BumbleBump
Mummy to 3 girlies!
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- Jan 13, 2009
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My little girl finally decided to make her appearance at 40+8, and I was pretty much in denial right up till the end that I was in labour! 
With my first daughter, she was back to back and I had no niggles of impending labour until 40+6 when things kicked off and I knew for sure "this was it" - 24 hours later she came into the world but in the meantime it was a long haul, turning up at the hospital too early and only 3cm dialated so sent home, coming back in a few hours later with no real change and labouring through the night on gas and air with very slow progress and back labour as she was back to back, being rushed down to the labour ward from the birth center for monitoring half way through as when my waters broke she had passed meconium - although I had heard second time babies are usually easier, as it had been 5 years I thought my body would have forgotten how to give birth and as this LO was also back to back I thought it would be a similar experience - boy was I wrong!!
For the last few weeks of my pregnancy I had lots of niggles, a few false alarms with regular contractions that were mildly painful and I kept saying that I swore I wouldn't know when it actually happened. By 40+7 I thought she'd never make her way out on her own and resigned myself that this time I would probably need to be induced. I had a sweep booked in at 4pm, the midwife checked me and said that I was 1-2cm dialated and 50% effaced but as it was my second that was quite normal. I was pretty disappointed as it meant all the false alarms had done preactically nothing! She managed to give me a sweep and after she left I started spotting which I expected from all her fiddling about
I also felt quite crampy but put it down to just more niggles.
By about 7pm i was getting the odd pain in my back that made me stop in my tracks, but I'd got to the point where I ignored the aches and pains. By about 9pm they were coming about every 7 and a half minutes and lasting 40 secs but a few weeks back I had had a similar experience with them coming every 4 and a half minutes and they fizzled out after 5 hours or so, so I thought nothing of it. OH saw I was pretty uncomfortable though so he suggested we go out for a walk, so we woke DD and went out. As soon as I started walking they would come every 4 minutes and I'd have to stop walking and concentrate, but if I sat down they went back up to 7 and a half minutes with the odd mini contraction lasting 20 seconds or so in between.
We got back at about 10:30pm and I decided to have a bath, pains coming about every 4 mins now but bareable. When I got out we decided to pack the last of my labour bag and DDs back though I still swore it was a false alarm. OH insisted on calling his mum as she was taking DD and giving us a lift to the hospital but I kept trying to put him off as I didn't want to make a fuss for no reason so late at night! In the end we compromised and he rang to say for her to slowly get ready and come in about an hour, and stay for about an hour to see what she thought and have a cup of tea! It was about midnight at this point. I carried on sorting bits and pieces out, but was having to lean again walls and breathe through the contractions at this point every 3/4 minutes - OH phoned his mum back without me knowing about half past telling her he didn't care what I said, to come asap and that we'd be heading to the hospital as soon as they got there They arrived about 1am and I was annoyed when they started packing everything including DD into the car - I didn't want to look silly arriving at the hospital with all my bags only to be told I should go home again! So I sat in front of the bookcase pretending to choose a book to take to stall them a while
I got to the hospital about 1:45am and they lead us into one of the birthing rooms. The midwife started doing all the usual checks and commented that I seemed to be doing very well breathing though contractions but I thought she was just being nice and that it was still a false alarm! She then did an internal and said she thought I was about 4 cm, but as I'd just had a contraction I could be about 3 cm as you can look a little further ahead just after a contraction - was expecting her to send us home at that point but she said she'll leave us to it and to let her know if we needed anything like a bath etc. OH wanted to go and have a ciggy, so even though I was starting to find it hard coping with the contractions I figured I still had a long way to go so we both headed downstairs. I had a few contractions while we were outside and had to bury my head in OH and breathe heavily through them - the couple we were taking to asked if I was sure I was in labour as their daughter was in there screaming her head off! This confirmed in my head that I really couldn't be in as much pain as I thought I was When OH finished I said to him I was really starting to find it hard to deal with and wanted to get in the bath - I was still expecting them to go away and actually wishing they would! On our way up I asked OH to apply pressure either side of my spine during each contraction as it seemed to take the edge off (it was full blown back labour so I felt each contraction like someone was trying to pull my spine out, just like with DD1 - nothing in my abdomen at all).
