Today I'm posting another birth class student's happy birth story. Enjoy!
We have some happy news to report - Ryan was born last Sunday, August 28th, at 4:01pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz and was 21.75" long! I started feeling "Braxton Hicks contractions" at 9am Saturday, remarked to myself about their consistent timing (8-1-1) and went about my day shopping for nursing clothes and going to prenatal yoga.
After yoga my contractions started becoming painful and were happening more frequently but still I was convinced this was "false labor". I set up multiple stations (shower, yoga mat in bedroom, bed) for managing the painful contractions. Tom was away at a bachelor party in Southampton and I deliberated whether to call him back home but after another hour realized regardless of what "this" was I was not going through an overnight of it without Tom.
When he arrived home four hours later he timed my contractions at 3-1-1, got the midwives on the phone, had them listen to one of my contractions and was promptly told to come in; he called the doula and let her know that we were passed the laboring at home phase and going to the hospital and she agreed to meet us there.
After 15 hours of laboring at home we arrived at the hospital; I was informed that while I was 80% effaced I was only 2 cm dilated and baby was in -3 position; only because of my currently high blood pressure was I admitted. It was another grueling 16 hours before baby was born and there were a series of fortunate events leading to us having the best possible team (highly experienced midwife happened to be on-call, L&D (ie Labor & Delivery) nurse was doula trained and studying to become a midwife, my mom was allowed in despite the two-person support limit).
In the end I was successful in having the natural birth I envisioned despite baby's posterior position and extended time with baby's head pressing significantly on my pelvis in the -3/-2 position. He came out looking like an Incan god (MAJOR cone head) and was treated "under the lights" for 42 hours due to jaundice caused by blood differences (I'm O+). We learned A LOT from the nurses in the nursery so were ultimately happy to have lost the privilege of "rooming in" that we had initially desired.
In the maternity suite there were a series of Unfortunate events that led to mass miscommunication between caregivers (pediatricians, nurses, midwives, doctors, etc.) and stress about when and if we would be discharged together. On Tuesday night we were both sent home, despite Ryan not getting the circumcision planned, with plans for follow-up blood work with our pediatrician for jaundice monitoring. We are exhausted but not overwhelmed and are happy that we had the opportunity to "study up" to advocate for ourselves and Ryan throughout our natural hospital birth.
