The birth story
No pictures for this one, but here, for those who want to hear the story, is the "how it all happened" part of Teg's birth, before my ever-fuzzying brain forgets the details...
Pip was showing no signs of wanting to make her appearance, so 5 days after her due date my doctor declared things to be "ripe for induction". We scheduled the induction for 7am on Wed 11/21, and were up bright and early and headed for the hospital.
After masses of paperwork, they hooked me up to the pitocin drip (and MANY other wires and monitors) at about 9am. "inductions can take up to 48 hours", they said... and so the long wait began. What a colossally boring day. I was hooked up to a blood pressure cuff, an IV (with antibiotic, liquids and pitocin all feeding in), a fetal heart monitor and a contraction monitor... so not much moving around for me.
By 3:30 in the afternoon after half hourly increases in pitocin, I was having regular contractions (every 3 minutes), but still not painful, and still no further dilation. Closer to 5 pm the midwife declared me to be 4 cm dilated and decided to break the waters to "get things moving". Well, did that get things moving!
Within 5 minutes I went into searing, full-scale, agonizing labor. Pip was facing head up (instead of facing towards my spine), so I had "back labor" - all pressure on the spine! I could hardly feel any pain or contractions in the front - it was all just searing back pain... for 60 second long contractions every 2 minutes - and being hooked up to a million wires meant I couldn't even move around to try and find better positions to be in. It took less than 2 seconds to decide that this was going to be an epidural day after all...
So we had about 45 minutes of horrid, horrid labor while the anesthetist poked his wires in my spine (I hardly noticed what it felt like compared to the labor)... and finally the contractions seemed to get shorter, and finally dull. Praise God for drugs!
Then followed 4 hours of just "waiting"! I felt relaxed, happy, comfortable (seriously, the most comofortable I had been in nearly 4 months, since I was able to lie on my back!), and just "observe" while my body did its laboring work without my being able to feel it.
By 9pm I was declared fully dilated, and with enough sensation (I could feel pressure, not pain) to be able to say when it felt time to push. At 9:30 the pushing began... a strange, almost out-of-body experience, but incredible to be there with Jeremy and our incredible nurse and watch our daughter inch her way in to the world.
After 39 minutes of pushing, Tegwyn slithered into the world - perfectly formed, breathing deeply, and pink all over :-) I cried buckets of tears as they laid her on my stomach and her Daddy cut her cord. What a miracle to finally be able to hold her! I just don't know how people can experience pregnancy and childbirth and not have an overwhelming desire to worship! Everything about the process loudly proclaims intricate and wondrous design!!
Tegwyn Ella was alert, wide-eyed and stared at Jeremy and I for a good half an hour on my chest before she got cleaned up and weighed. We phoned our parents to share our joy. We attempted a first feeding, watched her first bath, cried at the mewing little sounds she made, and marveled at the wonder and beauty of our child. She weighed 8lbs 9oz (3.89kg), and measured 20.5 inches (52cm)... eyes at birth were dark, smoky blue, and she had a full head of dark brown hair!
A little after midnight we moved to the post-partum recovery section and little Tegwyn fell asleep on me with little snuffle breaths and wheezes, her head pressed against my tummy listening to the heartbeat and digestive sounds she knew so well. An hour later she awoke for her first midnight snack: I think the memory of waking to her first cry will be one of the moments that stays with me always :-)
Pip was showing no signs of wanting to make her appearance, so 5 days after her due date my doctor declared things to be "ripe for induction". We scheduled the induction for 7am on Wed 11/21, and were up bright and early and headed for the hospital.
After masses of paperwork, they hooked me up to the pitocin drip (and MANY other wires and monitors) at about 9am. "inductions can take up to 48 hours", they said... and so the long wait began. What a colossally boring day. I was hooked up to a blood pressure cuff, an IV (with antibiotic, liquids and pitocin all feeding in), a fetal heart monitor and a contraction monitor... so not much moving around for me.
By 3:30 in the afternoon after half hourly increases in pitocin, I was having regular contractions (every 3 minutes), but still not painful, and still no further dilation. Closer to 5 pm the midwife declared me to be 4 cm dilated and decided to break the waters to "get things moving". Well, did that get things moving!
Within 5 minutes I went into searing, full-scale, agonizing labor. Pip was facing head up (instead of facing towards my spine), so I had "back labor" - all pressure on the spine! I could hardly feel any pain or contractions in the front - it was all just searing back pain... for 60 second long contractions every 2 minutes - and being hooked up to a million wires meant I couldn't even move around to try and find better positions to be in. It took less than 2 seconds to decide that this was going to be an epidural day after all...
So we had about 45 minutes of horrid, horrid labor while the anesthetist poked his wires in my spine (I hardly noticed what it felt like compared to the labor)... and finally the contractions seemed to get shorter, and finally dull. Praise God for drugs!
Then followed 4 hours of just "waiting"! I felt relaxed, happy, comfortable (seriously, the most comofortable I had been in nearly 4 months, since I was able to lie on my back!), and just "observe" while my body did its laboring work without my being able to feel it.
By 9pm I was declared fully dilated, and with enough sensation (I could feel pressure, not pain) to be able to say when it felt time to push. At 9:30 the pushing began... a strange, almost out-of-body experience, but incredible to be there with Jeremy and our incredible nurse and watch our daughter inch her way in to the world.
After 39 minutes of pushing, Tegwyn slithered into the world - perfectly formed, breathing deeply, and pink all over :-) I cried buckets of tears as they laid her on my stomach and her Daddy cut her cord. What a miracle to finally be able to hold her! I just don't know how people can experience pregnancy and childbirth and not have an overwhelming desire to worship! Everything about the process loudly proclaims intricate and wondrous design!!
Tegwyn Ella was alert, wide-eyed and stared at Jeremy and I for a good half an hour on my chest before she got cleaned up and weighed. We phoned our parents to share our joy. We attempted a first feeding, watched her first bath, cried at the mewing little sounds she made, and marveled at the wonder and beauty of our child. She weighed 8lbs 9oz (3.89kg), and measured 20.5 inches (52cm)... eyes at birth were dark, smoky blue, and she had a full head of dark brown hair!
A little after midnight we moved to the post-partum recovery section and little Tegwyn fell asleep on me with little snuffle breaths and wheezes, her head pressed against my tummy listening to the heartbeat and digestive sounds she knew so well. An hour later she awoke for her first midnight snack: I think the memory of waking to her first cry will be one of the moments that stays with me always :-)
posted by Bronwyn at 10:23 am
1 Comments:
Precious story and memories, thanks for sharing. God bless you as you embark on motherhood!!
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