Story Time

[H.Starr]

Share your story. Here's mine.

From the beginning...I was 5'3" and 115lbs when I found out I was pregnant. I was 190 lbs when Roman was born.
I was due on Sept. 9 of last year.
On August 26, I had a sudden gush of fluid. We went to the hospital, they checked me, said I was 3cm dilated (which I had been for the whole last month anyway) and that my water might be leaking, but the bag hadn't broken. They said I was having contractions a few minutes apart, but since I wasn't in any pain they said it "didn't count" and sent me home.
My husband and I walked and walked and walked and walked that day. Miles and miles through a local park. We went home and had sex. I did jumping jacks. Nothing happened.
On August 28th, my stepmom told me to eat greasy pizza, so that's what we had for dinner.
Around 2am I woke up with cramps. They continued to wake me up frequently through the night. I was SO mad, because I just wanted to sleep. Finally at about 7am, I realized something was wrong, because they were BAD, and really often. Then I had to go to the bathroom. And then I had to go to the bathroom again. So I woke up my husband and said "Babe, my stomach hurts."
(This was on Friday morning, of labor day weekend, so he had the day off)
He said "Okay, just roll over."
I said, "No, Shawn, I'm serious. My stomach HURTS!"
He said, "I know, I heard you. Just go back to sleep, you'll be okay."
So I got up and called my mom and told her about the pain. She was like "They're contractions, NOT cramps!" So I gave the phone to my husband (just what every man wants to hear at 7:30 am on their day off, the mother in law!) She had him time my contractions and how far apart they were.
Three minutes apart, one minute long.
So my mom told me to get my butt to the hospital.
Me: "Okay, as soon as I shower."
Mom: "No. Now."
Me: "I have to do the dishes first."
Mom: "NO. Go NOW!"
Me: "But-"
Mom: "DAMN IT, GO NOW!"
Haha, so we went. By the time we got to the hospital, I was convinced I was going to die. I kept telling my husband, "I don't want to do this anymore. I changed my mind. He can stay inside me!"
I get to the desk and the nurse says "Can I help you?"
I'm bent over at this point, I couldn't stand up it hurt so bad. I say "I'm in labor."
She says, "How do you know?"
I restrained myself from leaping over the counter and choking her to death, and instead said, "Because it HURTS!"
So they took me to a triage room, where I had to go to the bathroom two more times, and then they checked me. Seven cm dilated, contractions two mins apart.
About 45 god awful minutes later, the epidural guy FINALLY came in. At this point I was 8cm, almost 9cm dilated.
After the epidural I was okay, but it took a few hours for me to get from 9 to 10 cm. Somewhere in there my water broke all the way.
Finally at 2:20pm (I had been in the hospital since 8:30am) they had me start pushing. This lasted forEVER!
Somewhere around 5:15pm my mom started jumping up and down and crying saying "I can see him, I can see him! PUSH, Heather, PUSH!!!"
I said "What the hell do you think I've been doing?!?!?!"
This is when the dr showed up and whipped out her scissors. Snip snip snip and I thought my husband was going to vomit. He has a strong stomach, he's an Army medic, but something about seeing his wife's vagina get cut open with a pair of scissors didn't sit well with him.
At this point, Roman had been rocking against my pelvic bone for almost an hour.
Finally I felt him drop past him and said "oh god I'm pushing now!"
Next thing I know, I feel him hanging out of me.
The dr says "I've got his head, now just stop pushing and breathe for a second."
I said "F*CK BREATHING, GET HIM OUT!!" and pushed and there he was.
It was 5:37pm, on Friday August 29th. He was 7lbs, 8oz, 20 in long.
Ten days early.

So. How did it all go for everyone else?

