victoriajane
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My very long birth story - well it was a very long labour!
It's taken me ages to write this - partly because Anna hardly *ever* naps and partly because I didn't want to just scribble the details down, I felt I wanted to do the event justice! Just before the story of her arrival begins, a bit of background. My pregnancy didnt get off to a great start. When we went for 12 week scan, a high Nuchal Fold was noted of 4.2 mm (normal range is up to 3mm). This basically means that there was a high chance our baby had a chromosome disorder, such as Downs or Edwards syndrome or a heart defect. The consultant midwife who explained this to us told us it was highly unlikely that there wouldnt be something wrong and we were referred to see a consultant for another scan and a CVS two days later. We were absolutely devastated.
The consultant was fantastic and after the second scan, advised us that he was reading the Nuchal Fold at 3.6mm. Some hospitals set their upper limit at 3.5mm, so he was very optimistic that things would be okay for us and along with my blood test results, said he thought our odds of baby having a chromosome disorder were just 3%! After the discouraging picture the first midwife had painted, this was amazing news. After five very long days, the first set of chromosome results came back completely clear for Downs, Edwards and another one I cant remember now and after another ten days, the full karotype also came back clear! We were kept under fetal medicine care for the rest of my pregnancy , had four weekly anomaly scans and were also booked in for specialist fetal cardiac scans at 17 and 24 weeks. When these also came back as completely normal, we finally felt like my pregnancy could begin! The consultant explained there was still a possibility that she had a genetic illness, but this couldnt be tested for. I know that everyone says they dont care about anything as long as their baby is healthy, but I spent every single day of the rest of my pregnancy praying that the tests werent wrong, and that she really would be okay.
So, anyway...my contractions started reasonably gently at about 5am on Thursday 5th May. I was 6 days overdue and quite grumpy. I felt tired before I even started and because I had been jumping at every twinge and ache for the last three weeks, didnt really believe I could possibly be having actual contractions! As Thursday went on, contractions got more regular and painful. I was obviously in labour, but things were going annoyingly slowly. By 8pm Thursday, the contractions were about three/four minutes apart and felt painful enough to head up to hospital (ha! Little did I know!). I was examined and was utterly then utterly deflated to find out I was only 1cm dilated. Basically, go back home and have a bath and some paracetamol the lamest advice you will ever hear. I had hired a TENS machine but found it utterly useless and I just ended up getting cross with all the stupid wires and connections.
In the car on the way back home, I suddenly had a monster contraction, at least forty kajillion times more painful than anything I had had before and when I got out of the car at home at about 9pm, my waters broke in the driveway, quite impressively! The contractions ramped up like crazy after this, making the ones I had been having for the last twelve hours frankly laughable. I felt like a right donkey for going into hospital beforehand as I was clearly in no pain whatsoever in comparison! Anyway, another one of those brilliant things no-one tells you is that even if your waters go with a whoosh like mine did, you will still continue leaking them all over the place for - well, most of my labour actually. Very attractive.
At about 11pm, I sent Matt off to bed as there was nothing he could do other than time my contractions and generally be lovely, which I was too cross to appreciate. I spent the next four hours moving around the house trying to find any comfy position I could and failing miserably. The sodding contractions were all over the place, sometimes six minutes apart, sometimes two, always super painful. At 3am, I woke Matt up as I was too miserable on my own and by 4am I had had enough so rang the hospital again who told me to come in if I wanted! Even though it hurt like hell, I was wary of going in again as I didnt want to get sent home a second time but eventually we went as I just couldnt stand being at home anymore.
We were met by a midwife who took us straight into a delivery room rather than assessing me first as in her words you seem pretty far along now. The she examined me (was about 5am now) and unbelievable, I was only just 2cm! In the 8 hours since I had last been in (and 24 hours since the contractions had first started), I had moved along ONE SODDING CENTIMETER! She seemed confident that I would start moving quickly now though and let me rip on the gas and air. Which was awesome!
