A Tale of Two Births

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

 

	Josiah	Jonathan
Birthdate	Sunday, November 11, 2012 at 9:27 a.m.	Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 12:14 p.m.
Gestation Length	35 weeks 4 days	41 weeks 1 day
Length of Labor	35 hours Water broke at 10 p.m. Friday, November 9th	10 ½ hours Contractions started at 1:45 a.m. Sunday, May 4th
Hospital Arrival	About 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning	About 4 a.m. Sunday morning
Baby Progression at Arrival	1 cm (forced) -4 station	6 cm (stretched)
Natural Labor Techniques	Walking, exercise ball, different laboring positions during contractions, shower (tub was broken)	Walking, exercise & peanut balls, different laboring positions during contractions, bath, evening primrose oil, essential oils, raspberry leaf tea, acupressure in feet, squat bar, stripping the membranes
Interventions	3 rounds of Strep B antibiotics, 3 Misoprostol, Pitocin, 2 shots of Fentanyl, epidural	1 round of Strep B antibiotics, 1 shot of Fentanyl
People in Room	Dr. Ahmed, Angel (baby nurse), my nurse, Randa (NICU nurse), Donelle (Respiratory Therapist), Dr. FJ (Neonatologist), Danny, Mom, me, Lauren (she got stuck there), Josiah	Dr. Irby (barely), Amber (our nurse), Laura (student nurse), Danny, Mom, me, Jonathan
Baby Stats	6 lbs. 5 oz. 20 ins. with cone head 18 ins. at discharge	8 lbs. 8.7 oz. 21 ½ ins.
First Meal	Smoothie and apple fritter	Club sandwich with kettle chips, chicken soup, apple slices, and a strawberry shake
Hospital Stay Length	6 days (mom) 5 days (baby): 2 days in NICU and the rest spent in labor room as a NICU patient	2 days (mom and baby)
Skin to Skin	About 5 minutes	About 2 ½ hours
Nursing	Pumped 8 hours after delivery.  Nursed 24 hours after for a couple of minutes on each side.  Continued nursing sessions for a couple of minutes (trying to keep him awake) followed by half an hour of pumping every 3 hours with supplemental donor milk and Danny finger feeding.	Started nursing within 20 minutes of delivery and nursed on both sides for a total of 2 hours.  Continued hungrily nursing every 2 hours.

 

Commonalities: There were some things that were the same between both labors and deliveries.  My body stalled out in both.  With Josiah it quit at 3 cm and with Jonathan it quit at 9 ½ cm.  I just couldn’t relax anymore to let it finish the dilation.  That’s where the drugs helped.  I tried for an all-natural labor each time, but also went in knowing that I don’t have a very high pain tolerance.  There was also a time in each labor where I requested a C-section…ok, demanded may be more like it as I wanted the baby out of me immediately!

      I had FANTASTIC labor nurses with both boys even though we delivered at two different hospitals.  My friend Amber was able to act as my doula with Josiah and I was blessed that we went in on the last day of her stretch for Jonathan.  We also got to have the same night nurse with both boys as she had switched hospitals.  And the same lactation consultant. 

      Neither child actually dropped until right at the last second (possibly an hour or two before actual delivery).  They don’t help with the delivery part at all but leave it all up to me!  Pushing went very quickly once I was fully dilated.  With Jonathan I pushed a little longer just to try and get the last little bit dilated, but since his head wasn’t there it made it difficult and I had to relax into it instead.  Once we were ready to push, the boys just popped out.  The delivering doctor for Josiah had just come on shift and told the nurse to have me do some practice pushes.  After two practices he was crowning so they told me no more practicing and got the doctor and the whole team in the room.  The doctor hadn’t even put her scrubs on yet so she just threw a gown on over her street clothes.  Three pushes and there he was.  Jonathan was facing my hip and had to be turned.  Once he was turned it only took a couple pushes before he was crowning.  Then his head popped out and Amber was holding him in and calling for the doctor to get in the room while telling me not to push (very difficult in a squat).  Dr. Irby didn’t even have time to put gloves on and he was delivered within a few more pushes.

      It took a few minutes for them to announce either boy’s gender.  Josiah was crying but also turning blue from underdeveloped lungs.  Jonathan’s umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck twice so they were working on untangling that.  It may have been Danny both times who announced it.  J