littlepickle
14-08-2006, 16:28
IcklelittlePickle’s Birth Story
It all began at 5am on Sunday 30th July – my birthday!! I was booked in to be induced at 6.30am , so set the alarm for 5am and had a lovely long shower and dried my hair etc.. I cant say that I really knew what to expect, except that my waters were going to be broken at 06.30am.
It was so weird driving to the hospital knowing that on the drive home from the hospital, we would be three rather than two. I couldn’t quite imagine it.
We got to the hospital at 6.30 am and were shown to our birthing suite where we were met by Bronwyn who was our midwife. Bronwyn was lovely and immediately made me feel comfortable and relaxed. Dr K was running a bit late as he was in theatre performing an emergency C-section, so I had a bit of time to relax and enjoy a nice cup of tea and some biccies. Dr K arrived at around 7am and ruptured my membranes. This was a bit more painful than I had expected, but was over quickly enough. I was then hooked up to a syntocinin drip, which was not something that I had expected! The good news was that I was around 2cm dilated and my cervix was apparently very thin. Dr K thought that bub would be born around lunchtime! Contractions started pretty much straight away – I was getting contractions at around 4 minutes apart, lasting around 40 seconds each. I thought they were painful, and although they were enough to force me to have to breathe through them. Bronwyn told me that I still had too much “sparkle” in my eyes and that the pain would get a lot worse yet…
I found that the best position at this point was sitting on the exercise ball with a heat pack on my back and DH sitting behind me, rubbing my back. I was still able to breathe through the contractions, but found myself getting annoyed if anyone talked while I was having a contraction.
I cant remember what time it was exactly, but I think that it might have been around 10.30 or so, I asked dh to ring mum and Tracie (my Doula) to tell them what was going on. I was not really able to concentrate on anything at this point and remember being worried that the contractions were getting too close together for me to make a trip to the toilet without having a contraction..wierd thing to suddenly worry about I know!
Tracie arrived at 11am, I was so relieved to see her. DH had been doing a wonderful job of supporting me, but it was great to see Tracie there too! Tracie helped me to re-focus on my breathing and this really helped me to get through the contractions. Mum arrived at around 11.30 or thereabouts, she didn’t stay in the birthing room for long though, I could see the concern on her face and found it difficult to relax through the contractions as I was trying to put a brave face on in front of her. It must be hard as a mum to see your daughter in labour I imagine. Mum went back out to the waiting room and would return a bit later.
11.50am Dr K arrived and did an internal exam, but I hadn’t dilated at all. He decided to up the syntocinin and said that he was going to hurt me a bit more. He advised me to have an epidural as he said that I could be in labour until 6pm! But I decided to continue with my breathing. I didnt really want to have an epidural.
12pm – Contractions really started to step up a level. I was now too uncomfortable sitting on the exercise ball and decided to try the shower, but as soon as I got in the shower, I felt claustrophobic and trapped so I got out and decided to give the gas and air a go. I lay on the floor on a mat on my side breathing through the contractions. I didn’t find that the gas took the pain away, but it helped me to regulate my breathing and gave me something to focus on. Apparently I was holding onto DH’s feet and lifting them up through every contraction … again.. dunno why I did that!!
12.50 The pains were really intense now, and felt like they were on top of each other, some were lasting almost 2 mins – I remember someone in the background saying that some contractions were double contractions! I am not sure if this is something caused by the syntocinin. The breathing was getting harder and harder to focus on and at this point, I started asking for an epidural, but decided to keep going with the gas and air.
1.30pm At some point here, there was a change over of midwives and I was assigned a new midwife called Jenny. I think Bronwyn was just about finished for the day so It was just a shift change, but I was quite upset as I had really got used to Bronwyn. Jenny was a lot more “hands-on” and kept moving me, and talking to me and I hated that. At one point she said “you are a beautiful birthing goddess” and I said “F$#%^^ the beautiful birthing goddess” Now I am not someone who swears a lot, and it has to be said that my language during labour was pretty baaaad!! Its funny looking back!
The contractions were now 2 mins apart and 1.5 mins long. I was really not coping too well and was asking DH to “do something” There were “words” between the midwife and DH as to what to do next, but at this point, I just wanted to have an epidural, Tracie quickly checked with me that this is really something that I wanted because in prior discussions, I was really against having an epidural. I said, Yes, I definitely wanted an epidural and the anaesthatist was called pheeeew I was at the point where I was just totally tensed up and unable to relax in between contractions! When asked how long it would take to get the epidural, we were told that it could be 10 mins or an hour depending on when the anaesthatist turned up, I was hallucinating a bit from the gas at this point as I asked DH if I had died, and he said no, and I said, are you sure? … I was pretty out of it!
