Oh Lady, I don't want to scare you...but I was in labor almost 36 hours and my water broke first. I pushed for 4 1/2 hours because I was determined not to have a C section. He just did not want to come out!!!! LOL.
I started at a maternity center though and was in labor 27 hours before they would finally send me to a hospital because I knew something was wrong. They thought he was going to be a small baby from the exams. I kept telling them he had dropped and they said no he hadn't. I knew he had because I couldn't even sit down comfortably. He was also almost 2 weeks late. Turns out he weighed 9.4 pounds and was 23 and 3/4 inches long!!!! He wore 3 month old clothes coming out of the hospital and I had to take all of my newbie stuff back.
It was totally worth it though and if I had it to do over again I wouldn't hesitate, but I would've went to the hospital first. I was trying to have him naturally and was afraid of the epidural, which turned out to be a life saver.
You'll be fine, and you'll be so proud and it will be the most wonderful moment in your life.
Wow. Fun topic! I also gave birth to a baby much larger than expected. They told me he'd be 6-7lbs and in reality he was 9.3/22.5 inches.
I was induced. That's something I'll try to avoid in the future. My son was due around Christmas, so the doc wanted to get me in a couple of days before.
Because I was induced and progressing slowly, I couldn't get an epidural. They thought it would slow me down too much. The discomfort wasn't bad at all compared to what I had expected. I had wanted one, but after having my son, I probably won't even consider an epidural next time. After 12 hours of labor and 4 hours of pushing the had to vacuum extract him. Like Shell, I was determined NOT to have a c-section. Surgery scares me. LOL.
I do wish I'd been able to move around more. When you're induced they practically tie you to the bed and monitors at some hospitals. That was the worst part. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. One I hope to repeat sometime in the next year or two.
I think I did, but I didn't know it. Looking back I had several symptoms of pain, but just thought it was normal because it was all I knew. My accident at work brought mine out. I don't think it affected my delivery because at the time I didn't have the fatigue and like I said the pain I was used to. At that time the pain wasn't as bad as it is now.
I hope you have a good core of people to help you. That saying it takes a village to raise a child is right. My mom and dad and grandmother helped me tremendously. I had all of them till my son was 7 and then my dad passed away and the family scattered. Now we are back in the same area but it's never been the same. I stayed at home for the first two years and then went to work. Johnny became sick at that time so he became a stay at home dad while I worked. It worked out well for us overall.
I did not have FM before my children, but they are both interesting birth stories:
My first was about 24 hours of active labor, plus 3 hours of pushing! I had an epidural, but my ribs hurt so much from the effort and they kept giving me oxygen to keep Jake's heart rate up. They finally had to use the vacuum extractor to pull his sweet little body out. He was pretty average in size--8lbs., 17 inches. I also didn't find out his sex beforehand, so it was fun to have that surprise.
My daughter was induced because I had been having serious false labor (maybe false starts?) for two weeks. We only induced after the due date. But she was fast. 5 hours after inducing, she was out! This time, 3 pushes! PLUS, even though it was planned and induced, the doctor wasn't there! The nurse had to grab some poor visiting OB from the hallway. He wasn't even scrubbed in and introduced himself through my knees. It was weird. Then Natalie was purple and silent for about a minute, so that was scary. THEN they left some placenta behind so about three weeks later the original OBs (who are no longer my doctors!) had to go back in and extract it.
It was an interesting road...But no matter the hardship, we made it through! I have two beautiful children and I would have pushed through any pain for them. However, I highly recommend the epidural!
Michelle
Bee
Jennifer
Michelle
Michele