subsequent labors shorter than first?

"Circe" wrote:
My paternal grandmother gave birth to her ninth (and last) baby in the middle of
the night when she got up to go to the bathroom. (BTW, she was 47 at the time.)
Since my pushing stage with Vernon was 5 minutes, I can easily see how the
same thing that happened to my grandmother could happen to me if I had a fourth.

Yikes, that's a helluva story! It's also inspiring. Do you know if
she intended to have the baby at home, or if she had expected to give
birth in a hospital? I suppose it would have been a surprise either
way, but if the latter is true she might have been scared, and that
would be too bad.

Also, I can totally imagine that would happen to me if I kept going
with babies. I was in labor with my first for only 6 hours of very
hard labor -- starting the count when cntrx changed from something I
could talk and joke through to something serious and difficult - it's
also when I really started to dilate. Before that I was about 1.5cm
and had been about 1.5cm for days. I was 31 yrs old then.

With baby number two I all of a sudden went from no cntrx at all to
very hard labor. From first cntxn to baby was 4 hrs 15 mins. I was
34 yrs old.

So now that I am preggo with number 3, I have a lot of expectations.
I expect to give birth before my due date, since I did the first two
times. I expect to have a boy, since I've dreamed he is a boy (and
Sophie thinks he is a boy -- who am I to go against the great psychic
Sophie?! :-). I expect my labor to last around 2 hours, since it
just makes mathematical sense to go from 6 to 4 to 2. :-) I'll be
36 yrs old if this baby is born term. I also expect the baby to weigh
a few oz under 8 lbs, since baby #1 was 7lbs 13oz and baby #2 was 7lbs
11oz.

(Luckily I am planning a home birth and my midwife lives about 4
minutes away - and her backup midwife lives about 30 mins away).

So now, mark my words everyone! Since I have all these expectations,
I am just SURE to go two weeks late, labor all day and night and have
a 10lb girl, right?! ;-)

If not, though, and I do only take 2 or three hours to have the baby,
what if I went on to have baby #4 at 38, baby #5 at 41, baby #6 at 43,
and baby #7 at 46? I could definitely imagine the last labor taking 5
minutes! (I can also imagine begging my mother-in-law to quit her job
and come live with us so DH and I wouldn't have to take care of 7 kids
all by ourselves! ACK! :-)

--
-- Vicki
Married DH May 21, 1995. Ima shel DS, born 11/16/99; DD, born at home
5/19/02, and
"the Final Frontier", "due" September 4, 2004.
The penalty that good men (sic) pay for not being interested in
politics is to be governed
by men worse than themselves. -Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)

Vicki S wrote in message
om...
"Circe" wrote:
My paternal grandmother gave birth to her ninth (and last) baby in the
middle of
the night when she got up to go to the bathroom. (BTW, she was 47 at the
time.)
Since my pushing stage with Vernon was 5 minutes, I can easily see how
the
same thing that happened to my grandmother could happen to me if I had a
fourth.

Yikes, that's a helluva story! It's also inspiring. Do you know if
she intended to have the baby at home, or if she had expected to give
birth in a hospital? I suppose it would have been a surprise either
way, but if the latter is true she might have been scared, and that
would be too bad.

Also, I can totally imagine that would happen to me if I kept going
with babies. I was in labor with my first for only 6 hours of very
hard labor -- starting the count when cntrx changed from something I
could talk and joke through to something serious and difficult - it's
also when I really started to dilate. Before that I was about 1.5cm
and had been about 1.5cm for days. I was 31 yrs old then.

With baby number two I all of a sudden went from no cntrx at all to
very hard labor. From first cntxn to baby was 4 hrs 15 mins. I was
34 yrs old.

So now that I am preggo with number 3, I have a lot of expectations.
I expect to give birth before my due date, since I did the first two
times. I expect to have a boy, since I've dreamed he is a boy (and
Sophie thinks he is a boy -- who am I to go against the great psychic
Sophie?! :-). I expect my labor to last around 2 hours, since it
just makes mathematical sense to go from 6 to 4 to 2. :-)
No it doesn't. It makes mathematical sense to go to 2hrs 40 minutes (2/3 of
4)
Debbie



I'll be
36 yrs old if this baby is born term. I also expect the baby to weigh
a few oz under 8 lbs, since baby #1 was 7lbs 13oz and baby #2 was 7lbs
11oz.

(Luckily I am planning a home birth and my midwife lives about 4
minutes away - and her backup midwife lives about 30 mins away).

So now, mark my words everyone! Since I have all these expectations,
I am just SURE to go two weeks late, labor all day and night and have
a 10lb girl, right?! ;-)

If not, though, and I do only take 2 or three hours to have the baby,
what if I went on to have baby #4 at 38, baby #5 at 41, baby #6 at 43,
and baby #7 at 46? I could definitely imagine the last labor taking 5
minutes! (I can also imagine begging my mother-in-law to quit her job
and come live with us so DH and I wouldn't have to take care of 7 kids
all by ourselves! ACK! :-)

--
-- Vicki
Married DH May 21, 1995. Ima shel DS, born 11/16/99; DD, born at home
5/19/02, and
"the Final Frontier", "due" September 4, 2004.
The penalty that good men (sic) pay for not being interested in
politics is to be governed
by men worse than themselves. -Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)

Cheryl wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:32:42 -0800, "Circe" wrote:
Then I
said we'd have to be sure he got the right training to attend a
precipitous birth, just in case. His response? "Don't worry about
it. I know what to do. I've watched it done for three babies
already. I can handle it."

