minties
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I didn't even know there was a birth story part of the forum, so this is a pretty late announcement!
Thomas was conceived after 8 years TTC, so he's very special (as are all babies of course). Here is his birth story.
I was due on the 25th of November, the day before my 28th birthday. The day came and went with nothing happening, I was very disappointed. However on my birthday I started to lose my plug, and got so excited. I thought we would share a birthday, but no, that wasn't to be. I kept on losing bits of my plug over the days. On the 29th of November, my midwife sent me in for an ultrasound.
Thomas was measuring fine and guessed to be 3.3kg (7 pounds 4 ounces). I was shown to have barely any waters and the ultrasound technician (a rather moody man) was going on and on about it like I had done something wrong. He kept saying I wasn't drinking enough.
On the 30th November my bloody show really started getting rather bloody and copious, and I had 2 contractions spaced around 5 hours apart in the morning, but they were very mild and I thought nothing of it.
Then labour really kicked in at around 10:55pm that night. It wasn't a gradual thing, or an "am I really in labour?" thing. It was sudden and definite. Contractions just came outta nowhere and were intense and pretty regular right away.
All the pain was centered on my cervix, my entire mind was focused on feeling the pain in that one spot through each contraction and it was hard to think about anything else. My bump did tighten but it was nothing compared to this cervix pain. It felt like a similar squeeze to diarrhea cramps, or your guts cramping up when you spew.
I spent a while bouncing on a swissball (gym ball) through them until that got too uncomfortable, so then Mat (my OH) got the airbed out for me and I lay on my side all night long watching TV. He stayed awake with me, he was so nervous and kept saying I needed to call the midwife every 10 minutes.
I first called the midwife at 2:37am, she sounded very tired and told me to call back when I couldn't handle the pain any longer.
By around 5am I was starting to feel like I had no energy so I sent Mat off to get some pinapple lumps (a type of candy/lolly) and some petrol (for the car). Before he left I remember having a strong urge to get some fresh air so I hobbled out to the car and put the carseat in the back. While he was gone the contractions got a lot more painful, and I was walking around the house wailing like a banshee and hanging onto door frames. The cat was not impressed!
Mat came back at 5:20 and not long after I had a doozy of a contraction and my waters broke. It wasn't like on TV, it was just a trickle. It was green so that meant baby was in distress and had poo'd inside, so again the midwife was called. I remember being pissed off that she talked so slowly and I felt she didn't care that I was in pain, which knowing her sounds about right.
She said to start getting ready to go and that she'd meet us in the hospital. I hadn't yet really packed my hospital bag so it was a bit of a panic trying to remember what I was meant to take. The drive was very uncomfortable, sitting hurt pretty bad! Mat drove very nicely and didn't rush which I appreciated.
When we got there I had to sit down in a waiting room area as we had forgotten to bring my bag in. I didn't want to go into the labour ward without Mat as I was worried they wouldn't tell him where I was. So I sat in the waiting room bit with all these other people, gritting my teeth through contractions and trying not to make any noise.
We finally got into a room around 6:30am. Weirdly my contractions slowed right down and weren't as intense, I think due to being nervous. I hate hospitals and I really didn't get on with my midwife, so was thinking about how she was going to see me nude and I felt sick.
The birthing suite was fabulous, huge with a big bathroom, a birthing pool, a bed, and lovely views across the city.
The midwife turned up around 6:45am and commented repeatedly that I didn't look like I was in labour and kept asking me where my contractions were, which was bloody annoying. I am good at hiding pain. She then hooked me up to this machine that recorded and printed out my contraction times and lengths, and the baby's heartrate. I felt extremely uncomfortable being on my back! She then did an internal exam which hurt worse than any contraction. I almost screamed. I was 3cm dilated. She said the baby had his head turned into a bad position, and I recall Mat being shocked that she could feel his head.
The details of this time are a bit fuzzy to me, but at some point a team of people came in and hovered around looking at my pregnancy notes, looking at me, and at the printout from the machine. I was told that my labour wasn't progressing and that baby's heartrate was dipping low and staying too low with every contraction. Meanwhile my waters kept on "breaking", I felt gross and messy and hated all these medical people looking at me like I was a scientific experiment. I was drinking water like crazy but was so thirsty and dehydrated, so a drip was put in - which didn't help. A little heartrate monitor was screwed into the baby's scalp as my weight was making it hard to monitor externally. I was allowed to stand up for a minute next to the side of the bed after this was put in, but the contractions hurt too much and I was leaking waters everywhere so lay back down.
