I woke up on the Sunday morning at 4am with intense stomach pain. I didnt think much of it and actually thought that it was stomach pain from something I had for dinner on Saturday. At 4:30 the pain happened again, when I got up to go to the washroom I noticed I was also bleeding slightly which made me realize that it was not something I ate, I was actually in labour (My due date was April 24th, and I was already 10 days past that, I was fully expecting to be added to the induction list at my doctors appoinment the next day). My contractions continued to get stronger and closer together all morning. By about 10:30 they were under 15 minutes apart, but the fronts of my thighs were killing me with each contraction. My contractions continued to get closer and closer together through out the day. Along with the pain in my thighs my lower back really started to hurt. It wasn't until just before midnight on Sunday that my contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. We got to the hospital just after midnight and I was examined by the nurse. I was 4cm dilated so they told me I would be staying.

I continued to labour at the hospital for 4 more hours before they checked to see if I was progressing. During these 4 hours my contractions continued to get worse. The pain in my legs was gone (or atleast I didnt notice it, but my lower back was in agony with each one it felt like intense burning). At 4am the doctor examined me and I was still only 4cm dilated. At this pont I had been having heavy contractions for 24 hours. She suggested that they break my water to see if that would speed things up and offered me an epidural. (I was wanting to deliver without any pain medication, but was not totally against having it if I thought I needed it). I gladly accepted the epidural, hoping to get atleast a little break from the pain. Getting the epidural was not nearly as bad as I had imagined it to be and I began to feel relief almost immediately. They broke my water and told me to try to get some rest. By close to noon on the Monday I was 10 cm dilated. They told me I wasn't quite ready to push so I had to wait. But the epidural was wearing off and my contractions were causing me so much lower back pain again it was killing me to the point of tears. I told the nurse I couldnt handle both the back pain and the contractions.... after so many hours of labour I was mustering all the strength I had. The nurse made me do a few pushes to see if the baby would come. She did, so she called the doctors and we started. She said that she thought we would have the baby in less than 2 hours. I thought.. 2 hours!?! My word, I can't do 2 hours of pushing.... so I pushed with all my might and my little girl was born after less than 45 minutes of pushing. I was absolutely exhausted when it was all done. I didn't feel disappointed that I got the epidural at all, I definitely needed something to help me along.

DH and I are absolutely thrilled with our little girl. She brings a smile to both of our faces any time of day. Like many other moms on here have said... We have both fallen entirely in love with this little person and would do anything for her. Though my labour was long and hard she was worth every second of it and I would do it all again for her in a heart beat. At the time I thought I would never want to have another baby, but as soon as I had Sophie in my arms I knew I would do it again one day.

To answer the other questions you posted...
What would you change? I would have liked to not have had 34 hours of labour lol... but you dont get a choice on that one. Looking back though I think next time I will go for some prenatal massages to help relax the back muscles... I think that might have had to do with the pain in my legs and lower back.

What were the best and worst parts for you? The best part was seeing my little girl for the first time. I dont know if I could say there was a worst part.... labour was long and hard and quite painful but really it was worth it.

What was going through your head while it was all happening? What kept me going was focusing on each contraction one by one... each time I had a contraction I would concentrate on breathing deeply until it was through. I knew I would never have to do THAT contraction again and I could move onto the next and with each new contraction I was that much closer to having my little one in my arms.

After the baby was born, what did you do? How were you feeling? What were the first few days at home like? After the baby was born the only thing that mattered was the little girl in my arms. I couldnt even remember them telling me to push to deliver the placenta... but DH told me I did haha. I was exhausted and sooo happy. The first few days I was a little paranoid (which I am sure all first time parents are). I would wake up every hour or so at night to check to see if she was breathing, I would set my alarm to wake up every 4 hours (though she would wake up before my alarm) so that I could feed her... after a few days of that I realized I was nuts!?! She can breath on her own without me watching and she will wake up and cry when she is hungry. So I slept much better after the first few days. My mom was staying with us for the first week and a half, so we very much appreciated her help with cooking, laundry, cleaning and just having someone there who had done this all before helped reassume me too. I also found breastfeeding to be very hard at first. I think the first 2 weeks were horrible. My breasts hurt like no other from sucking and engorgement but after that the pain went away and I have had no problems since.

.::::May 12, 2007 - I Became a Mrs::::.
.::::May 5, 2008 - I Became a Mommy::::.

