This is a bit overdue, but here is my birth story:
Well, it all started on Monday morning, the 30th May. I woke up at about 4am with some intense pains that kept coming every 20 minutes or so, that wouldn’t let me sleep. I guess these were some pretty mild contractions. Hubby didn’t want to go to work that day, as he was pretty worried, but I sent him off- knowing it could be some time before things really ramped up. My contractions continued at about one every 20 minutes or so. By the time Hubby came home from work, they were closer together, coming at roughly every 10 minutes. I wasn’t too fussed, so we continued going about our normal routine- making dinner, watching TV and so on. At 11pm, they were getting stronger and much closer together, but I decided to give sleeping a go. Off to bed I went, which lasted all of 20 minutes, as I had quite strong contractions coming every 7 minutes. At this point Hubby was getting pretty worried, and decided to call the hospital. They told us to wait until the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. I knew this wouldn’t be too far off, so Hubby started loading the car up, putting extra food out for our cat-child while I had a nice hot shower to try and relax. Every time a contraction came at this point I had to lean against the wall as they were getting pretty painful. We kept timing the contractions (using a trusty iphone app!) and when they were every 4-5 minutes and I was in way too much pain, we got into the car and headed off to the hospital. Sitting in the car and not being able to lean forward when I got a contraction was agony, so I was really happy that, being it was close to 1am- there was no traffic!
We went into the hospital and were immediately sent to the Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit at about 1am, where they did an examination and found I was 4cm dilated. I stayed in the bathroom there for another couple of hours under the hot shower on the fit ball, breathing through each contraction. When the pain became a little too much to bear on my own, I was then transferred to a birthing suite so I could use the gas to help ease the pain of my contractions.
Again, I chose to sit in the shower, alternating between a chair and a fit ball, with the hot water on my abdomen. Hubby kept helping me out by rubbing my back and giving me water after breathing in the gas as it dried my mouth out.
By 7am, my favourite OB started her shift which I was pretty happy about.
It had been close to 6 hours since my last examination, and being that your cervix should dilate approximately 1cm per hour, I was thinking we should be nearing the end and coming close to pushing time. Well, after my examination my OB told me that I was now only 5cm dilated. 5cm!! It had taken close to 6 hours to dilate 1cm! I was devastated. My waters had also not broken, so at this point they had to be manually broken. Once this happened, my contractions went from something I considered painful, to the most intense pain I have ever experienced! I could no longer sit in the shower as I was in too much pain. I kept leaning against Hubby and squeezing his hand. At the peak of my contractions I was yelling and screaming in pain- I never thought I would be one of those people! I continued trying to suck on the gas, but the pain was so intense I could hardly hold it in my mouth, instead I was sobbing and crying out in pain. At this point, I knew I needed something else to enable me to continue, so my midwife convinced me to give a shot of pethidine a go to ‘take the edge off’ the contractions. Well, let me tell you, the pethidine was the biggest waste of time. All it did was make me feel sleepy and drugged out in between each contraction, but did not at all lessen the pain! I persevered another few hours, but by about 11am I’d had enough. They examined me to find I was now 9cm dilated, and when I asked how much longer I’d have to go, I was told it could be another 3-4 hours. Oh my god. Then all of a sudden I got this intense urge to push and I screamed out “I need to push”- it was like it wasn’t even me, it was my body completely taking over. My body was no where near ready to push, so I have no idea what was going on there. At this point I was so exhausted from lack of sleep the past 2 nights and I told Hubby I couldn’t do it anymore and I needed an epidural. He made sure that I really did want one (oh my god, did I ever), and that was that. The anaesthesiologist was sent in (after what seemed like eternity), I had to agree to all sorts of risks (I would of said yes to anything at this point) and they started prepping me for the epidural. I was supposed to sit up very straight on the bed and keep still while the inserted the needle. Let me tell you, it is not at all easy to sit up straight on a bed while crying out in pain through contraction after contraction hoping that the anaesthesiologist isn’t going to mess up because you’re moving! Well, I somehow managed to stay still and they got the epidural up and working (“How long is it going to take? How long is it going to take?” ), once it kicked in, I felt like it was a completely different labour. I was calm, relaxed and was feeling really good about my decision. I have no regrets taking it all as it came, and if I were to go through labour again, I definitely would not opt for an epidural off the bat. Some people are lucky enough to have a short labour, which I believe I could of endured!
A few hours later, after having to have a drip to increase my contractions, due to a ‘failure to progress’, I was told it was time to start pushing. We were going to have a baby really soon! Well, again nothing was to come easy with this labour, and I had to lie in numerous positions to try and push our little baby down the birth canal. After an hour and a half of pushing (again, thankful for my decision to get an epidural at this point!) my OB told me I had a very small pelvis and our baby was started to become distressed and would need a little bit of help to come out. I remember thinking “Oh, no, I hope they don’t want to give me a caesarean!”, but luckily that was not the case. She told me she thought a vacuum extraction was needed. At this point my dignity was long gone and my legs were put up into the stirrups, the vacuum put onto his head and I was told to push. I pushed with all my might, and after a few more minutes at exactly 1.42pm on Tuesday 31st May our little baby was pushed out into the world. Instead of telling us the sex, they held our baby up so we could see…. It was a… boy! He had these big eyes that immediately stared at everything around him, then he started crying. Hubby cut the cord, and then they placed him on my chest for some skin to skin contact and his first breast feed.
