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Birth Stories

Ashton Michael

Ashton Michael P was born Saturday, November 3 at 1:21 pm. My first POSSIBLE symptom that labor was near was an unfamiliar leg and hip soreness all day on Friday, the day before the birth. My legs and whole hip area felt as if I had worked out too long. I kept stretching through the day, but nothing made it more comfortable. At this point, I was really ready to have my baby. So, since I had heard that eating basil can help bring on labor, I had my mother-in-law bring over the last of the basil from her garden for me to make some pesto. I ate it all for lunch. Then, Saturday morning around 5:00 am I woke up to a pretty uncomfortable stomachache. I was not sure if I just needed to use the bathroom or it was contractions. The aching did not have a defined beginning and ending. Then my back started to hurt at the same time as my lower abdomen and I got more suspicious. By 5:40 am I woke my husband and we tried to focus on trying to pinpoint an actual beginning and ending of the contraction. They were two minutes apart right off the bat. We timed this for an about an hour and then called the Doctor. As guessed she said to come in right away.

As my husband quickly gathered everything for the hospital I threw up a lot of liquid. Also, I remember my husband putting my shoes on for me and having to ask him to stop and wait till the contraction subsided. There was no way I could multi task even the simplest things during a contraction. Throughout my short time at home sitting on the exercise ball moving my hips around helped as well as the standing figure eights.

We got to the hospital around 7:00 am. They did want to hook me up to an IV because I had lost so many fluids at home. And, I’m not sure if it was absolutely necessary, but they went ahead and put the bellybands around me too for the fetal and contraction monitor. For this I was laying in the bed on my left side. All of this might have contributed to my decision later to get an epidural. I was not able to walk around the room and try some of the Yoga and Lamaze moves that I have planned for. But, at this point the contractions were strong and so close together that I did not want to try any other positions other then holding on tight to the bed rail. If I could do it again I would hope that I would have tried a little more to really concentrate on the contractions and breathing. I think I was taken by surprise by how overwhelming the contractions were early on that I lost some control. My labor progressed really quickly.

When I first got to the hospital at 7:00 am I was 3 cm dilated. By 9:00 or so I was 6 cm and then by 12:30 pm I was ready to push. I pushed for slightly under and hour and he was born at 1:21 pm. I had a good pushing experience. Having the mirror there for me to see the baby’s head was really neat. Ashton did have a little meconium when he came out. His mouth was quickly suctioned out and all was well. I held him right away. I was able to breastfeed some, but we had problems with his nursing the whole time in the hospital. He was tired a lot and not latching on. We stayed an extra night because of this, but by day 6 he caught on and now we are nursing well every 2-3 hours.

I had a pleasant experience at Johnston Willis Hospital. The nurses are who I saw the most and they were all wonderful. Good luck to everyone with your birth. I miss Yoga.

Hilary P (Tuesday, 6:15 class)

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