mytilly
27-08-2008, 01:01 AM
I was sitting on a chair in the lounge when I felt my first contraction, although, I thought it was just a really bad pain, the same as what id been having since I was 15 weeks pregnant. Only, progressively through the pregnancy, they'd gotten worse and worse, I just thought it was the next step up, so didn’t take it to be a real contraction. That was at about 4:30pm, and as I got to a 21st at 5pm, they kept coming and getting a little worse, I felt really sick and could feel the baby moving down, but still didn’t realise what was happening. After having 2 bleeds and passing out countless times during pregnancy I was scared it was going to be a repeat episode, thinking I still had about a week and a half to go. So when they got worse, at about 7pm, mum and I left the party, and got in the car. I asked her to go past maccas, I was craving a cheeseburger... half way there i got a strong contraction i nearly cried from suprise. Mum pulled over and felt my belly as another one came, she felt it slightly. so we carried on our way to maccas, and then drove to my sister Sarah’s house, as id been planning on having her there for my birth, as 4 months earlier, id been there to help her through her labour, and I even cut her sons cord. So excitedly mum and I drove. When we got there Sarah quickly threw things together and we went home. I called the birth suite to let them know what was happening, and they were sure I was in very early stages so I calmly sat down and rocked. I received a phone call from my close cousin who'd come from Melbourne to see me, because she'd wanted to see my "big belly" before I had the baby, so I had her and Nan come around for a coffee while in labour! that was surreal, calmly talking about little baby things and her nursing degree while rocking backwards and forwards anticipating the birth of my baby, and finally finding out if id been right or not about the baby being a girl. I continued to get contractions and although they were fairly painful they started to ease off, and I thought that was weird, but just thought it must be normal. So I rang the baby's father and family (as we weren’t together, I was planning on being a single mum from the time we found out I was pregnant, which was after separating from him) to tell them what was going on. At about 330am on Sunday I rang the hospital again to let them know the contractions were basically gone, they were tiny little things that were uncomfortable but not really painful, and for almost 12 hours they stayed that way! At 2pm on the Sunday, while sitting at nans visiting them again and waiting for this baby to show itself, my waters broke, but I actually thought id had an accident and wet myself, it was only a very little bit, so didn’t think much of it. After that the contractions got stronger again, but not so bad that I couldn’t stand it. I went home, ate, showered and did my normal thing, and even fell asleep at 1130pm. An hour later at 1230am on Monday morning, I was woken to my waters gushing, and it was such a fright I cried and screamed out to mum who came running. The pains got worse and so I rang the hospital again, and they asked me to come in, and so at 130am after id showered and changed, I made my way in to be told that my labour was going to take its own sweet time and that it wasn’t so unusual, and so I went home again. At 3am the contractions kicked in, they started coming 5 minutes apart and I knew this was it. I stayed on the recliner as long as I thought I could, the pains were getting incredibly hard to bare, and at 3:45am I called the hospital and an hour later made my way back in. When I got there, the back pain and hip pain was just as bad if not worse than the contractions and so I was ready to accept gas as pain relief, now that my contractions were coming every 2 minutes. At 8am that morning after convincing my sister to put a cd on, we sat and sung songs to try and calm myself, it was hard to keep my mind from worrying, the birth classes id attended hadn't warned of what was happening to me. So while singing, and overly emotional, I was laughing and making jokes with my sister, before being given an internal examination, only to find I was only 1cm dilated!! That was really hard to hear, when my body was aching all over, my hips were having a hard time as well as my back. The midwives couldn’t keep me there, I had to go home because they didn’t think id have the baby within 12 hours, and they couldn’t keep me there longer than that, so I was forced to go home at 10am, with a promise of "if you really cant handle it, come back". So I left with just mum, we hadn’t eaten since McDonalds on Saturday night so we went to get an early lunch for energy and every bump we hit on the road was agony. I was very reluctant to go home as I knew what id do once I was there -- panic -- so for an hour we stayed away before finally going home. I lasted only 3 hours before I rang the hospital and said I'm coming back, I can’t do this here. Id been walking the hallway for almost the entire 3 hours id been there, so we made our way back to the hospital, and at this stage my dad and sister joined us in the birth suite, to support me and mum -- who hadn't left my side since Saturday --. At 4pm, when I was complaining of needing to push, they did another internal to discover I was only 4 cms, so I asked for a pethidine shot. After they'd given that to me, I didn’t realise it'd take 15 minutes to kick in, and with contractions coming every minute and last for about 45seconds, after half an hour which surprisingly went fairly quickly, I asked when the shot would kick in, and the midwife said it should have by now, but it didn’t seem to have worked, the contractions had just gotten stronger and stronger and so I asked for an epidural which id have to wait until 10pm for, so I said for them to prepare it. My contractions kept up at minute intervals still lasting for 30-45 seconds, and at 10pm to make sure I could have an epidural I was given an internal, to hear 5cms, meaning at least I could have an epidural. So the doctor came in and prepared and at about 11pm he inserted the epidural, and after one failed attempt he was sure it was in and would work, so he left. They immediately gave me a high dose to numb me, but no relief came, I could feel everything and it was only getting worse. Dad was by my side at this stage and it was nearing 1130, exhausted with contractions only coming longer and closer I was crying to him and asking him to make it all end, so the midwife gave another high dose of pain relief, which also didn’t work. The pressure of holding off from pushing, and fighting against my body not to push when that’s what it'd been wanting to do every contraction for the last 7 and a half hours, made the midwife assure me she'd do another internal and if still not progressing she'd call the doctor back to find out why the epidural hadn’t worked, and at 1150pm, I was told I was 9.5cms dilated and she could "push this little bit over" so that I could push!! In only two hours my body had gone from 5cms to 9.5cms dilated!! Music to my ears I pushed with each contraction, and although it took awhile, at 12:55am on Tuesday the 29th of January, my healthy little girl was born, weighing 6 pound 13. I was so exhausted I couldn’t cry, I lay there holding my beautiful baby against my chest, smiling, and admiring her. Dad was crying, and patting my shoulder, mum was busy preparing to cut the cord and Sarah was filming it all. As soon as they put her on my chest she opened her eyes and sparkles came. She stared and me, and me at her. I was so proud of her, and proud of myself too. After I delivered the placenta, I asked the midwife, how badly id torn, I was convinced it would be big, but I didn’t hurt the way I thought it would, and after an exam, I was extremely surprised and happy to hear I hadn’t torn at all! I was thankful to my Dad who despite feeling weird about being there while I gave birth, he held strong and supported me through, as did my Mum and Sister. We'd already been a close family, this just brought us closer together.
When the midwives left the room, before we weighed her and cleaned us up, I rang her father and his parents to let them know id finally had her, and that she'd been born on her auntie’s birthday, (her father’s sister). An hour later they arrived to see her, and id already decided to call her Tilly Louise, if her father agreed. At first he said no, but once his mum said what a great name it was, he liked it.
After I gave birth and had my 6 week check up, my doctor informed me I should have been caesured, because of the pregnancy id had and had I known that at lunchtime on Monday, id have said do it, but afterwards once I was through, I was glad id done it naturally, although I asked for pain relief, the pethidine didn’t seem to work, the midwife wasn’t convinced it did, and the epidural obviously didn’t work, it was only the gas, which I gave up on after I had the pethidine. Its easy to say ill never forget that labour, and although it was hard and my body hasn’t recovered id love to one day go back and have more children. Today I can feel the epidural in my back, which they tell me happens to 1 in 100,000 people, and my hips continue to move and give me a lot of pain and discomfort. But I have my beautiful girl, Tilly Louise, who is now 7 months old, after a difficult pregnancy and fairly bad labour, nothing was better than having a healthy baby, who has now grown big and has such a big and cheeky personality. I’m a very proud mum! :cloud9:
When the midwives left the room, before we weighed her and cleaned us up, I rang her father and his parents to let them know id finally had her, and that she'd been born on her auntie’s birthday, (her father’s sister). An hour later they arrived to see her, and id already decided to call her Tilly Louise, if her father agreed. At first he said no, but once his mum said what a great name it was, he liked it.
After I gave birth and had my 6 week check up, my doctor informed me I should have been caesured, because of the pregnancy id had and had I known that at lunchtime on Monday, id have said do it, but afterwards once I was through, I was glad id done it naturally, although I asked for pain relief, the pethidine didn’t seem to work, the midwife wasn’t convinced it did, and the epidural obviously didn’t work, it was only the gas, which I gave up on after I had the pethidine. Its easy to say ill never forget that labour, and although it was hard and my body hasn’t recovered id love to one day go back and have more children. Today I can feel the epidural in my back, which they tell me happens to 1 in 100,000 people, and my hips continue to move and give me a lot of pain and discomfort. But I have my beautiful girl, Tilly Louise, who is now 7 months old, after a difficult pregnancy and fairly bad labour, nothing was better than having a healthy baby, who has now grown big and has such a big and cheeky personality. I’m a very proud mum! :cloud9: