bumpy_j
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Written a lot later than I anticipated but barely been on the computer since Joel was born 
My waters broke at about 1am Friday 11th February at 41wks still not sure whether these were my actual or hind waters but rather than a big 'woosh' it was more like a heavy trickle was casually on Facebook then looked down and realised I had a big wet patch and started getting excited no contractions so went to sleep. I got woken up at about 4am from my contractions that were coming quite irregularly but started coming every 10 minutes or so soon enough so went downstairs to bounce on my birthing ball and watch some early morning telly to distract myself. Was meant to see my midwife for a sweep at 11am but after ringing her to tell her everything had already started happening she told me to go off to the birth centre and get checked out for infection. So grabbed all my stuff and headed to the centre and by this point they were coming every five minutes and getting closer together. By the time I got to the centre they were coming between 2 and 3 minutes and were getting pretty intense I was convinced that I was in established labour. So midwife inspected me but was completely gutted to hear that I was only 1cm dialated! Knowing that it was only going to get worse was really, really depressing so kind of moped around the centre with my OH and tried a bit of everything: they had like a special chair with a rope you could pull on but I kept getting scared of toppling over. Walked to the hospital cafe and mum bought me some nachos but couldn't stomach them felt too embarrassed to go back to the centre at only 1cm so stared at my lunch until an hour later then thought 'I MUST be a little further along'. Got checked at 4pm after a quick bath and was told I was only 2cms along but could stretch it to 3 I burst into tears because I was in so much pain and had been getting these really close together contractions for hours and hours but nothing was happening.
The birth centres policy was that no pain relief could be given until labour is established (which was 4cms according to midwife) so it was already evening and hadn't even had gas and air yet was so miserable because I knew if I didn't go from 2cm to ready to push in around 3 hours I wouldn't be allowed my water birth due to the risk of infection. I bought a really nice kaftan and bikini for it so was pretty bummed
waited it out for another hour before being told I had to be transferred to the hospital 30mins away but could finally get a little gas and air in the ambulance. I was crying from the contractions so this was the best thing anyone could've told me ever. The gas and air was absolutely insane I loved it I felt the pain as much as ever but just found everything really amazing and funny ahah. I was so fed up of hours and hours of no pain relief and birth partners telling me to breathe god I could've ripped their heads off by that point. I got to the labour ward and instantly was strapped to a monitor which I HATED the last thing I wanted was to be bedbound. Was offered gas and air but got no sensation from it and the nozzle kept struggling whenever I breathed in. I complained to my midwife who insisted it wasn't empty but honestly I was getting nothing so I gave it to my OH to try. He said that he got something from it at the time but told me afterwards that there wasn't anything there just pretended so I wouldn't panic! Tried out the placebo tactic but it really, really didn't work. Was so mad when I found out afterwards aha even if his intentions were good.
Pretty much instantly from getting to the hospital my contractions slowed down to coming every 5 minutes or so but were pretty uneven which was horrible felt like everything was about to stop. So got hooked up on some sort of induction drip to get everything moving I was completely terrified because a) I had never been on a drip before and even looking at them makes me turn to jelly and b) contractions were soooo painful that the idea of them coming more often was so scary! Asked for some pethedine 20mins before the drip to calm down and I loved it, felt so mellow and sleepy. It's all a bit of a blur from there on, I remember getting a 2nd dose of pethedine at somepoint, I remember a lot of screaming and crying for an epidural and the anaesthetist turning up who was this really nice kindly elderly asian doctor and me shouting at him 'I WANT TO PUSH NOW, YOU DON'T MOVE I NEED YOU ON STANDBY' which I feel kinda bad about now aha. But after half an hour of pushing Joel was finally born at 4.09am 12/2/11 weighing 8lbs 5ozs. Few tears including a 2nd degree which I actually felt happening whilst pushing but when he emerged it all didn't matter anymore. It's weird, at the time that he came out my labour was crystal clear in my head but ever since i've forgotten most of it even though I've tried really hard to cement it in my memory. It's true what they say about forgetting the pain
Anyway since my waters had been broken for over 24hrs I had to stay in the hospital for 3 days afterwards; odd experience because I was miserable from all the drips, blood tests and check ups (they kept freaking out because my pulse was high but I'm a million percent sure it was because of all these horrible drips they kept putting me on) but it was actually great for bonding with me and Joel like he was the amazing positive thing that was keeping me upbeat in there felt like we were a team aha.
