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Quintin Robert's Birth Story By Katie Antaya (Mommy) |
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Birth Stories -
Natural Birth Stories
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Monday, 01 December 2008 09:47 |
It was the end of July 1994 when I found out that I was pregnant! My husband (though we were not married at the time) and I were very excited and nervous all at the same time! We didn't think that it would happen so soon after going off the pill - I was only off for a month!
It was a pretty uneventful pregnancy. My due date was March 15, 1995, I was in college at the time and my course was to be done shortly after! I was ahead of myself in my classes and figured that since all first pregnancies go over that I would be safe!! WRONG!! I was also told by my mom that most pregnancies reflect their mothers!? Right and Wrong! Right about the short labor and Wrong about the due dates! She had carried my sister and me over three extra weeks!
Anyway to cut to the chase, it was the morning of March 15, 1995, and I had been up and down all night going to the bathroom. Finally at about 4:30 am I had a cramp like I was constipated and headed to the bathroom, had a bowel movement and back to bed! Well that went on for about an hour, when I remembered that a friend of mine said that her body always ridded itself of all stuff like that to prepare for the upcoming birth! So I figured that it would be happening sometime in the next week or two! Besides who has their first baby on their due date anyway!!
Well now I was up for the morning, but I figured that it was too early to take a shower so I sat at the computer and played solitaire. Well that only lasted about 15 minutes and then I had such awful back pain that I shut off the computer and went to lay in the waterbed with my husband figuring that it would help my back, I must have thrown it out or something!! After I couldn't stand lying there another minute, my husband woke up from a night of tying one on with the guys and asked what the problem was? I said that it was nothing that my back was sore that was all. He shot up and said "Oh my GOD your in labor!!" I told him that I wasn't, I was the woman and would know when if I was in labor or not...lol!!
I told him that I would take a shower and if the pain became longer and stronger-like they said in prenatal classes-then I would consider going to the hospital! He called his mom in-the-meantime because she is a nurse and she said to go to the hospital if we saw fit! Besides my bags weren't even packed yet. Well nothing changed with the shower, so my husband decided to try to time the contractions.....what a joke!! I finally agreed to go to the hospital, but only for the reason that the nurses would inform my husband that I was right and was not in labor, I would then go to class for an exam that I had that day! He called the school and informed them of the plan and they agreed and wished us luck!
When we arrived at the hospital and went up to the L&D triage, I approached the counter and the nurse asked what the problem was......DUH!! I was here to have a baby!!! She then asked how far apart the contractions were? I told here, 2, 3, 4, minutes take your pick! She gave us the glare of "Oh, must be new at this!!" So she took us into the room where they hook you up to the fetal monitor and said that I would have to stay on this for at least 30 mins. No prob! On the opposite wall I noticed that they had monitor tapes of what mild labor was, hard labor, and braxton hicks! Then I looked at mine and figured that they were probably just the false ones, I mean at the height of pain (which was totally bearable) on my tape it showed as barley a lump!
After about 45 minutes, the nurse informed me from the hall that she would be right there because she had someone in "ACTIVE (7-10cm) Labor"! I told her no prob, because I was probably going to be sent home anyway! Finally she came in and looked at the tape and gave me another glare and said that she would get the intern to check me. Back they came and he checked me and called our some numbers which meant nothing to me and then said 2 cm. Well I then glared at my husband, I mean how dare he embarrass me like that when I already informed him that I was not in labor!! But thankfully the intern asked the nurse to double check him! So she did and said that I was 7 cm not 2cm and then explained to him that he has to feel all the way around the cervix. I guess that half of my cervix was fully dilated while the other half was just starting!!
So I guess that I was in active labor and my husband was right! So they checked me into a birthing room and we called our parents to let them know that this was the real thing! While I was talking to my mom (who was at work at the time), she stopped and asked if I was in labor and I told her that yes I was! She said that I couldn't have been because I was still able to talk.....lol!! I soon found out what she meant about an hour later!
