Birth story

Sorry for the delay, but I finally have some quiet time to sit down and write this story while I’m vacationing at my SIL’s with the kids (while hubby is away for business) and their teenage daughters are entertaining our toddler while the baby is asleep. (I hope it's coherent, I haven't reread it yet...)

After about three days of lots and lots of (sometimes painful) BH contractions and losing my mucous plug, things seemed to getting serious in the early morning of Monday, January 23rd. I first thought they were still BH contractions, as I mainly felt them in my lower abdomen, but they did come in more regular intervals and seemed to be getting stronger too. The previous days the contractions were mainly there when I was lying in bed and would subside when I would get up and/or take two Spasfon tablets. This time however they remained strong, even after changing position, taking Spasfon, and taking a warm bath. I had been up since 4 am and around 5:30 am we decided that this was the real thing, and moved into gear to get the toddler off to the neighbors and ourselves to the hospital about an hour later. We arrived at the hospital just before 7:30 am, just in time for a shift change. We were greeted by a midwife and student midwife who checked how far along I was: 3 cm dilated. Not that far, but we were allowed to stay and brought into a pre-L&D room, where I was put on monitoring for the first hour and then left to ourselves. After a total of two hours they did another cervical check: 5 cm dilated – off to the L&D room.

I had told the midwife that I wanted to see how things were progressing whether or not to ask for an epidural. With the birth of our first son I had taken an epidural after about 20 hrs of labor, when things were not progressing as they should and I was completely exhausted. The first dose had worn almost off by the time I was fully dilated, so I was able to feel everything (or so I thought, but more on that later…) when it was time to push, and I’d like to have that same experience this time.

I was very lucky that it wasn’t a busy day at all and the midwife came to check on me very regularly. The first part of labor I’d been sitting on a big exercise ball, with my hands on the bed and was handling the contractions pretty well up until about 6 cm when they changed in intensity. Just when I was thinking ‘next time the midwife comes in, I will probably ask for the epidural’, she came in, proposed a different position (on all fours on the bed, with a smaller exercise ball to lean on), which was wonderful, so we continued the natural way. I was still laboring at a pace of about 1 cm per hour, not very fast (and I was certainly not getting the 5-6 hr labor as everyone was saying is pretty common for a second baby), but steady. Every time things were getting tough the midwife proposed something else and helped me through it. As I was having quite some back contractions she had also put some acupuncture needles in my back (I’m not really sure if they did anything, and in the end she took them out because I was lying on my back and they were bothering me) and showed my husband the pressure points on my lower back, so he was helping a lot too.

When I was about 8-9 cm dilated the contractions became quite unbearable, but I was not going for the epidural anymore, I had such a good team around me, and was still feeling in pretty good shape, so we were set for an all-natural birth! However the end was really, really tough, I won’t lie. I felt a slight urge to push and told the midwife so. She told me I could push, but somehow I didn’t really dare to, so she wondered if I really felt the urge, that we could also wait a little, but I just couldn’t bear breathing the contractions away anymore, I just wanted this baby to come out! They told me to pull my legs towards me, but at that point I didn’t have much strength left and would have preferred if I could have put my feet up against something/someone. It took quite a few pushes before the head came out – the first few I didn’t have enough strength to make them last long enough. The midwife made me feel the top of the baby’s head as encouragement, but I was just one ball of pain. At one point (when the head was crowning) it hurt so much I was screaming like in the movies and asking the midwife what the hell she was doing when she replied: “I’m not doing anything, it’s the head that’s coming out”. They urged me to keep pushing to get the shoulders out as well, but I just needed to take a break and gather my strength to push again. Apparently the cord was around the baby’s neck – hubby told me later the midwife removed it in one swift motion. Encouraged by hubby and the two midwives I did manage that final push that got the shoulders and then the rest of the body out. The midwife handed me a bit of a limp and bluish baby that didn’t cry much, but once on my chest everything was perfect. It was Monday, January 23rd, 2:54 pm, our second son (3640 g and 53 cm) was safely in my arms after 11 hours of labor.

Despite the feeling that I didn't push as well as I could have, the midwife was very impressed with the way I did it and wanted to know where I'd taken my birthing preparation classes, because she said it didn't happen very often that a woman was able to push while breathing out (and not blocking my breath, like I'd done with baby #1, which was very effective, but as the preparation midwife had told me, especially for a second baby, not so good for your body - with a chance of pushing other organs too much down).