I was re-examined by the same midwife at 10am and was still only at 2cm but could be stretched to 3cm easily (apparently!). Disappointing, but almost there was what midwife said. She went off shift then with a promise someone would be in soon and we were left alone until almost 3pm! I carried on moving around the room, trying to desperately find any position that didnt hurt and failed miserably. Matt got quite cross and went to find someone. This new midwife came in and told me that they were thinking of sending me back home as the midwife who admitted me really shouldnt have done, as even if she did think Id be at 4cm in no time, their policy was that you arent in true labour until 4cm and therefore should be at home! AAARH!
I went a bit mad then as I was just so tired and in so much sodding pain and had just been told I wasnt in proper labour!! I think the new midwife felt a bit sorry for me then as she stopped talking about sending me home and started on the get up, walk around to get baby moving pep talk instead. She made me stop the gas and air though as I was getting too used to it, and I promptly threw up on my next contraction, the pain was so bad! I think at this point the midwife realised I wasnt just being a wuss and that maybe perhaps my labour wasnt progressing as normal. The new midwife examined me and I was STILL only at 2cm. I cried. I bawled! I was exhausted, they wouldnt let me into the pool until I was at 4cm and it looked like all my lovely birthing ideas were going out the window.
The midwife spoke to the consultant led unit then and it was decided that they would give me till 9pm in the midwife unit to try and get to 4cm, but then it would be 24 hours since my waters had gone and due to the risk of infections I would have to move to consultant unit and go onto syntocin drip to speed up dilation. Another examination just before 9pm showed me to be at 3cm, so it was up to the consultant ward and a big kiss goodbye to my chilled out waterbirth. 
It was recommended I had an epidural due to the intensity of contractions from the drip. Everyone was completely lovely and I knew that we had to do something to get things going like they should, but I was so upset that things were going the way they were - could not have been further from my birth plan (hah, yes I wrote a birth plan. Idiot.) However, I was so exhausted by this point that the actual epidural was quite amazing. I finally got a bit of sleep and some respite from nonstop bloody contractions (oh yes, and technically I still wasnt in labour as not yet at 4cm HAHAHAHAHAHA
I completely lose track of time at this point, delirium had set in a bit, but *think* I had the epidural and drip put in at about midnight and then I *think*I lay on the bed with the drip in hand and trace on my belly for about 5-6 hours. There was a shift change (I went through eight midwives between MLU and CLU in the time I was there!) and I was examined again. OH MY GOD, I WAS FINALLY FULLY DILATED! It only took two days! They left me for another hour to allow baby to move down some more and then it was finally time to push. I had wanted the epidural to wear off a bit to allow me some feeling when I came to push, but because I had been topped up too recently (my own fault) when it came to it, I couldnt feel a thing, except for a patch about 5cm square on my right hip which hurt like hell and never went completely numb.
Unfortunately, after two hours of pushing, it was apparent that baby was going nowhere. After another examination (hi maternity unit anyone who hasnt had their hands up my bits yet?) the consultant confirmed that baby was in a really awkward position with her head tipped backwards and would struggle to come out on her own. Even though her heart rate was fantastic (she never got into distress at any point, clever baby) the consultant decided that she needed to come out sooner rather than later. Because she was quite far down the birth canal, they were optimistic that a forceps lift out would do it rather than a c-section, so off to theatre we went. In theatre, my right leg took forever to go numb so I lay there chatting to the anaesthetists for a while as they tilted me into insane positions on the table to try and get the epidural to move around (well, I say chatting, but I was so exhausted I actually kept falling asleep mid sentence!) and then at about 12.40pm, I was good to go. I had to have an episiotomy (seriously, whole experience could not have been further removed from my birth plan if someone had read it and thought it was opposite day) and the ginormous salad tongs sprung into action. First push and her head was out, second push and at 12.45pm on Saturday 7th May, 2011 my stubborn little baby was finally here!
