me in, allowing me to rest for a while. I spent most of the day walking to get labor to progress, mixed with visits from my doctor, a painful i.v. insertion (at least until they called the phlebotomist to do it properly) and conversing with my mother and mother-in-law (yes, both HAD to be there). Finally, the doctor offered to break my waters to help speed up labor, which had been lingering at 4 to 5-ish for a couple of hours. Things picked up pretty quickly after that.
My soon-to-be husband was wonderful, rubbing my back during contractions, which lasted 2 minutes or more, and then we would switch and I would rub his arms in return. Our mothers sat watching us and as labor picked up, I actually had to ask my mother to stop talking because her voice was making me feel like I was tripping! (Long story short, I ate a poisonous plant as a small child and her voice was all I could hear during the effect of it, and it used to reoccur during very stressful situations.) Anyway, she sat quietly, trying to be helpful getting me pillows and I'm sure praying for me and the baby, as my wonderfully faithful mother does. I couldn't get comfortable in any position and I knew that the moment was approaching very fast. I stood, I sat on a ball, at one point I got in the tub in water birthing room, hopping right back out when it made the contractions stronger! At one point I ended up naked, on my hands and knees on the bed, with both of our mothers there! Yeah, not how I imagined the birth of my first baby going, especially since I had gained almost 60 pounds during pregnancy!
Eventually I settled on bracing myself in a standing position with my hands on the bed and my doctor came in and after checking me and finding me to be at 8cm, asked me if I was ready to push yet and did I need anything for the pain. I said yes to both and the nurses started prepping equipment, and the doctor gave me a half dose of morphine. I sat back on the bed and told her I was ready to push. The nurses propped my legs up and the doctor let me push as I needed to, only asking me to pause when she thought I might tear, quickly administering an episiotomy. It was only a few pushes and out came a healthy baby boy, 8#10oz, born at 5:55pm. She put the baby on my stomach and let me hold him while the placenta was expelled. Daddy cut the cord and our little son was taken over to the warming station. The doctor left me to attend to the baby on the warmer, massaging his head and checking his vitals. He had a deep cry, a lovely sound I will never forget! Our mothers swooned and coddled the baby.
The doctor stitched me up, stayed to visit for a bit and then left, only to return the next morning to check on us and circumcise our son. Thankfully, the hospital in our area prefers rooming in and really encourages mothers to nurse immediately. Unfortunately, I delivered at shift change, so all of the wonderful nurses who had attended my labor and the birth had clocked off and gone home for the night. The new nurse was... awful. She was irritating and I didn't care for her, which I was able to share with my one of my doctor's students who came in to visit and she gladly asked to have another nurse care for me. All in all, it was a good delivery. It was exactly what I expected the delivery of a baby to be, since I had only ever seen 1 birth before mine and no one had ever told me I could do it differently. I guess you could say it was text book. We stayed for 2 days, because I was a new mom and wanted a little extra help, and then we were on our way home, new parents and a healthy baby boy.
Not much to complain about with that birth, is there? Everyone was healthy, my labor went very well and was uncomplicated. I was informed later that the baby had the cord wrapped when he first emerged, but the doctor swiftly flipped the cord off his neck on the way out and he was none worse for the wear. She really is a wonderful doctor. My only criticisms of this delivery were my own shortcomings - I could have done without the morphine and I'm sure I could have done without the episiotomy. I didn't yet have an opinion about artificially rupturing membranes, so it wasn't on my list of goals for the next birth.
Tomorrow or the next day I will talk about the birth of our second son. Thanks for indulging me!
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