joeyjo
Mum to 2boys, growing #3
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George Richard gave us a bit of a scare before he arrived as scans showed that although he was a good size his growth had been very slow since 36-37weeks and they suspected a placental problem and so we were booked in for induction.
I knew at this point there was no chance of me getting the all natural, minimal intervention birth I wanted!!! At least I had the chance to get my head round it!
We arrived at the hospital on Friday July 31st at 10pm and after a checkover had a depot pessary inserted and went to sleep for the night....
The depot lasted 24hrs but only gave me strong BH type contractions - they came every 5-10min but didn't open my cervix at all - it stayed at 1-1.5cm as it was when I went in and weren't really painful.
Anyway that was removed on saturday night although its effects continued for another 12hrs.
Sunday lunchtime there was still no progress; they gave me the option of waiting 24hrs before continuing but advised if I had slept etc that they would keep going as they wanted my LO here ASAP - I agreed; they did offer an elective C-section but said they would prefer a vaginal birth. So I had a pessary inserted at lunchtime Sunday.
Sunday evening, the contractions were a little longer than before although still not painful I was feeling them a little lower down, my cervix had open to about 2-3cm and my waters were trickling. They broke my waters fully about 5pm on Sunday but it didn't really make the contractions any stronger so at about 8pm they decided to start me on the oxytocin drip. When it became clear that this drip was an option I began to think (whilst I was still clear headed) about what I would do if I felt I couldn't cope without pain relief and discussed it with my husband and the doctors - I still planned to avoid an epidural if possible but had accepted it might be best for me and more importantly for my baby.
The drip started about 8pm and I was soon in full labour have deep, strong, intense contractions - it also initiated a clearout and even between contractions I had terrible stomach pain as my bowels emptied, several times (I did manage to get to the toilet though!) After 2 hours they stopped the drip because the contractions were so established and luckily they continued. For the first 3 hours I managed well with the TENS machine but all of a sudden it started to seem to make the contractions worse - I soon got rid of that! I then went in the water bath - the biggest relief I have ever felt, I definitely want a pool for any future births. Anyway by this time it was about midnight my body was trembling continuously, I felt exhausted and the contractions were painful although I almost slept in the minutes between them i was so relaxed by the water. I had an internal and was extremely disappointed to find that my cervix still wasn't softening enough and that I was only 3 maybe 4 cm dilated. I think if they had said I was 6 or 7 and I had maybe another 3hours or so I could have coped but they recommended an epidural as they can help dilation & also they thought I would become exhausted and be more likely to have a c-section if I didn't have one. They also gave me a muscle relaxant to help dilation
Anyway I had the epidural about 1:30am but I had a patient controlled epidural which was great because it meant I could mange it so i could still move my legs a bit and could still feel the contractions just took some of the pain away. It was set at a low level and then I pressed if I needed any more.
The next few hours were fairly uneventful but then about 6-7am they became worried that my LO was getting stressed and had the doctor and then the senior doctor come to check on him. Luckily I had dilated almost 100% although it was still a little harder than they would like and we found that if I lay on my right LO coped better so I did that and after about another hour I was ready to deliver him and he was doing OK so we prepared for the delivery but his heart rate dropped and so we had to use the ventouse to get him out ASAP.
All in all I enjoyed the birth until this point and did not mind about all the intervention etc but at this stage it did get a bit scary! After George was born they put him straight on my belly and started to try and deliver the placenta but it didn't want to come and I was losing a lot of blood so I was rushed down to theatre and DH was left looking after the baby. In theatre they manually removed the placenta and apparently I had a secondary unattached portion that may have contributed to the problems. I lost 2 and a half pints of blood! DH was left holding the baby but then somebody helped him clean him and put him in his first outfit etc so they got a special first together. I was so glad George had managed his first feed before I had to go theatre I just hoped I'd make it back to him...
Anyway we both recovered well and although I am very weak I can walk about without falling over now. George is very skinny and doesn't have any reserves and has been very hungry, luckily my milk is coming in well and he has taken to breastfeeding very well so far.
So that is the long arrival story of George Richard, born 3rd August 2009 at 8:18am (although it was 2 days before I knew his arrival time!) weighing in at a very respectable 3.3kg (7lb 4oz) I was so impressed with all the care at the hospital I've been so well looked after.
