Peanut finally arrives - Leah's birth story

[Waitng4Baby#1]

This may take a while typing on one hand and in between feeds but I wanted to start getting it down before I forget things.

A little bit of background - DH & I tried for 3 years to ttc with no success. Three failed cycles of IUI, no problems the Drs could find, and the month before starting ivf decided to go on holiday for a week of relaxation. I ate too many burgers, drank too many bloody Mary's, and clearly DH & I ignored the hospital guidance to use condoms! You can imagine how shocked we were to get the positive pregnancy test.

Anyway, 40 weeks on I passed my due date - a little surprised as I was sure Peanut was going to come early. From 37 weeks I had been eating pineapple, spicy food, drinking gallons of raspberry leaf tea, getting acupuncture. Even managed to which was an odd experience!! I went out for daily walks, bounced on my birthing ball, and had a membrane sweep too. Nothing happened. I began wondering if there was a baby in there after all.

I had been listening to Hypnobirthing CDs and reading Ina May Gaskin's book of natural childbirth throughout my pregnancy. Whilst we had decided not to try a home birth for my first baby, I wanted to avoid as much medical intervention as possible. What I was most anxious to avoid was forceps delivery. Therefore I really didn't want to be induced.

Unfortunately the day came for the induction to start, 40+11, and whilst I could have decided to have daily monitoring instead I was getting to the point of exhaustion. With hindsight it wouldn't have made any difference if I had wanted to wait, as that morning I went for a scan and it showed low amniotic fluid - so the induction had to start then. I got really upset at the hospital as I had been told I could start off as an outpatient as I was having the pessary. But due to low fluid they wanted to regularly monitor me so I had to be admitted. I was upset as I had hoped to still do the early labour part at home. But had to accept it and move on.

So they gave me an internal exam - this was excruciating. More painful than the labour, and put in the pessary. I was then hooked up to the monitor ever 4 hours and free to walk about the hospital grounds in the gaps. Me & DH escaped home (we lived 10 mins away) during one break, and had a McDonalds during another! Plus did lots of walking and stair climbing. Nothing happened.
The next day (Wednesday) they gave me another exam - this time with gas & air and it was great! - and put in the gel. Same monitoring. Nothing happened. After 12 hours they put in some more about 7pm.

By 9pm I had started to notice some mild period cramps that came and went. I had to concentrate to notice them. DH went home soon after. By 11.30pm they were more regular and a bit more noticeable. I watched episodes of Dexter on my iPad to pass the time. By 1.30am the iPad went off as I couldn't concentrate during a contraction. By 2am I was having to move about, and 2.30am I remember asking for a birthing ball to roll about on. I listened to relaxation music and timed my contractions. They were coming every 4-6 minutes and lasting about a minute.

By 5.30am I was starting to struggle through the contractions a little being without DH. I asked if I could get in the bath and a midwife ran it for me. Amazing. I kept putting water over my bump during a contraction and stayed in there for 2 hours. DH arrived soon after. I was examined at 10am and told I was 3cm dilated and could go to the birthing room! I can't describe how excited I was.

 

[Waitng4Baby#1]

I remember the midwife I would labour with coming to meet me, and us walking down to the birthing rooms. They were on the flor below and she asked me if I wanted to get the lift or take the stairs. I remember wanting to take the stairs to help make the contractions strong. She explained that as I had been induced three times it was unlikely they would be comfortable with a water birth as I'd need to be continuously monitored. I asked if perhaps I could keep getting out and she said they would monitor me for half an hour first and see as they had picked up that her heartbeat was falling during contractions.

But she agreed I could stand or sit on a birthing ball whilst strapped up. It showed all was normal and by 11am I was already 5cm, managing well with no gas & air. I continued on like that for a few more hours, moving through the contractions and doing my hypno breathing. It really helped keep me ca and I kept thinking of all the birth stories in Ina May's book. Some of the women described it as riding a wave with each contraction and that's what it felt like.

By about 6/7cm I was struggling so started using some gas & air, but quite quickly it made me sick. I started holding off on the gas & air unless it was a big one, but then the feeling of the contraction was making me sick too. I must have puked so much the midwife gave me an anti sickness injection. And then I puked some more!!

