A Labor of Love

August 23, 2007 | By Kristen | In Baby Life

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Our last moments before the baby arrives… look how happy I was and no drugs!!

My husband says that labor and delivery is my sadistic addition- I’m one of the few women that he’s ever heard of that have 8 and 9 lb babies with no drugs and loves going thru labor. This last delivery was very much a solo act for me and my husband hates to admit it (but he does so that’s why I can give him such grief about it) that he dropped the ball and didn’t do the only two things I asked him to do during this delivery.

The first- I did not want any nice nice words. You know what I mean, the “your doing great” “you can do it” I simply wanted him to say “suck it up and don’t be a wimp” Harsh? Hey, we all have something strange that works for us during delivery and that’s all I wanted. That’s what I needed to stay focused on the fact that I knew it wasn’t going to last and do what I needed to do to bring this little peanut into my world.

The second thing- I wanted him to count from 1-10 during my contractions. Instead I counted to myself while swearing in the back of my mind as he and the nurse talked motorcycles. I felt like screaming a couple times “HEY ME>>> THE KID>>> HELLLLLOOOO” but I took care of my own counting and kept myself focused

I found my one position I was comfortable (as much as I could be) kneeling on the bed was this delivery trick where my last one it was standing and rocking back and forth. I could handle the pain in those positions, to lie down was out of the question where that worked for my second delivery. It’s fascinating to me how every delivery is so different.

This delivery was much quicker then any of my previous and as much as I was regretting the need to use pitocin again it ended up not being as bad as I dreaded. I had pitocin for the first two deliveries and it wasn’t until the third delivery where I didn’t need it that I realized how easy I could manage my contraction pain. The pitocin made the contractions so much more painful. So even having the pitocin for the delivery I think because I went so fast that I was able to manage ok. When I say fast I mean the drip started at noon, they broke my water at 1, they checked my diation at 4 and I was only at 4 cm, I announced at 4:45 that she was here- and I literally announced that she was here. The resident didn’t believe me because she had just checked me but oops by the time I got her to check again the baby was crowning.. talk about sheer panic on her face.. that was priceless and one I will always remember. It ended up fine with my doctor running in after the nurses yelling for anyone and the sudden flurry of people getting things prepped. And she was officially delivered at 4:50. Woooo that wasn’t bad and a healthy baby girl joins our family.

Overall, besides droppping the ball on my two requests the husband did a good job refilling my gatorade and of course getting me my food right after my delivery. I’m always so hungry after that I can’t wait to eat, what priorities. And when I’m not having a direct contraction I actually am still very personable and chatty so it makes it a more enjoyable. I love watching the birth stories on the TLC channel and seeing how women react and boy after watching some of those women and how they react to the pain of labor,,,, my husband should thank his lucky stars that I’m so easy going and happy… even when he doesn’t count.

Considering the first delivery he decided to eat a seafood sandwich from the hospital cafe at midnight (come on… WHO DOES THAT??) and ended up in the bathroom during my delivery with a bad case of food poisoning.

My second delivery I decided to try an epideral and the intern missed FOUR times and he passed out, hit his head on the incubator and they spent the rest of the delivery trying to get him to the emergency room. Then as the resident was checking my dilation I looked at his name tage and discovered I grew up with him - hows that for an uncomfortable scenario?

The third delivery was very quiet with nothing out of the ordinary except it was one that seemed like it went on and on and on….very long.. but not painful at all. I had no pain as long as I was standing and my contractions didn’t even hurt until I was ready to deliver.

So there is some real life birth stories and how to expect the unexpected, make your birth plan but know that it may not work out, understand that you need to go with the flow and take it one contraction at a time knowing that you will have a precious bundle to cherish when all the work is done.

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