Biba
08-08-2008, 01:10pm
Warning very very long!!!
I thought I would write this now while I still remember some of it, I haven’t really got the timings right and don’t know how long each stage lasted for as I never had a chance for a look at my labour notes like last time. All the way through this pregnancy the baby never had a nickname really like when I was pregnant with Jack but he does have one now, he is now wriggle as whilst I was in labour he moved around so much and each time the midwife tried to check on him with the Doppler she had to find him first, I was watching my belly move and shake and have never seen anything like it before he just wriggled so much and even as his head was almost there he was moving it from side to side like he was dancing on his way out!
I had had period style aches on and off on the Monday 15th and then pretty much all morning Tuesday DH had a half day off and had arranged to be home the next 2 days as where he was supposed to be working there was little or no mobile reception good job too in hindsight! He came home at lunch time and we gave Jack his lunch put him in bed and I had a shower and was going to have a lie down, by the time I had done all that Jack was nearly due to wake up but I laid on the bed anyway and at about 2.35pm I felt my first contraction, I phoned my Mum and let her know as she had plans that she needed to change, we just pottered during the afternoon, and I cooked tea and we did our normal evening routine. We got Jack to bed at normal time 8ish and all the while the contractions had been getting stronger and closer together. Once Jack was in bed I watched a bit of telly bouncing on my birthing ball timing the contractions and DH did a few things he had to at about 10ish I came upstairs to our room where he was and asked him to put the TENS machine on and to finish off putting the washing away as I wanted everything tidy when I left the house and by 10.30 was really feeling things so went downstairs phoned my Mum and the hospital. My Mum said she would be half and hour (I think she was a bit longer really) but once I had phoned the hospital I really felt like I needed to be there so we got PIL to come around and fill in until my Mum got here but they all turned up at the same time! They waved us off and then we were on our way.
I looked at the clock in the car and it was 12.09 when we parked up and headed to the labour ward. When we got there we were shown to our room, we were left on our own for quite a while and then our Midwife Michelle came in and did some bits and pieces and check me to see how far dilated I was and I was quite pleased to hear I was 6cm. It all becomes a bit of a blur after that. She checked my blood pressure several times and that seemed OK but I did have ++ protein in my wee so they took some blood, when I asked whet would happen if it wasn’t good she never really answered my question and did this several times when I asked her a direct question which did annoy me I also remember each time she popped out of the room when she came back in she smelt like biscuits as she had been eating them and bizarrely enough I even noticed it was Rich Tea or Digestives!!. I had been standing and rocking and breathing through the contractions all this time but my legs and feet were getting so swollen I ended up sitting on the edge of the bed at some point. I did ask about the birthing pool which I knew was free and had asked when I rang the hospital and they had said someone had just delivered in there but I might be able to use it Michelle told us that I was the 3rd person to ask and they were just too short staffed to let anyone use it. After having 4 or 5 contractions that I really struggled with I asked for the gas and air but I didn’t get on with it for a while as it was making my mouth really dry and making me gag. It did get better though and I was guzzling water like it was going out of fashion between each contraction then which isn’t a bad thing. At some point she asked me to move as she wanted to be able to see if the baby was making his or her way down, I was leaning over the back of the bed which was fine for a while I then had random urges to push and did for a while but didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere and was getting very hot and uncomfortable she had also got the room ready for the baby to arrive and this gave me a bit of false hope I think. I can’t remember the sequence of the next bit very well but she said she would check me after the next few contractions if she didn’t see some sign of the baby she then left the room I then had and almighty urge to push and it felt like it was the head and I told DH that and told him to ring the bell but it turned out to be just my waters bulging out and popping I felt so demoralised that it was only my waters. After a while I had to move so she could check to see what was going on and that was a really difficult and hurt loads! When she did check me again She then told me that I had to stop pushing as I still had a tiny bit of cervix left, I was so gutted and felt so low at that point as I was struggling to not push but knew that if I did I was only going to make it worse and make it take longer. I had been moaning for ages about it really hurting but this was something else and again when I asked her what would happen if I couldn’t do it she said simply it would be longer and harder, gutted again. I had stopped using the gas and air at some point and picked it up again and started to try an breath through each contraction and did manage not to push too much or too hard, I had asked her how long it would take for the last bit to go and she said and hour at which point I cried and then she said in first labours she then offered me a half dose of pethadine which I agreed to reluctantly as I didn’t really want it but knew I needed something to cope and help me through the next hour she checked me again but