39 week pregnant belly

Last pregnant belly shot before I delivered:

Morgan Kathleen's birth story!

Morgan Kathleen arrived four days ahead of her due date (so much for concerns about me going early!). The last two weeks I had been stuck between 3 to 4 centimeters dilated with tons of Braxton Hicks contractions. We ended up at L&D with two false alarms (contractions were every three minutes but not intense enough to progress my cervix so we got sent home). Since the doctor was worried about the baby being too big to VBAC, I had an ultrasound schedule for Tuesday morning. Assuming she would be too big, I needed to deliver before Tuesday or I was going to end up with another csection on Friday.

I tried EVERYTHING to get labor started. Spicy foods. Castor oil. (OMG. Castor oil is disgusting. It's like drinking liquid vaseline. I tried 2 tbs on three different days. It did make me contract but did not start labor. Gross, gross, gross). Walking (so much walking). Stripping the membranes at the doctors office (this hurts!). Etc.

By Sunday night nothing seemed to be working and I was getting super upset accepting that I was going to have another csection. Like really upset. OF COURSE you do what you need to do for a healthy baby, but I was really not looking forward to a major surgery and a long recovery with a newborn and two toddlers at home. And I was really bummed about missing out on the labor experience.

Well go figure that our baby would wait till the last minute. Went to bed Monday night around ten (with my ultrasound appointment scheduled for 8 a.m. the next morning). I had been having contractions earlier that evening but I had been having them on and off for weeks so it didn't really seem like anything promising. Darren came to bed around 11:50. As soon as he walked in the room I started moaning. I was having terribly painful contractions. I limped into the bathroom and "peed" an obscene amount. It was cloudy and weird looking. I stood up and more leaked on the rug. OMG my water broke. I yelled to Darren in the other room and called my parents to come over. While we got ready, I was still questioning it - did my water really break? Is this another false alarm? But the contractions were pretty bad and Darren was like let's just go. My parents made it over pretty quickly and we walked into the hospital around 12:30. They checked me and I was 6 cm and my water did break. Baby girl was on her way!

They moved me from triage to the birthing floor. The nurse there was wonderful - she did all four of her births naturally so when I told her I didn't want an epidural she was really supportive. The on call doctor was actually the same one that did my csection last time so at least i knew her.

Labor without pain meds was interesting. Obviously contractions hurt but I just concentrated on breathing through them. The nurse warned me I would get to a point where I didn't think I could do it anymore, but I could. And she was right. At 9 cm I thought I was going to die. I need the epidural, I said. Obviously it is too late at that point. The pain was so bad and I just didn't know what to focus on. I felt like I needed to stand, like I needed to pee, like I needed to do SOMETHING but all I could do was lay there and squeeze Darren's hand. Then the nurse said I would hit the point where I felt the need to push. And I did. So she called the doctor in at 2:40.

I was so focused on pushing that I really don't remember much of what was going on. I know the baby's heart rate was dropping a little and they thought maybe the cord was around her neck. They put an oxygen mask on me and called in a pediatrician for the baby to monitor the heart rate (which I guess is standard). Apparently the doctor was talking about maybe using a vacuum to help get the baby out (I do not remember any of this) but before we got to that point, Morgan was born at 3 a.m. just 2 1/2 hours after we got to the hospital! Only 20 minutes of pushing. I had popped blood vessels all over my body, especially around my eyes!

Morgan's weight was 9 lbs 9.4 oz. And I delivered her without pain meds. I did that!

They took her and cleaned her off (apgar score of 8.9) and handed her back to me while I had to push the placenta out. I had no energy and the doctor was like, you do have to push. Oh okay. So I pushed that out. Then she sewed me up (a second degree tear and a minor small tear, but overall not bad considering how big the baby was). Her color started to get funny for a minute so they took her over to the warmer for a few minutes but then she was fine and gave her back to me.

Within an hour of delivering, I was stitched up and holding my baby and the nurse helped me get up to use the bathroom. I couldn't believe how much better I felt in comparison to the csection. Don't get me wrong, pushing a giant baby out of you will cause some soreness, but I felt so much better overall from the csection right away. Plus I had my baby with me and not hooked up to a bunch of machines in the NICU. That part was also way better.

They moved us up to the postpartum floor and we spent two days in the hospital. It was a great hospital stay and I was just so happy everything worked out. Morgan took to breastfeeding right away like a champ (compared to the struggles in the NICU and the constant pumping). She is such a good, easy baby and really just sleeps and eats.

False Labor!

I started having contractions Sunday night. Awesome, I thought, this is it. They were coming every 15 minutes or so at first and I was up all night long. They started coming every eight to ten minutes by morning and I was showered and ready to go by 6 a.m. assuming it would be time to go to the hospital any minute. I talked to the on call doctor who told me to wait until they were every five minutes. So I waited. And they continued all day Monday. By Monday night they were coming every six to eight minutes. And then, THEY STOPPED. What they hell????

Apparently, there is such a thing called false labor. I have never heard of this before but basically it just means you have regular contractions, think you are in labor, and they come and go and you aren't actually in labor. What a tease!

I see the doctor on Thursday so we'll find out if the false labor contractions dilated me any further. The baby definitely dropped though (see picture). Big change for just a couple days.

Could be any day now.....

More info on false labor: http://www.babycenter.com/0_false-labor_491.bc 

A giant baby!

Baby girl is measuring 8 lbs 13 oz!!!! (Average weight of a newborn baby is 7.5 lbs) Dear lord! I am 36 weeks 4 days but she is measuring at 39 weeks 5 days and my uterus is measuring at 40 weeks. Explains the back and vagina pain. My baby is bigger than most full term babies! Obviously the ultrasound measurements can be a little off (by one pound) but she's still big either way. Apparently I grow giant babies.

No ultrasound pic- baby girl is too squirmy!

I was 2 cm dilated, 50 percent effaced and baby is at -3. So no real signs of coming early. A bigger baby isn't an older baby the doctor said.

The only issue with having such a big baby (as a preemie mama I love having a good size healthy baby!) is that I might not be able to vbac. My doctor's cut off for a vbac is 9lbs 13 oz. Bigger than that can be dangerous for baby and mama with a vbac. I really do not want a csection again but it's out of my hands at this point. So I'll have another scan at 39 weeks to see how big she is. Or she can come on her own before then and I can deliver naturally!

I see the doctor again next week and she is going to sweep my membranes. What the heck does that mean?

Stripping membranes, sometimes called membrane sweeping, is a method used to try to start labor. The health care provider puts her or his finger into the cervix -- the mouth of the uterus -- and uses the finger to gently separate the bag of water from the side of the uterus near the cervix. It is easily done in the office during a regular pelvic exam. - http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/703499

I guess it can help start labor about 50 percent of the time. Here's hoping for no csection!