charlie1510
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So I did it, I had my baby!
Here's the story - apologies that it's so long:
On Wednesday 23rd Nov (my due date), after going to the toilet and standing up at about 7pm, some fluid leaked out of me. It definitely wasn't wee so I thought maybe it was my waters. I rang my husband at work and told him not to panic, but to try not to get involved in anything too heavy that might mean he couldn't leave easily (he's a police officer so that happens a lot). I wasn't having any pains so figured I'd stay at home and chill out and just see what happened.
Pains started gently at about 8pm, and came initially about every 10-12 minutes. I figured I still had ages so when hubby rang I told him not to rush home still but maybe to leave before too long. (He works in London and we live out in Kent so it takes a while). He came home, and at about 11pm I decided to go to bed and see how things progressed. Pains got progressively worse, I took some parcetamol and at about 1am put on my tens machine. By about 2am I was in real pain so rang the hospital who said I should have rung them as soon as I thought my waters had gone, but to head in soon. We left about 3am and made our way through the heavy fog to the hospital. The journey was awful - pains by this point were about every three minutes and I was also vomiting frequently. Anyway, we got there and went to triage who assessed me and said I was 4-5cm. Fantastic I thought, another 5 hours or so and I'll be fully dilated. I was sent around to delivery and put in one of the rooms with a pool as I'd said I'd like to try it. The pool took ages to fill up and I got on the gas and air in the meantime, which really does make you feel drunk - it doesn't stop the pain but you don't care about it anymore - it's strange (in a good way!). I was given an injection to help stop the vomiting. Once the pool was full I got in and it was amazing - I didn't realise just how much pain relief it would provide. I could still use the gas and air too, so it was great. I stayed in the pool for a few hours, dozing here and there and then the midwife made me get out as my contractions had slowed right down. I rocked on a ball for a while as the baby was back to back, so it was terribly painful. I was assessed again at about noon and was disappointed to discover that I was STILL 4-5cm. I asked if I could be given some drugs as I wasn't coping very well at this point on just the gas and air and they didn't want me to get back in the pool as we needed to speed up the contractions. They tested my wee and I had high ketones and as I was so exhausted too, they suggested I have an epidural to get some rest while they pumped me full of fluid and also gave me some hormones to get things moving again, which I was more than happy to do.
Unfortunately I had a bad reaction to the epidural and my blood pressure plummeted when they gave me it. The midwife called for assistance and people rushed in. I looked at my husband and the colour had drained from his face, which really frightened me. Afterwards he told me my whole face, including my lips had gone blue. Anyway, I'm not really sure what they did but they sorted it out and upped my fluids - I ended up having about 4 litres overall. Luckily (and unusually, they said) the baby seemed entirely unphased by the sudden and dramatic drop in my blood pressure, so they kept on as planned. I was checked at about 3pm and was about 6cm, so things were moving along slowly, but in the right direction. This time's all a bit foggy for me - I managed to get a few hours of rest/sleep and felt a lot better.
At about 5.30pm I was checked again and was fully dilated and the baby was low down. Time for action! I started pushing at about 6pm and Holly was born at 6.56pm, weighing 8lb exactly. They had to give me an episiotomy which wasn't nice, but to be honest, the horror of seeing them come at me with a pair of scissors was worse than the pain of them actually doing it. One push after that and out she came. They put her straight on me and me and my hubby both balled our eyes out.
I thought it was all over then but of course then you are told to push again to get the placenta out. At this point I started to bleed really badly and again the room filled with people. It seemed to pass pretty quickly though and I felt ok. Being sewn up was pretty awful; by this point I just wanted to cuddle my baby and not be interfered with anymore.
We were then left alone, me and my little family. Holly latched straight on and was so content. After a while we were transferred up to our room in the postnatal department, and we came home on Saturday evening. After her first feed hadd gone so well I was disappointed to find that after that she refused to latch on at all and screamed her head off anytime I brought her anywhere near a nipple. We tried hand expressing and syringe feeding her the colostrum for a day or so but eventually I gave in and gave her a bottle, just so we could both get some sleep. She is still on formula and eating well, but once my milk comes in I'll have a go at expressing and bottle feeding her that instead.
She's amazing and we are totally besotted with her. The birth wasnt quite as planned but she is worth every minute of it. The memory of it is failing and it already doesn't seem as bad in my head as it seemed at the time.
Anyway, I've gone on for long enough. Here's some pictures of my beautiful girl.
