- Joined
- Aug 19, 2012
- Messages
- 171,713
- Reaction score
- 25,631
I decided to write my birth story here, even though my baby is 7 months old now! I hope no one minds, I've been meaning to write it all down, so here goes....
I woke up at 6am on 25th February, when I was 38+2 weeks pregnant, with very strong cramps. They were actually contractions but they were totally different to what I thought they would feel like! I went to the loo and noticed the tiniest amount of blood. I was worried but then I thought it was probably the mucus plug. I went back to my room (me and DH sleeping in separate rooms as I was having trouble with insomnia and wanted a bed to myself with being so heavily pregnant!
) I kept getting the cramps every 15 minutes or so and they were getting stronger, on the last one I had to press my face in the pillow to stop myself screaming. I thought I'd better go and tell my husband because thy were causing me so much pain and as much as I tried to ignore them they were getting worse! I woke him up and told him and then I phoned the maternity ward as I really had no clue what was going on - what were these cramps and what was the blood? The midwife said since there were long gaps between them I had to wait until they got closer and then phone back. I was annoyed that she was assuming they were contractions as I really thought they were some strange horrible scary cramps - I never knew contractions felt like this! I tried keeping myself busy then- made my hubby a bacon sandwich for breakfast and did a bit of hoovering, how good am I?! Haha! 
My husband went out later in the day into town to buy a new game, I would have normally gone with him but I wanted to stay in to keep an eye on my cramps. I didn't have any more though, so that night I just went to bed and assumed this must have just been Braxton Hicks or something (I never had any Braxton Hicks throughout my pregnancy). Around 2pm I was going to go to bed for a bit as I was so tired since being up since 6am - I used to get up at 11.30am when I was pregnant! I went to the loo and my mucus plug came out, I was pretty surprised, it was kind of beer-coloured! I was too excited to go to bed then so stayed up! 
I phoned my parents around 9pm that night to let them know and my mum was really excited and said I was probably in slow labour.
At midnight I was still awake and the horrible cramps started again. I just thought 'oh no, just go away!' I just wanted to sleep and I was getting scared! I lay there for around 3 hours with contractions coming and going, I was in so much pain and getting so panicked. At 3am I threw up blood
my husband came running out of bed and called the labour ward but they wouldn't let me in even though my contractions were every 5 minutes and my waters had started to leak. We phoned up another 3 more times and they recommended paracetomol! Please!! I had a bath but really couldn't settle. I phoned back the labour ward again and spoke to another woman who said I should have come in as soon as my waters started leaking! I was so relieved to be allowed in. I went downstairs and just before we were about to leave I was sick all over the dining room floor and the pressure of it broke my waters as my husband was cleaning up. We noticed the dog licking my waters up off the wooden floor! 
We speeded to the hospital but the main doors were closed so we needed to go round to the other side. I could hardly walk because of the pain, my contractions were about every minute and I was running in between contractions because I wanted to get inside but I couldn't move when I had a contraction. Luckily two ambulance ladies saw us and kindly wheeled me down to the correct place - I was so grateful because I would never have walked it! When we got to the labour section we were put in a room by a really moody midwife who then left us and went round the corner to chat with her colleagues. My husband was getting so angry that I'd been left- I was telling him to calm down and she'd be back soon. Can't believe how polite I am even when in labour! He went to the midwife and abruptly told her I was in pain and he didn't appreciate her chatting to workmates when she was meant to be seeing to me. The midwife stormed back in the room and was absolutely horrible. My husband actually apologised to her a number of times and she completely blanked him. She was so horrible luckily she handed us over to a lovely midwife who checked how dilated I was and I was 4cm. I have never been in so much pain in my life and begged for an epidural even though I'd written on my birth plan that I didn't want one. I was taken to the loo and I noticed I was bleeding loads but was told that was normal. We went to the labour room and I had some gas and air - omg how amazing is gas and air?! I LOVED the stuff! 
I got rather 'high' off it and announced I was 'effing p****d!' My midwife looked so shocked!
I had my epidural and the pain calmed right down - ahhhh!
