Introducing Ashley Jade Kleemann ... our beautiful little girl (very long)

**katiek** · 23-07-2006 17:34

After 19 hours of labour our little girl arrived into the world at 12:21pm on Friday July 14 at Calvary Hospital in North Adelaide weighing 8lbs 11oz

I first suspected I was in labour on the Thursday July 13 as I had just seen my ob and had a quick internal which showed I was already 1cm dilated. I was pretty exicted with this news as my ob thought I would go into labour naturally over the weekend and would not need the pre-booked induction that was planned for July 17.

Anyway, after this appt Brett and I went out for lunch to a local pub and all of a sudden I felt some cramps. When I was going home about an hour later they were getting a bit worse but I still thought it was just braxton hicks. Thankfully Brett came home about an hour early from work that day and when he came thru the door I was pretty sure that this was it ... I was finally getting stronger contractions and when I timed them they were coming every 5 mins!

So I laboured on at home during the evening of the 13th; at this stage the pain was quite bearable ... like a really bad period I guess. I rang the hospital but they said to wait until the pain was really unbearable before I came in. I was happy with that as I was comfy at home and the tv was a good distraction from the pain. At this stage I was laughing and joking between the contractions and really didnt think i would be going to the hospital until the next day

But boy was I wrong! Come 11pm the pain was getting worse and I was starting to wonder how I'd make the 35 min drive into the hospital esp with Brett's driving! I rang the hospital and said Im coming in and they just said OK we'll see you soon. All the way down in the car it seemed surreal, each contraction came like clockwork ... still there was a part of me that said "is this really labour? i thought the pain would be excruciating by now"

On arrival at the hospital the midwife said i was 2cm. The internal hurt like hell. She was rough as anything and was an old witch who probably had been a midwife for years. She was pretty hard. All thru the night she didnt say much to be except for when she hooked me up to the CTG and Ashley's heart rate went up quite high. We were a bit panicked them but thankfully it returned to a normal rate and i went on to labour thru the night with NO PAIN RELIEF while Brett slept in a chair!

Come 8am I got a lovely new midwife called Jenny who advised me to have an epidural as an anaethesist would be coming in to see another woman in half an hour. I said yes as I didnt know when the next chance would be. He came in and gave it to me and then my wonderful ob came in and broke my waters. He did an internal (didnt hurt as much this time) and said i was 4cm.

Slowly the epidural worked and numbed me up to my boobs but after about half an hour I could feel contractions and they bloody hurt. I didnt think I was supposed to be able to feel them so Jenny gave me a top up. Still I could feel them and I just moaned and cried my way thru them as it seemed to me that the whole epidural thing wasnt working. This was my greatest fear! I got pretty angry then, yelling at Brett for ever wanting to have a baby and saying stuff like "I must have been stupid to want to go thru this!"and now in hindsight I realise I was in the transitional phase of labour.

Jenny was lovely thru out everything but I really had to go to the toilet and asked her to disconnect me or get me a bed pan or something coz I really felt the urge to do a poo! She ran off to get something and then all of a sudden the pain just got SO BAD, I cried and cried and screamed and seemed to be getting no rest between each contraction. She said to me "you couldnt be 10cm yet, we only just gave you the epidural" but sure enough she checked me out and I was 10cm!!!

I was in state of shock when she told me I would have to start pushing and i was scared my ob wasnt going to get back in time as he had left the hospital to go back to his rooms. He obviously was called though and when I saw him come thru the door I was so happy to see him as he was such a familiar face and he told me that everything was going to be OK.

So once he was there I began pushing which was extremely hard to do, I was absolutely exhausted (esp as I;d gone so long without pain relief before the epi was administered) and I thought it was mean of them to ask me to hold my breath for 15 secs between pushes. It was such bloody hard work and I felt like a failure as she just wasn't coming down. Finally my ob said he needed to get the baby out and was going to use the forceps. At the time I thought this was because I was having such a hard time pushing but in reality (i found this out afterwards) Ashley's heart rate dipped below 50bpm and she was in great distress and had to come out. The pain I felt when he used to forceps was absolute AGONY and i have never screamed or cried as much as i did then. I felt as though my whole body, every organ, was being pulled from inside of me. Thank goodness it worked though as Ashley came out fine, her heart rate returned to normal and she was placed on my belly where i just cried for about the next 30 mins from the shock and the pain!!

i didnt even get to hold her properly for about 2 hours as I was shaking so much from the drugs they gave me that didnt work and I was extremely nauseous and dizzy whenever i tried to sit up. Brett held her and kept telling me over and over again that she was fine and I was still in a state of shock as she was a girl and all thru the pregnancy my instincts had said she was a boy!

We are absolutely thrilled though as secretly we both wanted a girl and our dream came true

I am just so happy that we are both healthy (although i have a hell of a tear) and that she got out of me in time otherwise it was going to be an emergency caesar. It truly is amazing to see the person who has been growing inside of you, to know it was her who gave me all that morning sickness, dizzy spells, backache and was the person who kicked me in the ribs all the time. Would i go thru it all again even though the drugs didnt work? Definitely

**Mrs Dolphin** · 23-07-2006 19:05

What an amazing story - very well written too!

Congratulations on the arrival of your little girl!

Best wishes to you all...

**~EmsMum~** · 23-07-2006 19:12

congrats
and thank you for sharing

enjoy your precious little one

**ETsMum** · 24-07-2006 14:30

Congrats KatieK!!!

Great story - thanks for sharing!!!

**Sarie** · 24-07-2006 15:13

Congrats hon! You've done a great job!
With my first I had two epi's and neither of them worked, I wasn't numb at all.
During my second I coped really well with the pain and only used gas for about 30-45 minutes.
I'm hoping this labour will go just a smoothly. But I'm sure you will be fine if you decide to go again!
Just rest and enjoy your beautiful little girl!