Charlotte xx
Here's the story - apologies that it's so long:
On Wednesday 23rd Nov (my due date), after going to the toilet and standing up at about 7pm, some fluid leaked out of me. It definitely wasn't wee so I thought maybe it was my waters. I rang my husband at work and told him not to panic, but to try not to get involved in anything too heavy that might mean he couldn't leave easily (he's a police officer so that happens a lot). I wasn't having any pains so figured I'd stay at home and chill out and just see what happened.
Pains started gently at about 8pm, and came initially about every 10-12 minutes. I figured I still had ages so when hubby rang I told him not to rush home still but maybe to leave before too long. (He works in London and we live out in Kent so it takes a while). He came home, and at about 11pm I decided to go to bed and see how things progressed. Pains got progressively worse, I took some parcetamol and at about 1am put on my tens machine. By about 2am I was in real pain so rang the hospital who said I should have rung them as soon as I thought my waters had gone, but to head in soon. We left about 3am and made our way through the heavy fog to the hospital. The journey was awful - pains by this point were about every three minutes and I was also vomiting frequently. Anyway, we got there and went to triage who assessed me and said I was 4-5cm. Fantastic I thought, another 5 hours or so and I'll be fully dilated. I was sent around to delivery and put in one of the rooms with a pool as I'd said I'd like to try it. The pool took ages to fill up and I got on the gas and air in the meantime, which really does make you feel drunk - it doesn't stop the pain but you don't care about it anymore - it's strange (in a good way!). I was given an injection to help stop the vomiting. Once the pool was full I got in and it was amazing - I didn't realise just how much pain relief it would provide. I could still use the gas and air too, so it was great. I stayed in the pool for a few hours, dozing here and there and then the midwife made me get out as my contractions had slowed right down. I rocked on a ball for a while as the baby was back to back, so it was terribly painful. I was assessed again at about noon and was disappointed to discover that I was STILL 4-5cm. I asked if I could be given some drugs as I wasn't coping very well at this point on just the gas and air and they didn't want me to get back in the pool as we needed to speed up the contractions. They tested my wee and I had high ketones and as I was so exhausted too, they suggested I have an epidural to get some rest while they pumped me full of fluid and also gave me some hormones to get things moving again, which I was more than happy to do.
Unfortunately I had a bad reaction to the epidural and my blood pressure plummeted when they gave me it. The midwife called for assistance and people rushed in. I looked at my husband and the colour had drained from his face, which really frightened me. Afterwards he told me my whole face, including my lips had gone blue. Anyway, I'm not really sure what they did but they sorted it out and upped my fluids - I ended up having about 4 litres overall. Luckily (and unusually, they said) the baby seemed entirely unphased by the sudden and dramatic drop in my blood pressure, so they kept on as planned. I was checked at about 3pm and was about 6cm, so things were moving along slowly, but in the right direction. This time's all a bit foggy for me - I managed to get a few hours of rest/sleep and felt a lot better.
At about 5.30pm I was checked again and was fully dilated and the baby was low down. Time for action! I started pushing at about 6pm and Holly was born at 6.56pm, weighing 8lb exactly. They had to give me an episiotomy which wasn't nice, but to be honest, the horror of seeing them come at me with a pair of scissors was worse than the pain of them actually doing it. One push after that and out she came. They put her straight on me and me and my hubby both balled our eyes out.
I thought it was all over then but of course then you are told to push again to get the placenta out. At this point I started to bleed really badly and again the room filled with people. It seemed to pass pretty quickly though and I felt ok. Being sewn up was pretty awful; by this point I just wanted to cuddle my baby and not be interfered with anymore.
We were then left alone, me and my little family. Holly latched straight on and was so content. After a while we were transferred up to our room in the postnatal department, and we came home on Saturday evening. After her first feed hadd gone so well I was disappointed to find that after that she refused to latch on at all and screamed her head off anytime I brought her anywhere near a nipple. We tried hand expressing and syringe feeding her the colostrum for a day or so but eventually I gave in and gave her a bottle, just so we could both get some sleep. She is still on formula and eating well, but once my milk comes in I'll have a go at expressing and bottle feeding her that instead.
She's amazing and we are totally besotted with her. The birth wasnt quite as planned but she is worth every minute of it. The memory of it is failing and it already doesn't seem as bad in my head as it seemed at the time.
Anyway, I've gone on for long enough. Here's some pictures of my beautiful girl.
Charlotte xx
Congratulations! I liked your birth story btw I know you said it didn't go as planned but it seemed as if despite of that it was still a fairly good labour considering the other stories i've read which scared me quiet a bit lol xx
