Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Babies.........
I have four of them and I love reliving each of their birth stories.
11/19/91 12:26 pm (Tuesday) The night before, I'd been cleaning my room (still lived at home) and the last thing I put away was a book of "For Better or For Worse" - the book where Elly gives birth to April. I opened it up randomly and it was Elly looking in the closet at all the baby things checking them off her mental list. At the end, she rubs her belly and says "I'm ready when you are." I put a page of stickers into that page, shut the book, and put it on the shelf. Then I rubbed my own belly and said "Me too". My water broke at 1:00 in the morning. I wasn't having contractions but went to the hospital and got an epidural and pitocin. I felt maybe three contractions at 12:15 and Spencer was born a few minutes later.
4/12/00 5:56 am (Wednesday) I'd felt weird all day the day before and tried to take it easy. That night I had DH do my belly mask and the whole time he kept asking me if I thought we needed to go to the hospital. After we were done, I had a nice hot shower. While I dried off, DH got in the shower. He came into the bedroom to get dressed and I was dressed in clothes, not jammies. He said "So we're going to the hospital then huh?" We did and got hooked up to the monitors. About 45 minutes into our hour of monitoring ( contx 4 mins apart but I wasn't feeling any of them), my water broke. (1:30 am). I spent most of my labor in the shower and Bethany was born early in the morning with no drugs! She had problems breathing (three weeks early, but they thought she was more like 7-8 weeks early), so she was in the nursery. DH got on a plane at noon. At six the next morning, they took Bethany to the children's hospital to be in their NICU. I was released at 8 and went straight to the other hospital to be with her. After a week in the NICU, she's now a healthy kindergartener.
6/22/02 4:48 am (Saturday) I'd had an appointment with the midwife on Thursday morning. As she was checking me, her eyes got big around as saucers and said "Uhm....I can't let you leave here dilated to a six, so I'll just call you a five plus, ok?" Friday night I felt kinda weird. DH and the kids ate dinner and I just took a yogurt upstairs and ate it and called the mw. She said to go get checked out. After we got a sitter for the other kids, we went to the hospital and were on the monitors for an hour. Pretty consistent contx that again I couldn't feel. DH didn't want to leave without a baby, but I was unsure about having the mw break my water. DH and I left the hospital (midnightish) and got a grilled cheese sandwich (for me) and a shake (for DH) from the hospital's snack bar. After eating, we went for a walk down to State Street. Came back to the hospital....sat in the car....went for a tiny drive.....walked some more.....came back to the hospital. At 2:30 mw broke my water and we walked to the other room. Finally some contx that I could feel! I had to stop twice on the way to wait for them to pass. I spent the rest of my labor in the shower. DH told me I was getting pushy and I told him he was nuts. I went to call for the nurse and when she answered I told her I wanted the mw. They all came in and I stood there in the shower trying to figure out how I was going to get out of the shower and onto the bed. It seemed to take forever to get my feet to work the way I wanted them to. MW told me later she was ready with a pillow cuz she thought I would deliver there in the shower. My favorite thing when Carter was born was his ears. Watching them in the first few hours was like watching a flower bloom. They unfolded and were gorgeous. He still has little pixie ears and I love them!
2/22/04 7:52 pm (Sunday) I'd spent days and days with contractions. Many times with them 3-4 minutes apart. I'd been to the hospital four times. I was a little scared after Carter's quick labor that I'd be delivering at home (and had prepared for that). I didn't sleep much that weekend. I kept DH up playing Scrabble and spent hours on the computer playing solitare. Finally at 6 am after tossing and turing, I got up and headed down to the computer again. At 7 my water broke. I was so happy! Finally this baby was really coming! I called the mw and got dh up. My niece had spent the night so we already had a sitter. We finally left for the hospital around 10. I knew the contx weren't strong enough and wasn't panicked. I walked the hospital all stinking day wondering why my contx weren't getting stronger. They were stronger when I walked, but not strong enough I knew. Finally at 5:30, the mw checked me again and my forewater had broken (duh, I'd been leaking all day), but my real bag was still intact. So she broke my water and I got in the shower again. Now I knew this was really labor. But baby was still very high, I kept waiting for that drop.......I started getting pushy and moved to the bed, but I knew baby was still too high. We waited and waited........we talked about our trip to the Caribbean a couple years previous and compared the contx to a barracuda that we'd seen. Suddenly I had to push. In not even one full push, I'd gone from having baby high inside me to holding my Truman in my arms.
A couple of interesting notes: I had doctor's appointments the days Spencer and Bethany were born. I had a mw appt on Thursday, so I fully expected Carter to be born sometime that morning. I was so disappointed when I woke up still pregnant and had to go to the mw. Also, Spencer and Bethany had a six in their times of birth, I said when Carter was born that he was two minutes too late. Well, two days and two minutes. He now is very sure of himself and does his own things on his own timetable. If everyone else is done with dinner and off to play, he's still at the table eating until he's done.
I had an epidural for the first baby and the other three were completely unmedicated. I worked hard for those drug free births and would do it again in a heartbeat. They were not too much for me to handle and my recovery was much easier with each of them.