I guess any post labour tips I have are: try and get as much advice on breastfeeding latching as you can while you're in hospital it was much harder and more painful than I ever thought it would be after being discharged but their advice was invaluable in the long run and now it's a much more enjoyable experience. Drink loads of coconut water after labour if you have stitches because your pee doesn't sting at all if you drink enough also so good for getting your energy levels up. Tea tree baths are also well good. You get bounty packs after labour! I never knew about this beforehand and got so many good things like a towel and sudocream. I guess that's my story here are some pictures of little Joel and thankyou for reading 
:
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/P2120035.jpg?t=1298852606
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/P2120037.jpg?t=1298852606
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0099e-1.jpg?t=1298852998
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0117.jpg?t=1298853075
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0125e.jpg?t=1298853076
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0115.jpg?t=1298853077
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0111.jpg?t=1298852998
My waters broke at about 1am Friday 11th February at 41wks still not sure whether these were my actual or hind waters but rather than a big 'woosh' it was more like a heavy trickle was casually on Facebook then looked down and realised I had a big wet patch and started getting excited no contractions so went to sleep. I got woken up at about 4am from my contractions that were coming quite irregularly but started coming every 10 minutes or so soon enough so went downstairs to bounce on my birthing ball and watch some early morning telly to distract myself. Was meant to see my midwife for a sweep at 11am but after ringing her to tell her everything had already started happening she told me to go off to the birth centre and get checked out for infection. So grabbed all my stuff and headed to the centre and by this point they were coming every five minutes and getting closer together. By the time I got to the centre they were coming between 2 and 3 minutes and were getting pretty intense I was convinced that I was in established labour. So midwife inspected me but was completely gutted to hear that I was only 1cm dialated! Knowing that it was only going to get worse was really, really depressing so kind of moped around the centre with my OH and tried a bit of everything: they had like a special chair with a rope you could pull on but I kept getting scared of toppling over. Walked to the hospital cafe and mum bought me some nachos but couldn't stomach them felt too embarrassed to go back to the centre at only 1cm so stared at my lunch until an hour later then thought 'I MUST be a little further along'. Got checked at 4pm after a quick bath and was told I was only 2cms along but could stretch it to 3 I burst into tears because I was in so much pain and had been getting these really close together contractions for hours and hours but nothing was happening.
The birth centres policy was that no pain relief could be given until labour is established (which was 4cms according to midwife) so it was already evening and hadn't even had gas and air yet was so miserable because I knew if I didn't go from 2cm to ready to push in around 3 hours I wouldn't be allowed my water birth due to the risk of infection. I bought a really nice kaftan and bikini for it so was pretty bummed
waited it out for another hour before being told I had to be transferred to the hospital 30mins away but could finally get a little gas and air in the ambulance. I was crying from the contractions so this was the best thing anyone could've told me ever. The gas and air was absolutely insane I loved it I felt the pain as much as ever but just found everything really amazing and funny ahah. I was so fed up of hours and hours of no pain relief and birth partners telling me to breathe god I could've ripped their heads off by that point. I got to the labour ward and instantly was strapped to a monitor which I HATED the last thing I wanted was to be bedbound. Was offered gas and air but got no sensation from it and the nozzle kept struggling whenever I breathed in. I complained to my midwife who insisted it wasn't empty but honestly I was getting nothing so I gave it to my OH to try. He said that he got something from it at the time but told me afterwards that there wasn't anything there just pretended so I wouldn't panic! Tried out the placebo tactic but it really, really didn't work. Was so mad when I found out afterwards aha even if his intentions were good.Pretty much instantly from getting to the hospital my contractions slowed down to coming every 5 minutes or so but were pretty uneven which was horrible felt like everything was about to stop. So got hooked up on some sort of induction drip to get everything moving I was completely terrified because a) I had never been on a drip before and even looking at them makes me turn to jelly and b) contractions were soooo painful that the idea of them coming more often was so scary! Asked for some pethedine 20mins before the drip to calm down and I loved it, felt so mellow and sleepy. It's all a bit of a blur from there on, I remember getting a 2nd dose of pethedine at somepoint, I remember a lot of screaming and crying for an epidural and the anaesthetist turning up who was this really nice kindly elderly asian doctor and me shouting at him 'I WANT TO PUSH NOW, YOU DON'T MOVE I NEED YOU ON STANDBY' which I feel kinda bad about now aha. But after half an hour of pushing Joel was finally born at 4.09am 12/2/11 weighing 8lbs 5ozs. Few tears including a 2nd degree which I actually felt happening whilst pushing but when he emerged it all didn't matter anymore. It's weird, at the time that he came out my labour was crystal clear in my head but ever since i've forgotten most of it even though I've tried really hard to cement it in my memory. It's true what they say about forgetting the pain
Anyway since my waters had been broken for over 24hrs I had to stay in the hospital for 3 days afterwards; odd experience because I was miserable from all the drips, blood tests and check ups (they kept freaking out because my pulse was high but I'm a million percent sure it was because of all these horrible drips they kept putting me on) but it was actually great for bonding with me and Joel like he was the amazing positive thing that was keeping me upbeat in there felt like we were a team aha.
I guess any post labour tips I have are: try and get as much advice on breastfeeding latching as you can while you're in hospital it was much harder and more painful than I ever thought it would be after being discharged but their advice was invaluable in the long run and now it's a much more enjoyable experience. Drink loads of coconut water after labour if you have stitches because your pee doesn't sting at all if you drink enough also so good for getting your energy levels up. Tea tree baths are also well good. You get bounty packs after labour! I never knew about this beforehand and got so many good things like a towel and sudocream. I guess that's my story
here are some pictures of little Joel and thankyou for reading : https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/P2120035.jpg?t=1298852606
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/P2120037.jpg?t=1298852606
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0099e-1.jpg?t=1298852998
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0117.jpg?t=1298853075
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0125e.jpg?t=1298853076
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0115.jpg?t=1298853077
https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/MOO_Blur_fan/Photo-0111.jpg?t=1298852998
