First Pregnancy and Labor Delivery

My First Pregnancy and Labor DeliveryThere's nothing like delivering your first baby. The labor and delivery of your baby brings a lot of emotions. The excitement, the fear of the unknown, the realization that you no longer are going to be an individual...yes, you will forever be attached at the heart (and the hip) to a beautiful being that will bring you love, joy, happiness, and of course an absolutely quiet-less and crazy life.I became pregnant with my first child when I was 20. I was of course shocked that this could happen to me, and I was all of the sudden faced with the scariest dilemma that I had no idea how to get out of...telling my family I was pregnant. I of course contemplated not even telling them at all, but figured it would become increasingly obvious as I became more and more pregnant, so it was inevitable that doomsday would come. I had been living with my boyfriend for a year, and the fact that I was not married and merely 20 only made the idea of telling my family that much more unbearable. (Nowadays, society is accepting unwed mothers more and more. You can read more in detail about this here.)As it turned out, my parents were very understanding. I of course got the usual parent lectures including the "are you sure you're ready?" talk, and the "you don't have to marry him just because you're pregnant" talk. By the time I got off the phone with my mother (oh yes, I most certainly took the cowardly way out!) I felt 1000 lbs lighter-even though I was rapidly gaining it all back with every Big Mac I ate.The hard part was over! I had come clean with my parents, and now I just needed to sail through this pregnancy and I was home free! Ummmm....yeah right. I could not sleep on my side because my belly was getting so big it caused a domino effect...the muscles in my belly and all around my back felt like they were being ripped from the insides. My lower back hurt from the extra weight I was carrying, and I was hungry ALWAYS!! I craved ice. Not just ice, but ice to CRUNCH. I would fill my cup to the brim with ice, add water, and then let the water do it's magic and turn the ice crunchable. My doctor told me later this was not abnormal. When a pregnant woman craves ice, it's usually one of two things: * She has a deficiency of iron
* It could be a condition called pica
I also had high blood pressure. High blood pressure can mean several things (read here for more information.) The doctor made me lie on my left side at every doctor visit for a few minutes and then he would re-check my blood pressure. It became quite routine! (Please don't let things like preeclampsia and toxemia scare you. These numbers are very low, and with the advancement in medical care, you're chances of delivering a healthy baby are VERY high. This is just one reason prenatal care is so important.)

My blood glucose test came back a little high. This is a simple test you will do at the doctors office by drawing blood. You must not eat before the test, and in the morning you drink this stuff that is incredibly sugary tasting. It's actually pretty gross. I recommend getting the orange drink. You have a choice between orange and cola. What they are checking for is to see if you may have gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is just what it sounds like-diabetes while you are pregnant. If you have it, it will most likely go away after pregnancy. However, studies show that if you have gestational diabetes, you have a higher chance of developing diabetes later in life. Also, you're child may have a higher risk of becoming obese. Not to worry, though. With the medical marvels we have now, you and your newborn baby should be fine. Since my test came back border line, I had to go into a lab and get a 3 hour test done. This was done by drawing blood every 3 hours, once before I drank the drink, once an hour after the drink, and then another hour after that. You can not eat or drink anything during the test, not even water. My blood sugar levels were tested, and they came back fine. I did not have gestational diabetes, just a wasted Wednesday morning, and a very grouchy starving pregnant woman.I was excited at the prospect of what my life was about to become. Little did I know, what it was really about to become! I gained well over 50 lbs (the average weight a doctor calls "normal" is 24-35 lbs.) At about the 8th month (35ish weeks) my hands, feet and face swelled up like balloons. It was official~I no longer liked being pregnant.The day finally came! I was 5 days away from my due date. I woke up at 4 in the morning with pains in my lower belly. The pains felt very much like menstrual cramps, only they were lower. I knew this was the day! The day that took 40 weeks in the making! I let my boyfriend sleep (because all the books I read said to let your partner sleep...blah blah...they'll need their rest for the ordeal too..blah blah....how fair is that really?) 8:00 am finally rolled around. My contractions were very consistent in coming about every 10-15 minutes. While this excited me, it's really nothing to get worked up about. Most doctors will tell you to stay at home as long as you can and not to come into the hospital until your contractions are 4-6 minutes apart. You can read more on labor here. Of course every doctor is different, so make sure you check with your doctor on what he/she practices. It's a good idea to have a plan of attack before you start having contractions!I got up and called my doctor. Since I had a doctors appointment scheduled for that morning anyway, they told me to just come to the appointment and my doctor would check to make sure I was dilated and effaced, and truly was in labor.

I packed up and waddled to the car. Yes, you really do waddle when you're 9 months pregnant. We made it to my OBGYN (Obstetrician/Gynecologist) in record time. This was it! I was going to have my baby today, and I thought it would happen very soon. As it turns out, yes I was dilated (to 3) and I was 60% effaced. News like this sounded promising. However, had I known then what I know now, I would have gone back home and slept for another few hours. Statistics show most women's first delivery and labor last 12-24 hours. Mine? Yeah, it was no different than statistics show.

My OBGYN told me to go ahead and go to the labor and delivery ward at the hospital. He would meet me there in a little while. We left his office, and once we were in the parking lot got on the phone and called everyone and their mother's to let them know the good news. I was incredibly grateful for this event to finally happen, because I was scheduled to go to work after my doctor's appointment- but now, this was by far the best excuse in the book.

