Family Forum / Pregnancy / Pregnancy / February 2008

I'm sorry that you have experienced the joint pain during labor thing
too.  It seemed so strange.  I don't think my midwives had seen it
before.  After my baby was born, the all over joint pains were gone.
I don't know whether it was the natural progression of the virus, or
the end of labor that caused them to go away.

The hip pains that I had been experiencing for months were mostly gone
too.  When they finally let me get up and walk, I was immediately able
to do it.  I wasn't expecting this since last time it took about a
week before moving began to get easier.  During the later months of
this pregnancy, whenever I got out of bed, I would need to sit for
some time getting my hips straightened out before I could walk.  If I
needed to rush to a child, I had to crawl painfully.

--Betsy

How about "Happy Pushing!"

I sent this last night Betsy but actually sent it to Jamie's email box
instead LOL. Anyway just wanted to wish you the best of luck and I'm
thinking because we've heard nothing else from you that you're either in
full blown labour by now or had that little bundle. Can't wait to hear from
you.

april

On Feb 6, 3:37 am, "Welches" <debbie.welc...@SPAMntlworldPLEASE.com>
wrote:

Yes, she is here.  This is the first chance I've had to get to the
computer.
Here are some details.

My baby was born on Tuesday about 6 hours after I last posted.  She
weighed 8 lbs 13 oz when they got around to weighing her.

My contractions stayed about 30 minutes apart for most of the labor
and never did get very close together.  I actually went back to bed
and slept between them.  When I was on my side, I could feel her head
coming down, but when I got up to squat, she seemed higher.

After spending a while sitting on a low stool and on my hands and
knees in the bathroom, I moved to the bedroom on my side.  I had one
really hard contraction where the head moved way down and my membranes
ruptured.  After this, I got up on my hands and knees and carefully
pushed her out in the next few contractions.

She came out with both fists up at her face.  Maybe this is one of the
reasons her position seemed strange to me during labor.

She nursed well right away, opening her mouth nice and wide.  Despite
the nursing, my contractions petered out and I couldn't seem to push
out the placenta.  After a bit less than an hour, I started gushing
blood and they rushed me to the nearest hospital 6  blocks away.

As soon as they got me onto the bed, I had the largest contraction
since the birth and with the help of a former British midwife who was
there with the student nurses she was teaching, managed to get the
placenta out (at least most of it).

They spent the next few hours trying to get my bleeding down and blood
pressure up.  It took several hours before they decided I was well
enough to be moved to a recovery room.

My midwife had to leave at 6:15 and the nurses said that I had lost
too much blood to be allowed to have my baby with me without a
responsible adult present.  They were understaffed and couldn't
provide that.  My husband was home taking care of our 3 sick kids, so
I called a wonderful neighbor who rushed in.

We have had lots of great help, which has been very important since no
family members could come this time.

They think I lost about 2 liters of blood and I am supposed to be
careful for a while.  My milk came in last night, much later than
usual for me, but I am feeling thankful for it coming in well after
the blood loss.  I feel that I received very good care.  Despite
having things go in a way I didn't plan,
it doesn't feel like too bad an experience.

My baby is very cute and has lots of hair.  We haven't even managed to
take her first picture yet.  I guess I better find the camera.

--Betsy