[j-love]

Holy sh!t, you must REALLY be bored!!! Hahaha...Let's see how long it takes me to type this.... it is 2:22pm.
__________________________________________________ ______________
Beginning I was 180 and 5'8. I have no idea how much I weighed when I had her, but I had gained 40plus lbs. My due date was first Nov. 18, 2008. Two weeks later, they changed it to Nov. 26, 2008. My hubby and I had a bet going who could guess the actual date...his guess was Oct. 31, 2008, my guess was Nov. 12, 2008. So....
I started my 2 week training in the Emergency Room on Nov. 3, 2008. Let me tell you, those people DID NOT take it easy on me for being 9mos. pregnant! lol. On Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008, I started having cramping. I told my hubby to time them...after an hour he stopped and told me they were not real contractions. They lasted all day. When I went to bed, they stopped. I had a routine OBGYN appt the next day. My midwife checked me and I was 3cm. That evening, the cramps came back. I went to sleep, they went away. It was now Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008. I was having cramping a little stronger all day. I tried timing them myself, they were not regular AT ALL. I was laying on the couch watching T.V. around 6pm. I had to get ready to go with my hubby to his Improv class. I got up and thought I had peed on myself. GROSS! I showered and went to the class. The entire time, the cramps grew stronger and stronger...still not regular, though. We got home and I just wanted to go to sleep to make the cramps go away. My hubby was talking to his sister and she was telling me to walk. I didn't want to walk, I wanted to sleep. My hubby started timing them. They were closer and closer together. It is 11pm and he calls the call center for the midwife. They say to go to the hospital and get checked. We grab our bags and head to the hospital thinking they will just send us back home. We get there and up to the room around midnight. The nurse checks me and I am 4cm. She says the midwife wants me to walk for an hour. We head upstairs to the nursery to look at the babies and walk around. After 20 mins. of shuffling around in between intense contractions, I tell my hubby I am going back to the room. He says, only 20 more mins...come on let's walk! I AM GOING BACK TO THE ROOM!!!! Ok, he says. I am soooo nauseated at this point. The nurse starts my IV bag and leaves the room. I begin to throw up my spagetti dinner....YUCK!! She comes back in and gives me some Reglan. She checks me and I am 7cm. I ask for some pain meds to hold me over until the epidural. She says no and the Anesthesiologist walks in 2 mins. later. AAAHHHHHH.....HEAVEN!!! I try to call my mom and sis in between them checking and fixing monitors and things. I get checked again and she says I am almost at 10cm. My midwife gets there and it's time to start pushing at 3:01am. Three contractions later and I am holding my baby girl at 3:13am. She was born on Nov. 12, 2008 at 3:13am. (My prediction for those that forgot!! lol) 7lbs. 3oz. and 21inches. 2 weeks early. WHEW!!! It is 2:45pm lol...not too bad!

[Kerisweetpea]

oh my gosh Heather!! thats quite the birth story!!!
mine is kinda boring but heres mine!

