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Family Forum / Pregnancy / Pregnancy / April 2007DD2 has arrived - birth story
Well my second daughter arrived just before Emily's Shiloh :) Amelia Adelaide April 22, 2007 9:20 a.m. 8 lbs 6oz I woke up at 1:30 a.m., on Sunday I guess though it still felt like Saturday night :) with really intense contractions. My labour with my first daughter was induced so I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of "early" labour, but this wasn't it -- the contractions were very strong, there was no question I was in labour. After a couple contractions I woke my husband and called my parents to wake them & let them know we'd be needing them to come mind DD1 soon. They would be there in about four hours, but we figured that would be plenty of time. The contractions were about 5 minutes apart and lasted over a minute each. I wasn't sure what this meant since my doc has said to go to the hospital when they were 4 minutes apart lasting 35-45 seconds, but what I knew was that it was taking a lot of focus to get through them. I also had a lot of pain in my back, so got off it asap and spent the next almost five hours kneeling and leaning over a big pile of pillows on the bed, or standing over the bed leaning on the pillows. My husband was a star and spent the whole time rubbing or pressing on my back and on between contractions running around getting the rest of our stuff together for the hospital and getting me drinks etc. He was awesome. At around 4:30 or so I started vomiting, it was only about an hour later that I wondered if that was transition and maybe we should think about going to the hospital. My water still hadn't broken, which turned out to be a good thing. At 6:00 a.m. I got dressed and we left the house at 6:15 when my parents arrived. It took us all of 6 minutes to get to the hospital, by then the contractions were over a minute and about 3 minutes apart. I huffed and puffed through the lobby and up to L & D. I definitely wanted an epidural -- the labour had been manageable up until then but I wasn't interested in going the full distance without one! They evaluated me and I was 7+ cm dilated. I was very pleased that all the pain had actually meant progress! They hustled me into a L&D room to get an IV in and the epidural started. The IV took a few tries. They gave me a "combined epidural" which was great as it took the edge off but I could still feel what was going on. By 7 a.m I was at 8cm and they broke my water. There was meconium in the water so they called a ped consult from the NICU to stand by, and by 9:00 I was at 10 and had felt the urge to push so started doing that. After 20 minutes of pushing, which was very intense, out she came. She cried and yelled right away so there were no complications from the meconium, they didn't even suction. In total I was in L&D for just under 3 hours. We left the hospital the next morning. I had two tiny tears and my recovery is going really well, Amelia is a great nurser and DD1 is adjusting well. We are just thrilled with our two girls. Elle Stella 02/23/2005 Amelia 04/22/2007 Congratulations Elle, so you knew when to go to the hospital! Some might say you went too late, but it sounds just right to me, I just hope you had a back up plan in case you needed to go sooner than your parents could get there! Were you past your due date? Passing meconium is more often a symptom of gut maturity than distress, it occurs something like 50% of the time at 42 weeks! Anne > Congratulations Elle, so you knew when to go to the hospital! Some might say > you went too late, but it sounds just right to me, I just hope you had a [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Anne My gut did tell me when I had to go, I think I would have known if birth was imminent. One of the surprises for me in this labour was how strong my instincts were, in terms of finding ways to cope with the contractions and having a sense of how the labour was progressing. I didn't really get the chance to experience that with my first induced labour. We definitely would have gone to hospital straight away if my water had broken. I think it went just perfectly, and I'm quite pleased with how we managed it at home. We did have a backup plan -- we had a cousin on standby but as it turns out her husband was out of the country for business that weekend and she couldn't have left her two small children in the middle of the night anyway! Our second backup plan was to have a neighbour come over to sit for the last hour or so until my parents arrived but thankfully we didn't have to call upon her. We actually found it really hard to make arrangements for all the possible scenarios, but in the end