A not too shabby 8lb 10oz, Anna Francesca was screaming her fabulous head off from the moment she came out with Apgars of 10 and 10! Poor little thing had an enormous bruise on her head from two hours of pushing her against my pelvis and big forceps marks on her cheeks. Holding her for the first time was actually terrifying. She was yelling and bloody and I couldnt believe she was actually, really there, and that I was in charge of her! As I was holding her she sort of dribbled bloody mucousy goo onto me so they had to take her away briefly to aerate her lungs. Apparently this isnt uncommon, but scared the shit out of me! I had seven external stitches and five internal, thanks to the forceps and episiotomy and once we were all tidied up, we were wheeled in the biggest daze ever back to our room.
The rest of the day is such a blur. I was beyond exhausted and could barely string a sentence together. Perhaps because my waters went so long before she was born (19 hours), or perhaps because of the sixty squillion examinations I had, I ended up with a fever and an infection. I had to go onto IV antibiotics and then a weeks worth of oral ones and in her first hours of life, poor Anna had to go to neo-natal unit to have a canula fitted and then four lots of antibiotics administered over the next few days just in case she picked up my infection. This all meant we have to stay in for three nights, which is a whole other story (post natal wards, not known for their relaxing, peaceful qualities!).
Despite everything that happened, it still wasnt what I would call a bad experience. The hospital staff were amazing at every point and my gorgeous healthy baby is all I really went in wanting anyway. I hope as well that if you or anyone you know has had some bad news about a higher nuchal fold measurement that this can bring you some hope too. She is completely amazing, and as far as we can tell at almost six weeks is totally healthy!
No-one can explain to me why she had the higher NF measurement and the scariness of that dominating my whole pregnancy combined with the long labour (and the trapped wind and insane lack of sleep who told me babies sleep 20 out of 24 hours!? Can I hurt them yet?!) has left us pretty convinced that Anna is going to be an only child, but she is so awesome I am pretty cool with that right now.
(Wow, if you got this far, well done - believe it or not, this is the edited version! )
It's taken me ages to write this - partly because Anna hardly *ever* naps and partly because I didn't want to just scribble the details down, I felt I wanted to do the event justice! Just before the story of her arrival begins, a bit of background. My pregnancy didnt get off to a great start. When we went for 12 week scan, a high Nuchal Fold was noted of 4.2 mm (normal range is up to 3mm). This basically means that there was a high chance our baby had a chromosome disorder, such as Downs or Edwards syndrome or a heart defect. The consultant midwife who explained this to us told us it was highly unlikely that there wouldnt be something wrong and we were referred to see a consultant for another scan and a CVS two days later. We were absolutely devastated.
The consultant was fantastic and after the second scan, advised us that he was reading the Nuchal Fold at 3.6mm. Some hospitals set their upper limit at 3.5mm, so he was very optimistic that things would be okay for us and along with my blood test results, said he thought our odds of baby having a chromosome disorder were just 3%! After the discouraging picture the first midwife had painted, this was amazing news. After five very long days, the first set of chromosome results came back completely clear for Downs, Edwards and another one I cant remember now and after another ten days, the full karotype also came back clear! We were kept under fetal medicine care for the rest of my pregnancy , had four weekly anomaly scans and were also booked in for specialist fetal cardiac scans at 17 and 24 weeks. When these also came back as completely normal, we finally felt like my pregnancy could begin! The consultant explained there was still a possibility that she had a genetic illness, but this couldnt be tested for. I know that everyone says they dont care about anything as long as their baby is healthy, but I spent every single day of the rest of my pregnancy praying that the tests werent wrong, and that she really would be okay.
