becca74
04-09-2006, 16:09
My 2nd baby was also born in the UK, he was my 1st vbac.
Josh was due 27th January. but when visiting his grandad in hospital just the weekend before xmas, I had a funny feeling it would be sooner. I put the thoughts aside, figuring I was just becoming 'over' the pregnancy!
During this pregnancy I read absolutely nothing about pregnancy and birth - I figured I was an expert now, it being 2nd time round :rolleyes: I was also armed with the confidence that I'd vbac, from the positive comments I'd received about this after my 1st c/sec.
Jak, my DS1, had had a tummy bug over xmas, which involved a bit of :barf: . I started getting cramps on xmas evening, and couldnt eat xmas dinner, much to the disappointment of DH, who had been the one who had slaved in the kitchen all day lovingly preparing it. He was quite peeved, to be honest!
Boxing day morning, I :barf: extremely violently, and this set off huge cramps. Went back to bed, and kept waking up every 20 mins to severe cramps that would subside after a minute or 2. As I was still very nauseous, I still figured this was just the tummy bug. DH was still peeved, as he had to go back to work the next day, and here I was bed ridden on his precious day off.
I wasnt going to put up with his nonsense, so I set up camp in the spare room that night. By now my 'cramps' were every 10 mins, and I couldn't sleep, as everytime I got one, I felt I needed the loo.
In the morning, DH slipped out early to work, and tho the nausea had gone, I was getting cramps now every 5-7 mins, that made me need to stop what I was doing. I got DS1 up and dressed, and thought I'd phone the NHS nurses helpline. I still didn't have a driving license, so couldn't drive to the drs. From what I told the nurse I spoke to, she urged me to phone the labour ward, to get their impression. I just didnt want to trouble them if this was just the tummy bug, especially since I still had a month to go!
I phoned the labour ward, and they told me to phone an ambulance right away! I still thought this might all be a false alarm, so I didnt bother packing a labour bag, and I rang for an ambulance, and took DS1 with me. They offered me the gas, even tho I didnt really need it - but it was 'fun' and it was cute watching DS1 put his thumb in his mouth as he copied me sucking the gas...
upon arrival I was declared 4-5 cms and was told to phone DH as I wasnt going home! He had just arrived at his desk, and had to make an about turn and get back on the train! We phoned up DH's ex-wife to take DS1 (we were on good terms back then), and he was spirited away to spend the night with his older brother and sister, from DH's 1st marriage. I was stuck on the monitor and a bung was inserted in my hand - I found these totally annoying, but put up with them nonetheless.
The contractions were easily tolerable, I even remember feeling at one with all birthing women when I was having contractions, and commenting to my husband as to how amazing it was...:eek:
I laboured steadily throughout the day, the labour ward was really busy, and because of this, we were left alone only to be visited about once an hour extremely briefly. We were getting bored by the afternoon, and we buzzed the midwife, who came in really annoyed, saying....."you are fine, please only buzz us when you really need us"......But we really thought (in our naive knowledge about labour) that the hospital helped you to have your baby, and noone appeared to be helping us to do anything.
Reluctantly, she did an ARM (artificial rupture of the membranes), as I was about 8-9 cms dilated. And WOAH did things start to get going then!! I felt like I'd been overcome by a wild and crazy storm, the contractions kept piling on top of one another, and the gas started to do no good anymore. I screamed out for pethidine! I remember throwing up, and they gave me an internal exam just before they were going to give me the pethidine, only to find I was fully dilated, so they couldnt give it to me. It was 45 mins after the ARM that I started to need to push, and then it was action stations. In came the midwives, one of them and my DH propped me up and held my knees open, another one was poised to catch Josh. After a few pushes, they told me his head was out, but I needed to stop pushing so they could unravel the cord from his neck. As soon as he was untangled, he shot out really fast. They took him away to get him breathing. He was 6lb 7oz and breathing fine, so didnt need to go down to the neonatal ICU.
Wow! I'd done it! I'd been given a shot for the 3rd stage, and my placenta delivered in about 20mins. I was told that I'd grazed, but didnt need stitches. I gave Josh his first breast feed about 30 mins or so after his birth - another boobaholic like his big brother!
We were taken to the ward, and kissed DH goodbye for the night. It was complete bliss till about 2am when I needed to go to the loo. I then experienced the most horrid thing ever! Just going for a wee was extreme torture. It gave me such a shock that I lept off the toilet and wee and blood went everywhere. I was so upset and humiliated. I tried to mop up as best as I could. But because I hadnt brought a labour bag, or educated myself on anything like this, I had no spare pants or pads or clothes, and now everything was messed up. I was so upset. I eventually buzzed the midwife on duty on the ward, and she was quite annoyed, as she was the only one working that night. They didnt have spare pads or pants etc for the mums, so when she took me back to my bed, she sat me on a disposable mat, and there I sat till 11am the next morning, bleeding onto this mat, till DH brought in some supplies for me. Poor man, was so overwhelmed by all this, he got everything on my list correct - except he bought some pink sleep-suits for me to put Bubs in to bring home (I hadnt unpacked baby stuff from DS1 yet, and Josh was extra small anyway).......we'd had another boy, and he had to come home in pink!
Went home that day, and it was trial and error trying to use the loo with the grazes.....but thank God after about a week I was healed and that was the end of that......
