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The Birth of Izzy
Izzy’s birth story starts on December 4th, when I was 38 weeks pregnant and I was sent to the ultrasound department because my fundal height was measuring a bit on the low side. My fluid level around Izzy was down to 2.7, 5 is considered low. They wanted to send me up for an induction immediately.
I have reservations regarding inductions as the hormones used for inductions may be associated with autism. (Pitocin is a synthetic form of oxytocin which is a "love" hormone. Apparently autistic kids are deficient in oxytocin. Autism also seems to be more prevalent in children born from inductions.) Partner that with my own iffy reactions to anesthesia- both general and local, and I was afraid of the hormones, and the possible spiral of intervention.
So I asked the simple question "Would it be dangerous for me to go home and come back tomorrow for another ultrasound?" The doctor had me take a non-stress test to see how the baby was doing, and he was kicking up a storm and his heartbeat sounded great. So they let me go, and I went back the next day. They still wanted to induce me. I asked if I could again go home and drink a lot of water and come back in two days. So I did that, and the next measurement was 7.2!
They wanted to keep an eye on me for the rest of the pregnancy. So I came back for another ultrasound, and it was up to 9. Since at this point I was very close to my due date they started bringing up the idea of an induction AGAIN; they didn’t want to let me go over 41 weeks. Since 9 was in the safety zone, I didn’t have to restrict my physical activity anymore the way I had been. (I had been restricting my physical activity, taking an easily digestible form of iron in the form of blackstrap molasses to help my placenta out, and I had been laying on my left side as much as possible, as well as cutting out all caffeine and cutting back on the salt. All in an attempt to help my body build up the fluids since they said that drinking water seldom ever helped anyone. I was the first they saw that it helped!)
So my husband and I took a walk home from the hospital (we live in NYC). It was a 2.5 mile walk. By the time we got home it was 7PM and I was having semi regular contractions.
At 1AM we went to Labor and Delivery to get checked because my contractions were becoming quite painful and were regular and lasting for longer and longer. I was still only 1cm dilated 50% effaced. They sent me home. But before I went, they checked my water levels again! 10! They said to come back when I wasn’t smiling so much. đ
I spent the rest of the night trying to sleep. At first my husband would rub my lower back for contractions. That helped for a while. But soon I had to jump out of bed for every contraction and lean against the door frame and rock from leg to leg. That turned out to be the best method of pain relief throughout the whole labor.
Throughout the day I had a couple of glasses of wine (as suggested by the labor and delivery nurses when we called in.) and took a 30 minute lukewarm bath to help with the contractions. Rocking in the water helped, as the waves of the water breaking on my back/belly seemed to move opposite of the contractions and wash some of the pain away. The wine and the water actually made about two hours of labor when I was about 5cm dilated into a state of bliss.
At around 6PM we were off to the hospital again.
We entered via the emergency room entrance and walked to the elevators. I had two contractions on the way to the elevators, and one in the elevator, and another two on the way to labor and delivery triage. Every time someone saw me, they offered a wheelchair- but I didn’t want to sit down. The idea of it sounded painful. Walking and moving helped the pain tremendously.
This time around, triage was so full that there were three people waiting in the waiting room when we got there. I was further along than any of them. I leaned up against the wall and made my labor sounds (think a cow in heat, mooing and groaning) and rocked from leg to leg while perched on the balls of my feet with my legs spread out. My husband rubbed my lower back in firm downward motions, and between these two things it felt like the baby was being moved down by our efforts.
At one point I suddenly got the urge to push and squatted down. Horrified by my reaction I said "err. I think I need to push." These were the magic words. They got me out of triage and into a labor and delivery room quickly.
The urge to push turned out to just be my mucus plug releasing. I was now 7cm dilated and they weren’t sending me anywhere.
They kept trying to get me to lay down on the bed for a 20 minute session of fetal monitoring. By the time I got admitted into a room I was 7cm dilated and rapidly progressing. (It ended up taking about 45 minutes to go from 7-10cm, when it usually takes about 1 hour per cm for a first birth.) I refused to lay down and kept swaying, which I think brought the baby on faster!
At one point the fetal monitors fell off, and we re-attached them. But at that point the "baby’s heart" started acting funny and going UP during a contraction (instead of down) and then DOWN after a contraction. So they started crying "fetal distress". I got the whole "DEAD BABY IF YOU DO NOT LAY DOWN NOW!" speech.
