Noah_and_Elijah
23-04-2008, 19:31
It all began at 7:30pm on 16th April 2008. I was sitting at my computer talking on MSN to Fran and joking about the possibility of going into labour that night when I started having period like cramps in my lower stomach and my lower back began to ache. I didn’t really think much of it as I’d be having the same pre-labour symptoms for about a week previous and it never eventuated into anything. At 8:30pm I was settling in to watch ‘Underbelly’ on the TV because it is my favourite show and I never miss an episode. By about 9:00pm the pain in my lower back was uncomfortable enough for me to use a heat pack and the cramps in my stomach had become regular contractions lasting 30 – 45 seconds every 5 minutes but they weren’t painful, just uncomfortable. My hospital had told me previously that because I lived about 45 minutes away and it was my second baby that once contractions hit 5 minutes apart I was to go straight in regardless of how I felt so at 9:30pm I starting packing the last of my hospital bag, organised Noah and my Dad drove me and my younger sister Catie (birth support partner) to the hospital.
We arrived at Redlands Hospital in Cleveland at 10:30pm and were greeted by midwife ‘Rosamie’ who proceeded to take me to my room (Karragarra Ward, room # 8) where she asked me to lay on the bed and she strapped the CTG machine to my belly to trace bubs movements. Everything pretty much came to a complete stop and in the 60 minutes that they were monitoring the baby I only had 3 contractions and the intensity was pitiful to say the least. She then did an internal to check my progress and said that she couldn’t even reach my cervix because it was so far back and unfortunately she didn’t think that I was in labour so I would have to be sent home. I was a bit p!ssed off by this stage because I was more than happy to labour at home for a lot longer but only left for the hospital because they told me ‘not to risk it’ being my second baby as they are ‘usually’ faster deliveries. Rosamie could see that I was disappointed so she suggested that Catie and I go for a walk around the hospital to try and get things moving and that she would check my progress again in one hour.
At approximately midnight Catie and I went to the vending machine and brought burger rings because I was STARVING and then we proceeded to walk up and down the hospital corridors for 45 minutes trying to get things moving again. I was skipping along like an absolute fool while texting my ‘SMS buddy’ Cass to let her know what was happening. My contractions had started coming every 5 minutes again, lasting for approximately 50 seconds each. They were noticeable but I could still manage to walk and talk through them without any difficulty so I knew that it was still early days. I went back up to my room on the ward and just lay on the bed and complained that I’d wish things would hurry up because I’m tired and bored.
I asked Catie to go to the kitchen and make me a coffee because I was falling asleep but she wouldn’t so I got p!ssed off at her and told her that I wish she’d never come as a birthing support person because she SUCKED and apart from being the official photographer she was now banned from being a support person so she had to keep her mouth shut and stay away from me! Poor Catie!
At 2:00am my contractions started coming every 3 minutes and were lasting between 50 and 60 seconds each and they were starting to become uncomfortable so had to concentrate on my breathing through each one. At 2:30am I asked Rosamie to do another internal to see if I had made any progress because I now believed that I was in the early stages of labour. She told me that in fact I was already 5cm dilated and they would now class me as being in ‘established labour’ and would be taking me up to the birth suites shortly.
We arrived at the birth suite at 3:00am (birth suite # 5) and my contractions were becoming pretty painful so I continued to breathe through them and telling myself that I was a ‘birthing goddess’ and that I ‘can do anything I put my mind to’ and this was working until I started thinking about Fran and how much I had wanted him to be at the birth of his son regardless of whether we were still together or not and I remembered how supportive he was of me when Noah was born and I started to panic… I lost all focus and my faith that I had in myself went out the window. I told Rosamie that I wanted an epidural… I told her that I couldn’t do this on my own and I wanted one NOW! She and I both knew that I was too far along for one but she humoured my anyway and gave me a canula (drip) in my hand and told me to hop up on the bed and wait for the anaesthetist.
