17 C-Section Birth Story After Two-Day Induction & Exclusive Pumping Post-Birth
In this episode of Birth Story Podcast, we learn that sometimes we can do all of the “right” things throughout our pregnancy but still have to make alterations to our birth plans. Carrie never went into labor after 42 weeks and 3 days of gestation and ended up having an unplanned C-section. The hits kept coming when she learned that because her breast tissue never fully developed in puberty she was not a candidate for breastfeeding. Carrie wants you to know about:
3. This Hands Free Pumping Bra
4. The Medela Symphony Pump for Exclusive Pumping
Looking for a Virtual Doula to create a custom birthing experience and guide you through your journey to parenthood in the United States? Contact Heidi at www.mydoulaheidi.com
For additional free birth education resources and to purchase Heidi’s book, Birth Story: Pregnancy Guidebook + Journal, visit www.birthstory.com.
Want to share your thoughts on the episode? Leave a review and send a message directly to Heidi on Instagram.
TRANSCRIPTION
What does a contraction feel like? How do I know if I'm in labor and what does the day of labor look like? Wait, is this normal? Hey, I'm Heidi Campbell, a certified birth doula host of this podcast, birth story and owner of my doula, Heidi. I have supported hundreds of women through their labor and deliveries.
And I believe that every one of them and you deserves a microphone and a stage. So here we are listen each week to get answers to these tough questions and more birth story, where we talk about pregnancy labor deliveries, where we tell our stories, share our feelings, and of course chat about our favorite baby products and motherhood.
And because I'm passionate about birth outcomes. You will hear from some of the top experts in labor and delivery, whether you are pregnant, trying desperately to get pregnant. I hope you will stick around and be part of this tribe. Today, I've got Carrie in the podcast studio talking about her two Syrian birds.
So welcome Carrie. Thanks. Tell us a little bit about yourself to get started. I am originally from West Virginia, but have lived in Charlotte for. Ever at this point and my husband is a native charlatan as well. And we now have to two healthy baby boys. One is for, I guess they're not babies anymore. One is four and the other is two and a half.
I had two Syrians within 19 months of each other. That's crazy and we're going to get into it. So let's go with Jason your first. Yes. Okay. How long did it take you to get pregnant? Took three or four months to get pregnant so that, you know, that was all good and easy. And, um, yeah. Do you have to do any kind of like kits or like what were you on birth control?
Like previous yes, I had been on birth control. For years. Okay. And then, um, and then, because I'm neurotic, we did ovulation kits. I don't know that they were necessary, but that was just, I felt like I could control the situation more better. And then, but you were also a little bit older. So how old were you?
I was 30. For when I got pregnant. Oh, okay. Yeah. Geez. Time just goes by so fast. It's unbelievable. Okay. So you and your husband were like, it's time to have a baby. You did some ovulation, but you didn't really need them. And then film how'd you find out you were pregnant because we were very purposefully trying, like I was like waiting, waiting, waiting, and you know, so like as soon as the pregnancy test could tell you that you were allowed to take the test.
I was taking it. Okay. And was it positive? Like the very first time you tried, I was getting a little better of like, at least waiting until the day, my period should start and it was positive at that point. So yeah. So let's go back. So that means if you were purposefully trying to get pregnant, that means.
There was probably two months where you took pregnancy tests that were negative. Right. Was that true then too? Okay. So tell everybody about that. Like, what's it like to be married? Decide you're going to have a kid do an ovulation stick, have sex at all the right times. And then you take a pregnancy test and it's negative.
It's frustrating. And because we were a little older, I, I immediately jumped to is something wrong, even though, you know, It's not necessarily guaranteed that you're going to get pregnant on the first try and lots of people don't get pregnant on the first try. Um, you know, it's frustrating. It's very upsetting that like, this should be simple.
Why is this not working right? Or I've tried all of these years on birth control to not get pregnant until like clearly the second I don't take birth control. I'm just going to be pregnant exactly. When you have sex unpredicted. Yeah. You know, that's the obvious result. It should just be easy because I've been purposefully trying not to for so long.
And then your husband. When you said were older, he, how old is your husband? My husband is nine years older than I am, or like 35 ish. And he was like almost 45 ish right now. Did you guys do any family planning or like, did you do anything with your OB GYN before you decided to come off birth control and get pregnant?
We did not. However, the minute I knew I was pregnant, we did. Every test available all the eye casting. Okay. So walk me through that because I did not do that. So now I wish I would have anyone who's listening. I think it's kind of a cool thing. I wish I would have done the genetic testing, but I didn't. So how does that work?
Like what is it, what do you do? It's just a blood sample. So. During one of my early visits did the blood sample and they test for a myriad of different potential genetic disorders. So we did that. That was more pressing on me because at the time my cousin was going through trying to diagnose her son who had a lot of learning disabilities and they were trying to figure out, I mean, honestly, just trying to put a label on all of his difficulties.
So he had developmental and learning disabilities and they were trying to. To decide what that was and how to best treat him in a treatment plan for him. Okay. Moving forward. So you're, they just did like what vials of blood and then send them off, send a mom's crazy. And it took like a week. Did your insurance company cover it?
So my insurance company did cover it and I've seen the different insurance companies do different things. Mine covered it. And I don't know if that was because my insurance company just covers it. Or if, because in certain circles I could have been considered geriatric pregnancy. Yes. In certain circles I could have also been.
That is so fun. Okay. So it really was just easy. You got a vial of blood taken, it was covered by your insurance. I mean, there really, wasn't a reason. Not to do it. Exactly. So what did that panel show you? So that panel could have shown us the gender, but we opted to not find out the gender until birth, but that showed us that we.