I lay down so that they could check my dilation again, and the doctor said something about 10cm, and broke my water. Apparently I was fully dilated and I was supposed to start pushing. They broke the bed down and all of a sudden about 10 more people rushed into the room with all sorts of emergency equiptment and baby-warming beds. Pediatricians, another nurse, another doctor, a nurse for the baby, etc. Bedlam.
I remember telling myself "The bastards are going to push for a c-section even though I’m 10cm dilated," and I was determined to help Izzy out as fast as he could come.
They put in an internal fetal monitor and then realized that the machine in the room didn’t have a connection for it! Poor little guy was born with a scab on his head from the stupid thing.
I knew it was just a bad monitor connection because it had been perfectly fine up until the monitor fell off, and Izzy was still fighting with every contraction- he hated the contractions. So I asked them to move the monitor to the other side because I had an anterior placenta and the doctors at the fetal monitoring unit that I went to for a few non-stress tests always had better luck on the other side. They ignored me.
After about 45 minutes of rather ineffective pushing (I wasn’t ready to push yet and needed a slight rest, but they kept insisting on 3 pushes per contraction. They also insisted that I push on my back) his head started crowning. I faked a bunch of pushes to allow myself to recover and to allow his head to gradually stretch out the opening a bit so it wouldn’t tear (the doctors were trying to pull the opening larger and it hurt like the dickens. It hurt more than transition! Ugh!) At one point I felt the upper part of the opening begin to feel like it was going to tear, and I reached down and applied pressure to it. As I reached down, I felt his little head full of hair, and that gave me the energy to give the only three effective pushes that I had.. With that, the little bean was born. APGARs 9/9.5. He had been fine the entire time. They had been listening to MY heart rate!
But because of the fetal monitor hooey, he spent the first 5 minutes of his life being checked extensively by a pediatrician instead of in my arms.
Our introduction to breastfeeding was also sort of shakey. They encouraged me to stick him onto the breast immediately rather than letting him familiarize himself with it and naturally try to latch on. This resulted in a screaming festival on his part. I stopped forcing him, and had a miserable 30 hours or so in the hospital before discharge.. He wouldn’t latch and wasn’t filling enough diapers, so I was concerned I was starving him. At one point I almost gave him formula, but he didn’t seem dehydrated and I didn’t want to sabotage the breastfeeding relationship. So I waited.
At home, when both of us relaxed, he immediately latched on and has been exclusively breastfed for the full 2 1/2 months of his life.
Lil is a 26 year old Mom to Izzy, her first child. She is a programmer and does freelance work from home, so she gets to spend her days with the little one while working. Lil, her husband, and Izzy live in NYC with their three dogs.
The Birth of Hunter
June 6th, we woke up early and phoned the hospital case room to arrange a time to come in for induction. We arrived at 7:45 am and were set up in a delivery room. I gave a urine sample and we were strapped into a fetal monitor belt, with one belt on baby and one on my uterus to watch babyâs heart rate and uterine muscle activity. We spent about 30 minutes being monitored and then had a visit from our family doctor. Dr. R went off to deliver a baby by Cesarean and we were monitored for a bit longer, to get a good reading of the babyâs heart rate and the activity of my uterus.
Dr. R returned and we were induced at 9:00 am with the application of prostaglandin gel onto the cervix. After the application of the gel, we waited for an hour being monitored to see if there were any changes in the muscle activity of the uterus or any influences on the babyâs heart rate. After an hour of no changes because of the gel, we were told to go walk around the ward for half an hour. We walked around the floor and checked out all the babies in the nursery, getting a chance to talk to some families of newborns. Then we returned to be monitored for another thirty minutes. There was still no action, so we walked around some more.
At this point, we were both pretty tired so we decided to curl up and try to sleep. After a third post-gel monitor, there was still no action in the uterine monitor so we were dismissed to go home with a list of things to watch for that indicate the onset of labor and would require us to return. We were told to return at 3:45pm for another check and another application of the prostaglandin gel.
We went home and rested. We did some e-mailing; I made some cranberry scones and then we had a nap. At around 2:00 pm, while napping, I started to feel a little bit of tightening in my belly that I thought to be the beginning of little warm-up contractions. They were very irregular and quite short and I was sleeping, so it was hard for me to time them to keep track of their regularity.
At 3:45 pm, we returned to KGH to get another monitor strip done. I gave another urine sample and set it on the ledge in a four-bed room. As soon as the belt was put on, the tightenings began again with a little more intensity and were very regular. The contractions started at about three to four minutes between onset. They were not very strong though, and could be felt simply as a tightening. According to the readout on the monitor, the nurses and Dr. R figured that I was seeing natural contractions occurring, as well as contractions because of the gel. Interesting! We waited and monitored for a bit longer.
