Leez
12-07-2006, 10:50
I was induced at 39 weeks due to BP issues that weren't getting any better. After two overnight gel applications I had the drip put in at 8:00am and about 9:30am I started to feel the pain in my back. I was contracting well however nothing was happening at the front, all the action was in my back which was a bit of a bummer, the midwife told me that this tends to make labour longer and more painful (fantastic - that's JUST what I wanted!!!!:rolleyes: ).
My birth plan was to not have a birth plan, being my first baby I had no idea how I'd go (but then, do you really know even if its your third??!!) but mainly I didn't know what my pain threshold was, so I couldn't rule out screaming for all modern medicine had to offer, but I was obviously hoping that I could have a natural birth if possible, if it turned out that I had quite good stamina - lucky I didn't get too strung out about that though!
The morning passed with the contractions regular - about every 1-2 minutes, and getting progressively more painful (still all in my back), so DH and I just sat around chatting away. I had gotten a fantastic tip from a friend of mine who is a veteran of labour, she told me to suck on the gas between contractions, and by the time the next one comes, it doesn't make it any less painful but you're so high you don't care - I found that very helpful indeed!!:D
2:30pm rolls around and the pain is getting pretty savage, so midwife does a check and I'm 3cm dialated. I was so dissapointed - I had to ask for an epi as I realised that I was in this thing for the long haul and the gas was no longer cutting it on its own and I suddenly got scared about how much worse the pain was going to get. I was quite tired too as I'd had a terrible night's sleep the night before.
I was administered an epidural and that was good, however I wouldn't rave about it - it only worked for me in combo with hard core gas inhalation and it only lasted an hour! The midwife said I must be one of those people for who it just works for the minimum amount of time - which I'm not complaining about as the poor lady in the room next to me was howling like a stuck pig all day, the epi had NO effect on her poor thing!
Fast forward to about 6:30pm and I'm begging for yet another top up which the midwife was not happy about - especially since I'd just had the first of about three vomiting sessions in between chewing on ice like my life depended on it. The doc arrived at about 7:30pm and around this time everything went pear shaped. I was now 4cm dialated (&^&%$#@!!!) and Gracie has passed meconium and her heart rate was rising to concerning levels. They let me go for another half hour to see if a miracle happened and then it was decided that a c-section was in order. I hadn't really comprehended the situation until the doc said to the anethetist (sp?) 'Can you hurry up this baby's heart rate is getting really crappy". I was wheeled down to theatre (I remember this message coming over the loudspeaker - 'staff - the caeser lady's here' - yes that would be me!). As I went into theatre, a wave of fear, the likes of which I've never experienced before in my life, washed over me. You know when you have surgery and you go into the theatre and the staff are just cruising around setting up, fairly relaxed? Not so here, they were rushing, and speaking in clipped, serious tones. It completely freaked me out but I just suppressed it and lay there silent.
I didn't realise how brutal c-sections are - no actual pain thanks to the industrial strength epi, but the pushing and pulling on my abdomen was a real shock to me, and the canula was extremely painful which funnily, upset me very much. Anyway, at 9:03pm Gracie Catherine comes screaming into our lives :bday: - DH started bawling and I was laughing - just general hysteria I guess!! They took her away with her dad and then I had another drama in that they were having trouble stemming the bleeding - they did eventually which I'm most happy about!! My doc is a bit of a hero to me, not only did she deliver our daughter safely to us, at my check up the nurse looked at my wound and said 'that's plastic surgery quality' - she could have been forgiven for doing any old sew up job, but she did a great job on that as well!
I'm not sad that I couldn't go natural, I'm just glad that we both got through it ok. The cosmic thing is that it was an exact replay of my own birth, down to the last detail, so my poor mum, in addition to being worried for me, was probably having flashbacks as well.
Better go - Gracie's stirring and getting ready for action!:thumbsup:
Lisa
My birth plan was to not have a birth plan, being my first baby I had no idea how I'd go (but then, do you really know even if its your third??!!) but mainly I didn't know what my pain threshold was, so I couldn't rule out screaming for all modern medicine had to offer, but I was obviously hoping that I could have a natural birth if possible, if it turned out that I had quite good stamina - lucky I didn't get too strung out about that though!
The morning passed with the contractions regular - about every 1-2 minutes, and getting progressively more painful (still all in my back), so DH and I just sat around chatting away. I had gotten a fantastic tip from a friend of mine who is a veteran of labour, she told me to suck on the gas between contractions, and by the time the next one comes, it doesn't make it any less painful but you're so high you don't care - I found that very helpful indeed!!:D
2:30pm rolls around and the pain is getting pretty savage, so midwife does a check and I'm 3cm dialated. I was so dissapointed - I had to ask for an epi as I realised that I was in this thing for the long haul and the gas was no longer cutting it on its own and I suddenly got scared about how much worse the pain was going to get. I was quite tired too as I'd had a terrible night's sleep the night before.
I was administered an epidural and that was good, however I wouldn't rave about it - it only worked for me in combo with hard core gas inhalation and it only lasted an hour! The midwife said I must be one of those people for who it just works for the minimum amount of time - which I'm not complaining about as the poor lady in the room next to me was howling like a stuck pig all day, the epi had NO effect on her poor thing!
Fast forward to about 6:30pm and I'm begging for yet another top up which the midwife was not happy about - especially since I'd just had the first of about three vomiting sessions in between chewing on ice like my life depended on it. The doc arrived at about 7:30pm and around this time everything went pear shaped. I was now 4cm dialated (&^&%$#@!!!) and Gracie has passed meconium and her heart rate was rising to concerning levels. They let me go for another half hour to see if a miracle happened and then it was decided that a c-section was in order. I hadn't really comprehended the situation until the doc said to the anethetist (sp?) 'Can you hurry up this baby's heart rate is getting really crappy". I was wheeled down to theatre (I remember this message coming over the loudspeaker - 'staff - the caeser lady's here' - yes that would be me!). As I went into theatre, a wave of fear, the likes of which I've never experienced before in my life, washed over me. You know when you have surgery and you go into the theatre and the staff are just cruising around setting up, fairly relaxed? Not so here, they were rushing, and speaking in clipped, serious tones. It completely freaked me out but I just suppressed it and lay there silent.
I didn't realise how brutal c-sections are - no actual pain thanks to the industrial strength epi, but the pushing and pulling on my abdomen was a real shock to me, and the canula was extremely painful which funnily, upset me very much. Anyway, at 9:03pm Gracie Catherine comes screaming into our lives :bday: - DH started bawling and I was laughing - just general hysteria I guess!! They took her away with her dad and then I had another drama in that they were having trouble stemming the bleeding - they did eventually which I'm most happy about!! My doc is a bit of a hero to me, not only did she deliver our daughter safely to us, at my check up the nurse looked at my wound and said 'that's plastic surgery quality' - she could have been forgiven for doing any old sew up job, but she did a great job on that as well!
I'm not sad that I couldn't go natural, I'm just glad that we both got through it ok. The cosmic thing is that it was an exact replay of my own birth, down to the last detail, so my poor mum, in addition to being worried for me, was probably having flashbacks as well.
Better go - Gracie's stirring and getting ready for action!:thumbsup:
Lisa