jenthough178
David - 29 DF
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Well i am always on this forum reading everyone's birth stories, and they helped me so much with my first baby and now i'm pregnant again i'm reading on here loads again! So i thought i'd post mine. albeit a bit patchy and uncertain at most parts :/
Well, my son Alfie Samuel, was born on the 16th March 2011, 20:23pm, weighing 8lb 7oz, by EMCS.
I had a fairly normal healthy pregnancy, nothing untoward whatsoever. They thought he was growing a bit big from the scan's so kept an eye on things and arranged a scan at 36 weeks to check out how big he was. They were so sure he was gonna be mahoosive that they even advised not to bother buying any newborn stuff, just stock up on 0-3 month grows etc. so that's exactly what i did.
I got to around 39 and a half weeks, and i started to get a few pains, accompanied by braxton hicks, so i'd have one horrific pain then a few hours of braxton hicks, so i ate curries, DTD, walked, anything to keep things moving. eventually they turned into manageable contractions, around 10 minutes apart. So neither me or my other half drive, plus we lived in a first floor flat at the time, with a very small and crappy quality bath, so i decided it was time to up sticks to my dad's, a house, with my dad there 24/7 who drives, a big old style tin bath big enough to wallow for hours in comfort, i felt safe
So there i stayed, in between contractions and braxton hicks, for the next 2 weeks 
I'd had a sweep at 40+5, and again at 41 weeks, still nothing. so i was booked for induction on the 16th of march. Not what i wanted, (as natural a birth as possible and no epidurals if i can help it), but had to be done, as there was also this looming problem of how "massive" he was supposed to be.
So, Tuesday 15th March i'm at my dad's playing the wii (golf and wii fitness) when i had a whopper of a contraction, which made me literally sit down and gasp involuntarily. Immediately David (my OH) was by my side rubbing the bottom of my back (which he'd got very good at by now) and i said to dad that i really think this is the start. Throughout the day i carried on having these contractions, to the point of having to actually lean back in the chair i was on and lift my bum off the seat because of the pressure pain on my pelvis. I'd kept in touch with the midwife throughout the day who told me to come in when i felt i had to or if my waters broke. Got to around half 4/5, and my brother got in from school so we got prepared and left. I was checked out and was 2cm dilated, and contracting very irregularly, but as i was due to arrive at hospital at 7am the following morning, they decided to keep me in. I was distraught cause i didn't wanna be left, but i was assured if anything happened they would immediately phone David to come back, and he would need his rest to support me tomorrow for the induction.
Soooo, Tuesday morning. I'm monitored on and off throughout the morning, contractions very irregular, still 2cm. I was given a pessary (cannot remember for the life of me what it was, but you'll probably know what i'm on about) at around 10am and was told to walk around, keep active, and if nothing had happened in 6 hours they were gonna have to give me another one and it could be a long process. they'd prepared me for the possibility of not having my baby for another 3 days or so lol. So that's what i did, walked around the hospital with David, having to stop every now and again for contractions. By about 1pm the contractions had really kicked off. they were faaaaairly irregular but getting more regular as time was going on. I kept having to be laid down to have the monitors attached (which killed me) and one time i was examined and i was 3cm and my waters were *bulging* so they were gonna look to transfer me to labour ward to have em broken.
(During all this time on the ward with the pessary in i had a pad on to catch any residue from it, and when i was going to pee the pad was bright green. when i explained this to the midwife she was all "it's probably just your plug and the pessary residue, don't worry" but i knew what to look for becuase my mum had slow leaking waters with one of my brothers and they were bright green... and indeed bubs had passed meconium. but what do i know, eh?!)