I kept falling asleep but as soon as I did I would startle and wake up. I was in there for the next 8 hours. I started to get VERY strong urges to push and I literally could not stop my body from pushing. They told me that I had to wait another two hours to push because my baby was back to back with me and was just starting to turn around and should be in the correct position by 2 hours. I tried so hard not to push, the midwives were laughing because I was telling my body off for pushing when I wasn't allowed! In the end they agreed they would just have to let me push because my body was doing it anyway. Omg I loved pushing so much! They said I was doing so well with the pushing. The cord started to prevent my baby from moving downwards so my midwife was trying to intervene to move the baby round. They said they couldn't believe what a good pusher I was and if it wasn't for the cord problem the baby would have been out by now. Then the baby started to get distressed and the heart rate was dropping. The midwife said 'we need to get this baby out right now!' So I ended up having a ventouse delivery. When my baby was born they announced it was a baby girl and placed her on my chest. I was so surprised as I was convinced I was having a boy and I'd convinced everyone else of that too! I was so happy to have a baby girl though. My baby started to become lazy with her breathing and still hasn't cried properly yet and kept going blue, so she was taken to the other side of the room and more professionals came in to help, but she was soon fine 
I had my stitches and the injection for the placenta and I started to breastfeed our baby girl who we'd named Holly Louise. After 30 minutes the placenta still wasn't out and they said it'd be dangerous to leave it in any longer and they called a doctor in. They started putting gowns and masks on getting ready to take me into theatre. I was wondering why I couldn't just push it out and I said 'is it normal to still be getting urges to push?' They said they would let me try, and just as they got a container thing to catch the placenta in I popped it straight with one push, splattering them in the process! They were laughing and said I don't do things by halves and I'm the only one who had done that
I can't believe they never told me I could just push the placenta out - I so nearly had to have a cesarean just after giving birth! I was cut twice and stitched twice - ouch!
The first night in hospital was quite difficult as I had to have a catheter in overnight as I couldn't pee despite drinking loads of water and I had a drip in too. I had a blood test as I had lost 800 mls of blood. The next day they told me my iron count was 7 and I had to have a blood tranfusion. That was horrible but I did feel better afterwards. After two nights in hospital I was so happy to be allowed home!
So that's my birth story - Holly is now 7 months, but I've really enjoyed writing my birth story. Apologies for it being so long and detailed and thank you for reading!
xx
I woke up at 6am on 25th February, when I was 38+2 weeks pregnant, with very strong cramps. They were actually contractions but they were totally different to what I thought they would feel like! I went to the loo and noticed the tiniest amount of blood. I was worried but then I thought it was probably the mucus plug. I went back to my room (me and DH sleeping in separate rooms as I was having trouble with insomnia and wanted a bed to myself with being so heavily pregnant!
) I kept getting the cramps every 15 minutes or so and they were getting stronger, on the last one I had to press my face in the pillow to stop myself screaming. I thought I'd better go and tell my husband because thy were causing me so much pain and as much as I tried to ignore them they were getting worse! I woke him up and told him and then I phoned the maternity ward as I really had no clue what was going on - what were these cramps and what was the blood? The midwife said since there were long gaps between them I had to wait until they got closer and then phone back. I was annoyed that she was assuming they were contractions as I really thought they were some strange horrible scary cramps - I never knew contractions felt like this! I tried keeping myself busy then- made my hubby a bacon sandwich for breakfast and did a bit of hoovering, how good am I?! Haha! My husband went out later in the day into town to buy a new game, I would have normally gone with him but I wanted to stay in to keep an eye on my cramps. I didn't have any more though, so that night I just went to bed and assumed this must have just been Braxton Hicks or something (I never had any Braxton Hicks throughout my pregnancy). Around 2pm I was going to go to bed for a bit as I was so tired since being up since 6am - I used to get up at 11.30am when I was pregnant! I went to the loo and my mucus plug came out, I was pretty surprised, it was kind of beer-coloured! I was too excited to go to bed then so stayed up! I phoned my parents around 9pm that night to let them know and my mum was really excited and said I was probably in slow labour. At midnight I was still awake and the horrible cramps started again. I just thought 'oh no, just go away!' I just wanted to sleep and I was getting scared! I lay there for around 3 hours with contractions coming and going, I was in so much pain and getting so panicked. At 3am I threw up blood
my husband came running out of bed and called the labour ward but they wouldn't let me in even though my contractions were every 5 minutes and my waters had started to leak. We phoned up another 3 more times and they recommended paracetomol! Please!! I had a bath but really couldn't settle. I phoned back the labour ward again and spoke to another woman who said I should have come in as soon as my waters started leaking! I was so relieved to be allowed in. I went downstairs and just before we were about to leave I was sick all over the dining room floor and the pressure of it broke my waters as my husband was cleaning up. We noticed the dog licking my waters up off the wooden floor! We speeded to the hospital but the main doors were closed so we needed to go round to the other side. I could hardly walk because of the pain, my contractions were about every minute and I was running in between contractions because I wanted to get inside but I couldn't move when I had a contraction. Luckily two ambulance ladies saw us and kindly wheeled me down to the correct place - I was so grateful because I would never have walked it! When we got to the labour section we were put in a room by a really moody midwife who then left us and went round the corner to chat with her colleagues. My husband was getting so angry that I'd been left- I was telling him to calm down and she'd be back soon. Can't believe how polite I am even when in labour!