You know, had a healthy baby that in conjunction with, you know, all the doctor's visits to check the heartbeat. And yeah, I love those things. But from a genetic standpoint, you didn't have any red flags that panel, so well, that's our breeds, you know, some are leaf right as you're going. And then what does that around 10 or 12 weeks?
Just nine weeks, nine weeks. So it's really early. You could find out the gender. Super early. So tell me about your medical history and your health going into pregnancy. Like, are you healthy? I was healthy. However, I did have a, why do you have a neurological disorder called pseudotumor? Cerebri. Okay. So what that is is that sometimes my body produces more spinal fluid than it drains.
And when that occurs, I get all of the symptoms of a brain tumor. So doubled vision, a weird. Noise in my ears. Horrible, horrible headaches. So I was diagnosed with that when I was 21 or 22. Um, then that sudden weight gain mean can cause this to reemerge and be a problem again. So pregnancy is most often the time that if you see the symptoms, reoccur pregnancies, generally the time that you have the most rapid weight gain.
And so I knew that that. Was potentially something that would come up during my pregnancy. So as soon as we confirmed that I was pregnant, my OB started working with my neuro ophthalmologist, how to watch this, how to see if we were going to have a recurrence of this and what we needed to do. So what came of it?
Um, a lot of extra doctor visits between the two of them. I. My neuro-ophthalmologist checked my site because the first symptom is that you lose some of your peripheral, peripheral vision. Okay. But not even enough that I would notice it except during this test. So they kept a close eye on that. Luckily, I didn't have any issues throughout the time, but they were great working together to make sure that we were.
Keeping an eye on it, just on top of it. Now, did they put you on any special diet or anything so that you would not rapidly gain more weight than necessary? No, they did not. Um, they did tell me, like, don't go crazy. You're you're eating for two, not 10, you know? Yeah. Those things, they tell that to everybody.
Oh, so you still, so you had pretty much freedom in your pregnancy diet? Yes. I had overall a very healthy. Easy pregnancy. So tell me about the beginning. Like nausea, vomiting, no nausea, no vomiting. So Lockie okay. I really had a dream like you, did you love being pregnant? Did you like it? I liked it until I was so big that I couldn't sleep.
Okay. And for me that was. Around eight months. Okay. Cause I haven't 30 ish, 30, 32 weeks. And you were like, I can't sleep. And so when you say you can't sleep, do you mean like you're waking up often to go to the bathroom or you mean like you can't breathe? Like what does that mean? I can't sleep. I just would wake up constantly throughout the night for no real known reason.
Okay. I would, it wasn't to go to the, I mean, I would go to the bathroom. Twice, maybe three times. So that, that seemed livable given. Yeah. Oh, someone was sitting on my bladder, but it was more just, I would just wake up and look around. And be like, there are no noises in the house. Why, why am I awake? Yeah, just wildly unexplained here for anyone who's listening.
I feel like this is like a good teachable moment. So like, what did you do? Because there was two, two and a half months left in your pregnancy and you, I mean, I'm assuming you had to sleep some. So what did you do when you were restless and sleepless to try to get back to sleep the first little bit? I kind of ignored it and then I started.
Like exploring different ways. Is there some other way that I could be more comfortable? And so I tried one of the pregnancy pillows where it goes between your knees and helps even out your knees and your hips that gave me some relief, but not an enormous amount. Uh, and what I did really towards the end was I slept on our couch sitting up.
Okay. Because that was the most. Was it a recliner or just Jessica? It was just a couch. So I was reclined a little bit on some pillows, but I was mainly propped up and that allowed, finally allowed me to just pass out. Okay. Overwhelmingly for anyone who's listening. If you. Get a little big, or you have a tendency to have a bigger babies and it puts a lot of pressure too, on your lungs and your diaphragm.
And it's just, it's harder to talk, breathe, set, anything. So many moms find relief from the incline. So they make little wedges that can go, um, under your mattress to prop you up, but then like just pillows, pillows, bells, right? Like all the pills, those in the world. And then, um, that pregnancy pillow was yours.
The big S shaped. Yeah. Okay. Maybe we'll put a link in the show notes to one of those pillows because they are pretty wonderful and keeping, um, your hips into your knees. Literally, if you're having hip pain. Yeah. Those help a ton cause of my second pregnancy. It was a big, it was, it was a big relief. So now as your pregnancy went on, like I'm sitting across from Carrie and she's not a very tall person.
So you can imagine shorter women with short torsos, like your belly goes out and you can't hide the baby as much, but like, was there any indication that your babies were extra big? Did they think that yes. Okay. If the doctor's appointment, like not. So large that we were concerned about anything, but yes, I was carrying large children and I did, I stuck straight out.
So if you stood behind me, you almost couldn't tell that I was pregnant with Kevin. My second. I ha I can remember being in the self checkout line of Harris Teeter and I was on my phone talking to somebody and one of the employees turned around and tapped on the monitor to get my attention. And I looked up and she goes, how many are in there?
Oh my gosh. I told her for. Oh, why not? Just to see what she would say. Did you ever, did you complete? Oh my gosh, I love you. I wondered there were four and like I watched her eyes like about bug out of her head and then I got my groceries and I left and be like, can I have some free formula? Cause they only have two breasts and we're going to get to that as to why we can do nurse anyway.
That's awesome. Dairy your pregnancy. Do you have our pregnancies? Did anybody else say anything that just really got under your. Scan that you can remember. So spoiler alert, I went past my due date. And so with my first child, I would again be in the grocery store and target or wherever. And I was huge and people are like, Oh my gosh, what are you do?