After this examination my contractions really really picked up, they were about 5 minutes apart and i was pacing up and down the (empty) side ward that i was in, leaning on david for support during the contractions. eventually the midwife thought it was worthwhile to browse through my birth plan and noticed that i wanted gas and air to help me through contractions once they started, so she quickly sorted that out which was bliss! the first few sucks i started giggling and told david i felt drunk and he should have a go, both my mum and dad were there and they were wettin emselves watching me giggling because of the gas. then david took one suck and i was like SHHHH THEY'LL HEAR YOU! and collapsed into fits of giggles, followed swiftly by a contraction at which point i was like "no no no sh now it hurts sh!"*sucks avidly on gas*. About 15 minutes after this i came over exhausted and announced i was going to sleep.
I pushed everyone's stuff off the bed, climbed on and went to sleep. I dunno how long i was asleep but apparently i was waking up every 7 minutes or so moaning, sucking the gas and air and then dropping back off. lol. When i woke up the contractions felt awful, and i promptly reattached the gas nozzle to my mouth. Some woman came in around 5 offering me dinner and i was like no thanks. no thanks. no thanks. to her remarks of "well you should really eat something dear, you'll only feel worse. come on just a little bit". in the end my mum was like "she is in labour! bugger off!" and she did. lol. I know she was only doing her job but i did make it clear... anyway,
I have no idea on times or anything for any of this bit because i was so out of it on gas and pain. i know they were about 7 minutes apart, and the midwife examined me, strapped me to the monitors again, said i was 4cm, said my waters were still bulging and that they were really gonna send me to labour ward this time. so off i went!
Got to labour ward, changed into my beautiful hospital gown
and was given my gas back, (which i'd had to do without on my way down to labour ward) and sucked on it so hard to get through the contractions i ended up overdosing on it and consequently throwing up... not so pleasant.. but hey ho contractions were coming thick and fast but i was told to remain on the bed while they monitored baby and tried to break my waters. i had two midwives in the room with me, along with my partner and my mum. the midwives were failing miserably to break my waters, it was getting ridiculous, they werent waiting til inbetween contractions, they weren't taking into consideration how uncomfortable i was sitting on the bed while they bickered about why neither of them could break my waters, they just seemed like complete novices. very unsettling. eventually the on call consultant came in and asked what was going on, which is when they told her they couldnt break my waters. she went to put her hand inside to examine me and my waters broke by themselves... full of meconium. i was 5cm at this point.
The midwives were briefed to keep an eye on me as labour was progressing okay so i may be able to get him out they way i wanted to, but watch his heartrate regularly. They obviously thought this meant to keep me strapped to the bed at all times and ignore my plea's for information and the worst case scenario etc. i began to feel like i wanted to push, and instead of havin a peek to see if i was dilated enough they just told me to do it, so i did, and when his heart rate dropped they were totally flumoxed. again, in came the consultant who told me to stop pushing so she could have a look. this is when she turned on the midwives shouting "what on earth are you telling her to push for? she's still 5cm! you should have looked!!" so off she went again, i was still being ignored, (david and mum were really attentive, i'm on about the midwives) so now they tried to attach a clip to the baby's head because he was jumping around inside me so much they couldnt keep a good bead on his heart rate, they failed at attaching said clip, so just took to holding the monitors on me til they found his heart beat... which had dropped dramatically with and in between every contraction. so one of the midwives goes to reach for the emergency button thingy, and the other one pulls her arm away telling her it's too early. they're now standing at the end of my bed arguing about it, i'm begging them for information, sobbing, and in comes the consultant, takes one look at the situation and pushes the emergency whatsit. she then calmly expels the other two "midwives" from the room and explains to the three of us that i will now need an emergency section, as there is a LOT of meconium in my waters and baby's not very happy with it. i would need a general anaesthetic as i had no pain relief except gas, and this was too urgent to wait.
So i was wheeled away, and on the way to theatre i couldnt have gas so by the time i got there my head was clearing a bit and the pain was mental. i was breathing, huffing and puffing my way through the contractions as they stuck needles in me, pulled my gown almost off of me, rubbed iodine over my tummy and i vaguely heard a woman having a flap because "she has metal in her mouth! she has metal in her mouth!!" before being silenced by aforementioned consultant who said it didnt matter (I have a tongue and a lip piercing). Then i passed out.
