DQ
26-07-2007, 14:30
WARNING: This will be a novel :o
It all started at about 33 weeks gestation when my BP started to rise and I was spending upwards of 3 days per week at the hospital for BP checks and trace monitorings on the baby. I was even threatened with being sent to Sydney to deliver as I was becoming too high risk for my local hospital.
Fast forward almost 6 weeks and I had developed a mild case of pre-eclampsia so it was induction bound for me. I was petrified of induction as I was also attempting a VBAC and had heard that induction can double all risks associated with VBAC.
I got to the hospital at 8am on Thursday morning 19 July. The OB did an internal and found that I had dilated another 1.5cm since the previous internal a week earlier so was already 3cm dilated. However, also like the week before, bubba had his hand on the top of his head and his arm in front of his face. The OB said he could break my waters, but with bub in this position we faced the risk that his arm would prolapse and I would be rushed into theatre. He told us to walk around for a few hours to see if bub would move his hand.
So we walked and walked and I did not sit down. I was on my feet from about 9am until about 11:30 when we went back to the hospital to be checked again. The OB did another internal and found bub had moved his arm. He then broke my waters at 11:45am. FINALLY things were starting to move. I had a few niggly little pains on and off, but nothing to write home about. Bub was constantly monitored throughout the whole ordeal so it was difficult to move. Especially difficult to get contractions happening naturally when you are on a bed strapped to machines. Anyway nothing much was happening so I was given the lowest dose possible of syntocinin at about 1pm. By 3pm things were moving, but not fast enough, so I was given a slightly higher dose of syntocinin. The OB then gave me to 6pm to be in active labour, otherwise I was theatre bound. The midwife started talking to me about pain relief and what my choices were. I told her that I hated epidurals and didn’t want one, but that I would consider pethadine as a last resort as I don’t like how sleepy it makes the baby. I didn’t know it at that time, but these comments of mine would come back to bite me in the butt, big time.
Between 3pm and 5pm my contractions started coming every 3 minutes and were slowly becoming excruciating. Then all those invaluable questions and remarks start flooding through your head like “What the bloody hell was I thinking?” and “Okay that’s enough now, you can take me to theatre”. By 5pm I was in so much pain and was literally praying to God with each contraction that my scar held up and didn’t rupture. I was so scared about my scar holding up under all that pressure.
By 5pm I told my husband that I wanted to go upstairs to theatre because I didn’t think I could do it anymore. The pain was becoming unbearable and was now traveling down my back and tailbone. He encouraged me to give it a little bit longer and to hang in there because he believed I could do it. Then the OB came back and announced “Oh I reckon you will deliver by 6pm”. I looked at the clock and it was 5:20pm, so I figured Okay I’ll go to 6pm, but that’s it, and I wanted pethadine NOW. The middie repeated what I had said earlier about not wanting pethadine, but relented when she saw me winding up to chuck a tanty. She did an internal and said I was 6cm, but went to 7cm when a contraction came. She said at 5:30pm, she would now classify me as “in active labour”.
I remember thinking after I had the pethadine shot that it was taking a long time to kick in. I kept looking at the clock thinking “any time now this pain will be eased a little, any time now”. Any time never really came. All the shot did was give me back some of my focus and allowed me to start to concentrate again instead of flipping out. The pain was still there though.
That was because unbeknown to me, I was only given a half dose of the pethadine as the middie was really trying to help me achieve the birth she knew I wanted, even though I was chucking tantrums at her.
The next minute the fire alarm sounded and all the fire doors slammed closed. We could hear the fire truck sirens in the distance and I just told them “I ain’t moving anywhere” . After a few minutes a fire fighter made an announcement that all was clear and then everything went back to normal. Just my luck!
My annoying (but wonderful) DH with his camera during the fire lockdown.
