happymess
20-02-2009, 12:21
My birth story starts a week before my due date, when I had to pack up everything for myself, the hospital, the baby and my 4 year old. I then had to leave my lovely husband and my two eldest daughters (7 and 5) and go and stay with my MIL which is 2 and a half hours away. All because the local hospital here doesn’t deliver babies any more and since the girls had to go back to school, they needed to stay here.
On the Tuesday I went and had an appt with one of the delivering doctors and I asked to be induced on my due date because if I waited until I was a week overdue I would just be coming out of hospital as DH was returning to work and with 4 little ones I felt that I needed him around while I settled into a routine. Also because I was missing him and my girls. Every time I saw an article on the news about new kids starting school I would burst into tears ’cos I was missing out on my little girls first week.
She agreed to induce me and booked me in for the Sunday night to start the gels. I was sooooo relieved, the end was in sight. For the rest of the week, I could barely move, my hips and my pelvis were incredibly sore every time I walked around, and as this was the first week of Adelaide’s intense heatwave, we didn’t go out side at all, we all just stayed in MILs climate controlled house (lovely).
I had people ringing every day to see if anything was happening which was incredibly frustrating, do these people really think that I would go off and have a baby without telling anyone about it. On Wednesday night I had a little bit of a show and I rang the midwives who said it “could” be happening and she sounded very excited, which got me excited, but nothing happened, and then I had another show on Thursday night and then another on Friday morning, but still nothing happened and MIL seemed to have no problems telling everyone that rang up that I had had a show, (how embarrassing).
On Sunday I was very excited, cos it would finally be happening. Until the midwife rang and said that they had one lady in labour and it was taking a long time so could I please come in the morning for the induction. So I rang DH and he said he would wait until the next morning to come up, cos a mouse had died under the fridge and needed to be attended to before he could leave. (why do these things always happen at the worst possible time)
So MIL and Lauren and I went to the hospital on Monday morning, they got me settled in my room, checked the babies heart rate and everything and then inserted the first lot of gels. They were a bit worried about starting without DH there incase he missed the birth (HAHAHAHA). They asked if I had a birth plan, and I said my plan was to have a baby. So MIL, Lauren and I were left to wait for things to happen. Which they did, I was getting tightening and they were coming regularly, we decided to do some walking which was crazy, my MIL has bad knees and ankles and the poor dear was hobbling slower than I was. So I thought maybe we shouldn’t be walking anymore. The midwives kept checking on me and things were progressing slowly but surely so we just kept waiting.
Dh arrived and took the girls to Macca’s for lunch (a big treat for country kids). And then we had 3 little girls, a nervous dad, and exhausted MIL and a woman in labour all in the one little room all just waiting.
Eventually DH decided to take the girls to the park to burn some energy and then back to MILs for some tea. I was still waiting and walking around and around and around. When Dh came back to the hosp the doctor examined me and said that we should put some more gel in but she thought I would only need a half amount, so they did that and then I was still waiting. Dh and I did a lot of walking, but for some reason the tightening’s were stronger when I was lying on the bed rather than walking, so we tried that, I tried sitting on the birthing ball and rocking, and still waiting. Eventually they broke my waters and then I was sliding around on a slippery birthing ball which was quite funny. But still nothing was getting serious. About 1 in the morning with the tightening easing off, the midwives decided to give me some panedine forte and let me get some sleep, DH set up a stretcher bed on the floor but I don’t think either of us got much sleep.
First thing the next morning the midwives came in and said that they were going to put me on the drip and get things going again. I was in tears, I was exhausted and I had never even heard of the drip before, and I was paranoid that if this didn’t work they would have to do a ceaser. The midwife tried to explain everything, but I was still in tears and then my doctor came in and relaxed me and explained it and then I was in the labour ward being connected to the drip and the CTG machine to keep monitoring baby. The gorgeous Jennifairy was my midwife, and she explained that the “synt” was just a hormone and that they would start it very mildly and increase it every half an hour as needed, the drip went in at 6mil an hour for the first half an hour and then got increased to 12 and then to 24. They didnt need to increase it any more cos things were REALLY happening, My contractions were only lasting a minute or less so everyone thought I still had some time to go yet. The midwife said that even though I was hooked up to all of these things I could still have an active labour, So I was up and down all the time, going to the toilet and sitting on the birthing ball, the only thing I couldn’t do was have a bath or shower. When things were getting really painful I got back on the bed. DH had a shocking migraine while all of this was going on and he was lying on the couch with the midwives getting him icepacks and pain relief, but he was still giving me encouragement.