it was march 13th at 11pm we had my MIL, BIL, and one of his friends over watching a movie. (according to the ultrasound Caleb wasnt due till march 24th and the Dr said no your gonna go unitl April 5th!) so anyway sitting there minding my own business eating my whole bag of popcorn (and yes all by myself) when i had to go pee, got up went pee sat back down and 2sec later had to go again! and every time i went pee i had to change my pantie liner, so after about 5 trips to the bathroom within 4min my MIL asked if everything was ok. i told her i dont know? so i grabbed the phone called my mom. she told me my water was leaking and to call the Dr! then i had to call her back to let her know what was going on since she is almost 2hrs away from the hospital.
I called the Dr, felt bad cause i woke him up but he told me to go in and get checked. so i got everything ready pushed people out of my house before the movie ended and we were on our way to the hospital.
we get to the hospital and it was after midnight now and the hospital was DEAD the only 2 people around were the receptionist and an old guy that pushed me to the maternity ward. but i sat down at the front desk not feeling anything but wet telling her all my info then the old guy came back with a wheel chair and wheeled me upstairs (well we took the elevator) and i got settled into my room.
I was the only one on the whole floor besides the nurses! no screaming babies no soon to be mommys walking the halls NOTHING. so it was pretty quite.
got in my room changed and the nurse came in to check me and i was 3cm dilated and since i was in no pain she had to check for amniotic fluid so she stuck this q-tip thingy in me and only half of it turned blue. so she put a pad under my butt and checked it later and it turned all blue. YAY. so all night i walked up and down the hall trying to get the show on the road.
now its 7am on March 14th, my dr just came in to see me, he checked me and i was at 6cm. so he told me to rest as much as i could and he will be back at noon.
i tried to sleep but that wasnt gonna happen, stupid arm cuff going off every 10 minutes or so and some stupid people thought it was a good idea to come on the maternity ward floor to fix the elevator! so i wasnt getting any sleep!
my Dr came in a little after noon and i was still at 6cm! AHHHH! so he said he wanted to start the pitocin. by the time we were done talking, the dr gave the orders, and the nurses came in to put it in my IV it was 12:30.
at 12:45 it kicked in, and it HURT (just to remind you i didnt feel anything the whole time until then) i couldnt do anything my mom was sitting right there and asked if i wanted some drugs. i couldnt even talk. well my mom called in the nurse and she had me lay back and she checked me and with in 10min i was already 9cm so i didnt have time for anything.
the Dr came in and he checked me and i was at 10! YAY!! time to push. so they got everything ready tore down the bed and heard someone ask the time, and someone said "1" so this all happened in 15min. and i pushed a couple of times and he told me to stop, he took out the dreaded needle numbed me and then he cut me! my poor hubby turned his head i thought for sure he was gonna pass out! then he was done and told me to push again and Caleb's head was out, then his whole body followed and at 1:14pm Caleb James was born! March 14th 7lbs 4oz 21inches long!!

[H.Starr]

Yes I was bored, hahaha.
And you only pushed for 13 mins????
LUUUUUCCCKKKKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
Over three hours for me!

[Kerisweetpea]

oh i guess i forgot to add that before i got pregnant i was 5'8" and 112lbs and a week before i had Caleb i got on the scale an i was 156lbs, and the next day after i had Caleb i weighed myself and i was already 132lbs! and 2yrs later i was stuck at 120lbs.

[H.Starr]

Okay you people and your easy labors, I hate you. :P
Kidding, but honestly! LUCKY!

[Bec caV]

Oh, I have to share.... Though I love the part about your husband freaking at the episiodomy

I'm 5'7" and was 230 pounds when I delivered (I didn't look it though )

I was scheduled to be induced on December 16th. Which was nice, I thought, because it gave me concrete plans for work (I was not going on leave until I went into labor). Earlier that week... I started getting contractions on and off, so Tuesday I went into work and started having contractions for about an hour, I told my supervisor and she freaked, and had me go home.
I never asked her, but I'm assuming she's never had children. I had Wednesday off, and Thursday I started having contractions again in the morning, but they weren't at a regular interval and stopped just before I went into work, so when I got in, I let my supervisor know I had been having contractions... just in case I went into real labor... it was a heads up sort of thing.
She freaked again got the manager and they sent me home. Friday she called me and said "Don't come in, we got you the day off."
Sure it wasn't paid, but I was in the "Oh well, day off to get ready for the 16th." mode.
Saturday was my day off again, and I woke up at about 6am. Our back door sometimes won't latch so we have a hook and eye latch to keep it from blowing open. After I had brought the dogs in the night before, I must have forgotten to latch it because I woke up because I smelled fresh air and the heat was running like mad. The door had blown open (it was only around 49 degrees that day so it wasn't FREEZING, but cold enough). I got up to pee (for the millionth time) and noticed the door was open and my husband's dog was whining. My dog was no where in sight.
I yelled for him a couple times, but he didn't come so I knew he had gotten out and jumped the fence. This is the 13th...

I woke my husband, got dressed, and we went out to look for him. We thought we saw him down the street a bit, but by the time we got there, he was not to be found. So I said "Let's go back home. I can't take this today and hopefully he'll come home." (he did) My husband looked at me and said "Are you in labor?" I said no. (I was wrong)

So the day goes on, and my husband decides to take a nap at 4pm, but I haven't been able to sleep at all with being that preggo so I stayed up playing a computer game. That's when I noticed I was having contractions again. I started timing, they were coming about 7 minutes apart on the dot for an hour, so I went and woke up my husband.
He said "I'm not going to get to take a nap, am I?" if he wasn't across the bed and I wasn't 9 months pregnant, I'd have jumped on him and smacked him.
I told him to go back to sleep, they were too far apart to go to the hospital and who knows, I'd had a few false alarms. But of course he couldn't sleep.

