In this episode, my employees and I discuss my second birth story with my son Ryland!
My Birth Story
Tuesday 8/11 I woke up at 40 weeks and 4 days – totally was mentally DONE being pregnant at this point, guys, and my plan for that day was to do more things throughout the day to hopefully help prep my cervix/initiate labor.
I had been doing stuff all week (sex, pineapple, walking, curb walking, yoga ball etc) – and that day I had planned to do the Miles Circuit & get a reflexology session later that evening.
Anyway, woke up, hung out with Walter all day since he didn’t have school, and we ended up going over to my parents’ house for a few hours during lunch.
I had been having on and off contractions through the day, but nothing crazy – this was also the main reason I wanted to try the Miles Circuit, to see if I could get them more regular!
So, after a trip to my parent’s, I came home with a Walter and did the circuit for an hour and a half, followed by a reflexology session.
Came home, ate dinner, and it was about 7:30/7:45 when I started to feel some stronger contractions pick up. Again, nothing too crazy, but they were definitely stronger than what I had felt for pretty much the whole day.
I went upstairs with Walter to put him to bed, and they were already about 3-5 minutes apart, but only lasting 30ish seconds. I had a feeling this was the real thing though.
I put Walter to bed, and went into my husband’s office where he was playing a video game and let him know what was going on (this was about 8pm).
I went back downstairs, took a shower, sat on my ball and laid in bed for awhile to see how things were going to progress.
At 10pm, I put on my breast pump to try to strengthen them even more, which only lasted about 30 mins in total. By 10:30 they were pretty strong and I went ahead and called my mom to come to our house to stay with Walter overnight.
At 11pm, she showed up, we left for the hospital which is right down the block, and got up to triage at about 11:20 or so.
My doctor came to check me and I was still only 3cm ? I was 3/80/-1, which was a change from my 3/50/-2 that I was in office that week, but I was totally bummed at that point because they were pretty darn strong and I was totally questioning what the heck was going on!
We ended up hanging out in triage for 90 mins, and then at about 1am my nurse came to check me and I was 6/90/0! Yay! Alllll in my back though, which SUCKED. I was super happy that I had progressed 3cm in 90 mins though, and at that point I was thinking to myself, “ok great hopefully this continues to pick up and I have a baby really soon!”
So, for admitted, got out to a room with a tub & labored in and out of the tub for a good hour after I was admitted. At about 2am, my nurse checked again and I was 8/90/0! ?? Also super happy that it was continuing to pick up, BUT still allllllll the pain was in my back….and that was no fun. By this point though, I was fairly composed, I was joking between contractions, and really utilizing my relaxation/breathing & doing lots of rag doll!
My doctor came to break my water at this point per my request, and then at about 2:45 my nurse checked again because things were seriously picking up & I was a rim! (about 9.5 centimeters).
I was today starting to lose my sh*t at this point, but still generally in a good mental state because I could tell labor was still progressing well.
Wellllll…this is when I started to stall…and REALLY started to lose my mind. At about 3:30am (about 45 mins later) with no progress or evidence of this being done, hah, I begged my nurse for a dose of IV pain medication which she gave me. This helped tremendously to calm me down and help me relax in between the contractions. I remember just being soooo mentally done, and so angry that I was stalling, it was crazy!
So, got a dose of IV pain meds, chilled out for about 15-20 mins with a few contractions and then of course the medication pretty much wore off and it was right back to horrible back labor and no signs of it being over (didn’t have the urge to push etc).
At this point it was probably 4am, and I started to do everything I could to get him out! Lots of position changes, trying to push past that last centimeter etc. it was horrid!
FINALLY I remember I was on my hands n knees on the bed with my nurse and I was pushing wirh her and she finally said, “Ok Liesel you’re 10, it’s gone!” So I flipped over and pushed for another 15 mins on my back/side and voila….baby BOY!!! He ended up spinning from posterior to anterior AS HE WAS COMING OUT….ow hah ?
I remember being SO happy that I was done, but also being SO mad that I stalled for that long!! I totally went into this labor expecting it was going to be a quick labor…and overall it was definitely faster than my first, but geez! Definitely did not expect to get stuck at 9.5cm as a second time mom for THAT long!
Coming away from it, again, SO happy I was done…but also SO shell shocked! It’s definitely taught me to once again….don’t go into labor expecting ANYTHING…even if you’re Mommy Labor Nurse! ?
♥️♥️♥️♥️
Resources from the episode:
