Hayley90
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Ok, facts & figures (for those who dont like essays or gory stories!)
Harrison Olly
Born on his due date 10/7/2010 at 2.07am
Weighing 9lb 2.5oz
My gorgeous blue eyed baby!
Now the long bit
I started getting regular pains at 6.30am on Friday (9th) but didn't twig that they were real contractions until about 8am when i had been having one every 10 minutes for the last hour and a half.
I text Liam, who had left for work at 7, saying that i was getting them, but to stay at work (he was an hour and a half away working on site) until i'd spoken to my midwife.
My midwife didn't reply to the text i sent her, so i rang her, and she told me that she had finished a late shift on deliveries the night before
and i'd just woken her up! She told me everything sounded good & promising, to keep timing them, and that the chances of anything happening were still slim - i'd been getting braxton hicks and mucus for the last couple of weeks, so we thought it was more of the same! I rang triage anyway to tell them in advance, just in case.
It got to 9am and I got upset, i was stressing over cleaning the flat, the fact there was a fly that couldn't escape from the nursery
shrug
, and my unpacked hospital bag... this was a running joke between me and almost everyone i spoke to... tip: ALWAYS pack in advance so i text liam asking him to come home, by this point he had been on site for 30 minutes, with another guy who then had to drive him all the way back!
He came home, and by this point my contractions were every 7 or 8 minutes roughly, with me breathing through them, and spinning side to side on my office chair for comfort (!) I was getting more and more scared, and finding it stressful having to dictate things to Liam... i just wanted to get up and move around but walking made the pains worse, so i stayed in my spinny chair.
After a couple of hours, we finally managed to pack my hospital bags, and Liam had tidied and cleaned most of the flat... Everything sat ready to go in the living room, with me (now crying and hitting the wall) still contracting in the spinny chair. I tried to eat pancakes, but couldn't force them down
I realised that I had an incredibly low pain threshold and started to panic about getting to the hospital.
I had (like a nerd
) made a list from 10am until about 3pm of all the contractions & how long they were lasting, so as soon as i was able to move, we got everything in the car and went to the hospital when my contractions were every 4 minutes or so. Liam had to go dead slow all the way there.... WHY do they put speedbumps on the way to hospitals?!
I was put straight onto a monitor in Triage, which showed contractions were going up to 113 on the scale, i told the midwife to hide it from me as i was getting scared when the numbers went up, and i was tensing up making the pain worse. Then she examined me and i was only 2cm dilated
She said that i could either go home, which we didnt want to do, or go for a walk and come back. So we tried to walk. And I mean REALLY tried to walk. But i got just over half way along a very long corridor, having contractions along the way, and i just couldn't get any further. I was in tears, and could barely move, and i was so embarrassed as people were staring at me which made me worse.
Liam wheeled me back (about 35 minutes after we left) and the midwife agreed to check me again as it had been nearly 50 minutes since last time. And i was 3cm!!!!! So she agreed to send me to the early labour ward, but first gave me paracetamol and Codeine... which promptly came back up all over the corridor Then i lost loads of bloody slime, so we waddled down to the ward... i was finally in labour 
By this point i was in so much pain, i couldn't talk to people when i was having contractions, i just wanted to cry. Liam knew 2 of the midwives, and they were attempting to ask me questions and make small talk at inopportune moments... they must think im rude, as i blanked them...oops. One of them took pity on me, and as they weren't sure how much of the paracetamol & codeine was in my system, they gave me a pethidine injection. IT HURT
and almost sent me to sleep. The pain wasn't any less, it just seemed more blunt, and bearable... i sort of drifted off into a snoozy conversation with liam, not making much sense at all, trying to dictate text messages for him to send, without saying who to & why i was sending them...
At about 9pm, a nurse came round and asked liam to leave, as visiting hours were over... i was distraught. I tried to explain that the midwife in triage said if i could be checked by then, as i'd probably be 4cm, and could move to the labour ward, and this new midwife tried to argue and tell me that "for infection reasons we only examine every 4 hours" i told her to do it anyway, so she did 
and... I WAS 6CM!!!!!!!!
I got my lovely room in the delivery suite at 9.45pm, met my new midwife, and was told my student was on her way! My mum also left her house and arrived shortly after. My pethidine was wearing off, and i was told that my lovely student was sprinting through the hospital to get upstairs to me! I cant remember much from here, as time seemed to go very quickly with not much happening... I wasn't examined anymore, the pain just got worse, and i refused to use gas & air. Hours went by, and i remember people counting down the minutes until his due date, then saying that it was officially his due date! My bubs was going to be on time
My waters went at some point, and completely flooded me and the bed. At about midnight I eventually started to use the gas and air, simply for something to do. I really struggled to focus on breathing, and was constantly making some form of noise I didn't swear at anyone though 
although i got a bit snappy at one point with them trying to feed me drinks... 