The placenta and membranes came out OK as well and after that they had to stitch two minor tears, which was a bit uncomfortable as I think she didn’t wait quite long enough for the local anesthetic to take effect.

After about two hours we were wheeled to our room in the maternity ward, where we stayed until Thursday morning (standard procedure in France). The first few nights were a bit rough, since he was constantly demanding to be fed and the colostrum didn’t seem to satisfy him, so we complemented two or three times with a little bit of formula. Once my milk came in this problem was over (not that he didn’t demand to be fed anymore) and in the first week he gained about 600 g and the second week another 500 g.

In the hospital

We’re adjusting pretty well to a life as a family of four. Our toddler is very sweet with the baby but also needs his fair share of attention, which he sometimes demands by throwing tantrums or being otherwise disobedient, which is all pretty normal I guess.

Brothers

And our lucky number is...

...8!

So yes, egg retrieval was today. We got up very early, woke up the little man at 6:10 am, dropped him off at the neighbors at 6:30 am and took the car to the clinic, where we arrived just before 7 am. Had to wait a little before a nurse brought us to my room, that I was sharing with another woman also there for an ER. Got paperwork sorted, changed into the hospital gown, said goodbye to hubby who was off to the lab, and then someone already came to wheel me to the OR.

The nurse told me Dr Speed (reference to IVF #1, see the blog archives) would do the procedure. This time that didn't make me more stressed, but brought a smile on my face - and when he walked in belting an enthusiastic "bonjour messieurs'dames" and "ah, c'est ma fiancée" I was instantly relaxed.

The nurse brought in the IV for the anesthetic. She first tried near my wrist, but that was so painful that she gave up and used the inside of my elbow instead. The anesthesiologist was the same as I'd had for the consult and he was very nice, so everything was good. The anesthetic hurt though! Must be different stuff than time, but it worked immediately, because I didn't even have a sensation that I was drifting away - felt the pain when he put it through the IV and then next thing I know I woke up in the recovery room (or was it still the OR, I don't remember). It took me a few seconds before I knew where I was, I first thought I had overslept and missed the ER!

I stayed for about 20 minutes in the recovery room, which looked more like a hallway and was also used for impromptu meetings by the nursing staff. A bit too much chatter for my foggy head I must say...

Then I was wheeled back to my room (it was 8:15 am by then), where I drifted in and out of sleep for about an hour, then I felt a bit better, and after an initial glass of water they also brought me some breakfast, which was appreciated. In the meantime my roommate had been brought back into the room as well and now we were both waiting for the embryologist to come tell us what the harvest score would be, and after that for the nurse to take out the IV needle and the anesthesiologist to sign the discharge papers.

The embryologist came by between noon and 1 pm. Result: 8 eggs retrieved. A bit disappointed, but no big surprise as the RE had said on Friday that there were 7 (this in contrast to my roommate, who was told on Saturday there were six follicles, only to hear today that 22 were retrieved! So she was quite shocked - have the feeling someone did not pay attention along the way, somehow I was glad when I found out she's with a different RE team than I am). I have to call the lab tomorrow to ask how many were fertilized and at what time I have to come in for the transfer on Thursday (so 2-day transfer this time instead of 3-day). So now we have everything crossed that out of the eight eggs we'll get at least one or two decent embryos that can be transferred back and grow into a healthy baby. Here's hoping...

Anesthesiologist came at 2:15 pm. By that time both my roommate and I were bored out of our heads. We were finally home about an hour later. Felt very tired and slightly crampy. Will make it an early night tonight.

The wait is over - our little man is here!

Our son was born on Monday, July 6 at 12:47 am, after 26+ hours of labor, weighing 3300 g (7 lbs 4 oz) and measuring 51 cm (20"). We're all doing great, and are now back home after three days in the hospital (standard in France).

I'll probably post a full birth report somewhere in the coming days and am also planning on starting a private blog with more personal info and updates on our little man. If/when I do so, I will of course let you know.

41w3d - 4th past-due-date consult

Yes, I'm still here and so is my big belly... which means we had to go to the hospital again this morning, for our DD+7 consult. Again, everything was fine. Little man was sleeping in the beginning and awake in the end, so his HR was somewhere between 130 and 150. My BP was back into its normal range: 115/63. No contractions registered to speak of, which is consistent with the last few days: the BH contractions don't really start until around lunchtime and get more frequent (but not more regular) in the evening.

