Does anyone know their own birth stories? I get that this is probably either not likely (I figure asking your mom might not be a normal conversation) But mine likes to try to traumatize me, and regaled us all with the story of my birth on my birthday a couple of weeks back. I set my phone to record, and have now had time to put it all in writing.
So I was due (changing dates and stuff) on March 3rd. The date came and went, and I didn't. I was apparently quite happy to stay put. Until around 8 days later march 11th, when my mom's water broke while out shopping with my dad. (They forget if it was at Menards or Home Depot, but one of the two) They wrapped up the shopping really quick, took the stuff back to their apartment at the time, and booked it to the hospital. My mom started having contractions, but not very strong or fast yet. About an hour or two later, they arrive at the hospital, get checked in, and wait.
So a few hours go by, no dilation, still pretty far spaced contractions, which are starting to get pretty painful, but other than that, no progress. Apparently, if her water hadn't broken, they'd have sent my mom back home. So they pushed Pitocin and waited things out. Holy hell, apparently her body did not like that idea. For the next couple of hours, the contractions were, in her words, "So bad, it felt like getting kicked by a horse." After 2-3 hours of this, (She has no clue exactly how long, and my dad had gotten called away, he was a EMT at that hospital) and apparently only now 4 cm dilated, she opted for an epidural.
18 hours later, she's gotten some rest, and my dad is now back. Epidural starts wearing off, and the real bad contractions are back. Because of the epidural, she wasn't allowed out of bed, and she says that all she wanted was to get up and walk, but nope, not allowed. Had to stay in bed the whole time. Gets checked, right around 7 cm at this point, and her contractions start tapering off, spacing out again, not really that long either. So they up the Pitocin dose and wait it out. She says that the next 6 hours and 3 cm are why I was an only child for as long as I was. She apparently lost her voice for a few days after from the screaming, and freaked out quite a few women in the maternity ward that day from it. Now, at this point, the contractions and noise had annoyed little "tiny" me, and I wanted to see what was going on.
Now, I say "tiny," because I've always been told I was a chunky baby, and I've got the pictures to prove it. What I didn't know, is that I was born with about 9lbs., 13 oz. of chunk. For the record, that's above national birth weight, today, let alone 1998, especially for a smaller woman, such as my mother. She pushed for 7.5 hours before my head came out. This is now March 13th. Once my head was out, a few questions were answered. Firstly, it was so painful and was taking so long because I was posterior, so back labor. And as an added bonus, I decided to get my shoulders stuck on the way out, and quite a bit of tugging and maneuvering later, I was brought into this world, screaming and covered in someone else's blood.
Now, to head off a few questions, this was a smaller hospital. Firstly, they didn't have a huge EMT team, so that's why my dad had to duck out for a while. Secondly, because it was a smaller hospital, they were sorta reluctant to perform c-sections unless it was absolutely necessary, which is why my mom had to stick through almost 8 hours of pushing. Either way, this kinda made my last birthday uncomfortable, but if you guys can enjoy it, at least it wasn't a needless mood killer.
So I was due (changing dates and stuff) on March 3rd. The date came and went, and I didn't. I was apparently quite happy to stay put. Until around 8 days later march 11th, when my mom's water broke while out shopping with my dad. (They forget if it was at Menards or Home Depot, but one of the two) They wrapped up the shopping really quick, took the stuff back to their apartment at the time, and booked it to the hospital. My mom started having contractions, but not very strong or fast yet. About an hour or two later, they arrive at the hospital, get checked in, and wait.
So a few hours go by, no dilation, still pretty far spaced contractions, which are starting to get pretty painful, but other than that, no progress. Apparently, if her water hadn't broken, they'd have sent my mom back home. So they pushed Pitocin and waited things out. Holy hell, apparently her body did not like that idea. For the next couple of hours, the contractions were, in her words, "So bad, it felt like getting kicked by a horse." After 2-3 hours of this, (She has no clue exactly how long, and my dad had gotten called away, he was a EMT at that hospital) and apparently only now 4 cm dilated, she opted for an epidural.
18 hours later, she's gotten some rest, and my dad is now back. Epidural starts wearing off, and the real bad contractions are back. Because of the epidural, she wasn't allowed out of bed, and she says that all she wanted was to get up and walk, but nope, not allowed. Had to stay in bed the whole time. Gets checked, right around 7 cm at this point, and her contractions start tapering off, spacing out again, not really that long either. So they up the Pitocin dose and wait it out. She says that the next 6 hours and 3 cm are why I was an only child for as long as I was. She apparently lost her voice for a few days after from the screaming, and freaked out quite a few women in the maternity ward that day from it. Now, at this point, the contractions and noise had annoyed little "tiny" me, and I wanted to see what was going on.
Now, I say "tiny," because I've always been told I was a chunky baby, and I've got the pictures to prove it. What I didn't know, is that I was born with about 9lbs., 13 oz. of chunk. For the record, that's above national birth weight, today, let alone 1998, especially for a smaller woman, such as my mother. She pushed for 7.5 hours before my head came out. This is now March 13th. Once my head was out, a few questions were answered. Firstly, it was so painful and was taking so long because I was posterior, so back labor. And as an added bonus, I decided to get my shoulders stuck on the way out, and quite a bit of tugging and maneuvering later, I was brought into this world, screaming and covered in someone else's blood.
Now, to head off a few questions, this was a smaller hospital. Firstly, they didn't have a huge EMT team, so that's why my dad had to duck out for a while. Secondly, because it was a smaller hospital, they were sorta reluctant to perform c-sections unless it was absolutely necessary, which is why my mom had to stick through almost 8 hours of pushing. Either way, this kinda made my last birthday uncomfortable, but if you guys can enjoy it, at least it wasn't a needless mood killer.
