The birth plan that wasn't

I never would have even thought to have a birth plan if it weren't for blogging. And man, there are some total rockstars out there, which totally made me think I could handle all the pain of childbirth without meds. Haha.


Anyhow, I wanted to keep this plan to look back and laugh on someday. Seriously, it never even made it out of my bag. But that's OK - I always knew I would be open to whatever and that what I wanted a month before labor would probably be different. Plus Cooper was a very big baby, I'd had some kidney issues and more. 

My notes are in blue text :)

* All parts of the plan are subject to change if mother/baby are in distress. Michelle also realizes that some preferences can not be allowed if she does use pain medication.
 • Only Jimmy is allowed in labor/delivery room. This totally happened. Mostly just because other than my parents, no one else even knew we were in labor :)


• Pain medication/epidural upon request only. If possible, let Jimmy know when the last chance is for the epidural so he can let Michelle know. Although I caved, I did request this. Not sure if they would have encouraged me to get one had I tried to wait it out.


• Michelle prefers to bring her own music and be allowed to labor in whatever position is most comfortable to her at the time. If possible, she would like a room with a tub, and access to a birth ball. I don't think I could have handled music! I did take a bath the first time, and by the time we got to the hospital when I was really in labor, I was so tired and immediately got the epidural, I just wanted to lie down and rest.


• Prefer hep-lok only. Ended up with an IV ...


• Prefer not to receive pitocin I got it and reacted horribly. Not only did it not push me into labor, it made me extremely emotional and put me in a lot of pain. If/when we have another, I'll REALLY try to avoid this.


• Prefer intermittent fetal monitoring. Sorta. If I didn't have to be hooked up, I was't.


• Goal is a vaginal birth Yup! Although they told me at my pp checkup that had they known Coop was so big, I would have been a scheduled c-section. Whenever I have another, we will have a u/s at the end to check size, but hopefully I can try to avoid a c-section even if Baby 2 is also big.


• Episiotomy only if necessary My doc prefers to let pts tear on their own and since my labor progressed in a typical timeline, I probably wouldn't have torn had Cooper not been so broad and practically be pulled out. All things considered, I didn't think a second degree tear was bad.


• Prefer no vacuum extraction or forceps be used None


• Prefer cord is not cut until it stops pulsating, offer Jimmy the chance to cut Due to Cooper's traumatic entrance, hubby didn't get to cut the cord :(


• Allow breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth. I think it was about 2 hours? I held him after about 30 minutes though. And Cooper is a pro so no problems.


• If Michelle is unable to breastfeed, offer Jimmy the opportunity for 1 hour of skin-to-skin contact with baby. N/A


• No one in to visit until consent is given by Jimmy and/or Michelle Again, no one knew we were in labor :)


• Prefer no pacifiers, sugar water or formula be offered to the baby Oh boy this is a big one! It was smooth sailing until my last day, when the nursery brought Coop to my room with a pacifier in his mouth, to be fed! One of the primary reasons not to use a paci at first is to avoid nipple confusion - which lactation consultants, etc. preach! So it was very upsetting to see. They tried to brush it off by saying they didn't know that (I had verbally told nurses the day he was born) and that there should have been something on his crib to note that. How the heck was I supposed to know that? Anyhow, the LC told me not to worry about it and said that, sometimes, nursery workers will just pop in a pacifer if the kid is unsettled. Ugh.


• If the baby is a boy, circumcision is to be performed.


• If a c-section is necessary, Michelle wants Jimmy to be present during the operation and to have the screen lowered a bit so she can watch the birth.


• Following delivery, we wish for all possible newborn procedures to take place in the room. This pretty much happened. It was just across the room and we had no idea what was going on.


• We will decide sleeping arrangements depending on how we are feeling. We took advantage of the nursery while we could! Being first-time parents, we were scared and knew we would not sleep wondering if Cooper was OK, so after his check at 9-10 p.m. both nights, we told them to keep him and only bring him to the room for feedings. In our opinion, this was a big help in getting us semi well-rested before we went home.


• Prefer parents be included in the process for the first bath. We didn't get the first - I was still in bed and didn't want to be alone - but we did join in giving Cooper a bath/learning how on Thursday night (He was born Wednesday.) For us, that was good :)