The nurse came in to see us again and asked about the urine sample on the ledge. I, trying to be funny, said that it was actually apple juice and she left it there and made a comment about being thirsty. Uhhh⊠not a time for humor. Sure did feel stupid after that. Because we were seeing something going on, Dr. R wasnât sure if she wanted to go through with another application of the gel because that would have overstimulated the uterus, which could have caused some problems. So, we postponed the application and we were monitored for another little bit. At 5 pm Dr. R decided that we were in early labor and that we should go home to rest and let things progress naturally. We were pretty excited, but it still felt pretty surreal, as things were not very strong and we werenât quite sure what to make of it or how long things would takeâŠ
When we got home, we decided to run out and get some groceries so that we would have food in the house for when we returned home with baby and for when Justin was home waiting for us. That was interesting. Walking around the grocery store, feeling contractions getting stronger and stronger and becoming more and more uncomfortable. We stocked up. When we got home, I sent out some e-mails to let people know what was happening and made some phone calls to inform family of where we were. Then, I tried to rest.
That proved to be more challenging than anticipated. Contractions kept getting stronger and the distance between only got shorter. Lying in bed, timing them, the contractions were between 30 and 40 seconds long and there were between 1 minute and 3 minutes apart. At about 7 pm, the contractions were very intense and I wasnât able to talk through them. We decided to have a shower and time the contractions again. Still getting stronger, they were consistently around 35 seconds long and 1 minute 30 seconds apart. I was in the shower for about an hour, when we called my parents to let them know where we were. Mom H decided to leave for Kelowna to be there through the labor. About half an hour later, Justinâs parents (Grandma and Grandpa d) called to let us know that they were also leaving to come for the labor.
I tried to focus on other things for a while, but no position seemed to offer any solution, and I was too anxious about the pain to really put any effort or time into trying out the many different breathing techniques that we saw in prenatal classes. At around 10 pm, I decided that I wasnât going to be able to keep going in the state of anxiety and discomfort that I was in, and that I would like to have some pain relief soon. At 10 pm, we called the hospital to ask about contraction intervals (the hospital had said to come in when contractions were between 3 and 4 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute to 1 minute and a half). Well, we were wondering about that because the contractions were consistently lasting half as long and half that time apart. We decided, with the nurse on the phone, that we would come in and prepared them that I had changed my mind and decided to have some pain relief. Shortly after 10 pm, we made the phone calls and the e-mails that we were leaving for the hospital. We gathered together all the things that we would need and headed out⊠perhaps the last time to leave the apartment baby-less.
I had three contractions in the car ride (about 7 minutes) to the hospital. Upon arrival to the hospital, one more contraction in the parking lot, and we were headed in through emergency (doors lock at 10 pm). Another contraction hit in between the double set of sliding doors. We walked in and the greeting person asked, âAre we having a baby?â Upon a positive answer, we were rushed through to admissions and she yelled, âWeâre having a baby!â to security. A couple people waiting in emergency chairs said congratulations to us. We got things sorted out with admissions (two more contractions) and headed down the hall (contraction in the hallway and in the elevator). We arrived at the door to 3 West (Maternity and Delivery) and buzzed. Right when we were in the middle of the door (which is alarmed if it is held open for too long) another contraction hit, more intense than the ones before. For these contractions, it made me feel a little bit better to lean on Justinâs shoulder. Justin encouraged me to get through the door and finish the contraction on the other side (he he). We checked in at the desk and were put into another four-bed room. I gave another urine sample (contraction mid-stream âOUCH) and returned to the bed to be strapped into the fetal monitors again. No sooner had I sat on the bed and had the belt put around my waist, than another contraction hit â the strongest yet. It was extremely painful, so I cried out a little bit. In the middle of the cry, I felt a little gush between my legs and said âOh, and I peed!â Thinking about it very quickly, I realized that I had felt a little pop prior to the gush and my water had broken!! The nurse (who had not yet put down an absorbent sheet, oops) swabbed some of the fluid, as two more contractions came very quickly, to verify that it was amniotic fluid. Indeed it was, so I was put into a huge pair of underwear with a big pad in them and moved into a delivery room (the same room, in fact, that we had been induced in). Walking down the very short hall to the birthing room proved to be more challenging – Birthing Room #2.
In the birthing bed, we asked, again, for an epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and told us about the epidural and the precautions and possible side effects. I was really nervous about it because I had wanted to have a natural delivery with no pain medication. While thinking about it, in the middle of a very intense contraction, I decided to have an epidural. It was one of those moments where I still couldnât decide, then when the contraction hit, I said âYESIwantonereallybadly!â
As the epidural went in (~11:00pm), it was the easiest contraction I went through. Hindsight tells me that next baby, I should just do more focusing through the contractions, instead of panicking.