Midwife decided to do an internal exam. I was now 3-4cm dilated ? I was really having trouble being told what to do and what position to be in etc. At one point, Tracie asked the midwife to back off a bit and to let me do my thing.
Anaesthatist arrived within around ½ hour. I was so happy to see him, I told him that he was about to be my new best friend! The epidural catheter was put in and I was told that it could take up to ½ hour to take effect. A fetal scalp electrode was put onto bubs head and a catheter fitted to me. I have to say, the epidural was not as bad as I had expected. I didn’t feel it being put in at all and my legs etc didn’t even go numb, I could feel everything except pain! Yaaaay! The epidural had taken effect after about ½ hour although I still had a small window of pain on the right of my stomach, but nothing too bad, I was able to use the gas and air during the really painful contractions and breathe through the not so painful contractions. Things started to calm down a bit now and I felt a lot more relaxed. Tracie went outside for a well deserved rest and something to eat I was certainly being a demanding patient! – My poor support people, don’t think thy got to rest or eat for hours!!
Shortly after this, I started shaking uncontrollably and the midwife said something about bubs heart rate going down. The next think I knew, the midwife had pressed the emergency button and all of a sudden, midwives were appearing from everywhere. The midwife in charge said that bubs heartrate had dropped from 150 to below 50 and it was likely that I would have to have a c-section. The syntocinin drip was turned off and I was turned over onto my side. This seemed to do the trick as bubs heart rate started to go back to normal again, but I was feeling really scared at this point, I remember thinking, I don’t care what you have to do, just as long as you can get bub out safely! I was really shaking now as my bood pressure had dropped . The midwife prepped me for surgery. DH was given some scrubs to change into ready for theatre. At some point while all of this was going on, Paul managed to go outside to tell everyone else what was going on, because Tracie and mum returned with him. I remember Tracie asking me if there was anything in particular that I wanted to request if it turned out that I did need to have a C-section. I had originally thought that I would like the lights dimmed etc but when it came down to it, I was so worried about bubs that I didn’t care about anything else!
It all began at 5am on Sunday 30th July – my birthday!! I was booked in to be induced at 6.30am , so set the alarm for 5am and had a lovely long shower and dried my hair etc.. I cant say that I really knew what to expect, except that my waters were going to be broken at 06.30am.
It was so weird driving to the hospital knowing that on the drive home from the hospital, we would be three rather than two. I couldn’t quite imagine it.
We got to the hospital at 6.30 am and were shown to our birthing suite where we were met by Bronwyn who was our midwife. Bronwyn was lovely and immediately made me feel comfortable and relaxed. Dr K was running a bit late as he was in theatre performing an emergency C-section, so I had a bit of time to relax and enjoy a nice cup of tea and some biccies. Dr K arrived at around 7am and ruptured my membranes. This was a bit more painful than I had expected, but was over quickly enough. I was then hooked up to a syntocinin drip, which was not something that I had expected! The good news was that I was around 2cm dilated and my cervix was apparently very thin. Dr K thought that bub would be born around lunchtime! Contractions started pretty much straight away – I was getting contractions at around 4 minutes apart, lasting around 40 seconds each. I thought they were painful, and although they were enough to force me to have to breathe through them. Bronwyn told me that I still had too much “sparkle” in my eyes and that the pain would get a lot worse yet…
I found that the best position at this point was sitting on the exercise ball with a heat pack on my back and DH sitting behind me, rubbing my back. I was still able to breathe through the contractions, but found myself getting annoyed if anyone talked while I was having a contraction.
I cant remember what time it was exactly, but I think that it might have been around 10.30 or so, I asked dh to ring mum and Tracie (my Doula) to tell them what was going on. I was not really able to concentrate on anything at this point and remember being worried that the contractions were getting too close together for me to make a trip to the toilet without having a contraction..wierd thing to suddenly worry about I know!
Tracie arrived at 11am, I was so relieved to see her. DH had been doing a wonderful job of supporting me, but it was great to see Tracie there too! Tracie helped me to re-focus on my breathing and this really helped me to get through the contractions. Mum arrived at around 11.30 or thereabouts, she didn’t stay in the birthing room for long though, I could see the concern on her face and found it difficult to relax through the contractions as I was trying to put a brave face on in front of her. It must be hard as a mum to see your daughter in labour I imagine. Mum went back out to the waiting room and would return a bit later.
