Findlay Joseph Arrived!

**treightonsmum** · 25-01-2006 11:10

I was at a community meeting after one of the worst nights sleep I had endured this pregnancy when it had 25 mins until closing the meeting. At 12.35pm I felt a BH and it went into my lower back so I stood up at the back of the meeting and walked through it, 5 mins later I got another one and paced again until it eased. My girlfriend was with me and looked at me and said they were 5mins apart. I wasnt worried as I had had worse BH than this for the last 2 weeks. Then I got another pain and as I stood up my waters broke! I collected my things and my children who were playing in the park out side equiped with bikes to load into the boot and several other park toys. By the time I drove home my contractions were 4 mins apart and the trip was only 10 mins away. I phoned my birth partners and they were on their way from 20 mins away. I finished packing my bags and my waters kept gushing with every contraction. When my friends arrived my contrations were 3 mins apart and I was worried that I would deliver in the front seat of her car! We made it to the hospital after I had soaked her front seat and had to walk through the foyer of the hospital all wet behind! I was monitored for 10 mins in the birthing suite and then told I could walk around the grounds of the hospital for an hour at a time and then come in for monitoring. I walked through 2 hours of labour then it all just stopped. I was let wait at my request until 5 pm before it was needed to be put on the Pictocin drip to get things going again. I started off slowly and built up gradually. I had an active birth as I could considering all the wires and drips hooked up to me. I rocked, breathed and rolled around on the ball until around 11pm. I was feeling not able to cope with the pain so asked for the gas. I breathed through with the gas until 1.20am and then started to feel totally out of control with pain and started to yell for an epidural! I could feel that baby's head was not engaged and he was too high up. I was examined at 1.25 am and told that I was 8 cm dialated and had a anteroir lip over his head and that it would be a few more contractions to open that up. I had two contractions and felt his head move right down and yelled I WANT TO PUSH! The midwife had left the room and his head was coming so my friend had to rush outside to get her. I was ready to deliver, as I pushed I was feeling very tired and just wanted to go home! I had recieved a shot of pethidine at 1.30am and it was inaffect. At 1.38 am he was born with a cord over the top of his head. I had a first degree tear from the midwife removing the cord from his head but other wise no problems. I got to hold him for about 10 mins then because of the rare meningitis that I had at 18 weeks he was taken for tests and all of the cord, placenta and everything was taken to the lab for research. He is the first baby born in Australia to a mother who had Meningitis during pregnancy so the information we provide is important for statistics and other mums in the future.
He was 6lb 12oz and 49.5cm long with a head circumference of 34cm. Welcome to the world Findlay Joseph!