Perhaps this is naive of me to think I will actually require entertainment during labor beyond simply concentrating on getting through the pain but when I hear about 16 hour long labors I think I would go crazy with nothing more to do other than sit and stare at my partner and talk about how much pain I'm in. If I know one thing about myself it is that the more I concentrate on felling crappy, the worse I feel. Anyone like me that wanted some distraction during labor? What worked for you?
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I was at the hospital for 11 hours before LO was born and I brought my nook and ipad to play on, but never once touched either one of them. I had a lot of family meet us at the hospital though, so they kept me company and gave me something to keep my mind occupied. I slept for about 3 hours. When it came time to push though, (I pushed for 2 hours) I obviously didn't want any distractions. They offered to play music, turn on the TV, etc, but I closed my eyes and tried to zone out in between contractions.
Definitely take whatever you think will hold your attention, though! It's better to have it and not use it than to sit there wishing that you had a distraction!
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I was in labor for 7 hours. I brought my laptop and book to read. Once labor was underway, I took a few cat naps until it was time to push. Not sure why, but I was so sleepy! haha!
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I was in labor 9 hours and didn't do anything entertainment wise because between the poking and prodding, questions etc there was no time!
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I had contractions for 45 hours with 37 of those being very manageable so I spent my time sleeping, eating, chatting with my MWs, & listening to worship.
I would definitely have things to keep you occupied
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i went into early labor at home at 8am ... i showered, tried to eat, got ready for the hosp, packed last minute things, etc. hung out with the furbabies and dh. we went to the hosp around 5pm. we watched friends and dh ate hosp dinner, i slept on/off throughout the night and got an epi at 3am? my mom was up with me while i contracted while dh tried to sleep. i slept till 8am and then pushed from 1030-1244pm.
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I did most of my labor at home- read a light book, watched tv/movies, walked a little. The worse the pain got the more I had to stop what I was Doing to get through it. I wished I would have napped when I could though. By the time I got to the hospital I was in very active labor with little downtime at all, so I absolutely couldn't have watched tv or anything- I went from 4 cm to baby born in less than four hours. But my whole labor went really fast once it got going.
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I had my phone and played games on it. Although I was more excited about meeting my babe than entertaining myself. I did a lot of sleeping as well.
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I went to Target and TJ Maxx lol! We also went out for Mexican food. I was eating guacamole with contractions 5 minutes apart.
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Mine was only 9 hours, and I was only at the hospital for 5 of them...and 4 of those hours were pre epi. The first 4 hours I was at home, and we watched tv and I took a shower and got our bag ready. The first two hours at the hospital, I was walking, rocking on a ball, and screaming in pain =P Then the epi process took about an hour, and then I chilled for an hour, and talked to my sis and mom on the phone.
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My water broke at 9 at night so we were up all night. So I tired to sleep the whole time and watched tv.
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I was in labor for thirteen hours with no epidural or pain meds, that was entertainment enough for me!
there was a tv on in the delivery room which DH and my doula watched a little because at one point I was falling asleep between contractions.
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Before going to the hospital, I went to the mall, drove around with DH, and enjoyed spending our last day as a family of two. Once I got to the hospital my contractions were quite painful, and I did absolutely nothing besides trying to get through them. Once I had my epidural I tried to get some rest.
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I brought a book (didn't read it) magazines (didn't look at them!) I did start to watch a movie on my iPad though! The tv was on for awhile but I didn't really watch it that much
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I was in labor for 14 hours, but only at the hospital for 9 before Xander was born. While at the hospital, I talked to the nurses, got ready to be monitored, answered a bunch of questions, etc. I called my mom, Hubs called his parents, we chatted. Then we got to move into our room and I got blood taken and an IV and lots of other stuff like that. Then I got in the tub and just talked to Hubs and tried to survive the contractions, haha. More chatting with nurses, getting checked, got some drugs, etc. Got out of the tub, updated Hellobee with my status, and then sometime after that, started pushing! Pushed for an hour and the baby was here!
BUT Hubs needed entertainment. He read a book while I labored.
