Thursday, August 15, 2013

Myka's Birth Story

            In case you don’t follow me on Facebook, I’ve been doing a fun little “Random Daily Question” on there for the past few weeks. It’s just a fun way to interact with you guys and get to know you better. Anyways, today’s question was, “If you are still planning on having more children, what, if anything, would you do differently with future children than your current ones?” I had intended on getting answers on how people might discipline their kids differently, interacting with them more, that sort of thing. Instead, it turned into a discussion mostly on how we would want to do our labor and deliveries differently, which is totally fine! I actually found it way more interesting than what I had planned. Plus, it was my fault for not wording it very well. ; )
            With all of that being said, I felt like it was finally time for me to share my birth experience with my daughter. I don’t know why, but I always enjoy reading other people’s and was obsessed with “A Baby Story” on TLC way before I even had my own baby. So grab some popcorn and gather ‘round for the tale on how I became a giant hypocrite.
           
            Before I was even pregnant, I swore up and down I wanted to have as natural a birth as possible. No inductions, no epidurals, no c-sections. My husband and I even looked into and seriously considered having a home birth. To this day I still wish I would have had one. But I didn’t and I’ll get to that. However, I did end up getting the above 3 things.
            John and I thought long and hard about the whole induction business especially when I got up to the last couple of weeks of being pregnant. I really didn’t want to do it, but gave in when I hadn’t made ANY progress as far as dilation and all that since 37 weeks. I realize that’s pretty common, especially with first babies, but I had a feeling she wasn’t going to come out any time soon. I had read there are risks involved if you let your baby stay in there too far past your due date too. (I know, I know. There are risks with everything, right?! :P) Plus I worry too much for my own good a lot of times and had that “What if?” scenario playing in the back of my mind. By God it had taken us this long to get pregnant, I wasn’t going to risk anything!
I think this was the day before I was induced.

            So, we went in at 8pm on Wednesday, October 10, 2012 to be induced. (Those of you who have been induced, how weird is it to go up to a counter and basically say, “Hi! I’m here to have a baby!”?) My first nurse was really nice, but she “forgot” to tell me not to get up and use the bathroom for at least half an hour after they stick that pill in your nether regions to start dilating you. I’m sure you can guess what I did. I had a feeling you probably weren’t supposed to get up, but the nurse would have told me if I weren’t, right? - _- Then you have to wait 6 hours after the first one before they put another one in. Double unamused face.
I got one, ONE hour of sleep that night! Besides nerves, it's damn near impossible to get comfortable with 50 billion wires hanging off of you.

            Fast forward to 4am and they stick the second weird pill thing in. By the time the doctor comes to break my water at 7am, I am finally starting to feel some slight contractions, like uncomfortable period side effects, but nothing major. Anyhow, personally, I think having your water break is just about the single most weird feeling in the world. You always hear about how “it’s like you’re peeing your pants”. Bullshit. More like if you were a horse peeing your pants…and you keep on peeing periodically for awhile after the initial tidal wave.
            Moving on from that lovely visual, my labor progressed really fast after that. Which at the time I thought was great because 1) Who wants to be in labor for a long time? And 2) I had read that it can be really slow going sometimes with inductions. If memory serves me correctly, I was dilated to 7/8 by around 11am, at which point I caved and got the evil epidural. I had tried to do the IV drugs, but didn’t really like the possible side effects to baby and the fact that you could only get them ever so often. They just weren’t going to cut it with my labor moving as fast as it was.
            I know what you’re thinking and I STILL ask myself the same thing: Why did you even get it if you were already that far? That’s a good question that I don’t really have an answer to other than I didn’t think I could handle any more at the time. I soooo wish I hadn’t gotten it, though. As if pushing while lying on your back (SO unnatural and uncomfortable!) wasn’t bad enough, dry heaving while doing so is even more fun. I think it was mostly from the fact that I begged the nurse to turn the epidural stuff up because it wasn’t doing anything for the first half hour. So yah, my own fault, I guess.
            I started pushing around noon and continued on through the afternoon until around 3/3:30 when the doctor came back to check on me. (She had checked on me more times than that, just to clarify.) I was pooped out, this obviously wasn’t going anywhere, my daughter’s had was stuck/coming down at a weird angle, and my cervix kept pointing the wrong direction. So I gave in AGAIN and decided to have a c-section.
            The actual surgery part went pretty well…I felt sorry for my doctor, though. I have really hard to find veins, evidently, and I swear I could feel when whatever crap they were pumping in there went into my veins because that shit hurt! I kept saying “ow” and freaking her out, though. Oops. Sorry lady. Least of my concerns right now. I’ll let you know if you’re actually hurting me down yonder when I’m NOT trying to fight back more nausea.
            Lo and behold, after less than 24 hours after the whole ordeal started, Myka was born at 4:03pm on October 11, 2012 weighing 7lbs. 3 oz. and 19 ½ inches long. Was she healthy? Yes. Am I happy nothing was wrong with her? Of course! Would I go back and do it again the way I had really wanted to? Absolutely.

