Kitten-B
Mum of 2 gorgeous boys :)
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Our second little boy (although we hadnt told anyone we knew he was a boy!) was due on 17 January 2013. Right from the start and particularly at around 32 weeks I was so huge that I was sure he would be early. We were even half expecting a dramatic Christmas or New Years baby.
But after having talked to many people about their second baby and Michael being back at work after the Christmas holidays for over a week, I was starting to resign myself to being late again.
I had a busy few days looking after Sam (Ds1) on my own from Monday to Wednesday and was keeping up the usual pace which may have helped! Went to yoga on Wednesday evening and afterward I think I had what felt like Braxton Hicks contractions for the first time ever. My bump just kept uncomfortably tightening. Wasnt painful but not pleasant.
Felt fine the next morning (Thursday 10th) but started having the odd pain mid morning and was wondering if it was anything. Was going out for lunch with Mum and by the time I picked her up at 12.30 I was definitely having pains and I was fairly sure I was in labour. By the time wed sat down and ordered by about an hour later I was absolutely sure. Texted Michael to helpfully give him a chance to finish some bits of work off
Mum chatted away while I tried to hide the odd mild/medium contraction. At one point she commented how knowing me I could be in labour and still wouldnt tell her. Not in the sense she thought I was, just chatting. The third time she said it I thought I better tell her I was!
Mum came home with me as I was stressed about how much I had to do with the house in a state and bags to finish packing. Did most and then got Michael to pick up Sam from nursery (hes in 2 days a week) at about 4pm and come home then as pains were getting quite bad. And then they typically mellowed a bit for a while. Dad came and picked up Mum and Sam at about 5.30
cry: sad .. been ages since I had a night apart from my wee boy and feeling guilty about all the change ahead that he doesnt know about).
I was quite determined to finish the last of a dvd boxset I'd been working on but spent a lot of time chatting, pausing in pains and in the end had to give up with a bit still to go! Left home at about 8.45pm and got to the hospital at 9pm.
Same old story as last time- had to wait outside triage for what seemed like ages, certainly 20 mins or so and was having pains every 3 or so minutes by then and not pleasant trying to get through them while sitting next to strangers! Got seen eventually and was 5 or 6 cm already and was brought up to the Home from Home unit (midwife-led) in the bed. They took my blood to do another platelet count (as Id a problem with this in pregnancy but it was still over 100 I think so no real issue).
Midwives were amazingly efficient this time. They had the pool filled and I was in it and had the gas & air within about 5 minutes of getting to the room. Pains were coming very close together by then and I really felt the need to push through them which never happened last time. My water broke during one of the contractions very weird as was in the pool, couldnt feel the liquid but felt something sort of pop out! I could hardly talk in between the pains. Despite being a really good position for my last few midwife appointments baby had turned back-to-back (just like Sam!) which just made it worse.
Stayed in the pool for just over an hour but felt such a need to push that the midwife offered to do another check. I was 10cms and didnt really want to get back in the pool so stayed on the bed and started pushing. Because of being back-to-back the midwife suggested I change position (on knees, over back of bed to on side etc) every few pushes to try and encourage baby into a better position to be born. My waters still kept gushing out every now and again and now had meconium staining (same as Sam but thankfully was too late for them to say I didnt qualify for the midwife-led unit). The pushing stage was pretty awful. Last time it took over 3 hours and because of that I ended up having Remifentanil (IV pain relief) and by the end I was so out of it that I barely knew what was happening. This time I was so so aware of everything. And I was paranoid that it was going like last time and I thought Id been pushing for longer than I had and I was panicking a bit.
I could really really feel baby moving down with each push and frustratingly slipping back up at the end of each one. It was agony and felt really undignified and felt like there was no way out cant give up but really felt like I couldnt do it. In the end our little boy was born about 45 minutes after I started pushing at 11.38pm. The last bit was awful (really need some determination to cause yourself so much pain as it really burned!) but it was such an amazing relief when it was over and I was pleased just to have managed on gas and air. Only a first degree tear too so no stitches
Strangely Oscar didnt cry when he was born, it took over an hour which we found a bit stressful despite everyone reassuring us he was fine. His tone was a little weak so he needed a wee bit of oxygen but his second Apgar score was 8 so he was absolutely fine. Just perfect really.
No retained placenta this time which was great but it did take about half an hour, 2 injections and a lot of painful pushing to come out. And again I was paranoid about it being retained which panicked me a bit.
All in all it was pretty good on paper about 8 hours of labour at home, Oscar born only 2.5 hours after getting to the hospital, only the pool and gas & air for pain relief, no stitches, healthy perfect baby (which is all that matters anyway!). In reality though the time it took is irrelevant as it felt like hours and hours I was at hospital and it actually felt harder than last time! On the plus side though DH does keep saying it was a much better and easier experience for him!