We asked the midwife to run a bath which she did, and I got in the bath. It helped a bit but after 15 minutes or so the contractions were coming about every minute and reeeally hurting. I said to OH I really thought I'd like some pain relief, but I was worried because I knew that once I got out of the bath they would hurt even more and I'd have to wait till they fetched gas and air and that they'd also want to check me - I really didn't want to find out that I was still only 4 cm dialated! We'd only been at the hospital for about 45 mins by that point.
OH said he thought it would be a good idea if I got out, so I did and hobbled back into the birthing room. I felt something slimey between my legs, and when I looked my entire bloody show was there, eww! I was really hoping my waters would break so I could confirm in my head this was really it - I was in total denial
We called the MW and asked for pain relief so she went to fetch gas and air, as soon as she was gone I noticed a couple of spots of blood on the floor - OH said is that a show? I said erm, I don't think so and started to get a bit worried as I hadn't read anything about fresh blood appearing - it turned into quite a big pool so I asked OH to go grab the midwife, she came back, took a look and said, erm.. Are you starting to feel a bit pushy?! I realised that actually I was but as I thought I had so far to go I was trying to ignore it! She laughed when I said "Umm, I think I might be actually". I jumped up on the bed on all fours and suddenly the contractions seemed to change and I had to moan/hum/pant to deal with them. She told me the gas and air were there, but she didn't think it would help much at this point! She was right - I took two tiny puffs and it just annoyed me trying to work out what to do with it so I chucked it away and carryed on doing as I had been. She told me she was just going to monitor baby, then check how far I was and look into breaking my waters to move things along. As soon as she said that a huge wave came over me and couldn't help but push, she said it was ok and just to go with what my body was telling me - 3 minutes later, at 3:15am Katie was born! My waters never did break, so they had to break them as her head came out. She didn't cry at all, and I was in shock with how quickly it had all gone and that she was actually here - I kept asking if she was OK because I couldn't hear her, and everyone was assuring me she was fine, just looking round at the world. She had perfect Apgar Scores, and even though at the time I thought I was going to die, lol, looking back on it I had the best experience I could have ever have hoped for.
I got some use out of the gas and air at least, I had one small internal tear which they thought could use some stiches, so I got high as a kite while they put in the local anesthetic
Katie has been an angel so far, she hardly cries and has caught on to bfing really well. She weighed in at 7lb 13oz. She passed some meconium before she was born so had to be kept in for 24 hours to make sure she was OK, but she seems fine.
Thanks for reading xx
With my first daughter, she was back to back and I had no niggles of impending labour until 40+6 when things kicked off and I knew for sure "this was it" - 24 hours later she came into the world but in the meantime it was a long haul, turning up at the hospital too early and only 3cm dialated so sent home, coming back in a few hours later with no real change and labouring through the night on gas and air with very slow progress and back labour as she was back to back, being rushed down to the labour ward from the birth center for monitoring half way through as when my waters broke she had passed meconium - although I had heard second time babies are usually easier, as it had been 5 years I thought my body would have forgotten how to give birth and as this LO was also back to back I thought it would be a similar experience - boy was I wrong!!For the last few weeks of my pregnancy I had lots of niggles, a few false alarms with regular contractions that were mildly painful and I kept saying that I swore I wouldn't know when it actually happened. By 40+7 I thought she'd never make her way out on her own and resigned myself that this time I would probably need to be induced. I had a sweep booked in at 4pm, the midwife checked me and said that I was 1-2cm dialated and 50% effaced but as it was my second that was quite normal. I was pretty disappointed as it meant all the false alarms had done preactically nothing! She managed to give me a sweep and after she left I started spotting which I expected from all her fiddling about
I also felt quite crampy but put it down to just more niggles.By about 7pm i was getting the odd pain in my back that made me stop in my tracks, but I'd got to the point where I ignored the aches and pains. By about 9pm they were coming about every 7 and a half minutes and lasting 40 secs but a few weeks back I had had a similar experience with them coming every 4 and a half minutes and they fizzled out after 5 hours or so, so I thought nothing of it. OH saw I was pretty uncomfortable though so he suggested we go out for a walk, so we woke DD and went out. As soon as I started walking they would come every 4 minutes and I'd have to stop walking and concentrate, but if I sat down they went back up to 7 and a half minutes with the odd mini contraction lasting 20 seconds or so in between.
