Labor Stories

Hi everybody I'm Erica and I'm new on here.

I haven't had my twins yet but I'm close so I would like to know how your labor went.

 

I was in labor for over 3 weeks, pre-term labor that is. The actual Labor part lasted about 2 days, with the worst of it being the last 3 hours before I delivered. My contractions were getting extremely strong and painful, so my Dr. did a pelvic exam and saw I was 4cm dilated, and she could feel Baby A's head, so they took me down for an emergency c-section because they did not want to chance a natural delivery at 28 weeks. My C-section was great, it was quick and painless. My recovery was just as good, I was up and moving around that evening. All in all, I would say it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be.

 

Congrats on your soon to be new arrivals!! It's hard work, but so worth it! It sounds like you are pretty close to your due date, so way to go! My boys arrived at 33 1/2 weeks via c-section. BTW - I would pick a c-section over vaginal ANY DAY!!!

Anyhow, my water broke on baby A at 3:30 AM and I started have some mild contractions. It was weird, I had been asleep and woke up because I felt a sharp kick from James (baby A) and I got up to pee. As soon as I finished, I stood up and gush...there is no mistaking that! I had just been put on bedrest the day before because of blood pressure and some contractions, but it didn't work! My DH freaked because we didn't have a bag packed and the hospital wanted us to come in right away. Got to the hospital and my doctor came in, did an U/S and said good luck because I was headed to Charleston, SC to MUSC because our local hospital won't deliver babies before 36 weeks. Then, I got about 3 shots, a catheter and an IV in the space of 10 minutes - not fun. ***Don't worry, the catheter doesn't hurt if you have to have one.

I was lucky enough to have an ambulance driven by the Dukes of Hazzard. It was the most uncomfortable 2 hours of my life. I was having contractions every 5 minutes and the guy in the back with me kept telling the driver to go faster. I finally yelled at the driver that if he didn't f&^%$#*! tell me when we were going to hit a bump, I would personally come up there and kick his a#@. The contractions were uncomfortable, but not unbearable. It hurt in my back much more than in my belly. Also, my Dh couldn't ride with me. That sucked.

Got to the hospital and into a room and then the fun started. I don't want to scare you, but be prepared for the internal exams. They are not comfortable. I was 2 centimeters and still having contractions every 5 minutes, but they were getting stronger, so they gave me a shot of something in my IV which was awesome. Ask for pain meds (if that's your thing) and enjoy the relief! By that time, DH, my mom and my dad got there so we waited around for a while and then the drugs wore off and it was pretty intense. Total cliche - my DH was patting my leg, saying you're doing great, etc. and I told him to keep his hands off - he was annoying the crap out of me! It was around this time I finally got my epidural. This was after about 10 hours of increasingly intense contractions.

Side note - I was totally and completely freaked out about an epidural and really wanted to avoid that altogether, but in the end, I got over the fear and got the epidural - sweet blessed relief!!! It does NOT hurt - you only feel a sting when they numb your back. I swear.

About 30 minutes after the epidural, they checked me and said I was 10, let's go deliver your babies! We were really surprised to say the least! We get to the deliver/operating room, I got stirruped, spread, poked, etc. and then nothing. Keep in mind that this is a teaching hospital, so there were about 15 people lined up around that room just to watch, in addition to the other NECESSARY people. After a few minutes of silence, I finally asked what was going on and they said that I was only 2 centimeters, not 10. Apparently a surgery I had had before on my cervix really made it difficult to get an accurate reading. You should have seen the look of shock on my mother's face when we came back in the room 20 minutes later with no babies!

Let me get to the point - sorry this is so long. Finally, at 6:00 that night, the head DR. said it was time (and I quote) "to sh*t or get off the pot". You can guess what I said. So, at 7 PM that night my James and William finally made their entrance. The section was totally easy. The only thing that bothered me was feeling like I couldn't breathe so well because the epidural was turned way up, but the anesthesiologist was great and kept talking to me the whole time.

James and Will stayed in the level 2 nursery for 10 days while I recovered in a Marriot, pumped and went in to nurse and hold my babies. The recovery was pretty easy. I was sore and couldn't stand up straight for a few days, but the drugs are great and I was totally fine by the time they came home.

If I have one word of advice for you it is EAT BEFORE YOU GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!! I had eaten at 9 PM the night before and I wasn't allowed to eat the entire next until I had the kids. I begged the ambulance drive to stop at Hardee's - I even offered to pay for a biscuit for everyone. I finally got a popsicle in the recovery room, but I had to beg for that. That was the worst part of the entire experience - I was starving!

Anyhow, good luck with your babies and delivery. It can be overwhelming and a little scary, but you will do great.