It didnât take right away. I was still incredibly anxious through each contraction and felt a lot of pain through my back (still didnât know it was back labor). As they put in a catheter, I remember my Mom being there and thinking, âI donât want her to see thisâ but was in too much pain to do anything about it. I just enjoyed her smoothing my hair and patting my hand. The epidural had to be increased a couple times because I was still feeling the contractions very intensely and wasnât supposed to.There seems to me, now, that there was a lot of time between when I got the epidural and when I finally started to feel better. Somewhere in that time, I loosened up and began to relax. I relaxed so much, in fact, that I began to experience a lot of shaking in my legs. The nurses were a little curious about why I was shaking so badly and kept checking to make sure that I was okay â I was fine! Ah, the joy of not feeling labor pains. I began to talk with the nurses about all kinds of things and even shared the recipe for cranberry scones that I had made earlier in the day. **At some point prior to all this, it was determined that I was 2 cm dilated.** Once my water broke the nurses were hesitant to carry out an internal exam. So… we waited. I ate ice chips (lame) for many hours, craving iced tea. I was waiting to feel the urge to push.
At about 5:00am, after no sleep, despite trying, I still couldnât feel the urge to push. The epidural was turned down and I asked if I could try pushing anyways. I was getting bored with this. They turned the epidural down again, so that I could feel more of what was going on. Dr. Richardson did an internal exam and found that I was 10 cm dilated. Whew, I wonder how long I had been there for?? Watching the contractions on the monitor, I began pushing at about 5:10 am after Dr. R said that it would be okay to try. I pushed for about ten pushes, then they checked to see what kind of movement they were getting from the baby. The nurse was checking to see where baby was and wasnât able to distinguish which part of the head she was feeling. When Dr. R returned (I guess she had left for a bit) it was determined that the baby was posterior. This would explain my extreme back pain during contractions. Instead of his spine to my tummy, his spine was rubbing along my spine with each contraction. The nurses then turned my epidural down some more so that I could try to take on a different position to push from. Due to my extreme leg shaking, that wasnât possible, although I was shifted a little bit.
Again, it was determined that I wouldnât be able to push without feeling anything and the epidural was decreased again. I waited again for the urge to push. At this point Iâm not sure how it was decided that I would just try to push anyways. I think that I just kept bugging the nurses because I wasnât feeling anything and just wanted the baby out! At about 6 am, they decided that I would just push as best I could. I pushed for about an hour, then they called in the Obstetrician. He was amazing. He pushed in various ways to help ease the babyâs position, but they didnât work. Then, they went to get forceps and the vacuum to try and help. I asked for no forceps and because babyâs head was still so far out of sight, they werenât an option. So.. vacuum it was. That in place, they tried pulling Hunter out for quite a while. They werenât finding very much success as Hunter kept slipping back after I would push him down. The nurses and attending doctors kept complimenting me and saying how well I was pushing. I kept thinking âWell then, where is my baby?â After a number of pushes over a long time, they called the OR to prepare for a Cesarean and had me discuss and sign the release.
I remember so well, the Obstetrician saying to me my option of a Cesarean was looking more important. I remember feeling really sad at the thought of going through all I had done so far to have to heal from a c-section after. I asked if we could try pushing some more. The Obstetrician was very encouraging. We just pushed and pushed and pushed. I remember asking for a break because they were asking me to stack my pushes and I didnât think I could do it anymore. I also remember the moment I watched that contraction start on the monitor; I decided to push anyways because I couldnât waste these contractions (maybe that was the urge they had been telling me to wait for). In the middle of the nurse shift change and pushing for all I was worth, the anesthetist for the OR came in and a nurse shoved the surgery prep drink in my face. It felt like the Obstetrician shouted at this point âElizabeth, three more pushes and weâre having this baby or we are going downstairsâ I guess that fired me up⊠the next push he yelled (I think) to the Anesthetist ââCancel the OR, weâre having this babyâ at which point the surgery prep drink was taken away (whew). I remember seeing the doc pulling on poor little babyâs head so hard with the vacuum. I remember pushing and yelling (whimpering) with each push. It felt better to make noise, it really did. I donât remember feeling pain, but I remember that it felt better to be loud. I remember thinking that my Mom and in-laws were in the hall and I wanted them to know when I was pushing. I pushed for over two hours straight. Hunter was born by vacuum extraction. Thank God.
