I figured I’d write my birth story since I spent months reading all of yours!

January 4th I was 39 weeks and was called by the hospital to come in that evening for induction, id had pregnancy induced hypertension the last month of my pregnancy. We got there around 5 pm, I was hooked up to the monitors and it was already showing I had consistent contraction every five minutes but I wasn’t really feeling them, I was having mild cramping and back pain. Doctor comes in around 6pm to assess my cervix and determine how to proceed with induction. I was already dilated 3-4 cm so instead of inducing the doctor just broke my water. After that contractions started hard almost immediately. Coming on top of each other and the pain never really subsided. I was having wicked back labor that extended into my butt and had the worst pain in my tail bone felt like my spine was being ripped out of my butt lol. I laboured like this until about 10 pm and then got my epidural which was amazing I didn’t even feel the epidural and it worked almost immediately all i felt was pressure in my tailbone. After that I was feeling great had a few popsicles and napped lol. Right after I got the epidural they checked me I was 7 cm dilated. Around 2 am the nurse woke me up to check me I was 10 cm and ready to go but baby was high still so she said we could start pushing to bring baby down. I couldn’t really feel contractions so epidural was turned off and I still couldn’t feel contractions really just severe pain and pressure in my back and tail bone it was unreal. For me pushing was the most intense part by far, it felt never ending. Turns out baby was posterior and face up so that contributed to my difficult time with pushing and back pain. At 408 am my daughter Stella was born weighing 7lbs 5oz 193/4 inches long. I had no tearing or anything but baby aspirated on the way out due to her being stuck for a bit and was in NICU for 11 days. One day on CPAP 8 days being weaned off IV and tube feeds until she was taking full feeds on her own and then 2 days rooming in with me to make sure she continued to eat and gain weight appropriately.

Right after delivery when they brought her to NICU they were having trouble delivering my placenta it was actually very painful he had his arm all the way up there trying to remove it but it broke off and I needed to go to there OR for manual extraction. I’m not going to lie delivering the placenta was awful and painful but I definitely don’t think my experience was the norm.

My recovery has been pretty good, I had pretty bad tailbone pain for a while had trouble sitting and standing for a while and I had no abdominal strength and developed a hernia which has since resolved itself. I started feeling better at a week postpartum started getting my strength back and now 8 weeks postpartum I feel great, I’m still bleeding at 8 weeks pp but it’s tapering off now so the end is in sight! I have some slight pelvic floor discomfort once in a while but I’ve been doing kegals and that’s helped.

Right after labor I was like fuck no I will never have a baby again I was so traumatized by the pain and Stella ending up in the nicu and me needing to go to the OR after but now I can’t stop thinking about having another baby lol.

Also one thing I’d thought I’d share is I had very bad shaking towards the end of labor and while delivering and it lasted for hours after birth. It was like intense shivering they gave me medication to control it but apparently it’s common it’s hormones leaving the body and adrenaline and all that. So just a heads up lol. And peeing is probably worse then pooping after the baby. It burns a little doc said I had small superficial abrasion so using the peri bottle was very helpful. Also something else I didn’t expect was I hadn’t really had any swelling while pregnancy very minor swelling in my hands but the first few days after my ankles were gigantic. It apparently is just your body getting rid of all that excess fluid and it helps to stay hydrated and keep your feet up if you can. I think my swelling was so noticeable because I spent 16 hours a day sitting in a chair with my legs down in the NICU.

Anyways if you have any questions about the postpartum period or my labor experiences feel free to ask!

This is Stella the day she was born

And this is her now! 8 weeks old!