TripleB
Lucky Mum of 2
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- Nov 27, 2009
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First day without Daddy today - so a bit of time to write up my birth story!
I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes at 28 weeks and monitored closely for the rest of my pregnancy. At 36 weeks baby was estimated to weigh 7lbs with abdomen on 97th centile so was booked for induction at 38 weeks on 30th December 2010.
Went in at 7.30am and was examined. Had a bishops score of 5 (not bad for 38 weeks) and told cervix was soft and short (although still back) and therefore favourable for induction. I had the propess pessary inserted at 9am and braced myself for a long wait. Throughout the day I was getting the odd twinge and by the evening I was getting regular cramps. Didn't get a wink of sleep that night and was getting contractions 4/5 mins apart, lasting around a minute. At 9am the following morning I was examined again. I was 2cm dilated and ready for my waters to be broken. Midwife gave me a sweep and took the propess out.
Then the waiting for a bed on delivery began...
New Year's Eve is NOT a good time to be waiting for a bed. All the world and her mate seemed to be going into labour - 3 babies were born in the first 20 mins of 2011! Anyway, I had to wait 34 hours for a bed - finally got to delivery at 6pm on New Year's Day. During the wait and without the propess my contractions had fallen off a cliff and I was very despondent. As it turns out I was still making (slow) progress and was 3cm by the time I got to delivery.
I had my waters broken at 7pm which wasn't too painful, no worse than (yet another) internal. We were expecting a lot of water as I had excess fluid levels caused by the GD and a midwife was holding my tummy to stop the cord dropping down / the baby moving when the waters came out. However, it wasn't much more than a trickle at that stage. I then had an epidural (on the advice of the midwife) as I would be having the Syntocinon drip put in. I was quite scared of this and needn't have been - having the canula put into my hand was a lot more painful! I just had to keep still and lean on hubby while they put the epirdural in. I could still feel my legs afterwards but it numbed me from the chest down and knees up - it also lowered my BP to a level they were happy with (had been a bit on the high side during pregnancy). From then on I was continulously monitored - baby had to have a clip on her head as she was wriggling around so much (too much as it turned out...). I also had a catheter put in.
The next 4 hours were very civilised indeed. I could hear women screaming in the rooms down the corridor while me and hubby just sat there excited about meeting our little one. I could feel the contractions but had no pain and at the next examination I was fully dilated! We were then told to rest for 2 hours (midwife brought in tea and toast and a blanket for hubby!). During this time I had a huge gush of waters when the baby wriggled - it really took me by surprise! We believe (but didn't know at the time) that the baby flipped over at this point into the back-to-back position.
And so the pushing began and went on...and on...and on... They tried me on my back, on my side and eventually in stirrups. By this time the epidural had worn off (I wasn't very good at remembering to top it up) and I was exhausted, in a lot of pain and starting vomiting. I could tell that she wasn't crowning despite my best efforts with every contraction - I just remember saying to my husband "I'm really trying!"). By the time the 3rd shift started since my waters were broken you get the feeling you've been there too long! Eventually a doctor was called and after another examination we were told that the baby was "stargazing" i.e. looking up at me rather than down, meaning that she was trying to get the widest part of her head out first - not good! When they handed my husband a pair of scrubs and explained we were going to theatre it all became a bit surreal.
To be honest I was just glad to be taken down from the stirrups (evil things) and off we went. They gave me a spinal (by far the weirdest thing as I was convinced it was not my legs they had in the air!) as the epidural had worn off and did another examination, after which I was sick for the fourth or fifth time, I can't remember now! By this time my little girl had popped right out of the birth canal so ventouse/forceps were out of the question and other than starting the pushing all over again (no way) it had to be a c-section. With the spinal already in off they went. As others say, you just feel a bit of tugging and the next thing you know you're being shown your baby over the screen - amazing. She came out screaming and had an apgar score of 10 at 1 minute. She did have a slightly odd shaped head for a few days where she had been pushing on my cervix but making no progress. However, throughout the ordeal she was never distressed once, good girl.
