BlueGin
04-04-2007, 05:04 PM
Here goes, finally have a birth story to share! :D
I arrived at the hospital, being 3cm dilated (I discovered at my Monday appointment) 7am on Tuesday to have my waters broken, then had the syntocinin drip an hour later as nothing had
started.
At 12midday I was 3-4cm dilated after 3 hours of apparently good contractions... grrr... drip put up to higher level.
At 4pm I was 4, maybe 5cm... drip up again...
I was getting pretty over done by now as the contractions were pretty hardcore, so agreed to consider pethidine. Still on gas.
At 8pm I was 5cm, needed the pethidine as I was just destroyed, the contractions had started overlapping! I had one hideous 10 minute one where all I did was squeeze DH's hand and say "please stop it, please stop the contraction!" over and over. They turned off the drip and gave me a drug to reverse it, I think
someone got in a bit of trouble for having it too high!
Contractions still full on without drip but all this time Bubble's head was still a little above the bone, so not fully engaged.
At this point a doctor came in to discuss a c-section, as they realised that something was stopping this baby! I was happy to go ahead after a chat with DH, so said yes.
5 minutes later (9:30pm) another doc came in and said no c-section, they'd try a "new" technique where I'd have an epidural (which didn't bother me any more as I'd need something for surgery anyway) and leave me to labour on the drip, as she thought my body was fighting the contractions. I agreed, feeling I'd better give the baby as much chance for a natural delivery as possible, I never wanted to feel like I hadn't done my best to avoid the surgery.
A midwife later confided that one reason (among many other better reasons) for trying this was that they'd booked out the operating theatre and had nowhere to put me.
Original doc from the morning (Mr. Pointy Fingers) came back and said I'd have to labour till 3am till they'd assess me to see if it worked. I wanted them to check earlier but he wouldn't, I
really didn't think it was wise to wait so long but the epi was in by then so not much I could do! (Except plan to harrass them as much as possible!)
So, 4 hours to wait, with my legs nearly numb from the epi, just not numb enough to stop the pins and needles! I let DH sleep as he was pretty exhausted by this point and didn't want to get dinner as he felt guilty (misguided but very sweet, he hadn't eaten since the night before!).
At 2am the baby's heartrate started dropping with each contraction, this had happened earlier and they had decided the reading was faulty. So the drip was turned off but they decided
to wait 15 minutes to see if it normalised. Not very happy at this point as with the epidural I couldn't feel the baby at all to see if it was feeling OK.
The heartrate kept dropping so finally got the go ahead from the doc for a c-section at about 2:45, in the the theatre by 3am.
Lovely team, my midwife came with me and the horrible doc stayed behind!!! They made sure they knew what we wanted to happen with the baby, and DH's involvement, and away we went!
I thought they were being a bit rough prodding around finding the baby's position... apparently they were already pulling it out! DH looked behind the screen and announced the wonderful
news:
"It's a boy!" And he was lifted up above the screen for me to see, when he promptly started weeing (aiming at me I'm sure!) but they had quick reflexes luckily! He had been stuck with the cord tightly twice around his neck, so my theory on something stopping his descent was true it seems, so lucky it ended well, very scary.
He was swung past for me to kiss, then taken screaming to the little table to be wiped down, DH in attendance. Then brought back to me. My gown was pulled down a bit so he could lie on my chest, and when I spoke he stopped screaming and just stared at me, beautiful little dark eyes!
He had a feed, very eager, then he and Dad went off together while I was sorted out.
Wow, a long birth story! I am so happy with how everything turned out, even with the hurdles along the way. I was able to be up and about within 10 hours (begging to be up from 4!) And discharged myself in 2 days, so a great recovery so far. My sweet little man is growing up super fast, 1 week old today!
He was born 9lb 2oz, 52cm long, head circumference of 36cm, Apgar's of 9 and 9.
I arrived at the hospital, being 3cm dilated (I discovered at my Monday appointment) 7am on Tuesday to have my waters broken, then had the syntocinin drip an hour later as nothing had
started.
At 12midday I was 3-4cm dilated after 3 hours of apparently good contractions... grrr... drip put up to higher level.
At 4pm I was 4, maybe 5cm... drip up again...
I was getting pretty over done by now as the contractions were pretty hardcore, so agreed to consider pethidine. Still on gas.
At 8pm I was 5cm, needed the pethidine as I was just destroyed, the contractions had started overlapping! I had one hideous 10 minute one where all I did was squeeze DH's hand and say "please stop it, please stop the contraction!" over and over. They turned off the drip and gave me a drug to reverse it, I think
someone got in a bit of trouble for having it too high!
Contractions still full on without drip but all this time Bubble's head was still a little above the bone, so not fully engaged.
At this point a doctor came in to discuss a c-section, as they realised that something was stopping this baby! I was happy to go ahead after a chat with DH, so said yes.
5 minutes later (9:30pm) another doc came in and said no c-section, they'd try a "new" technique where I'd have an epidural (which didn't bother me any more as I'd need something for surgery anyway) and leave me to labour on the drip, as she thought my body was fighting the contractions. I agreed, feeling I'd better give the baby as much chance for a natural delivery as possible, I never wanted to feel like I hadn't done my best to avoid the surgery.
A midwife later confided that one reason (among many other better reasons) for trying this was that they'd booked out the operating theatre and had nowhere to put me.
Original doc from the morning (Mr. Pointy Fingers) came back and said I'd have to labour till 3am till they'd assess me to see if it worked. I wanted them to check earlier but he wouldn't, I
really didn't think it was wise to wait so long but the epi was in by then so not much I could do! (Except plan to harrass them as much as possible!)
So, 4 hours to wait, with my legs nearly numb from the epi, just not numb enough to stop the pins and needles! I let DH sleep as he was pretty exhausted by this point and didn't want to get dinner as he felt guilty (misguided but very sweet, he hadn't eaten since the night before!).
At 2am the baby's heartrate started dropping with each contraction, this had happened earlier and they had decided the reading was faulty. So the drip was turned off but they decided
to wait 15 minutes to see if it normalised. Not very happy at this point as with the epidural I couldn't feel the baby at all to see if it was feeling OK.
The heartrate kept dropping so finally got the go ahead from the doc for a c-section at about 2:45, in the the theatre by 3am.
Lovely team, my midwife came with me and the horrible doc stayed behind!!! They made sure they knew what we wanted to happen with the baby, and DH's involvement, and away we went!
I thought they were being a bit rough prodding around finding the baby's position... apparently they were already pulling it out! DH looked behind the screen and announced the wonderful
news:
"It's a boy!" And he was lifted up above the screen for me to see, when he promptly started weeing (aiming at me I'm sure!) but they had quick reflexes luckily! He had been stuck with the cord tightly twice around his neck, so my theory on something stopping his descent was true it seems, so lucky it ended well, very scary.
He was swung past for me to kiss, then taken screaming to the little table to be wiped down, DH in attendance. Then brought back to me. My gown was pulled down a bit so he could lie on my chest, and when I spoke he stopped screaming and just stared at me, beautiful little dark eyes!
He had a feed, very eager, then he and Dad went off together while I was sorted out.
Wow, a long birth story! I am so happy with how everything turned out, even with the hurdles along the way. I was able to be up and about within 10 hours (begging to be up from 4!) And discharged myself in 2 days, so a great recovery so far. My sweet little man is growing up super fast, 1 week old today!
He was born 9lb 2oz, 52cm long, head circumference of 36cm, Apgar's of 9 and 9.