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1035252 tn?1427227833

Labor Journey....heere I go!

So like I said I'm planning to live-post the experience for my high school friends' sake, and I told anyone who was interested that I would do it here too....so I guess now's the best time to start!!! I guess I'll have to use comments to update...hadn't quite figured that one out yet and now I'm too confuzzled to think, lol.

Came to the hospital last night at about 4PM...already 5CM dilated and completely effaced...having sporadic contractions, a couple REALLY bad ones last night...mostly suffering from hormonal migraines.

7/14/2010 - Wednesday
4:45AM: Woke up with a bad case of anxiety and the shakes...had to pee somethin' awful, lol. Quite nauseous...definitely feeling the earliest stages of labor creep up on me right now. (TMI alert:) Lots of mucus in the toilet paper.... I'm not cold at all, in fact the room is quite toasty, but I can't quit shaking. Discovered that my anxiety about IVs is a little ridiculous...need to get over that whole "air in the tube" thing. (I freak out when there's even 1 little bubble, even though it would take lengths of tubing full of air to cause a problem). Gonna ask for one last thing for my headache before they start the pitocin drip within the next few hours...hoping to snatch a little more sleep before the big contractions start, but as anxious as I'm feeling I'm not counting on it! Will update when something changes...wish me luck, ladies.
76 Responses
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404138 tn?1308941656
Yay :) Congrats!!
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1315622 tn?1286816855
Good Luck Ashelen!
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203342 tn?1328737207
Congratulations Ashelen! He's beautiful! So glad everything went well for you. :) Enjoy him!
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1181036 tn?1367368640
Yay!! I'm so excited for you!!!! Lol, I feel like a druggy waiting for their next fix....that's how excited I am about meeting my own son, it seems like that's all I think about. And reading about your birth experience is sooo exciting! I can't wait for that day to come. I'm hoping for an easy delivery (as easy as a delivery can be, lol) and your story is inspiring, you seem so happy and relaxed :) All 3 of my mom's deliveries went quickly with no need/time for meds (all within a total of 4 hours)...and I've always taken after her (developmentally) plus my doc said I have "a nice wide birth canal" lol

Anyways, enjoy baby Grey and hope thing continue to go great! :)
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202436 tn?1326474333
If you think YA'LL are crazy, wait until september when I have a 14 yo, 7 yo, 6 yo, 2 yo and a newborn,...LOL  When ever things get hectic at your houses...just think.."OMG I'm SOO Thankful I'm not as crazy as LMMIG" hehe   Having had 2 that are only 14 months apart I can tell you that it IS a little crazy in the beginning but it doesn't take long before you develop a routine and actually liked having them so close together.  

Anyhoo, I was born with jaundice...a few hours under the uv lights and I was good to go.  DD6 developed slight jaundice but it wasn't so sever she needed the lights and she was able to go home, they just told me what to watch for and said to make sure she got plenty of sunlight.  

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1035252 tn?1427227833
I have no idea girl I think we must be crazy LOL
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676912 tn?1332812551
I can't even imagine not being able to see my little one for so long. Well, hopefully he has a speedy recovery and you enjoy your time between feedings to rest while you can! Soon you'll be newborn mom and toddler mom at home! EEK!! I totally just pictured me running (walking quickly) around the house with a baby in one arm trying to catch a toddler with a stinky diaper with the other arm, lol! I'm sure I'll see plenty from you in the next few months to be able to get a better idea of how it's gonna be, but man oh man...what have we got ourselves into, lol! ; )
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1035252 tn?1427227833
Grandmatobe I'll definitely ask..any way to get my little man home with us would be great.

Sabrina I was thrilled too they've been very wonderful as far as letting us call the shots..unfortunately with the bili treatment they're being pretty strict.

I guess what happened is called ABO hemolytic incompatibility ....because I'm O(+) and Grey is A (+) when my blood crossed the placenta it formed antibodies that attacked his red blood cells (SORT of like RH incompatibility not not as severe) and elevated the bilirubin levels in his blood...everything I'm reading says it's easily treatable and not really dangerous but it's still a bit of a nail-biter until his levels go down. They're saying most likely 24-72 hours under the bili light, and I can only see him for feeding times 30 minutes every 3 hours which *****...but I guess I'll get to rest and recover, right? Sigh, oh well, LOL.

Still in a great mood...sorry my little man is away from us and doubly sorry that he's feeling pooey but not gonna let it bring me down.
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676912 tn?1332812551
Aww, you made me all teary eyed! Darn hormones, I'm so glad things turned out the way they did for you guys. Your birth story, giving us a play by play like you did, has made labor and delivery a little less scary for me. You know Elijah was a section baby, but this time dr is allowing whatever I want, a first for me. Your story has given me more strength and belief that a short 21 weeks from now I'll be able to do it! I'm gonna try for 100% natural with no pain medicine, but I'm not stupid and when I reach my limit I know it's there to be used for a reason.

Thank you so much for sharing your story, and giving us updates including right before you started pushing, lol. I was amazed that you were able to get on the computer just to update! I hope Grey gets to come home with you guys, everyone's told me the second baby is more likely to get jaundice and Elijah had a little bit, so I'm expecting it this time, but we'll see. I can't wait to see more pictures, and I love how hands-off your hospital was!!!
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Avatar universal
Congratulations on the new addition to the family.  He is just precious.  When my granddaughter was born, she had jaundice as well, and the hospital ordered a set of paddle type lights to be delivered to our house to put on the baby for several hours a day, so she didn't have to stay in the hospital.  Does your hospital do the same thing?  It might be worth checking into, so your family can get home and be together.