You know what? Mine said the same thing

Hee. On this topic Steve said "No way in hell am I doing any of *that*".
He wants no part of it, lol. This from a biology major.?!


--
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (4) and Luke (2)

Vicki S wrote:
"Circe" wrote:
My paternal grandmother gave birth to her ninth (and last) baby in
the middle of the night when she got up to go to the bathroom.
(BTW, she was 47 at the time.) Since my pushing stage with Vernon
was 5 minutes, I can easily see how the same thing that happened
to my grandmother could happen to me if I had a fourth.

Yikes, that's a helluva story! It's also inspiring. Do you know if
she intended to have the baby at home, or if she had expected to
give birth in a hospital?

She had all her babies at home. This would have been the early 1940s and
they lived on a farm that would have been quite a distance from the nearest
hospital at that time. I assume, however, that most of her births were
attended by either a local midwife or a doctor who made house
calls--obviously, the last one was not but I'm sure by that time, she was
pretty much a pro g!

I suppose it would have been a surprise either
way, but if the latter is true she might have been scared, and that
would be too bad.

Well, that whole pregnancy was something of a surprise. I know I've told
this story here before, but when she first got pregnant, she thought she'd
gone through the change. Then, when she started to grow, she thought she had
a tumor and a doctor even confirmed this diagnosis. She saw a second doctor
who told her she was just pregnant. I suppose she'd have figured it out
herself within a few more weeks since she probably would have started
feeling movement soon. In any event, she was really scared to have the baby
because she was aware of the high risk of problems like DS at her age.
Fortunately, my aunt was born perfectly healthy, if a bit unexpectedly and
precipitously!

(Luckily I am planning a home birth and my midwife lives about 4
minutes away - and her backup midwife lives about 30 mins away).

That's a good plan! If I ever have another, I'm lobbying *hard* for a home
birth. I already know of a midwife who does home births here, is licensed,
and says most insurance pays her. I think those three factors will go a long
way to ease my husband's concerns about the idea, and since I know he's
already nervous about getting me to the hospital in time g...

If not, though, and I do only take 2 or three hours to have the
baby,

It might not, though. Remember, Ericka's second labor was (I think) 1h45m
and her third was about 5 hours. There are no guarantees!

(I can also imagine begging my mother-in-law to quit her job
and come live with us so DH and I wouldn't have to take care of 7
kids all by ourselves! ACK! :-)

LOL! The cool thing about seven kids, though, is that the older kids are
older enough to actually help take care of the younger ones, often without
even realizing they're doing it. In the natural course of events, the older
ones just tend to entertain the younger ones meaning there's a bit less work
for the parents to do. I've certainly found this to be true of my #1 and #2
children vis-a-vis #3. I'm sure if I went on to have two or three more, the
parenting load for little ones would be even less. (But it ain't gonna
happen. One more, tops, and my husband and I are still trying to decide
whether we have the physical and emotional energy to do one more as well as
the time to give proper attention to the three we already have. So, it's all
up in the air. Which is okay with me!)
--
Be well, Barbara
(Julian [6], Aurora [4], and Vernon's [2] mom)

All opinions expressed in this post are well-reasoned and insightful.
Needless to say, they are not those of my Internet Service Provider, its
other subscribers or lackeys. Anyone who says otherwise is itchin' for a
fight. -- with apologies to Michael Feldman

Circe wrote:


It might not, though. Remember, Ericka's second labor was (I think) 1h45m
and her third was about 5 hours. There are no guarantees!

Close--#1 45 hours, #2 2.5 hours, #3 5 hours--but your
point definitely stands! There was a long gap between #2
and #3, though.

Best wishes,
Ericka

X-No-Archive: Yes


Is labor shorter in subsequent pregnancies than in the first? Or not
always?

Thanks.

1st - 15 1\2 hrs
2nd - 6 hrs
3rd - 5 hrs
4th - 3 hrs
5th - 6 hrs



--
**
Sharon
mom to 5

If I were young enough to have had more, I think a 4th one would have
been sneezed out.

Mary G.

Mary, I'm picturing you in a Monty Python sketch, maybe something from
one of the movies? Isn't there a scene where the house is full of
children and the mom is in the kitchen washing up and a baby just falls
out onto the floor and she tells one of the kids to pick it up and she
goes back to what she was doing...

-Karen, mom to Henry and someone due in 4 weeks!-

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:03:55 GMT, Karen wrote:

If I were young enough to have had more, I think a 4th one would have
been sneezed out.

Mary G.

Mary, I'm picturing you in a Monty Python sketch, maybe something from
one of the movies? Isn't there a scene where the house is full of
children and the mom is in the kitchen washing up and a baby just falls
out onto the floor and she tells one of the kids to pick it up and she
goes back to what she was doing...

Yes, it's in _The Meaning of Life_, just before they break into the
song "Every Sperm is Sacred".


--
Cheryl
Mum to Shrimp (11 Mar 99), Thud (4 Oct 00)
and Mischief (30 Jul 02)