11.50am Dr K arrived and did an internal exam, but I hadn’t dilated at all. He decided to up the syntocinin and said that he was going to hurt me a bit more. He advised me to have an epidural as he said that I could be in labour until 6pm! But I decided to continue with my breathing. I didnt really want to have an epidural.
12pm – Contractions really started to step up a level. I was now too uncomfortable sitting on the exercise ball and decided to try the shower, but as soon as I got in the shower, I felt claustrophobic and trapped so I got out and decided to give the gas and air a go. I lay on the floor on a mat on my side breathing through the contractions. I didn’t find that the gas took the pain away, but it helped me to regulate my breathing and gave me something to focus on. Apparently I was holding onto DH’s feet and lifting them up through every contraction … again.. dunno why I did that!!
12.50 The pains were really intense now, and felt like they were on top of each other, some were lasting almost 2 mins – I remember someone in the background saying that some contractions were double contractions! I am not sure if this is something caused by the syntocinin. The breathing was getting harder and harder to focus on and at this point, I started asking for an epidural, but decided to keep going with the gas and air.
1.30pm At some point here, there was a change over of midwives and I was assigned a new midwife called Jenny. I think Bronwyn was just about finished for the day so It was just a shift change, but I was quite upset as I had really got used to Bronwyn. Jenny was a lot more “hands-on” and kept moving me, and talking to me and I hated that. At one point she said “you are a beautiful birthing goddess” and I said “F$#%^^ the beautiful birthing goddess” Now I am not someone who swears a lot, and it has to be said that my language during labour was pretty baaaad!! Its funny looking back!
The contractions were now 2 mins apart and 1.5 mins long. I was really not coping too well and was asking DH to “do something” There were “words” between the midwife and DH as to what to do next, but at this point, I just wanted to have an epidural, Tracie quickly checked with me that this is really something that I wanted because in prior discussions, I was really against having an epidural. I said, Yes, I definitely wanted an epidural and the anaesthatist was called pheeeew I was at the point where I was just totally tensed up and unable to relax in between contractions! When asked how long it would take to get the epidural, we were told that it could be 10 mins or an hour depending on when the anaesthatist turned up, I was hallucinating a bit from the gas at this point as I asked DH if I had died, and he said no, and I said, are you sure? … I was pretty out of it!
Midwife decided to do an internal exam. I was now 3-4cm dilated ? I was really having trouble being told what to do and what position to be in etc. At one point, Tracie asked the midwife to back off a bit and to let me do my thing.
Anaesthatist arrived within around ½ hour. I was so happy to see him, I told him that he was about to be my new best friend! The epidural catheter was put in and I was told that it could take up to ½ hour to take effect. A fetal scalp electrode was put onto bubs head and a catheter fitted to me. I have to say, the epidural was not as bad as I had expected. I didn’t feel it being put in at all and my legs etc didn’t even go numb, I could feel everything except pain! Yaaaay! The epidural had taken effect after about ½ hour although I still had a small window of pain on the right of my stomach, but nothing too bad, I was able to use the gas and air during the really painful contractions and breathe through the not so painful contractions. Things started to calm down a bit now and I felt a lot more relaxed. Tracie went outside for a well deserved rest and something to eat I was certainly being a demanding patient! – My poor support people, don’t think thy got to rest or eat for hours!!
Shortly after this, I started shaking uncontrollably and the midwife said something about bubs heart rate going down. The next think I knew, the midwife had pressed the emergency button and all of a sudden, midwives were appearing from everywhere. The midwife in charge said that bubs heartrate had dropped from 150 to below 50 and it was likely that I would have to have a c-section. The syntocinin drip was turned off and I was turned over onto my side. This seemed to do the trick as bubs heart rate started to go back to normal again, but I was feeling really scared at this point, I remember thinking, I don’t care what you have to do, just as long as you can get bub out safely! I was really shaking now as my bood pressure had dropped . The midwife prepped me for surgery. DH was given some scrubs to change into ready for theatre. At some point while all of this was going on, Paul managed to go outside to tell everyone else what was going on, because Tracie and mum returned with him. I remember Tracie asking me if there was anything in particular that I wanted to request if it turned out that I did need to have a C-section. I had originally thought that I would like the lights dimmed etc but when it came down to it, I was so worried about bubs that I didn’t care about anything else!