babynumberone
28-08-2008, 07:40 PM
My husband Kieran and I made the decision to try to conceive in the beginning of November 2007 so I came off the pill. To our surprise we were pregnant within two weeks and couldn’t wait to share the news with our family and friends. Our baby was due on the 20th of August 2008 and we later found out by ultrasound that we were to be expecting a boy. Overall, I had an amazing pregnancy; I really enjoyed the time and luckily didn’t suffer from a lot of the common complaints such as morning sickness. We were planning a water birth at home through the WA Community Midwifery Program.
At 27 weeks I had a moderate bleed which required me to stay in hospital for two nights. The cause was never really discovered. The only reason that it may have occurred was due to my low lying placenta. I was told that if my placenta didn’t ‘move up’ I would have to abandon my homebirth plans. Thankfully, at 35 weeks a scan showed my placenta being well out of the way so we started preparing for our homebirth.
On Saturday the 9th of August when I was 38.5 weeks I started having regular contractions (about ten minutes apart) however by bed time they had fizzled away. I went to bed and at 12:30am thought my waters had broken. When I went to the bathroom, what I thought was my waters, was actually fresh blood. My midwife came around and made sure bub was okay – he was. She told me to go back to bed and try and rest. At about 5:30am I passed a considerable blood clot and when telling my midwife this, she decided we better transfer to hospital due to the fact that I had had a previous bleed.
In hospital it was decided that I was to be induced as I was already term. We couldn’t believe that we were finally going to meet our baby boy! At 1:00pm they broke my waters and I started having contractions however they were fairly irregular so at 2:30pm I was hooked up to a syntocin drip. The next four hours I spent mainly on the birthing ball listening to the music CD we had made specifically for the birth. Kieran used a special massage oil to massage my lower back, increasing the intensity with each contraction. The contractions were getting more and more painful each time and at one stage I vomited quite a bit while in the bathroom. An internal was performed around 6:30pm and we discovered I was 7cm dilated. The contractions were incredibly overwhelming and I remember telling Kieran quite a few tines that it hurt too much and I just didn’t want to do it anymore.
My community midwife then persuaded the hospital midwife to allow me to have a shower (I was allowed to be unhooked from a portable CTG machine for fifteen minutes only). The hot water was wonderful, it helped immensely. After getting out of the shower my community midwife suggested I get on all fours on the bed. It wasn’t long before i felt this incredible urge to push. I then spent the next hour pushing my baby out of my body. At 8:41pm on the 10th of August 2008 Zaydn Jack Thomas was born. He was beautiful, perfect in every way. He weighed 3400 grams (7.5 lbs), was 46cm long and had a 33cm head circumference. He didn’t cry at all, he just looked around contentedly. His apgar scores were 9 and 9. Once his cord had stopped pulsating, Kieran cut it.
The birth went wonderfully and the end product was just amazing. I could not have done it without Kieran – he was my rock throughout the entire time. My community midwife was also wonderful; I am so appreciative of her help and support. Without two amazing support people I know that the birth could have been very different. I managed to complete the seven hour labour without drugs and also managed to not receive any tears, stitches or grazes. Although I wasn’t able to birth at home, we managed to achieve the birthing environment we would have had at home – the lights were dimmed, our music played the entire time, we had vanilla essential oils burning and I was able to move around as I felt necessary.
I am glad that the decision was made that we would birth at hospital because during the third stage things became rather messy! As my placenta was being delivered my midwife noticed I was bleeding quite heavily. After a quick assessment, a button was pressed and all of a sudden about ten doctors and midwives came rushing into the room. Each person had a job to do and they went about it while remaining calm and explaining procedures to me. I had had a post partum haemorrhage and lost just under two litres of blood. This was a fairly scary time for both me and Kieran. However, it wasn’t long before the situation was under control. I felt quite weak and uncomfortable afterwards but happy for Zaydn to meet his two grandmothers, aunty and my mother’s partner. After a couple of hours when it was determined that my condition was stable, I was allowed to have a shower which felt great and I was then taken to my room. Once I was settled in Kieran left and Zaydn and I fell asleep together.
In the morning, Kieran returned and my situation was assessed. A full blood count was done and showed that my haemoglobin levels were surprisingly high and they were happy for me to go home. Once Zaydn had his newborn assessment and hearing tests done, off we went! At home, we spent the next couple of hours just staring at this gorgeous miracle we created! Zaydn is now eighteen days old and is an extremely sweet baby. He is sleeping and feeding well. Each day he is becoming more alert which is wonderful to see. His name is Hebrew for ‘lucky’ and Kieran and I feel like we are the luckiest people in the world to have Zaydn as our son!
:bee:
:cloud9: PHOTOS :cloud9:
The day before I gave birth to Zaydn
http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1124760&l=b25d5&id=705646567 (http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1124760&l=b25d5&id=705646567)
Waiting for the contractions to begin
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22821&l=63b2c&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22821&l=63b2c&id=1441567120)
Second stage
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22823&l=4ad6e&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22823&l=4ad6e&id=1441567120)
Zaydn’s first photo
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22820&l=7584f&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22820&l=7584f&id=1441567120)
Kisses from Mum
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22830&l=07ee1&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22830&l=07ee1&id=1441567120)
Mum & Zaydn
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22832&l=15232&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22832&l=15232&id=1441567120)
Our family
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22825&l=5f0c1&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22825&l=5f0c1&id=1441567120)
Daddy cutting the cord
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22826&l=653b7&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22826&l=653b7&id=1441567120)
With Mummy
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22827&l=96e98&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22827&l=96e98&id=1441567120)
Proud Daddy
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22837&l=a4f97&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22837&l=a4f97&id=1441567120)
An hour old
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22838&l=682ea&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22838&l=682ea&id=1441567120)
Our baby boy at 5 days old
http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1129558&l=f148a&id=705646567 (http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1129558&l=f148a&id=705646567)
Ten days old after a shower with Dad
http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1155378&l=ac2f3&id=705646567 (http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1155378&l=ac2f3&id=705646567)
At 27 weeks I had a moderate bleed which required me to stay in hospital for two nights. The cause was never really discovered. The only reason that it may have occurred was due to my low lying placenta. I was told that if my placenta didn’t ‘move up’ I would have to abandon my homebirth plans. Thankfully, at 35 weeks a scan showed my placenta being well out of the way so we started preparing for our homebirth.
