This is the blog (from my friendster account)that i had made a few weeks after i gave birth. I haven't sign up for a blogspot account at that time...
October 20th, 2008
Labor and Delivery
Posted by majerr
Its been 6 weeks since i gave birth to my beautiful angel Lorelai Solfia. Physically i am exhausted and still recuperating from the birth experience………..
We finally decided to get pregnant after a year of contemplating, because we were just so content with just the two of us and thinking of having a child does not seem suitable at the time. Basically we were not ready. Okay i will be honest. I was not ready for my own selfish reasons…Then our friends Mike and Patty had a baby and we were there for them the whole entire time of Patty’s pregnancy for moral support and still after she had her baby girl Katherine. Then all of a sudden it hit us, we were ready. We decided to try earlier than we expected thinking might as well try now because there’s no way i will get pregnant right away. Or so we thought. I got pregnant after only a month and a half of trying. Anyways the whole pregnancy was a challenge considering i am a diabetic (type2), so i had to watch what i eat and give myself insulin shots for the whole 9 months. Let me tell you, the insulin shots were just so annoying to me, i just hated it and i had to do it 2-3 times a day. But i said to myself, “Whatever it takes so that my growing baby inside of me would come out healthy.” And the effort paid off…
The 38th week came, and at the doctor’s visit, we had been informed about the last ultrasound that we had. They estimated the baby’s weight to be 8 lbs and 7 oz. which he said was on the heavy side of the percentile.(My baby weighed in at 8 lbs and 1 1/4oz. so that was close!) Being diabetic and all it was inevitable to have a large baby anyway, so that was kind of a given. And he said that one of the risk of having a large baby is shoulder dystocia- a
case whereby after the delivery of the head, the anterior shoulder of the infant cannot pass below the pubic bone, or requires significant manipulation to pass below the pubic
bone. So he gave us an option of a vaginal delivery or a c-section. And we decided to try it vaginally, just because. And he also said that i’m going to have to be induced by my 39th week if labor does not start by then, so to eliminate the risk of the baby growing bigger inside of me.Between then and before the day of my induction, i tried different things to start my labor- walking, belly dancing, foot massage, and drinking herbal teas. My friend told me to have sex too, but that's the only thing that we did not do because i was just not in the mood. So anyways, they didn’t work, i was kinda dissappointed but oh well…
On a wednesday, september 3rd, we woke up at 4:30 am. We needed to be at the hospital by 5:30 for my labor induction. We got there 10 minutes early but had to wait because the hospital’s computer system was down, so registering took a little while… Finally we headed to the fourth floor of the hospital, the so-called Labor and Delivery floor (whoopteedoo!), and one of the nurses escorted us to our birthing suite. I was calm the whole time while the nurses start prepping me, hooking up my I.V.’s and stuff…We waited until 7 am for my OB/Gyn ( Dr. French), because they can’t start my induction till he’s in……………
My doc came in the room and started explaining the whole procedure,..Then he showed us a wooden stick, kinda like a thin drum stick, and it was the amnio-hook as they call it and he inserted it to break my bag of water to start the labor. That was weird, and all of a sudden a gush of liquid came out and it was a disgusting feeling let me tell you…Dr. French said that that should jump start my labor and an hour had passed my contractions came slightly. So he asked my nurse to administer Pitocin in my I.V. to help increase the labor and make my contractions stronger, oh they got stronger alright. The pain started becoming so unbearable and i asked my nurse for some pain medication, and she offered me Nubain and that put me to sleep. Then i woke up a couple of hours later still in pain and asked my nurse to knock me out again. A couple of hours later, i woke up, the first person i saw was Dr. French, and he checked if i’ve dilated some more, and i did, about 4 cm. Then i asked for an epidural for the pain. And it was great………
17 hours later, i was pushing, and oh it hurt so bad, i was screaming so loud but i didn’t care. I FELT EVERYTHING!.Dr. French injected my vagina with some numbing medicine and performed an episiotomy to give way for her head. So her head came out,, then all of a sudden there was a panic in the air because usually when a baby’s head’s out the entire body should slide out easily.So he cut me again thinking maybe that should do the job But her shoulders got stuck for a minute and i heard my doctor call in 4 nurses to push on my belly to get her out ASAP. Then a minute later (which felt like an hour) she was out (12:04 am, Thursday, Sept.4), but she was limp and she wasn't crying. One of the nurses got her and started clearing her nose and rubbed on her for a minute. And there you go, i heard her cry. But then they noticed that her entire left arm wasn’t moving-and that was the shoulder dystocia that i mentioned earlier.
I tore really bad, and they had to take me to the operating room to get me repaired. It took them a little over an hour, because it was a fourth degree perineal tear, which is the worst kind of an episiotomy. I just couldn’t believe it, you know, the severity of the situation. i wasn’t expecting all of that. Who would anyway. I thought everything’s going to be a breeze, because of all the pregnancy and baby shows that i’ve watched previously, the women on those shows made it look so damn easy. I never thought that i will have a difficult time with everything.
Her shoulder dystocia was scary for us, because we thought that her left arm was paralyzed. But the pediatrician that checked up on her said that it’s no big deal…2 weeks after her birthday, she started moving her left arm, and THANK YOU GOD FOR IT. And now she’s a healthy and happy baby.
