lolagranola
LIF Adolescent
Member since 8/06 572 total posts
Name:
|
DS arrives... very early!
Hi, everyone,
I haven't posted in a long time due to a big surprise: my son was born a month earlier than expected! Fortunately, though I only made it to 35 weeks and a few days, he is healthy and thriving!
The birth story is a long one but I will try to summarize. Lost my mucus plug on 6/6, called the doctor, was told not to worry -- this could happen anytime, didn't necessarily mean onset of labor, etc. Later that night, around 9:30, my water broke. Called doctor, was immediately sent to hospital. For some reason, I thought the hospital might send me home! I was clearly in a daze. The nurse said, "you ain't going nowhere until you have this baby!" That's when reality hit me. I didn't even have a bag packed. Heck, I never even made it to my birthing class, which was scheduled for... the next day!!!!
Meanwhile, I had no contractions at all -- nothing I could feel other than very minor menstrual-type cramping. The doctors decided to see what would happen overnight and said they'd have to induce in the morning if no progress. So, after a sleepless night worrying and crying about whether the baby would be OK despite the preterm birth, there was no progress. They nurses got out the pitocin to, as they put it, "get the party started." I also needed an antibiotics IV because I had just done my Group B strep test and the results weren't back from the lab.
The pitocin started working immediately, with contractions becoming stronger, more frequent, and more painful. I went for about five or six more hours without pain medication, but the back labor became overwhelming and I decided to have an epidural. Ladies, if you are worried about the epidural, trust me when I tell you that in my experience, thinking about it and anticipating it was much, much worse than the event itself. I didn't feel the needle and the pain relief was, well, a relief!
The pushing part was just like many people say... your body tells you what to do, and you wind up "in the moment." You will not be worrying about things like pooping on the table! No further comment necessary here... 
After DS was born and the nurses gave me his Apgar scores (all 9 out of 10) I felt so, so much better... my anxiety about his health was so much greater than my anxiety about the birth process. He had to go directly to NICU for monitoring because he was so early. He stayed there for a week, which was dreadfully hard for me... I wanted him to come home so badly. Luckily, the nurses were great... I really wish nurses were paid more! They do so much of the important work, from caring for baby to soothing mommy's fears...
Anyway, there's more to the story; I had some complications after the birth which required me to stay in the hospital for a few days. These complications aren't likely to happen to any of you, and I don't want to scare anyone unnecessarily, so I will leave those details out. (FM for details if you want.)
We're all getting settled in at home now. For those of you concerned about breastfeeding if you aren't able to start in the hospital right away: do not worry! DS is quickly adjusting and eating like a champ!
I know that I missed quite a few of your birth stories... my congratulations and best wishes to you all! I look forward to getting "caught up" soon.
PS I apologize for the lack of photos and other details; DH is very anxious about identity theft type things online, so I am respecting his wishes by remaining relatively incognito here.
|
hbugal
Lesigh
Member since 2/07 15928 total posts
Name:
|
Re: DS arrives... very early!
Glad everything turned out OK...
Congrats and the birth of your DS..
My 2nd set of twins were born at exactly 35 weeks as well. They too had to stay in the nursery for a week..more of an observation type of thing than anything else...it is very hard but I just kept telling myself that it was for the best.
Please post weight, length, name and some pics ASAP!!!!!!!!!!
|
