Cheska8
Mummy to two girls
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2012
- Messages
- 7,706
- Reaction score
- 0
My birth story, from the build up during the week to the speedy entrance of Paige into the world.
The run up to the big day
The birth
I've never felt love like what I have for Paige, such a strong love, from the minute she arrived I knew my life had changed, she gave me a new clarity about what the point of life is. I couldn't be happier, I've never felt so complete. Love my little girl. xxx
The run up to the big day
Tuesday 16th July
Well today was my due date and I had an appointment with my usual midwife Tanya for the normal bp, urine tests etc but also for my first sweep. She did the sweep, it wasn't painful at all and I was 2-3cm, stretching to 4cm and 50% effaced. So I was told to keep active, walking and bouncing on my ball and hopefully things will happen within a few days. She said I could go for another sweep on Thursday or Friday morning if nothing had happened by then.
Thursday 18th July
I decided to go up to the Health Centre for another sweep as nothing had happened after the first one, this time with a different midwife, called Louise. She did my blood pressure, listened to baby and then did the sweep. She said I was 5cm, stretching to 7cm and fully effaced. She pulled out loads of show, which was fairly grim so I'm really glad it happened there rather than at home! She was quite rough with her sweep so I thought maybe this one would do more than the last one.
As she was writing my notes she said she wanted to let delivery suite know that I might ring today and that I have progressed fairly painfree and so not to turn me away if I feel the need to go in. So I rang Mark on the way home and asked him to come and work from home today, just in case. By the time I got back I'd had a message off Louise saying that delivery suite had asked me to go up so they could monitor me for a little bit.
Mark got home about 10:15, we packed the car and headed up there. I was assessed and told they'd leave me until after 1pm to check me again. My urine contained ketones which is apparently a sign that my body was working really hard, so I was told I needed to make sure I ate and drank regularly. So we just chilled out, went for a wander and tried to pass the time. We were in delivery suite 6 for this bit which was a lovely big room.
I was assessed by a midwife called Aurora at 1:45pm, and I was still only 5cm dilated. She said I wasn't centrally dilated and really needed baby to move further down from 3/5 to help me out. She spoke with the midwife in charge and they said the best thing to do would be to go home and wait until my waters broke. She said that if my contractions got stronger to try having a bath and taking some paracetamol and to ring them whenever I needed to. They didn't want to break my waters because my body would handle the pain better if they went on their own.
Back home I went for an hours nap because I was feeling really tired, and after this went on the ball for a little while then went out for a walk for an hour with Mark. The contractions / tightenings didn't progress so back to the waiting game.
Friday 19 and Saturday 20th July
Not much to note, on Saturday had a curry on the night time, was eating a lot of pineapple and having my RLT but nothing other than a few BHs.
Well today was my due date and I had an appointment with my usual midwife Tanya for the normal bp, urine tests etc but also for my first sweep. She did the sweep, it wasn't painful at all and I was 2-3cm, stretching to 4cm and 50% effaced. So I was told to keep active, walking and bouncing on my ball and hopefully things will happen within a few days. She said I could go for another sweep on Thursday or Friday morning if nothing had happened by then.
Thursday 18th July
I decided to go up to the Health Centre for another sweep as nothing had happened after the first one, this time with a different midwife, called Louise. She did my blood pressure, listened to baby and then did the sweep. She said I was 5cm, stretching to 7cm and fully effaced. She pulled out loads of show, which was fairly grim so I'm really glad it happened there rather than at home! She was quite rough with her sweep so I thought maybe this one would do more than the last one.
As she was writing my notes she said she wanted to let delivery suite know that I might ring today and that I have progressed fairly painfree and so not to turn me away if I feel the need to go in. So I rang Mark on the way home and asked him to come and work from home today, just in case. By the time I got back I'd had a message off Louise saying that delivery suite had asked me to go up so they could monitor me for a little bit.
Mark got home about 10:15, we packed the car and headed up there. I was assessed and told they'd leave me until after 1pm to check me again. My urine contained ketones which is apparently a sign that my body was working really hard, so I was told I needed to make sure I ate and drank regularly. So we just chilled out, went for a wander and tried to pass the time. We were in delivery suite 6 for this bit which was a lovely big room.
I was assessed by a midwife called Aurora at 1:45pm, and I was still only 5cm dilated. She said I wasn't centrally dilated and really needed baby to move further down from 3/5 to help me out. She spoke with the midwife in charge and they said the best thing to do would be to go home and wait until my waters broke. She said that if my contractions got stronger to try having a bath and taking some paracetamol and to ring them whenever I needed to. They didn't want to break my waters because my body would handle the pain better if they went on their own.
Back home I went for an hours nap because I was feeling really tired, and after this went on the ball for a little while then went out for a walk for an hour with Mark. The contractions / tightenings didn't progress so back to the waiting game.
Friday 19 and Saturday 20th July
Not much to note, on Saturday had a curry on the night time, was eating a lot of pineapple and having my RLT but nothing other than a few BHs.