We got back at about 10:30pm and I decided to have a bath, pains coming about every 4 mins now but bareable. When I got out we decided to pack the last of my labour bag and DDs back though I still swore it was a false alarm. OH insisted on calling his mum as she was taking DD and giving us a lift to the hospital but I kept trying to put him off as I didn't want to make a fuss for no reason so late at night! In the end we compromised and he rang to say for her to slowly get ready and come in about an hour, and stay for about an hour to see what she thought and have a cup of tea! It was about midnight at this point. I carried on sorting bits and pieces out, but was having to lean again walls and breathe through the contractions at this point every 3/4 minutes - OH phoned his mum back without me knowing about half past telling her he didn't care what I said, to come asap and that we'd be heading to the hospital as soon as they got there
They arrived about 1am and I was annoyed when they started packing everything including DD into the car - I didn't want to look silly arriving at the hospital with all my bags only to be told I should go home again! So I sat in front of the bookcase pretending to choose a book to take to stall them a while I got to the hospital about 1:45am and they lead us into one of the birthing rooms. The midwife started doing all the usual checks and commented that I seemed to be doing very well breathing though contractions but I thought she was just being nice and that it was still a false alarm! She then did an internal and said she thought I was about 4 cm, but as I'd just had a contraction I could be about 3 cm as you can look a little further ahead just after a contraction - was expecting her to send us home at that point but she said she'll leave us to it and to let her know if we needed anything like a bath etc. OH wanted to go and have a ciggy, so even though I was starting to find it hard coping with the contractions I figured I still had a long way to go so we both headed downstairs. I had a few contractions while we were outside and had to bury my head in OH and breathe heavily through them - the couple we were taking to asked if I was sure I was in labour as their daughter was in there screaming her head off! This confirmed in my head that I really couldn't be in as much pain as I thought I was
When OH finished I said to him I was really starting to find it hard to deal with and wanted to get in the bath - I was still expecting them to go away and actually wishing they would! On our way up I asked OH to apply pressure either side of my spine during each contraction as it seemed to take the edge off (it was full blown back labour so I felt each contraction like someone was trying to pull my spine out, just like with DD1 - nothing in my abdomen at all).We asked the midwife to run a bath which she did, and I got in the bath. It helped a bit but after 15 minutes or so the contractions were coming about every minute and reeeally hurting. I said to OH I really thought I'd like some pain relief, but I was worried because I knew that once I got out of the bath they would hurt even more and I'd have to wait till they fetched gas and air and that they'd also want to check me - I really didn't want to find out that I was still only 4 cm dialated! We'd only been at the hospital for about 45 mins by that point.
OH said he thought it would be a good idea if I got out, so I did and hobbled back into the birthing room. I felt something slimey between my legs, and when I looked my entire bloody show was there, eww! I was really hoping my waters would break so I could confirm in my head this was really it - I was in total denial
We called the MW and asked for pain relief so she went to fetch gas and air, as soon as she was gone I noticed a couple of spots of blood on the floor - OH said is that a show? I said erm, I don't think so and started to get a bit worried as I hadn't read anything about fresh blood appearing - it turned into quite a big pool so I asked OH to go grab the midwife, she came back, took a look and said, erm.. Are you starting to feel a bit pushy?! I realised that actually I was but as I thought I had so far to go I was trying to ignore it! She laughed when I said "Umm, I think I might be actually". I jumped up on the bed on all fours and suddenly the contractions seemed to change and I had to moan/hum/pant to deal with them. She told me the gas and air were there, but she didn't think it would help much at this point! She was right - I took two tiny puffs and it just annoyed me trying to work out what to do with it so I chucked it away and carryed on doing as I had been. She told me she was just going to monitor baby, then check how far I was and look into breaking my waters to move things along. As soon as she said that a huge wave came over me and couldn't help but push, she said it was ok and just to go with what my body was telling me - 3 minutes later, at 3:15am Katie was born! My waters never did break, so they had to break them as her head came out. She didn't cry at all, and I was in shock with how quickly it had all gone and that she was actually here - I kept asking if she was OK because I couldn't hear her, and everyone was assuring me she was fine, just looking round at the world. She had perfect Apgar Scores, and even though at the time I thought I was going to die, lol, looking back on it I had the best experience I could have ever have hoped for.I got some use out of the gas and air at least, I had one small internal tear which they thought could use some stiches, so I got high as a kite while they put in the local anesthetic
Katie has been an angel so far, she hardly cries and has caught on to bfing really well. She weighed in at 7lb 13oz. She passed some meconium before she was born so had to be kept in for 24 hours to make sure she was OK, but she seems fine.
Thanks for reading xx