He went to the midwife and abruptly told her I was in pain and he didn't appreciate her chatting to workmates when she was meant to be seeing to me. The midwife stormed back in the room and was absolutely horrible. My husband actually apologised to her a number of times and she completely blanked him. She was so horrible luckily she handed us over to a lovely midwife who checked how dilated I was and I was 4cm. I have never been in so much pain in my life and begged for an epidural even though I'd written on my birth plan that I didn't want one. I was taken to the loo and I noticed I was bleeding loads but was told that was normal. We went to the labour room and I had some gas and air - omg how amazing is gas and air?! I LOVED the stuff! I got rather 'high' off it and announced I was 'effing p****d!' My midwife looked so shocked! I had my epidural and the pain calmed right down - ahhhh!
I kept falling asleep but as soon as I did I would startle and wake up. I was in there for the next 8 hours. I started to get VERY strong urges to push and I literally could not stop my body from pushing. They told me that I had to wait another two hours to push because my baby was back to back with me and was just starting to turn around and should be in the correct position by 2 hours. I tried so hard not to push, the midwives were laughing because I was telling my body off for pushing when I wasn't allowed! In the end they agreed they would just have to let me push because my body was doing it anyway. Omg I loved pushing so much! They said I was doing so well with the pushing. The cord started to prevent my baby from moving downwards so my midwife was trying to intervene to move the baby round. They said they couldn't believe what a good pusher I was and if it wasn't for the cord problem the baby would have been out by now. Then the baby started to get distressed and the heart rate was dropping. The midwife said 'we need to get this baby out right now!' So I ended up having a ventouse delivery. When my baby was born they announced it was a baby girl and placed her on my chest. I was so surprised as I was convinced I was having a boy and I'd convinced everyone else of that too! I was so happy to have a baby girl though. My baby started to become lazy with her breathing and still hasn't cried properly yet and kept going blue, so she was taken to the other side of the room and more professionals came in to help, but she was soon fine I had my stitches and the injection for the placenta and I started to breastfeed our baby girl who we'd named Holly Louise. After 30 minutes the placenta still wasn't out and they said it'd be dangerous to leave it in any longer and they called a doctor in. They started putting gowns and masks on getting ready to take me into theatre. I was wondering why I couldn't just push it out and I said 'is it normal to still be getting urges to push?' They said they would let me try, and just as they got a container thing to catch the placenta in I popped it straight with one push, splattering them in the process! They were laughing and said I don't do things by halves and I'm the only one who had done that
I can't believe they never told me I could just push the placenta out - I so nearly had to have a cesarean just after giving birth! I was cut twice and stitched twice - ouch!The first night in hospital was quite difficult as I had to have a catheter in overnight as I couldn't pee despite drinking loads of water and I had a drip in too. I had a blood test as I had lost 800 mls of blood. The next day they told me my iron count was 7 and I had to have a blood tranfusion. That was horrible but I did feel better afterwards. After two nights in hospital I was so happy to be allowed home!
So that's my birth story - Holly is now 7 months, but I've really enjoyed writing my birth story. Apologies for it being so long and detailed and thank you for reading!
xx
