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Anna Christine Sex: girl Born: 03 July, 2007 Age: 1 years & 2 days Birthday in: 363 days Starsign: Cancer Development: See the 12 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Original due date: July 12, 2007
Type of delivery: Forceps or suction
Duration of labor: 12 hours
Weight @ birth: 7lbs 7oz
Length @ birth: 21 inches

Anna-Christine`s birthstory

I woke up at 3:00AM on July 3rd with mild menstrual cramping and gave up trying to sleep at 4:00. By 6:00 I woke up hubby and said that maybe we should go to the hospital even though we had a midwife appt. at 8:30. We got to L&D at 7:00AM and I was checked around 8:30 or so and dilated to a 1 and 50% effaced. Prior to this check I had not had any progress at all. They had me walk for an hour to see how things progressed and at 9:30 I was at a 3 and 75% effaced. The midwife decided to let me go home and labor so that I could have lunch and such and try to be as comfortable as possible while my body progressed. The nurse said to come back when the contractions were `making me want to hurt anyone who did any little thing that annoyed me` - she expected it to be in about six hours, but possibly sooner. We were home by 10:00 and back at the hospital at 12:30. When they checked me again I had progressed to a 5 and 80% effaced. They again had me walk for an hour and I progressed to a 6. At this point I was begging for an epidural, but it took time as they had to put a bag and a half of IV into me prior to giving me the big poke. The epi was not nearly as bad as I anticipated, and wouldn`t have been any big deal at all, except that while he was going to try and do it between contractions, he ended up getting me right at the start of one, so I had to sit perfectly still through a nasty contraction while they stuck a needle in my back! I had always thought that the epi would hurt, but it really was just a little poke to numb me and then I barely felt the needle. The hard part was curling into the position that he needed me in with my big `ole belly in the way! The relief came within 15 minutes and I was very surprised at the sensation. I had thought that I would be basically paralyzed, but it was just like my legs had fallen asleep. I could still move them and everything, but ALL the pain was gone! When the midwife arrived at 4:45 I had progressed to an 8 and I was 100% effaced with my bag of waters bulging, so she broke the water and out came the plug as well. At 6:00 I was dilated to a 10 and they had me start pushing. By 8:00 they took the epidural off as the midwife did not want me on it so that I could feel where the pain was and push into it. At 9:00 I would have gone in for a c-section if I had gone with a doctor, but she let me keep pushing. At 9:30 she was not happy with the progress and went to consult with a doctor. We ended up having the only L&D nurse that we know (we used to go to the same church and she is a blast!), and between her and my hubby we knew that a section was coming and they encouraged me to push like mad even though I physically had NO ENERGY LEFT. I don`t know how I did it as the drugs were long gone, but by the time the doctor got there, she had progressed far enough that he thought he might be able to get her with the vacuum. (Apparently he is the best doc in the hospital at vacuum deliveries and can get some that others can`t or won`t). God was definitely on our side as he said he would give it one shot before going into a section and he was able to suction on to her and get her out in one pull while I pushed with every ounce of strength I had left in me. I never imagined myself going through the ending phase of labor with no drugs, but I did it!!! Anna Christine (named after my grandma and hubby`s grandma) was born at 10:03 and is absolutely perfect! She scored a 9 on the APGAR and was checked for diabetes because she is large for her gestational age, but passed with flying colors, and is already a champion breast feeder with her first session a solid 45 minutes. I did have some internal tearing and now have stitches, but the doc was impressed that I only tore as much as I did because he said that she was NOT going to come out on her own and I was fortunate enough to have her vaginally. Total labor time was 12 hours with the last 4 being solid pushing. The one thing that I didn`t expect during the labor process was the shaking/convulsing. Just prior to receiving the epi I began shaking like mad and I was told that this was normal before labor (and meant that it was going to happen soon) and that it happens after labor as well. I shook for an hour and a half before I started pushing and maybe for 15 minutes after the birth.

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