waahoo
07-10-2008, 12:25 PM
I was due Sept. 18 and in my mind was not concerned about going over my EDD. But at my 40 week appointment with my midwife, she mentioned that they would probably do a stretch & sweep at the next appointment and also booked me in for a wellness scan at 41+1. I was not keen to have an s & s and was also a bit scared of the scan – I was worried that there might be something wrong or that they might tell me my baby was getting too big and then I’d feel pressured to abandon my homebirth plans even knowing that scans are often wrong about size. So, I booked some acupuncture appointments. The acupuncturist said it usually takes at least 2 visits to induce labour. I had one session on my due date and another 2 days later. The day after that, I went into labour!
We had come home from having dinner (spicy curry for me!) and at about 7pm I needed to go to the loo. After being constipated since the beginning of the second trimester I was anxious for the “pre-labour” cleanout to begin. As I was going to the bathroom, I felt something else let go. I couldn’t really tell if it was my waters breaking, so I said nothing to my husband and just went back to the computer. A few minutes later, I felt liquid gush out of me and soak through my jeans. I called out to DH that my waters had broken and went up to the bathroom to change clothes. While on the toilet, I had another gush and it looked clear with white particles in it. We called our midwife and she asked us to meet her at the office to see if it was my waters that had broken. As we drove down to the clinic I started to get mild tightenings. DH timed them - they were coming irregularly between 7-10 minutes apart. The midwife did an amniotic fluid swab and said she couldn’t say for sure if it was amniotic fluid as the swab did not immediately go purple, but did a bit after a moment. She figured it might be a hindwater leak or just the bloody show and some discharge. She did an internal and said I was almost fully thinned out and about 1cm dilated. She advised me to go home and go to sleep.
On the way home, the contractions began to get more intense. When we got home around 9pm, I made a batch of labourade and DH and I thought we’d watch a movie in bed and then go to sleep. By the time we got the dvd player set up though, my contractions were taking my concentration away already and all I wanted to do was put on my hypnobirthing cd and try to relax. DH tried to watch a movie with headphones in between timing my contractions. I managed the contractions laying down with the meditation cd for about an hour and then they became so intense that I found I needed to sit up and rock through them. I soon stopped being able to keep my breath calm during contractions. I began feeling cold and shaky during the surges and it became DH’s job to cover me with blankets during each contraction. For the next 2 hours, he followed me around with me yelling “fuzzy blanket!” as each surge started. My “pre-labour” cleanout turned out to be a “during labour” cleanout and I spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom.
We had been instructed to call the midwife at 4-1-1: when contractions had been 1 minute long, coming every 4 minutes for 1 hour. At midnight, DH called the midwife since I had skipped the 4 minute step and was having contraction 2-3 minutes apart already. I was finding it quite hard to cope by this point. The contractions were a lot more painful than I expected and I remember thinking that I could see why women choose epidurals! Our midwife, Christy, arrived about 12:30 am and she helped me breathe through a couple of contractions, which calmed me down quite a bit. She did another internal and found I was almost fully dilated and in transition. I was very happy to hear it! I think I would have cried if she’d said I was 3cm and she was going home! I sat on the toilet while she and DH prepared the bed with a plastic tarp and started filling the birth pool. Then she put in the IV for GBS medication. It took three attempts, but I didn’t find the pain anywhere near as bad as what I was already experiencing! Soon after it was in the contractions started to change to pushy feeling ones. I felt quite scared for a few minutes with the new feeling, but talked myself out of it by remembering that I had all the support I needed.
As soon as the birth pool was filled I got in and the heat was lovely as I was so cold and shaky. For the next while, I knelt and leaned over the side of the pool and DH poured hot water on my back. The one thing I really didn’t like was being attached to the IV. I thought it was going to be a 5 minute administration of the medication and then I would be free of the line with just a catheter in my hand, but Christy said I needed the rest of the fluid as well. As the pushing feeling got more intense, Christy suggested I try a different position, so I sat back against the pool side and DH put a towel over my front which I could dip in the water and keep warm. Christy told me to put my chin to my chest, hold my breath and try to get in three pushes each contraction. In hindsight, I wasn’t really expecting directed pushing, so I hadn’t really prepared myself for how to do it. The hypnobirthing course emphasized breathing through the pushing and letting your body do the work naturally, but I hadn’t thought to discuss this with the midwives. In the heat of things, I was in no mind to question things, I just pushed. I pushed for 1 hour 50 minutes and unfortunately a lot of that with my face! Apparently I was moving the baby down well, but I was also screwing my eyes closed. (I ended up with very puffy, swollen eyes and burst blood vessels in my right eye that took over a week to disappear! Oops!) I held onto DH’s hand and the pool liner with each push. In between, DH gave me labourade which I found more thirst-quenching than just water.
