Riley Oliver Neagle
December 16th at 12:59pm
6lbs 8 ounces
18-3/4" long
Birth story:
December 15th at 1900, I was just finishing dinner, sitting on the couch, when I felt a little teensie gush. I thought for a minute, and went to the bathroom. I've heard of people peeing their pants later on in pregnancy. I went to the bathroom, and as I was washing my hands, I felt more fluid leaking out. I yelled to Jamaal: "I think my water just broke." He was a little flustered and didn't really believe me at first. I was a bit flustered as well, and couldn't remember what we were supposed to do. Jamaal told me to call, so I did.
The midwife called back rather quickly. She took some history, looked up my Group B Strep results (I was negative) and told me I could go in whenever I wanted. My mom's first labor started very similarly: her water broke first, then she had some contractions, and in 3 hours she gave birth to my brother. I was nervous that that might happen to me, and I didn't want my son to be born in a moving vehicle. So, after showering and finishing up packing a few things, we left for the hospital. My mom and his mom and brother met us there.
At 2145, I was checked for the very first time and was 2-3cm and 50% effaced. My contractions were just starting, and were maybe as bad as menstrual cramping. They barely hurt. They put me on and off the monitors to check his heart rate and my contractions, in between being on the monitor I would get up and walk around my room. And bounced on a birthing ball. Meanwhile getting grossed out at how much fluid was leaking out of me. Eventually one of the nurses gave me one of the ginormous pads for after the birth, which helped me to not have to change my pad every hour or two. (The ginormous pads might as well be called Attends. I swear, I didn't know they made pads that big.)
My contractions didn't really go anywhere, so the midwife ordered me to take Cytotek (a pill) to help my cervix to dilate and my contractions to start. They gave me a half of a dose, as I was hoping to go pretty naturally. Shortly after I took that, I got tired (it was 3 am at this point), and went to sleep. Elf was just starting when I went to sleep and it just ending when I woke up, so I slept for about 2 hours.
Unfortunately, I was in a "triage room" and only had one bed in the room. That left Jamaal, and our Moms (his brother left just after midnight) without sleep. Jamaal slumped forward in a chair and got a little bit of sleep, but it was not very good rest. After 0700 our day nurse brought in a mat for him, which he only got to use for about 1-2 hours. I don't know why the night nurse didn't bring one in for us....I'm hoping it is because there weren't any available.
At 0700, our moms left to the cafeteria to eat and relax. It was right after they left, that I noticed my contractions were getting a lot worse. I was having a hard time relaxing, I found myself writhing in the bed, trying to get comfortable. By 0915, I had decided to get an epidural. I realized that I was panicking: if it hurts this bad now, how will it be in an hour? How will it be during the birth? I hadn't really complained at all about my contractions: they could tell in my face when I was having one, but I wasn't making much noise with them. After I went to the bathroom, and realized how uncomfortable I was, I went to my bed, and called my nurse. I told her I wanted to be checked to see if it was too late for an epidural. She asked if there was a certain point that if I made it that far, I would just keep going (that way she could encourage me one way or another). I wanted the epidural no matter what. I was 6cm dilated at that point.
The anesthesiologist was in the room within 5 minutes. It was at this point that my day nurse went on break to pump, and an older nurse came in to cover for her. It seems that she doesn't do patient care as much as she used to, or she is just kind of a flighty lady. Or perhaps both. The RN offered to put in my IV, but he wanted to get stuff moving along. (And I think he knew that if he let her start the IV, he would be waiting around for much longer than if he started it himself.) He had kind of a "time is money" attitude, whereas she had a much more relaxed way of thinking. She was making his job much harder than it had to be. Because of the contractions, I didn't really feel the IV get put in. He did a good job. Even though he seemed a bit rushed, he was really a nice guy, and I could tell that he was good at what he did. He sort of looked like House, but didn't have the attitude.
Once the IV was in, he had me dangle over the edge of the bed. I was really nervous about this part, which took way longer than I thought it would. Even though I know I was having contractions, I was so focused on what was going on behind me, that I didn't really care about them. It was very uncomfortable getting the epidural, at one point it felt like he was plucking strings on my back that were somehow connected to my spinal cord.
Once the epidural was in, things seemed to move really quickly. I got a new nurse (my third), since I was now laboring and needed a labor nurse. They didn't have a labor room available, so I stayed in the triage room to deliver. The only thing they needed to get to make it ready for delivery was a baby warmer. (Once they found an unused warmer and brought it to my room, another nurse tried to come and take it thinking a triage patient would not need to have a warmer. When she asked if she could take it about 5 people yelled "No! We need that!")