More mucus plug / bloody show late yesterday afternoon and this morning, but other than that, no impending labor symptoms at all. The last consult is now scheduled for Sunday late afternoon - after that they'll either admit me directly and start induction by preparing the cervix early Monday morning with a prostaglandin gel, or if the cervix is ripe enough, I can go home again Sunday after the consult and come back on Monday morning to start the induction with oxytocin. Of course I still hope this won't be necessary after all and I'll go into labor on my own in the coming hours/days (the clock is ticking...)!

41w1d - 3rd past-due-date consult

So we went to the hospital again this afternoon for the DD+5 consult. They put me on the fetal heart monitor for almost 45 minutes - little man was awake and quite active, so his HR in a range between 130 and 170 bpm this time. The contraction monitor also showed more contractions than two days ago, although still mostly painless and irregular.

My BP was a little higher than before: 124/74. They also did a urine test, which came back fine. Cervix check showed basically the same as during the previous checks. I had hoped it would have maybe already changed a bit, since I lost the mucus plug this morning (yay! at least some development, although it is not a real indicator of impending labor).

The midwife told me that since I've passed the due date, I can no longer deliver in the 'pôle physiologique', as they want to monitor the baby constantly during labor, to make sure there won't be any complications or at least to catch them early. I really hope I go into labor on my own in the coming days, otherwise it'll be induction on Monday and I'd like to avoid that, because that also means that I can't do the first part at home and will be on the monitor (= restricted movement) quite soon.

Currently quite some BH contactions - rock hard belly most of the time, but all still rather painless. Next consult (DD+7 ) is scheduled for Friday morning...

40w6d - 2nd past-due-date consult

So, nothing happening yet... A few more BH contractions and lower back pains, but that's about it. We went for our second past-due-date consult (DD+3) this afternoon - again about 30 minutes on the HR monitor for the little one, who was mostly sleeping - his HR moved between 112 and 145, all fine. My BP was 110/60. The other monitor on my belly registered a few BH contractions, but not much. She asked if I wanted a cervical check or not - I said yes, not that I like them, but I wanted to know if something had changed. Well, no... she even said it was still quite long and also mentioned that as long as the contractions don't increase, it'll probably remains unchanged, which makes sense of course (so no, having eaten fresh pineapple this weekend did nothing...). Next check-up on Wednesday.

40w3d - due date

Yeah right... It might be my due date, but so far the baby has shown no intention of wanting to come out. No signs of impending labor at all.

So we went to the hospital today for the first 'post due date' check-up. Normally this takes place on DD+1, but since that's in the weekend, and the consults are only from Monday-Friday, we already had it today.

First 30 minutes monitoring the baby's heart rate (between 122 and 151, depending on whether he was asleep or awake) and my contractions (none to speak of). They also checked my BP: 113/67. Then cervix check: not much change from the 9-month check-up I had three weeks ago - about a finger dilated, shortened and soft. The baby's head is putting quite some pressure on it, as it's super low in my pelvis (but that was the same three weeks ago too).

After that it was on to another room for an u/s: still head down, back to the left, in perfect position to come out. Baby in fine condition. Placenta too, although a little bit calcified, but apparently that's normal at the end of a pregnancy. Still enough amniotic fluid everywhere. Baby's estimated weight: about 3 kg (6lbs 10oz).

So everything's ready for a smooth delivery. Now, where are those contractions?!?!?!

(If nothing happens this weekend, we'll have the next check-up on Monday afternoon.)

Call from the midwife

So the midwife from the hospital called regarding the 'pôle physiologique'. Everything is A-OK for me to have the delivery there. Basically it means once we arrive, the midwife will make sure to leave me as autonomous as possible. Monitoring in the beginning for 30 minutes, then 10 minutes every hour. No epidural, unless I change my mind and do want one, or unless something's not quite right with the baby and they need to intervene. I also mentioned my desire to deliver on my side and she said that in principle that's OK, but not all midwives have been trained in that, so it might happen that 'my' midwife doesn't feel comfortable with it and wants me to deliver on my back. In any case, she told me to clearly tell the midwife my wishes when we arrive, so she can also encourage me to go on when at one point I don't think I can do it anymore and am tempted to ask for an epidural. All sounds good. We'll see how it goes on the big day.

I also made an appointment for Monday afternoon for a pre-birth acupuncture session. My curiosity / hope that this will positively influence the labor and delivery process is bigger than my fear that the doc will screw up again with a 'double consult'.