At 10:30 am the nurse came in and informed us that the doctor would be in to break my water to relieve some of the back pressure that I was having. Fine with me! They wanted to give me an enema as well, but I informed them that my body already took care of that earlier! So finally at 11:15 the same intern comes in and breaks my water. What a breeze, I don't know what all my mom was talking about? There was a little trickle and then nothing, no prob, cause I don't like mess anyway.....HAHAHA!! Well after they did that, watch out! Talk about unbearable pain!! OH MY GOD!! My husband suggested that we try the shower and that lasted all of about 10 minutes, I just couldn't get conformable. Next we tried the hanging over the back of the bed, which helped a lot!! Though my poor hubby's hand were about to fall off! That is when he said "I know that you wanted to do this unmedicated but do you think that you might want something now?" It was all I could do to spit out yes, I had thought about it first and knew that some women are in this type of labor or hours on end and thought I tried but need something now!!
He informed the nurse that I wanted something for pain and she said that all she could do for us because we were so advanced was laughing gas! So she brought in a bottle and said that I had to hold in on my face because if I took too much that my hand would automatically just fall away, so I wouldn't pass out! Wouldn't that have been funny...lol!! I took the mask and started breathing deeply!! I didn't feel too different except that I felt numb and tingly all over and still all the pain?? After that feeling left I felt that I had the urge to have a bowel movement and throw up all at the same time? Well what better timing I thought, my body doesn't know if it is coming or going...lol!! I had that urge a couple of times but still nothing? Then the light bulb turned on and I thought this must be that urge to push thing everyone was telling me about!
At noon (45 mins after they broke my water), I informed my husband that I think that I have to push and the nurse said not to and she would check me after the next contraction was done. I told her to check NOW, because the contraction was stopping! She checked me and informed me that I was 10cm and that I could turnaround now and start pushing on the next contraction! Yeah right, turn around...lol!! But somehow in did manage to do just that, except half way I got another contraction. My poor husband, he was holding me up with one hand and the gas mask in the other. Well I told him to start rubbing my back, so he put down the mask and before he had the chance I was yelling at him to give me the mask!! Talk about confusion, luckily for him that one didn't last as long!
Finally turned around, I started to push with contractions, but obviously not the right way as I was informed by the nurse! I was to push at least three times and really hard all three times! So I tried that and was pushing for about one and a half hours, but about 45 minutes into it the nurse, who was setting all the gadgets up, would turn and make sure that the baby didn't slide out all-of-a-sudden and said that the baby has a lot of hair? How the heck could she see that far up?? Only after I had given birth did I figure out that the head was crowning and then going back in...lol!!
When my doctor arrived he informed me that it was time to get the baby out and on the next contraction to push with all my might and to keep pushing until he said stop! Okay, I think that I could do that! So there I went I started to push and push and push, I was just about to stop on my own when the nurse got in my face and said "KEEP PUSHING", boy was I mad at her, I guess that it was what forced me to keep pushing! "STOP!" Finally the head was out and all the suctioning was going on! On the next contraction I pushed and then "got tired" so tried to hold back the contraction....too late the baby was already on the way out, so needles to say I tore a bit, but then it was all over, the baby finally arrived into the world and was placed onto my stomach! Born at 1:35 pm! I could see that it was a BOY right away, but the doctor and my husband were so sure that it was going to be a girl that they actually had to look between HIS legs to find out!
My husband cut the cord and informed everyone that HIS name was QUINTIN ROBERT! Quintin was taken to the bassinet to get weighed and measured and all that good stuff!! His APGAR's were 8 & 9! He weighed 7lbs 8oz, and was 21 1/2 inches long!! Even though he was out of me I still felt that I was "full" inside and thought "Oh no, what if there is a second one that we didn't know about?" But there wasn't, after the placenta was born I felt empty, finally!! I then knew that it was all over!!
So it all happened pretty quickly, 10:30am check into hospital, 11:15am broke water, noon started pushing and 1:35pm baby Quintin was born!! He is now 3 1/2 years old and doing great! Loving his 1 year old brother (Keenan Daniel) and sister (Courtney Diane)!! Yes, that's right TWINS!!
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Natural Births 
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