They left me on the monitors since I couldn't get up anyway, and his heart rate kept going down with contractions. At first the nurse just said it was normal decelerations associated with his head getting compressed with the contractions. But after a while his heart rate would decelerate (go down) and take a while to come back up, which concerned my nurses. They tried changing my position, (something I remember my maternity instructor calling "rotisserie labor,") but this only worked for a little bit. After the first big position change, I met my 4th and 5th nurse. This was at 1100. (The reason I got two nurses is that one of them was relatively new to nursing and worked at Enumclaw hospital (which only has like 4 beds total for labor and delivery) so she was at St. Joe's to get more experience with labor and delivery. At Enumclaw she might have one delivery during a shift, maybe. At St. Joe's they have several deliveries every day. She was nice. But because I was worried about things, I wasn't up to chit chat much, and she was trying to get me to talk. I was very worried that I was going to have to have a cesarean, and even more worried that there was something wrong with my baby.
Eventually the new nurse decided to try holding the heartbeat monitor a little tighter, and see if that helped keep his heart rate up, and it did! So all that worrying really was just the monitor not picking up his heart beat. Really once the epidural was started things seemed to really pick up. I don't remember it being very long before I was pushing, but I do know that it was over 3 hours before he was born after the epidural was started.
Just after noon, it was time to start pushing. My epidural had worn off just enough that I had good use of my legs, but couldn't feel much in my abdomen or pelvis. They kept telling me that I was a really good pusher, but it was really hard for me to tell if I was pushing or not. I ended up pushing for 40 minutes. I was getting cheered on, but near the end I kept thinking to myself that they were lying to me. They got out a mirror to give me some inspiration, but it really didn't help me much. It just made me more of a non-believer, because it didn't look like he was moving very much to me. ;) It was a lot easier for me to have my eyes closed during the pushing, though so I didn't really look in the mirror very much.
We (my mom, MIL and nurses) had talked about how it felt to finally get the head and body out, and really there is no relief quite like it. Emotions aside, it really was quite a relief to get to that point. I am SO thankful for a successful vaginal delivery. :D
I found out after he was born, that he was in a very difficult position to push out. Had he been much bigger, or had I not opted for the epidural, I probably would have had a cesarean.
Riley was placed on my chest right after delivery, and we stared at each other for quite some time before he was taken to be weighed and measured. We did not nurse right away, which goes against everything I read about (and was told) prior to delivery. Since I had gestational diabetes, he was at high risk of having a low blood sugar, and early and frequent nursing helps to prevent this. I was too nervous to try to do it myself, and no one helped to get him to latch on. I'm not too upset by this, and didn't really think about it much at the time, only now, as I'm writing this did I think much about it. He barely cried, and did a lot of grunting. He is still about the same, he makes a lot of noise, but doesn't cry too much.
Food never tasted so good as that first meal after delivery. I had a grilled cheese and fries, fruit and strawberry ice cream. Mostly carbs of course. I didn't eat it all, but it was scrumptious.
Everything else went pretty smoothly. His blood sugars and temperatures were normal. He passed his hearing screening (after having to recheck his right ear). And he successfully peed and pooped within 24 hours of being born.
Nursing has been natural for us. It is exhausting, which is my only complaint. I have had moments of despair when I think how much easier it would be to formula feed, and how much more sleep I might have if I could pass off a feeding or two to someone else. These thoughts are even stronger those nights that he wants to feed every hour and a half. Sometimes he feeds for as long as 45 minutes and still might want to feed again in 45 minutes. I am able to fall asleep rather quickly, but 45 minutes of sleep isn't enough for me to feel rested. My midwife told me that I need to get 8 hours of sleep, especially when it is in short bursts like it has been. I was fine for the first couple weeks, but earlier this week, when he started fussing after only 30 minutes, I started crying. I moved into the living room and nursed him in the recliner chair and slept with him on my chest. This seems to help me get more rest, but I am concerned that he might get spoiled and want to sleep only when held.
I will post some more later, right now I have a fussy baby with an open mouth waiting for my services. I mostly just wanted to get this written out. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. ;)
The anesthesiologist was in the room within 5 minutes. It was at this point that my day nurse went on break to pump, and an older nurse came in to cover for her. It seems that she doesn't do patient care as much as she used to, or she is just kind of a flighty lady. Or perhaps both. The RN offered to put in my IV, but he wanted to get stuff moving along. (And I think he knew that if he let her start the IV, he would be waiting around for much longer than if he started it himself.) He had kind of a "time is money" attitude, whereas she had a much more relaxed way of thinking. She was making his job much harder than it had to be. Because of the contractions, I didn't really feel the IV get put in. He did a good job. Even though he seemed a bit rushed, he was really a nice guy, and I could tell that he was good at what he did. He sort of looked like House, but didn't have the attitude.
Once the IV was in, he had me dangle over the edge of the bed. I was really nervous about this part, which took way longer than I thought it would. Even though I know I was having contractions, I was so focused on what was going on behind me, that I didn't really care about them. It was very uncomfortable getting the epidural, at one point it felt like he was plucking strings on my back that were somehow connected to my spinal cord.