I woke at around half 11/midnight, to a considerably smaller stomach, an EXTREMELY dry throat, excruciating pain radiating from the bottom of my tummy and a pair of nurses changing my sheets from beneath me and dressing my wound... and a little bundle in a hospital cot next to me. dressed and quiet. david was so attentive and brought him over to show me as soon as i opened my eyes, "does he look like an alfie to you then?" with tears streaming down his face. i began to sob at which point i said hang on, take him away for a minute until they've done my dressing because it hurts too much to cry. all said and done i was taken off of HDU around 1 in the morning and taken to post-natal ward, and put in a side room which was so much bigger and nicer than the room they had expected me to give birth in. I got my first cuddles with my gorgeous baby boy, he had a small cut on his head where they'd been in such a rush to get him out but it didnt matter as it didnt bother him and other than that he was healthy in every way.
I also started the process of breastfeeding that night, although the nursery nurse looked a bit miffed that she came in hoping to wheel him away to have a nice relaxing bottle and put him back before i'd noticed, i woke up immediately upon her entering the room, asked her where she thought she was taking him and told her it's in my notes everywhere that i wanted to breastfeed as soon as possible after the birth, whatever happened. he'd already had a bottle after the birth which david gave him because iw as still out for the count which is no one's fault, so i didn't wanna miss out on any other chances. It worked
He latched beautifully, i recovered well, and after giving birth wednesday night, i went home friday lunchtime. totally chuffed. breastfed wonderfully for around 3 months but in the end he was just so hungry and shortly after stopping Bfing (which actually broke my heart but was what was best for him) he started on solids so he obviously needed more!
So there you go, sorry for such a long birth story but once i got going i remembered most of it and had to keep typing! my fingers ache. i hope none of you have to go through what i went through with the emergency, as it did have a massive impact on feeding and bonding, i hated the thought of him not having all the mummy cuddles and closeness like so many other babies get but i just know my mum and david would have been showering him with affection until i woke up
Well, my son Alfie Samuel, was born on the 16th March 2011, 20:23pm, weighing 8lb 7oz, by EMCS.
I had a fairly normal healthy pregnancy, nothing untoward whatsoever. They thought he was growing a bit big from the scan's so kept an eye on things and arranged a scan at 36 weeks to check out how big he was. They were so sure he was gonna be mahoosive that they even advised not to bother buying any newborn stuff, just stock up on 0-3 month grows etc. so that's exactly what i did.
I got to around 39 and a half weeks, and i started to get a few pains, accompanied by braxton hicks, so i'd have one horrific pain then a few hours of braxton hicks, so i ate curries, DTD, walked, anything to keep things moving. eventually they turned into manageable contractions, around 10 minutes apart. So neither me or my other half drive, plus we lived in a first floor flat at the time, with a very small and crappy quality bath, so i decided it was time to up sticks to my dad's, a house, with my dad there 24/7 who drives, a big old style tin bath big enough to wallow for hours in comfort, i felt safe
So there i stayed, in between contractions and braxton hicks, for the next 2 weeks I'd had a sweep at 40+5, and again at 41 weeks, still nothing. so i was booked for induction on the 16th of march. Not what i wanted, (as natural a birth as possible and no epidurals if i can help it), but had to be done, as there was also this looming problem of how "massive" he was supposed to be.
So, Tuesday 15th March i'm at my dad's playing the wii (golf and wii fitness) when i had a whopper of a contraction, which made me literally sit down and gasp involuntarily. Immediately David (my OH) was by my side rubbing the bottom of my back (which he'd got very good at by now) and i said to dad that i really think this is the start. Throughout the day i carried on having these contractions, to the point of having to actually lean back in the chair i was on and lift my bum off the seat because of the pressure pain on my pelvis. I'd kept in touch with the midwife throughout the day who told me to come in when i felt i had to or if my waters broke. Got to around half 4/5, and my brother got in from school so we got prepared and left. I was checked out and was 2cm dilated, and contracting very irregularly, but as i was due to arrive at hospital at 7am the following morning, they decided to keep me in. I was distraught cause i didn't wanna be left, but i was assured if anything happened they would immediately phone David to come back, and he would need his rest to support me tomorrow for the induction.
