MELINA''S BIRTH STORY!!!!!!!!!!!
Melina Kristine was born Monday, April 11th at 10:49 pm. She was 8 pounds 12.8 oz and was 22 inches long. She''s so loved, healthy and beautiful and we know we are blessed to have received her into our family. Olivia is just loving her and gives her kisses upon kisses. She is also terribly facinated by breasts now! Grandma''s, Aunties, home health nurses''s, mine and even Melinas when we''re changing her. I got to get this story down before I start forgetting details...hope there''s not too many typos.
So Monday morning at 11am I did end up in the hospital hooked up to pitocin--my worst fear, since I had a terrible hyper-stim from it last time. The membrane stripping on Thursday (or just nature!) had helped my cervix to ripen-I was now dilated to 3 and 60% effaced--so I didn''t need any prosteglandin gel. Mw promised that the pit and I would be monitored closely and they would use the lowest mls/hour to get things going.
Progress was slow (as we expected since I was on a low level of pit)-at 1pm I was still at 3cm but 70% effaced, so the mw did AROM and turned off the pit for awhile. This did hardly anything, and actually hours later she discovered that she had only ruptured the forebag. Pit back on and kicked up by 12mls/hr. At 6pm I was only dilated to 5 and 80%. During the whole day James and I walked laps around the hospital floor and I used my body ball as well. Around 7pm cx started getting intense--I continued to stand and walk--actually it was uncomfortable to sit or lay down.
Around 10pm I knew I was in transition--very nauseated, vomiting, shaking and cx were the most intense. It was hard to relax and let them do what they were intended to do. I had had a epidural last time, so didn''t really know what "labor" felt like, iykwim--I did my best to relax by listening to music and James applied counter pressure to my hips during the cx''s. The nurse then asked my if I needed to use the bathroom (pee) and I said that I actually felt like I needed to poop! I hear, "that''s a good sign." Got up into the bathroom, couldn''t pee and just sat there--so much more comfy than sitting on the bed or ball at that time. The nurse left the room and Jane (the mw) stood just outside of the bathroom. She told me to just do a gentle push like I was pooping with each cx and see what it felt like. It felt "wrong" when I first started doing it, so stopped. A few minutes later I could have sworn that I was pooping--but I really wasn''t straining or pushing hard, since I was afraid to, not knowing if I was at 10 or complete. After about 15-20 min sitting on toilet, I asked mw to come in a check me, because I had started feeling burning. She gloved up and then yelled for James to go out and get the nurses because her head was already 1/2 out of my perineum!!!!!!!! I couldn''t believe what I was hearing--I thought I was just pooping!!!!! Suddenly the room was full of nurses. Normally mw would just have delivered on the toilet-or with me standing in bathroom--but because Olivia had had shoulder dystocia and they had to break her clavicle to get her out, she really wanted me in bed in case intervention was needed. It was sooooo hard to walk to the bed with a head hanging out of me. I was helped up into the bed and with the next cx, Melina Kristine was born--in 1 last push. Her forehead was pretty bruised-I guess form me walking with it stuck there. Her apgars were 9-9 and she just screamed at us. It is such a blur. I cried this time. James didn''t have time to even get the camera until after she was born. I needed 1 stitch for a superficial tear. I did need 2 Cytotec pills (I didn''t know those went up you butt) to help stop the bleeding after about 15 min of pretty severe bleeding. My tummy is bruised from all the pushing on my uterus to get it to contract.
Labor was so easy compared to Olivia. Even though I was planning an unmedicated-intervention free birth and ended up having to be induced and arom, it was so bearable when the pitocin is managed correctly. I feel I had the perfect birth I wanted and planned for, pitocin aside.
Nursing is going well, great latch and milk came in on night 2. She is a little jaundiced. We go in to the clinic today for another weight check since she was just 1oz shy of the safe 10% weight loss and couple days ago. Yesterday, she was up 1 oz, so that was great to hear.