The anaesthatist sent one of his team from theatre to ask questions about my blood history & blood test results, saying i was next on his list and to prepare me for my epidural within the next hour. But the anaesthatist never came 
At around 1am i started pushing, after being told that the anaesthatist was still in theatre, as another emergency cesarean had came in, there was no way they would be able to see me to give my epidural. So, i'm pushing away, gas and air doing nothing except hurting my teeth and numbing my lips. They put my legs in stirrup things eventually to give baby more room as he was "slightly twisted"... turns out slightly twisted meant "turning the complete wrong way needed for delivery" but they didn't tell me that yet. Harrison had been just slightly back to back for the last couple of weeks, and instead of correcting his position by turning to the right slightly, he went left and made it almost impossible for him to get past my pelvis.
I was getting exhausted, so they brought the doctor in. I thought she was going to be really nice and make it easier for me, but she just brought her team in, wheeling trays of utensils around, persuading me that Ventouse was the only way to go unless i wanted to be pushing for another 2 hours with no avail I didn't want the ventouse. Then she said about the chances of them giving me an episiotomy were high, and I started to cry again. Episiotomy = Worst nightmare number 1. I vaguely remember thinking she was a bitch and that i hated her, and hated her team, thinking they were enjoying this My mum was trying to calm me down but she couldnt think of anything to say either, she knew how scared i was of the episiotomy.
I had no choice, so they told me to keep pushing for a while, so she could prepare things. All evening they had been telling me to "get angry at the contractions, you'll push harder" well now i was angry at the bloody doctor and her ventouse. Never have I pushed so hard, hoping for something to happen I was distraught, i honestly hoped i could make a difference and she would say i didn't need the ventouse anymore. But she didn't, she just said "it helped a little - 4 pulls and he will be out"
I had to wait for the next contraction, and then go for it. Thats all they said. So I did. My poor student MW had been moved to the sidelines a little as she couldn't do much with the ventouse there. All I remember is excruciating pain. And 4 pulls later... he was out.
He scored 9 and 9 on his apgar tests, and while i was being stitched up, everyone took turns holding him and complimenting him. I lost 900mls of blood, and my iron levels dropped stupidly low. While she was stitching me up, I was talking to the doctor... she was actually quite nice. I felt really bad for being fussy earlier, so said "I thought you were really mean, but your not so bad"
she said "I'm one of the nicer ones!!!" Im still not convinced...
Will add pictures in my parenting journal when i start one
x
Harrison Olly
Born on his due date 10/7/2010 at 2.07am
Weighing 9lb 2.5oz
My gorgeous blue eyed baby!
Now the long bit
I started getting regular pains at 6.30am on Friday (9th) but didn't twig that they were real contractions until about 8am when i had been having one every 10 minutes for the last hour and a half.
I text Liam, who had left for work at 7, saying that i was getting them, but to stay at work (he was an hour and a half away working on site) until i'd spoken to my midwife.
My midwife didn't reply to the text i sent her, so i rang her, and she told me that she had finished a late shift on deliveries the night before
and i'd just woken her up! She told me everything sounded good & promising, to keep timing them, and that the chances of anything happening were still slim - i'd been getting braxton hicks and mucus for the last couple of weeks, so we thought it was more of the same! I rang triage anyway to tell them in advance, just in case. It got to 9am and I got upset, i was stressing over cleaning the flat, the fact there was a fly that couldn't escape from the nursery
shrug, and my unpacked hospital bag... this was a running joke between me and almost everyone i spoke to... tip: ALWAYS pack in advance so i text liam asking him to come home, by this point he had been on site for 30 minutes, with another guy who then had to drive him all the way back!He came home, and by this point my contractions were every 7 or 8 minutes roughly, with me breathing through them, and spinning side to side on my office chair for comfort (!) I was getting more and more scared, and finding it stressful having to dictate things to Liam... i just wanted to get up and move around but walking made the pains worse, so i stayed in my spinny chair.