And I would say last week and they, or so, and they were so uncomfortable. And they were like, should you be here? And I'm like, I promise if I thought I was having this child right now, I would not be in target. I would not be there just to meet her if I thought I was in labor. Exactly. Did you, um, okay.
Spoil or I'm your second child. I know that you had a summer baby. Yes. Did you, um, did you get in the public pool? I did. I totally did. I remember people being in the pool and people asking, when are you due? And me thinking, Oh, no, I'm going to have to lie right now. So you got a pull two different, I was probably early 30, 30.
Four weeks. I don't know how it went after 34 weeks. Okay. Um, such relief though, when you can get into a pool and truly off, although I will caution part of the reason I stopped going to the pool was it felt so great in the moment to have all that relief that my pain in my hips was much worse than like three or four hours after I got out of the pool.
So just. I mean, it's not a reason to necessarily stop you from the relief, but it. Can happen that your body's like, Whoa, what happened to all that gravity relief? Right. Okay. Then we were just having this conversation the other day about pain relief when the epidural fails. So when you have an epidural and then Gary's teary right now, and then you're like, you get all this really?
And then it stops working and then all of it comes back and it feels like it's like a hundred times worse than it was originally because your coping mechanisms. You let all your coping mechanisms go. So same thing with the pool kind of have the same if you're like, Oh, I'm 120 pounds again, you know, like I'm free as a bird and then you get out and you're like, I just peed my pants.
Oh no. Okay. So let's get to the end of the pregnancy. Cause we've kind of like spoiled it a little bit. So they were thinking you were measuring big, like they were thinking, this is not okay. A tiny baby. This is not a tiny baby. And everybody that I know are like, Oh, you're going to go early. You're so big.
You're going to go, are you going to go early? And I just, luckily did not believe him. Okay. And so, yeah. So your due date, I even went, so what, when was that? My due date was December 28th. Oh God. Okay. So right at the holidays. Right? So it's a good thing you, so, and my birthday is the 30th. So I did not want my child to be born on Christmas day.
Selfishly. I want him to have a separate day from Jesus and I also didn't want to share my birthday, but maybe you wanted the tax. I don't even know if that's a thing anymore, the tax break by delivering for December. So, um, maybe it was back then maybe it was almost five. So, but yeah. Yeah. So he was due December 28th.
So December 28th came and went. Yup. I don't know that this is true, but in my head, once you go past your delivery date, you start going to the doctor every like three days. So it depends on like who your provider is. Yeah. But you go from like, you know, the four weeks to the two weeks to the one week to often now some doctors will see you at 40 and see you at 41 weeks, but others will bring you in for what's called a non-stress test.
Yes. And that's what I was really going for. Okay. So maybe at 40 weeks, three days or something, they brought you in for that. What does that look like? So you get hooked up to the, the fetal monitor and. They also hook you up to take your blood pressure and keep your heart. Beat and you just kind of lay there and hang out and watch TV for a while.
And then they, in my case, they said everything looks good. See you in three days. No. And that's what one or two hours of monitoring? About an hour. Hour of monitoring. Okay. So they were like, baby looks good. And then did they do an ultrasound the second time? Okay. So then you went back at 41 weeks, I guess.
And then they did an ultrasound and another NST and they're like, Baby's still good. Did they check your cervix? Yes. Any dilation? None. So you are a completely closed cervix at 41 weeks? Uh, I may have been like one cinnamon. Let's talk about your Headspace. So you're 41 weeks. Were you still working? So this is so because I'm an education I had, I left work before Christmas break.
Not planning to return to work, but January 2nd rolled around, I still did not have a child, so I didn't want to start my maternity leave because I wanted the majority of it on the after. He was born. So I went back to work. I, Oh my God. It was awful. I would have had a nervous I'm like right now, my stomach is just like turning over for you.
So here you are. You're like December 15th or whatever school I'm done. I'm going to have a baby and then you have to go. Back to go back to work. I had passed off all of my work to all the wonderful people who are going to cover my maternity leave for me. So there was really nothing for me to do while I was, I would take on like small little projects that could be handled in a day or two.
But yeah, I was working from home and option. Yeah. It was not where I was at that point in time. So yeah. So I definitely like, all right, let's just make a little public service announcement to all employers out there. Human resources. Find a way to let your employee who's 41 weeks gestation work from home.
It's the safest thing for everyone. Okay. People didn't want to be on the elevator with me because everybody knew I should have already had this child. Like it was. So you went back to work. I went back to her 41 weeks then, and I will say I went back to work because I needed a distraction from focusing on when's my baby.
When's my baby. Okay. That makes absolute sense. That was I'm sure I could have said. No, I don't want to do this, but I chose to go back okay. To have something to do during the day. Okay. So then you're 41 weeks and 41. You try natural induction techniques. We did some, like I walked. Okay. Hundreds of miles. I feel like freezing cold through my neighborhood.
Bad sex. What about at the, um, doctor's office? Did they do anything like sweep your membranes or he did not. Um, you know, what if it was because like, nothing about my body said I was anywhere close to being in labor, except for the fact that you were 41 that was for, well, eventually he had to come out. So if after 41 weeks, so you went to those two appointments, go into those two appointments.
Then once you hit 41 week, no, that looked like so my blood pressure and his heartbeat and my fluids still looked great. Okay. Am I as evidenced by ultrasound? Yes. Okay. So they had done another older? No, my doctor was great in the, as long as I was willing to kind of let the baby be in charge of this situation.
And because our health looked fine, let's let it ride. But I vividly remember 42 weeks was on a Monday for me. I vividly remember being in the doctor's office Friday afternoon. And I'd had the non-stress test. I'd had another ultrasound, everything looked fine still. And I remember at this point, you're 41 weeks.