it worked out OK. It was actually a day before my due date, they did a strip on her in the hospital and she didn't show any signs of distress so we figured she likely would be OK. Elle > It was actually a day before my due date, they did a strip on her in > the hospital and she didn't show any signs of distress so we figured > she likely would be OK. and even meconium caused by distress isn't that often a problem, even if the meconium is then aspirated, again, it's also not always a problem, I can only find estimated figures, meconium seems to be aspirated about 35% of the time that it is present in the water and if it's aspirated, only causes Meconium Aspiration Syndrome 5-10% of the time and it's thought that these cases are marked by severe distress (hypoxia or asphyxia) in the womb, rather than bad luck with passing meconium, aspirating it and so on - healthy lungs can deal with the meconium they've inhaled, meaning only minimal suctioning to clear the airways is required, it's unhealthy lungs that have problems. My daughter (2nd child) had passed meconium, as she was born at 39+3 and it was old, so passed several days earlier, so at that gestation, likely to be distress of some sort that was temporary, she was also intermittently distressed in labour, but the mec wasn't found until ARM well into 2nd stage, at which point she was fine. I just relooked at the figures as to how often it occurs, 50% at 42 weeks was a correct recollection, but it's 30% at 40 weeks, which was higher than I expected and overall 12-13% - it's a surprisingly common birth problem, but one that only a small amount of the time means there is a problem, it does make sense to me that if you are in a hospital then get the paediatrician into the room, but not an absolute reason to transfer from a homebirth, I think had my daughters birth been at home as planned, I would have transferred, even though it was old, she was intermittently not showing great signs, but on the other hand, the circumstances that turned into a hospital birth anyway, may well have been what caused her some distress prior to labour, so it's probably all irrelevant. I guess meconium is a hard subject for parents, stories like cjra's and angelina are thankfully rare, but knowing that these things do happen, seeing meconium can be very worrying, when often it isn't and doctors and midwives don't always help - most of the understanding about what is going on it newish, the main research paper is 1992 and it takes time for that to pass into teaching and practice, so for moderate numbers of care providers, meconium still implies panic. Anne > I guess meconium is a hard subject for parents, stories like cjra's and > angelina are thankfully rare, but knowing that these things do happen, [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Anne They definitely weren't panicking but it is protocol at this hospital to have a ped standing by for consult when a baby is born with meconium in the water. The water was quite dirty, with my first daughter they thought it might be stained with meconium so to speak but were kind of holding the chux pad up to the light etc to see if they could agree that there was anything there -- we settled on "no" :) I already knew the potential implications but the nurse explained them pretty throroughly and calmly. I think meconium in the water is quite common, lots of people I know had it. Amelia was quite covered in poop when she emerged! Elle > Well my second daughter arrived just before Emily's Shiloh :) > > Amelia Adelaide > April 22, 2007 9:20 a.m. > 8 lbs 6oz Congratulations! Debbie > Well my second daughter arrived just before Emily's Shiloh :) > [quoted text clipped - 53 lines] > Stella 02/23/2005 > Amelia 04/22/2007 Congrats!! Glad all went well and good to hear baby Amelia is doing good, and is a good size too. Sounds like it went fairly quickly, and very glad to hear DD1 is doing pretty good so far. Hopefully it stays that she likes having a baby sister around :D And... Beautiful name ;) I wanted to name DD1 Amelia, but N wanted "Amie" and I even tried to talk him into 'Amelia' since they sound similar... ;) Amelia Adelaide. I really like the way that sounds. > Well my second daughter arrived just before Emily's Shiloh :) > > Amelia Adelaide > April 22, 2007 9:20 a.m. > 8 lbs 6oz Congratulations! And thank you for posting your birth story. Amelia is a beautiful name. Karen > Well my second daughter arrived just before Emily's Shiloh :) > > Amelia Adelaide > April 22, 2007 9:20 a.m. > 8 lbs 6oz Congratulations on Amelia!! What a pretty name. :) Joy Congratulations on the arrival of Amelia. Sounds like you had it all in hand! Jeni |
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