The birth
Sunday 21st July
Was quite emotional this morning, just feeling down I'd not yet been able to meet my baby. Went out for a few walks and did more ball bouncing.
We went to bed at 10pm to watch some tv, just as our programme was finishing at 10.45pm I felt a dull pain in my stomach for a minute, like a period pain. About 3 or 4 minutes later I felt another pain, much stronger than the first one, it took my breath away. I told Mark and he immediately jumped out of bed, put his clothes on and urged me to ring the hospital and get on our way. I said we needed to wait to check whether they progressed into anything as I thought it would take a while for anything to happen and that the hospital would need to know how far apart a few contractions were. Three minutes later I had another painful contraction and my waters went. I quickly jumped up and ran to the loo so most of the water went into the toilet. There wasnt much in terms of volume though. They were brown/green in colour so we rang the delivery suite immediately and I spoke to them about what had happened so far. They said to come straight in, so we put the remaining bags in the car and headed up. I had 3 contractions during the 10 minute journey, each getting worse than the previous, I couldn't talk through them already they were that strong.
We got to the hospital at 11pm and went in through the out of hours door and into an assessment room. The midwife couldn't get my blood pressure accurately because the contractions were now lasting a minute and i had less than a minute relief between them. So she just examined me, I was 8cm, and it was meconium in my waters, so we headed off to a delivery suite. I had one contraction on the walk down when I had to lean against the wall to get through it.
In the delivery suite I was hooked up to the monitor because of the meconium, everything seemed ok with Paige's heart rate so I was offered gas and air which I very gladly took and Mark explained our birth plan to the midwife, Michelle. I found it hard to know when to start the G&A because I couldn't seem to tell when one was starting until it was too late and it was already painful.
The contractions were now right on top of each other and so painful I was starting to panic, I'd prepared myself for the pain but not the lack of recovery between each one so I couldn't compose myself very much. I was screaming through the pain, i'm sure the gas did take the edge off but they were still brutal. The midwife checked me at 11.50pm and asked me to bear down to see if I could move the last bit of cervix out of the way, and I could, so I was then free to start pushing.
I don't know if it was because everything had happened so fast but I didn't ever feel an urge to push, it was much more of something I had to concentrate on rather than something involuntary or natural which I didn't expect. It was the strangest feeling ever.
After a few pushes Michelle called in a second midwife because Paige's heart rate was dropping when I pushed, nothing to worry about at this point because it was recovering immediately afterwards. But I had the gas and air taken away from me to make me concentrate on really pushing. As she moved down her heart rate took longer and longer to recover so I had my legs put up in stirrups and Mark was summoned to the action end, right in between my legs where he had to hold my hands and make me lean forward so that my pushes had maximum impact. The midwives were pretty serious at this point and so I knew I had to really get her out as soon as possible so I gave it everything I had. A few more pushes, they could see her head but they realised she was a little bit stuck so I needed to have an episiotomy. They quickly injected me to numb the area but I don't think it worked because I felt the cut. It wasn't any more painful than the contraction, just a different pain (that I also screamed through) Mark had to sit down at this point as he started not feeling well, I can't blame him, given he'd only ever wanted to sit at my head end he'd done a marvellous job watching all of that.
A few more pushes and I started panicking that I couldn't get her out and she was suffering. The midwives encouraged me but did have to tell it like it was, she had to be out very quickly now so the doctor was on his way. That was enough motivation for me so I pushed her head out in the next two contractions (before the doctor arrived) and was then being told to pant. The next contraction and her little body came out, the midwife held her up and announced we had a girl, born at 00:21 on 22/07/13. Turns out she was born with her hand up on her face, so that's why she was getting stuck, and why i needed to be cut, because I had to push out her head and arm together.
She was put on my chest for a minute but then she had to be taken away to check her out after her speedy entrance. She seemed to be fine so she was wrapped up and brought back to my chest.
I was absolutely speechless at this point, I couldn't believe our little girl was here. No one knew we were in hospital because it had all happened so quickly, it was our little secret for those first few minutes!
I gave birth to the placenta, which I didn't even feel. And then I had to be stitched up. They injected me with more local anaesthetic but again I could still feel quite a lot of the procedure. But I think I was past caring then, I had my little angel and she was all that I could think about.
We stayed in the delivery suite until 4am, I had a bath, and we had some time to call our parents. They were all over the moon for us. When I went to the ward Mark had to go home. I didn't sleep at all that night, I had a check at 5am and then Paige had hers at 5:30am, after which I tried to breastfeed for the first time. We struggled with the breastfeeding but managed to get a bit of colostrum in her using some I'd expressed into a syringe.
I spent the early hours just staring at my beautiful little girl, not believing my luck that she was here safe and sound.
Was quite emotional this morning, just feeling down I'd not yet been able to meet my baby. Went out for a few walks and did more ball bouncing.