I knew at this point there was no chance of me getting the all natural, minimal intervention birth I wanted!!! At least I had the chance to get my head round it!
We arrived at the hospital on Friday July 31st at 10pm and after a checkover had a depot pessary inserted and went to sleep for the night....
The depot lasted 24hrs but only gave me strong BH type contractions - they came every 5-10min but didn't open my cervix at all - it stayed at 1-1.5cm as it was when I went in and weren't really painful.
Anyway that was removed on saturday night although its effects continued for another 12hrs.
Sunday lunchtime there was still no progress; they gave me the option of waiting 24hrs before continuing but advised if I had slept etc that they would keep going as they wanted my LO here ASAP - I agreed; they did offer an elective C-section but said they would prefer a vaginal birth. So I had a pessary inserted at lunchtime Sunday.
Sunday evening, the contractions were a little longer than before although still not painful I was feeling them a little lower down, my cervix had open to about 2-3cm and my waters were trickling. They broke my waters fully about 5pm on Sunday but it didn't really make the contractions any stronger so at about 8pm they decided to start me on the oxytocin drip. When it became clear that this drip was an option I began to think (whilst I was still clear headed) about what I would do if I felt I couldn't cope without pain relief and discussed it with my husband and the doctors - I still planned to avoid an epidural if possible but had accepted it might be best for me and more importantly for my baby.
The drip started about 8pm and I was soon in full labour have deep, strong, intense contractions - it also initiated a clearout and even between contractions I had terrible stomach pain as my bowels emptied, several times (I did manage to get to the toilet though!) After 2 hours they stopped the drip because the contractions were so established and luckily they continued. For the first 3 hours I managed well with the TENS machine but all of a sudden it started to seem to make the contractions worse - I soon got rid of that! I then went in the water bath - the biggest relief I have ever felt, I definitely want a pool for any future births. Anyway by this time it was about midnight my body was trembling continuously, I felt exhausted and the contractions were painful although I almost slept in the minutes between them i was so relaxed by the water. I had an internal and was extremely disappointed to find that my cervix still wasn't softening enough and that I was only 3 maybe 4 cm dilated. I think if they had said I was 6 or 7 and I had maybe another 3hours or so I could have coped but they recommended an epidural as they can help dilation & also they thought I would become exhausted and be more likely to have a c-section if I didn't have one. They also gave me a muscle relaxant to help dilation
Anyway I had the epidural about 1:30am but I had a patient controlled epidural which was great because it meant I could mange it so i could still move my legs a bit and could still feel the contractions just took some of the pain away. It was set at a low level and then I pressed if I needed any more.
The next few hours were fairly uneventful but then about 6-7am they became worried that my LO was getting stressed and had the doctor and then the senior doctor come to check on him. Luckily I had dilated almost 100% although it was still a little harder than they would like and we found that if I lay on my right LO coped better so I did that and after about another hour I was ready to deliver him and he was doing OK so we prepared for the delivery but his heart rate dropped and so we had to use the ventouse to get him out ASAP.
All in all I enjoyed the birth until this point and did not mind about all the intervention etc but at this stage it did get a bit scary! After George was born they put him straight on my belly and started to try and deliver the placenta but it didn't want to come and I was losing a lot of blood so I was rushed down to theatre and DH was left looking after the baby. In theatre they manually removed the placenta and apparently I had a secondary unattached portion that may have contributed to the problems. I lost 2 and a half pints of blood! DH was left holding the baby but then somebody helped him clean him and put him in his first outfit etc so they got a special first together. I was so glad George had managed his first feed before I had to go theatre I just hoped I'd make it back to him...
Anyway we both recovered well and although I am very weak I can walk about without falling over now. George is very skinny and doesn't have any reserves and has been very hungry, luckily my milk is coming in well and he has taken to breastfeeding very well so far.
So that is the long arrival story of George Richard, born 3rd August 2009 at 8:18am (although it was 2 days before I knew his arrival time!) weighing in at a very respectable 3.3kg (7lb 4oz) I was so impressed with all the care at the hospital I've been so well looked after.
x