My husband and I are just so grateful because she is truly a blessing for us. OUR FAMILY THAT I’VE BEEN LONGING FOR IS NOW COMPLETE….=)
Labor and Delivery
Posted by majerr
Its been 6 weeks since i gave birth to my beautiful angel Lorelai Solfia. Physically i am exhausted and still recuperating from the birth experience………..
We finally decided to get pregnant after a year of contemplating, because we were just so content with just the two of us and thinking of having a child does not seem suitable at the time. Basically we were not ready. Okay i will be honest. I was not ready for my own selfish reasons…Then our friends Mike and Patty had a baby and we were there for them the whole entire time of Patty’s pregnancy for moral support and still after she had her baby girl Katherine. Then all of a sudden it hit us, we were ready. We decided to try earlier than we expected thinking might as well try now because there’s no way i will get pregnant right away. Or so we thought. I got pregnant after only a month and a half of trying. Anyways the whole pregnancy was a challenge considering i am a diabetic (type2), so i had to watch what i eat and give myself insulin shots for the whole 9 months. Let me tell you, the insulin shots were just so annoying to me, i just hated it and i had to do it 2-3 times a day. But i said to myself, “Whatever it takes so that my growing baby inside of me would come out healthy.” And the effort paid off…
The 38th week came, and at the doctor’s visit, we had been informed about the last ultrasound that we had. They estimated the baby’s weight to be 8 lbs and 7 oz. which he said was on the heavy side of the percentile.(My baby weighed in at 8 lbs and 1 1/4oz. so that was close!) Being diabetic and all it was inevitable to have a large baby anyway, so that was kind of a given. And he said that one of the risk of having a large baby is shoulder dystocia- a
case whereby after the delivery of the head, the anterior shoulder of the infant cannot pass below the pubic bone, or requires significant manipulation to pass below the pubic
bone. So he gave us an option of a vaginal delivery or a c-section. And we decided to try it vaginally, just because. And he also said that i’m going to have to be induced by my 39th week if labor does not start by then, so to eliminate the risk of the baby growing bigger inside of me.Between then and before the day of my induction, i tried different things to start my labor- walking, belly dancing, foot massage, and drinking herbal teas. My friend told me to have sex too, but that's the only thing that we did not do because i was just not in the mood. So anyways, they didn’t work, i was kinda dissappointed but oh well…
On a wednesday, september 3rd, we woke up at 4:30 am. We needed to be at the hospital by 5:30 for my labor induction. We got there 10 minutes early but had to wait because the hospital’s computer system was down, so registering took a little while… Finally we headed to the fourth floor of the hospital, the so-called Labor and Delivery floor (whoopteedoo!), and one of the nurses escorted us to our birthing suite. I was calm the whole time while the nurses start prepping me, hooking up my I.V.’s and stuff…We waited until 7 am for my OB/Gyn ( Dr. French), because they can’t start my induction till he’s in……………
My doc came in the room and started explaining the whole procedure,..Then he showed us a wooden stick, kinda like a thin drum stick, and it was the amnio-hook as they call it and he inserted it to break my bag of water to start the labor. That was weird, and all of a sudden a gush of liquid came out and it was a disgusting feeling let me tell you…Dr. French said that that should jump start my labor and an hour had passed my contractions came slightly. So he asked my nurse to administer Pitocin in my I.V. to help increase the labor and make my contractions stronger, oh they got stronger alright. The pain started becoming so unbearable and i asked my nurse for some pain medication, and she offered me Nubain and that put me to sleep. Then i woke up a couple of hours later still in pain and asked my nurse to knock me out again. A couple of hours later, i woke up, the first person i saw was Dr. French, and he checked if i’ve dilated some more, and i did, about 4 cm. Then i asked for an epidural for the pain. And it was great………
17 hours later, i was pushing, and oh it hurt so bad, i was screaming so loud but i didn’t care. I FELT EVERYTHING!.Dr. French injected my vagina with some numbing medicine and performed an episiotomy to give way for her head. So her head came out,, then all of a sudden there was a panic in the air because usually when a baby’s head’s out the entire body should slide out easily.So he cut me again thinking maybe that should do the job But her shoulders got stuck for a minute and i heard my doctor call in 4 nurses to push on my belly to get her out ASAP. Then a minute later (which felt like an hour) she was out (12:04 am, Thursday, Sept.4), but she was limp and she wasn't crying. One of the nurses got her and started clearing her nose and rubbed on her for a minute. And there you go, i heard her cry. But then they noticed that her entire left arm wasn’t moving-and that was the shoulder dystocia that i mentioned earlier.
I tore really bad, and they had to take me to the operating room to get me repaired. It took them a little over an hour, because it was a fourth degree perineal tear, which is the worst kind of an episiotomy. I just couldn’t believe it, you know, the severity of the situation. i wasn’t expecting all of that. Who would anyway. I thought everything’s going to be a breeze, because of all the pregnancy and baby shows that i’ve watched previously, the women on those shows made it look so damn easy. I never thought that i will have a difficult time with everything.
Her shoulder dystocia was scary for us, because we thought that her left arm was paralyzed. But the pediatrician that checked up on her said that it’s no big deal…2 weeks after her birthday, she started moving her left arm, and THANK YOU GOD FOR IT. And now she’s a healthy and happy baby.
My husband and I are just so grateful because she is truly a blessing for us. OUR FAMILY THAT I’VE BEEN LONGING FOR IS NOW COMPLETE….=)
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