But after having talked to many people about their second baby and Michael being back at work after the Christmas holidays for over a week, I was starting to resign myself to being late again.
I had a busy few days looking after Sam (Ds1) on my own from Monday to Wednesday and was keeping up the usual pace which may have helped! Went to yoga on Wednesday evening and afterward I think I had what felt like Braxton Hicks contractions for the first time ever. My bump just kept uncomfortably tightening. Wasnt painful but not pleasant.
Felt fine the next morning (Thursday 10th) but started having the odd pain mid morning and was wondering if it was anything. Was going out for lunch with Mum and by the time I picked her up at 12.30 I was definitely having pains and I was fairly sure I was in labour. By the time wed sat down and ordered by about an hour later I was absolutely sure. Texted Michael to helpfully give him a chance to finish some bits of work off
Mum chatted away while I tried to hide the odd mild/medium contraction. At one point she commented how knowing me I could be in labour and still wouldnt tell her. Not in the sense she thought I was, just chatting. The third time she said it I thought I better tell her I was!
Mum came home with me as I was stressed about how much I had to do with the house in a state and bags to finish packing. Did most and then got Michael to pick up Sam from nursery (hes in 2 days a week) at about 4pm and come home then as pains were getting quite bad. And then they typically mellowed a bit for a while. Dad came and picked up Mum and Sam at about 5.30
cry: sad .. been ages since I had a night apart from my wee boy and feeling guilty about all the change ahead that he doesnt know about).I was quite determined to finish the last of a dvd boxset I'd been working on but spent a lot of time chatting, pausing in pains and in the end had to give up with a bit still to go! Left home at about 8.45pm and got to the hospital at 9pm.
Same old story as last time- had to wait outside triage for what seemed like ages, certainly 20 mins or so and was having pains every 3 or so minutes by then and not pleasant trying to get through them while sitting next to strangers! Got seen eventually and was 5 or 6 cm already and was brought up to the Home from Home unit (midwife-led) in the bed. They took my blood to do another platelet count (as Id a problem with this in pregnancy but it was still over 100 I think so no real issue).
Midwives were amazingly efficient this time. They had the pool filled and I was in it and had the gas & air within about 5 minutes of getting to the room. Pains were coming very close together by then and I really felt the need to push through them which never happened last time. My water broke during one of the contractions very weird as was in the pool, couldnt feel the liquid but felt something sort of pop out! I could hardly talk in between the pains. Despite being a really good position for my last few midwife appointments baby had turned back-to-back (just like Sam!) which just made it worse.
Stayed in the pool for just over an hour but felt such a need to push that the midwife offered to do another check. I was 10cms and didnt really want to get back in the pool so stayed on the bed and started pushing. Because of being back-to-back the midwife suggested I change position (on knees, over back of bed to on side etc) every few pushes to try and encourage baby into a better position to be born. My waters still kept gushing out every now and again and now had meconium staining (same as Sam but thankfully was too late for them to say I didnt qualify for the midwife-led unit). The pushing stage was pretty awful. Last time it took over 3 hours and because of that I ended up having Remifentanil (IV pain relief) and by the end I was so out of it that I barely knew what was happening. This time I was so so aware of everything. And I was paranoid that it was going like last time and I thought Id been pushing for longer than I had and I was panicking a bit.
I could really really feel baby moving down with each push and frustratingly slipping back up at the end of each one. It was agony and felt really undignified and felt like there was no way out cant give up but really felt like I couldnt do it. In the end our little boy was born about 45 minutes after I started pushing at 11.38pm. The last bit was awful (really need some determination to cause yourself so much pain as it really burned!) but it was such an amazing relief when it was over and I was pleased just to have managed on gas and air. Only a first degree tear too so no stitches
Strangely Oscar didnt cry when he was born, it took over an hour which we found a bit stressful despite everyone reassuring us he was fine. His tone was a little weak so he needed a wee bit of oxygen but his second Apgar score was 8 so he was absolutely fine. Just perfect really.
No retained placenta this time which was great but it did take about half an hour, 2 injections and a lot of painful pushing to come out. And again I was paranoid about it being retained which panicked me a bit.
All in all it was pretty good on paper about 8 hours of labour at home, Oscar born only 2.5 hours after getting to the hospital, only the pool and gas & air for pain relief, no stitches, healthy perfect baby (which is all that matters anyway!). In reality though the time it took is irrelevant as it felt like hours and hours I was at hospital and it actually felt harder than last time! On the plus side though DH does keep saying it was a much better and easier experience for him!
