Teto
08-10-2006, 14:30
Note:
Sorry it's so long...! This birth story has been reconstructed with the use of mobile phone records, since I was alone for most of it!
Short version:
Our son Ripley was born 3.82kgs (8lb7oz) on 3 October 2006 after a fast 3.5 hour labour initially induced by gel, and no artificial pain relief.
Long version:
10 days post date, I arrived for induction at 7pm on 2 October. At 8.30pm the midwife did a CTG trace for 15 minutes and all seemed well with the baby’s heartrate. I had an internal examination at 9pm and my cervix was declared “nice and soft” but not open. 2mgs of Prostin gel was inserted and the CTG trace turned on. After about 30 minutes the midwife said everything looked good, the baby’s heart rate increased with his own activity and coped well with the Braxton Hicks I was having.
At about 10.30pm Rick left and I went to bed in hospital. By about midnight I was having period-like pain. At 3.58am (I checked my phone) I was lying in bed when I felt and heard the most distinct internal “pop”, followed by a slimy feeling and the beginning of contractions. I phoned Rick at 4am to tell him about the pop and we agreed it seemed encouraging and that I might not need my waters broken in the morning.
I went to the toilet and my pad was full of mucus with a tiny thread of blood in it. I changed pads and went back to bed but the mucus kept coming and filled another pad. I think I eventually abandoned underpants and was sitting on a towel on the bed at about 4.30am when a small gush of water came out of me and I realized this was really it. By then I was getting somewhat painful contractions lasting 30 seconds or so and coming every few minutes. I called a midwife in and asked if I should get my partner here and she seemed pretty relaxed about it, so I just phoned Rick again (at 4.40am) and updated him on the waters situation and we agreed he should go back to bed and arrive later in the morning. We realize how ridiculous that decision was now but we had no idea really and had been told to expect a full day’s work.
Then there is some kind of “missing minutes” between 4.40am and 5.20am (when I sent a text message to my mother and sisters). It said “waters broken, pains every few minutes, ughhh”. I think I may have spent the time rocking on the toilet. At 5.30am I was kneeling on the floor with a vomit dish when I received a phone call from my mother and while talking to her I threw up several times and had a contraction. So she would have got a stronger impression of my progress than Rick had at that time. Back at home, his alarm clock went off and he lay in bed at 5.40am contemplating the day ahead. My mother texted him twice at 5.47 and 5.48am all “she’s having the baby!” and he phoned her back and then hurried to get ready, showering, feeding dogs and making (but not drinking) a cup of tea.
At some point around then a midwife popped in and suggested I get in the shower in my room. That took me out of phone contact though (there are a few missed calls on my phone) and left Rick and my mother frustrated. Rick came into the room just before 6.30am with the enthusiastic war cry “Bring it on!” to find the shower running, me sitting on the toilet contracting and pooing, blood on the bathroom floor and vomit in the dish. We both recall that my response to his cheery greeting was “urrggghhhhh”. Thank God he came in himself because I was way past getting that organized.
We spent another half an hour with me kneeling on the floor of the shower gripping the shower chair with my fingers and him sitting just outside timing contractions, which he says were 60 seconds long with a 90 second gap.
At about 7am the midwife came back in and said I should hop in the bath in the delivery suite because it would be good for the pain. She went away and came back and said the bath was ready and to come on. She put a hospital gown on me and we made the long, slow walk up the corridor to the delivery suite, stopping every few metres so I could lean on the wall, hang on to the rail and have a contraction. The wall was nice and cool on my forehead.
We made it to the delivery suite at about 7.10am and I climbed in the bath and got under the water. At some point my obstetrician showed up and asked how I was going and then said he was going off to do a Caesar and would be back later. After a few more minutes in the bath I said that I thought the baby was coming, even though I still couldn’t really convince myself. The contractions had become huge, stretching, opening surges with the most enormous pressure behind them. They were so agonizing and I was rolling around in the bath trying to get through them. Rick was holding my hand and whispering in my ear that I was doing great and putting cold cloths on my face. The midwife said she would do an internal examination – the first since going into labour. It must have been about 7.20am. She put her fingers in me and I remember it seemed to feel nice, like it gave some relief or something. Through a haze I heard her calling out “She’s fully, and I can feel the baby’s head” and telling someone to get my obstetrician back. She said to me “we don’t give birth in the bath, so I’m going to pull the plug now”. They helped me out of the bath and I had to get straight on my knees for another contraction, then I got up and was briefly toweled and put in a gown just to walk into the next room. The midwife pulled the gown off me and told me to climb up on the bed on my knees and lean over the back of it with my bum in the air.