Soooo, Tuesday morning. I'm monitored on and off throughout the morning, contractions very irregular, still 2cm. I was given a pessary (cannot remember for the life of me what it was, but you'll probably know what i'm on about) at around 10am and was told to walk around, keep active, and if nothing had happened in 6 hours they were gonna have to give me another one and it could be a long process. they'd prepared me for the possibility of not having my baby for another 3 days or so lol. So that's what i did, walked around the hospital with David, having to stop every now and again for contractions. By about 1pm the contractions had really kicked off. they were faaaaairly irregular but getting more regular as time was going on. I kept having to be laid down to have the monitors attached (which killed me) and one time i was examined and i was 3cm and my waters were *bulging* so they were gonna look to transfer me to labour ward to have em broken.
(During all this time on the ward with the pessary in i had a pad on to catch any residue from it, and when i was going to pee the pad was bright green. when i explained this to the midwife she was all "it's probably just your plug and the pessary residue, don't worry" but i knew what to look for becuase my mum had slow leaking waters with one of my brothers and they were bright green... and indeed bubs had passed meconium. but what do i know, eh?!)
After this examination my contractions really really picked up, they were about 5 minutes apart and i was pacing up and down the (empty) side ward that i was in, leaning on david for support during the contractions. eventually the midwife thought it was worthwhile to browse through my birth plan and noticed that i wanted gas and air to help me through contractions once they started, so she quickly sorted that out which was bliss! the first few sucks i started giggling and told david i felt drunk and he should have a go, both my mum and dad were there and they were wettin emselves watching me giggling because of the gas. then david took one suck and i was like SHHHH THEY'LL HEAR YOU! and collapsed into fits of giggles, followed swiftly by a contraction at which point i was like "no no no sh now it hurts sh!"*sucks avidly on gas*. About 15 minutes after this i came over exhausted and announced i was going to sleep.
I pushed everyone's stuff off the bed, climbed on and went to sleep. I dunno how long i was asleep but apparently i was waking up every 7 minutes or so moaning, sucking the gas and air and then dropping back off. lol. When i woke up the contractions felt awful, and i promptly reattached the gas nozzle to my mouth. Some woman came in around 5 offering me dinner and i was like no thanks. no thanks. no thanks. to her remarks of "well you should really eat something dear, you'll only feel worse. come on just a little bit". in the end my mum was like "she is in labour! bugger off!" and she did. lol. I know she was only doing her job but i did make it clear... anyway,
I have no idea on times or anything for any of this bit because i was so out of it on gas and pain. i know they were about 7 minutes apart, and the midwife examined me, strapped me to the monitors again, said i was 4cm, said my waters were still bulging and that they were really gonna send me to labour ward this time. so off i went!
