Stefan's Birth Story (VERY VERY LONG)

Tatjana Pantic wrote in message
...
Short version:
Stefan, May 19 2003 at 3:02 pm (PST)
7 lb 4 oz, 20 in

Congratulations again! Thanks for sharing your story. It's great to
hear you were feeling so good so soon!

There are a few pictures at http://photos.yahoo.com/panticstts
if you are interested :-)

He's gorgeous! The picture of Tamara and Stefan together is precious.
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2 yr., 3 mo.
And a boy, EDD 4.Sept

Cleaning the house while your children are small is like
shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.

Very inspiring! Thanks!

-- Dagny

"Cheryl S." wrote in message
...
Tatjana Pantic wrote in message
...
Short version:
Stefan, May 19 2003 at 3:02 pm (PST)
7 lb 4 oz, 20 in

Congratulations again! Thanks for sharing your story. It's great to
hear you were feeling so good so soon!

There are a few pictures at http://photos.yahoo.com/panticstts
if you are interested :-)

He's gorgeous! The picture of Tamara and Stefan together is precious.
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2 yr., 3 mo.
And a boy, EDD 4.Sept

Cleaning the house while your children are small is like
shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.

Congratulations he is absolutely beautiful.. Glad your feeling ok..

--






Shelly
Mommy to Zachariah
January 24, 2003
"Cheryl S." wrote in message
...
Tatjana Pantic wrote in message
...
Short version:
Stefan, May 19 2003 at 3:02 pm (PST)
7 lb 4 oz, 20 in

Congratulations again! Thanks for sharing your story. It's great to
hear you were feeling so good so soon!

There are a few pictures at http://photos.yahoo.com/panticstts
if you are interested :-)

He's gorgeous! The picture of Tamara and Stefan together is precious.
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2 yr., 3 mo.
And a boy, EDD 4.Sept

Cleaning the house while your children are small is like
shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.

Once again, congratulations, and thank you for sharing your birth story with
us!


Elly
28 weeks + 1 day
EDD October 6th


"Tatjana Pantic" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
I'm sorry it took me so long to write it (it's been almost 2 months).

Short version:
Stefan, May 19 2003 at 3:02 pm (PST)
7 lb 4 oz, 20 in

Long version:

My EDD was May 27 but he was born on Monday, May 19. Things started
happening on Friday, May 16 - I posted about it (Wierd Weekend) so I
won't go into details now. Basicaly, I started bleeding and spent a
few hours in hospital (Friday) - monitoring the baby and getting US
(to check placenta - it was OK) and then again on Saturday. Bleeding
stopped, but I had lots of irregular painless contractions while
walking, they went away if I was horizontal. I was 2 cm dilated.

On Sunday contractions were getting little bit more intense, but still
irregular. They became painfull around 11 pm, but I was coping without
a problem - just squeezing DH's hand :-) What was confusing me was the
fact that they were still very irregular - anywhere from 3 to 10 min
apart and I kept waiting for them to be 5 minutes apart for an hour so
that we could go to the birth center. I didn't sleep that night and
neither did my DH - he was very supportive (I think he was making up
for last time ;-))).

Around 4 am contractions were still irregular but a lot more intense
so we called the birth center and they told us to come in. It took us
about 30 min to get there and during the drive contractions finally
became more regular, 4-5 min apart. But, unfortunately,
I was only 3 cm dilated so they told us it's not time yet (the nurse
commented that I was smiling too much to be in active labor and I was
really hurt - I'm a nice person, I smile a lot, so what? ;-))))))
Anyway, we had two options - to stay in the area (walking around or
in a hotel) or to go home. I was so dissapointed and tired, I decided
to go home and take a nap. Miraculously, contractions went away for a
while so I was able to do that.

Around 10 am I was in serious pain and I started having back labor. I
tried to find comfortable positions, but the only two were standing up
straight (no leaning on anything) or lying (sp?) on my side. Being on
all fours was unbearable, as was sitting on the toilet, for some
reason. Shower helped a little with the back labor. I'm really
greatful that my parents were here. My dad was playing with DD,
distracting her, while my mom helped me cope when DH was resting for a
while - I just had to to hold on somebody's hand :-)

All this time contractions were still irregular (3-8 min apart) but
really really painful, and I was getting worried how are we going to
decide when to go to the birth center? I didn't want to go there just
to be sent home again. At some point I started to cry -
not because I couldn't handle the pain, but because I didn't know how
to determine if this was IT or not - my waters didn't break, I had no
more bleeding, contractions didn't get closer together, they were just
stronger and longer...