 

I delivered my twins at 32 weeks and 3 days vaginally with out any pain meds. The preterm delivery was due to baby A, Alexis's, birth defect. She had anencephaly which developed polyhydraminos, hence the early birth. I was in labor for about 8 hours total. Six of those hours were on mag at the hospital. I am very happy with my birth experience. I delivered at the greatest hospital. Anyways back to the story...my plug came out on saturday night at 11:40 pm and as soon as I stood up I was right back down on the toilet because the contractions were so strong. I called L&D explained my entire prenatal medical history an.d they told me to kill some time at home and try different things to make sure it wasn't a false alarm. I tried water, laying down, walking, taking a bath, pretty much everything I could think of but nothing helped. They didn't believe me that I was in real active labor but when I got to the hospital and in a room at 2 am that sunday I was 4 cm and 100% effaced. They immediately started the mag and gave me the steroid shots. We decided on a natural vaginal delivery because I wanted the time I had with my daughter to be magical with out me being doped up on drugs and to protect my son's immature lungs. An hour and a half after I got there I was at 8cm. We had to wait to deliver until the NICU team got there from the hospital 2 hours away. I pushed for 15 minutes total and Alexis was born at 7:27 am 2 pounds 2 oz and 13 inches long. She lived 84 minutes before passing away from anencephaly. Peyton was born at 7:34 am weighing 3 pounds 14 oz and 17 3/4 inches long. He spent exactly 2 weeks in the NICU and came home at his birth weight. He is now almost 15 pounds at 5 months old and doing great!



Congrats on your twins and making it so far! I wish you a wonderful birth experience and see you soon here in the FY!

 

I had a c section, which I swore I would never had and just go vaginal. However somewhere around 36 weeks I hit my pregnancy wall and was so ready to get them out. So despite the fact that they were both head down when my doctor mentioned c section. I was just so ready to have an end in sight that I took it and waited for that date and time like a child waiting for santa on christmas.

The c section went way better than I expected too, it was fast, hardly any pain, no bleeding and I was able to take care of my babies afterwards. That was one of my main concerns. I never forgot to tae my pain meds though I stayed on top of it because I was afraid to even feel the slghtest bit of pain. I did not want to know what it felt like.

Well welcome and good luck with your pregnancy. I love my twins!! It is hard work but such a wonderful experience.


BTW I delivered at 38wand 2d

 

My experience wasn't bad actually. I was induced at 37 weeks because my babies were weighing pretty big for twins. I went in at 7 am. The nurse checked me and I was already 5 cm and didn't even feel it. Doctor came in to break my water at 8:45 then I got the epidural. Don't be afraid of the epidural if you want one. Everyone seems to be afraid of the needle and really it's nothing. I think an IV in the hand hurts worse. I really wasn't feeling any contractions at all until about 9 ish. Then I remember them putting a catheter in me to empty my bladder and took it right back out at about 1:30 pm and OH BOY the contractions hit me like a brick wall!!!!! I didn't moan or make noise...all I could do was let the water fall from my eyes...whew. I was dialating so quickly. I went to the OR just in case, but both babies heads were down so I was lucky to be able to deliver vaginally. I did 5 pushes and Hayley was born at 2:30 pm and then only 1 gigantic push and Sean was born 11 minutes later.

Oh yeah...their weights.....she weighted 6 lbs 14 oz and he weighed....8 lbs 13 oz. I had almost 16 pounds of baby!!!

I can say it all went pretty well and no complaints except I never felt contractions like that before. What an amazing experience.

 

I'm going in for my c/section tomorrow and some of the things listed above reminded me of what I need to do tonight. Since I'm a nurse I suggest the following....

1. Eat right up until they say you can't (for me that is 2 am tonight)

2. Drink as much as you can the night before -- this will keep your body hydrated and make it easier to put an IV in. If you are dehydrated it can be harder to find a vein. (ouch)

Ok gotta go and get myself something to drink and eat.....

Heather

 

i had a fairly uneventful full term vaginal delivery, i was induced at 37weeks 5days due to increased bp, they didn't want it to turn into pre-e, the pitocin started at 3 pm, my water broke naturally at 10:30p, epidural at 11, birth at 4:30 and 4:37. the whoe story is on the link below but all in all it wasn't as bad as i thiught it was going to be. good luck

http://bbrsbaby.blogspot.com/2007/09/birth...is-is-long.html

 

I delivered via c-section at 36 weeks on the dot.

After PTL and hospital stay at 32 weeks, I was put on bedrest and was dilated to 3 cm. Everything remained under control until 36 weeks on the dot (had an appointment that morning) at 2:30 in the morning. Rolled over in bed, and gush...water broke. Woke up DH...he freaked out, I took a shower.

