Hello fellow expecting mamas,
If you’re like me you’re probably searching the web for all the information regarding labor and delivery. I had the longest labor with an epidural for my first (birth story here), an early and natural birth with my daughter (birth story here) and this last time I was induced. It has taken me over a year to write this out but I had plenty of notes saved 🙏 Just to give you a sneak peak it was worth it 😍💕
I had all the signs leading up to my due date and it was driving me crazy. I know so many look up what signs you have before labor but they got me nowhere. Still want to share them for the record because with my other two it was within a couple days but this little guy not so much.
I was due April 25th and these were the early labor signs that never turned into anything (may be a little TMI):
Skip ahead to the delivery story below if you get queasy easily.
- 4/8 (Sunday)Lost yellowish mucus plug. Slight cramping but not at first. Walked that evening and nothing.
- Monday night one or two painful contractions thought baby was stretching but took my breath away.
- Tuesday few mild cramps and contractions in the early afternoon. Baby has been hanging out on right side.
- 4/13 (38weeks+2days) Cramping that night and couple of contractions
- 4/14 woke up feeling like I ate something my stomach didn’t agree with. Felt like loose stools were coming but nothing yet. Had one case of the runs and contractions that were 4-6min apart for 2hrs fell asleep and nothing.
- 38+4 woke up with same feeling like I ate something but loose stools and no runs.
- 38+5 No more upset stomach lost more of yellowish mucus plug in afternoon 1pm.Really tired even after sleeping almost 9hrs. Felt urge to pee only did a little and lost more of plug 4pm. Lost a little more at 7pm with mild cramping the last hour or so
- 38+6 woke up with cramping/contractions at 3:30. More intense on right or left side when laying down. Peed at 5am lost another huge chunk of mucus plug. Largest piece so far. 6am slight blood tinge in mucus plug. Still lost plug throughout the day.Soft stool around 8pm. Much looser stool around 10:30pm felt like it would be the runs again but wasn’t.
Now back to what lead to my delivery:
At 39 weeks I had my doctors appointment (Wednesday). In all the appointments leading up to my due date he was just floating and not engaged. Which surprised me with all the early labor signs. I was starting to stress because my husband was in school and we didn’t have family around to help with our older two. We had two friends set up to watch one of each with kids similar in age. We also had a set of friends willing to come over at night. My doctor (whole reason I was comfortable being induced) said we could continue to wait it out or she could induce me over the weekend since she was working. They don’t usually schedule you on a Saturday but my doctor wanted to make sure she was there. After spending a considerable amount of time discussing it she scheduled me for a version April 21st (Saturday). She said as long as he was engaged we would start inducing labor. At this point I was dilated 2cm.
We arrived Saturday, as scheduled, and started pitocin at 10:30am. I was a 3 and 60 effaced. I didn’t end up needing the version. It didn’t start to hurt till around 3pm even though they gradually increased the amount of pitocin I was getting.
My doctor guessed the babies weight at 8lbs 6oz but after breaking my water at 4pm she was second guessing it. It was a TON of fluid. It was all over the bed, as I was walking to the bathroom, and in the bathroom. It’s no wonder he was floating 😅
After my water broke I knew the harder contractions were coming and decided to get an epidural. With my son I stopped progressing from the pain and my daughter came so fast I didn’t need it. It took a while this time for the epidural to kick in. It wasn’t shifting to my right side at all, at first, but after an hour or so it did. Felt longer maybe it was shorter (my notes aren’t clear, sorry!)
By 5pm I was still only a 4 and 70 effaced.
By 6:40pm our baby moved from the right to left side(hooray!). My pitocin went from 12 around 3pm to 3 at around 6pm. Although my body was starting to take over (hence the lower pitocin level) they still had to put me on oxygen around 6pm. I was starting to worry and my doctor kept coming in but finally had my bloody show around 6:30pm.
They eventually took me off both oxygen and pitocin right before delivering. I was facing the back of my bed kneeling with my arms hanging over the top (it was in the seated position) to help get him into position. She had me like this with a super encouraging nurse until it was finally time to deliver.
You can’t feel much of anything with an epidural so I can’t tell you how quickly he came out. I only had a 1st degree tear though which is amazing when he was our biggest baby.
He was born at 8:36pm and was 8lbs 10oz. Our other two were both around 7.5lbs.
I was ecstatic and completely shocked at his size! My husband stayed the night with me and brought the kids the next day.
They had me staying one more night, Sunday, but my husband went home with the kids. That night I kept waking up with chills and/or a fever. When this continued Monday morning my doctor was worried we would need to run some tests, meds or fluids just incase it was an infection. A nurse came in just before and said she thought it was my milk coming in and being fought off as an infection since I was formula feeding. My doctor considered the idea and had a pump brought in. I didn’t pump a ton but gave him the little I did and it fixed the problem. I went home the next day!
Note to any moms planning to formula feed: you might need to pump the first couple weeks!
I pumped 8ml Monday. Tuesday got a hand pump and did 10ml and Wednesday was the most painful. I pumped twice and did 10ml then 30ml. Thursday I only did 10ml in the morning. I weaned slowly after that and stopped giving it to him because he was so fussy still afterwards.
It’s a personal decision deciding how much and how long you want to do it. I was lucky and had a few awesome followers in the same boat so we checked in with each other. Find that support group though because it’s hard! It was painful some days but I still soaked up all the newborn snuggles I possibly could. The newborn stage is my favorite.
Formula feeding note, my nurse shared the following:
Minimum of 60ml by 10 days
Start at 25ml and up by 5ml till a week and go up by 10ml until 10days. By 2nd week 10-15ml and 3rd week 15-20ml.
I was not perfect at regulating and figuring it all out. He seemed to drink more sooner but managed to do okay.
Hope all this information helped someone! Induction is a hard choice and the main reason I did it was because I trusted my doctor and had two successful vaginal births before him. It’s not something to take lightly when it’s not medically necessary so make sure you know all your options and risks.
Happy labor and delivery,
Marks of Motherhood 