My Little Miracle
Ok, so for everybody who I haven't told - he's here!! Matthew Lawrence was born on Tuesday, May 30th at 4:42am after only 6 hours of labor! Crazy for a first child, but not at all disappointing. I did go for the epidural at 8cm, so I didn't go all natural, but know what? Labor hurts. I figured it would, but wow. Not to scare anyone - it actually wasn't any worse that what I expected. But it's one thing to contemplate what it might feel like beforehand, and quite another to be going through the contractions! Anyway, here is Matthew's birth story (copied from my iVillage message board):
Matthew Lawrence was born on May 30th at 4:42am. He weighed 7lb 8oz and was 21in long (going to be tall like Daddy!). His birth went nothing like I expected, which was that he would be late and I'd be in labor for a long time since he is my first baby. What actually happened is that my contractions started good and strong exactly 9 minutes apart on May 29th at 10:30pm. I was trying to get to sleep because I thought I would be getting up for work at 6:00am the next day! I really had no idea that I was going to go into labor. I got out of bed after about 4 contractions to let my husband know that I thought this might be it - he was still out in the living room watching TV. After about an hour the contractions were coming 5-6 minutes apart and were bothering me enough that I couldn't really walk through them, although I was trying to keep on my feet to "move things along." Then my bowels started loosening up, my husband and I were running around frantically trying to make sure we had everything we needed in our hospital bag, and I threw up. Things were definitely getting intense! Finally we got ourselves on the way to the hospital - by this time my contractions were 2.5-3.5 minutes apart, so it's a good thing we only live 5 minutes away! We got there and they put me in triage, start asking me all the questions, hooking me up to monitors, etc. All the while I am in agony...finally they get the doctor in to examine me somewhere around 1:00am, and I am at 7cm, 100% effaced and a 0 station. The nurses were very impressed with me :o) They wheel me to labor and delivery - now the contractions are steady at 2 minutes apart. I wanted to go without pain medication, but everything was just happening so fast and hard that I jumped at the epidural as soon as they offered it. They gave me that, which made things a lot better. It was left at a low enough level, though, so that I would be able to effectively push. So while I was much more comfortable I could still feel mild pain during contractions. I believe that I actually started pushing around 3:00-3:30am - things are such a blur for me now! I was on oxygen and had to stay on my left side for a while because they thought the baby's heartrate kept dropping. Turns out that he was just moving around a lot and the monitor would lose his and start picking up mine. My blood pressure also went up (strange because I thought an epidural would make it drop) and I got the shakes pretty badly. Plus I had to stop pushing twice to throw up again! Birth is such a pleasant process. By the end of the pushing stage I had my husband, my mom and dad, 2 nurses, the doctor and a resident all standing/sitting around staring in rapt attention at my "private areas." And you know what? I really couldn't have cared less. For all of you who haven't had babies yet and are worried about modisty and all that - don't. I am a pretty private person, but I really didn't care what was going on at that point, just as long as the kid was coming out of me! Finally the doctor says that it will only take a few more contractions to get him out and I make sure to push with every contraction (for a while they were only having me push with every other contraction because they were coming a minute apart or less and they didn't want me to wear myself out). Then I hear the best news - on the next contraction just give a little push because his head will be out! So when the contraction starts I say, "a little one now?" And the doctor tells me to hold on, that he doesn't even think I will have to. I watched the mirror they had set up and, sure enough, Matthew's head slowly emerges without even a little push from me! They suctioned him out and I did have to push the rest of him, but compared with the pushing I did earlier it was a piece of cake. No episiotomy, and only a first degree tear with a few stitches. He came out pretty peacefully - only cried a little bit until they took him to weigh him.
We've been doing very well since. I have been suffering a bit with the baby blues - very weepy these days - but today has been good. I think that it's mostly a reaction to the lack of sleep, crazy hormones and (of course) just being so in love with my new little boy that I don't hardly know how to handle it! Anyway, I'll write more later. Just wanted to update everyone :o)
Matthew Lawrence was born on May 30th at 4:42am. He weighed 7lb 8oz and was 21in long (going to be tall like Daddy!). His birth went nothing like I expected, which was that he would be late and I'd be in labor for a long time since he is my first baby. What actually happened is that my contractions started good and strong exactly 9 minutes apart on May 29th at 10:30pm. I was trying to get to sleep because I thought I would be getting up for work at 6:00am the next day! I really had no idea that I was going to go into labor. I got out of bed after about 4 contractions to let my husband know that I thought this might be it - he was still out in the living room watching TV. After about an hour the contractions were coming 5-6 minutes apart and were bothering me enough that I couldn't really walk through them, although I was trying to keep on my feet to "move things along." Then my bowels started loosening up, my husband and I were running around frantically trying to make sure we had everything we needed in our hospital bag, and I threw up. Things were definitely getting intense! Finally we got ourselves on the way to the hospital - by this time my contractions were 2.5-3.5 minutes apart, so it's a good thing we only live 5 minutes away! We got there and they put me in triage, start asking me all the questions, hooking me up to monitors, etc. All the while I am in agony...finally they get the doctor in to examine me somewhere around 1:00am, and I am at 7cm, 100% effaced and a 0 station. The nurses were very impressed with me :o) They wheel me to labor and delivery - now the contractions are steady at 2 minutes apart. I wanted to go without pain medication, but everything was just happening so fast and hard that I jumped at the epidural as soon as they offered it. They gave me that, which made things a lot better. It was left at a low enough level, though, so that I would be able to effectively push. So while I was much more comfortable I could still feel mild pain during contractions. I believe that I actually started pushing around 3:00-3:30am - things are such a blur for me now! I was on oxygen and had to stay on my left side for a while because they thought the baby's heartrate kept dropping. Turns out that he was just moving around a lot and the monitor would lose his and start picking up mine. My blood pressure also went up (strange because I thought an epidural would make it drop) and I got the shakes pretty badly. Plus I had to stop pushing twice to throw up again! Birth is such a pleasant process. By the end of the pushing stage I had my husband, my mom and dad, 2 nurses, the doctor and a resident all standing/sitting around staring in rapt attention at my "private areas." And you know what? I really couldn't have cared less. For all of you who haven't had babies yet and are worried about modisty and all that - don't. I am a pretty private person, but I really didn't care what was going on at that point, just as long as the kid was coming out of me! Finally the doctor says that it will only take a few more contractions to get him out and I make sure to push with every contraction (for a while they were only having me push with every other contraction because they were coming a minute apart or less and they didn't want me to wear myself out). Then I hear the best news - on the next contraction just give a little push because his head will be out! So when the contraction starts I say, "a little one now?" And the doctor tells me to hold on, that he doesn't even think I will have to. I watched the mirror they had set up and, sure enough, Matthew's head slowly emerges without even a little push from me! They suctioned him out and I did have to push the rest of him, but compared with the pushing I did earlier it was a piece of cake. No episiotomy, and only a first degree tear with a few stitches. He came out pretty peacefully - only cried a little bit until they took him to weigh him.
We've been doing very well since. I have been suffering a bit with the baby blues - very weepy these days - but today has been good. I think that it's mostly a reaction to the lack of sleep, crazy hormones and (of course) just being so in love with my new little boy that I don't hardly know how to handle it! Anyway, I'll write more later. Just wanted to update everyone :o)
posted by flannel04 @ 9:36 PM
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