Anywhos here is my tale....

First off i will say that my fh is a naval officer and was at sea until dec 15th and had to go back to sea for 2 weeks on jan3rd and babies due date was the 23rd of dec so i had a really short ideal time period for her to arrive. (and i was in ontario with my parents bc of all his time at sea and he was at our home in halifax)

On the 21st of december I went into my dr appt thinking that I would be going into the hospital to get induced as was discussed because of my fh situation that way i wouldnt be stressed about him missing it and he could have enough time with the baby before he left again.  Well dr decide that a medical induction was not a good idea bc baby was posterior and he didnt want to put me at risk for a csection. I was 2cm so he decided to strip my membranes to see if this would get things moving naturally and maybe encorage baby to turn around.  Well that evening I started having contractions and really bad back labor.  at about 1am i went to the hospital bc contractions(although themselves not very intense) were evry 3 min and back pain was killing me.  I was checked to be 3cm and contractions every21/2 min.  5 hrs later checked again and still 3cm and bc i could talk through contractions they sent me home and told me to come back when they were more intense.  i asked about being induced but bc baby was still posterior they didnt want to  at 8am everything just stopped?

Crappy thing about being due over the holidays is that your dr is on vaca and my next appt was not until the 28th when he came in for the morning.  Well christmas came and went and still no baby...i was starting to really worry that john was going to miss her birth.  On the 28th i went in for my check up now 5days post due date.  baby was still posterior which dr did not like, especially since i am narrow hipped.  he could tell I was stressed about fh leaving in a few days so he called hospital and made arrangemnts for me to go that evening to be inserted with prostaglandin to help ripen the cervix, he didnt want the drip bc he wanted baby to have enough time to turn on its own.  he gave me the song and dance about risks of having a fast labor and csection.  at 8 pm I was inserted and went home and was due to come back in the morning to be inserted again(said it usually takes a couple before things get going).  Well at 6am started having contractions...at 7 told fh we should get going, he was sleepy and in no rush saying that my appt was at 9...bc of last false alarm I held off until 830..we got to hospital was determined to be in labor contractions every 3min, quite a bit moer inttense then the last time but still able too talk.  the pre labor room was quite busy and dr did not see me until 10am.  said I was 4cm and baby was still posterior, said i was probably in for the long haul.  i said i wanted an epidural, he convinced me to take a shot of nubane to take the edge off the pain and when it wears off in an hour w will discuss the epi.  I was hesitant about the nubane bc systemic narcotics can cross to the baby but dr said I was only 4cm and by the time i was delivering it will be well out of my system so i agreed.  did not like nubane at all, did take edge off felt like mentstrual cramps but made me very woozy and disorientated. wore off at 11 and pain was INTENSE!!!  demanded that nurse order my epidural..she made the call and said that the anesthisiolgist would be an hour.  Insisted I could not wait, nurse kindly told me I could and would have to.  John went to make calls to my parents and update and grab a snack. at 1125 pain was really bad..again told nurse i needed my epi, said could not wait..nurse said i was only 4cm at 10 and I could wait.  10min later felt pressure and ridiculous urge to push told nurse who decided to check me out.  Told other nurse to get dr asap as i was fully dilated and ready to have baby.

I freaked out, was very panicky..told nurse i will wait till i get epi nurse told me no longer an option.  was very upset with nurse and dr for relling me to wait on epidural sid I wanted it and was not going to push...well baby had other ideas.. the noticed fh was still missing... nurse had him paged over intercom...he arrived very stunned as had only been gone for 15min and we had been told it would be mid afternoon before we saw any action..called parents from delivery room.

Worst most Intense pain of my life (sorry for not sugar coating)  At many times i was insisting that i did not need to have this baby.  Painful, tearing burning sensation (and they lie you do not forget but you do forgive and accept that it is necessary when you are holding your angel).  baby was still posterior so back of head (very big head) was presenting. pushed a bit and dr ruptured my membranes and 3 pushes later was announced  ITS A GIRL!!!! most beautiful thing ever...even gucky and screaming. 7lbs14ounces and 211/2 inches.

It was awful at the time but in hindsight I would rather short painful intense labor with no drugs than long slow exhausting labor with them.