At some point I asked for pain relief and they put a needle in near my shoulder, I cant remember what it was called, and they put some more in just as the contractions were getting really serious.
I was getting a lot of pain in my back and every contraction was making me cry, (which I didn’t do with my others) and I decided take the pressure off my back by rolling over (not easy while I was connected to everything). So I was on my knees with my hands on the back rest of the bed which was in the sitting position. Suddenly I felt the urge to push, and I asked the midwife if I should be waiting for the doctor before I did that, and she laughed and said just go for it, just do what my body was telling me. The midwife was great and kept telling me “It is only going to last a minute just breath through it” DH went out to ring his Mum and let her know that it would only be a couple of hours now. So it was just Jennifairy and I in the room and she was busy fussing around with the CTG cos it wasn’t reading properly, I was trying to tell her to just leave it, but I was busy pushing, and then she realised that there was a HEAD!!!
She was ringing the buzzer, midwives started coming from everywhere, and then someone had go and find DH, they were running up the corridor yelling DAD, DAD.
Then with one more push and the amazing warm watery feeling of delivery my baby was born, the midwife passed her between my legs to me, and this tiny little being looked up at me while still attached to me, it was amazing. DH came in just at that moment and he cut the cord. We then realised that we didn’t know what we had, so we unwrapped her a bit and found out that she was indeed a little girl.
:baby:Stephanie Rose was born. On the 3rd of Feb 2009 at 1. 48 pm. She was 8lbs (which is little for me), 50cms long and head cir 35cms. She is perfect.
Stephanie is 2 and a half weeks old now and she is sleeping really well, feeding well and bringing up wind very easily. She is a dream.
On the Tuesday I went and had an appt with one of the delivering doctors and I asked to be induced on my due date because if I waited until I was a week overdue I would just be coming out of hospital as DH was returning to work and with 4 little ones I felt that I needed him around while I settled into a routine. Also because I was missing him and my girls. Every time I saw an article on the news about new kids starting school I would burst into tears ’cos I was missing out on my little girls first week.
She agreed to induce me and booked me in for the Sunday night to start the gels. I was sooooo relieved, the end was in sight. For the rest of the week, I could barely move, my hips and my pelvis were incredibly sore every time I walked around, and as this was the first week of Adelaide’s intense heatwave, we didn’t go out side at all, we all just stayed in MILs climate controlled house (lovely).
I had people ringing every day to see if anything was happening which was incredibly frustrating, do these people really think that I would go off and have a baby without telling anyone about it. On Wednesday night I had a little bit of a show and I rang the midwives who said it “could” be happening and she sounded very excited, which got me excited, but nothing happened, and then I had another show on Thursday night and then another on Friday morning, but still nothing happened and MIL seemed to have no problems telling everyone that rang up that I had had a show, (how embarrassing).
On Sunday I was very excited, cos it would finally be happening. Until the midwife rang and said that they had one lady in labour and it was taking a long time so could I please come in the morning for the induction. So I rang DH and he said he would wait until the next morning to come up, cos a mouse had died under the fridge and needed to be attended to before he could leave. (why do these things always happen at the worst possible time)
So MIL and Lauren and I went to the hospital on Monday morning, they got me settled in my room, checked the babies heart rate and everything and then inserted the first lot of gels. They were a bit worried about starting without DH there incase he missed the birth (HAHAHAHA). They asked if I had a birth plan, and I said my plan was to have a baby. So MIL, Lauren and I were left to wait for things to happen. Which they did, I was getting tightening and they were coming regularly, we decided to do some walking which was crazy, my MIL has bad knees and ankles and the poor dear was hobbling slower than I was. So I thought maybe we shouldn’t be walking anymore. The midwives kept checking on me and things were progressing slowly but surely so we just kept waiting.