wasn’t sure so a Dr came to check but she hardly said a word to me and I had to tell her to stop just as she was starting as I had a contraction and she seemed a bit pi$$ed off about that, she didn’t talk to me but just mumbled to Michelle she is fully and with that Michelle said I could go for it so I did! I was pushing my self up on my arms with each contraction (boy did I feel that the next day) and at one point she said hold my hands so instead of the effort going down it was going forward and this did really help with a couple of contractions to really bring him down. She then told me I could feel his head which I did but TBH I couldn’t really tell the difference between that and my bits and the membranes!!! She then asked me if I wanted to try the birthing stool which I said yes to as I would have gladly done anything at that point to get the baby out as I was in so much pain, she couldn’t find it though so someone else must have been using it when she came back she then gave me the option of having my legs up in stirrups she said it would be horrible (she didn’t lie!) but that it would help and again she was right a few more pushes and he was there and all of a sudden the pain was gone for about 5 min at which point my tear and the after pains kicked in!!! When she delivered the placenta she also commented on the size of it as it was so big, in fact she said the biggest she had seen in a long time so we both had a good gawp at it, never something I really thought about doing before but after her comments I thought I should see it! She said I had torn along my old episiotomy scar and it was quite bad and had a good poke and said she wanted a Dr to have a look and I might have to go to theatre I didn’t in the end I had a big black Dr called Will that kept on calling me Madam all the time and kept saying sorry when I winced which I thought was quite funny. We were then left on our own with our new baby boy. Michelle came back in at some point and weighed and measured William and even before she weighed him said what a big boy he was and we were a little at the weight of 9lb 4oz and he was a long baby too at 54cm. I don’t know what his apgars were and TBH no-one checked him properly for at least an hour. The nice bonding time then kind of dragged and we felt like we had been forgotten, I was taken for a shower ages later but someone had queue jumped and was already in there so I was taken back to our room then there was a change of shift and again I was forgotten and it wasn’t until I asked DH to ring the buzzer as I needed a wee that they realised that I hadn’t been for my shower. Once sorted though we were taken to the post natal ward and the delays paid off as I had a side room, we then had another lovely midwife Lorraine and she arranged for us to be transferred to the midwife led unit and made sure everything was done as quickly as it could be I did need another shot of anti-d which was the only thing to hold us up, that and a visit from the physio as I was having problems with my bladder but I resolved that on my own when I was told that if I couldn’t do a proper long wee and empty my bladder then they would stick a catheter in and I would be allowed to transfer! By this point we were both so shell shocked as we had been up for 28 or 29 hours and both kept nodding off, but we were discharged and made our way to the blissful midwife led unit and got there at about 1.30pm where they looked after me and Will until Saturday morning when we came home. I have to say the women that work there are fantastic and I love them so much for what they do and how they do it, I think my recovery so good and fast because of them.
I thought I would write this now while I still remember some of it, I haven’t really got the timings right and don’t know how long each stage lasted for as I never had a chance for a look at my labour notes like last time. All the way through this pregnancy the baby never had a nickname really like when I was pregnant with Jack but he does have one now, he is now wriggle as whilst I was in labour he moved around so much and each time the midwife tried to check on him with the Doppler she had to find him first, I was watching my belly move and shake and have never seen anything like it before he just wriggled so much and even as his head was almost there he was moving it from side to side like he was dancing on his way out!
I had had period style aches on and off on the Monday 15th and then pretty much all morning Tuesday DH had a half day off and had arranged to be home the next 2 days as where he was supposed to be working there was little or no mobile reception good job too in hindsight! He came home at lunch time and we gave Jack his lunch put him in bed and I had a shower and was going to have a lie down, by the time I had done all that Jack was nearly due to wake up but I laid on the bed anyway and at about 2.35pm I felt my first contraction, I phoned my Mum and let her know as she had plans that she needed to change, we just pottered during the afternoon, and I cooked tea and we did our normal evening routine. We got Jack to bed at normal time 8ish and all the while the contractions had been getting stronger and closer together. Once Jack was in bed I watched a bit of telly bouncing on my birthing ball timing the contractions and DH did a few things he had to at about 10ish I came upstairs to our room where he was and asked him to put the TENS machine on and to finish off putting the washing away as I wanted everything tidy when I left the house and by 10.30 was really feeling things so went downstairs phoned my Mum and the hospital. My Mum said she would be half and hour (I think she was a bit longer really) but once I had phoned the hospital I really felt like I needed to be there so we got PIL to come around and fill in until my Mum got here but they all turned up at the same time! They waved us off and then we were on our way.
