A's Birth Story, 4 1/2 years ago

I've been going through the archives from the message board I posted on a lot when I had my first two babies, and I found A's and M's birth stories. I thought I'd repost them here just for the fun of it.

I'm going to post the short versions. At Julie's and Rach's requests, I'm also providing a link to the long version with all the gory details of A's birth. Read at your own risk.

I never wrote a long version of M's birth, probably because hers wasn't as long and difficult, and also because I had an infant and a 16-month-old to care for at the time. But I'll post what I have in another blog entry shortly.

Here's a somewhat shorter version of A's birth:







(the middle picture shows her truest coloring)

Her due date (based on several early ultrasounds, since I had some complications early in the pregnancy) was March 3rd, 2001.

On Feb. 21st, 10 days before the due date, I was feeling pretty rotten--exhausted, nauseated, achy, headachy, and dizzy--and also became concerned because A was not moving much in the womb.

The non-stress test at the hospital showed that the baby was fine, but I had elevated blood pressure and was having mild Braxton-Hicks contractions every 9 minutes, decreasing to every 7 minutes by the end of the test. No real dilating, though.

We went home, and by the next morning the contractions were 5 minutes apart, then about 2 minutes apart by late morning and starting to become painful. That lasted for several hours, then they decreased somewhat. But by evening they were 2 minutes apart and lasting 1-2 minutes each. It often felt like 2 contractions on top of each other without a break between, and they were very painful but not very productive. I had gone from excited to stressed and scared by that point.

Since I wasn't progressing, they finally gave me an oral muscle relaxant pill and sent us home in the middle of the night. The contractions didn't let up much and were still very painful all night, but the relaxant at least helped me stop tensing up and panicking so much with them. Around 6 or 7 the next morning I noticed a change in the nature of the contractions, and by 10 a.m. I was wanting to push.

We went to the hospital and I had 3 hours of hard labor, but by that point I was able to work with my body and actually sort of enjoy the process. I spent quite a bit of time in the jacuzzi and used a birthing ball and squat bar. No meds or anything--it was really nice to be able to try different methods and positions for getting through each contraction.

Even though it was intense, this part of labor was much easier for me to handle. I was so excited to see the contractions finally doing something and be able to work with the pain to see progress. After 2 days of constant contractions and pain, it was about time!

I never did dilate completely, and what I think now is that the tailbone I broke as a teen was keeping A from progressing down the birth canal. My water hadn't broken yet, so finally the midwife broke it to try to help get the baby out. She came down hard on my tailbone and broke it, pushing it out enough to let her through. That was extremely painful at the time and for many weeks afterward, but A made it out!

There was meconium in the amniotic fluid, so they had to cut the cord quickly and do a lot of suctioning. She was fine, though. She didn't even have that typical "newborn look"--she was perfectly pink and round. The nurses kept commenting that she was one of the prettiest newborns they'd seen.

Daddy got to give A her first bath and get her dressed.



A was born Friday, February 23, 2001 at 1:38 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs, 4 oz. and was 19" long with a 90th percentile head.