We made it to the labor and delivery and the nurses signed us in. It took them a little while to get us all situated, and I thought this was kind of odd. I was having a baby, didn't they know? What if I delivered her (I was having a girl, by the way) right here in the hallway? Once we made it into the labor room they had prepared for us, I changed into the lovely gown they so generously provide. The labor gowns are actually kind of neat. They have 2 slits down the front, so you can easily breastfeed and not have to worry about wrinkling any clothes. (More on breastfeeding in another post.) The nurse strapped 2 belt looking things around my belly- one was to keep track of the baby's heartbeat, and the other was to monitor my contractions.

My contractions were starting to feel an awful lot more like torture. They were still coming every 5 minutes or so, but the pain that accompanied them was getting to be unbearable. Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I had been indecisive about getting an epidural. There are a lot of things to weigh when making this decision. I was having a hard time getting over the procedure. (Careful-this link takes you to pictures that are not for the faint heart!) See pictures here. (Click here to read about an epidural instead of seeing it.) I was told that the procedure hurt very much. However, after experiencing the most severe pain I could imagine, I quickly jumped the fence and opted for the epidural. Let me put your mind at ease- the epidural did not hurt like I thought it was going to. You will feel a sharp pain in your lower back, and it will travel down your thighs. Your legs will feel cold inside (almost like your blood is cold). This is truly the extent of the pain you will feel when you get the epidural. It's really not as bad as people say it is. I would know, I've had 4!

After the epidural was in place (thank god!) it took only about 15 minutes before the pain started to go away. After spending the last few hours in hell, I was finally in heaven. The numbness moved down my belly and all the way down to my toes. I couldn't move my legs, feet or toes. It's kind of an odd feeling, knowing you have no control over part of your body. Of course I was loopy as heck, and I was really tired. I didn't want to sleep, though. I really wanted to talk anybody who was in the room's ear off. I hear they have a push button epidural now, where you can get more drip of the medicine with just a push of a button, but I wasn't blessed with this option. I had a steady drip straight into my spine. As it turned out, that worked out just fine for me.

The nurse came in about 1/2 hour after the epidural was put in. She did her normal checks on the monitors, and then did the important check- the check to see how far I'd dilated. I was expecting to be close, but I was no where near it. I was only dilated to 4. I was absolutely horrified! How could I only be dilated to 4, when 6 hours ago I was dilated to 3?! It was the worst news you could give me. Although I think I took it rather well, considering the amount of relaxation I had running through my veins. My nurse explained to me that one of the side effects of an epidural is that is can slow down labor. I would gladly take that side effect if it meant not having to feel the pain I was feeling an hour ago.

So, I was now 11 hours into labor, and not even close to being done. Somehow I managed to fall asleep for a few hours (I highly recommend you do this. You will want your rest. You'll probably be feeling good and want to socialize if you get the epidural-DON'T do this! You will regret it later. If you opt out of the epidural, try to sleep as much as you can. If you're lucky enough to fall asleep, you may be able to sleep through your contractions. Of course you won't be able to sleep through all of them.)

A few more hours passed. Slowly but surely I was dilating. At 7:30 pm, my doctor finally came in and told me it was time to push. I was dilated to 10 and 100% effaced. Oh my God! Finally I was almost done. My mom, boyfriend and future mother-in-law were all in the room. At first I was a little uncomfortable with my boyfriend's mom being in the room, but I quickly got over that when I started pushing. It actually worked out well, because one person stayed up by my head and had a cool rag for my forehead, while the other two helped hold my legs up. Yes, they have stirrups like in the movies, but when you're going through this, you'll find it's a lot harder than it looks to hold your own legs up, especially when you can't even feel or move them.

My doctor told me when I felt a contraction, it was time push. This is also called bearing down. Well, now wait a minute...I couldn't feel a damn thing! I had so much epidural juice I couldn't feel even wiggle my toe. It became a guessing game. The nurse would look at the monitor and tell me I was having a contraction, so I would bear down. A little piece of advice...push with your lower abdomen. People will tell you it's just like pushing to go to the bathroom (number 2) but it's actually not. If you push like you are going to the bathroom, you risk getting hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids is actually a very common thing in pregnancy, but if you can do anything to ward them off, this would be it.

I'm not going to bore you with all the details of this part of the delivery. I will say though that the next 2 hours were spent pushing. Yes, I pushed for over 2 hours to deliver my first child. This is unnatural. Obviously it's not unheard of, but it feels incredibly unnatural to be pushing out a watermelon from such an uncomfortable place to begin with, for so long. There were times I thought I couldn't go on anymore (right, like I could really quit.) I became very agitated and hot, and just flat out done. You will too, at some point in your labor and delivery.

Long story short, my first daughter was born at 9:26 pm, 17 1/2 hours of labor. After the delivery I just wanted to eat. They don't let you eat or drink anything (except for ice chips) while you're in labor. My boyfriend (who has since become my husband and father of 4) cut my baby's umbilical cord. My doctor laid my newborn baby on my chest. Then they took her to her a little crib in the corner and cleaned her up and weighed her, while my doctor sewed me up. Yep, after 2 hours of pushing, I ripped. This is even AFTER my doctor gave me an episiotomy. Not too worry, they give you some good pain killers after you have a baby.

My legs were numb for a few hours afterward, and it took some practicing to be able to walk again. I was wheeled into a new room, where me and my new baby girl would get to know each other for the first night of her life.

Now 6 years later, I still remember it like it was yesterday. I certainly had no clue what to expect from my first pregnancy and labor delivery, but it was definitely a story to remember.

My next few posts will be my pregnancy and labor deliveries. Read them to see the difference of each "symptoms of pregnancy". After I post about my pregnancy deliveries, I'll begin posting about pregnancy and depression. The baby blues is a hard time, but keep with me. We'll get you through it!