Got to the hospital, got undressed, got the ph test (at which time they asked me if I was sure my water broke and I told them something was very wrong with me if it wasn't my water...the paper didn't change to the right color the first check...checked again...it changed).

Got hooked up to the monitor and IV (after 8 pricks...yes 8...I have horrible veins...took 5 pricks for the PTL stay).

Got the lovely enema...that's totally awesome!

Waited for my doc, was checked and was only 3 1/2 cm dilated (remember I was already 3) after 3 hours so doc started pitocin and ordered u/s to check the boys position. Since both were head down we went with a planned vaginal.

After 2 hours on pitocin, got to 5 cm, after another 2 hours got to 8 cm. Got an epidural at 5 cm. Not bad at all. Anyway...sat at 8 cm for 3 1/2 hours and because of my failure to progress and the boys were starting to distress after 12 hours of labor, had the section (we pushed, tried to stretch, etc...my cervix just wouldn't do it).

Had the boys via c-section within a minute of each other...I reacted badly to the increased dose of the epidural and my bp dropped really low so they had to give me some meds to bring it back up. I refused any meds while they were mending me up (they offer you stuff to relax you...i wanted to be aware/awake for the boys).

C-section sucked for me but I survived...would definitely have prefered vaginal but the boys and my cervix didn't cooperate.

 

I was induced at 37 weeks-- already dilated 4 cm. They started me on pitocin at 8 am, and at 1:37pm Eloise was born vaginally with no pain meds (not my choice...the epidural didn't work) and at 1:42pm Lincoln was born. Neither one had NICU time, and we all went home 48 hours later. Good luck!

Reyna

 

Congratulations on your twins...!

Mine arived, vaginally @ 38 weeks after an induction. We went in at 6am, and they were born at almost 4am the next day. Not all this time was lobor though -- we had a REALLY hard time getting my labor started. I went in 2cm dialated and -1 station. We started pitosin @ 8am -- small contrations for about an hour, which then petered out. Then at 10am or so, my Dr. broke my water (pitosin was being uped every 1/2 hour I think) - -again some contrations which petered out again. We went like this ALL DAY LONG! I didn't really have any pain, except I had the WORST gas pains ever.... finally the nurse talked me into getting an epidural at around 11pm (i was only 3 cm). I said fine even though epidurals are supose to slow down your labor (and mine was non-existant) - I figured we were headed for a c-section. My OB agreed to up the pitosin again (we had already reached his "max") -- and I fell alseep for about 20 min -- got checked again - and I was 5cm!!! It went fast from there. The Jack was almost crowing by the time we got to the OR. (my poor OB had 15 deliveries that day -- and on embergancy c-section just as I was supose to go to the OR!) It took about 30 min of pushing to get him out (I was SOOOOO tired, I could only push for a 5 second count - -and I was SO bad at it!!) but I got the hang of it for Tom -- they spent about 5-6 min making sure he was head down and in a good position...and then it took almost no time at all to get him out! The epidual was great - didn't feel a thing! Only bad part was that after the delivery my uterus would not contract. Got a TON of pitiosin REALLY fast -- (made me throw up) - lost a good deal of blood (had to get a blood trasnfustion afterwords) - was a little scary - but it all turned out ok. Overall - great experiance!

 

I was walking around Walmart the day before I gave birth. I knew I was probably doing more than I should but I had a scheduled c-section 3 days later (which would make me 38 weeks pg) and since I felt good I thought what the heck. Well, that night and the next day I wasn't feeling too well. I felt like I was having a really bad IBS attack (irritable bowel syndrome). My father was on his way to visit me and when he got there I told him I didn't feel well. I didn't even think for a second that I was in labor but just that I was not feeling well. I called the doctor who said that I should just go in as a precaution and a couple of hours later my girls were born via unscheduled c-section (2 days before the regular scheduled one). I was only 1 cm dialated but 100% effaced so that was enough for them. Thank goodness cause I live an hour away from where the hospital was and the travel back and forth was a bit much.

 

I went into labor at 35 weeks and 6 days. My husband and I were going to have friends over for a New Year's Eve party and I woke up that morning having contractions. I was never dilated more than a fingertip whenever I went to the doctor for checkups, but had some pretty intense contractions on and off for a couple of days. I took a shower that day and tried to rest, but the contractions just kept getting worse. By about four that afternoon, they were 5 minutes or so apart and we call the doc and she had me head for the hospital. By the time we got there my contractions were about 3 minutes apart, but I still wasn't dilating. I had elected a c-section and so they took me back and that was that. Turns out that me electing the c-section probably saved my life and the girls. I wasn't dilating because I had massive amounts of scar tissue from cryosurgery that I had had a few years earlier to remove pre-cancerous spots off of my cervix. The scar tissue wasn't allowing me to dilate. If I had not elected to have the c-section, the doc said my cervix would have ruptured. The girls, however, were in great condition and every one of us went home a couple of days later.