Five days? Yes. Okay. And my doctor looks at me and he was like, if you're just over it, I can send you to be induced or I'll give you until Monday. But Monday is the deadline and I sat there. And were you with your husband or? I was with my husband. Okay. I looked at my husband and I was like, I just feel like let's give him a few more days.
Okay. And my doctor was like, okay, that's fine. Talk about a self fulfilling prophecy. I looked at my daughter and I was like, I've read that if you induce and there's no sign of the baby being ready to come, there's a good chance that I could be induced labor for three days and end in a C-section. And he said, that is a possibility.
And I said, let's give him a couple more days. Okay. So he did, let's talk about that weekend. Okay. So, you know, like there's a deadline, you know, Monday or a few days after you're going to be having a baby. Did you, were you having Braxton Hicks that weekend? Okay. So all of these traditional signs of like your mucus plug still intact, vaginal fluid, not there like bloody show, not that you weren't having, like your body was like closed for business.
Exactly. Baby was good. Okay. So that weekend you were aside from not being able to sleep though. Was there, were you happy mood? I mean, were you like, what was that weekend? Like in general was still in a good mood. I was very thankful that. Um, that my doctor supported not intervening since there was no sign that we had to intervene.
Yeah. And I felt fine except for this sleep. So I, I tried that weekend really just to stay low key and rest as much as possible because I assumed that I would not be sleeping for the foreseeable future. Okay. Once this child arrived. Yeah. All right. So you did not go into labor, did not go into labor. So what time was your appointment on Monday 11:00 AM.
We got to the hospital got sort of settled and they started. On Pitocin, I'm going to interject right there. The fact that you can remember that it's 11:00 AM and I'm going to give this particular hospital a score of 80% on this decision. I'm like, it's the morning. You had a chance to sleep through, you know, as much sleep as you could.
So I'm going to give them a, B plus an 80% score on the 11:00 AM. If you are listening to this and you are getting scheduled for an induction, make sure that you do it as well. Early in the morning as possible so that you are as fully rested. You haven't wasted any energy at all on just breathing and being alive before the induction starts.
So like maybe you sleep until nine or 10 o'clock in the morning. And 11:00 AM is the perfect induction time, but maybe you wake up at five o'clock in the morning. And so 7:00 AM is the perfect induction time. I just want to put that in there. So many hospitals are like coming in at 7:00 PM. And we'll start the induction and you're like, huh?
Who? Like at seven o'clock I'm watching Netflix and going to bed, like who starts labor on purpose at 7:00 PM. Right. So anyway, okay. So I don't want to put it in there. 11:00 AM is good, right? I mean, good. You're rested. You've had a meal, we'd had a nice breakfast and so we sit and wait, we watched some movies.
And they're turning up the Pitocin, they're turning off the Pitocin at some point I had Cervidil. Okay. Which is to soften and open the cervix and make some walk, you know, in the hospital. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I just, I guess you took the back that heavy with me. Just let me walk. And was your rear end hanging out of your nightgown or did they put you in regular clothes?
They, they let me double that. Okay. So I had one on the front and one of them, that's a really good thing to tell everybody at the hospital, you can use two gowns arms through the front, and then arms around the back, like a jacket. You get two sided, a hospital now guarantee they didn't. One of the drawers in that room is a whole drawer full of gowns.
So just take what you need to cover up and go for a walk. Yeah. Um, so you were doing laps around the hospital and laps around the hospital. Come back, watch another movie. Did they give you like a bouncy ball? All her, there was a ball in the room. There was a jet tub in the room and there was some other weird chair that was super comfortable because I don't remember much about it.
The birthing chair, it's got a hole in the bottom of it. It's like a toilet was just a regular. Like a rocking chair kind of. Oh, okay. Cause they usually have in the hospitals here, we have like a rocking chair that kind of, it moves a little bit. And then we have a birthing chair that looks kind of like a toilet seat.
This is probably the rocking chair. So I didn't need anything with the hole in the bottom at this point. Not yet nothing's going on. Right. So the day is just, it's a normal day, but you have IVs and nothing's happening. Nothing's happening. Okay. So for everyone that's listening, Carrie is an outlier. It is very rare to be 42 plus weeks to have no signs of labor at all, to be induced for hours and nothing happening.
It happens. But I just, I just want to scare everyone. Who's listening. I want to educate everyone. This is a possibility. Yes, but it's not a guarantee. If your body is not ready, it's not ready. It's not going into labor. So what happened next? The less the doctor that was with me around 7:00 PM. And he said, we're going to take you off Pitocin order something for dinner, have a nice meal.
We'll start this again in the morning. In the morning. Now the morning was like four or five in the morning. So like, Okay. It was early, but they were like, we're going to give your baby a break. Do you remember, were you having any contractions that you just weren't feeling? They were showing up on the, the monitor on the monitor, but I wasn't really feeling anything.
So just a really mild contractions. Right. So I was like, cause they would come in and they'd be like, Oh, you're having a contraction. And I was like, Oh, is this what that like? And I'm like, Oh, I can handle this. Cause I'm feeling nothing like, and I was like, okay, I'm so strong, so strong. I love it. I've had a couple interviews do where it's like I was on there.
and I wasn't feeling anything really. If you're an active labor. Yeah. You feel you're feeling something. Um, so, uh, here's the thing that I want people to hear from this too. If you get induced at seven or 11 in the morning and you're. Laboring all day and really not much of anything's happening. Like, I love that your care provider gave you this option to shut it down.
