Length of labor (not pushing)
38 hour.
Length of pushing
1 hour
Who was with me
My boyfriend and my mother.
What I would do differently next time
I would remember to just breathe through contractions. Keep calm!
What I did to prepare for birth
I had my daughters room and bag for the hospital completely prepared when I was 37 weeks pregnant. My hospital bag was not packed until I was already admitted into the hospital! I'm a slacker!
How my birth happened
I was due march 11th.. but was only dilated 1cm. I had an induce date of March 23rd..but Thursday, march 17th around 4am I started getting contractions, I had an OBGYN appt at 9am so I figured id just go in and they'd send me home. I went in and they put me on monitors and said I was in early labor, really early labor.. they told me I could go up the hospital just to have a second opinion.. I did so.. they admitted me right away because I was almost a week over due. they decided all Thursday they would just see if I would dilate by myself.. Thursday night into early Friday morning they gave me medication, they decided to give me Pitocin around noon on Friday.. around 3pm my water broke and I was 3cm dilated that’s when the agonizing contractions started. I could not move, or speak. I was shaking and stuttering. between contractions I would nap for 3-4min each, and wake up screaming in pain and reaching for my boyfriend. this lasted until about 8 when finally my boyfriend and other talked them into giving me an epidural. they sat me up to give me the epidural and I felt my daughters head lock in with my pelvic bone and the rest of my water gushed out. I told the nurse I had to push, but she told me I wasn’t dilated enough.. they gave me the epidural and laid me down, checked me.. the nurse realized then I was 10 cm dilated! she let me rest for a little, because I was completely exhausted from not eating or sleeping for 2 days and being in agonizing pain for the last 5 hours. around 9pm they started me with practice pushes. my boyfriend held one leg, my mother held the other. I continued to push until 945, and they gave me an episiotomy. I kept pushing until 1030, and my daughter was born. after she was born I was stitched, and laid flat on my back due to a spinal issue with my epidural, they pumped blood from my arm into my back to clot over the hole from the needle. I could not move for an hour. I held my daughter for a few minutes, kissed her, sang happy birthday and handed her to my boyfriend because I was so uncomfortable laying flat not being able to hold her correctly. at midnight I urged the nurse to let me go pee. I got up, legs still partially numb. walked to the bathroom, sat on the seat in the shower...shower and peed...came back and held my baby girl Maliyah Grace. I felt no pain what so ever during pushing and delivery, but during labor was the worst pain I could ever imagine.. In the end, id do it all over again a billion times for my little angel
Lessons learned
- eat before you go to the hospital! I didn’t eat at all Thursday until 8pm, they gave me crackers and a sprite. I didn’t eat at all Friday, until midnight, they gave me a frozen dinner...still partially frozen!!
- walk as much as you can. it helps with the pain.. I was strapped to monitors and IVS it made it so hard to walk, or get up to use the bathroom
- Don’t feel like a little girl because of the pain!! I did, until they told me I went to 10cm with no pain meds, then I felt like superwoman!
- allow people to help you.. don’t feel stubborn!!
- DRINK WATER. as MUCH as you can, that’s all I did, eat ice and drink water.