We did have a New Year's Eve party, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting. We call them our party crashers!

 

I was having contractions since 32 weeks every 5 - 10 minutes but not strong enough to do anything (although uncomfortable) and the babies weren't in distress. I refused turbertaline so I basically suffered for two and a half weeks. At 34 weeks and 6 days, my oldest son was put to sleep for an MRI at 7 am. At that point, my contractions were every 5 minutes and strong. I knew today was going to be the day but I had too much to do. At 11 am they hospital ticked me off because they gave him the wrong anesthesia and he was miserable. I got into a argument with the receptionist at the hospital and I was like 'we are leaving because you're pissing me off and IM IN LABOR!' and I left. I went home and slept for 4 hours with DH. I was waking up often with powerful contractions.

at 5:30, I woke up. I visited with some out of town relatives for 15 minutes and said, 'Honey get the bags in the car- it's time'. We went in and sure enough I had gone from 1cm the day before to 4cm. The doctor on call was a doctor that I didn't like so I begged him to call the doctor at the practice I LOVED. Needless to say, no doctor wanted to deliver me because I was considered a 'difficult' patient (even though I just did my research and refused to just accept treatment that I didn't agree with etc) but they called the doctor who was wonderful and he came in on his night off. I got to the hospital at 6pm and was supposed to go into the OR at 8 but it took 9 sticks for them to get the IV in me. (It took 14 with my first son) So it went an extra hour. I was in the OR at 9pm. I was terrified of the spinal but it was NOTHING. No big deal at all. The boys were born at 9:25 (both of them) and it was a GREAT experience. I was nervous about the section but here I am 3 weeks later and I feel fantastic. No complaints on this birth! Goodluck!

 

My twins were easier than my singleton. I had a c-section scheduled for the beginning of April, and had just started my maternity leave in the end of March. The day before I delivered I was out running errands and playing with my 3yo. The day the girls were born was my DH's birthday! I woke up with cramps and they kept getting worse. I finally took a shower and called the Dr. She said to go on in. So I called my DH and asked him if he would like the girls to be born on his birthday, in a joking way. He said no, that woudn't be what he wanted. I told him I didn't think he had a choice, now come get me and take me to the hospital! I called my mom, who had taken my DS overnight (did she know something?) and left a message on the answering machine that I think I might be in labor, I didn't know, but it hurt and I was going to the hospital.

I was at 34 weeks and with my prior history of an abrupted placenta they didn't hesitate, once they confirmed that I was in labor and no drugs would stop it I had my c-section. I was up and walking around the next day. With my DS I had an emergency C and was asleep. (and almost died) So this was actually like a party, with DH in the room and both Drs and all the nurses.

Good luck!

 

My labor was a "textbook delivery" as my doctor said over and over again. It was so much easier than I thought it would be, I wouldn't change anything about it. My water broke at 4 pm and the girls were here by 1 am. I decided at the last minute (about 9 pm that night) to try for a vaginal delivery and I am so glad I did! I was up walking around right after they were born and I was off pain medication and feeling pretty much normal the next day. I didn't rip or have hemoroids or swelling or anything. Amelia came out after pushing a few times and then after Amelia was out I only had to push one more time for Lily. Also, I was worried that I wouldn't know how to push, but once the nurse told me what to do I was able to do it. I just closed my eyes and visualized pushing the baby out while I pushed and that worked. It was a textbook delivery, like my doctor said. Our bodies really are made for this, it was so much easier than I thought it would be. I'm so glad I didn't chicken out about the vaginal birth because I was scared to end up with one vaginal delivery and a C Section for baby b. It's not something I'm anxious to do again but just so much better than I imagined it would be!

 

Had a c-section . . . and loved it!
I can say that now of course because its over, but the day happened so fast that I didn't have time to be scared. As a first time mom, I didn't have any clue what to expect. Water broke near midnight 2 days before 32 weeks. Went to hospital 45 minutes away. Sent by ambulance to Hopkins (2 1/2 hours away). Contractions got progressively worse in the ambulance. Examined by several doctors, poked and prodded with needles, etc. Finally at 8 am, I was given a spinal block. Hallelujah is the only word to describe it! My butt was numb within seconds and I couldn't feel a thing except my legs felt heavy and warm. I felt all warm and comfy--little did I know that I was stark naked on the table. Pretty drowsy afterward, but I also hadn't slept at all that night. Had some discomfort for a few days, but drugs helped and it didn't get too bad. Good luck!!!

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I loved my pregnancy (and miss it!!)
I delivered at 38wks 4days by scheduled c-section!