We went to bed at 10pm to watch some tv, just as our programme was finishing at 10.45pm I felt a dull pain in my stomach for a minute, like a period pain. About 3 or 4 minutes later I felt another pain, much stronger than the first one, it took my breath away. I told Mark and he immediately jumped out of bed, put his clothes on and urged me to ring the hospital and get on our way. I said we needed to wait to check whether they progressed into anything as I thought it would take a while for anything to happen and that the hospital would need to know how far apart a few contractions were. Three minutes later I had another painful contraction and my waters went. I quickly jumped up and ran to the loo so most of the water went into the toilet. There wasnt much in terms of volume though. They were brown/green in colour so we rang the delivery suite immediately and I spoke to them about what had happened so far. They said to come straight in, so we put the remaining bags in the car and headed up. I had 3 contractions during the 10 minute journey, each getting worse than the previous, I couldn't talk through them already they were that strong.
We got to the hospital at 11pm and went in through the out of hours door and into an assessment room. The midwife couldn't get my blood pressure accurately because the contractions were now lasting a minute and i had less than a minute relief between them. So she just examined me, I was 8cm, and it was meconium in my waters, so we headed off to a delivery suite. I had one contraction on the walk down when I had to lean against the wall to get through it.
In the delivery suite I was hooked up to the monitor because of the meconium, everything seemed ok with Paige's heart rate so I was offered gas and air which I very gladly took and Mark explained our birth plan to the midwife, Michelle. I found it hard to know when to start the G&A because I couldn't seem to tell when one was starting until it was too late and it was already painful.
The contractions were now right on top of each other and so painful I was starting to panic, I'd prepared myself for the pain but not the lack of recovery between each one so I couldn't compose myself very much. I was screaming through the pain, i'm sure the gas did take the edge off but they were still brutal. The midwife checked me at 11.50pm and asked me to bear down to see if I could move the last bit of cervix out of the way, and I could, so I was then free to start pushing.
I don't know if it was because everything had happened so fast but I didn't ever feel an urge to push, it was much more of something I had to concentrate on rather than something involuntary or natural which I didn't expect. It was the strangest feeling ever.
After a few pushes Michelle called in a second midwife because Paige's heart rate was dropping when I pushed, nothing to worry about at this point because it was recovering immediately afterwards. But I had the gas and air taken away from me to make me concentrate on really pushing. As she moved down her heart rate took longer and longer to recover so I had my legs put up in stirrups and Mark was summoned to the action end, right in between my legs where he had to hold my hands and make me lean forward so that my pushes had maximum impact. The midwives were pretty serious at this point and so I knew I had to really get her out as soon as possible so I gave it everything I had. A few more pushes, they could see her head but they realised she was a little bit stuck so I needed to have an episiotomy. They quickly injected me to numb the area but I don't think it worked because I felt the cut. It wasn't any more painful than the contraction, just a different pain (that I also screamed through) Mark had to sit down at this point as he started not feeling well, I can't blame him, given he'd only ever wanted to sit at my head end he'd done a marvellous job watching all of that.
A few more pushes and I started panicking that I couldn't get her out and she was suffering. The midwives encouraged me but did have to tell it like it was, she had to be out very quickly now so the doctor was on his way. That was enough motivation for me so I pushed her head out in the next two contractions (before the doctor arrived) and was then being told to pant. The next contraction and her little body came out, the midwife held her up and announced we had a girl, born at 00:21 on 22/07/13. Turns out she was born with her hand up on her face, so that's why she was getting stuck, and why i needed to be cut, because I had to push out her head and arm together.
She was put on my chest for a minute but then she had to be taken away to check her out after her speedy entrance. She seemed to be fine so she was wrapped up and brought back to my chest.
I was absolutely speechless at this point, I couldn't believe our little girl was here. No one knew we were in hospital because it had all happened so quickly, it was our little secret for those first few minutes!
I gave birth to the placenta, which I didn't even feel. And then I had to be stitched up. They injected me with more local anaesthetic but again I could still feel quite a lot of the procedure. But I think I was past caring then, I had my little angel and she was all that I could think about.
We stayed in the delivery suite until 4am, I had a bath, and we had some time to call our parents. They were all over the moon for us. When I went to the ward Mark had to go home. I didn't sleep at all that night, I had a check at 5am and then Paige had hers at 5:30am, after which I tried to breastfeed for the first time. We struggled with the breastfeeding but managed to get a bit of colostrum in her using some I'd expressed into a syringe.
I spent the early hours just staring at my beautiful little girl, not believing my luck that she was here safe and sound.
I've never felt love like what I have for Paige, such a strong love, from the minute she arrived I knew my life had changed, she gave me a new clarity about what the point of life is. I couldn't be happier, I've never felt so complete. Love my little girl. xxx
Brought tears to my eyes, and brings home all the feelings I felt too. Lovely to be reminded of that
thanks for sharing. What an amazing story!