Just get through the night and see if tomorrow's a new day. See if tomorrow your body's ready. Exactly. Okay. So we tried, so they did serve a dill like it, some. Ungodly hour of the morning, like 4:00 AM. And then we started the Pitocin again, like around five 30 or six. So they started early the next morning breast or sleep at all.
I did, I did. I mean, not great, but I wasn't sleeping great at home, but you felt, you still felt rested. It felt like. I could do that. I can do this. Okay. So then around 10:00 AM that morning, I started feeling more contractions. Okay. Still nothing crazy around 10:00 AM. My water broke on its own on its own.
Oh, your first sign of labor right now, we're going to take a short break to just share a few things with you and we'll be right back with our guests. Hey guys, if you're enjoying this podcast, then I need your help to spread the word. If you know anyone who is pregnant is trying to become pregnant or just loves a good birth story.
If you could send them to iTunes or Stitcher. Or Spotify or SoundCloud wherever they listen to their podcasts and ask them to subscribe to the birth story podcast. Great. We're moving down two weeks and two days gestation your water breaks. Yeah. Okay. Alright. It can't be long now. And this is 10:00 AM.
This is today. Okay. So after my water broke was when I like legitimately started to having contractions today, it was like game on and this is very normal. So things get a little bit more intense and pick up when that water is gone. Yes. So yeah, you know, there we go. We're off and running and I'm moving around because that.
I did not like having contractions while lying down. Okay. For me, I felt much better moving your body moving. So it feels intuitive just to even hear you. Say that like, instead of feeling like having pain happened to you, you're working with the pay. Yes. So what kind of moving, dancing, rocking. Just still walk.
I wasn't walking so much out in the hallways anymore, but I was still walking a lot and I would sit on the ball for a while because that relieved the pressure in my hips a lot. Also, this is, I don't know, this is probably going to sound weird. I would like, Whoa, like lean over onto the bed. A little and David like push my hips.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's called a double hip squeeze. We will add doulas, do this for the entire T of labor. Almost every single contraction. Yes. So like when I'm finished with a birth, like my arms feel like they want to fall off your husband's probably felt the same way. So we'll link in the show notes to a double hip squeeze.
It's really important. If you don't have a doula, it's really important that your husband or your partner knows how to do a double hip squeeze. Because as Carrie's saying, it provides a lot elite hun of relief. Um, so we just kept on with that. Okay. And did you want to have an epidural or did you want to have a natural birth?
Like what was your head, what was your mind thinking? So my birth plan was to have a baby. Okay. Um, I love that, that because of my pseudo tumor, I didn't know. if C-section was going to have, it was going to be the safest route for me. Were there any contract there? Wasn't a Contra indication with the spinal fluid and doing a spinal epidural.
Okay. Well that's good. Yes. Okay. So I made it to around six o'clock that evening. So from 10 to six, which doesn't sound heroic, but it was okay. If it makes you feel better. Let me just interject Jagger had already been born. Eight hours. So whenever people say like, Oh, how'd you have a natural childbirth.
And I'm like that story that you're telling my, my baby was born. Right. You know, that's how I did it. I labored naturally for eight hours and then he was in my arms. Right. So you're eight hours into labor. And your cervix is what. Three. So you have a lot of labor to go a lot, a lot. Yes. I've labored. And the pain had gotten to the point that I was like, I, I think this is what I'm going to decide.
I wanted up a dural. And so they. Just rolled that in like 45, he had an IV fluids going. So it was no problem. Yeah. So from the time you decided I want an epidural, you think it was about 45 minutes later? It was, it felt quick. Okay. Like I've asked for this and they were. Bringing it to
right. Okay. What I didn't think through so well, is that you're then stuck in the bed. Okay. Where you weren't able to move, which you were enjoying moving. Yes. Okay. So that is something that like, I wish I had put together, or someone had said, we will happily get you an epidural, but know that you're not leaving the bed.
Once we do that. Because you're a fall risk, right? Because your foot or no, your legs. So, but I think it's important to tell people why, why can't you leave the time? Well, they have to monitor you continuously now. So instead of intermittent monitoring of the baby, now we have to monitor a mom and baby continuously.
You're a fall risk, fall risk. Cause I can't feel my legs. I mean, I get it, but yeah. I didn't put the two things. Like I was looking for pain relief, but you still wanted to move. And I still wanted to see it because I felt like that was also providing a level of pain relief. But what happened when the epidural went in, did you feel like, did you instantly feel better?
I did. I did for several hours and the P this is where the peanut thing comes in. How about, cause even though you can't be net ball, the peanut ball can help provide some additional relief. Yeah. And the peanut ball for everyone who's listening, which I'll also link in the show notes. It's literally what it sounds like.
It is a humongous ball in the shape of a peanut. And it goes between the legs and there's clinical evidence that shows that when you have an epidural and that you are in bed laboring, when you use the peanut ball to open up your hips and your pelvis, it shortens the length of labor. Did that happen in your case care?
Not happened in my case. Oh, that was a good clinical trial. It does actually. It does actually the clinical data's got on it though. We feel better. Yeah. Like I experienced some relief of my hip. Pain. So it wasn't, it wasn't a, I didn't know that it was supposed to help speed things along. So for me it worked great.
Perfect. I was just using it for a different purpose. Yes. Pain management tool. So then around midnight or one, I started calling the nurse and I was like, ah, my back hurts so bad. We have to do something. Okay. And she said, Yeah, the beds are really uncomfortable. No, she did not. She did. You are in two days of labor.