38 weeks - in waiting mode

Exactly 38 weeks pregnant today. Not too much to tell, we're basically in waiting mode.
One very annoying thing though: the itch is back. Aarghhh! My own fault. I took a bath on Sunday night, to relieve some BH contractions - used calendula bath oil, which is supposedly for sensitive skin, but I remembered (stupidly only after taking the bath) that during the 'itchy period' it always seemed to make the itch worse, instead of better. And so yes, since Sunday night the horrible itch is back and making me miserable. I hope it won't last too long.

The OB called me yesterday to say that she had good news for me regarding the 'pôle physiologique': she had discussed it with the hospital team (so apparently my comments made her rethink what she had told me during Friday's check-up) and now a midwife will call me on Thursday to discuss things further. So I'm really happy about that, and I can then also already tell her I'd like to deliver the baby on my side (hubby told me I should have mentioned that to my OB today too, and of course he's right, but I somehow forgot...).

So this weekend I was like 'let the baby come', now I'm telling it to stick around for at least another week, so I can get this organized with the hospital before we come in for the delivery.

I'm also contemplating whether or not to go for a pre-birth acupuncture session. A few women talked about it at last week's prenatal yoga class and were very enthusiastic about it. I did have some acupucture sessions three years ago, regarding our infertility. Although the acupuncture itself was OK, I had a weird experience where one time he told me, after the acupuncture itself, to go into his office for a small consult and to wait behind the screen, on the exam table, until he returned from giving something to his assistant. So I did, but when he returned, he had forgotten about me and had brought another patient in, whom he then also directed behind the screen, where we said an awkward hello and the OB/acupuncturist quickly took the other patient away. He otherwise has a great reputation for acupuncture with pregnant women and everyone else whom I talk to is super enthusiastic about it. So...what to do?

37w check-up

Today - at 37w3d - was a day of two 'lasts' - my last birthing class and my (presumably - if I'm not going to go past my due date) last OB checkup.

The last birthing class was a sort of déjà vu of the first one - I was together with someone for whom it was her first class, so for me it was just a recap of some exercises, which wasn't bad. The previous session we had last week was really more of a last class: with husband, working on the pushing techniques. But hey, I have a right to eight paid classes, so I took them all! :-)

Last week I also got the midwife with whom I did the classes to prepare the early release form from the hospital for after the birth. Normally in France you stay in the hospital for at least four days, but of course nowadays they're also interested in freeing up the rooms/beds, so they have an option to leave earlier (after 2-3 days - if the doctor's are OK with it) with a follow-up at home from an independent midwife. So you need to have this form filled out with you at delivery and then if you indeed want to leave early, you hand it in, if you change you mind and want to stay the normal period, you can do that too.

My 9-month check-up with the OB was this afternoon at the hospital. Everything was fine and the OB was very content. I told her that she scared me a bit three weeks ago, for which she apologized, but then I said it was also good that she had done it, because it had forced me to take it easier and now I just felt a lot better - so we had a laugh about that.

The stats: +1 kg since last check-up (so +11 since pre-pregnancy), BP 110.5/60, fundal height perfect (didn't get the measurement), baby's HB 140 bpm, presentation perfect (head down, already pretty low, head 'stuck' into my pelvis), cervix short and 1 cm dilated, so my body is definitely starting to prepare for the big day.

She had to redo the Group B strep test because she had not received the results from the one she did three weeks ago and the hospital admin staff couldn't seem to find it either (weird...). She also prescribed some 5 mg folic acid tablets to take with my iron supplements - she had just had a meeting in which they had discussed anemia in pregnant women and that taking folic acid apparently helps to absorb the iron better.

We also had a small conversation about maybe going to deliver at the 'pôle physiologique' of the hospital - meaning a more alternative / less restrictive / less medicated protocol - but she advised me against it. - at the regular delivery room, you can also opt not to take an epidural, deliver on your side (which I would like, because it's so much more comfy than on my back - other positions not allowed in this hospital) if you have a cooperative midwife, use the exercise ball etc etc and apparently some midwives put you in a 'special cases' box if you want opt for the 'pôle physiologique', and treat you like some alternative nutcase... If it would have been my second or third child, and if I would have been in my own country (with own language), she would have said to maybe give it a try, but not now. Of course I could have insisted, but it's not that important to me - I just need to make sure that as soon as we arrive in the hospital I'll tell the midwife that I want to deliver on my side, and that if she doens't like that idea, she gets me a colleague who is OK with that (I assume there will be more than one midwife on call...) and voice any other things I feel strongly about.

