Jayden's Labor and Birth *updated*

I'll try to give a bit of a timeline, but obviously I'm not the best person for that job lol. I'll update information as well after having a talk with my doula and perhaps the attending midwife. Maybe I'll even get a copy of my chart from the birth...midwives take great notes :-)

WARNING - SOME CONTENT MAY BE GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS...if you'd rather not hear it please don't continue reading the birth story :-)

Sooooooo...on the evening of March 5th, around 11pm I think I realized that my backache (which had kept me up internet surfing on the couch rather than joining my husband in bed) may be contractions that actually hurt...i.e. NOT Braxton Hicks. I didn't want to turn out to be a wimp however, so if it was false labor I'd have felt REALLY bad for waking my husband up in the middle of the night when he leaves for work at 6:30 am. SO what did I do? I texted my doula around 1am, took Tylenol PM every 4 hours  (though I never ended up going to sleep, turned out I was having back labor, so any sleeping position hurt too much), watched TV on my exercise ball leaning on the bed and waited for my husband's 5:30am alarm to go off to see if I were still having contractions.

At 5:30am on March 6th my husband awoke to find me in the bathroom losing my plug (which he didn't know)...and I suggested maybe he call in to work lol. I spent the next few 5-6 hours trying to remain comfortable and not panic. I moved between the bathtub, the exercise ball, the floor on all fours, and the couch repeatedly during my contractions. We texted the doula every so often, and called the on-call midwife at WBWC to give updates.

My husband called our doula asking her to come to our place around lunchtime - maybe 11ish - finally coming to the point that maybe we needed another person helping me cope with my random contractions. Our doula arrived maybe around 1:30pm (UPDATE - arrived around 11:30am) on the 6th, and by perhaps 2:30/3pm decided that either I was 3-4cm dilated and having a bit of hard labor (which it turned out I was having a hard labor  - called back labor - I won't keep commenting on it haha, but it sucks) OR that I was a trooper and was dilated further than she could tell. My contractions still hadn't been consistently about 2 minutes apart yet, which is what my midwife wanted to happen for at least an hour before we came in. Well, we called back and said our doula suggested  we come in to get checked at least. And we went!

Arrived at WBWC around 3:30/4pm. I stripped down and had them fill the tub. Meanwhile, my midwife checked me...I was already 8 CENTIMETERS!!! Though, in the moment I thought "oh crap" - I'd mistakenly heard 3! Haha...silly me. Well, I got into the tub for a while, gave up on the tub and had a tens unit (little electrodes that send impulses to the muscles) connected to my back while I laid over a birthing ball on the bed.

I was checked again maybe an hour later and had dilated further, just had the last "lip" of cervix to get rid of, maybe 1cm. Also my water still hadn't broken. Since that was the case, and I hadn't slept in over 24 hours, it was suggested that I try to rest before my pushing phase. I was given something to sleep around 5/6pm - it didn't take away the pain however, so I napped between contractions for 2-3 hours.

I woke up around 7/7:30pm and was checked again - that last lip was still there in my cervix, so my midwife broke my water to help baby move down the last bit (the bag was in the way of his descent). At about 8pm I decided to get back in the water, and started having pushing contractions. I pushed for 45 minutes, and Jayden James was born at 8:46pm.

Updates will come, as well as a to-the-point timeline below, once I get notes from everyone! Hrd to believe that at 6 weeks postpartum I still don't have that!

~ until then! ~

4.16.13

Update!!! I've gotten ahold of my labor and delivery chart from WBWC, so below is the timeline of events!!! Starting of course at my 8cm arrival at the birth center...(in military time)...on 3/6/13

1500 - arrived at WBWC, BP 136/80, temp 98.2, 8cm dilated, tub filled,  FHR 140s
1530 - laboring in the tub, FHR 150s
1600 - FHR 150s, out of tub, on bed
1630 - FHR 150s, tens unit applied
1700 - FHR 130s-140s, on toilet backwards w/tens unit
1715 - requested something to help relax, discussed options
1720 - Nubain 0.5 mg SQ RD (?) injected
1730 - FHR 140, on bed over birthing ball
1800 - FHR 140, side (L) lying on bed resting between contractions
1830 - FHR 120s-130, con't side (L) lying on bed resting between contractions
1900 - BP 144/74, temp 99.4, FHR 130s, con't side (L) lying on bed resting between contractions
1930 - FHR 140s, feeling pushy
1940 - FHR 140s-150s, AROM (artificial rupture of membranes), getting in the tub
1950 - involuntary bearing down in the tub, coping well
2000 - pushing in tub
2020 - coping well & pushing
2024 - FHR 110-120, pushing hard
2030 - FHR 140s, pushing in tub, pushing head down
2040 - crown - head
2044 - crowning
2045 - head
2046 - born, waterbirth
postpartum
2057 - placenta spont. delivered, in tub relaxing
2120 - out of tub to bed to be checked for tears