            As usual, I should have listened to my instincts and just done it the way I had wanted instead of turning myself into a giant hypocrite. Yes, it’s been 10 months since she’s been born and I still regret doing it the way I did. I think it would have worked out if I had been able to get into a position that “felt right”. (I forgot to mention I kept wanting to sit up and they kept making me lay back because supposedly the baby’s heart rate kept dropping or increasing when I did that. I’ve done research. I’ve read that that’s normal. But hey, I don’t work in the medical field.)
            Up until a few days ago, I had at least been holding on to the fact that my daughter had a large head at birth. I could at least use that as an excuse for “having” to have a c-section, right? Nope. I can’t even remember what prompted me to look it up, but I finally found the average head circumference of newborns the other day. Myka did have a large head compared to the average…for girls. It was even slightly larger than the average for boys, from what I saw, but still.           
            Maybe next time things will be different. I hate the thought of another c-section, let alone a scheduled one. Regardless, though, I couldn’t be happier with how happy, healthy, and smart Myka has turned out to be. : ) 

19 comments:

  1. I am 32 and pregnant with my first child. Your story has let me know what to expect.

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    1. Awesome! I sure as heck didn't! ha ha Good luck! :)

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  2. Thanks for sharing ! you are too funny with your "evil" epidural ! no one thinks ANY less of you silly ! congrats on baby!

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    1. Thank you and I hope not! ha ha At least I am being honest. ;) It was evil, though. Sooo nauseous!

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  3. I got a few chuckles, but this is an amazing story! I've never given birth, so I liked all the details. The cute pictures of you with the baby, you'd never know what you went through! Sorry you had to have the pill two times, glad you have a healthy baby - and a good story to tell!!!

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  4. Great story! No one blames you for having an epideral! I hear that induced -birth contractions are a lot more painful, so more likely to have an epideral. Hopefully next time you can have the birth you want! :)

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    1. I have heard that as well, but obviously didn't have anything to compare it to personally. lol I hope so too! Thanks for your comment!

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  5. Everyone has their own birth story and no one thinks less of you for doing things the way you did, because you ended up with a happy, healthy baby in the long run :). The only thing to keep in mind is that studies out there are now saying that the actual time a woman should be pregnant (and the baby is still fine) ranges between 38 weeks and 42 weeks. Meaning, that 40 weeks isn't the magic number anymore.

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    1. My husband and I had talked about that before we had our daughter. It's nice to hear that there have been studies done to prove it now!

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  6. What a great birth story. I love the way you wrote it. I had a situation close to yours. I had to go in to be induced. My water never broke ever though so I enjoyed your description of it!! lol My son got stuck also and I almost had to have a C-section but they were able to vacuum him out.

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  7. Aw! Such sweet pictures! I hope you can have a natural birth someday!
    I had my two at home, all natural, and you are right, being able to move around when you want to and the way you want to makes a big difference!

    (Graceful Homemaker)

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    1. I had a feeling it probably would make a huge difference. I've read a bunch of things about childbirth that say you should just do/get into whatever position feels right. Laying on my back definitely did not! lol

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  8. Love your honesty in this. And I think it is a normal thing. I did not get either of the birth stories that I wanted with either of my pregnancies. But in the end I have my precious monkeys and that was really all that mattered in the end. Thanks for sharing your story.

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  9. I'm 31 weeks pregnant with my first child, your story really has given me a different view of how things can go! I hope you are able to have the birth you envision if you have another child :-)

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    1. I hope I didn't freak you out! ;) Good luck and congratulations!

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  10. I have found with my two natural births, that even if you get the "perfect" birth, women still tend to critique themselves! It's crazy! We made babies and we are judging ourselves on how efficiently we got them out? I have had to forgive myself for not having the "perfect" labor and delivery and remember that I (and you!) Created and incubated the little tiny miracles that we hold in our arms. We are amazing! Thanks for sharing your story.

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  11. I always find birth stories so amazing and learn something from every one. I'm not pregnant yet, but I have seen c-sections as part of the surgical team so it's nice to hear about the personal side of it. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Wow! Blood and guts don't bother me too much, but I'm not sure how I would feel about watching it from the other end! ha ha Before I had mine everyone always told me how out of it they were afterwards and not remembering very much. I remember quite a bit of mine! Thanks for your comment!

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  12. I wanted an all natural birth as well and labor progressed quickly. I went 11 hours without any pain killers or an epidural with many hours being stuck in that final phase when our son's head disappeared. I was having periods of fainting at that point, so they called the doctor in to find out he had his head tucked sideways in my pelvis. They weren't sure if they could get him to move, and I was so worn out I almost begged for a C-Section. I hated it. They didn't even let me hold him for a whole hour after birth. He had nothing wrong with him. It was terrible. His cord was only about 5" long, so they said basically it pulled him back up. Some doctors say the cord can break and a C-Section wouldn't have been necessary. Some say it's good I had a C-Section because it could have been ugly if I didn't. So, I don't know the answer. :/ I was then forced into repeat c-sections with our other two since they couldn't prove my "failure to progress" (at 9 1/2 cm!!) was his short cord or my body just shutting down. :(

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