You have an epidural. Yeah. Okay. And so, so I'm comfortable right now. I was like, no something else is going up and you're in bed with an epidural and you're like, my, my back is hurting. Right. Do you mean back pain or do you mean pressure and your rectum? Like, are you wanting to crawl out of your skin uncomfortable sweet or, but anyway, that's why, where I, as a doula, that's where I would have gone like, Oh, today, you know, for 40, 42 weeks and two days and two days of induction, and now you're relaxing with an epidural.
Boom transition. Yes but no. So the doctor did come in and checked your survey maybe was thinking the same thing. And at this point I had made a giant leap to seven centimeters dilated. It's actually like, it's really? That is kind of, yeah. Okay. That is kind of, because literally once you get over that, Four to five centimeter, like hump, you can go from seven to 10 and one contraction.
So it is, it doesn't feel like it is so not in your case, but it could be a huge leap. Right. But he was like, it's really the position, the baby though. So he felt your baby was still high and your cervix was seven. So we went like another hour. Hour and a half of you being in pain. Yes. And so at that point told me, so at that point she comes in and she could have not been more kind, more gentle.
And she said, she checked me again. And I had made zero progress from the last check from the last check. And she said, I think at some point we need to start considering the possibility. Have a C-section hold on right now. I have a question because I'm so uncomfortable with everything that's happening, pain button.
Oh, I've switched that to the point that they've told me, I'm getting no more. Cause if you had an epidural, you can hit the button. I'm like, you can hit the button. So you're hitting it by no relief with the button. So I don't want to like take steal your thunder, but I'm like, But I'm assuming that the epidural has, is gone.
Like it didn't fall out and it is not working completely gone, but I did not realize that until I got down and met the now new, yeah. Anesthesiologist who's on duty because we've been playing this game so long because now you're like, I can feel everything. I can, my kid, my legs, everything I've made. No progress.
Yes, I'm not progressing. And she is so gently suggesting that maybe we should start considering a C-section to which I reply. How quickly can we make that? Okay. I was wondering if this was like a sense of relief, like, because you said your birth plan was to have a baby, like nothing else on that birth plan.
So I would met imagining if someone says let's roll, fix that BudURL or let's have it, the baby. Yes. And no one was acknowledging. That my epidural was not working. That's frustrating. It was very frustrating. So they wrote me down and I'm like laying on the bed outside of the operating room when I meet the new anesthesiologist.
And he's like, I just need to gauge how much of your epidural is still working. Can you try to lift your leg for me? And I did essentially like a waist high kick. Oh my God. Like you're a ballerina. He goes. Oh, shit. You have nothing left. Yeah. Duh. That's why my back hurts. I keep telling everybody I'm in a lot of pay.
Oh my gosh. He did. I lovely spinal block. Okay. For me, can you walk us through what that process was like having an epidural in place and then getting a spinal block? I don't remember a ton. The spinal block. Like I remember them giving me the epidural and feeling all of that. I didn't really feel the spinal block from the point of like the needle going in saying though it goes into your back.
Yeah. So I remember also hysterically, they're always like crunch up and bring your knees to your chest, but you're a thousand months pregnant. So that's a little difficult. Yeah. That'd be like, this is just the shape I am. This is my shape. It doesn't go forward or backwards or sideways. Right. Sure, sure.
I'll bring my knees to my chest. I wouldn't be like, I can't couldn't do that before pregnancy, but a miracle happened. You put a 10 pound baby inside me and then all of a sudden my knees go to my nose. Okay. So I just remember like him saying, okay, it's in and I'm lying there. And like finally the pain really was gone.
Yeah. And I just was like, all right. Let's do this, like, hello, you feel good? You're like, and you have you had surgery before this moment? No, I have not. So this is your first time. This is my first time in surgery. Were you scared? No. Okay. I was too tired to be at this point. What time is it now? Three, almost 3:00 AM on Wednesday on Wednesday.
So now you're 42 weeks. Three days gestation. Yes. Santa Claus is about to come out of you. Right.
And you felt nothing. I felt nothing. I felt a little pressure as he was coming out, but like, that was really an, where was your husband? Right at my head. Right at your hole. Was he like talking at all or is he just quiet? He's pretty quiet, especially when things are serious. So he was very quiet and you were making jokes of course, because that's how I deal with everything I can tell.
Right. Sure. And this is so funny. Like what have I. Like most vivid memories is if they take it, if they take the baby, you go with the baby. Okay. Wherever they take the baby, you go with them. Like don't, don't, don't mess it up. Don't mess it up. We've worked this hard, like stay with the baby again. Birth plan.
Have a baby. Take home a baby. There you go. Have a baby. Take all my baby. Okay. So yeah, so I mean, They get Jason out. Dave gets to announce that it's a boy. So I would say within about five minutes, he was in my arms where they, and I'm assuming they're still suturing you at this point. Yeah. Yes. So while they're still suturing, you you're able to hold your baby.
Absolutely. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So let's talk about your nursing experience. I want you to share that with people. So baby comes out. You're like, I'm going to nurse my baby, the nurse, and similar to I'm going to have a baby. It was I'm going to feed my baby. So I was okay. I had, I had not had my heart set on.
Exclusively nursing or, you know, any of that, I was like, we're going to try it. We're going to do our best. And that was yes. But then like, there's this like weird thing that happens in your brain after you actually have the baby. And you're like, I want to nurse this baby, especially when milk, even if it's not a lot of milk, but some milk comes in.
Yes. You have a. Natural desire to express it. Yes. To get it out of here, it's physically painful, the baby cries and you tingle and you feel it and all that. So yes, you know, I get that. So we planned a nurse and he was latching. Okay. Early on not great. He would pop off a lot. So, you know, they let you go home after 48 hours after a C-section.