Best of luck to you all.......
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1035252 tn?1427227833
I'm so excited for everyone who's going to be going through their own epic journey soon (or not-so-soon!!). It really was so beautiful and I'm just basking in the glow of my baby. Unfortunately it turns out that he has a slight case of jaundice so he may be here for a few more days, which I'm sincerely hoping is NOT the case...I want to bring my butterball home tomorrow so our family can start to get used to our new life together.

Thank you all again for all your sweet comments and messages I'm so honored that so many people wanted to hear our story :)
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394558 tn?1314813360
Congrats !!! sooo exciting really hit home for me i only have 9 weeks to go and i will be holding my son just like you x congrats again x
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1152782 tn?1451101426
YAY!!!!!!!!!!  CONGRATS.  That play by play was sooo neat!  What a precious baby!!!  Enjoy your little miracle :)
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933846 tn?1353452448
Ahh what a wonderful story. Congratulations again!
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1351369 tn?1294831629
congrats!!! FEEL IT- GREY IS HERE!!!
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1287618 tn?1282017202
CONGRATULATIONS Ashleen and i hope you recover soon. This so make me want my 5 months to pass so fast now so I can feel what you are feeling , all over again! take care and god bless you too!
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796506 tn?1370188305
Aw! I am glad that you are happy with the way that things went! That is so important!!!!
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1035252 tn?1427227833
I just wanted to say again how very happy I am and how grateful I am that you ladies were following my story and wishing us well....my husband is currently cuddling Grey and my heart is so full. the only thing missing is our little girl...I can't wait to be home so our little family of four can get started in our new life.

I feel so amazing...I didn't know you could recover from birth this quickly. Aside from feeling like I rode a horse for about 30 hours too long and noticing the stitches when I pee, the rest of me feels pretty good. The injection sites for the epidural is pretty darn sore but I don't notice that until I forget and lean back on something hard.

My little boy is such a prince...I was scared to have a boy and there are still some things that intimidate me but just like Kahlan he just makes sense that he's mine...it's so eerie how much he looks like his sister. I'll have to post a newborn pic of her next to a newborn pic of him it's uncanny! The only differences are that his head is a bit smaller and his hair is a bit lighter than hers was, lol.

I hope that somebody was able to take something away from my birth story and that it might help them when they deliver..I know my story was short and sweet, but sometimes it DOES go that way, so hopefully my story will be relevant to SOMEbody :).

we took some more pics tonight that we'll post tomorrow of him NOT covered in vernix, lol.  and I had quite a laugh while going back through the after-birth pics...I had to nix quite a few because someone gave my aunt the camera and she doesn't pay attention to what's in the background...including her spread-eagle niece who's got an OB up her hoo-hah while getting an episiotomy repair and delivering the afterbirth LOL.


On another note...my blood pressure and heart-rate are now back to pre-pregnancy normal. My migraines have worsened, just like they predicted...but this also means that they have a good chance of doing as predicted and getting better as my hormones settle down. No IV or monitors tonight because this hospital believes in natural recovery and I couldn't be happier...nobody coming in to monitor the baby at night either unless we ask for it.  The fact that they were also willing to help me achieve a more natural birth even though it was medicated by allowing me to choose the position as well as calling the shots on pushing, breathing, etc. (they also respected my request for delayed cord clamping, immediate breast-feeding bonding, and they let my husband cut the cord and help deliver the placenta...and the fact that they allowed the delayed clamping was awesome because I ALSO requested a perinatologist to examine my son at birth to make sure the pain meds I have been given recently haven't affected him....and they all just waited patiently for the cord pulsing to stop and me to say I was ready before they took him and eval'd him...perfect eval by the way no effect (so far, of course no way to know 100%)) was just so cool.

on the downside, because they do use such a hands-off approach the trade-off is that they keep you longer so things that they might not otherwise notice won't go uncaught...so I'll be here until friday, but I'm OK with that except for missing my daughter something terrible. She came to visit her new brother today and she was fascinated...jealous, yes, but only for a minute and then she was so interested in giving her baby doll to him.

gonna go breast-feed and try to get this uterus to shrink a little faster...I lost 21lbs of amniotic fluid/placenta, 8lbs of baby (give or take)....so I'm feeling like I just lost half a person, lol, and hoping to keep up a steady weight loss from here on out.


Will post newer pics tomorrow and I just wanted to say that you guys have all been so amazing...I was so alone when I was pregnant with Kahlan, and just logging on to update and see how many people care about me and my family has truly made me feel good and anything I can do for any of you don't ever hesitate to ask...your support got me through the end of a very difficult and frightening pregnancy, and I truly believe that my baby boy is the happy healthy little booger that he is today because you guys were there to get me through everything that's happened over the last 10 months, including all the family tragedy, all the drama with DH walking out on me and whatnot, all of our financial ups and downs, my depression, and of course my health problems.

God bless you all (or whatever religion you follow!) and thank you so much, every one of you, for your support and caring...I hope you're all enjoying your families tonight and feel just as blessed as I do.

-Ashe <3
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Avatar universal
Congrats!!!
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1222635 tn?1366396286
yay congratulations!!! im so happy for you..im going to look at pictures!!!
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212720 tn?1304375415
Congrats... I am so happy for you! :)
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470885 tn?1326329037
Congratulations on Grey's safe arrival!!!  With both my inductions, I only had to push for 20 minutes or so - it's like those babies are going "well, YOU wanted me out - so here I come!!!" ;-)
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202436 tn?1326474333
YAY!!!! I'm so happy for you.  I can't wait to see his pics, gonna go check your profile now!!  
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287246 tn?1318570063
Yay!!!  Congrats!  Now get some rest already!!!   LOL!!!  And as teko said, thanks for sharing this with us :)
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