Then there was a flurry of the obstetrician arriving and two midwives arranging stuff behind me and Rick once again whispering encouragement in my ear. There was a very quick check of the baby’s heart rate using a Doppler that they passed between my legs and after a couple of nervous seconds we all heard a fast beat and the obstetrician said “he’s happy as Larry”. With the next contraction I finally stopped resisting the surge and let it happen. The head came out and Rick says they put a tiny suction tube on his nose and the baby started crying noisily. There was a projectile burst of waters that made everyone jump back, then there was a comparatively long break of a minute or so during which they said “you can have another contraction anytime” and I just groaned. Then I said “here it comes” and I felt downward and then upward pressure as the baby’s shoulders were pulled out of me, and later a slither as the rest of the body came out. It was 7.28am and I had only been on the delivery bed for three or four minutes.
They passed the baby through my legs and I looked down and saw this pink, flailing, squawking baby and couldn’t believe something so finished could live inside someone. Then I was told to turn over onto my back and the baby went up on my chest with the cord still inside me. Rick was called over to cut the cord. I got an injection to help deliver the placenta and that was the only time I consciously had to push. The placenta felt like a fat, slimy blood clot, which it is I guess. The obstetrician said “now I’m just going to put a couple of stitches in” and I thought "oops" but it was not too bad of a tear.
We were left alone with the baby on my chest while the staff headed off to deal with other dramas. The breakfast tray arrived and I gobbled down breakfast cereal and toast and juice and phoned people with the surprising news. After an hour or more I was wheeled back down the corridor for another shower in my room, but this time with little Ripley in tow.
I found the speed and pain of the birth quite shocking and utterly agonizing but I think it was totally awesome and I was very lucky that it happened the way it did. Thanks for reading if you got this far!
Sorry it's so long...! This birth story has been reconstructed with the use of mobile phone records, since I was alone for most of it!
Short version:
Our son Ripley was born 3.82kgs (8lb7oz) on 3 October 2006 after a fast 3.5 hour labour initially induced by gel, and no artificial pain relief.
Long version:
10 days post date, I arrived for induction at 7pm on 2 October. At 8.30pm the midwife did a CTG trace for 15 minutes and all seemed well with the baby’s heartrate. I had an internal examination at 9pm and my cervix was declared “nice and soft” but not open. 2mgs of Prostin gel was inserted and the CTG trace turned on. After about 30 minutes the midwife said everything looked good, the baby’s heart rate increased with his own activity and coped well with the Braxton Hicks I was having.
At about 10.30pm Rick left and I went to bed in hospital. By about midnight I was having period-like pain. At 3.58am (I checked my phone) I was lying in bed when I felt and heard the most distinct internal “pop”, followed by a slimy feeling and the beginning of contractions. I phoned Rick at 4am to tell him about the pop and we agreed it seemed encouraging and that I might not need my waters broken in the morning.
I went to the toilet and my pad was full of mucus with a tiny thread of blood in it. I changed pads and went back to bed but the mucus kept coming and filled another pad. I think I eventually abandoned underpants and was sitting on a towel on the bed at about 4.30am when a small gush of water came out of me and I realized this was really it. By then I was getting somewhat painful contractions lasting 30 seconds or so and coming every few minutes. I called a midwife in and asked if I should get my partner here and she seemed pretty relaxed about it, so I just phoned Rick again (at 4.40am) and updated him on the waters situation and we agreed he should go back to bed and arrive later in the morning. We realize how ridiculous that decision was now but we had no idea really and had been told to expect a full day’s work.
