She is here! Alayna Lorianne Fielding. She came on March 3rd, 2011 at 4:17 pm (one week after due date) weighing 7 lbs 5 oz. She is beautiful and healthy.
Since the 28th of February we had been trying a bunch of things to get me to go into labor. Pressure points on feet and legs, walking, jumping on trampoline, spicy food, etc. Nothing seemed to work. On Friday the 2nd, we decided to go buy all the ingredients for eggplant parmesan on our way to go out to eat dinner with Jordan’s Family. When we got to Olive Garden, we saw some friends that said that Olive Garden serves Eggplant Parmesan that pregnant women come to eat when they want to go into labor. I decided to get it. I guess that was what it took ha ha cause I had the baby the next day. No, really I was feeling stuff in my back before I was even served my meal. I think that Alayna was just ready to come.
Friday night, I did not sleep well at all. I felt icky and uncomfortable. Finally in the morning, Jordan heard me moaning and asked me what was wrong. We started thinking that maybe today was the day. I started to bleed a little, and we took that as a sign that things were happening. But still, I wasn’t sure if I was having surges or not. I sat on the birth ball and took a bath which felt good at the time. I finally thought I could tell when something started and stopped so we timed it. They were 2 1/2 minutes apart. This kind of freaked me out because I tested positive for Group B Strep and had to be on antibiotics for 4 hours before I had the baby. The doctor said to come to the hospital when my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. I was afraid that we were not going to get there soon enough because we were not packed up. Jordan packed up the car. I just tried to relax and breath. I knew I needed to eat something since they wouldn’t give me anything at the hospital but the thought of food was horrible. I ended up eating a few apple slices.
The ride to the hospital was not the most fun. We got to the hospital about 10:30 am and Jordan got a wheelchair for me to ride. I had a hard time speaking to anyone during my surges and they were so close together I didn’t talk much. My worst fear was that they were going to tell me that what I was feeling were not contractions at all and they would send me home. I was thinking, If these are not them, I don’t know if I can handle anything stronger. Good news, they were real contractions that were a minute and a half apart. Bad news, I was dialated to a 1 cm and 80% effaced. That was where I was at 2 weeks ago at my doctors appointment. The nurses said that they would let me stay for an hour and see how things were going and then might send me home. I wanted to cry, I didn’t think I could ride in the car again. When they checked me again after an hour, I had progressed to a 1+. They decided to let me stay (probably only because I needed the antibiotic). A few hours later, they checked me again and I was at a 5 cm. I was feeling surges in my back so much that I couldn’t stand to lay down or be in any position except sitting as far upright as the bed would allow. Whenever they checked my cervix I was miserable. The nurses were concerned that the baby was stressed because the heart tones never really spiked like they wanted to see. She just had a steady heart rate. So they ran sugar water through my I.V. and kept the monitors on me. This was not what I had wanted in my birth plan but honestly at the time, my surges were so close together, I didn’t even want to move. They brought in a different doctor to talk to me about breaking my water and see if there was meconium. We decided to wait till my doctor came back. After that, I asked a nurse to check me cause I felt the urge to push and she said she couldn’t really tell without breaking the water but she thought that I might be complete and ready to have the baby. My doctor came and broke my water, there was LOTS of meconium and so everyone was a little worried because the baby was stressed, she needed to come out soon and they brought in a respiratory team to take care of the baby when she did come, to make sure she didn’t inhale any meconium. They told us that we couldn’t risk leaving her attached to the umbilical cord until it stopped pulsating. They said that she could be in the NICU for a week with pneumonia if things were a problem and not taken care of. After they broke my water, they could tell that I wasn’t quite complete. I was just ready to have the baby. It was really hard not to push and bear down during my contractions. I would do the deep breathing that we were taught in our class and it made things so much better till I would exhale and then I wanted to push.
When it came time to “push”, I told them I couldn’t lay down on my back because it was so uncomfortable. I tried squatting with the squat bar, but my legs got too tired and I asked if I could kneel. The doctor said that if I wanted to kneel, it would be best to turn around and lean up on the bed. This was the most comfortable for me and the doctor said that the baby liked it best also. I only pushed for about 15 minutes and she came. I tried to do the birth breathing and not hold my breath. Jordan would tell me to breath and the doctor said “Its actually better to hold your breath and bear down.” We just ignored that. Jordan was so good and kept encouraging me and telling me how good I was doing. We didn’t do any relaxation scripts during labor, and because my surges were so close together I didn’t want to try or do anything. I did have the affirmations playing in the background to remind me what I needed to focus on.
Alayna came at 4:17 pm she was taken over to the cart to be suctioned out, which she was perfectly fine and healthy. Jordan went over with her. In the meantime, the doctor was working on me. I felt so much better after she was born because the surges stopped immediately. They came back very dully to deliver the placenta.
We feel like we made the right decision to go without an epidural because the doctors and nurses kept mentioning a c-section if I didn’t have the baby soon. If I had had an epidural, it could have slowed down my labor and I could have ended up going in for an emergency c-section. I think that my labor was more difficult than some peoples because I had back labor and my surges were so close together that I never had a break. Everyone was so surprised how fast everything moved along especially since this was my first baby. I was in labor for about 6 hours and pushed for 15 minutes.
Thank you so much for all that you taught us in your class, not everything went as we planned, but we feel that this class helped us so much and we are very happy with our experience.
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