Since my last post I have given birth, I love being a Mum, there is no other love quite like it.
I thought I would start back by sharing my birth story. I am part of a Facebook group for pregnant women due in July and have enjoyed reading some of their very personal and individual birth stories. I decided to take their lead and write my own.
My due date was the 17th of July. My due date came and went and as each day went on I was feeling bigger and more uncomfortable.
Part of me wanted just to have my baby and get it over and done with but to be honest the other half of me was really nervous and apprehensive and kinda liked that baby was still inside me for a wee bit longer.
I had a midwife appointment a week and one day after my due date. At this appointment I was hooked up to a monitor to check baby's heart rate etc and my midwife filled out all the paperwork to book me in for an induction.
At this appointment I decided to have a stretch and sweep to try and get things going. On the day of my appointment I happened to have woken up that day with a really sore back (something I had not experienced at all through my pregnancy) and the stretch and sweep was painful because of this. My midwife said that my cervix was still long and thick so not to get my hopes up, in terms of the stretch and sweep encouraging labour. I felt kinda disappointed but calm in the fact that I had an induction booked and I knew in a week I would definitely have my baby.
At the end of the appointment my midwife noticed that there was an abnormality with baby's heart rate and at one point it had gone down to 90 beats per minute and she was going to contact the hospital and get back to let me know if I needed to go into hospital to be monitored.
Meanwhile, before hearing back from her I had made an appointment to see my chiropractor that afternoon so he could adjust my back. He is a friend of mine and we were joking that he might adjust me and my waters would break or he would at least get things going and I would have my baby that night. I felt really good after my appointment and had a bit of relief rom the discomfort I was feeling.
After my appointment we headed to the hospital at 3pm, taking the hospital bags just in case they decided to induce me that night. Before going to the hospital I had noticed that I was still bleeding from the stretch and sweep and that I had passed a few clots when going to the bathroom. I thought this might just be part of the course as such.
We spent 3 and a half hours at the hospital with my wee baby moving around so much that they could not get a regular heartbeat. It had gone from 90 beats per minute to the higher end of the scale. The nurse was happy that the baby was moving and even though my baby's heart rate was on the high side everything did seem ok so I went home.
I bled for the rest of the evening, I thought that this might be the start of something but did not want to get my hopes up only to have everything stop. Later that night while reading in bed I felt my first contraction it was at 10.20pm and felt another 20 minutes later.
At this time my back pain returned and the contractions were rather painful but I was still able to doze on and off for a few hours.
It got to around 1pm and I could not stay in bed any longer, my back was far too painful and I did not want to wake my husband. I didn't think there was any point in him being up watching me wince in pain.
For the next four hours I noted down each cramp/contraction and waddled to and from the microwave reheating my wheat pack to help with the pain.
At 5pm my back pain had become excruciating and I could not deal with it on my own anymore. I woke my husband who sprung into action.
By this time the contractions were 5 minutes apart for around 3 or 4 contractions and then the next two or three would be around 10 minutes apart then the next set would be stronger.
By 7.30am I was not dealing with things very well at all, I tried so many different positions to ease the pain in my back but nothing would make it subside. I did not think my contractions were far enough apart to ring my midwife but the pain I was in was too much to bear so my midwife was contacted.
We were to meet the midwife at the hospital at 9am which meant we were going to have to drive through rush hour traffic to get me to the hospital.
The drive was pretty awful, small bumps in the road were unbearable and each red light felt like an eternity. I am unsure of what the cars around us thought let alone people who walked or cycled passed.
We finally arrived at the hospital at 9am and my midwife arrived at 9.30am (traffic was heavy).
On her arrival I was checked and I was 5cm dilated. My midwife assumed that the position of the baby was the cause of my back pain and she said that it should ease as I went along because baby will probably move. Initially my goal was to have a labour that was as natural as possible however with the excruciating back pain there was no way that this was going to be possible. I had a shot of pethidine while in the shower and this helped a wee bit with pain. By this time I had tried the gas but to tell you the truth it did nothing to help me at all.
The bath was run and I spent some time in there attempting to ride out the pain, this did give me some relief until the pressure started building (what a strange feeling that is!!)
During the bath I vomited three times (caught in cups by my doting husband) and I feel like everything after that was a bit of a blur. I really do believe it is due to the pain I was in with my back. I think that if I did not have this pain I would have handled the whole experience a lot better. The only way I can explain the back pain is like being slashed along my lower back over and over. I cannot believe I only swore once, or twice!!!
Things I do remember,
- We discussed an epidural and I decided I would have one because I did not know how I was going to handle the rest of the labour. I thought I could still be going for hours and hours. All the anaesthetists were busy and my midwife said I was not far off pushing so I decided not to have one. A decision I am super happy with.
- I remember always using my manners with everyone, I needed to centre myself and by still saying thank you and please I felt like I was still in some form of control (does that sound silly?)
- I was hooked up to an IV so I could get some fluids into me, apparently they had huge difficulty finding a vein and had difficulty keeping me still because after each contraction I would have stabby back pain.
- My waters were broken with the amnihook at 11.17am
- When pushing I had to close my eyes and focus so much because of my back, I was so worried I was going to burst a blood vessel!!!
- Also when focussing on pushing I could not have anyone touching me and I told the trainee midwife in no uncertain terms not to touch me, then followed that up with, I am sorry, I know you are lovely but I just cannot have that at the moment. Who says that crap when they are giving birth??!!!!
- I also yelled at midwife because I thought she was pushing baby back in me when she was doing something fancy to stop me from tearing when I was pushing.
- I remember saying with great feeling, "I cannot do this anymore!!!!" followed by a determined, "lets get this baby out of me"!!
To cut my already very long story short my baby was born at 1.32pm, four and a half hours after arriving at hospital. The placenta was birthed less than five minutes later.
I had one stitch because I was grazed when baby came out because she had her arm up around her head, just to make things that wee bit harder for her Mum.
We were excited to find out we had a healthy baby girl, I was a bit taken back because throughout my pregnancy I was adamant I was having a boy. She weighed 7.7 pounds and was 51 cm in length.
Funnily enough, the pain in my back was not due to the position of the baby, I am just a really lucky person who experiences this when giving birth. As soon as baby was born the pain stopped and I have not had an ounce of pain since. It is hard to know if the pain I woke up with was the star of things or just a coincidence, hard to know if my chiro adjustments did it (doubt that very much), stretch and sweep or a combination of all things.
After giving birth for the next hour or so my midwife filled out paperwork, I showered and my husband fell in love with our gorgeous wee girl.
Just before 4pm we walked (I did not want to be in a wheelchair) down to the entrance and I waited there while Andy got the car. It was a very surreal feeling. I had strangers coming up to me asking me about my baby and they were all very suprised I had had her only 2 and a half hours earlier. They all commented on how well I looked (they were being kind, I looked like crap!) and obviously how cute our wee girl was.
From the moment I saw Eva it was love. She is a chilled out wee thing and melts my heart, even when she is crying at stupid o'clock in the morning. I cannot wait for the new chapter of our life to begin and cannot wait to see the person that she will become in the future.
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My wee girl about 20 minutes after being born.
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