Got to labour ward, changed into my beautiful hospital gown
and was given my gas back, (which i'd had to do without on my way down to labour ward) and sucked on it so hard to get through the contractions i ended up overdosing on it and consequently throwing up... not so pleasant.. but hey ho contractions were coming thick and fast but i was told to remain on the bed while they monitored baby and tried to break my waters. i had two midwives in the room with me, along with my partner and my mum. the midwives were failing miserably to break my waters, it was getting ridiculous, they werent waiting til inbetween contractions, they weren't taking into consideration how uncomfortable i was sitting on the bed while they bickered about why neither of them could break my waters, they just seemed like complete novices. very unsettling. eventually the on call consultant came in and asked what was going on, which is when they told her they couldnt break my waters. she went to put her hand inside to examine me and my waters broke by themselves... full of meconium. i was 5cm at this point.The midwives were briefed to keep an eye on me as labour was progressing okay so i may be able to get him out they way i wanted to, but watch his heartrate regularly. They obviously thought this meant to keep me strapped to the bed at all times and ignore my plea's for information and the worst case scenario etc. i began to feel like i wanted to push, and instead of havin a peek to see if i was dilated enough they just told me to do it, so i did, and when his heart rate dropped they were totally flumoxed. again, in came the consultant who told me to stop pushing so she could have a look. this is when she turned on the midwives shouting "what on earth are you telling her to push for? she's still 5cm! you should have looked!!" so off she went again, i was still being ignored, (david and mum were really attentive, i'm on about the midwives) so now they tried to attach a clip to the baby's head because he was jumping around inside me so much they couldnt keep a good bead on his heart rate, they failed at attaching said clip, so just took to holding the monitors on me til they found his heart beat... which had dropped dramatically with and in between every contraction. so one of the midwives goes to reach for the emergency button thingy, and the other one pulls her arm away telling her it's too early. they're now standing at the end of my bed arguing about it, i'm begging them for information, sobbing, and in comes the consultant, takes one look at the situation and pushes the emergency whatsit. she then calmly expels the other two "midwives" from the room and explains to the three of us that i will now need an emergency section, as there is a LOT of meconium in my waters and baby's not very happy with it. i would need a general anaesthetic as i had no pain relief except gas, and this was too urgent to wait.
So i was wheeled away, and on the way to theatre i couldnt have gas so by the time i got there my head was clearing a bit and the pain was mental. i was breathing, huffing and puffing my way through the contractions as they stuck needles in me, pulled my gown almost off of me, rubbed iodine over my tummy and i vaguely heard a woman having a flap because "she has metal in her mouth! she has metal in her mouth!!" before being silenced by aforementioned consultant who said it didnt matter (I have a tongue and a lip piercing). Then i passed out.
I woke at around half 11/midnight, to a considerably smaller stomach, an EXTREMELY dry throat, excruciating pain radiating from the bottom of my tummy and a pair of nurses changing my sheets from beneath me and dressing my wound... and a little bundle in a hospital cot next to me. dressed and quiet. david was so attentive and brought him over to show me as soon as i opened my eyes, "does he look like an alfie to you then?" with tears streaming down his face. i began to sob at which point i said hang on, take him away for a minute until they've done my dressing because it hurts too much to cry. all said and done i was taken off of HDU around 1 in the morning and taken to post-natal ward, and put in a side room which was so much bigger and nicer than the room they had expected me to give birth in. I got my first cuddles with my gorgeous baby boy, he had a small cut on his head where they'd been in such a rush to get him out but it didnt matter as it didnt bother him and other than that he was healthy in every way.
I also started the process of breastfeeding that night, although the nursery nurse looked a bit miffed that she came in hoping to wheel him away to have a nice relaxing bottle and put him back before i'd noticed, i woke up immediately upon her entering the room, asked her where she thought she was taking him and told her it's in my notes everywhere that i wanted to breastfeed as soon as possible after the birth, whatever happened. he'd already had a bottle after the birth which david gave him because iw as still out for the count which is no one's fault, so i didn't wanna miss out on any other chances. It worked
He latched beautifully, i recovered well, and after giving birth wednesday night, i went home friday lunchtime. totally chuffed. breastfed wonderfully for around 3 months but in the end he was just so hungry and shortly after stopping Bfing (which actually broke my heart but was what was best for him) he started on solids so he obviously needed more!
So there you go, sorry for such a long birth story but once i got going i remembered most of it and had to keep typing! my fingers ache. i hope none of you have to go through what i went through with the emergency, as it did have a massive impact on feeding and bonding, i hated the thought of him not having all the mummy cuddles and closeness like so many other babies get but i just know my mum and david would have been showering him with affection until i woke up
