Lydia's Birth Story - 25th September 2005
Vital Statistics :
Time of birth : 8.35am
Gender: Female
Weight: 10lbs 10oz
Length: 21.5 inches
Apgar score after 1 minute: 9
Apgar score after 5 minutes: 9
Gestational Age : 42 weeks + 4 days
name: Lydia Fay Gosney
Wednesday 9am: I rang up the hospital to ask when I could come in to be induced, and was told that there were no beds available yet so I would have to wait for them to call me back. Hence I promptly fell back to sleep again!
Wednesday 11.10am: I received phone call from hospital telling me to come into hospital for midday as there had just been a bed which became available and I would have to hurry before they gave it to someone else! At which point I sort of threw myself (as best I could of course) out of bed, into the shower, started randomly throwing the last few remaining things I needed to take with me into bags, just in time for my mam to arrive at 11.50am to take me (and my husband) to the hospital. Once I arrived there I was placed in a ward with several other pregnant ladies.
Wednesday sometime around 1pm-ish: I was given an internal examination; and was told that my cervix was tightly closed.
Wednesday about 2 or 3pm: One of the midwives inserted 2mg of prostin gel into me. This was really very painful!
Wednesday afternoon and evening: Contractions started. Contracting contracting and more contracting. My blood pressure was taken many times, and I spent a lot of time strapped to a machine which monitors the baby's heartbeat and the tightening of my contractions. This was very boring and I was still sore from having had the prostin gel earlier.
Thursday...at some point during the day: My contractions had dimmed down to being pretty much non-existant again. I was still not dilated at all so I was given another 1mg of prostin gel on cervix. Again this was very painful!
Thursday afternoon and evening: Things were very similar to how they had been on Wednesday afternoon. I was monitored a lot and I was contracting a great deal also.
Friday morning: I was moved to a new bedroom on my own. This was a relief as I hadn't enjoyed being on the ward really. As my contractions had died away during the night, I was given another 1mg of prostin gel.
Friday afternoon: I was contracting a great deal, although they were not as strong as they had been on Thursday.
Friday afternoon: I had a talk with a senior doctor. She said it's not usual to give more than 4mg of prostin gel in 48 hours, but in my case they were going to make an exception and give me an extra 1mg as I was still not dilated at all.
So that is what happened. I was not very happy at this point because it was very painful.
Friday evening: I had another talk with the doctors, who told me that If I hadn't dilated by Saturday morning enough for them to break my waters, they would have to decide whether to leave it for 24 hours and do an ultrasound to check the placenta and then start again with the gel, or to give me a c-section.
Friday night: I was upset that things were taking so long and I broke down and cried. I saw so many women walking around with their little newborn babies, and knew that mine was so near and yet so far! At this point I seriously considered just asking the doctors for a c-section and have done with. I mentioned this to a midwife but she said she didn't have the authority to discuss that with me, as it's now in the hands of the senior doctor.
Saturday morning: I had another internal examination, and was finally told that I was JUST dilated enough for the minimum requirement of having my waters broken and being put on the drip to force contractions again. BUT....I was told that there was no guarantee that once my waters were broken, that my cervix would dilate any more. In which case I would have to have a c-section anyway.
Saturday afternoon: I asked senior doctor seriously to consider me just to go in for a c-section, but I told that she didn't think it was a good idea as the situation didn't seem serious enough to warrant one.
I was, however, told that I could discuss it with other doctors once I got to the delivery suite, (which, at the present time, had no beds available).
Saturday around 6 or 6.15pm: Finally I was moved to the delivery suite just as my dad and his wife were coming to visit me. As I had just moved to the delivery suite, they were told that they could not stay and had to leave. At that point my hormones gave way, and I started crying, and could NOT stop crying for about 20 minutes! I begged the doctor to give me a c-section.
The doctor told me that there are more risks in a c-section than a natural birth, and he advised me to try the water-breaking and the drip. I really didn't want to go through all that though after everything I had been through already, if there was a chance I could end up with a c-section anyway. My mam (who was one of my birthing partners) was telling me to go with the water-breaking. My husband was telling me to go for the c-section.
In the end I decided to be brave and go for the water-breaking. I stopped crying, and decided that it was worth a try to avoid the major surgery and the greater risks.
Saturday 6.45pm - My waters broken (which involved a very large knitting-needle type of instrument being inserted into me, which was very painful). My mam and my husband were running around desperately trying to change my sanitary towels as my waters were flowing like a river!
Then the drip was put in my wrist and they started me off with 1mg of pitocin. The midwives told me they would be gradually increasing the dosage throughout the night to 32mg.
I was coping okay at first with the contractions, but as the dosage of pitocin got higher, they were getting worse. Soon I was reaching for the gas and air. It was making my head feel so strange and funny, but it wasn't helping with the pain very much.
Saturday 10pm: The dosage of the drip was now at 12mg and the pain started to become unbearable. I asked the midwife for an epidural, so she went to see if she could get the anaesthetist to come and give me one....only to return about 5 minutes later to tell me that the anaesthatist was in surgery with someone who was rushed in for an emergency c-section, and it would be a good hour if not more by the time I could have an epidural! This was definitely not good news for me!
I asked the midwife if there was anybody else that could do my epidural, so she said there was another anaesthatist somewhere else in the hospital that she would page.
So off she went again, and came back saying that they were busy and would try and get here ASAP, but there was no guarantee that they would be any faster than the first one!
I was getting desperate at this point, so inbetween ferocious contractions I asked if I could have some other painkiller. She said she could give me diamorphene as an injection in my leg, which is a narcotic. I agreed to this, so she gave me the injection.
It took a short amount of time to kick in, but then when it did I felt extremely sick. My contractions were honestly not much less painful (I still had the gas and air also), but now I was feeling sick aswell! I asked my husband to give me a drink of Fanta, but after one sip I was violently sick into a vomit bowl.
Around an hour later I was sick again. It was most unpleasant!
Midnight: At long last the anaesthatist arrived to give me the epidural! I had to keep extremely still whilst she was putting it in my back, which was very difficult to do whilst I was contracting!
Once it was in, things improved immensely. Every 2 hours or so I started feeling the contractions again, and I had to call the midwife to come and press the button to give me a top-up of the epidural (no more injections or anything though because my back had a tube in it attached to a drip - so it was just a drip top-up).
Sunday 1am: My dilation was checked - I was 4cms dilated.
Sunday 5am: My dilation was checked - I was fully dilated! I was amazed I had gone 6cms dilated in only 4 hours!
Sunday 7.10am ish: I started pushing. and pushing and pushing and pushing! She simply didn't want to come out!
Finally the midwife had to give me an episiotomy, but only a small one at first.
I carried on pushing, but still she didn't want to come out. So I was cut again.
I Pushed some more and more and more, and finally I tore past the episiotomy cut and out she came at 8.35am!
When she came out, she was a bluey purple-y colour and sort of limp (which I saw). My husband cut her cord, and the midwife rushed the baby over to the baby table and waved some oxygen over her and in less than a minute she started crying and colour came to her. (not that I saw that bit... my husband told me afterwards).
The midwife said everything was okay, and I asked what gender she was and my husband said "it's a girl!"
So then I started crying and crying and crying I was so happy! I finally had my beautiful baby, after all that!
Then the baby was wrapped up and put in my arms, and I was astounded at how heavy she was! I couldn't believe how cute she was as well!
Then she was weighed and when they told me she was 10lbs 10oz I was flabbergasted! No wonder I tore!
After that I had to wait for the surgeon to come and stitch me up.
That is the story of how my beautiful Lydia, came into the world.