I remember really not caring that my legs were up in stirrups as my 2nd degree tears were being stitched up (thank god I was distracted and couldn’t feel the pain!) as I was instantly in love with this little being laying on my chest. He weighed 6lbs, 10oz (2.998kg) and everything on him was just perfect.
After a long, long labour and the most ridiculous pain I have ever experienced our little baby boy- Hudson was brought into the world.
We went into the hospital and were immediately sent to the Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit at about 1am, where they did an examination and found I was 4cm dilated. I stayed in the bathroom there for another couple of hours under the hot shower on the fit ball, breathing through each contraction. When the pain became a little too much to bear on my own, I was then transferred to a birthing suite so I could use the gas to help ease the pain of my contractions.
Again, I chose to sit in the shower, alternating between a chair and a fit ball, with the hot water on my abdomen. Hubby kept helping me out by rubbing my back and giving me water after breathing in the gas as it dried my mouth out.
By 7am, my favourite OB started her shift which I was pretty happy about.
It had been close to 6 hours since my last examination, and being that your cervix should dilate approximately 1cm per hour, I was thinking we should be nearing the end and coming close to pushing time. Well, after my examination my OB told me that I was now only 5cm dilated. 5cm!! It had taken close to 6 hours to dilate 1cm! I was devastated. My waters had also not broken, so at this point they had to be manually broken. Once this happened, my contractions went from something I considered painful, to the most intense pain I have ever experienced! I could no longer sit in the shower as I was in too much pain. I kept leaning against Hubby and squeezing his hand. At the peak of my contractions I was yelling and screaming in pain- I never thought I would be one of those people! I continued trying to suck on the gas, but the pain was so intense I could hardly hold it in my mouth, instead I was sobbing and crying out in pain. At this point, I knew I needed something else to enable me to continue, so my midwife convinced me to give a shot of pethidine a go to ‘take the edge off’ the contractions. Well, let me tell you, the pethidine was the biggest waste of time. All it did was make me feel sleepy and drugged out in between each contraction, but did not at all lessen the pain! I persevered another few hours, but by about 11am I’d had enough. They examined me to find I was now 9cm dilated, and when I asked how much longer I’d have to go, I was told it could be another 3-4 hours. Oh my god. Then all of a sudden I got this intense urge to push and I screamed out “I need to push”- it was like it wasn’t even me, it was my body completely taking over. My body was no where near ready to push, so I have no idea what was going on there. At this point I was so exhausted from lack of sleep the past 2 nights and I told Hubby I couldn’t do it anymore and I needed an epidural. He made sure that I really did want one (oh my god, did I ever), and that was that. The anaesthesiologist was sent in (after what seemed like eternity), I had to agree to all sorts of risks (I would of said yes to anything at this point) and they started prepping me for the epidural. I was supposed to sit up very straight on the bed and keep still while the inserted the needle. Let me tell you, it is not at all easy to sit up straight on a bed while crying out in pain through contraction after contraction hoping that the anaesthesiologist isn’t going to mess up because you’re moving! Well, I somehow managed to stay still and they got the epidural up and working (“How long is it going to take? How long is it going to take?” ), once it kicked in, I felt like it was a completely different labour. I was calm, relaxed and was feeling really good about my decision. I have no regrets taking it all as it came, and if I were to go through labour again, I definitely would not opt for an epidural off the bat. Some people are lucky enough to have a short labour, which I believe I could of endured!
A few hours later, after having to have a drip to increase my contractions, due to a ‘failure to progress’, I was told it was time to start pushing. We were going to have a baby really soon! Well, again nothing was to come easy with this labour, and I had to lie in numerous positions to try and push our little baby down the birth canal. After an hour and a half of pushing (again, thankful for my decision to get an epidural at this point!) my OB told me I had a very small pelvis and our baby was started to become distressed and would need a little bit of help to come out. I remember thinking “Oh, no, I hope they don’t want to give me a caesarean!”, but luckily that was not the case. She told me she thought a vacuum extraction was needed. At this point my dignity was long gone and my legs were put up into the stirrups, the vacuum put onto his head and I was told to push. I pushed with all my might, and after a few more minutes at exactly 1.42pm on Tuesday 31st May our little baby was pushed out into the world. Instead of telling us the sex, they held our baby up so we could see…. It was a… boy! He had these big eyes that immediately stared at everything around him, then he started crying. Hubby cut the cord, and then they placed him on my chest for some skin to skin contact and his first breast feed.
I remember really not caring that my legs were up in stirrups as my 2nd degree tears were being stitched up (thank god I was distracted and couldn’t feel the pain!) as I was instantly in love with this little being laying on my chest. He weighed 6lbs, 10oz (2.998kg) and everything on him was just perfect.
After a long, long labour and the most ridiculous pain I have ever experienced our little baby boy- Hudson was brought into the world.
What a beautiful - and terrifying- story! Are you trying to talk me out of doing this?
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