Near the end, my mantra became “please get out” as the head was close but kept slipping back in after I stopped pushing. Finally I got the baby’s head out with a series of pushes. The ring of fire was indeed painful, but I found the shoulders coming out even more painful, although I didn’t actively push them out. I was definitely not quiet, but it didn’t matter since I was at home. DH caught Mason with Christy’s hands guiding his and my baby boy was placed on my chest. He almost immediately started to wail (and didn’t stop for the next 4 hours!). Christy and Joan-Margaret (the 2nd midwife who arrived sometime during the pushing stage) tried to collect cord blood while I was in the pool, but weren’t able to, so I gave Mason to his daddy for some skin-to-skin and got out of the pool onto the bed.
I had planned a physiological 3rd stage, but after the cord blood was collected I just wanted it over and didn’t want any more contractions, so I asked for the jab. However, the placenta came naturally a few minutes later! I was checked over and had one first degree tear that didn’t require stitches and then had the IV removed (yay!). Joan-Margaret helped me to breastfeed Mason and then Christy weighed him and whatnot. Mason cried the whole time except when I was breastfeeding him or DH had his pinky finger in his mouth.
My little boy was 8lbs 14 oz (4025g) and was born at 5:04am Monday 22nd September 2008. He was 20.5 inches (52 cm) long. The midwives recorded the labour as lasting only 5 hours 45 minutes, but they only count from the start of active labour when you are 4 cm dilated. I count my labour as 10.5 hours from waters breaking to the delivery of the placenta. It was very intense and I felt like I’d been hit by a truck afterwards, but I am very pleased with how quickly and smoothly it went. Having the support of my midwives was essential for getting me through it and DH was fantastic during the birth. I will definitely be planning a homebirth if/when we have number two!
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We had come home from having dinner (spicy curry for me!) and at about 7pm I needed to go to the loo. After being constipated since the beginning of the second trimester I was anxious for the “pre-labour” cleanout to begin. As I was going to the bathroom, I felt something else let go. I couldn’t really tell if it was my waters breaking, so I said nothing to my husband and just went back to the computer. A few minutes later, I felt liquid gush out of me and soak through my jeans. I called out to DH that my waters had broken and went up to the bathroom to change clothes. While on the toilet, I had another gush and it looked clear with white particles in it. We called our midwife and she asked us to meet her at the office to see if it was my waters that had broken. As we drove down to the clinic I started to get mild tightenings. DH timed them - they were coming irregularly between 7-10 minutes apart. The midwife did an amniotic fluid swab and said she couldn’t say for sure if it was amniotic fluid as the swab did not immediately go purple, but did a bit after a moment. She figured it might be a hindwater leak or just the bloody show and some discharge. She did an internal and said I was almost fully thinned out and about 1cm dilated. She advised me to go home and go to sleep.
On the way home, the contractions began to get more intense. When we got home around 9pm, I made a batch of labourade and DH and I thought we’d watch a movie in bed and then go to sleep. By the time we got the dvd player set up though, my contractions were taking my concentration away already and all I wanted to do was put on my hypnobirthing cd and try to relax. DH tried to watch a movie with headphones in between timing my contractions. I managed the contractions laying down with the meditation cd for about an hour and then they became so intense that I found I needed to sit up and rock through them. I soon stopped being able to keep my breath calm during contractions. I began feeling cold and shaky during the surges and it became DH’s job to cover me with blankets during each contraction. For the next 2 hours, he followed me around with me yelling “fuzzy blanket!” as each surge started. My “pre-labour” cleanout turned out to be a “during labour” cleanout and I spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom.
