Son's pregnancy was very different from daughter's, for one thing, while I suffered from morning sickness, it wasn't as severe as it was the 1st time, but I felt nauseous all day long, which was awesome because it made caring for a dog and a toddler sooo much fun! Son was also more active than daughter was, and luckily, the heartburn held out until later in the pregnancy and wasn't as bad. I also had braxton hicks (BH) for the 1st time, and my stomach seemed more tender, not to mention I would get round ligament pain that would stop me in my tracks for 5 minutes at a time. I was also more nervous with him, he was conceived 3 months after my miscarriage, and that made both me and hubby cautious and overanalytical. Aside from now worrying more about the pregnancy and the baby, we also had other stress in our lives, stress which actually activated my BH contractions and sent me to a dr more than once when I had difficulty getting them to calm.
The week before I gave birth, I started to have some indication that something would happen soon. The monday before his birth, I went in to the hospital to be checked out because I had been achy and crampy all day and been having a lot of BH. I had an NST (Non-Stress Test) done, and was checked out, and everything seemed to be fine with baby, but nothing else was going on with my body. 2 days later on the Wednesday night, I started to lose my mucus plug. Friday afternoon, I got a call from my dr's office saying they had cultured my urine from my Wednesday dr's appointment and found I had a UTI. I started the antibiotics that day and while I was still getting BH, things seemed to quiet down over the weekend. We decided to do some visiting and spent Saturday and Sunday driving to see family. Monday I was tired, and felt a little achy and crampy again, but didn't think much of it since we had had a busy weekend and I was still taking my meds for the UTI. By some lucky coincidence, hubby got off work early on Monday and was home shortly after lunch. I remember complaining to him that my hips were bothering me. With him home, I lay down for a late nap and slept from 3-6pm while he got daughter up from her nap and looked after her until I got up. The evening was quiet, but I still wasn't feeling well with the achy crampy feeling.
We ended up going to bed late for some reason that night and the crampy feeling was making it hard for me to sleep. I had even had a shower before bed to try and relax (and for some reason took the time to shave), but still wasn't settling enough. Around 2am, I got up to pee and turned on the light to check the tissue and found bloody show. With me still on antibiotics for a UTI and with my history (daughter's labor being so quick), I was concerned about what that could mean and what I should do. I stewed about this for a little while trying to figure out what my body was doing. I was now feeling pain and discomfort with the contractions, but for some reason I doubted my own ability to determine when I was in labour. I finally woke hubby and told him that I think we needed to call my mom to come over to look after daughter. She lives an hour away on the other side of a major city, and too soon, morning rush hour would be starting. We made the call at 3:30am and hubby got up to shower and get things ready. I stayed in bed to try and relax, I was tired, but still unable to sleep. I was timing some of my contractions about 10 minutes apart, but then there would be a long gap before they started again. My mom arrived at about 5am, but with my contractions being so inconsistent I thought to maybe wait to see how things progressed. About an hour later though, the pain and contractions were becoming more defined so we decided to head out to the hospital. We arrived around 7am and I was admitted to be checked out and hooked up for another NST. My dr came in around 9am and I was given an internal. I was 2cm dialated, 80% effaced and anterior (a huge difference from the week before), but baby's head was still floating. Since it was an almost 1hr round trip back home, my dr asked me to stay at the hospital and take a walk around and I would be checked again around 12noon. Hubby went back home to take our dog to the kennel and I had a little snack in the cafeteria, but the pain was becoming very uncomfortable. When I was checked again at noon, I was 3cm and 95% effaced and baby was slowly descending. With my progress and history, I was fully admitted, and the wait began. Unfortunately, while I knew walking around and distracting myself might help to speed up the labour and work through the contractions, the pain and my sleepless night were catching up with me and all I wanted to do was sleep. I stayed laying down in bed and with my eyes closed, tried to sleep, or at least doze as much as possible. I guess the closest thing I can get to describing where I went next is I put myself into a medative state. I was aware, but at the same time, not really aware of what was going on around me. I was offered pain meds or an epi. I outright declined an epi (I'm terrified of them), but after a while, did agree to morphine to help take the edge off the pain. I was 5cm when I was given the morphine and after about 30 minutes was able to handle the pain well enough to get out of bed and sit in the shower. The pain was all in my hips and as