Here you go, folks. Ella’s birth story. I’d encourage you to go get a cool drink, a snack, and to prop your feet up, but this isn’t going to take long.
7:45 Pitocin started.
8:45 Water broken by Dr. H. Only 1 cm dilated. We joke that I’ll have the baby by lunch.
10:00 ish (I know this because Regis and Kelly was on and I remember thinking that if Kelly didn’t shut the hell up and stop wearing the ugliest dresses and if she didn’t start EATING, I might just explode….or in other words I was suddenly feeling REALLY irrational.) Received epidural. I was 6 cm dilated.
Sidenote: I had every intention of getting the epidural right away, but I wasn’t too excited to sit around all day with my legs feeling like two slabs of raw meat. So, I was just going to wait until I felt mild discomfort. Unfortunately, I went from mild discomfort to OH MY GAWD, HOLY F*CKING SHIT, I’M DYING in an hour.
11:15 ish Still 6 cm? Damn. Nurse told me to roll on my left side, that might speed things up.
11:20 (5 minutes later) 10 cm, her head visible. Nurse says give me a little push so she could tell if it was time to call Dr. H. I push a tiny bit. Nurse’s eyes got really big and she said “Stop!!! I’m going to go call Dr. H to come right now!”
12:00 (Yes, 40 minutes later) Dr. H arrives!! In the meantime, I’ve been panting because I feel like she was going to fall out. Very weird feeling.
So, Dr. H gets in position and tells me to go ahead and push.
So I started to push.
And she came right out.
“Oh my gawd, Jennifer, she’s out! She’s out, look!”
“That is a tiny baby!”
“Those are HUGE feet.”
“She is much smaller than Carson was!”
The nursery nurse guessed her to be 4 lbs, 13 oz. She was shocked when the scale read 5 lbs, 7 oz, actually 2 ounces more than Carson.
I must say, the express lane of giving birth isn’t so bad. Amazing how fast and smooth things went.
Now if breastfeeding was going as smoothly…stayed tuned for my post later this week tentatively titled, “Holy Bleeding Nipples, Batman.”
I suppose it’s against the laws of nature to strike gold on all fronts of childbirth, but I am sorry to hear of your nipples distress. May they find relief soon.
Ummm..hate you. My induction took 53 hours! Glad it went easier for you- after the kidney stone episode, you deserved it!
Congratulations on what sounds like an easy birth! Zoe’s birth was VERY quick… but a last minute c-section was involved. Quick births are fabulous!
*happy sigh* I love birth stories. Also, do you have Lansinoh? I don’t know if it even helps, but I find it reassuring to FEEL like I’m Doing Something about the cracked and bleeding nipples that LLL says don’t happen if you’re doing it right, which HA HA HA that is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard. Um, Lansinoh was my point.
Good luck with the nursing. I am glad everything went well with the birth. I had 3 epidurals that didn’t even work right. Everything was numb except the “birthcanal”, go figure.
Glad things went so well!
By far one of the best birth stories I’ve ever heard/read! I’m glad she came easily.
And I agree with Swistle…Lansinoh is the greatest stuff ever invented!
Congratulations, she’s beautiful! How in the world did you keep so focused for the 40 minute wait. All I could think of was ‘If he doesn’t get here in the next 10 minutes, I’m going to get up and strangle him!’ –The doctor, not the baby. I hate that pant and wait thing!
Good luck with the nipples, too.
What a great birth story! I hope your nipples get better soon- OUCH!!! Lanisoh???? and ice packs?
OUCH! I am so not having children
CONGRATULATIONS !!!
awesome!! That’s great news. Mine went about like that as well. Better to be done quickly, I say.
I took the original express lane: C-section.
(Of course, I was a complicated baby — which would carry on into adulthood.
)
(!)
Nobody likes bloddy nipples!
Fantastic. SF slid out literally too…Good for you.
Wow. Just wow. Can I request a birth like that?
First, congrats on such an easy sounding birth! Yay for you and minimal pain! As for the nipples, stubborn me defied the Lansinoh advocates for too long until I was in tears and broke down and tried it. It went like this: burning insane pain, gingerly apply goop, *1.2sec later* OMG PAIN GONE!
No exageration. It was instant relief.
Well done! I’m so jealous of women who push their babies out fast – I took 3 hours with each of mine – just pushing!
Good luck on the breastfeeding – all I can say is slap on the lanisoh – lots of it.
Great birth story! Yeah for short labors!!
I’ll be thinking of you and hoping the breastfeeding gets easier and less painful.
Awww, I feel for your nipples. I had that the 2nd time around too. I remember how it hurts…the whole stamping my feet and my eyes watering from the pain. I don’t care what they say…it hurts in the beginning REGARDLESS of how perfect the baby latches on.
OE’s sister’s second birth was kind of like that… By the time OE and his mom got cleaned up to go in the room, Tyler was born. Glad it didn’t drag out for you!
I would have been crazy if my baby was ready to come out and I had to wait for forty minutes! All 3 of my births were easy, too!
Woohoo! That is an awesome story, and glad it went so very easily for you.
(Can I give assvice if the Lansinoh doesn’t work? If you’re so inclined, email me and I’ll give you the info on the balm that saved my nursing relationship.)