Hospital labels and a possible infection

Well, this morning was the early pregnancy information session at the hospital. But first I had to get my labels printed. They had told me to come about 15 minutes before the session would start, but as I'm always (way too) early, I was there 30 minutes before. No line, so that was good. Before they could make the labels, they had to start a file in my name (so they apparently didn't do anything with the info I gave them the day I registered...?!) and then I got a nice sheet with 30 tiny labels which include a bar code, my name, my DOB and file number.

Apparently these labels are the entry ticket to anything that has to do with checkups, prenatal preparatory sessions, etc. within the OB department. At each appointment you have to give a label and then they charge it to the state-run insurance. So my first label was for the midwife who held the presentation... I must admit that the French health care system doesn't stop to amaze me and it's quite unbelievable sometimes that it in fact runs pretty smoothly.

On to the meeting room. At 9:45am about half the room was full. Then more people came in, some with, some without labels - apparently the line downstairs for printing the labels had become rather long. The midwife tried to start around 9:55am - even more people came in - there were not enough chairs. Attending husbands were asked to bring in more chairs. People kept coming in (you did not need to register for the session). At 10:15am a woman came in telling that there was still a whole group downstairs waiting for their labels. The midwife told her to go and get them so she could finally really start. Still, even after that people kept coming in (I think the last ones arrived around 11am). The room was way too full.

Apart from this, the session was quite informative, but I did wonder if I could not have gotten the same information in 10 minutes from a doctor, nurse or midwife affiliated with the hospital, instead of spending more than two hours in an overcrowded room...

I initially thought that after this session I would have the afternoon off so I could finally get some administrative and household stuff done. But this was not the case. As the burning sensation around my girlie parts (see two posts back) had not gone away yet, I decided I should call my OB, because just reading books and the internet only made me worry too much. Had to wait until after 2pm, because of course no-one here in France is reachable between 12 and 2, not to be disturbed while having their nice and lengthy lunches. Got hold of the secretary at 2.20pm, she put me through to the OB (replacement) who said she would need to see me and might have an opening today, so she transferred me back to the secretary: the 2.45pm appointment had just canceled, so, did I live far from their office...?

I took the appointment, found a city bike (free bike system), flew downhill, and was at the office at 2.42pm. Didn't have to wait more than two minutes. OB asked me what exactly my symptoms were, which is always a nice challenge to try to explain in French - I did look up some words in the dictionary before I called, but forgot the word for itch again, as it is so weird (demangeaison), but luckily she understood what I wanted to say.

So after the little chat, on to the stirrups. She couldn't detect any cut like my OB had seen last week, but said that she saw a lot of white thick discharge, so it must be a yeast infection. But to me that discharge looked just like the remains of the progesterone suppositories, which I told her, so now she wasn't sure anymore. But she said it looked a little reddish too and the itching was pretty bad after she removed the speculum, so she did give me a prescription for something against a yeast infection (a vaginal capsule I have to take tonight). Maybe it is actually caused by the fact that I've been putting in progesterone suppositories for 11 weeks now...? Luckily only five more days of that left.

She also ordered me to go to a lab to have my urine tested for infection, preferably today, so we would have the results before I leave for Holland this weekend. So once I was out the door, I called the lab to see if I could come still come by. Yes, but for I would need to wait 2 hours since last bathroom visit, so had to go there around 5pm.

So I went to the pharmacy first to get the prescription (including a cream to sooth the itching) and then went back home. Took a nap for about 40 minutes. Got up, got another city bike and rode to the lab (slightly uphill this time). Results will be back tomorrow afternoon. Pfff...

Registry date at the hospital

I had to go to the hospital this morning to register for the delivery date. Today was the first possible date to do this for due dates scheduled for the last two weeks of June. Both my OB and my neighbor had told me to go there as early as possible, because apparently all women want to deliver at this specific hospital (+ the birth rate in France is the highest in Europe), so it fills up pretty fast.

I arrived at the hospital around 9.15 am, already quite busy in the waiting room and it was too warm, so I got a nice coughing attack (and of course I had forgotten to bring water). After about 15 minutes it was my turn - as my OB is linked to the hospital, it was a pretty easy registration (but you wonder how they do it - because they first write down the info on some scrap piece of paper and then when you're gone they're going to enter it - you hope - into the computer system. Ah, the French...). I had registration number 4, so obviously I was well on-time. I had brought all kinds of paperwork (because my neighbor had told me I needed that), but didn't need any of it.

Next appointment is on December 17 - information session about pregnancy and delivery. Will have to get my 'labels' printed then as well, whatever that means...