I ordered my TENS machine last night in an attempt to get everything ready for this baby's birth and I was just wondering these things:
What type of pain relief did you use? (for me, I had a TENS machine and large amounts of gas and air)
How long was your labour? (I'll just say it was short so people don't hate me)
What was the most useless item that you put in your hospital bag? (Snack foods to keep my 'energy levels up')
Did everything go according to your birth plan? (I've never written a birth plan, is that bad?)
I love hearing birth stories, so if you want to share, feel free. I've written about Elliot's birth before, I'll try to find the link again. I'm starting to feel scared that we still haven't organised everything for the baby's arrival and not being prepared is just silly when we have all this time. This weekend I think is going to be spent arranging furniture, pulling out baby things from the loft, getting everything cleaned and shopping for those last few bits we need.
Well I was induced for both so naturally I opted for the epidural and I was smiling for the whole 14 and 12 hours of labor.
ReplyDeleteHmmm.....what did I put in my bag. I bought my sweet smelling lotion hoping it would relax me but I never even took it out the bag. I am sure there were plenty of other things especially with Christopher. I knew better with Alyssa and walked with my own night gown & socks (a must) which was great. The other useful thing was those little hand mitts for the baby. I had none with Christopher and I could show some awful pictures of his scratched up face the day after he was born.
No birth plan here so I would say it's not bad. Get to the hospital, get hooked up to machine, I also have to be on anti-biotics for that strep thing, start the petocin, suck up the horrible contractions for about an hour since they come harder without warning in about a few minutes, get the epidural then wait :)
I'll be feeling the same way down the road, like things just aren't in order and time is running out. If you have a lot to do the time will sneak up on you faster. :-)
I love hearing birth strories too...
ReplyDeleteMy labor was long, 36 hours, after about 24 hours, when I got to the hospital, I had an IV pain reliever for about 2-3 hours, followed by an epideral. I won't do the IV thing again, it made me super drowsy and only worked for about an hour. I would do the epidural again, I was numb to the pain, but could still move my legs and push effectively (I only pushed for 45 minutes), particularly with the long labor, it gave me time to rest before pushing, I don't know that I would have had the energy to push without it. Julia came out screaming and perfect.
ReplyDeleteI didn't pack much, I live 3 minutes from the hospital, I figured I could send Jim home if I forgot something. I actually packed my laptop because they said they had wifi, but it didn't work, so that was a bummer, but if it had worked, I probably would have used it.
And I didn't write a birth plan either. I knew the philosophy of my doctor and the practices of the birth center we were at, and feeling good about that, I put myself in their hands, and made decisions as things happened.
I had two epidurals (for the first two births) which wore off in time for me to feel the end stage contractions and to enable me to push. The first one was quite uncomfortable because although the pain was gone, I could still feel the pressure of Patrick pushing his way out of me which was quite uncomfortable. The epidural with James was a dream until it wore off. Both times I was recommended for one to bring my blood pressure down. For Ewan I had only gas & air.
ReplyDeleteMy labours were all somewhere between 8 & 12 hours.
I'd never even heard of a birth plan until about a week ago!
:-)