I’m glad it went so well for you. I used to like Kelly Ripa, but for some reason she annoys me now. Oh….. I ditto the Lansinoh.
Congratulations, and I am glad it went so smoothly!
teeth whitening
Congratulations!
And get thee to a compounding pharmacist and ask for APNO (All Purpose Nipple Ointment). It works.
(I also had bf difficulties the second time around, but they didn’t last nearly aslong as with #1. I’m hoping for the same with yours..)
Wow, glad that it went quickly! My induction with DS1 was very long and painful. They wouldn’t give me my epidural for a LOOOONG Time.
Ack bleeding nipples! ((HUGS))
Congratulations!
There should be some kind of post partum epidural available for nursing with scabby,bleeding nipples–sucks!
…”with my legs feeling like two slabs of raw meat”–a perfect description of the epidural!
Sorry about the nips.
Holy bleeding nipples batman… too friggen funny! Don’t listen to all of the advice that people will give you to make those nipples feel better–NOTHING WORKS! Just keep at it-the ol’ stomp and scream latch-and eventually, in the future, they will start to feel a little better… but then the kid gets teeth.
Yes, one huge benefit of having small babies is that they often ‘slip out.’ Mine did.
Can’t wait to hear more stories!!
How is Peanut adjusting so far? The one-month mark was when hell hit for us. Hoping you a much better situation!
Congratulations!!!
So glad to hear everything went well…and quickly!!
Wow…fast labour! I had two of those…they definately make for good stories! Good luck with breastfeeding!
Congratulations! I’m so glad the birthing part was easy since the breastfeeding part sucks. I’ve been there. I called my nursing glider the “torture chamber.” *Sigh. Hope you have a lot of Lansinoh! Hang in there!
Wow! Congrats! What a great story! I’m glad things went so smoothly, (though forty minutes of waiting and panting while the doc takes his sweet time? I guess that’s why they pay him the big bucks, right?)
As for the nips, good luck with that. Uuuugh.
ahhh! congratulations! what a smooth seeming delivery! wishing you many happy memories to come!
Jennifer, she is perfect and precious and gorgeous! Congratulations, Mama!
There is a suprise for you over at my place!
fast and smooth is good. forty minutes on pushing hold for the doctor is a miracle of good Kegel muscles, is all i can say.
except can i say again how beyootiful she is?
oh. my.
I’m so glad you sneezed her out, I sneezed mine out and ended up with bloody pink parts too…the world just can’t be totally awesome all the time can it?
Yep sorry I’m not feeling the love at the moment. Induced at 8am on Sat morning and at 7:50PM Sunday night she FINALLY decided to make her appearence. Joking aside, really glad it was quick!! I also recommend Lansinoh , I slathered that stuff all over my nipples. I think I might have orgasmed a couple of times it felt so good!
Wow that was quick. Congrats on the speedy delivery and birth of your little girl.
So nice to hear *almost* everything went smoothly. My last delivery came on soooo quickly, that I had no time to receive the epidural…au natural…so it could have been waaayyy worse!
Just a note…when I nursed my first born, I was told (by the nurses & dr.s) NOT to ever wash your nipples with soap or any other cleaner while in the tub or shower. This will supposedy dry it out. Also, I was told to squeeze a tiny bit of milk and rub the nipple area after each feeding to help with the dryness…..Sounds a bit weird, but I was very young at the time & followed those recommendations and never had ANY problems breastfeeding. I suppose its worth a try, if you haven’t done these already. Again, Good luck and God bless you and the little cutie!
Glad it went quickly!!
Those “pit” contractions are killers!!!!!
It sucks when the nurse panics, doesn’t it???
Wow. Congrats!!! As for me… I want to adopt – as in children who are OUT of the womb and older than 2/maybe 3 yrs of age. They’ll be old enough that we can manage getting our butts to work in the morning AND YET, they still need a home (considering they were given away in the first place).
By the way, I am SO impressed by mothers who actually BIRTH their child… way to go girl!!!
Congrats! I LOVE the express baby births! My second was that way too, it’s so great to get through the hard part and on to the- wait… bleeding nipples? Ouch, I’m sorry.
You are amazing!!
I wish mine were that fast! I don’t push much but boy do I have long labors.
Great post title!
amy’s last blog post..The After-Birth Story
I have tiny babies, too. Easy for pushing, not so great for sleeping.
Beautiful story, Jennifer.
Jenni’s last blog post..The Birth Story and The Rant
My daughter’s birth was pretty quick too, about 7 hours total, which was AWESOME after the awful long one I had with my son.
Memarie Lane’s last blog post..******C Me N4k3d N0w!******
I can’t believe they made you hold her in for 40 minutes! That is insane. With my second, they made me hold him in while they decided wether they should take me upstairs on my gurney or in a wheelchair and I remember panting and screaming as it felt exactly like he was gonna fall out any second. As soon as I opened my legs for the doc, he shot out. Yikes.
By number 5 I didn’t wait for the doc, the nurse caught her.
Congrats, so glad it went so well for you.
Kristen’s last blog post..Birth Story # 1
Wow! I had almost the same thing happen with my #2, he just made me go through 3 days of labour before he fell out.
WOO HOO for us!
Mr Lady’s last blog post..Making’ Babies