Than I remembered that crying and discouragement can be signs of
transition and I told DH to call the birth center to tell them that we
are coming - if it was still too soon, I decided, we will just go to a
hotel, but I just couldn't cope with contractions AND worry about
going to the BC.

We got there around 1:20 pm. It was really hard to sit in the car
during contractions, especially since I couldn't hold DH's hand :-) so
I got vocal and that helped a little. In between contractions I prayed
that I was more than 3 cm dilated this time :-)

Sure enough, I was 8 cm. They started filling the tub (I wanted a
waterbirth) so I had to wait for that. Midwife apprentice was great,
she was talking me through contractions (they were finally 2-3 min
apart) and she applied double hip sqeeze wich helped with back pain,
especially since the pain was shooting down my legs - they said
the baby was posterior and he was probably hitting some nerves.

The tub was filled soon and I got in - it was great! (There is a
picture of me in the tub smiling, even though I was in active labor -
I really am a nice person LOL :-)))

Very soon I started feeling "pushy" at the end of each contraction. I
was 9 cm dilated and they said I could go ahead and push if I felt
like it. They called the doctor (he was on call that day) because I
was progressing quickly (he was at the hospital, attending another
birth). I started pushing, but it was hard - really painful (not so
with DD)and sort of awkward - I'm really short and I couldn't reach
the end of tub with my feet and it's really hard to push with your
legs floating in the water ;-). After a few pushes my water broke -
it was a funny feeling - liquid just shooting out of me. I'm sure
somebody would have gotten wet, were I not in the tub at the time :-)

Dr got there and than they noticed that the baby's heartrate was
dropping with each contraction. So they decided to move me to bed,
which was not an easy task to do. By then there were almost no breaks
between contractions. Now I think that maybe those long contractions
were turning the baby from posterior to anterior.

I couldn't just stand up and get out of the tub, so I first turned on
all fours and immediately had overwhelming urge to push, so I did, but
they didn't let mi do that for long - I had to get to the bed before
pushing again. Once on the bed, I was on all fours again and pushing
and it felt great, much less painful and a lot more productive (at
least it felt so to me) but I was told to turn around to lie on my
back and push that way. I didn't want to, but didn't really have
any strength to argue (nurse later told me that dr insisted on my
turning so that he was better able to support my perineum). It was
really hard and painfull to push on my back and I was
surprised by that, because when I had DD, pushing was painless and
felt great and she was out after 2 or 3 pushes. This was taking too
long (I thought, I really pushed for only 17 minutes) and I felt tons
of pressure and stretching (very unpleasant) and I really didn't want
to push anymore LOL (with DD there was no stretching because they did
an episiotomy before I started pushing). But than I remembered that
baby's heartrate was low during contractions so I tried as best as I
could. Nurse told mi to grab my legs behind my knees
but for some reason I wasn't able to do that (still don't know why) so
somebody grabed them for me and after that baby was out in two
minutes. They reminded me that I wanted to catch the baby, but I just
didn't feel like it (and I'm sorry I didn't do it...).

He had cord around his neck and that's why his heartrate went down
with contractions. He looked very pink and alert to me (compared to my
DD who was purplish-gray and limp like rag doll when she came out) but
they took points off both his apgar scores for color (they were 8 and
9). He didn't cry right away, but he did breathe. My DH cut the cord
and I was still admiring our baby when dr and nurse asked me to push
again for the placenta. I tried to, but it wouldn't come out, so the
dr massaged my uterus, and I was pushing with all my might and it
finally came out. (I later asked why were they in a hurry to get it
out and was told that placenta was halfway out and they had to
"encourage" it to come all the way out. I suspect that it also had to
do with a fact that the dr had to go back to the hospital ASAP).
Dr said I didn't even tear and than he was off.

The nurse kept checking me and it was soooo painful - my bottom felt
like it was burnt - and she found two little tears. She said they had
to be stitched because they were bleeding so guess what? she called
the dr back (he probably felt like a ping pong ball, LOL). She
also noticed that my uterus wasn't contracting like it was supposed
to, so she massaged it and gave me a shot of Methergine.