So that's it - 15 hours in labour and an emergency c-section, not exactly what I had planned but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Florence Annie was born at 8.53am on 2nd January 2011 weighing 9lbs 3oz (in hindsight I'm a little bit glad I didn't push that out!).
xxx
I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes at 28 weeks and monitored closely for the rest of my pregnancy. At 36 weeks baby was estimated to weigh 7lbs with abdomen on 97th centile so was booked for induction at 38 weeks on 30th December 2010.
Went in at 7.30am and was examined. Had a bishops score of 5 (not bad for 38 weeks) and told cervix was soft and short (although still back) and therefore favourable for induction. I had the propess pessary inserted at 9am and braced myself for a long wait. Throughout the day I was getting the odd twinge and by the evening I was getting regular cramps. Didn't get a wink of sleep that night and was getting contractions 4/5 mins apart, lasting around a minute. At 9am the following morning I was examined again. I was 2cm dilated and ready for my waters to be broken. Midwife gave me a sweep and took the propess out.
Then the waiting for a bed on delivery began...
New Year's Eve is NOT a good time to be waiting for a bed. All the world and her mate seemed to be going into labour - 3 babies were born in the first 20 mins of 2011! Anyway, I had to wait 34 hours for a bed - finally got to delivery at 6pm on New Year's Day. During the wait and without the propess my contractions had fallen off a cliff and I was very despondent. As it turns out I was still making (slow) progress and was 3cm by the time I got to delivery.
I had my waters broken at 7pm which wasn't too painful, no worse than (yet another) internal. We were expecting a lot of water as I had excess fluid levels caused by the GD and a midwife was holding my tummy to stop the cord dropping down / the baby moving when the waters came out. However, it wasn't much more than a trickle at that stage. I then had an epidural (on the advice of the midwife) as I would be having the Syntocinon drip put in. I was quite scared of this and needn't have been - having the canula put into my hand was a lot more painful! I just had to keep still and lean on hubby while they put the epirdural in. I could still feel my legs afterwards but it numbed me from the chest down and knees up - it also lowered my BP to a level they were happy with (had been a bit on the high side during pregnancy). From then on I was continulously monitored - baby had to have a clip on her head as she was wriggling around so much (too much as it turned out...). I also had a catheter put in.
The next 4 hours were very civilised indeed. I could hear women screaming in the rooms down the corridor while me and hubby just sat there excited about meeting our little one. I could feel the contractions but had no pain and at the next examination I was fully dilated! We were then told to rest for 2 hours (midwife brought in tea and toast and a blanket for hubby!). During this time I had a huge gush of waters when the baby wriggled - it really took me by surprise! We believe (but didn't know at the time) that the baby flipped over at this point into the back-to-back position.
And so the pushing began and went on...and on...and on... They tried me on my back, on my side and eventually in stirrups. By this time the epidural had worn off (I wasn't very good at remembering to top it up) and I was exhausted, in a lot of pain and starting vomiting. I could tell that she wasn't crowning despite my best efforts with every contraction - I just remember saying to my husband "I'm really trying!"). By the time the 3rd shift started since my waters were broken you get the feeling you've been there too long! Eventually a doctor was called and after another examination we were told that the baby was "stargazing" i.e. looking up at me rather than down, meaning that she was trying to get the widest part of her head out first - not good! When they handed my husband a pair of scrubs and explained we were going to theatre it all became a bit surreal.
To be honest I was just glad to be taken down from the stirrups (evil things) and off we went. They gave me a spinal (by far the weirdest thing as I was convinced it was not my legs they had in the air!) as the epidural had worn off and did another examination, after which I was sick for the fourth or fifth time, I can't remember now! By this time my little girl had popped right out of the birth canal so ventouse/forceps were out of the question and other than starting the pushing all over again (no way) it had to be a c-section. With the spinal already in off they went. As others say, you just feel a bit of tugging and the next thing you know you're being shown your baby over the screen - amazing. She came out screaming and had an apgar score of 10 at 1 minute. She did have a slightly odd shaped head for a few days where she had been pushing on my cervix but making no progress. However, throughout the ordeal she was never distressed once, good girl.
So that's it - 15 hours in labour and an emergency c-section, not exactly what I had planned but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Florence Annie was born at 8.53am on 2nd January 2011 weighing 9lbs 3oz (in hindsight I'm a little bit glad I didn't push that out!).
xxx