Dh arrived and took the girls to Macca’s for lunch (a big treat for country kids). And then we had 3 little girls, a nervous dad, and exhausted MIL and a woman in labour all in the one little room all just waiting.
Eventually DH decided to take the girls to the park to burn some energy and then back to MILs for some tea. I was still waiting and walking around and around and around. When Dh came back to the hosp the doctor examined me and said that we should put some more gel in but she thought I would only need a half amount, so they did that and then I was still waiting. Dh and I did a lot of walking, but for some reason the tightening’s were stronger when I was lying on the bed rather than walking, so we tried that, I tried sitting on the birthing ball and rocking, and still waiting. Eventually they broke my waters and then I was sliding around on a slippery birthing ball which was quite funny. But still nothing was getting serious. About 1 in the morning with the tightening easing off, the midwives decided to give me some panedine forte and let me get some sleep, DH set up a stretcher bed on the floor but I don’t think either of us got much sleep.
First thing the next morning the midwives came in and said that they were going to put me on the drip and get things going again. I was in tears, I was exhausted and I had never even heard of the drip before, and I was paranoid that if this didn’t work they would have to do a ceaser. The midwife tried to explain everything, but I was still in tears and then my doctor came in and relaxed me and explained it and then I was in the labour ward being connected to the drip and the CTG machine to keep monitoring baby. The gorgeous Jennifairy was my midwife, and she explained that the “synt” was just a hormone and that they would start it very mildly and increase it every half an hour as needed, the drip went in at 6mil an hour for the first half an hour and then got increased to 12 and then to 24. They didnt need to increase it any more cos things were REALLY happening, My contractions were only lasting a minute or less so everyone thought I still had some time to go yet. The midwife said that even though I was hooked up to all of these things I could still have an active labour, So I was up and down all the time, going to the toilet and sitting on the birthing ball, the only thing I couldn’t do was have a bath or shower. When things were getting really painful I got back on the bed. DH had a shocking migraine while all of this was going on and he was lying on the couch with the midwives getting him icepacks and pain relief, but he was still giving me encouragement.
At some point I asked for pain relief and they put a needle in near my shoulder, I cant remember what it was called, and they put some more in just as the contractions were getting really serious.
I was getting a lot of pain in my back and every contraction was making me cry, (which I didn’t do with my others) and I decided take the pressure off my back by rolling over (not easy while I was connected to everything). So I was on my knees with my hands on the back rest of the bed which was in the sitting position. Suddenly I felt the urge to push, and I asked the midwife if I should be waiting for the doctor before I did that, and she laughed and said just go for it, just do what my body was telling me. The midwife was great and kept telling me “It is only going to last a minute just breath through it” DH went out to ring his Mum and let her know that it would only be a couple of hours now. So it was just Jennifairy and I in the room and she was busy fussing around with the CTG cos it wasn’t reading properly, I was trying to tell her to just leave it, but I was busy pushing, and then she realised that there was a HEAD!!!
She was ringing the buzzer, midwives started coming from everywhere, and then someone had go and find DH, they were running up the corridor yelling DAD, DAD.
Then with one more push and the amazing warm watery feeling of delivery my baby was born, the midwife passed her between my legs to me, and this tiny little being looked up at me while still attached to me, it was amazing. DH came in just at that moment and he cut the cord. We then realised that we didn’t know what we had, so we unwrapped her a bit and found out that she was indeed a little girl.
:baby:Stephanie Rose was born. On the 3rd of Feb 2009 at 1. 48 pm. She was 8lbs (which is little for me), 50cms long and head cir 35cms. She is perfect.
Stephanie is 2 and a half weeks old now and she is sleeping really well, feeding well and bringing up wind very easily. She is a dream.