So, anyway...my contractions started reasonably gently at about 5am on Thursday 5th May. I was 6 days overdue and quite grumpy. I felt tired before I even started and because I had been jumping at every twinge and ache for the last three weeks, didnt really believe I could possibly be having actual contractions! As Thursday went on, contractions got more regular and painful. I was obviously in labour, but things were going annoyingly slowly. By 8pm Thursday, the contractions were about three/four minutes apart and felt painful enough to head up to hospital (ha! Little did I know!). I was examined and was utterly then utterly deflated to find out I was only 1cm dilated. Basically, go back home and have a bath and some paracetamol the lamest advice you will ever hear. I had hired a TENS machine but found it utterly useless and I just ended up getting cross with all the stupid wires and connections.
In the car on the way back home, I suddenly had a monster contraction, at least forty kajillion times more painful than anything I had had before and when I got out of the car at home at about 9pm, my waters broke in the driveway, quite impressively! The contractions ramped up like crazy after this, making the ones I had been having for the last twelve hours frankly laughable. I felt like a right donkey for going into hospital beforehand as I was clearly in no pain whatsoever in comparison! Anyway, another one of those brilliant things no-one tells you is that even if your waters go with a whoosh like mine did, you will still continue leaking them all over the place for - well, most of my labour actually. Very attractive.
At about 11pm, I sent Matt off to bed as there was nothing he could do other than time my contractions and generally be lovely, which I was too cross to appreciate. I spent the next four hours moving around the house trying to find any comfy position I could and failing miserably. The sodding contractions were all over the place, sometimes six minutes apart, sometimes two, always super painful. At 3am, I woke Matt up as I was too miserable on my own and by 4am I had had enough so rang the hospital again who told me to come in if I wanted! Even though it hurt like hell, I was wary of going in again as I didnt want to get sent home a second time but eventually we went as I just couldnt stand being at home anymore.
We were met by a midwife who took us straight into a delivery room rather than assessing me first as in her words you seem pretty far along now. The she examined me (was about 5am now) and unbelievable, I was only just 2cm! In the 8 hours since I had last been in (and 24 hours since the contractions had first started), I had moved along ONE SODDING CENTIMETER! She seemed confident that I would start moving quickly now though and let me rip on the gas and air. Which was awesome!
I was re-examined by the same midwife at 10am and was still only at 2cm but could be stretched to 3cm easily (apparently!). Disappointing, but almost there was what midwife said. She went off shift then with a promise someone would be in soon and we were left alone until almost 3pm! I carried on moving around the room, trying to desperately find any position that didnt hurt and failed miserably. Matt got quite cross and went to find someone. This new midwife came in and told me that they were thinking of sending me back home as the midwife who admitted me really shouldnt have done, as even if she did think Id be at 4cm in no time, their policy was that you arent in true labour until 4cm and therefore should be at home! AAARH!
I went a bit mad then as I was just so tired and in so much sodding pain and had just been told I wasnt in proper labour!! I think the new midwife felt a bit sorry for me then as she stopped talking about sending me home and started on the get up, walk around to get baby moving pep talk instead. She made me stop the gas and air though as I was getting too used to it, and I promptly threw up on my next contraction, the pain was so bad! I think at this point the midwife realised I wasnt just being a wuss and that maybe perhaps my labour wasnt progressing as normal. The new midwife examined me and I was STILL only at 2cm. I cried. I bawled! I was exhausted, they wouldnt let me into the pool until I was at 4cm and it looked like all my lovely birthing ideas were going out the window.
The midwife spoke to the consultant led unit then and it was decided that they would give me till 9pm in the midwife unit to try and get to 4cm, but then it would be 24 hours since my waters had gone and due to the risk of infections I would have to move to consultant unit and go onto syntocin drip to speed up dilation. Another examination just before 9pm showed me to be at 3cm, so it was up to the consultant ward and a big kiss goodbye to my chilled out waterbirth. 