Then the dr came back, felt my uterus and pressed very hard on it, so
out came a very big clot and a big gush of blood. He repeated it few
times and bleeding didn't seem to stop, so he told the nurse
to start IV with pitocin (it took her 3 tries to put it in and she was
commenting how good my veins were - go figure). Somebody was massaging
my uterus while dr stitched me up. I felt very tired and sleepy and
like I was going to faint even though I was lying down. They took my
BP - it was 78/50. They gave me some orange juice and water and then
the bleeding slowed down and I felt better. My DH was of course very
scared during this and was convinced we will have to go to the
hospital, but luckily we didn't :-)

An hour after the birth I was able to sit up and nurse Stefan! (I put
him to breast immediately after birth, but he wasn't interested). I
couldn't believe how great I felt. No pain, none whatsoever!
I got a little bit dizzy when I went to bathroom, but other than that
- nothing! And after six hour I sat (I SAT!!!!) in the car for a 30
min drive home - no problem! When I had DD, it hurt to turn in bed,
let alone walk or sit (I had a very big episiotomy and it got
infected...). I was in constant pain for a month and it was far far
worse than labor and birth. This time - nothing!

I still can't believe how great it was. I'm ready for another kid, LOL
(unfortunately, DH is not). Stefan sleeps well, nurses well and is a
very easy baby - just like DD was. Tamara loves Stefan, she is very
gentle with him, wants to hold him and kiss him all the time.

All in all, it was a great experience...well, I could have done
without bleeding before and after birth, but other than that
everything was perfect. I never felt overwhelmed by pain (well, maybe
a little bit while I was pushing, because it was sooo different then
my first birth), never felt that I couldn't cope or that I needed pain
relief - it literally never crossed my mind during labor. DH never
mentioned it either - he said he knew I could do it :-)


There are a few pictures at http://photos.yahoo.com/panticstts if you
are interested :-)

--

Tanja

Mommy to Tamara (27 Dec 1998) and
Stefan (19 May 2003)

"Tatjana Pantic" wrote in message
I'm sorry it took me so long to write it (it's been almost 2 months).

Short version:
Stefan, May 19 2003 at 3:02 pm (PST)
7 lb 4 oz, 20 in

Long version:

Thanks for sharing the complete story, Tanja! Congratulations again on
Stefan's birth. Both of your children are lovely!

Sounds like some worrisome moments with the bleeding episodes, but
everything turned out great. I was struck by your mentioned of having no
troubles with the 30 minute ride home only 6 hours after the birth. I'm
planning a birth center birth 30 minutes away as well and they let you go 6
hours later also. I had thought about the car trip there while in labor as
being probably uncomfortable and I had also thought about the trip home in
terms of how I will feeling about cramming a 6-hour old baby into an
uncomfortable carseat and trekking home. However, I hadn't thought about how
*I* might feel sitting in the car for that 30 minutes. I hope it goes
okay...

--
Em
edd 9/23/03 (30 weeks today!)

"Tatjana Pantic" wrote in message
Em wrote:

and I had also thought about the trip home in
terms of how I will feeling about cramming a 6-hour old baby into an
uncomfortable carseat and trekking home.

I was worried about that, too, but it went very well, he slept all the
way and didn't seem to mind :-) What's more, he spent the next 2 or 3
nights in the car seat, too, because he would only sleep there -
probably because it felt more like what he was used to (my uterus)
then lying in his crib.

I hope our baby decided to sleep all the way home as well (I imagine he'll
be tired). I have visions of pathetic crying & having to stop every few
minutes becuase I can't stand to have my brand-new baby being tortured in
the evil car! Our carseat is not a portable one, so he'll be out of luck if
that's where he wants to sleep in the night!

However, I hadn't thought about how
*I* might feel sitting in the car for that 30 minutes. I hope it goes
okay...

I'm sure it will :-) I never heard of anybody beside myself (when I
had DD) having so much pain AFTER birth, everybody had traumatic labor
and/or birth, not recovery (and they all think I'm mad because I think
that labor and birth are no big deal to me - it's what comes after
that's scary for me :-)). So I think that means that you have a very
good chance of having no pain, especially since you are going to BC
and are likely to avoid an episiotomy. Good luck! :-)

Good to know (well, bad that you had pain after the birth, but good that it
isn't super-common!) and thanks for the good wishes. I had a dream last
night that I had the baby at the birth center and all went well and as
planned. In the dream, I got up to sit in a chair to nurse the baby and when
I sat down I thought, "I didn't need to be worried about the car, it doesn't
hurt to sit at all!"

--
Em
edd 9/23/03