Baby Lo Down

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

My Birth Story - a letter

I wrote this to a friend right before she had her baby 12 days after Maddie. Instead of re-writing my birth story, I thought it'd be easier to just copy and paste my email to her :) it's very long.. so be forewarned..

Hi A!!

Thank you!! Just got the chance to email you back!

How are you doing?? Any day now right?! I can't believe I was 2 weeks early!

The experience wasn't toooo bad.. I worked really late on Thursday (my last day) and then after Kev and I went to Denny's. I had a glass of milk with my food.. and Friday I had diarrhea allll day which I thought was because of the milk I drank the night before. It was the type of diarrhea when you do a detox or something.. watery, and very loose stools.. like the body trying to cleanse itself (which apparently is what my body was doing to prepare for labor). Then around midnight, my stomach still wasn't feeling well so I went to sleep and throughout the night I had cramps and I thought it was just from a bad stomach. At around 4-4:30am I woke up and realized that it was feeling more like contractions because it was coming in at intervals, but I wasn't sure and woke Kevin up. We just started getting everything ready by the door in case and then when we were sure it was contractions, I timed myself from around 5:30 to 7am and the contractions started coming in every 5 minutes. During that time, I showered/washed my hair (especially since I'm doing the Chinese month thing where you're not supposed to shower/wash hair for the whole month!!!), curled my hair (haha), and finished getting all the last minute stuff ready.. I let Kev sleep during this time since I knew he would be up for a while and then at 7am, he got up to shower and finish packing his bag. I didn't want to get to the hospital TOO early, so I tried to work through the contractions at home for another hour or so until I was ready to go. We got to the hospital at 9:30am.

Once we got to the hospital, I was admitted and put in the observation room. They monitored me for about half an hour and confirmed my contractions were coming in every 5 minutes and I was 1.5cm dilated. They paged my doctor and my doctor told me to stay so they moved me to labor and delivery room around 10:30am. We started calling family to let them know we were at the hospital and then, it was pretty much a painful waiting game hahaha.. I was able to move around and try different positions for about half an hour-45 min, then the nurse gave me Pitocin to augment the labor/contraction process which meant I had to stay in bed after that. The contractions really started coming in strong by 12:30pm at 2 min intervals and I couldn't take it anymore so I requested for epidural. I was worried the epidural would slow down the dilation process, but the nurse said that in her experience, epidural helps to accelerate the process and dilate faster. The anesthesiologist came close to 2pm and gave me the epidural.

After the epidural, it was SO MUCH BETTER!! My water broke at 3pm naturally and then, I started to feel some pain from the contractions again around 4pm, so the anesthesiologist came back in to give me another boost in the epidural. You get pretty numb from the waist down with the epidural and your legs are really heavy and tingly numb, so my mom was using the massage roller on my legs just to get some circulation because I wanted to still be able to feel my legs during labor. About half hour after the epidural, they also put in a urinary catheter since you can't get up to use the restroom. At 4:30pm, the nurse checked me and said I was at 5cm. Our nurse was this Taiwanese lady named Joanna and she was super nice and chatting with all of my family. When she checked, she said she would help me open up faster down there o_0 (not sure what she did because I was numb down there from epidural, but apparently it did help haha). At 5pm, my doctor came and wanted to check me, but I said Joanna had just checked. Since my water broke already, Dr. Yu didn't want to check again, but was bummed because she had told Joanna to wait for her to come in to check me. I heard her asking Joanna outside why she didn't wait and then 5 minutes later, Dr. Yu came back in and said Joanna said the head was really low and she should check me again. Dr. Yu checked and I was at 9cm so all the nurses came and started preparing for labor. Joanna said her shift was ending at 7pm and was joking to Dr. Yu to make sure the baby comes out before her shift ends. Labor officially started about 6pm when I started needing to push... and at 6:26pm after some seriously tiring pushing, baby Madison was born!!! :)

MAN! It is crazy re-living that right now!! I don't think I've wrote down everything that happened since the labor.. I'm going to have to save this email so I remember. hahaha..