I hadn't eaten since lunch and was now too afraid to. The contractions kept getting stronger, we tried to watch TV to take our minds off of it, but we were watching Pulp Fiction... they got to the scene where Travolta and Uma Thurman were eating hamburgers in the 50's diner and I got pissed because I was hungry and now wanted a hamburger.
So I took a shower, washed some clothes, screamed at contractions, paced the living room, finally when they were about 6 minutes, almost 5 minutes apart we called the doctor and she sent us to the hospital.

I get to the hospital, they stick me in triage and check my dilation, I was at 3cm. They leave me and my husband in the room watching TV, something stupid (we can't remember what though) and I laughed at it and my water broke. I called the nurse and said "Either my water just broke or I peed from laughing." My water had broke.

The nurse comes in and checks me (I was ready to kill the next person who shoved their finger up me at that point) I hadn't dilated and she thought she felt a membrane still. So she brings in someone else to check, they agree there was still a membrane so they inform me I had a foresac and that broke because I had a few more contractions but no fluid. then I stopped having contractions. So the nurses start me on pictocin (or whatever) because they dont' feel safe sending me home and move me to my room. At this point I get told my OB wasn't going to be there. I got the on call OB from his practice (but she would have been my other choice if I hadn't taken the one I did).

I get my epidural, it's past 1 am at this point, so I had no waiting....
So they tell me to get sleep, but have a blood pressure cuff that every 10 minutes squeezes the **** out of my arm and alarms go off because my blood pressure dropped every time it did. I slept maybe a half hour.

The next morning I get fingers stuck in me again. Then the doctor comes and accedently breaks my water while checking to see how much I've dilated, and so begins labor!

I handled it pretty well, but when I had to start 'breathing' i kept falling asleep between contractions and scaring the nurse and my husband. I was tired! They check dilation AGAIN, I was 8 cm so they kept yelling "Don't push, Rebecca, just breath through it!"
Finally after resisting not pushing forever, I yelled "I'm pushing, damn it! I can't NOT push!" so they check how much I'm dilated AGAIN, and lo and behold, I was 10 cm. So they said "Okay, push." I was going to anyhow.

My husband says they kept saying something about John Gabriel's blood pressure or heart rate dropping, which I can sort of remember, but when they let me push (I didn't want to breath even though I was supposed to) I pushed as hard as I possibly could and popped him out in 15 minutes. The doctor had the head and did the 'okay, relax a moment' and I told her she better hurry up because I was pushing in 10 seconds whether she was ready or not.

So he was born December 14th at 12:51 pm... My due date was December 20th, my induction December 16th, and I had a feeling he would be born on December 13th. I was close!

[j-love]

Lol..yes, only 13mins.. I am just hoping the next labor is as easy as the last!! Keri-you're a skinny green bean!! lol.. I was 180lbs and a size 12 pre-baby and now I am 185lbs. and size 14. I am on a mission to get down to 150lbs.!! I couldn't imagine being 120lbs at 5'8. I guess we all carry weight differently, though.

[H.Starr]

Becca - I need you to know that I hate you for not looking terrible after birth. I guess after such a short easy labor though, you ought to not look bad. Jerk. :P

Okay, I hate to do this, but here is me, immediately after Roman was born. Sigh. What a mess.

In fact, I'm going to post a few. Just so you're not all like "Ewww, that is the ugliest girl alive!" Labor just did bad things to me.

#1 - Pre pregnancy (I was only like 20 in this one)
#2 - Pregnant
#3 - Immediately after birth
#4 - 8 months later

[Bec caV]

Uh, Heather, you look fantastic just after giving birth!