Just had my first baby one week ago today!
So my husband and I went to the hospital Sunday night at 8pm on May 31st. On the way we got Popeyes for dinner since I knew they wouldn’t let me eat after starting the induction process. After we got dinner my husband starts craving ice cream so we stop at this adorable shop downtown. While waiting in line this group of women asked me “when are you going to have that baby?” I proceeded to say “now” and they fellllll out🤣. They said omg go in front of us we can wait and I had to tell them I was getting induced and there was no rush. It was a hilarious encounter! The sweetest part was that when my husband and I ordered and went to pay, the cashier said the women paid for ours already🥺. We thanked them immensely and they wished me luck as we officially headed to the hospital. It’s an odd feeling walking into the hospital, bags packed, like you’re staying at a hotel. We went up to the 4th floor and were escorted to a labor and delivery room. They let us get comfortable and gave me time to get into a gown. My husband hooked our Xbox up to the TV so we could watch the finale of Euphoria and then he painted my toes while we waited for the nurse to come back. After asking me a million questions the doctor came to check my cervix. I was 3cm and then the nurse started my IV with Pitocin. After that I got comfortable on the ball and we watched our show. At almost 11pm I was still feeling no pain so I told my husband let’s get some rest before things get intense. Not even an hour later I was withering in bed with the contractions starting to pick up. I woke my husband up and he started rubbing my back and telling me how amazing I was. The nurse would come in every so often to check in and bump the Pitocin up. Around 3am the charge nurse came to check on me with the doctor, they checked my cervix again and broke my water. Eventually walking was getting too much so I laid in bed and my husband sat there and held my hand through the pain. Finally after another 30 minutes I caved and told him to hit my call light because I was ready for the epidural. I was so pleasantly surprised by the process because I was absolutely terrified to get it, but I knew I couldn’t handle delivery without it. They allowed my husband to stay with me and I held on to my nurse while the anesthesiologist did her thing. The numbing shot stung a little and burned but after that I didn’t feel anything else. I asked her if she was about to place the epidural when she walked off to get some tape and she said “no I’m done just taping everything down.” They helped me lay back in bed and told me my nurse would be back soon to place a catheter. When they left my sweet husband burst into tears and told me how sorry he was for doing this to me😂. Apparently he could not handle me laying there in so much pain and he felt bad when he saw the big epidural needle go in because he knows I’m super scared of needles. The epidural numbed my left leg and pelvis area but I still felt the contractions on my right side. I was informed to lay on my right side aka the side that is still hurting and push my epidural button to allow the medicine to drain to that side and numb me as it all works with gravity. After about 15 minutes I was no longer hurting and able to sleep. I woke up a few hours later with the most intense pressure in my bottom, I told my nurse it felt like I had to take the biggest poop. I was dilated to a 6 at that time so they upped my Pitocin some more and put me in a sitting up position to allow gravity to help move things down. At about 11:25am a midwife came in to check on me and I told her I was extremely nauseous and could not stop shaking, she said that was wonderful and it means my body is ready. She checked me and said I was complete and +2. By 11:28am my legs were in stirrups, gloves were on, nurses were surrounding me, and I was pushing. The midwife told me to push with my contractions as she watched them on the monitor, I still felt no pain only an increase in pressure when the contractions started. The whole time I was pushing she used a bunch of lube to massage my perineum and rotated her fingers around the baby’s head. I could feel a little bit of the ring of fire when her head was coming out but not much pain at all! At 12:04pm my babygirl was placed on my chest and minutes later my husband was allowed to cut her cord. I permitted a medical student to be in the room so he removed my placenta under supervision and then the midwife examined me. She said I had absolutely no tears and would heal beautifully. The whole experience was beautiful, I feel incredibly lucky considering how rough some labors can be. This was my first time so I went in pretty scared but I could not be more grateful for the medical team I had and the things my body accomplished! Post partum was beautiful, it didn’t even hurt to pee, the most pain I had was in my diaphragm from pushing. It felt like a rough ab workout so the first night I would get a little winded trying to go to the bathroom. The only problem I had was when I stood up the first night to see the baby I had blood pour down my legs and splatter on the floor. My husband turned white and told me to sit down immediately and he called the nurse. She helped me to the bathroom, cleaned me up and got me back in bed. She pushed on my stomach and a bunch more blood and a clot came out. After making sure I was ok and felt fine she called the doctor who did an ultrasound. She said that my uterus looked completely fine but my bladder was super full and the pressure from that is probably what caused me to bleed so much as it pushed on the uterus. They gave me medicine to help with blood loss anyway and told me to relieve my bladder every hour. After that initial bleed I didn’t have an issue again. The whole time that was going on my husband was sitting on the floor throwing up into a bag. He works in an OR so I didn’t think he’d be like that but I suppose when it’s someone you love you react a whole lot different. He told me I was going to give him a heart attack and we’re adopting the rest if we want more kids😂. I’m home now soaking up all the baby love, I still feel great and haven’t had much pain, the occasional mild cramping but Tylenol knocks that out. I’m bleeding lightly but that’s it, I’ve been able to move around and do most of everything by myself again. I’m still careful about lifting so I don’t overdo it but I’m doing extremely well! My tummy is almost back to how it was too, minus a million stretch marks😩.
What are y’all’s birth stories? The good and the bad, I want to hear your experience!