The short story: We went to the hospital Friday night around 11. We had of course read lots of books and gone to childbirth classes, so it was nice to feel educated on the process. However, in my labor there were no 'stages' defined by the timing of contractions or how it felt. From 9 p.m. to 630 a.m. when she was born, the contractions were two and a half minutes apart. There were also no 'breaks' in between contractions. The nurse would keep saying things like "when this contraction is over" or "are you having a contraction" and I couldn't really tell when one started and ended. At around 6 a.m. the doctor strolled in to make an appearance, and a little bit later I was pushing and Penelope was born just shy of 6:30. The nurses were all very good to me, the doctor...well, let's just say he is worthy of his own blog post. To give you an idea...after a drug-free labor and just one shot of local anesthesia, he is doing stitches. He has yet to even look at my face, and I'm certain would not know me if we were to meet in the hall of the hospital, more less around town. He sighs loudly and says, "Well, I can't do this if you're going to flinch every time I stitch," stabs me with two more shots, and continues his job.
Little Penelope scored a 9 and 10 on her Apgar, despite coming into the world withe the cord wrapped around her neck AND body. Apparently I had produced a long baby and a very long cord.
Here are a few pictures.
Mom and Penelope
Leaving the hospital
At home
We came to to the hospital with an empty car seat and two of these bags.
We came home with all of this!
I was wondering how your labor went! Penelope is so cute;-) I don't know what traditional labor feels like either so I like to hear other peoples stories. With tucker they broke my water and everything happened so fast after that I feel like I only know what severe contractions feel like. For the past 3 weeks I am pretty sure I have been having them considering I am almost 4 cm dilated and 95% effaced now but I worry that I won't know when to go in until I am in full on labor and I'll be crowning at 10 cm already.
ReplyDeleteOooh that doctor should have someone stab him in sensitive areas. Honestly. Penelope looks so cute and fresh after her bath!
ReplyDeleteIt is nice that you didn't labor for 36 hours, even if you had continuous contractions. I remember that too--thinking my contractions would look like the charts at birth class. HA! Mine were wave on wave on wave and then nothing and then 5 at once practically. Argh. :-) Oh well--all worth it!