Thanksgiving weekend 2008

Invites are out - 135 invited (hoping only 80-100 show)

28 people are ready to party!!
4 are staying home
103 are still deciding

jaedagal (7/7/2008)

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Nik82 (7/7/2008)

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Bump

Cause I want to hear more... Also Jaedagal, since you almost made it the whole way without an epi, I was just wondering if looking back you think you could have done it without the epi?

I don't know if I could have made it through the who birth with out it. Possibly, but my back labour was so incredibly painful that I couldn't even think (I was almost to the point of being delirious). Literally, it felt like someone was taking a sledge hammer and whacking me as hard as they could over and over and then bending me over and trying to crack my spine in half. I was so out of it, I even forgot to breath! The nurses were yelling at me to breath so many times. I had mentally prepared myself a head of time and I knew it was going to be painful and hard, but I never expected to have such horrible contractions.

Maybe next time my labour won't be as bad and I won't need it.

i had back labour with 2 of my babies. totally sucks! hurts so bad you can't move, can't sit up-just cry! i did it without an epi both times though i would have for my 2nd if it had been avaible but the person wan't in till 5 am and i had her at 4:50am. my first was painful back lab0ur but i had him in 3 hours. my 2nd was 18 h0urs and hurt soooooooooooo bad! this last time it wasn't back labour but induced with the drip and omg!! that was terrible! so fast and painful contractions!

MARRIED MY LOVE ON JAN 26, 2008

BABY JOINED US APRIL 30 2008

OUR FAMILY BECOMES 7!!!

Here's my story:

Early on in my pregnancy I had my placenta abrevia(sp?), it eventually "moved" out of the way and everything was fine. My edd was August 4. On September 30ish, I went to my obgyn and she swept my membranes. She said it was close enough and would help me along. It didn't really do anything at all, but kind of hurt lol.

The morning of August 4, I woke up late around 11, made pancakes and was about to go watch t.v. I felt this huge warm gush and yelled out to my SO at the time that my water just broke. I ran to the bathroom to take of my wet clothes when I looked down and my underwear and pants were covered in blood. I didn't have any contractions at the time, but I knew that the amount of blood I was seeing was not a good sign. We made it to the ER and I checked in, every step I took more blood was coming out. They didn't even offer me a wheelchair so I walked to the elevator up to the labour and delivery on the 5th floor.

Once I got up there, I walked up to the nurses desk and they asked why I was here. They had gotten my sheet from the ER. The nurse said "why are you here, your not having any contractions?". I stepped back so she could see all the blood at the front of my pants lol. Over dramatic but I was kind of in shock and was very worried about what was going on. They rushed me into a wheelchair and into a bed. The specialist came in to check me out. Baby's heartbeat was fine my blood pressure was ok. I was only 1cm dilated and 75% effaced. They decided due to the blood they would induce my labour. The pitocin is the devil!

Luckily it was NB day and a long weekend so the l&d floor wasn't busy. They started the pitocin and really amped it up. I went from zero contractions to contractions 1 minute apart. I had really hoped for a drug free birth, but due to the pitocin I had no time to adjust to the pain. The back labour was the absolute worst. Within 30 minutes I had the epidural, it was either get it early or not at all as the anastesiologist(sp?)had a surgery to go to. It really helped and I was able to slightly relax.

3 hours after coming into the ER I felt this HUGE pressure, I mentioned it to the nurse who said "it's probably nothing...you've only been dilated 3cm's for the last 2 hours". I *nicely* said "listen lady...I understand I'm only 21 and I may not know as much as you, but my body is screaming at me that something is going on and I want you to get the fing doctor right now". So the Dr came in to check me out and I was fully dilated and he could feel the babies head. I pushed for about 45 minutes. The epidural was great except I could feel blinding pain on the right side of my labia lol.  Symone's head came out first and as soon as her mouth was out she was screaming! Yes it was a sign of the child to come lol. She was beautiful with a head FULL of hair. Gorgeous and perfect.

To answer some of the questions:

I wouldn't change anything.

The best part was seeing her and hearing her. The worst part was the 6 weeks after, so much pain! I knew nothing about post partum depression but as a PP mentioned once I was coming out of it, only then did I realize I had it. It actually was the cause of my ending my relationship with my SO.

The 2nd worst part was all the blood. It was SO scary. They never did tell me why I bled so much, but once I delivered the placenta they were looking at it...yay lol. They pointed out a huge blood clot so it may have ruptured.

~Nancy~</