Then there is some kind of “missing minutes” between 4.40am and 5.20am (when I sent a text message to my mother and sisters). It said “waters broken, pains every few minutes, ughhh”. I think I may have spent the time rocking on the toilet. At 5.30am I was kneeling on the floor with a vomit dish when I received a phone call from my mother and while talking to her I threw up several times and had a contraction. So she would have got a stronger impression of my progress than Rick had at that time. Back at home, his alarm clock went off and he lay in bed at 5.40am contemplating the day ahead. My mother texted him twice at 5.47 and 5.48am all “she’s having the baby!” and he phoned her back and then hurried to get ready, showering, feeding dogs and making (but not drinking) a cup of tea.
At some point around then a midwife popped in and suggested I get in the shower in my room. That took me out of phone contact though (there are a few missed calls on my phone) and left Rick and my mother frustrated. Rick came into the room just before 6.30am with the enthusiastic war cry “Bring it on!” to find the shower running, me sitting on the toilet contracting and pooing, blood on the bathroom floor and vomit in the dish. We both recall that my response to his cheery greeting was “urrggghhhhh”. Thank God he came in himself because I was way past getting that organized.
We spent another half an hour with me kneeling on the floor of the shower gripping the shower chair with my fingers and him sitting just outside timing contractions, which he says were 60 seconds long with a 90 second gap.
At about 7am the midwife came back in and said I should hop in the bath in the delivery suite because it would be good for the pain. She went away and came back and said the bath was ready and to come on. She put a hospital gown on me and we made the long, slow walk up the corridor to the delivery suite, stopping every few metres so I could lean on the wall, hang on to the rail and have a contraction. The wall was nice and cool on my forehead.
We made it to the delivery suite at about 7.10am and I climbed in the bath and got under the water. At some point my obstetrician showed up and asked how I was going and then said he was going off to do a Caesar and would be back later. After a few more minutes in the bath I said that I thought the baby was coming, even though I still couldn’t really convince myself. The contractions had become huge, stretching, opening surges with the most enormous pressure behind them. They were so agonizing and I was rolling around in the bath trying to get through them. Rick was holding my hand and whispering in my ear that I was doing great and putting cold cloths on my face. The midwife said she would do an internal examination – the first since going into labour. It must have been about 7.20am. She put her fingers in me and I remember it seemed to feel nice, like it gave some relief or something. Through a haze I heard her calling out “She’s fully, and I can feel the baby’s head” and telling someone to get my obstetrician back. She said to me “we don’t give birth in the bath, so I’m going to pull the plug now”. They helped me out of the bath and I had to get straight on my knees for another contraction, then I got up and was briefly toweled and put in a gown just to walk into the next room. The midwife pulled the gown off me and told me to climb up on the bed on my knees and lean over the back of it with my bum in the air.
Then there was a flurry of the obstetrician arriving and two midwives arranging stuff behind me and Rick once again whispering encouragement in my ear. There was a very quick check of the baby’s heart rate using a Doppler that they passed between my legs and after a couple of nervous seconds we all heard a fast beat and the obstetrician said “he’s happy as Larry”. With the next contraction I finally stopped resisting the surge and let it happen. The head came out and Rick says they put a tiny suction tube on his nose and the baby started crying noisily. There was a projectile burst of waters that made everyone jump back, then there was a comparatively long break of a minute or so during which they said “you can have another contraction anytime” and I just groaned. Then I said “here it comes” and I felt downward and then upward pressure as the baby’s shoulders were pulled out of me, and later a slither as the rest of the body came out. It was 7.28am and I had only been on the delivery bed for three or four minutes.
They passed the baby through my legs and I looked down and saw this pink, flailing, squawking baby and couldn’t believe something so finished could live inside someone. Then I was told to turn over onto my back and the baby went up on my chest with the cord still inside me. Rick was called over to cut the cord. I got an injection to help deliver the placenta and that was the only time I consciously had to push. The placenta felt like a fat, slimy blood clot, which it is I guess. The obstetrician said “now I’m just going to put a couple of stitches in” and I thought "oops" but it was not too bad of a tear.
We were left alone with the baby on my chest while the staff headed off to deal with other dramas. The breakfast tray arrived and I gobbled down breakfast cereal and toast and juice and phoned people with the surprising news. After an hour or more I was wheeled back down the corridor for another shower in my room, but this time with little Ripley in tow.
I found the speed and pain of the birth quite shocking and utterly agonizing but I think it was totally awesome and I was very lucky that it happened the way it did. Thanks for reading if you got this far!