Margret Elizabeth? IS HERE!

[Alelou]

36 hours? OUCH.
But she's adorable.

[Asso]

Yes....she is here!

Margaret Elizabeth

Born Dec 13 at 6:35am
weight 7 pounds even
length 19.5 inches.


Here are the fruits of my 36 hour labor.

She's looking at something.
Maybe at... Enterprise?
Anyway she's very cute, and she looks really smart!

[Bether6074]

She's absolutely beautiful!! I can almost smell her little baby head. Sigh!

My brother just found out recently that he's having twins...and he's 47! I can't even imagine...

Congratulations, T'Sara!

[evcake]

Awww...what a cutie!

[TSara]

Little M’s Birth Story.


After almost 36 hours of labor this is our story.

Here is a breakdown of what I remember.

On DEC 12 I woke up at 6:30am because the house phone was ringing (turns out my husbands friend was calling freaking out because it was snowing in Houston. I was like “Ok? AND? It snows in Sarasota sometimes!) since I was awake I went ahead and got up….even though I didn’t sleep well the night before due to tossing and turning. (which played a major part of this story so bear with me.)


I went got Breakfast, got ready for work/ the dentist and left the house. Now for the last week or so I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions so when I started cramping that morning I didn’t put much stock in them. Got to work around 1pm left around 6pm. By this time the cramps were still noticeable….but still too far apart for me to start really worrying about them. I went ahead and went over to my friend Lisa’s house had dinner and made the comment that I thought I might be in early labor and that I should probably head home if they were regular. Lisa said I should wait and see and if this was the real thing she would take me to the hospital/birth center in Annapolis.

After timing them for a while I noticed that they were about 8-10 minutes apart. I called my midwife and she told me to sit tight for a bit longer….and that “You’ll make it here in time….try not to worry!”. (* Lisa’s House (and the office I work out of) are in Northern Virgina-I was concerned I wouldn’t make it to Annapolis in time!) I was pretty anxious at this point…..and wanting to go home, but after talking to both Lisa and my Husband I decided to wait and have Lisa drive me because the weather wasn’t the greatest out, foggy and raining.

So I went and tried to go to bed for the night, but because I kept waking up from my contractions (which really never got any worse than bad gas or bad period cramps the entire time) I didn’t sleep much. At around 3 am I noticed the contractions were 5 mins apart and had been that way for at least an hour and they were lasting close to a min each time. So I called Lisa and told her we needed to go.

We left the house, I called Tim, our Doula ,Maria, and Lirit. Lisa called the office and told them I wouldn’t be in because little M finally decided to come!

We got to Annapolis around 6 am. The midwife on duty at the time checked me and the baby and because she had a concern about M’s heart rate she sent me to the hospital literally next door. (We later found out that M didn’t like me lying on my left side and her heart rate would do funky things everytime I lay on that side. Other wise there was nothing wrong with her and I probably could have delivered just fine at the birth center.)


I was only 2-3 centimeters dilated at this point, and if it hadn’t been for the funky heart rate concern I probably would not have been admitted. Around this same time Tim my Doula showed up and I was given a room. Sometime during all this excitement Maria, showed up, later along with Lisa and my friend Shara I labored surrounded by the best support system a laboring woman could have asked for. Between my Doula, Maria brushing my hair and Shara, Tim, and Lisa making food and drink runs for me I labored. I felt pretty good, and was managing my pains pretty well by walking, snacking and getting into the tub. My midwife pretty much told the nurses that she was running the show and that I would be allowed to do what I wanted while I labored, which was AWESOME!


Needless to say….after laboring for 22 hours plus I had only dilated to 5 centimeters and because I hadn’t gotten much sleep in 48 hours I was exhausted. I went ahead and made the decision to get the epidural, NOT because of the pain (which I still was managing very well ) but because I was just so damn tired and I wanted to be able to bond with her when she came. I was concerned that if I continued I wouldn’t have been able to do that I was so tired. So after the epidural, and sending Shara, Lisa and Maria home I finally got my much needed sleep. I am firmly convinced that if I hadn’t been so tired I would have had her naturally.



I was checked again around 4am I was 8-9 centimeters dilated. My midwife broke my water and at around 5 I started pushing, and a little over an hour later my little cuddle bug was born! I got to hold her on my chest while they checked her Apgar score (she was a 9/9 by the way-almost a perfect score!) and my midwife stitched me up (I had a small tear-first degree). They took her over to a warming table, Tim put on her first diaper and brought her back to me.

Ok…..so that’s the story in a nutshell. My experience was pretty positive considering I had hoped to have her at the birth center in a natural setting, and the hospital staff did a good job of following my wishes, even when I told the nurse NO Pitocin to deliver my placenta (which I did look at by the way-yes….it does kinda look like a steak!). The only SNAFU we ran into was that the one nurse wasn’t aware that we didn’t want the eye drops. Ah well…..they did a good job otherwise, and if we decided to have another I’d go back to that hospital [b]if[/] I had to.