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I felt like I was going to die my entire labor so I did nothing other than focus on pushing a child out of my body.
Before active labor though I did take a nap
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The first 20 or so hours I was at home. I bounced/rolled on the yoga ball while watching movies with my mom and went for a walk. When the contractions started getting close and bad I focused entirely on them. When I got to the hospital I was in too much pain to think about anything but trying to breathe. When my epidural was working I rested (because I'd been up for 24+ hrs), watched the Olympics, browsed the Bee, rested, talked with me mom, DH, ILs...mostly just relaxed and tried to rest.
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I packed my bag, tried to sleep, and watched some tv. That took up 4 hours. Then I pretty much just labored with coping methods for the next 47. It certainly didn't feel like time that needed to be filled. There was a lot of walking, massage, and I'll admit it, a lot more moaning/grunting than talking.
I also don't like concentrating on pain so I didn't let anyone ask me how much pain I was in or which "moody face" on the pain scale I would rate myself. I figured they could look at my freakin face to determine if I was feeling good or not. They obliged.
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@Mrs. Pen: same!
I was in labor about 11 hours, maybe the first hour I could have done something... But after that I was in no condition to need entertainment!!!!
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I couldn't sleep, and reading took too much energy, so I watched a marathon of house hunters and played on my phone
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I was so sick by the time they decided to induce me that I was in terrible pain. They gave me IV pain medication when they started the induction and I literally slept through most of my labor. I feel a little guilty that I was so drugged, but my labor was quick and M was healthy!
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Hmmm.... Mine was about 22 hours and I pretty much just focused on that. I labored at home for 9.5 hours - bounced on the ball, and paced - like probably miles of pacing, and hung out in the shower for an hour or two.
Got to the hospital, got checked, got epidural, took a nap for a couple of hours, maybe 3, then pushed for 5 hours.
I went by shockingly fast still.
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After my water broke but pre-contractions, I watched Parks & Rec and Mr. Bean reruns with DH. We said a rosary together in triage. In L&D, I chatted with MIL the little time I wanted a distraction (while FIL and DH napped).
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I just walked the halls and moaned. At the beginning in between contractions I chatted with people in the room.
ETA: I suppose if you have an epi and are fairly pain free you'd need something to do. Maybe sudoku or something?
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@Adira: my husband read a textbook for homework while I labored
I was induced and it lasted 12 hours. I don't really remember what I did! I remember watching The Chew on TV. We took a walk and I think I scrolled the internet on my phone for a while. Once my water broke, entertainment wasn't needed
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@tillma: I um, slept a lot. I had a great epi, and even though I could feel no pain, my body was still doing tons of work, and so I was sleepy:) My parents and DH were sitting around watching me sleep and they could not get over that the person in labor was the one getting the most sleep:)
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I was home for the majority of labor and honestly was in pain and didn't do much! Watched movies on tv...that's about it. The last 7 hours I had an epi but it was the middle of the night and I went to "sleep"!!
Edited to put sleep in quotes....not really sleep. -
At home, I packed my bag and just chatted with my sis and her fiancé while bouncing on a birthing ball. For the first 4 hours at the hospital I chatted with sis and DH for awhile and then listened to some Hypnobabies tracks while pacing and bouncing on ball. For the next 14 hours, I was moving around more, bouncing on ball and also spent 2 hours in a birthing tub--couldn't really "chat" though as my contractions got stronger and closer together.
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From when light contractions started I stayed at home 24 hours as they picked up. I couldn't really sleep (even though they started at 3 am), so for awhile I stared at my husband wondering if I should wake him (I decided not yet), and then pretended to sleep for awhile.
After that we just had a normalish day, my husband went into work for an hour or so and then left since he was pretty sure it was baby time, we took the dogs on a walk, went out for pizza, did some gardening, watched a movie (though at that point I just paced and would glance at it once in awhile). As the evening went on the contractions got more intense so I started to do a lot of pacing. Once it got to the point where my water broke and we went to the hospital it took all my energy just to get through contractions, I didn't want noise or anything around me. Once I got an epi I just talked to the student nurses and DH and pretty soon after that baby came.