Once the epidural was in, things seemed to move really quickly. I got a new nurse (my third), since I was now laboring and needed a labor nurse. They didn't have a labor room available, so I stayed in the triage room to deliver. The only thing they needed to get to make it ready for delivery was a baby warmer. (Once they found an unused warmer and brought it to my room, another nurse tried to come and take it thinking a triage patient would not need to have a warmer. When she asked if she could take it about 5 people yelled "No! We need that!")
They left me on the monitors since I couldn't get up anyway, and his heart rate kept going down with contractions. At first the nurse just said it was normal decelerations associated with his head getting compressed with the contractions. But after a while his heart rate would decelerate (go down) and take a while to come back up, which concerned my nurses. They tried changing my position, (something I remember my maternity instructor calling "rotisserie labor,") but this only worked for a little bit. After the first big position change, I met my 4th and 5th nurse. This was at 1100. (The reason I got two nurses is that one of them was relatively new to nursing and worked at Enumclaw hospital (which only has like 4 beds total for labor and delivery) so she was at St. Joe's to get more experience with labor and delivery. At Enumclaw she might have one delivery during a shift, maybe. At St. Joe's they have several deliveries every day. She was nice. But because I was worried about things, I wasn't up to chit chat much, and she was trying to get me to talk. I was very worried that I was going to have to have a cesarean, and even more worried that there was something wrong with my baby.
Eventually the new nurse decided to try holding the heartbeat monitor a little tighter, and see if that helped keep his heart rate up, and it did! So all that worrying really was just the monitor not picking up his heart beat. Really once the epidural was started things seemed to really pick up. I don't remember it being very long before I was pushing, but I do know that it was over 3 hours before he was born after the epidural was started.
Just after noon, it was time to start pushing. My epidural had worn off just enough that I had good use of my legs, but couldn't feel much in my abdomen or pelvis. They kept telling me that I was a really good pusher, but it was really hard for me to tell if I was pushing or not. I ended up pushing for 40 minutes. I was getting cheered on, but near the end I kept thinking to myself that they were lying to me. They got out a mirror to give me some inspiration, but it really didn't help me much. It just made me more of a non-believer, because it didn't look like he was moving very much to me. ;) It was a lot easier for me to have my eyes closed during the pushing, though so I didn't really look in the mirror very much.
We (my mom, MIL and nurses) had talked about how it felt to finally get the head and body out, and really there is no relief quite like it. Emotions aside, it really was quite a relief to get to that point. I am SO thankful for a successful vaginal delivery. :D
I found out after he was born, that he was in a very difficult position to push out. Had he been much bigger, or had I not opted for the epidural, I probably would have had a cesarean.
Riley was placed on my chest right after delivery, and we stared at each other for quite some time before he was taken to be weighed and measured. We did not nurse right away, which goes against everything I read about (and was told) prior to delivery. Since I had gestational diabetes, he was at high risk of having a low blood sugar, and early and frequent nursing helps to prevent this. I was too nervous to try to do it myself, and no one helped to get him to latch on. I'm not too upset by this, and didn't really think about it much at the time, only now, as I'm writing this did I think much about it. He barely cried, and did a lot of grunting. He is still about the same, he makes a lot of noise, but doesn't cry too much.
Food never tasted so good as that first meal after delivery. I had a grilled cheese and fries, fruit and strawberry ice cream. Mostly carbs of course. I didn't eat it all, but it was scrumptious.
Everything else went pretty smoothly. His blood sugars and temperatures were normal. He passed his hearing screening (after having to recheck his right ear). And he successfully peed and pooped within 24 hours of being born.
Nursing has been natural for us. It is exhausting, which is my only complaint. I have had moments of despair when I think how much easier it would be to formula feed, and how much more sleep I might have if I could pass off a feeding or two to someone else. These thoughts are even stronger those nights that he wants to feed every hour and a half. Sometimes he feeds for as long as 45 minutes and still might want to feed again in 45 minutes. I am able to fall asleep rather quickly, but 45 minutes of sleep isn't enough for me to feel rested. My midwife told me that I need to get 8 hours of sleep, especially when it is in short bursts like it has been. I was fine for the first couple weeks, but earlier this week, when he started fussing after only 30 minutes, I started crying. I moved into the living room and nursed him in the recliner chair and slept with him on my chest. This seems to help me get more rest, but I am concerned that he might get spoiled and want to sleep only when held.
I will post some more later, right now I have a fussy baby with an open mouth waiting for my services. I mostly just wanted to get this written out. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. ;)
Yay i'm so glad you posted this!!!Ever since Riley was born i've been checking your blog hoping you would write out the whole story! I'm sooooo happy for you Aubri, I'm just so excited you're a mommy =)! Love you!!!
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