Ok….so here is the stats in case you were wondering.

Name: Margaret Elizabeth M.
Born in: Annapolis, MD
On: December 13, 2008 (ON HER DUE DATE!)
At: 6:35am
7 pounds even
19.5 inches

[justTripn]

That is a wonderful birth story. Everyone respected your wishes. I'm glad you added that part where the pains are like strong menstral cramps (for many people). No point in scaring the future moms with what might be when it is very often just like T'Sara said.

As for the long labor, I had something similar (I probably told this story here). The contractions started, but not much was happening so we were told to go take a walk or something to make the contractions come faster. We had already put an add in the paper to sell our car, and during this early contractions period, we got a call. The guy came over for a test drive! He decided to take the car. My husband and this guy went to AAA or something to transfer the title. He came home and sometime later we CALLED A TAXI!! to get to the birth center.

But with the twins they warned me they would come fast, to get over at the earliest sign of contractions. THEY WERE RIGHT. We checked in. Tony and the doctor annonced that they would go get something to eat and check back in an hour. Nothing much was happening. Finally the contractions started to get stronger and I called a nurse and asked if she would sit with me. She said sure, but let me check you first. Then she announced "Never mind! You are having a baby, right now!" They wheeled me into the delivery room and ordered me to push. I sure didn't feel like I was ready, but minutes later, I'd had two babies!

It is wonderful to have the friends and support system. I'm happy for you that it went so well. It sounds like you had a very pragmatic birthing philosophy. That was how our midwife taught us too. You know all the options beforehand so you can make an informed choice about what you want as the situation arises. And it's great to feel in control of the situation, legally and emotionally. My hospital birth did not go as well as yours. I won't get into all the gorey details, but they didn't respect what I knew about the situation and treated me in many ways like an object they had to extract a baby from. We had the whole extended family in to visit later in my recovery room, then in the middle of the night a nurse came in switched on the lights and started yelling at me that someone had spilled a cup of water on the floor. (I was outraged. I mean this was MY $500 a night hotel room and she was mad?) I jumped out of bed (something I wasn't sure I was capable of) and announced that I had just had twins and this was one of the "hardest days of my life" (heaping on the guilt) but I would clean the tile floor myself and she would GET OUT! The next day this poor nurse had to come back and try to show me a video about car seats and I wouldn't speak to her. After that I got a nice nurse. He, he . . .

[Alelou]

Oh Lord. Nurses really make or break your stay in the hospital.

For 36 hours it could have been a lot worse, T'Sara. Glad it all worked out well in the end.

My doctor was condescendingly amused with my attempt at a "birthing plan," which I found annoying, but afterwards I could understand his attitude. Certainly mine was out the window almost immediately for reasons beyond anyone's control. I can't complain about the experience, though. If there had been a next time, I merely would have requested the damned epidural a lot earlier and packed more snacks for afterwards!

[enterprikayak]

Congrats again! Birthing is good times, non?

[Bether6074]

I have to say that you girls are lucky with the "menstrual-like" cramps for contractions. For me, it was WAY worse than that (a huge understatement). To me, it was pain beyond imagination...but I also went back a second and third time despite all of that, so well worth it. The wee one is always worth the pain. I'm glad it wasn't too painful for you.

How is the little one doing? Getting any sleep?

[JadziaKathryn]

Oooh, I get back from vacation and T'Sara's daughter is born! What happy news!

And she's so CUTE!!!

[Bookworm]

I agree she is very intelligent looking.
And also very beautiful.

Most people I know have had very nice deliveries although also very long one's. I wonder if it's more common to have tolerable pain because everyone I've asked has said just like you that it wasn't too bad.

In my family we usually have very fast childbirths so I wonder if that is in our genes. My mom barely had time to get into the hospital even though she left right away when she noticed the first contractions. I propably couldn't wait as calmly as you did, because I would be too afraid that the baby will be born there at home or in a car.

[Bether6074]

I was one of the ones who could be heard screaming all of the way down the hall. My husband went for a coffee and said he wasn't really too sure he wanted to come back. Can't blame him.

[Alelou]

No epidural, huh?

[TSara]

I was one of the ones who could be heard screaming all of the way down the hall. My husband went for a coffee and said he wasn't really too sure he wanted to come back. Can't blame him.

Speaking of screaming from down the hallway.

There was a baby in the hospital that screamed like some sort of animal. I mean this poor kid didn't even sound like a baby crying. This baby sounded like a screeching banshee!

Even my husband made the comment that this kid sounded ungodly!

Poor baby.

[enterprikayak]

With my first, I got to the hospital and could hear a woman moaning really loudly and I kinda thought, "Yikes, okay lady...we hear you, drama queen."

Twenty minutes later I was waaaaaaaay outdoing her. It was my pain management technique:

SCREAMING.

I kind of loved it.