Get that camera out of my face (http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/dramaqueen_078/labour1.jpg)
Anyway the clock hit 6pm and I remember saying to the middie “The doc said I would deliver by 6pm, if I hit 6:30pm then I’m gonna clip him up the ear”. The middie said “Uh Oh, shes getting violent”. At that time the OB walked in and announced “Oh you’ll deliver by 7pm”. I screamed at him to stop saying that, and reminded him that an hour ago he said I’d deliver by 6pm. They all just laughed at me and carried on as usual. The next time I looked at the clock it was about 6:30pm and the contractions became harder to concentrate through. I started asking for an epidural, but as soon as the words left my mouth I regretted them. The middie kinda knew too cause she kept telling me that the anaesthetist was 5 minutes away. 15 minutes later, she was still 5minutes away. I remember telling the middie to stop humouring me and that she was a bad liar because I knew the anaesthetist wasn’t coming. She just smiled at me.
During this whole time my husband was getting me jugs of ice and water and kept wetting a face washer and wiping my head and face.
Time just sort of flew by from then cause the next thing I knew it was 7:15pm and I started feeling all jittery. Then that fierce urge to push started and she did another internal. I don’t remember hearing her say anything after that because I had to ask her if I felt the urge to push, could I. She said yes.
That was enough for me. I had about 3 contractions in the space of 10 minutes and with each one I gave it everything I had. All thoughts of any scars rupturing etc, completely vanished from my mind as I had a job to do and the less time it took for that job to be done, the better.
The next thing I knew my little man was lifted straight up onto my belly and I instantly felt ok again. In fact, I was quite embarrassed at myself for having such a whinge only an hour earlier.
I did it! (http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/dramaqueen_078/mumJesse.jpg)
Jesse Jacob (http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/dramaqueen_078/Jessejustborn.jpg)
The usual formalities were done and my baby boy was wrapped up and given back to me. A proud dad pounced around the room with his camera around his neck and a smile across his face. He leant down to me and simply said “See, you did it”.
Jesse Jacob was born at 7:26pm on Thursday 19 July 2007. He weighed 8pd 12oz, was 52 cms in length and had a head circumference of 36cm. He took straight to the breast.
Hello World! (http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/dramaqueen_078/newbornJesse.jpg)
So I really did get my VBAC and I am so happy. However, there is no way in the world that I could have achieved it without my wonderful husband there supporting me and a midwife that did absolutely everything in her power to give me the birth I wanted, even if she did tell me a couple of fibs along the way.
It all started at about 33 weeks gestation when my BP started to rise and I was spending upwards of 3 days per week at the hospital for BP checks and trace monitorings on the baby. I was even threatened with being sent to Sydney to deliver as I was becoming too high risk for my local hospital.
Fast forward almost 6 weeks and I had developed a mild case of pre-eclampsia so it was induction bound for me. I was petrified of induction as I was also attempting a VBAC and had heard that induction can double all risks associated with VBAC.
I got to the hospital at 8am on Thursday morning 19 July. The OB did an internal and found that I had dilated another 1.5cm since the previous internal a week earlier so was already 3cm dilated. However, also like the week before, bubba had his hand on the top of his head and his arm in front of his face. The OB said he could break my waters, but with bub in this position we faced the risk that his arm would prolapse and I would be rushed into theatre. He told us to walk around for a few hours to see if bub would move his hand.
So we walked and walked and I did not sit down. I was on my feet from about 9am until about 11:30 when we went back to the hospital to be checked again. The OB did another internal and found bub had moved his arm. He then broke my waters at 11:45am. FINALLY things were starting to move. I had a few niggly little pains on and off, but nothing to write home about. Bub was constantly monitored throughout the whole ordeal so it was difficult to move. Especially difficult to get contractions happening naturally when you are on a bed strapped to machines. Anyway nothing much was happening so I was given the lowest dose possible of syntocinin at about 1pm. By 3pm things were moving, but not fast enough, so I was given a slightly higher dose of syntocinin. The OB then gave me to 6pm to be in active labour, otherwise I was theatre bound. The midwife started talking to me about pain relief and what my choices were. I told her that I hated epidurals and didn’t want one, but that I would consider pethadine as a last resort as I don’t like how sleepy it makes the baby. I didn’t know it at that time, but these comments of mine would come back to bite me in the butt, big time.
Between 3pm and 5pm my contractions started coming every 3 minutes and were slowly becoming excruciating. Then all those invaluable questions and remarks start flooding through your head like “What the bloody hell was I thinking?” and “Okay that’s enough now, you can take me to theatre”. By 5pm I was in so much pain and was literally praying to God with each contraction that my scar held up and didn’t rupture. I was so scared about my scar holding up under all that pressure.
By 5pm I told my husband that I wanted to go upstairs to theatre because I didn’t think I could do it anymore. The pain was becoming unbearable and was now traveling down my back and tailbone. He encouraged me to give it a little bit longer and to hang in there because he believed I could do it. Then the OB came back and announced “Oh I reckon you will deliver by 6pm”. I looked at the clock and it was 5:20pm, so I figured Okay I’ll go to 6pm, but that’s it, and I wanted pethadine NOW. The middie repeated what I had said earlier about not wanting pethadine, but relented when she saw me winding up to chuck a tanty. She did an internal and said I was 6cm, but went to 7cm when a contraction came. She said at 5:30pm, she would now classify me as “in active labour”.
I remember thinking after I had the pethadine shot that it was taking a long time to kick in. I kept looking at the clock thinking “any time now this pain will be eased a little, any time now”. Any time never really came. All the shot did was give me back some of my focus and allowed me to start to concentrate again instead of flipping out. The pain was still there though.
That was because unbeknown to me, I was only given a half dose of the pethadine as the middie was really trying to help me achieve the birth she knew I wanted, even though I was chucking tantrums at her.
The next minute the fire alarm sounded and all the fire doors slammed closed. We could hear the fire truck sirens in the distance and I just told them “I ain’t moving anywhere” . After a few minutes a fire fighter made an announcement that all was clear and then everything went back to normal. Just my luck!
My annoying (but wonderful) DH with his camera during the fire lockdown.
Get that camera out of my face (http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/dramaqueen_078/labour1.jpg)
Anyway the clock hit 6pm and I remember saying to the middie “The doc said I would deliver by 6pm, if I hit 6:30pm then I’m gonna clip him up the ear”. The middie said “Uh Oh, shes getting violent”. At that time the OB walked in and announced “Oh you’ll deliver by 7pm”. I screamed at him to stop saying that, and reminded him that an hour ago he said I’d deliver by 6pm. They all just laughed at me and carried on as usual. The next time I looked at the clock it was about 6:30pm and the contractions became harder to concentrate through. I started asking for an epidural, but as soon as the words left my mouth I regretted them. The middie kinda knew too cause she kept telling me that the anaesthetist was 5 minutes away. 15 minutes later, she was still 5minutes away. I remember telling the middie to stop humouring me and that she was a bad liar because I knew the anaesthetist wasn’t coming. She just smiled at me.
During this whole time my husband was getting me jugs of ice and water and kept wetting a face washer and wiping my head and face.
Time just sort of flew by from then cause the next thing I knew it was 7:15pm and I started feeling all jittery. Then that fierce urge to push started and she did another internal. I don’t remember hearing her say anything after that because I had to ask her if I felt the urge to push, could I. She said yes.
That was enough for me. I had about 3 contractions in the space of 10 minutes and with each one I gave it everything I had. All thoughts of any scars rupturing etc, completely vanished from my mind as I had a job to do and the less time it took for that job to be done, the better.
The next thing I knew my little man was lifted straight up onto my belly and I instantly felt ok again. In fact, I was quite embarrassed at myself for having such a whinge only an hour earlier.
I did it! (http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/dramaqueen_078/mumJesse.jpg)
Jesse Jacob (http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/dramaqueen_078/Jessejustborn.jpg)
The usual formalities were done and my baby boy was wrapped up and given back to me. A proud dad pounced around the room with his camera around his neck and a smile across his face. He leant down to me and simply said “See, you did it”.
Jesse Jacob was born at 7:26pm on Thursday 19 July 2007. He weighed 8pd 12oz, was 52 cms in length and had a head circumference of 36cm. He took straight to the breast.
Hello World! (http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/dramaqueen_078/newbornJesse.jpg)
So I really did get my VBAC and I am so happy. However, there is no way in the world that I could have achieved it without my wonderful husband there supporting me and a midwife that did absolutely everything in her power to give me the birth I wanted, even if she did tell me a couple of fibs along the way.