We got on with life with our 2 gorgeous boys........
Josh was due 27th January. but when visiting his grandad in hospital just the weekend before xmas, I had a funny feeling it would be sooner. I put the thoughts aside, figuring I was just becoming 'over' the pregnancy!
During this pregnancy I read absolutely nothing about pregnancy and birth - I figured I was an expert now, it being 2nd time round :rolleyes: I was also armed with the confidence that I'd vbac, from the positive comments I'd received about this after my 1st c/sec.
Jak, my DS1, had had a tummy bug over xmas, which involved a bit of :barf: . I started getting cramps on xmas evening, and couldnt eat xmas dinner, much to the disappointment of DH, who had been the one who had slaved in the kitchen all day lovingly preparing it. He was quite peeved, to be honest!
Boxing day morning, I :barf: extremely violently, and this set off huge cramps. Went back to bed, and kept waking up every 20 mins to severe cramps that would subside after a minute or 2. As I was still very nauseous, I still figured this was just the tummy bug. DH was still peeved, as he had to go back to work the next day, and here I was bed ridden on his precious day off.
I wasnt going to put up with his nonsense, so I set up camp in the spare room that night. By now my 'cramps' were every 10 mins, and I couldn't sleep, as everytime I got one, I felt I needed the loo.
In the morning, DH slipped out early to work, and tho the nausea had gone, I was getting cramps now every 5-7 mins, that made me need to stop what I was doing. I got DS1 up and dressed, and thought I'd phone the NHS nurses helpline. I still didn't have a driving license, so couldn't drive to the drs. From what I told the nurse I spoke to, she urged me to phone the labour ward, to get their impression. I just didnt want to trouble them if this was just the tummy bug, especially since I still had a month to go!
I phoned the labour ward, and they told me to phone an ambulance right away! I still thought this might all be a false alarm, so I didnt bother packing a labour bag, and I rang for an ambulance, and took DS1 with me. They offered me the gas, even tho I didnt really need it - but it was 'fun' and it was cute watching DS1 put his thumb in his mouth as he copied me sucking the gas...
upon arrival I was declared 4-5 cms and was told to phone DH as I wasnt going home! He had just arrived at his desk, and had to make an about turn and get back on the train! We phoned up DH's ex-wife to take DS1 (we were on good terms back then), and he was spirited away to spend the night with his older brother and sister, from DH's 1st marriage. I was stuck on the monitor and a bung was inserted in my hand - I found these totally annoying, but put up with them nonetheless.
The contractions were easily tolerable, I even remember feeling at one with all birthing women when I was having contractions, and commenting to my husband as to how amazing it was...:eek:
I laboured steadily throughout the day, the labour ward was really busy, and because of this, we were left alone only to be visited about once an hour extremely briefly. We were getting bored by the afternoon, and we buzzed the midwife, who came in really annoyed, saying....."you are fine, please only buzz us when you really need us"......But we really thought (in our naive knowledge about labour) that the hospital helped you to have your baby, and noone appeared to be helping us to do anything.
Reluctantly, she did an ARM (artificial rupture of the membranes), as I was about 8-9 cms dilated. And WOAH did things start to get going then!! I felt like I'd been overcome by a wild and crazy storm, the contractions kept piling on top of one another, and the gas started to do no good anymore. I screamed out for pethidine! I remember throwing up, and they gave me an internal exam just before they were going to give me the pethidine, only to find I was fully dilated, so they couldnt give it to me. It was 45 mins after the ARM that I started to need to push, and then it was action stations. In came the midwives, one of them and my DH propped me up and held my knees open, another one was poised to catch Josh. After a few pushes, they told me his head was out, but I needed to stop pushing so they could unravel the cord from his neck. As soon as he was untangled, he shot out really fast. They took him away to get him breathing. He was 6lb 7oz and breathing fine, so didnt need to go down to the neonatal ICU.
Wow! I'd done it! I'd been given a shot for the 3rd stage, and my placenta delivered in about 20mins. I was told that I'd grazed, but didnt need stitches. I gave Josh his first breast feed about 30 mins or so after his birth - another boobaholic like his big brother!
We were taken to the ward, and kissed DH goodbye for the night. It was complete bliss till about 2am when I needed to go to the loo. I then experienced the most horrid thing ever! Just going for a wee was extreme torture. It gave me such a shock that I lept off the toilet and wee and blood went everywhere. I was so upset and humiliated. I tried to mop up as best as I could. But because I hadnt brought a labour bag, or educated myself on anything like this, I had no spare pants or pads or clothes, and now everything was messed up. I was so upset. I eventually buzzed the midwife on duty on the ward, and she was quite annoyed, as she was the only one working that night. They didnt have spare pads or pants etc for the mums, so when she took me back to my bed, she sat me on a disposable mat, and there I sat till 11am the next morning, bleeding onto this mat, till DH brought in some supplies for me. Poor man, was so overwhelmed by all this, he got everything on my list correct - except he bought some pink sleep-suits for me to put Bubs in to bring home (I hadnt unpacked baby stuff from DS1 yet, and Josh was extra small anyway).......we'd had another boy, and he had to come home in pink!
Went home that day, and it was trial and error trying to use the loo with the grazes.....but thank God after about a week I was healed and that was the end of that......
We got on with life with our 2 gorgeous boys........