Tuesday, September 2, 2008

La-La-Laborious, Laborious

Saw this at Beth and Becki's blog and thought I'd play along with this meme from Rocks in My Dryer:

How long were your labors?

Child #1-- about 34 hours of the hot place on wheels. Sorry, Mr. Bradley, but there is no such thing as a pain-free and drug-free labor.
Child #2-- 12 hours but we barely made it to the hospital. See here for the story.
Child #3-- 8 hours, and only because I wouldn't let her break my water and be done with it. I told my midwife I didn't want to have a baby that night--I needed some rest because I'd just had a houseful of guests over for dinner.

How did you know you were in labor?

I had the standard symptoms of crampy back and methodical contractions. All my labors started very slowly and I could continue with my normal life with only a small pause to contract. But once I got going, watch out! Once my water broke I was pretty much done. My first child was born in 3 pushes, the second in 2, and the third was barely a grunt. These hips were made for labor!


Where did you deliver?

Three different hospitals. I'm also not a home-birther; after all that work I figured I'd let someone else clean up the mess and make me some dinner.


Drugs?

Child #1--Epidural with Pitocin after about 24 hours of labor. I got the drugs and went to sleep until they woke me up to push. I can honestly say I didn't feel a thing, but then again, I didn't feel a thing for about 4 hours after the delivery, either.

Child #2--nope

Child #3--nope

C-section? no


Who delivered?

Child #1--doctor, and I swore never again
Child #2--the most wonderful midwife in the world
Child #3--same terrific midwife

2 comments:

Monica said...

I love birth stories. I had all my babies drug free (okay all but the three that were c-sections). I'm so glad I did for the mere fact that pain has a whole perspective of its own for me. Like when I nearly cut off my finger cutting a tomato it really does hurt, but not nearly like labor. So I just put a bandaid on it and move on with life. Know what I mean?

Anonymous said...

My mother took Labor Day seriously...I was born early in the morning on September 8. Labor Day was late that year.
The Mom