11/19/91 12:26 pm (Tuesday) The night before, I'd been cleaning my room (still lived at home) and the last thing I put away was a book of "For Better or For Worse" - the book where Elly gives birth to April. I opened it up randomly and it was Elly looking in the closet at all the baby things checking them off her mental list. At the end, she rubs her belly and says "I'm ready when you are." I put a page of stickers into that page, shut the book, and put it on the shelf. Then I rubbed my own belly and said "Me too". My water broke at 1:00 in the morning. I wasn't having contractions but went to the hospital and got an epidural and pitocin. I felt maybe three contractions at 12:15 and Spencer was born a few minutes later.
4/12/00 5:56 am (Wednesday) I'd felt weird all day the day before and tried to take it easy. That night I had DH do my belly mask and the whole time he kept asking me if I thought we needed to go to the hospital. After we were done, I had a nice hot shower. While I dried off, DH got in the shower. He came into the bedroom to get dressed and I was dressed in clothes, not jammies. He said "So we're going to the hospital then huh?" We did and got hooked up to the monitors. About 45 minutes into our hour of monitoring ( contx 4 mins apart but I wasn't feeling any of them), my water broke. (1:30 am). I spent most of my labor in the shower and Bethany was born early in the morning with no drugs! She had problems breathing (three weeks early, but they thought she was more like 7-8 weeks early), so she was in the nursery. DH got on a plane at noon. At six the next morning, they took Bethany to the children's hospital to be in their NICU. I was released at 8 and went straight to the other hospital to be with her. After a week in the NICU, she's now a healthy kindergartener.
6/22/02 4:48 am (Saturday) I'd had an appointment with the midwife on Thursday morning. As she was checking me, her eyes got big around as saucers and said "Uhm....I can't let you leave here dilated to a six, so I'll just call you a five plus, ok?" Friday night I felt kinda weird. DH and the kids ate dinner and I just took a yogurt upstairs and ate it and called the mw. She said to go get checked out. After we got a sitter for the other kids, we went to the hospital and were on the monitors for an hour. Pretty consistent contx that again I couldn't feel. DH didn't want to leave without a baby, but I was unsure about having the mw break my water. DH and I left the hospital (midnightish) and got a grilled cheese sandwich (for me) and a shake (for DH) from the hospital's snack bar. After eating, we went for a walk down to State Street. Came back to the hospital....sat in the car....went for a tiny drive.....walked some more.....came back to the hospital. At 2:30 mw broke my water and we walked to the other room. Finally some contx that I could feel! I had to stop twice on the way to wait for them to pass. I spent the rest of my labor in the shower. DH told me I was getting pushy and I told him he was nuts. I went to call for the nurse and when she answered I told her I wanted the mw. They all came in and I stood there in the shower trying to figure out how I was going to get out of the shower and onto the bed. It seemed to take forever to get my feet to work the way I wanted them to. MW told me later she was ready with a pillow cuz she thought I would deliver there in the shower. My favorite thing when Carter was born was his ears. Watching them in the first few hours was like watching a flower bloom. They unfolded and were gorgeous. He still has little pixie ears and I love them!
2/22/04 7:52 pm (Sunday) I'd spent days and days with contractions. Many times with them 3-4 minutes apart. I'd been to the hospital four times. I was a little scared after Carter's quick labor that I'd be delivering at home (and had prepared for that). I didn't sleep much that weekend. I kept DH up playing Scrabble and spent hours on the computer playing solitare. Finally at 6 am after tossing and turing, I got up and headed down to the computer again. At 7 my water broke. I was so happy! Finally this baby was really coming! I called the mw and got dh up. My niece had spent the night so we already had a sitter. We finally left for the hospital around 10. I knew the contx weren't strong enough and wasn't panicked. I walked the hospital all stinking day wondering why my contx weren't getting stronger. They were stronger when I walked, but not strong enough I knew. Finally at 5:30, the mw checked me again and my forewater had broken (duh, I'd been leaking all day), but my real bag was still intact. So she broke my water and I got in the shower again. Now I knew this was really labor. But baby was still very high, I kept waiting for that drop.......I started getting pushy and moved to the bed, but I knew baby was still too high. We waited and waited........we talked about our trip to the Caribbean a couple years previous and compared the contx to a barracuda that we'd seen. Suddenly I had to push. In not even one full push, I'd gone from having baby high inside me to holding my Truman in my arms.
A couple of interesting notes: I had doctor's appointments the days Spencer and Bethany were born. I had a mw appt on Thursday, so I fully expected Carter to be born sometime that morning. I was so disappointed when I woke up still pregnant and had to go to the mw. Also, Spencer and Bethany had a six in their times of birth, I said when Carter was born that he was two minutes too late. Well, two days and two minutes. He now is very sure of himself and does his own things on his own timetable. If everyone else is done with dinner and off to play, he's still at the table eating until he's done.
I had an epidural for the first baby and the other three were completely unmedicated. I worked hard for those drug free births and would do it again in a heartbeat. They were not too much for me to handle and my recovery was much easier with each of them.
# posted by Carol @ 10:25 AM 