A few other things about the delivery.. I did end up getting an episiotomy. Dr. said she wouldn't unless necessary, and when baby was crowning, there was a lot of pressure so instead of it tearing, she made a couple cuts and I got stitches. I couldn't really feel a thing with the epidural and in between pushing. A lot of times, I felt pressure down there, but I was so focused on pushing REALLY REALLY HARD, that I didn't even think about what else was going on down there. When you push, you just have to use all your might and then push even more than that. Relax your bottom and really crunch in with your back like you're doing an ab crunch. Kev was helping me push up from my back and supporting my neck while my mom and nurse were on either side helping me push my legs back. I also used my hands to pull back my own thighs and pulled so hard that even now, my biceps feels like it went through an intense workout. My mom was pushing my left leg and she was so nervous (she didn't even want to look at the baby coming out when the dr. told her to look hahaha).. Even in between the contractions when you're supposed to relax everything to get ready for the next push, she was still pushing my left leg back.. I was like.. "Mom, you can stop pushing my leg now.." haha..

Okay, I think that is all for now. back to my life in 2-3 hour increments of feeding, changing, and sleeping! It is amazing though! I thought we would be dead exhausted (which I'm sure we are), but we LOVE it! Kev has been so helpful throughout the night. He does most of the diaper changing and everything in between my feedings. It'll be crazy when he goes back to work next week, but I'm at my mom's for the month so I have help. I was going to stay at the postnatal place, but I was 2 weeks early and they didn't have my room ready plus they were going through some audit/investigation thing which meant there was a possibility everyone staying there would have to vacate.. so I just decided to stay at my mom's.

GOOD LUCK!! and I'm praying for a smooth and fast delivery for you! :) I know you'll be amazing, D will be right there cheering you on and baby C will be one precious baby!

Love,

mags

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Preparing for Breastfeeding

July 18 - 4 days breastfeeding & counting (a letter to a friend to prepare her for breastfeeding!)

I wanted to let you know a few things to prepare that I wish I knew to do, especially with breastfeeding if you plan to do it.

My nipples were so unprepared for breastfeeding, which I'm sure is normal. Madison latches on really well, but she sucks REALLY HARD and my nipples are still sore and raw because they are not used to it yet.

I learned from breastfeeding class about using black tea bags and also read here (http://voices.yahoo.com/best-breastfeeding-tip-ever-using-teabags-3517397.html) to relieve nipple soreness. Since our nipples are always covered up and not used to abrasive environments, I would start to use the teabags now before birth to toughen them up for breastfeeding. Another thing I read is to use your hair dryer on low setting and blow on the nipples for a short period of time.

I was using the Mother Love nipple cream which is organic olive oil based, but it wasn't helping a whole lot. I was at the pediatrician's office today and also visited with the lactation nurse who said to use pure lanolin instead. I was trying to go organic, but I went straight to Burlington Coat Factory after the office visit and bought the Medela Lanolin cream and it has helped just from earlier today. It is a lot thicker and keeps the nipples moist so it doesn't dry out. You should use it after every feeding and just leave it on so if your nipple is a little raw, it won't scab over and get hard which is more painful. The lactation nurse also said to not use water on the nipples because it will dry it out. She said just keep putting on the lanolin and leave it on.

Air out your breasts if possible too just so they aren't always covered up. You can use hot compress on the breast to get the milk flowing, but avoid the nipples and don't leave on the hot compress for more than 3 minutes. Ice compress is also really great when you are engorged. I leave it on for almost 15-20 min and it really helps soften the lumps and it's great on the nipples to numb them right before feeding. Just put a towel so ice is not directly on the nipples.

My milk just started coming in yesterday (day 3) and before that it is colostrum which is thick and clear. Usually before feeding, I will use my hands to express a little out of the breast just to make sure there is stuff coming out before feeding. I don't want her to be sucking so hard and nothing comes out haha.. My left nipple is a lot more beat up than my right because that is the one I started with minutes after birth and with first try, the latch is not going to be perfect. But, overall, I really enjoy breastfeeding! It's a very close bond :) You should definitely see the lactation nurse during your hospital stay to make sure that baby is latching on well and get some tips before you go home. I didn't get the chance to at the hospital, but today's visit helped a lot too. The breastfeeding class I took before delivery was also really helpful. I'm going to see if my nipples get better the next couple days with the lanolin & tea bags and if they are still a little sore, then I'm going to get the gel pads online to see if they'll help. Bring the lanolin with you to the hospital!! I'm sure they may have it too, but just in case!

love,
mags