We had been instructed to call the midwife at 4-1-1: when contractions had been 1 minute long, coming every 4 minutes for 1 hour. At midnight, DH called the midwife since I had skipped the 4 minute step and was having contraction 2-3 minutes apart already. I was finding it quite hard to cope by this point. The contractions were a lot more painful than I expected and I remember thinking that I could see why women choose epidurals! Our midwife, Christy, arrived about 12:30 am and she helped me breathe through a couple of contractions, which calmed me down quite a bit. She did another internal and found I was almost fully dilated and in transition. I was very happy to hear it! I think I would have cried if she’d said I was 3cm and she was going home! I sat on the toilet while she and DH prepared the bed with a plastic tarp and started filling the birth pool. Then she put in the IV for GBS medication. It took three attempts, but I didn’t find the pain anywhere near as bad as what I was already experiencing! Soon after it was in the contractions started to change to pushy feeling ones. I felt quite scared for a few minutes with the new feeling, but talked myself out of it by remembering that I had all the support I needed.
As soon as the birth pool was filled I got in and the heat was lovely as I was so cold and shaky. For the next while, I knelt and leaned over the side of the pool and DH poured hot water on my back. The one thing I really didn’t like was being attached to the IV. I thought it was going to be a 5 minute administration of the medication and then I would be free of the line with just a catheter in my hand, but Christy said I needed the rest of the fluid as well. As the pushing feeling got more intense, Christy suggested I try a different position, so I sat back against the pool side and DH put a towel over my front which I could dip in the water and keep warm. Christy told me to put my chin to my chest, hold my breath and try to get in three pushes each contraction. In hindsight, I wasn’t really expecting directed pushing, so I hadn’t really prepared myself for how to do it. The hypnobirthing course emphasized breathing through the pushing and letting your body do the work naturally, but I hadn’t thought to discuss this with the midwives. In the heat of things, I was in no mind to question things, I just pushed. I pushed for 1 hour 50 minutes and unfortunately a lot of that with my face! Apparently I was moving the baby down well, but I was also screwing my eyes closed. (I ended up with very puffy, swollen eyes and burst blood vessels in my right eye that took over a week to disappear! Oops!) I held onto DH’s hand and the pool liner with each push. In between, DH gave me labourade which I found more thirst-quenching than just water.
Near the end, my mantra became “please get out” as the head was close but kept slipping back in after I stopped pushing. Finally I got the baby’s head out with a series of pushes. The ring of fire was indeed painful, but I found the shoulders coming out even more painful, although I didn’t actively push them out. I was definitely not quiet, but it didn’t matter since I was at home. DH caught Mason with Christy’s hands guiding his and my baby boy was placed on my chest. He almost immediately started to wail (and didn’t stop for the next 4 hours!). Christy and Joan-Margaret (the 2nd midwife who arrived sometime during the pushing stage) tried to collect cord blood while I was in the pool, but weren’t able to, so I gave Mason to his daddy for some skin-to-skin and got out of the pool onto the bed.
I had planned a physiological 3rd stage, but after the cord blood was collected I just wanted it over and didn’t want any more contractions, so I asked for the jab. However, the placenta came naturally a few minutes later! I was checked over and had one first degree tear that didn’t require stitches and then had the IV removed (yay!). Joan-Margaret helped me to breastfeed Mason and then Christy weighed him and whatnot. Mason cried the whole time except when I was breastfeeding him or DH had his pinky finger in his mouth.
My little boy was 8lbs 14 oz (4025g) and was born at 5:04am Monday 22nd September 2008. He was 20.5 inches (52 cm) long. The midwives recorded the labour as lasting only 5 hours 45 minutes, but they only count from the start of active labour when you are 4 cm dilated. I count my labour as 10.5 hours from waters breaking to the delivery of the placenta. It was very intense and I felt like I’d been hit by a truck afterwards, but I am very pleased with how quickly and smoothly it went. Having the support of my midwives was essential for getting me through it and DH was fantastic during the birth. I will definitely be planning a homebirth if/when we have number two!
http://i531.photobucket.com/albums/dd359/waahoo2008/DSC_0048.jpg
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