How long were your labors?

Kid #1, 22 hours.
Kid #2, 5 hours.
Kid #3, 11 hours.

See a pattern there? Nope, me neither.

How did you know you were in labor?

Kid #1, contractions that woke me up at 3 a.m. I tried to go back to sleep but (a) I had to focus on breathing through the contractions, and (b) I was too excited!
Kid #2, water breaking.
Kid #3, water breaking.

Where did you deliver?

Kid #1, hospital.
Kid #2, hospital.
Kid #3, at home, in the birth tub.

Drugs?

Kid #1, spinal/epidural combination after 16 hours of labor. At the time I was very grateful for the relief, but with my second labor I realized that when the pain got bad enough that I wanted relief, I was getting close to delivering! For me, that’s when the really good progress is being made, and if I could just keep that in mind, I could go without pain medication. With kid #1, the epidural slowed down labor for two hours, and the nurse was about to suggest pitocin when she rolled me on my side and my water broke, speeding things along.
Kid #2, a failed epidural. I asked for the epidural, had trouble sitting still for the necessary IV (duh, because I was ready to push! No one checked me for dilation!) So five minutes after I got the epidural, the OB/GYN showed up and said, “You’re ready to have a baby!” I growled back, “I know!” Three pushes and an episiotomy later, my daughter was born, and I happened to look on the floor and see the tube for the epidural, disconnected and dripping on the floor. So I’m calling that an unmedicated birth, even though I caved and asked for the drugs
Kid #3, no drugs.

C-section?

Thankfully no. With #2 and #3, I was diagnosed with placenta previa. Fortunately, both times subsequent ultrasounds revealed that the placenta had moved away from the cervix as my uterus expanded.

Who delivered?

#1 Three teaching hospital residents I had never met. They threatened to give me an episiotomy and told me to push like I was having a bowel movement, resulting in a fourth degree tear. Luckily one of them felt so bad about that that she spent an hour stitchin’ me up!
#2 A doctor who was so embarrassed about being late to the delivery that he refused to see me for my 6-week follow-up appointment. He sent in another doctor even though I had made the appointment with him. Chicken.
#3 A midwife and her assistant, both of whom I knew and trusted.

Your turn

Play along and leave a comment!

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

I grabbed my digital camera, found two new batteries and stole two old ones from the TiVo remote (I vaguely recall a dire warning about not mixing old and new batteries, but I risked it all for you, people!), and I asked my four-and-a-half-year-old to take this picture of me about five minutes ago:

I’m sitting in my computer room/study, which has fresh paint on the walls along with fresh crayon and pencil drawings by my toddler (time to break out the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser again). The hardwood floors are newly re-finished and the only reason the computer desk is relatively clean is that we just moved the furniture back into the room. The blue chair is a hand-me-down from my old law firm. The firm gave away its old chairs and I gladly snagged that one. My cats gladly “snagged” that one too–you can see they use it as a scratching post. That’s Lily snuggling with me as I read. She’s sitting on my winter coat, and we are both resting against the headrest that fell off into the seat and I left there because it makes a wonderful back support!

I’m eating leftover Oriental Cabbage Noodle Salad that I made for a La Leche League potluck lunch meeting earlier today.

Before I tag some people to participate in the meme, here’s one more photo, just because it’s cute and I downloaded it with my picture:

Okay, I tag Hsien, because I know she always has her camera at the ready, and Tanya, because I’ve never seen a picture of her. Play by the rules girls and come as you are. No running off to put on make-up (I was sorely tempted to cheat)!

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3