So we went home, but everything seemed good when we left and he seemed to be latching. He seemed to be getting, and then go to the doctor, the pediatrician, what like two or three days later, three days later, maybe. And he had lost a significant amount of weight at that point. Oh, we forgot to say how much did he weigh?
Oh, Jason weighed eight pounds, 13 ounces at birth. Okay. So basically nine pounds, right? So a nine pound baby at over 42 weeks, gestation back hurt so bad. Is he. Oop. Yeah, she's, she's doing the gesture for Oop. I'm sorry. That to the rest of the world would mean face the wrong direction. So face up instead of face down, my back hurts so bad was cause he was trying to come out of my tailbones blamed a lot.
Yeah. I mean, this is just, I'm like hearing your story. You I'm just like, Oh, I think everyone who's listening is just, let's give everyone, let's give Carrie like a virtual hug through the radio waves or podcast ways almost 43 weeks gestation, almost a nine pound baby. Like, uh, I don't know if it's called a failed induction, but I mean, essentially a failed epidural.
I'm definitely going to call that epidural failed. Yeah. And then, okay, now you're trying to nurse, I'm trying to nurse. The baby's lost your nine mom, baby has not lost weight. Yes. Okay. So, you know, so the pediatricians it's like, we have to turn this around quickly. He needs to be gaining weight and I'm like, I'm on board with that.
And so I go in to see the lactation consultant at my pediatrician's practice. Okay. She was an angel sent from heaven, my very first appointment with her. Like, she's like, let me see him nurse and. Get undressed to, to start that she goes, has anybody told you they have tissue damage in your breasts? And I was like, no.
Where are you? Like, I've actually never even heard of that before. I've never even heard that that was a thing. So most everybody listening doesn't know what that is either. So tell us what does that mean? So as I went through adolescents, something. That we don't know the cause of did not. My breast tissue did not develop the way it should for me to produce milk.
But just in case anyone saying, thinking right now, because we're on the radio and they're not, we're not, I don't even know what we're on. What are you on when you're on a podcast? People are listening to you though, and they can't see you. Carrie has very normal looking breasts. So you wouldn't know from looking at you like, no, you have normal.
Breasts. They look perfectly normal. Yes. So not, I mean, you have a tee shirt, you have a tee shirt on, but I'm just talking about Texas. They're not here. We're not naked in the podcast studio. So she's feeling them and watching you nurse. And she's like, now one thing that I had never paid attention to, like, I know that I'm small chested, but they kind of point out.
Okay. Like when not in the confines of a bra, they sort of wait in a V, but what direction did they want them to point apparently forward. Okay.
Extra large breasts. They also point out they pointed every drink, swinging to the left swing. All right. So I'm going to up, so you down wherever you need them to go. So anyway, so I'm curious. Okay. So smaller. Are they pointing to V right? So that was at an indication of tissues and indication Krista damage.
So the reason I say that she was an angel sent from heaven is because she looked at me and she was like, this is going to be hard to hear, but I'm going to tell you right now, you can do absolutely everything on the internet. That it tells you to produce more breast milk, but you will only at best produce half of what he needs.
Okay. So you were like, um, I don't need to order a 500 lactation cookies and some Guinness beer, right? Okay. Like, and that was helpful to like, it was, it was a little blunt, like a release, but I needed to hear, I, I can't do this, like your body physically, physically, this is not for lack of effort. This is not for lack of trying.
I will only add best produce half of what he needs. Okay. So at that point I was like, Alright. For some reason that makes me cry. I'm sorry. I don't know why. I, I don't know why. Sorry. Tear. And Gary's talking and I'm crying. So anyway, but cause I just feel like I'm so proud of you that you're like, you know, you're not melting down at this moment.
You're crying a little bit, but well, I just want to say, I'm sorry. That's something that feels like this is the thing I think we go into like our. Are birds. And we think like, God, our body was meant to do our body is meant to go in labor. Right? Our body is meant to deliver a baby vaginally. Harvey were, were born to nurse these babies.
And then where does this myth come from? Like that we're, we're just born to do it all. Um, no, no, no. Uh, sometimes as the Syrian section and as a gift of gift of life and sometimes formula is a gift of life. I think a big learning point was for me, I didn't, this was my first birth. So in a lot of these ways, I didn't know.
I knew that this was not totally the norm, but I think I was still so elated to have a baby. Like I was still elated that I had a healthy baby boy. Like I think the takeaway away is no matter how crazy the journey is. It's all. Okay. It's all. Okay. It's all. Okay. You still are many of us fortunate enough to walk away with our baby in our arms and raise them to be wonderful human beings.
And I was not wanting to have a very set birth plan or, or nursing players talk about birth plans. It's all. Okay. And in the moment, even, they just felt like bumps in the road sound a lot worse now, Rick. But then what it felt like in the moment, what it felt like in the moment was just, this is what I need to do to meet my baby.
This is what I need to do to feed my baby. And you were still kind of probably drunk with all of those. Like I just had a baby what to expect 100%. Like they, like, I just. Was madly in love with him. What choices did they give you for then feeding your babies? And I ask this because I'm assuming this one things taken away from you, but I'm assuming that you're still empowered with some options.
Yes. I had the option to, I, we could continue trying to nurse just knowing I would need to supplement with formula. Okay. Or I could. Just go straight to formula. So I opted to try to nurse. What about pumping? So that came along later. So, well, I guess it didn't because they wanted me to pump after I nursed to sorta try to get an idea as to how much I was producing.