I looked at the clock in the car and it was 12.09 when we parked up and headed to the labour ward. When we got there we were shown to our room, we were left on our own for quite a while and then our Midwife Michelle came in and did some bits and pieces and check me to see how far dilated I was and I was quite pleased to hear I was 6cm. It all becomes a bit of a blur after that. She checked my blood pressure several times and that seemed OK but I did have ++ protein in my wee so they took some blood, when I asked whet would happen if it wasn’t good she never really answered my question and did this several times when I asked her a direct question which did annoy me I also remember each time she popped out of the room when she came back in she smelt like biscuits as she had been eating them and bizarrely enough I even noticed it was Rich Tea or Digestives!!. I had been standing and rocking and breathing through the contractions all this time but my legs and feet were getting so swollen I ended up sitting on the edge of the bed at some point. I did ask about the birthing pool which I knew was free and had asked when I rang the hospital and they had said someone had just delivered in there but I might be able to use it Michelle told us that I was the 3rd person to ask and they were just too short staffed to let anyone use it. After having 4 or 5 contractions that I really struggled with I asked for the gas and air but I didn’t get on with it for a while as it was making my mouth really dry and making me gag. It did get better though and I was guzzling water like it was going out of fashion between each contraction then which isn’t a bad thing. At some point she asked me to move as she wanted to be able to see if the baby was making his or her way down, I was leaning over the back of the bed which was fine for a while I then had random urges to push and did for a while but didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere and was getting very hot and uncomfortable she had also got the room ready for the baby to arrive and this gave me a bit of false hope I think. I can’t remember the sequence of the next bit very well but she said she would check me after the next few contractions if she didn’t see some sign of the baby she then left the room I then had and almighty urge to push and it felt like it was the head and I told DH that and told him to ring the bell but it turned out to be just my waters bulging out and popping I felt so demoralised that it was only my waters. After a while I had to move so she could check to see what was going on and that was a really difficult and hurt loads! When she did check me again She then told me that I had to stop pushing as I still had a tiny bit of cervix left, I was so gutted and felt so low at that point as I was struggling to not push but knew that if I did I was only going to make it worse and make it take longer. I had been moaning for ages about it really hurting but this was something else and again when I asked her what would happen if I couldn’t do it she said simply it would be longer and harder, gutted again. I had stopped using the gas and air at some point and picked it up again and started to try an breath through each contraction and did manage not to push too much or too hard, I had asked her how long it would take for the last bit to go and she said and hour at which point I cried and then she said in first labours she then offered me a half dose of pethadine which I agreed to reluctantly as I didn’t really want it but knew I needed something to cope and help me through the next hour she checked me again but wasn’t sure so a Dr came to check but she hardly said a word to me and I had to tell her to stop just as she was starting as I had a contraction and she seemed a bit pi$$ed off about that, she didn’t talk to me but just mumbled to Michelle she is fully and with that Michelle said I could go for it so I did! I was pushing my self up on my arms with each contraction (boy did I feel that the next day) and at one point she said hold my hands so instead of the effort going down it was going forward and this did really help with a couple of contractions to really bring him down. She then told me I could feel his head which I did but TBH I couldn’t really tell the difference between that and my bits and the membranes!!! She then asked me if I wanted to try the birthing stool which I said yes to as I would have gladly done anything at that point to get the baby out as I was in so much pain, she couldn’t find it though so someone else must have been using it when she came back she then gave me the option of having my legs up in stirrups she said it would be horrible (she didn’t lie!) but that it would help and again she was right a few more pushes and he was there and all of a sudden the pain was gone for about 5 min at which point my tear and the after pains kicked in!!! When she delivered the placenta she also commented on the size of it as it was so big, in fact she said the biggest she had seen in a long time so we both had a good gawp at it, never something I really thought about doing before but after her comments I thought I should see it! She said I had torn along my old episiotomy scar and it was quite bad and had a good poke and said she wanted a Dr to have a look and I might have to go to theatre I didn’t in the end I had a big black Dr called Will that kept on calling me Madam all the time and kept saying sorry when I winced which I thought was quite funny. We were then left on our own with our new baby boy. Michelle came back in at some point and weighed and measured William and even before she weighed him said what a big boy he was and we were a little at the weight of 9lb 4oz and he was a long baby too at 54cm. I don’t know what his apgars were and TBH no-one checked him properly for at least an hour. The nice bonding time then kind of dragged and we felt like we had been forgotten, I was taken for a shower ages later but someone had queue jumped and was already in there so I was taken back to our room then there was a change of shift and again I was forgotten and it wasn’t until I asked DH to ring the buzzer as I needed a wee that they realised that I hadn’t been for my shower. Once sorted though we were taken to the post natal ward and the delays paid off as I had a side room, we then had another lovely midwife Lorraine and she arranged for us to be transferred to the midwife led unit and made sure everything was done as quickly as it could be I did need another shot of anti-d which was the only thing to hold us up, that and a visit from the physio as I was having problems with my bladder but I resolved that on my own when I was told that if I couldn’t do a proper long wee and empty my bladder then they would stick a catheter in and I would be allowed to transfer! By this point we were both so shell shocked as we had been up for 28 or 29 hours and both kept nodding off, but we were discharged and made our way to the blissful midwife led unit and got there at about 1.30pm where they looked after me and Will until Saturday morning when we came home. I have to say the women that work there are fantastic and I love them so much for what they do and how they do it, I think my recovery so good and fast because of them.