It was agreed at some point that if nothing had changed by 10am, that they would start me on a drip, syntocinon, to make my contractions stronger, longer and more regular.
I was checked again at 10am and was still at 3cm dilated, so this drip was put in. Over the next few hours the amount was increased. Contractions got more painful but not really any stronger or closer together and the baby was still showing signs of distress. The amount of syntocinon was increased every so often. At one point I was crying in pain and the midwife commented "Oooh, someones finally in labour!" which made me want to slap her.
Hours went by, and eventually the midwife asked me if I wanted an epidural. "Yes please!" I said very gratefully. At this point Mat had gone out to the car for a nap, and I was glad as I didn't want him seeing the epidural going in as he hates stuff to do with spines. The guy that did it kept calling me Michaela, it was funny (my name is Michelle). I had to sit on the edge of the bed and hunch over and keep perfectly still through all the contractions, it was hard work! The relief was AMAZING and instant. It was like this warmth spread all down my back. After the epidural was in I kept grinning like an idiot. There was no longer any pain and I couldn't feel the contractions. I then had a catheter put in, and I was so dehydrated that my urine was almost red!
By around 1:45pm things still weren't progressing, I was still at 3cm, and the team of medical staff came back in. A cross-eyed (not being mean, just stating a fact) woman told me that we could keep trying with the drugs, but that the baby had been in distress for a long time and it would be best if I had a c-section. I was pretty devastated, and tried really hard not to cry. Mat was very calm and reassuring, he was such a rock. I was so scared. I was wheeled off, and Mat went to change into some blue scrubs. All these people kept coming up to me asking me the same questions - was I allergic to anything, did I have any major health issues, etc etc. I was wheeled into theater, it was a small room with heaps of people in it and massive bright lights. I was transferred onto the operating table, and had a blood pressure cuff attached to my left arm. It automatically took my blood pressure once every couple of minutes.
Something else was plugged up to my drip and my body went numb from the chest down. A man rubbed ice over various parts of me to see if I was properly numb, which I was. The surgeon introduced herself, and a curtain was pegged up in front of my face. Mat sat to my right and we talked a bit, he kept asking if I was ok. I felt the surgeon and her assistant doing stuff, I didn't realise I was actually being cut open at that point but I was. They surgeon chatted to her assistant about how annoyed she was with her mother.
At one point I felt like I was going to pass out, Mat told me afterwards that my blood pressure and heartrate had dipped extremely low and gone red on the monitor. I told the anaesthetist how I was feeling and he adjusted something and I felt much better.
At one point there was a lot of tugging going on and I felt pain, I kept telling people but they couldn't find out why I was feeling pain so I gritted my teeth and handled it. It felt like the catheter was stabbing my bladder.
It wasn't long until Thomas was "born" at 2:21pm and held up briefly above the curtain for me to see. He was covered in red goo and had green stuff pouring out his nose and mouth. I only saw him for 2 seconds. Mat then walked off and I remember feeling really lonely. Various faces of the medical staff loomed up next to me telling me that Thomas was perfect. I finally heard him cry, and I felt like crying myself so I had a quick sniffle. I felt alienated from my own baby.
About 5 minutes later Mat brought Thomas up to my face and I couldn't really see him well, but he was cute and I gave him a kiss. Mat had cut the umbilical cord which I was surprised at, as he hadn't wanted to. It didn't feel like Thomas was my baby, and that lasted a few days. His APGAR scores were 9 and 10.
I was stitched up, and while that was happening I asked Mat how he felt about Thomas and he said he loved him. I felt like Thomas wasn't mine, it was really weird, I kept thinking my baby was still in my tummy - this can't be my baby!
My midwife loomed up from the rear and said something along the lines of "Good job, he's beautiful, I am tired and going home to sleep, see you tomorrow.". Good ridance, Mat and I both thought, and gave eachother a knowing look.