He was a perfect little miracle and his Dad got to see his face as he came out into the world for his first breath. He was placed onto my chest right away. He was all purple and I checked between his legs right away and yelled, âItâs a boyâ to my family outside. We were so happy. Our perfect little man â Hunter James Phillip, born at 8:16 am, Tuesday June 7th. His head was very misshapen and (Iâm sorry Hunter, to admit that) my first words to describe you were âWell, you look… special.â Because I had had a fever during labor and my IV had to be moved so many times, Hunter also had a fever. He was checked and tested in the delivery room while I was sewn up (three stitches from an episiotomy I didnât even know I was having) and was delivering the afterbirth. That was the most painful part of the actual delivery (sad, isnât it?). I remember making a lot of phone calls from Momâs cell phone, right there in the delivery room.
Hunter was taken to the nursery pretty soon after being born to get an IV put in. Justin went with him and observed that he wasnât very fussy (high pain tolerance) and he liked being tickled on his feet). Justin got me my iced tea shortly after Hunter was born and I didnât even drink it. Sorry, J. Hunter was on an IV for three days and came home on Friday the 10th. We had a shared room for the first night as Hunter wasnât with me â he slept in the nursery. Then, for the second two nights, Hunter was in my room with me, in a private room. We had outpatient bilirubin tests done on Saturday (because of jaundice) and Hunter was admitted into the hospital on June 11th because his levels were so high. Because of ABO Conflict (my and Hunterâs blood types are different), and the vacuum bruise on his head, Hunter was quite jaundice and had to spend Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning in the hospital, under UV lights. It was very hard for me to be there, but I was very glad to have Justin there with me, over the weekend.
My milk came in, in full force, when we were re-admitted into the hospital. I remember being comfy out of my robe and in my sweats (soo nice) and looking down at my completely foreign body as I walked to pick up my little bundle in the nursery. The nurses kept apologizing when they woke me to bring me to nurse. I was only too happy to get to see him and hold him again. Who cares about sleep when their baby is in another room in the hospital? I didnât like having to weigh Hunter before and after I nursed him, while we were re-admitted. It was quite stressful and made me feel a lot of pressure to feed him enough. I was sooo full while we were there that I pumped a little bit to relieve the pressure. Man! That electric pump was nasty. I was quite misshapen after I was finished! Then, the milk being gone, only made me produce more!!! We went home on the 14th. Hunter was already a week old. As I experienced then.. time goes by too quickly when we have such precious memories to safe keep.
Elizabeth is a 26-year old working Mom. She is a teacher and enjoys trying to balance work and home. She is blessed by the support of many family, friends and a fantastic husband. She would love to have another baby for Hunter to shower with affection. Her hobbies are blogging, baking, playing basketball and having lots of adventures as a family. Elizabeth thinks that Motherhood is wonderful and you can read more at her blog Look at Us Now.
The Birth of “Artist Boy”
My son was conceived at a time in my life when I had pretty much given up on ever having a child. I had fertility problems, several miscarriages, and was so sure I was never going to have a baby.
But God knew what he was doing and all the tests, all the drugs, all the perfect timing paid off and I got pregnant. And this time it was going to happen. I spent from my 3rd week until the middle of the seventh month without my husband. He was in the Army and part of the 101st First Infantry rotation to the Sinai. He left me skinny and came home to a very big woman! I gained way too much weight, but when the doctor told me to gain three pounds, I thought he meant a week, not a month. Pizza junky!
The Birth of Julie Yvonne
Julie Yvonne, December 31, 1965
My second experience of childbirth was distinctly different from my first. Instead of starting single and ending married, I started married and ended single. Instead of losing weight, I gained in anticipation of morning sickness that never happened. Instead of being delivered by an intern, Julie was delivered by an experienced doctor; and yet, he was unprepared for my behavior in the delivery room.
Julie was conceived when I thought I was already several weeks pregnant, resulting in my thinking she was overdue when she was actually premature. Instead of leading up to the event with false labor, because my water had broken and the placenta was parting, labor had to be induced. However, this was still a fast and easy birth, with a labor of just under an hour.
The Birth of Richard Roland
I had a lot of morning sickness with my first baby. Actually, I had so much morning sickness that I weighed slightly less when I checked in for his birth than I had before I was pregnant. At one point an elderly doctor I was seeing before I signed up for the clinic gave me the straight scoop: I would score some pot, take exactly one toke before each meal, or he would have to put me in the hospital on IVs. That, he explained, was what they had done before marijuana was illegal.
A blog is born
