How long were your labors?
I have only had 1 and it is a very long story. So, to make the long story as short as possible. I went into labor on a Monday evening. Contractions were every 5 minutes lasting about a minute. After some discussion at the hospital triage (there was some confusion as to how far along I was. I was 6 weeks early. Once this was confirmed by my doc, the nurses were hopping. They thought I was full term.) I was admitted and sent directly to labor and delivery. This was were I was until my beautiful Doodlebug was born on Wednesday at 10:47pm. If we want to talk actual hours from when the contractions began to when I actually delivered I believe that would be 52 hours and 17 minutes. I told you it was a long story! :-)
How did you know you were in labor?
I went from 0-60 in about an hour. We had gone to the airport to sign for some tickets. Another long story. On the way back I began having contractions. Within an hour they were every 5 minutes lasting about a minute. They were pretty good ones but I was able to breathe and do my thing up until Wednesday morning.
Where did you deliver?
At the hospital! I had hoped to do some laboring at home, do the tub thing, a little relaxation etc. but that was not meant to be. Doodlebug had other plans! :-)
Drugs?
Oh my yes! Because I was 6 weeks early we had hoped that my labor would stop because my doc wanted to get at least another 3 weeks. At 34 weeks they don't do anything to stop or kick your labor into gear they just let the body do it's thing. Tuesday morning contractions were still going the same but a bit stronger and by Tuesday evening I was dilated to 3 centimeters so I wasn't going anywhere. They gave me something to try to help me sleep but it didn't do a thing. By early Wednesday morning I was done. I woke DH up with a banshee type scream that shook the building, "GET SOMEONE HERE NOW!" That was his description although I don't remember screaming but I know I was extremely insistent and was ready to induce physical harm on anyone that walked in the room that didn't have relief on the way. The nurse, who was wonderful, checked me and I was 5 centimeters. They ordered the epidural and I was a happy camper. I recall telling the anesthesiologist that I loved him multiple times. We thought Doodlebug would be here by noon, but the labor stalled. They called the high risk doc in to do an amniocentesis to check lung development. During the nurse change over at 7pm my water broke and I immediately dilated to 10 centimeters. The drugs were so very good!
C-Section?
No, but my doc told me that since Doodlebug had come face up and got stuck even being early, that they predicted that if I had gone full term I would have been a c-section.
Who Delivered?
My incredible doc. She is just so amazing. We had an amazing team with us during that time. I was in the smallest room but had the most people in there from my doc and nurse, to my mom, DH, my Doula, and the neo-natal and respiratory specialist teams. We were a packed house! I had a hard time with pushing but on the last push for some reason I got it and Doodlebug shot out and doc was there to literally catch her!
You know, it was long and it was scary but it was such an amazing experience. An experience that we had dreamed about. One that we had waited so long for, one that we just didn't think we would get to have. I wouldn't change a thing.
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