M Birth Story

 Here is a post about how my pregnancy and everything leading up to the delivery went with my 3rd baby.

We get to the hospital around 8AM. The nurse assigned to me missed my IV. This was the first time this has happened to me, and it was embarrassingly difficult for me to handle it charitably! I hope my relief wasn't too obvious when H (the nurse) got a coworker to do the 2nd attempt. 

The midwife who I met with a few days before, we'll call her A, came into the room to say hi. She was working a 24 hour shift. I remember telling Brendan that I hoped we were at the beginning of the shift. I was super happy to see her either way. 

Remember, my previous child's birth only took a few hours after getting to the hospital. I naively thought this would be a similar situation. 

10am I was started on Pitocin (a 2). 

11am Pitocin bumped to a 4, feeling contractions but not painful at all

1:56pm Pitocin an 8. 

I should mention that the nurse had another induction patient that was also there today. I'm not sure if that is why everything was so slow or if that is how the midwife usually has things go.

3:22pm Got the epidural. I got it at this time even though I wasn't having painful contractions lol because A advised that I get it before my water was broken. This was by far the worst part of the birth in retrospect. 

3:52pm My water was broken. Didn't hurt at all due to the epidural. I was still only the same amount dilated that I was when I checked in which was kinda annoying like what were we doing all day. My feelings probably would've been different if we didn't have the quick expectation from my previous delivery. I was very hungry at this point because I didn't anticipate not being able to eat for so long. I got the usual flavored ice and enjoyed some cranberry juice.

5:43pm I felt pressure and requested that I get checked but it was a false alarm, I was only 1 more centimeter dilated than before my water breaking. 

6:25pm Pitocin up to a 10. I used the peanut ball and kept flipping sides. Sometime after this a new nurse started working. This is important because I actually don't want to disclose what it was publicly but the previous nurse didn't do something and after the new nurse did it I was like ready to have the baby after it was done.

Baby wasn't handling contractions super well when I was on one side of the peanut ball I think. The new nurse was able to get A before it was time to push. I think I pushed for 8 minutes and baby was born at 7:55pm! The umbilical cord was intact for a longgg time so long that my back was like hurting from nursing or whatever and being crunched and I was like can we cut this but A was like "it's still pulsing".  Hearing the newborn cry for the first time is euphoric. The golden hour was like 2 hours which is kinda significant because we were too late to get the hospital food so B got Taco Bell. I thought for sure baby M would be 7 pounds but she was a little over 8, we're not sure if it is because she nursed for like 2 hours before she was weighed though. Overall a very lovely birth, the worst parts were getting the IV and the epidural 😬