it peaked, descended into my thighs. As I sat in the shower, hubby took the spray and sprayed my lower back and thighs. I was impressed with him, in my state, even more awake now that I was up and moving, I still wasn't talking much and as a contraction came, could only really shake my head or make hand movements to indicate when I wanted him to move the spray side to side across my back. Without really having to instruct him more than once, he did it every time he saw my head start to shake back and forth. I think we stayed in the shower for close to an hour before going to lay back down. I was aware when the morphine started to wear off and asked for another dose, but was told by the nurse they wouldn't give me any more too close to birth time because they wanted it out of my system before baby was born. I was checked for progress and was now 7cm. It had been at least 2 hrs since I had been given the shot. I asked if there was anything else I could be given and was told that they had something (can't remember the name now), but they would put an IV lock in my hand and I would be given fluids (I really wasn't drinking much) and given a shot of these meds which were like morphine, but left the system within 45min-1hr. I continued laying down, and stayed in my medative state. I completely lost track of time, barely even aware of the nurses coming in and out though I was introduced to them when the shifts changed. When son's head engaged, my dr offered to break my water, but I declined, wanting things to go as naturally as possible. Hubby kept timing my contractions, but the only thing I was aware of was that my contractions started off at 4min apart when he started and went down to 3min where they stayed for a while. During the time of my un-awareness, I remember hearing conversations between hubby and the nurse(s). Our hospital was right off the highway and my labour room over looked it and apparently there was a 6 car pile up just outside, and later on, even a bad storm that hit. I was locked in my own state though and was only barely aware of these things going on.
I was told at one point that I had stalled and again they offered to break my water. I was starting to waver, but the nurse decided to check me first before any decisions were made, and just after the check, my water started breaking by itself. It sounded like she said at that point that my first bag broke and that was the time she went to call in my dr to finish breaking the second bag. Before she could though, it all went and my pain increased and contractions started getting closer together. I don't know how much time passed after that point, I was completely locked in my own pain, but my dr eventually arrived and they could see that I was ready. My body was starting to bear down, but it still wasn't as intense of a feeling as I had with daughter (I barely had to push with her because my body did all the work). The pain was so much more intense now that I started moaning through the contractions. As they prepared to deliver the baby, I remember them telling hubby to grab one leg while a nurse grabbed the other. They were telling me to spread my knees as much as possible and to use my hands to pull at my legs, but I struggled with that. I wanted to push my legs, and was pulling the handles on the bed. I don't know what I said, but I was aware that I was slowly getting louder (though not screaming). I don't know how many pushes it took, but I know it wasn't very long before I could feel son start to crown. The whole time I was aware of the nurse and hubby saying encouragements to me while my dr instructed me to push. After a few pushes, son finally emerged and I could hear that beautiful cry. He was born at 8:55pm that Tuesday evening at 37 weeks 4days gestational age. He was placed on my chest where he was able to stay for a few minutes before they took him to get his measurements and clean him up.
Hubby and I were pleased with our experience that day. The nurses never pushed, but only suggested things to help me along the way and I was able to labour as naturally as possible. They were also all so great and friendly, though I barely remember that point. I do remember one nurse saying I was unique, though I had to get hubby later to confirm which nurse said that since I was out of it during that time. The reason she said that was because I had gone into my "medative" state and they barely knew what was going on with me since I was so quiet during the labour. While daughter's labour was completely natural (the most I had for pain meds with her was tylenol since she was an unplanned home birth), I was still pleased that I was able to do the labour with meds that didn't completely deaden the pain, but only took the edge off.
This experience was definitely different from daughter's birth, and hubby had the added help of the wonderful nurses who were always nearby and checking on us, the only sour point in the experience for him was during one of my trips to the restroom. I was feeling nauseous as the morphine left my system, and as I tried to explain to him that I needed something to throw up in, he kept moving closer to me and ended up within my range when I finally threw up. Oh well, I had to give him something, with daughter he had to deliver, this time I just threw up on his shoes, that's better right?
