Ithoguht for a minute you needed an armored vehicle to get the kid out! Whew! Congrats!
Posted on 10/24/2006 9:02:36 AM PDT by gobucks
I was awakened by my wife saying, "Wake up". I shook myself awake and walked over to the bed in the birthing room at the hospital. It was 1am, and we were alone. "I want the epidural. I can't take it any more", she said, her voice sounding faint.
We had only been at the hospital 3 hours. We were told we had only progressed half way, 5 cm. This despite the fact we had stayed at home as long as reasonable. So, it being the middle of the night of course, I, the coach, failing to execute the Husband-coached Natural Childbirth techniques I had learned, fell asleep. I was only asleep an hour, when she awakened me.
Now, with little Mr. GoBucks, who was born a year ago on June 14, the Bradley Method seemed to be working. But we got to the hospital too early, and she 'got stuck' at 7cm. The white flag was raised (after mummurs of 'dysfunctional labor' and 'c-section' were tossed out there), the epidural went in, the pit was dripped, and an hour later, our little boy arrived.
We were pretty frustrated that all our Bradley prep work didn't bear fruit, but knew we would try again. During the hours of labor leading to little Miss GoBucks, my wife handed me the Bradley book, and reminded me the key insight of 'emotional signposts' within the Bradley Method. Sure enough, we left for the hospital when it was pretty clear she couldn't talk through the labor anymore. We had the external fetal monintor strapped around her middle, and then they left us alone. No epidural, no pain killers, no IV drip. Just the beep, beep noises, and quiet. The nurses and OB had read our concise, but firm, birth plan, and were willing to let two Bradley nut cases give it a go. (Though they later confessed that such birth plans often make them a little bit quick in getting the Csection room ready.)
Anyway, what I didn't expect was that my wife would let me sleep a little bit. When she awakened me, she was beside herself, saying it hurt too much. I looked at her and saw the 'transition' signposts.
I said to her "are you sure"? And, just like the Natural Childbirth books, she moaned, "I don't know, I don't know", which means birth was imminent. I read her a couple of Bible verses we had prepared ("All things are possible..." etc).
And right after that she made some grunting noises, and muttered "I need to push". I was shocked, and called the nurse. The nurse said, "well, 6-7 cm". I wasn't pleased with that, knowing the rule of thumb is 1 cm/hour.
But, through the contractions, she kept saying she felt like she needed to push, and I called the nurse in again a few minutes later ... she said, oops, totally open!. Within a few minutes, her water bag came out first, then broke, and then her head came out, and then, with almost a yell, my wife pushed her out and the OB caught her, and I was cutting the cord that was difficult to see through my watery eyes. It was unreal. The last 3 cm was in less than an hour.
Her head was perfectly round, as if she were born w/ a CSection; she cried, then she slept. And she has been a beautiful, normal, sweet angel in the 10 days since then ... (and it seems like 10 weeks ago.).
Anyway, I wrote up several 'My Pregnant Wife' threads before regarding little boy GB last year, including a Bradley thread, so this is just a follow-up. We do live in Epidural Nation, so it is silly to think this thread will make a dent into that, but one or two readers may have not heard of a positive testimonial so this is for them.
The Bradley Method works, and if one endures all the 'upsetness' that talking about it with others is certain to produce, then, I promise, it is more than worth it.
Thank you so much. And ... ahem .... GO ST. LOUIS!!
Blessings to you & your sweet family.
thanks, and ummm. ahem .. at 14, I think she'll be getting up early to do her Sat morning CHORES!! Thank God, it will be Mrs. GB, and not me, who'll see to it.
As for Little Miss Gb sleeping through the night...well, good luck with that. Congrats to the Gb clan!
Congrats!!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful news with us!
Thanks ... it has been a very busy year...btw, the GoBucks folks forbid internet pics - and their is hard wisdom in it....
on a sad note, we were warned as we left the hospital that putting pink storks in our front yard, or putting in the standard birth annc in the paper has now been shown to be places that baby snatchers have been checking prior to their attempts to steal babies.
It dismayed us, and it was not something they told us us a year ago w/ little gb.... crazy.
You are welcome, and sharing it w/ Freepers .... well, I kind of like this crowd ... couldn't help it!!
Many thanks, and you are so right...
LOLOLOL....to be fair now, we had all that stuff, including the verses, prepared AHEAD of time. In fact the actual verses were selected by one of my wife's good friends, a woman who is a Missionary (specializing in those Western European Countries were Athiesm is the number one religion), and who had a successful Bradley birth...
anyway, many thanks!
thank you!
Congratulations, God bless you all.
LOL!! I went without an epidural for the first two. The first time it was "easy" because I didn't know what was going on. Also the end came quickly, thank goodness. By the time I said I couldn't take it anymore, it was just about over. I was more afraid of the needles than the unknown pain of childbirth. The second time was harder (I knew what was happeneing, knew what was coming), but the labor was 5 hours. 14 months later came number three, and my memory was not kind and I remembered how bad it was. I got an epidural, labor just about stopped, had my longest labor of all three, baby's heartrate dropped, came back but they said if it happened again, it was c-section time. But at least I could sleep a bit. :)
Ithoguht for a minute you needed an armored vehicle to get the kid out! Whew! Congrats!
I hafta say however that I find it odd when people consider it a source of pride when they give birth without an epidural.
Would you consider having a root canal without medication?
LOL -- I was thinking along the same line.
10 days ago, my daughter and her husband had their second child. Dd couldn't talk through contractions, but they weren't consistent, and she wanted to wash her hair first. In the middle of that, she realized washing her hair had been a BAD idea, and we all made a mad 20 mile dash to the hospital.
Epidural was administered, and the baby was born about two hours later.
Congratulations! :)
I think Bradley is a perfect name for your little girl.
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