Welcome back to Elyse's Birth story. If you missed part 1 you can VIEW IT HERE!
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| Just minutes after she was born. So glad it was OVER AND DONE with! |
We left off with my fear of being strapped down in the bed while on pitocin. So the nurse started my pitocin at 9:15 am at a level 2, which I was thankful for, and the contractions started pretty quickly and they were STRONG! If I had to rate contractions on a level of 1-10 these started at a 5! Which is where I was at, if not a little further along before they stopped. But what makes these contractions different than natural contractions is that there was no break. Natural contractions you will have a level 5 contraction, and the next one might be a level 3. Then a 6, then a 3 or 4. These were a 5 every time, and only got stronger. No let up. That was hard!
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| Look at all that hair!!! |
I had a hard time relaxing at the beginning of the contractions. I would tense up and say “no, no no!” but then I forced myself to relax and breath through them. I was very aware of the clock and knew that this labor was taking FOREVER and it worried me, because all I saw was the timeline that the hospital has. I was so scared of the pitocin leading to an epidural because I was too tired and couldn’t take it anymore, and then having to go in for a c-section. I had to just turn off my brain and stop thinking about that. The nurse had me labor on my side for about an hour which was AWFUL! The pain and intensity was so strong that I begged to be in any other position besides that one. She wanted the baby to be in a better position and said it was the best for us. Finally after the hour I said I wanted to lean against the back of the bed kneeling. She said as long as they could still trace her heartbeat I could, so up I went, I didn’t care if she had said no, I was going to do it anyways. Anything to get me off my side and my tailbone! I was able to be in a squat position and that helped so much. I could actually feel her at the top of the birth canal. I told the nurse I was getting close because it was feeling so full in there. She finally called the doc in and he checked me. I again, had a little lip of the cervix left (every birth this has happened and it is AWFUL!) He told me, that I could continue to labor with really strong contractions for the next few hours and still not make much progress or we can get her out now, in the next 30 minutes. Not only did I have the lip, but it felt like she was coming out sunny side up again, like the boys! Which is a harder position to push out. But that I wasn’t going to like what he was doing to me and that it was going to hurt! At that point the contractions were very intense and I was exhausted. I still never got to the point where I had to get an epidural, I just wanted her out! That was all I kept saying. “This is taking too long and I just want her out! GET HER OUT OF ME!”
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| Just after she was born, she was wide awake and checking me out! |
We decided to get her out at 12:20 and I started the pushing phase of my labor. The doc had me sitting back reclined. In the absolutely worst position to labor in, but there was too much of a lip for me to be able to squat and he had to do some heavy pushing of the cervix to help. This was incredibly intense. (notice how I don’t say pain. That is just a word I refuse to use associated with labor. It was intense but nothing I couldn’t handle). I did scream out as he pushed the cervix out of the way and pushed with all my might to move her down but she just kept going back up behind the cervix every time I was done. And he had to leave a couple of times because the girl next to me was also in the pushing stage! I was so concerned the whole time on pitocin about her heart rate. I kept my eye on it the whole time. Even during pushing I kept asking the nurse how her heart rate was. She would tell me that it was perfect. Holding steady between 125 and 135 bpm. PERFECT. Finally the doc said, “ok, 3 pushes and she will be out.” 3 pushes later and she still wasn’t out. The next push though, was the big one. He told me to push even harder than before and pushed down on my belly to help assist me and her head literally just POPPED out. It didn’t slowly come out like I had hoped it was, but just popped out. Then the next push, her whole body came out and they put her on my chest.
The doc then said that the placenta was right behind her and said to push just a little. Well, my definition of a little and his is different. And I pushed too hard and the placenta burst out of me along with all the after birth stuff which shot out all over my doc. To which he exclaimed, “Well now I have to go change!” He was covered, and his shoes too! And the nurses got to work cleaning up all the stuff off the floor about 2 feet beyond the end of the bed. Payback for the discomfort he put me through I guess.
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| She started out a finger sucker, but nope hasn't stuck! |
Elyse Cheyenne Allen was born at 1:01pm with a healthy set of lungs. She had the chord around her neck twice and it was knotted once but was still able to keep a good steady heartbeat the whole labor! And she didn’t come out sunny side up, she turned at some point in the birth canal but still came out with a different part of her head presenting, and not the crown of the head. She also came out in a compound position with her hand up on her head and her elbow poking out just like Collin. It was like the full gamut of how she can have things being born. And it was hard! I burst many blood vessels in my face, chest and across my back. On the plus side, I DIDN'T TEAR! My doc worked so hard to stretch out my perineum after pushing my cervix out of the way. It literally felt like he was pushing my perineum down to the floor. And because I didn't tear, and I suspect the picocin, recovery and postpartum bleeding has not been as bad as it was with both boys, and her head was 2 cm bigger than the boys and didn't mold as much in the birth canal! (that is why her head just popped out)
I was in labor for a total of 10.5 hours. So much longer compared to my others. I never got to the point where I needed an epidural I just wanted her out! She was born with dark brown hair and a cry of a banshee! After about 30 minutes the nurses checked her temperature and noticed that she was a little cold and wasn’t getting as warm as they wanted. She was pink and doing great just a little cold. Se we did more skin to skin, and after another 15 minutes she was moved to Matt since he runs “hotter” than I do. And she warmed right up when snuggled up skin to skin with him. I had to finish the bag of pitocin before I was allowed to go to my postpartum room. And since it was on such a slow drip to begin with, it took 3 hours before I was released to the postpartum room. Over the next 6 hours they continued to monitor her temperature. We increased the temp in our postpartum room, to the point where I was pouring sweat and they brought in a personal fan for me to use while Matt held her. They did take her to the nursery for 30 minutes to put her under the heat lamp and she was fine after that. Just kept the room warmer than I wanted. Other than that, she was PERFECT! We had a hard time calming her down and she cried a lot while in the hospital. Only the nurses were able to get her to sleep in the bassinet. Other than that, Matt and I took turns holding her while the other slept. Thankfully almost 2 weeks later, we have found her sleep pattern. All it really took was for my milk to come in to knock her out! (which my milk started coming in a day and a half after I gave birth so by the last 6 hours in the hospital she was sleeping more and more content because my milk came in on both sides).
So that’s my birth story for Elyse. Pretty exciting huh! So I have done labor with pitocin and without pain medications. I am not a super hero. I cried out quite a bit. But again, I never got to that point that I had to have pain meds. It can be done. You just have to believe in yourself, and have a resolve strong enough to endure through it.
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