After a couple of hours, we finally managed to pack my hospital bags, and Liam had tidied and cleaned most of the flat... Everything sat ready to go in the living room, with me (now crying and hitting the wall) still contracting in the spinny chair. I tried to eat pancakes, but couldn't force them down
I realised that I had an incredibly low pain threshold and started to panic about getting to the hospital. I had (like a nerd
) made a list from 10am until about 3pm of all the contractions & how long they were lasting, so as soon as i was able to move, we got everything in the car and went to the hospital when my contractions were every 4 minutes or so. Liam had to go dead slow all the way there.... WHY do they put speedbumps on the way to hospitals?! I was put straight onto a monitor in Triage, which showed contractions were going up to 113 on the scale, i told the midwife to hide it from me as i was getting scared when the numbers went up, and i was tensing up making the pain worse. Then she examined me and i was only 2cm dilated
She said that i could either go home, which we didnt want to do, or go for a walk and come back. So we tried to walk. And I mean REALLY tried to walk. But i got just over half way along a very long corridor, having contractions along the way, and i just couldn't get any further. I was in tears, and could barely move, and i was so embarrassed as people were staring at me which made me worse. Liam wheeled me back (about 35 minutes after we left) and the midwife agreed to check me again as it had been nearly 50 minutes since last time. And i was 3cm!!!!! So she agreed to send me to the early labour ward, but first gave me paracetamol and Codeine... which promptly came back up all over the corridor
Then i lost loads of bloody slime, so we waddled down to the ward... i was finally in labour By this point i was in so much pain, i couldn't talk to people when i was having contractions, i just wanted to cry. Liam knew 2 of the midwives, and they were attempting to ask me questions and make small talk at inopportune moments... they must think im rude, as i blanked them...oops. One of them took pity on me, and as they weren't sure how much of the paracetamol & codeine was in my system, they gave me a pethidine injection. IT HURT
and almost sent me to sleep. The pain wasn't any less, it just seemed more blunt, and bearable... i sort of drifted off into a snoozy conversation with liam, not making much sense at all, trying to dictate text messages for him to send, without saying who to & why i was sending them... At about 9pm, a nurse came round and asked liam to leave, as visiting hours were over... i was distraught. I tried to explain that the midwife in triage said if i could be checked by then, as i'd probably be 4cm, and could move to the labour ward, and this new midwife tried to argue and tell me that "for infection reasons we only examine every 4 hours"
i told her to do it anyway, so she did and... I WAS 6CM!!!!!!!!I got my lovely room in the delivery suite at 9.45pm, met my new midwife, and was told my student was on her way! My mum also left her house and arrived shortly after. My pethidine was wearing off, and i was told that my lovely student was sprinting through the hospital to get upstairs to me! I cant remember much from here, as time seemed to go very quickly with not much happening... I wasn't examined anymore, the pain just got worse, and i refused to use gas & air. Hours went by, and i remember people counting down the minutes until his due date, then saying that it was officially his due date! My bubs was going to be on time
My waters went at some point, and completely flooded me and the bed. At about midnight I eventually started to use the gas and air, simply for something to do. I really struggled to focus on breathing, and was constantly making some form of noise
I didn't swear at anyone though although i got a bit snappy at one point with them trying to feed me drinks... The anaesthatist sent one of his team from theatre to ask questions about my blood history & blood test results, saying i was next on his list and to prepare me for my epidural within the next hour. But the anaesthatist never came At around 1am i started pushing, after being told that the anaesthatist was still in theatre, as another emergency cesarean had came in, there was no way they would be able to see me to give my epidural. So, i'm pushing away, gas and air doing nothing except hurting my teeth and numbing my lips. They put my legs in stirrup things eventually to give baby more room as he was "slightly twisted"... turns out slightly twisted meant "turning the complete wrong way needed for delivery" but they didn't tell me that yet. Harrison had been just slightly back to back for the last couple of weeks, and instead of correcting his position by turning to the right slightly, he went left and made it almost impossible for him to get past my pelvis.
I was getting exhausted, so they brought the doctor in. I thought she was going to be really nice and make it easier for me, but she just brought her team in, wheeling trays of utensils around, persuading me that Ventouse was the only way to go unless i wanted to be pushing for another 2 hours with no avail
I didn't want the ventouse. Then she said about the chances of them giving me an episiotomy were high, and I started to cry again. Episiotomy = Worst nightmare number 1. I vaguely remember thinking she was a bitch and that i hated her, and hated her team, thinking they were enjoying this My mum was trying to calm me down but she couldnt think of anything to say either, she knew how scared i was of the episiotomy. I had no choice, so they told me to keep pushing for a while, so she could prepare things. All evening they had been telling me to "get angry at the contractions, you'll push harder" well now i was angry at the bloody doctor and her ventouse. Never have I pushed so hard, hoping for something to happen
I was distraught, i honestly hoped i could make a difference and she would say i didn't need the ventouse anymore. But she didn't, she just said "it helped a little - 4 pulls and he will be out" I had to wait for the next contraction, and then go for it. Thats all they said. So I did. My poor student MW had been moved to the sidelines a little as she couldn't do much with the ventouse there. All I remember is excruciating pain. And 4 pulls later... he was out.
He scored 9 and 9 on his apgar tests, and while i was being stitched up, everyone took turns holding him and complimenting him. I lost 900mls of blood, and my iron levels dropped stupidly low. While she was stitching me up, I was talking to the doctor... she was actually quite nice. I felt really bad for being fussy earlier, so said "I thought you were really mean, but your not so bad"
she said "I'm one of the nicer ones!!!" Im still not convinced... Will add pictures in my parenting journal when i start one
x
You had such a rough time. I dont even remember them telling me what they were doing!! 
xxx
