Let's talk about birth plans shall we?
Here's mine this time around.
Get to the hospital, have the baby as comfortable as possible, go home. The end.
Simple huh? Oh if only...
With my first, I didn't have a plan. I was just a naive 20 yr old but ultimately my first was the fastest and easiest labor. I remember I had been having some braxton hicks contractions around noon that day, and my stomach felt weird but I chalked it up to eating a bad cheeseburger at McDonald's. Around 9 pm that night I felt the first pangs of labor and we got to the hospital at about 10:45. I had a great epidural and had Serena around 1:00 in the morning after 25 minutes of pushing. However I found the pushing hard because I couldn't feel anything. The nurse would yell at me to push but I didn't know how or had the sensation.
The next time around I told myself that I wanted to try a med-free birth because I thought it might make the pushing easier. Basically I wanted to feel everything. Mind you this was 8 years later when I started thinking these crazy thoughts. With Layla last year I had a much longer labor. About 16 hours and roughly about 20 minutes of pushing. I held out on an epidural but still think I got it too early and it didn't work right on me so for the last 7 hours of labor, I felt everything and I do mean everything. You can read Layla's birth story here if you haven't already.
Soooo....now as I approach giving birth for the third time, I'm thinking I'm going to do things more on my terms. Granted I'm not induced like last time--I'm going to try and labor at home for awhile, and I'm going to get an epidural. I'm going to bring some music to listen to and maybe get up off the bed if I want to. Both times before I felt pressured and bullied by my labor nurses. I had some great nurses at certain times but when it came to giving birth, I ended up with a mean nurse. Maybe I was their last patient, not sure, but my doctors were awesome.
So tell me, if you are pregnant, or even if you're not yet, do you have a birth plan in mind? Let me know.
I am planning on taking hynobirthing classes and delivering in a birth center, drug-free! This is my first baby so we will see how that works out, ha!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it's so cool that your girls are mixed - latino and middle eastern. So will my baby! Hopefully this means she will be as cute as yours, mixed babies are always the cutest :)
Xoxo,
Sara
Good for you. I hope it works out just the way you envision it. :)
Deletemy birth plan is pretty much like your summarized version- go to hospital- follow instructions- get epidural- have baby. since this is my first time around at labor I don't know what to plan for so I'm more just going with the flow of things. good luck to you with this one :)
ReplyDeleteThanks. Can't wait to hear your birth story!
Deletewith lyla, i wanted to hold out on an epidural as long as possible because i wanted to feel everything and do it as naturally as i could. but having her at 28 weeks made that really hard. my body was not ready for labor and i was hooked up to mag and pit. so i got the epidural. but to my surprise, i still felt everything, just no pain during contractions. this time i plan on getting an epidural at the first sight of pain and trying to relax. honestly, i'm scared though! the closer i get, the more i think about giving birth or having a c-section and it gives me a little bit of anxiety.
ReplyDeleteI know! Im getting anxiety to thinking about it because childbirth is still too fresh in my mind. Some of these Braxton hicks contractions I've been getting remind me it's getting close, because I've had to breathe through a few. I really hope I don't need pitocin this time. They make the contractions worse.
ReplyDeleteI have a birth plan post scheduled in a few weeks. Crazy how easy your first child's labor was compared to your second. You really don't hear that often! Good luck with this little lady. I hope you have a safe and easy delivery!
ReplyDeleteThanks Becca and I know. I've heard the first ones are usually longest and I was scared because my mom's labor with me and my brothers were both over 19 hours long!
DeleteAhh good luck!! I haven't even thought about having kids yet..I just want a lot of doggies! hehe
ReplyDelete-Stephanie
@LaminLouboutins.blogspot.com
The girls would love a dog or cat, but I'm pretty sure I'll be the one taking care of it. No thanks. Lol
DeleteMine sounds about like yours, try to labor at home for a while, get to the hospital, try to have the baby as comfortable as possible, and get an epidural. If the plans have to change for some reason or another then I'll be easy going (as much as I can, I think) I'm trying to go with an open mind and not expect it to got a certain way-- my doctor said some women write their birth plan down to a T and begin freaking out when it doesn't go EXACTLY according to plan, so an open mind is best!
ReplyDeleteGood idea on the music, I will have to make an extra good playlist for myself and have it ready!
I agree that it's best to go in there with an open mind. It's never going to go exactly according to plan. Well it could be even better than expected. ;) but usually not. I'm hoping some music might help distract me. Maybe I'll play Rocky's theme song "Eye of the tiger" to get pumped. Haha
DeleteI have a feeling my labor is going to be fast and furious so I won't be doing any laboring at home! I dilated to 7 cm with Carter without even being in labor....that scares me! ha I plan on going as soon as I feel anything and I'm all for the epidural. I had one with each baby and had no problems with pushing either time, they were perfect labors and deliveries and I'm hoping that doesn't mean I'm in for it with the third :) that's my plan and I know it's totally different from one person to the next...there's no "right" way to plan your birth... :)
ReplyDeletei was just flipping through your blog posts, you have a fun blog! i am currently overdue...with my first - and i'm pretty laid back about it all...my only birth plan is that i want an epidural!! i'm up for the adventure of this i guess...we'll see what happens :) thanks for writing about it!
ReplyDeleteYou're adorable! Just found your blog. I am not pregnant yet, but I will most likely try to labor at home a while for as long as possible and ask for an epidural as well.
ReplyDelete