On Saturday the 9th of August when I was 38.5 weeks I started having regular contractions (about ten minutes apart) however by bed time they had fizzled away. I went to bed and at 12:30am thought my waters had broken. When I went to the bathroom, what I thought was my waters, was actually fresh blood. My midwife came around and made sure bub was okay – he was. She told me to go back to bed and try and rest. At about 5:30am I passed a considerable blood clot and when telling my midwife this, she decided we better transfer to hospital due to the fact that I had had a previous bleed.
In hospital it was decided that I was to be induced as I was already term. We couldn’t believe that we were finally going to meet our baby boy! At 1:00pm they broke my waters and I started having contractions however they were fairly irregular so at 2:30pm I was hooked up to a syntocin drip. The next four hours I spent mainly on the birthing ball listening to the music CD we had made specifically for the birth. Kieran used a special massage oil to massage my lower back, increasing the intensity with each contraction. The contractions were getting more and more painful each time and at one stage I vomited quite a bit while in the bathroom. An internal was performed around 6:30pm and we discovered I was 7cm dilated. The contractions were incredibly overwhelming and I remember telling Kieran quite a few tines that it hurt too much and I just didn’t want to do it anymore.
My community midwife then persuaded the hospital midwife to allow me to have a shower (I was allowed to be unhooked from a portable CTG machine for fifteen minutes only). The hot water was wonderful, it helped immensely. After getting out of the shower my community midwife suggested I get on all fours on the bed. It wasn’t long before i felt this incredible urge to push. I then spent the next hour pushing my baby out of my body. At 8:41pm on the 10th of August 2008 Zaydn Jack Thomas was born. He was beautiful, perfect in every way. He weighed 3400 grams (7.5 lbs), was 46cm long and had a 33cm head circumference. He didn’t cry at all, he just looked around contentedly. His apgar scores were 9 and 9. Once his cord had stopped pulsating, Kieran cut it.
The birth went wonderfully and the end product was just amazing. I could not have done it without Kieran – he was my rock throughout the entire time. My community midwife was also wonderful; I am so appreciative of her help and support. Without two amazing support people I know that the birth could have been very different. I managed to complete the seven hour labour without drugs and also managed to not receive any tears, stitches or grazes. Although I wasn’t able to birth at home, we managed to achieve the birthing environment we would have had at home – the lights were dimmed, our music played the entire time, we had vanilla essential oils burning and I was able to move around as I felt necessary.
I am glad that the decision was made that we would birth at hospital because during the third stage things became rather messy! As my placenta was being delivered my midwife noticed I was bleeding quite heavily. After a quick assessment, a button was pressed and all of a sudden about ten doctors and midwives came rushing into the room. Each person had a job to do and they went about it while remaining calm and explaining procedures to me. I had had a post partum haemorrhage and lost just under two litres of blood. This was a fairly scary time for both me and Kieran. However, it wasn’t long before the situation was under control. I felt quite weak and uncomfortable afterwards but happy for Zaydn to meet his two grandmothers, aunty and my mother’s partner. After a couple of hours when it was determined that my condition was stable, I was allowed to have a shower which felt great and I was then taken to my room. Once I was settled in Kieran left and Zaydn and I fell asleep together.
In the morning, Kieran returned and my situation was assessed. A full blood count was done and showed that my haemoglobin levels were surprisingly high and they were happy for me to go home. Once Zaydn had his newborn assessment and hearing tests done, off we went! At home, we spent the next couple of hours just staring at this gorgeous miracle we created! Zaydn is now eighteen days old and is an extremely sweet baby. He is sleeping and feeding well. Each day he is becoming more alert which is wonderful to see. His name is Hebrew for ‘lucky’ and Kieran and I feel like we are the luckiest people in the world to have Zaydn as our son!
:bee:
:cloud9: PHOTOS :cloud9:
The day before I gave birth to Zaydn
http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1124760&l=b25d5&id=705646567 (http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1124760&l=b25d5&id=705646567)
Waiting for the contractions to begin
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22821&l=63b2c&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22821&l=63b2c&id=1441567120)
Second stage
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22823&l=4ad6e&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22823&l=4ad6e&id=1441567120)
Zaydn’s first photo
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22820&l=7584f&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22820&l=7584f&id=1441567120)
Kisses from Mum
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22830&l=07ee1&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22830&l=07ee1&id=1441567120)
Mum & Zaydn
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22832&l=15232&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22832&l=15232&id=1441567120)
Our family
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22825&l=5f0c1&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22825&l=5f0c1&id=1441567120)
Daddy cutting the cord
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22826&l=653b7&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22826&l=653b7&id=1441567120)
With Mummy
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22827&l=96e98&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22827&l=96e98&id=1441567120)
Proud Daddy
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22837&l=a4f97&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22837&l=a4f97&id=1441567120)
An hour old
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22838&l=682ea&id=1441567120 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22838&l=682ea&id=1441567120)
Our baby boy at 5 days old
http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1129558&l=f148a&id=705646567 (http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1129558&l=f148a&id=705646567)
Ten days old after a shower with Dad
http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1155378&l=ac2f3&id=705646567 (http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1155378&l=ac2f3&id=705646567)