I continued to labour on my side on the bed as it was the only way that I could get remotely comfortable as the contractions were coming harder and stronger I and knew that if I got off the bed and remained active that I had no chance of getting my epidural so I continued to pretend that I couldn’t move. I started really panicking that Fran wasn’t with me and told Rosamie that I needed him here NOW and that I need that epidural NOW because it will be too late otherwise. I could feel huge amounts of pressure in my bottom area and screamed “I can feel the pressure but I’m not pushing until I get my f*cking epidural” – Rosamie asked me if I wanted to try some gas for pain relief because until then I had received nothing, I told her yes but then instantly changed my mind saying ‘no I don’t want your stupid gas, don’t give me the gas’. She then told me that the epidural wouldn’t be coming and if I felt the need then at a later stage that I could try some pethidine and I said ‘don’t you dare come near me with that sh!t, I hate pethidine, I hate needles, don’t you dare!’ Apparently I was saying ‘I don’t want your drugs and I don’t need your drugs, but I want my epidural because I can’t do this without Fran’…
Rosamie gave me an internal at 3:45am and said that I was fully dilated and my membranes were “bulging, bulging, bulging” so she was going to break my waters and allow this baby to be born. I was still laying on my side at this stage and had one leg up so that my legs were slightly open and I quickly closed them and said ‘you come anywhere near me with that thing (the instrument they use to break your membranes) then I will kick you! Get away from me! Don’t touch me!’
I felt incredible pressure with the next contraction so propped my leg back up and opened my legs and POP at 3:50am my waters go bursting across the room. My sister was taking photos from a distance and had to jump out the way, as they narrowly missed spraying her! I felt a little bit of relief when they burst and I remember hearing Rosamie say to the other midwife who was in the room ‘oh we have some mecconium’ meaning the baby was distressed from things progressing so quickly and had done a poop inside me! The smell was bad too… BLAH!
The next contraction came and I felt SO much pressure in my bottom, it actually felt a little bit like someone was getting my pelvic bone and pulling it apart. There wasn’t any ‘pain’ as such just huge pressure and the feeling of needing to do a big poop!! I instinctively started pushing and Rosamie told me that she could see bubs head and I felt him crowning. The crowning stage surprised me because I was so fearful of it yet it really didn’t hurt, it was the pressure that was unbearable the crowning was nothing. I felt his head emerge and a few seconds later pushed again and his shoulders and body slid out. What an incredible sense of relief I felt when the rest of his body was born, it was like my insides had fallen out or something!! I immediately fell back on to the bed and went ‘UGH’ with relief and then remembered that my baby had been born so looked down and helped him get lifted up onto my chest. It was amazing!
I had lost all faith in myself at one stage but just proved that I could do it. I had a natural birth, completely drug free with absolutely no support from anyone! Words cannot even begin to describe what a great sense of satisfaction that I feel. My self confidence is through the roof and hope that I can give hope to every other single Mother out there (well all Mothers really) that you CAN do it and if you believe in yourself enough then you can do anything!
Fran has since met Elijah and we are both just so incredibly in love with our little creation. Noah loves his little brother but is going through a very jealous stage at the moment but I’m sure everything will settle in time.
Elijah Andrew H******
17-04-2008 (39 weeks gestation)
3:54am
8lb 4oz
54cm long
34cm head circumference
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n11/ATD-FAH/Untitled1.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n11/ATD-FAH/DSC00719.jpg
We arrived at Redlands Hospital in Cleveland at 10:30pm and were greeted by midwife ‘Rosamie’ who proceeded to take me to my room (Karragarra Ward, room # 8) where she asked me to lay on the bed and she strapped the CTG machine to my belly to trace bubs movements. Everything pretty much came to a complete stop and in the 60 minutes that they were monitoring the baby I only had 3 contractions and the intensity was pitiful to say the least. She then did an internal to check my progress and said that she couldn’t even reach my cervix because it was so far back and unfortunately she didn’t think that I was in labour so I would have to be sent home. I was a bit p!ssed off by this stage because I was more than happy to labour at home for a lot longer but only left for the hospital because they told me ‘not to risk it’ being my second baby as they are ‘usually’ faster deliveries. Rosamie could see that I was disappointed so she suggested that Catie and I go for a walk around the hospital to try and get things moving and that she would check my progress again in one hour.
At approximately midnight Catie and I went to the vending machine and brought burger rings because I was STARVING and then we proceeded to walk up and down the hospital corridors for 45 minutes trying to get things moving again. I was skipping along like an absolute fool while texting my ‘SMS buddy’ Cass to let her know what was happening. My contractions had started coming every 5 minutes again, lasting for approximately 50 seconds each. They were noticeable but I could still manage to walk and talk through them without any difficulty so I knew that it was still early days. I went back up to my room on the ward and just lay on the bed and complained that I’d wish things would hurry up because I’m tired and bored.
I asked Catie to go to the kitchen and make me a coffee because I was falling asleep but she wouldn’t so I got p!ssed off at her and told her that I wish she’d never come as a birthing support person because she SUCKED and apart from being the official photographer she was now banned from being a support person so she had to keep her mouth shut and stay away from me! Poor Catie!