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I was told to come in at 8am to be induced. Real labor pains didnt start until 7pm. I played on my phone, brought my laptop and watched shows, read blogs, etc. the nurse encouraged me to sleep but I was too excited and it was during broad daylight.
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@tillma: agree with everyone else that labor at the hospital s fairly itemse and you proooobably won't have the time fr entertainment.
BUT if you stay in the hospital 2-3 days, there will be time after the baby is born to be on the computer, watch movies, etc. so bring it all!! I checked int the hospital in active labor at 6:30 am one morning but didnt deliver until 12:23 am the next "morning" so we had three full days after delivery in the hospital.
And I wanted entertainment after about 24 hours there.
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It went by fast!
I was in labor for 13.5 hours. The first few (my water broke first) were getting to the hospital, being checked to make sure my water had broken, getting moved to a L&D room and hooked up to monitors, etc. My family came to visit (mom, dad and sister) so I chatted with them and DH. I flipped through some magazines that my mom brought and the TV was on for part of the time but I couldn't focus on anything- I was too excited/anxious.
I really just wanted to be with DH. Post-epi I took a short nap (so did DH). When I woke up I talked to my grandma on the phone, got checked and I was fully dilated! I labored down and once I started pushing he was out in less than 20 minutes. It really went by just...so fast.
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I laboured at home over night for the first 18 hours. I tried to sleep between contractions (2-6 minutes apart) and once morning rolled around I was in and out of the shower a lot. Since my water was leaking I had to go in at the 18 hour mark, once we were there I laboured on my own until about 30 hours. During that time I walked, showered and practiced HypnoBirthing methods. I never felt one "normal" contraction - back labour the entire time. Then got augmented with syntocinon. 32 hours hit and I hadn't really slept in over 40 hours so we opted for an epidural. The two hours I slept after that were amazing, I believe it saved me from a c-section. 9 more hours of labouring and 50 minutes of pushing LO made his entrance! So, to make a long story longer - I didn't use anything to entertain myself. I did bring a bunch of stuff but never used any of it, neither did DH.
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I was induced, and was in full-blown labor within 90 minutes on cervidil. I had my laptop, kindle, and a deck of cards packed and ready to go, but we had time for zero of them.
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My labor was 15 hours and I was in the hospital for the last 3 hours of my labor. In the beginning when it wasn't very painful, I packed the hospital bag, took a shower, ate breakfast, got on hellobee, browsed online. Things started getting really painful around 5 hours into it and then it was just all concentration on labor. I didn't get an epi so I didn't need or want any entertainment once things got really painful. I was just concentrating on getting through each contraction.
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Writhed around and threw up for 21 hours. Pitocin is a bitch. (No one tells you it's side effect is nausea/vomiting.)
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My water broke in the middle of the night two and half weeks early so I packed my bag that morning and basically just threw a bunch of stuff in a bag (talk about unprepared). I did think to include my kindle for entertainment but didn't touch it. I was on pitocin so it got pretty painful so I mainly just focused on getting through it until I got the epidural. After that I took a 2 hour nap before pushing. My phone ended up being the only entertainment I needed for the brief times I needed to be distracted.
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I couldn't do anything until I had an epi. First I took a nap because I went into labor at 10 pm and git the epi around 6 am so we were up all night. Then I watched tv.... I was in the middle of my soap when it was time to push and I wasn't happy that they made me turn it off.
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My water broke at home, but I didn't have contractions until I had been at the hospital for over an hour. I had an epidural (around midnight) and ended up trying to catnap with DH in the room while the epi did it's thing until around 7am that morning when it was time to start pushing. I didn't bring any entertainment, and honestly didn't need any. I just wanted to rest as much as possible before it was showtime and I certainly didn't need any entertainment once DS arrived.
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38 hours. Went for a walk, gardened, went shopping and created a bonsai graft, watched the last episode of Ken Burns national park series. After I went in to the hospital, it was game on. I only labored there for 11 hours. I tried to sleep, I walked, got an epidural and then had a baby!
there was a tv on in the delivery room which DH and my doula watched a little because at one point I was falling asleep between contractions.
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