I was examined and at 8cm about 4.30pm. I was exhausted at this point, finding it hard to keep fluid down due to the puking, and knew things were going to take at least another 4 hours and get worse. I also knew if I was going to have an epidural this was the point of no return. I really wanted to get into a birthing pool as I knew that would help, but I couldn't, so I decided to have the epidural. This was done about 5pm and it was really strong, so much so I couldn't move my left leg at all. At this point I was stuck on my back and couldn't feel a thing. I agreed to have the pintocin injection to even out my contractions as I was contracting 2 every ten minutes, but for twice as long. The pintocin helped move me to 4 per ten minutes and for less time which the midwife said would be needed for the pushing stage.

I got to 10cm around 9pm and at this point Peanut's head was looking left. It needed to rotate downwards in order to come out. So they said to wait for an hour to see if she would turn. I couldn't move at this point so couldn't change position or anything to help although the midwife wasn't convinced in this case it would help. At 10pm I started pushing with the mid wife's help although it was hard as I didn't know if I was pushing in the right place. By 11.15pm the midwife said she hadn't moved much and was still looking left. She said she didn't think pushing for another hour was going to do much and by this point I had been in labour for over 24 hours and exhausted.

The Dr came in, examined me and said she recommended getting me into theatre. She would try to turn her head with her hand. If it didn't work then she would need to use forceps, but there was a chance I could need an emergency c section. I was disappointed but had resigned myself to knowing it was the best thing and the baby needed to get out safely. Although her heart rate continued to be fine throughout all of this.

I waited a but as there was an emergency, then taken to theatre. This is where it gets a bit hazy.

I had a spinal block which seemed to take ages. They tried to turn her, couldn't and said because of her position needed to do a section. Suddenly the room started filling up with people and I remember being a bit scared. I turned to look at DH and asked him to talk to me about stupid things. Suddenly we heart a baby cry and I burst into tears, I couldn't believe we finally had our baby! She was shown to me, then put beside my head as DH held her. I remember talking to her and she instantly recognised my voice. DH went off to weigh her & cut the cord.

I was in the theatre for what seemed like ages and DH didn't come back. I remember shivering and being so tired but trying to stay awake. Eventually I was taken into the recovery room where I slept for ages.

When I woke up I was back in the birthing room and could do skin to skin finally with my gorgeous baby. It was not until much later I found out they had knicked a tube going into my kidney, resulting in 2 litres of blood loss. But it was all worth it to have my little daughter.

 

[xxyjadexx]

Congratulations x

 

[Ducktales]

Congratulations, thank you for writing your story it is really interesting and enlightening to read about others experiences, sounds scary but glad you are both good
I bet DH was worried for you both
Xxxx

 

[lovie]

Congratulations and welcome lovely Leah! I got so emotional reading your story, what a long awaited baby girl So glad she is here and safe xxx

 

[Jaimie2Eyes]

Thanks so much for posting Waiting! We ended up with very similar circumstances in labor. Although you certainly went through much more difficulty than I did! And you are so silly for glossing over all your blood loss - what an ordeal! But you probably don't remember much about that, huh?

So I went a week late too, although castor oil got things going for me. And Milo's head was turned to the right, not the left. Silly babies! Did you have a lip of cervix left when you were fully dilated because the head was turned? That was my issue - the midwife tried to remove it manually 3 times. Fortunately I had taken an epidural the last time because the first two tries were excruciating!

My doc was willing to try the vacuum extractor and thank goodness it worked on the 5th and final try. I wonder if Leah was turned more dramatically than Milo? Or maybe the pitocin helped that lip disappear for me? Either way - I'm so glad you are feeling better and that you are home with your gorgeous baby girl. She's so lovely.

 

[OliveLove]

Congratulations! Loved reading your story...thank you for sharing!

 

[febbride2012]

congratulations hun! xx

 

[Calif]

Wow, congrats! Thanks for the detailed yet easily followed birth story. Scary about the blood loss and glad everything is okay.

 

[alisha_t]

Congratulations and thank you for posting you story!!!

 

[choco]

Congratulations..

Thank you so much for such a detailed birth story.

 

[Bubsta]

Congratulations!

 

[liz1985]

Congratulations x

 

[hakunamatata]

Congratulations on your new arrival!

https://pbr1127.photobucket.com/albums/l634/hakunamatata2012/Snapbucket/bnb/congratsbaby-1.gif