Baby #1 was posterior and I was in labor for 2 days. She was born sunny side up after a very short period of pushing. I went a day and a half without meds but did have a dose of a narcotic just so I could get some sleep. It was very traumatic and extremely painful. My childbirth classes didn't even come close to preparing me for that birth experience.

Baby #2 was what I guess I'd classify as a "normal" labor & birth. After my first, though, labor with him was so easy I still kind of shake my head in amazement about it. The contractions hurt, but nowhere near as much as I expected them to from reading other birth stories about a "normal" labor. I wasn't certain I was in labor until transition. He was born about an hour after we got to the hospital, 10 minutes of pushing. If I had listened to the nurse who told me "you just sound too cheerful to be in labor, call back in 2 hours" I would have had a homebirth, which I'm not opposed to but would have been disasterous for my son who needed medical attention right after birth.

Someone mentioned perineal massage. I highly recommend it. I did it with both kids and had not so much as a "skid mark" with either one. No tears at all, and no episiotomies.

Nobody yelled at me to push with either one. At one point I was told to stop pushing (mid contraction) with my first and I remember shooting off a string of colorful language in the direction of the nurse who told me to stop. But I had them both in a birthing center with midwives, so it wasn't quite the "Baby Story" experience. I generally hate that show too.

EMLA cream, I think. I also suggest asking for a penile block. It *is* surgery and should be treated as such.

here's mine. it is super long.

Kate’s Birth Story

I had been on Terbutaline for pre-term labor at 35-36 weeks. As soon as I went off of it, (on Friday, March 11th) I started having Braxton-Hicks contractions. They were not painful, just a squeeze in my belly that would last a few seconds then slowly go away. That afternoon, I noticed that they were no longer random, but happening about every ten minutes, then every eight. I called the doctor’s office and the nurse told me that if they start to get painful or happen every five minutes, I should go to the hospital.

That night, I sent Shaun out to have one last night with the boys. Pretty much the second he walked out the door, my contractions started to get painful. I watched them for the next couple of hours and noticed that they were anywhere from four to eight minutes apart. I called Shaun and told him that I needed to go to the hospital and get checked out. Once there, the nurse checked me and hooked me up to monitors. My cervix was still closed. I was actually having contractions, but the started getting further apart and less severe. I was given the option to stay in the hospital overnight or go home and see if anything progresses. Since we live across the street from the hospital, I decided to go home and come back if I needed to.

I was able to sleep that night even though I continued to feel contractions. I felt them all weekend, in fact. They just never became more severe or any closer together. I was getting very frustrated because I wanted them to either just stop, or actually start labor.

Monday afternoon, I went to my regular OB appointment. I was two days shy of 37 weeks. My cervix finally changed. I was dilated to one centimeter and 30% effaced. The doctor decided to check on the baby by doing a non-stress test. The printout showed that with the contractions, the baby’s heart rate was declining rapidly. It would go from 160 (which is in the normal range) down as far as 60 beats per minute. The doctor was concerned and thought that the baby would not handle labor well. As a precaution, he wanted me to go to Sioux Valley hospital in Sioux Falls and see a perinatologist.

I ran home, bawling, and packed as good as I could as I waited for Shaun to get there from work. Within minutes, we were on the road for the three and a half hour drive. I was instructed to lay on my side in the back seat. My mother followed close behind us and Shaun’s mom, dad, and brother were right behind her.

We made it to the hospital at about 8:30. I was hooked up to monitors again and before long, the doctor came in and checked my cervix. I was at two centimeters and 80% effaced. He decided to break my water. I then had an ultra sound to check on the baby. The contractions were getting quite a bit more painful, so I sat in the Whirlpool tub. That helped a lot. After a while, they let me have the epidural. Those aren’t offered at our hospital in Pierre, so I was pretty thrilled to have that option. It took the anesthesiologist three tries to get the catheter put in my back. I was getting frustrated. Next thing I knew, I couldn’t feel any contractions at all. I didn’t realize it would work that great.

I was able to sleep through the night. The nurse came in every hour and turned me from one side to the other. Eventually, they decided to add Pitocin to see if they could get labor going a little quicker. Before I knew it, I was fully dilated and ready to push. There was a great deal of pressure and the epidural didn’t help it at all. Pushing was a lot of work. The pushing was making the baby’s heart rate drop again and made my blood pressure drop down as low as 80/40. They had to give me some Effedrine to get it back up and keep an oxygen mask on me. I was having a hard time with pushing because I felt sick. I told the doctor I’ll be able to push after I throw up. Shaun, being the great guy he is, caught my throw up and I felt better.

There were a bunch of doctors and nurses and assistants in my room all helping me deliver and getting ready for the baby. The doctor did an episiotomy and next thing we knew, Kate was out! I had a fourth degree tear that had to be repaired, but seeing our little angel screaming made me forget all about it. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20 ½ inches long. She had strawberry blond hair and long fingers. She was the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen. Shaun and I couldn’t stop crying. It was by far, the happiest moment of my life.

We had a few scares with her blood sugar levels and also her bilirubin levels. She ended up with Jaundice and had to stay in Sioux Falls an extra night. We took her home to Pierre and went to the doctor the next day. Her bilirubin levels kept climbing so we had to spend the night in the hospital here under the lights. Everything got better right away and now she is gaining weight and no longer listless. She has a clean bill of health and has been home with us ever since.

Even though the birth didn’t go exactly as planned, it could have been much worse. We ended up with a beautiful, healthy daughter and mom is slowly but surely recovering.