We kept trying to latch. He kept popping off. He was what is described as a distracted eater. I, around six weeks or eight weeks decided that this was causing. A lot of unnecessary stress. He could already take a bottle. You're going back to work. Right. I'm going back to work. He has to take a bottle because I have to supplement with formula.
Yeah. So I let go of this unnecessary. Demand that he also nurse. And so I pumped exclusively for 10 months. Holy Moses. Um, but again, that's how long? I didn't know any different. You're amazing. Okay. Because your kids are 19 months apart. So when did you get pregnant? Okay. Again, uh, he was nine months old when I got back.
So you still pumped while you, you probably didn't know you were pregnant. Were you pumping did not pregnant. Okay. Essentially when I knew I was pregnant, I was the new status stopped home. Well, if I let's say five, that good job, Carrie, because you could've just said, Nope, I'm done formula only. I could.
Which if anyone chooses that that's okay. That's okay. That's what I is totally fine. I was stuck in the. I have a lot of environmental allergies and I wanted to try to prevent him somehow in my head, if you had breast milk, you would not have as many environmental allergies that, well, there is some data that proof, right?
Not always, not always like a minimal thing to do, to try to prevent to the health adult child. So we'll see how that turns out. I kept up with about 50% of what he knew until he was. Uh, right around 10 months old. And then I like weaned off of pumping and it was just too crazy. Like things were just too crazy to, to continue doing that, but I can pump in the car.
I could, like, I pumped everywhere champ, where was like the most unique place you ever pumped where I was working at the time hosts a clay shoot. And if you're familiar with a clay shoot, it's where, I mean, I am because I'm from North Carolina. It's like skeet shooting. Yeah. What's it like someone pulls in a clay, goes flying out and you take your rifle and you shoot it.
And I was working that event and there no nursing mother's room. Right pleasure, privacy, privacy. So I pumped in the back seat of my car in a parking lot, which wasn't actually a parking lot. It was like a cattle field that had been turned into a parking lot for the day. Oh, my gosh. Did you use a nursing or nursing?
A pumping bra. The hands free rounds are a dream, such a dream. Well, let's talk about before we go, because we're almost out of time, but let's talk about exclusive pumping because on my first with me, I haven't told this story on the podcast yet, but with my first child, he was severely lips and tongue tied and I exclusively pumped also, um, until I was also pregnant with.
The next one. And so we have, we could have a whole entire episode on exclusive pumping, but let's just talk for a minute. Like let's just talk about, so the hands free bra, like I know that that was like a huge savior. Huge for me, another thing that people told me to do is an order to have a let down when you're.
Child is not with you. And you're not like holding, you know, if you're at work, you're going back to work and you're pumping is on my phone. I had all these videos recorded bed that I would watch, and that would try to help stimulate a let down by hearing his sounds and looking at him. Did you have any rituals or anythings that you did to try to.
Help you're let down. The best thing that anybody ever told me was particularly if you're working and exclusively pumping, get a Ziploc bag, like a freezer size bag. And in between pumping sessions during the day, don't try to wash all of those parts, put them in that bag, put them in the refrigerator, and then you can just use them again, the next pump.
And so you're not using up all that time. Constantly washing you just wash at the end of the day when you get home and you're doing all the other thousands. Interesting. And I'm assuming the refrigerator thing is just to keep it clean. Like it's the same. Well, cause you know, if there's breast milk in any of the pump pieces, like breast milk is good in the refrigerator for up to six days.
I mean, this is huge. Everybody's listening, pumping tips with Heidi, not guaranteed. Seven sets of pumping part to that. You have a different set throughout the day, like just reuse and wash once a day. So I had a home set and work set. I will say as much stuff as you can have a separate set for home and work.
Yep. I agree is beneficial. Particularly if you have a winter baby and live somewhere with a lot of mature trees. And that come down and storms the battery pack. To your pump is worth every penny. Yep. And also a car charger car charger. You are charged on the car all the time. I was going to say I pumped to and from work on the commute.
Cause I thought that was pretty efficient. I was like, well, I'm just driving home anyways. So we're just gonna, I would put it on right before the drive home and then I would pump and then yeah. Um, actually, when you're driving, when you're done pumping like 15, 20 minutes later, you just turn the pump off and all the parts were still on me.
I would just unhook, you know, when I got home. So. All right, well, we are going to probably just have to do a whole nother episode where we talk about pumping. Exclusively, um, to provide that benefit for our children. Carrie, it's been amazing hearing your story and just everything that you had to share. It was really special before you go tell us what was, or is your favorite baby product Frieda.
The one gave it to me at a baby shower and I was like, I will never. Fused and then disgusting. How many times did we say that when you're pregnant, don't ever just don't make claims and you're pregnant. I will never Neverland the blank. you're going to do it or what's coming back. Um, but I did, I was like, I will never.
Is that. So tell everybody what is a nose Frieda. So essentially there's like this blue tube that you, like, I can put at the end of their nostril, and then there's like a straw and then a suction piece and you can then suck the snot out of your children's face. Okay. So it sounds like you're sucking it into your mouth though, but you're not.
Yeah. There's a blue tube thing that you suck it into and there are, there's a filter to make sure that it doesn't come into the straw. Um, it is. A thousand times more efficient than the bulb. And when they are super congested, like you can just provide them so much relief. Yeah. Especially when it's like three o'clock in the morning and you're so tired and you're pumping and you're like, Oh God, my kid can't breathe.
So the nose Frieda and willing to that in the show notes. So thanks Carrie.
Thank you for listening to birth story. My goal is you'll walk away from each episode with a clear picture of how labor and delivery might go, and that you will feel empowered by the end of your pregnancy to speak up plan and prepare for the birth you want. No matter what that looks like.