It was recommended I had an epidural due to the intensity of contractions from the drip. Everyone was completely lovely and I knew that we had to do something to get things going like they should, but I was so upset that things were going the way they were - could not have been further from my birth plan (hah, yes I wrote a birth plan. Idiot.) However, I was so exhausted by this point that the actual epidural was quite amazing. I finally got a bit of sleep and some respite from nonstop bloody contractions (oh yes, and technically I still wasnt in labour as not yet at 4cm HAHAHAHAHAHA
I completely lose track of time at this point, delirium had set in a bit, but *think* I had the epidural and drip put in at about midnight and then I *think*I lay on the bed with the drip in hand and trace on my belly for about 5-6 hours. There was a shift change (I went through eight midwives between MLU and CLU in the time I was there!) and I was examined again. OH MY GOD, I WAS FINALLY FULLY DILATED! It only took two days! They left me for another hour to allow baby to move down some more and then it was finally time to push. I had wanted the epidural to wear off a bit to allow me some feeling when I came to push, but because I had been topped up too recently (my own fault) when it came to it, I couldnt feel a thing, except for a patch about 5cm square on my right hip which hurt like hell and never went completely numb.
Unfortunately, after two hours of pushing, it was apparent that baby was going nowhere. After another examination (hi maternity unit anyone who hasnt had their hands up my bits yet?) the consultant confirmed that baby was in a really awkward position with her head tipped backwards and would struggle to come out on her own. Even though her heart rate was fantastic (she never got into distress at any point, clever baby) the consultant decided that she needed to come out sooner rather than later. Because she was quite far down the birth canal, they were optimistic that a forceps lift out would do it rather than a c-section, so off to theatre we went. In theatre, my right leg took forever to go numb so I lay there chatting to the anaesthetists for a while as they tilted me into insane positions on the table to try and get the epidural to move around (well, I say chatting, but I was so exhausted I actually kept falling asleep mid sentence!) and then at about 12.40pm, I was good to go. I had to have an episiotomy (seriously, whole experience could not have been further removed from my birth plan if someone had read it and thought it was opposite day) and the ginormous salad tongs sprung into action. First push and her head was out, second push and at 12.45pm on Saturday 7th May, 2011 my stubborn little baby was finally here!
A not too shabby 8lb 10oz, Anna Francesca was screaming her fabulous head off from the moment she came out with Apgars of 10 and 10! Poor little thing had an enormous bruise on her head from two hours of pushing her against my pelvis and big forceps marks on her cheeks. Holding her for the first time was actually terrifying. She was yelling and bloody and I couldnt believe she was actually, really there, and that I was in charge of her! As I was holding her she sort of dribbled bloody mucousy goo onto me so they had to take her away briefly to aerate her lungs. Apparently this isnt uncommon, but scared the shit out of me! I had seven external stitches and five internal, thanks to the forceps and episiotomy and once we were all tidied up, we were wheeled in the biggest daze ever back to our room.
The rest of the day is such a blur. I was beyond exhausted and could barely string a sentence together. Perhaps because my waters went so long before she was born (19 hours), or perhaps because of the sixty squillion examinations I had, I ended up with a fever and an infection. I had to go onto IV antibiotics and then a weeks worth of oral ones and in her first hours of life, poor Anna had to go to neo-natal unit to have a canula fitted and then four lots of antibiotics administered over the next few days just in case she picked up my infection. This all meant we have to stay in for three nights, which is a whole other story (post natal wards, not known for their relaxing, peaceful qualities!).
Despite everything that happened, it still wasnt what I would call a bad experience. The hospital staff were amazing at every point and my gorgeous healthy baby is all I really went in wanting anyway. I hope as well that if you or anyone you know has had some bad news about a higher nuchal fold measurement that this can bring you some hope too. She is completely amazing, and as far as we can tell at almost six weeks is totally healthy!
No-one can explain to me why she had the higher NF measurement and the scariness of that dominating my whole pregnancy combined with the long labour (and the trapped wind and insane lack of sleep who told me babies sleep 20 out of 24 hours!? Can I hurt them yet?!) has left us pretty convinced that Anna is going to be an only child, but she is so awesome I am pretty cool with that right now.
(Wow, if you got this far, well done - believe it or not, this is the edited version! )
good size as well!!