At 2:00am my contractions started coming every 3 minutes and were lasting between 50 and 60 seconds each and they were starting to become uncomfortable so had to concentrate on my breathing through each one. At 2:30am I asked Rosamie to do another internal to see if I had made any progress because I now believed that I was in the early stages of labour. She told me that in fact I was already 5cm dilated and they would now class me as being in ‘established labour’ and would be taking me up to the birth suites shortly.
We arrived at the birth suite at 3:00am (birth suite # 5) and my contractions were becoming pretty painful so I continued to breathe through them and telling myself that I was a ‘birthing goddess’ and that I ‘can do anything I put my mind to’ and this was working until I started thinking about Fran and how much I had wanted him to be at the birth of his son regardless of whether we were still together or not and I remembered how supportive he was of me when Noah was born and I started to panic… I lost all focus and my faith that I had in myself went out the window. I told Rosamie that I wanted an epidural… I told her that I couldn’t do this on my own and I wanted one NOW! She and I both knew that I was too far along for one but she humoured my anyway and gave me a canula (drip) in my hand and told me to hop up on the bed and wait for the anaesthetist.
I continued to labour on my side on the bed as it was the only way that I could get remotely comfortable as the contractions were coming harder and stronger I and knew that if I got off the bed and remained active that I had no chance of getting my epidural so I continued to pretend that I couldn’t move. I started really panicking that Fran wasn’t with me and told Rosamie that I needed him here NOW and that I need that epidural NOW because it will be too late otherwise. I could feel huge amounts of pressure in my bottom area and screamed “I can feel the pressure but I’m not pushing until I get my f*cking epidural” – Rosamie asked me if I wanted to try some gas for pain relief because until then I had received nothing, I told her yes but then instantly changed my mind saying ‘no I don’t want your stupid gas, don’t give me the gas’. She then told me that the epidural wouldn’t be coming and if I felt the need then at a later stage that I could try some pethidine and I said ‘don’t you dare come near me with that sh!t, I hate pethidine, I hate needles, don’t you dare!’ Apparently I was saying ‘I don’t want your drugs and I don’t need your drugs, but I want my epidural because I can’t do this without Fran’…
Rosamie gave me an internal at 3:45am and said that I was fully dilated and my membranes were “bulging, bulging, bulging” so she was going to break my waters and allow this baby to be born. I was still laying on my side at this stage and had one leg up so that my legs were slightly open and I quickly closed them and said ‘you come anywhere near me with that thing (the instrument they use to break your membranes) then I will kick you! Get away from me! Don’t touch me!’
I felt incredible pressure with the next contraction so propped my leg back up and opened my legs and POP at 3:50am my waters go bursting across the room. My sister was taking photos from a distance and had to jump out the way, as they narrowly missed spraying her! I felt a little bit of relief when they burst and I remember hearing Rosamie say to the other midwife who was in the room ‘oh we have some mecconium’ meaning the baby was distressed from things progressing so quickly and had done a poop inside me! The smell was bad too… BLAH!
The next contraction came and I felt SO much pressure in my bottom, it actually felt a little bit like someone was getting my pelvic bone and pulling it apart. There wasn’t any ‘pain’ as such just huge pressure and the feeling of needing to do a big poop!! I instinctively started pushing and Rosamie told me that she could see bubs head and I felt him crowning. The crowning stage surprised me because I was so fearful of it yet it really didn’t hurt, it was the pressure that was unbearable the crowning was nothing. I felt his head emerge and a few seconds later pushed again and his shoulders and body slid out. What an incredible sense of relief I felt when the rest of his body was born, it was like my insides had fallen out or something!! I immediately fell back on to the bed and went ‘UGH’ with relief and then remembered that my baby had been born so looked down and helped him get lifted up onto my chest. It was amazing!
I had lost all faith in myself at one stage but just proved that I could do it. I had a natural birth, completely drug free with absolutely no support from anyone! Words cannot even begin to describe what a great sense of satisfaction that I feel. My self confidence is through the roof and hope that I can give hope to every other single Mother out there (well all Mothers really) that you CAN do it and if you believe in yourself enough then you can do anything!
Fran has since met Elijah and we are both just so incredibly in love with our little creation. Noah loves his little brother but is going through a very jealous stage at the moment but I’m sure everything will settle in time.
Elijah Andrew H******
17-04-2008 (39 weeks gestation)
3:54am
8lb 4oz
54cm long
34cm head circumference
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n11/ATD-FAH/Untitled1.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n11/ATD-FAH/DSC00719.jpg