I was wheeled into recovery while Mat pushed Thomas along in this plastic bassinet thing on wheels. In recovery they raised my bed and I got to do skin to skin with Thomas and tried breastfeeding. I got rubbed with ice again every 20ish minutes and could feel my body coming back to life. I was still hooked up to a blood pressure machine, and also had something else attached to my index finger that was taking my pulse and measuring the oxygen in my blood.
We were mostly left alone to look at Thomas and talk. I got my cellphone out and let my mum know he was born.
He weighed 3.3kg just like the ultrasound said and I remember thinking that was pretty cool.
Thomas was clean and smelled nice, though he hadn't been bathed and had blood all through his hair.
A nurse came in and swaddled him for us and put him in the plastic bassinet and I was wheeled off to my room. Mat went off to change out of his scrubs. My room was lovely, it was huuuge and up high and I had a great view of the city and ocean (which I didn't see until the next day).
We were left alone in my room for a while, and Mat decided to go home to shower, shave and have a snooze. I can't remember what I did except for sit on the bed and cuddle Thomas. My mum and dad came in at some point, dad cried a bit and said Thomas was beautiful but refused to touch him as he was scared. Mum held him and said all the things that you expect of a new grandma.
At 7:45 my uncle, his partner and my then almost 1 year old cousin came rushing in for a quick visit. Lien, my uncles partner, reswaddled Thomas for me and was gushing over how cute he was.
I was given a wipe down on my bed by two women who treated me like I wasn't there, I hated that.
That night I got zero sleep as the nurses and midwives kept barging in to check on us, and leaving my lights on, grr! My buzzer fell to the floor and I couldn't reach or or even get off the bed to change Thomas so I got really upset and had to yell out for help. I yelled for ages before anyone came.
Thomas's temp was taken around midnight and they said he was too cold, so I was instructed to have he and I naked and have him sleep chest to chest on me with heaps of blankets over us, so I held him like that all night. I thought he was a very good baby as he only woke to feed every 6 hours and slept a lot. On the second night though it was a different story and he cried all night and fed constantly.
A lovely midwife from Sweden heard us both crying, came in and gave me a long hug and offered to take Thomas for a while so I could sleep. I didn't want him to go anywhere, so she soothed him, swaddled him and tucked him into the bed next to me and he slept, woohoo! It was at that low point of misery and sleep deprivation that I finally realised how much I loved Thomas.
And that's about the end of that! I will add in more if I remember it.
https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/65760_1480062205427_1349955239_31030918_7915048_n.jpg
https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/63414_1480059885369_1349955239_31030905_7581693_n.jpg
https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/nb%20to%20now/nbthom030.jpg
https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/nb%20to%20now/nbthom041.jpg
Thomas was conceived after 8 years TTC, so he's very special (as are all babies of course). Here is his birth story.
I was due on the 25th of November, the day before my 28th birthday. The day came and went with nothing happening, I was very disappointed. However on my birthday I started to lose my plug, and got so excited. I thought we would share a birthday, but no, that wasn't to be. I kept on losing bits of my plug over the days. On the 29th of November, my midwife sent me in for an ultrasound.
Thomas was measuring fine and guessed to be 3.3kg (7 pounds 4 ounces). I was shown to have barely any waters and the ultrasound technician (a rather moody man) was going on and on about it like I had done something wrong. He kept saying I wasn't drinking enough.
On the 30th November my bloody show really started getting rather bloody and copious, and I had 2 contractions spaced around 5 hours apart in the morning, but they were very mild and I thought nothing of it.
Then labour really kicked in at around 10:55pm that night. It wasn't a gradual thing, or an "am I really in labour?" thing. It was sudden and definite. Contractions just came outta nowhere and were intense and pretty regular right away.
All the pain was centered on my cervix, my entire mind was focused on feeling the pain in that one spot through each contraction and it was hard to think about anything else. My bump did tighten but it was nothing compared to this cervix pain. It felt like a similar squeeze to diarrhea cramps, or your guts cramping up when you spew.
I spent a while bouncing on a swissball (gym ball) through them until that got too uncomfortable, so then Mat (my OH) got the airbed out for me and I lay on my side all night long watching TV. He stayed awake with me, he was so nervous and kept saying I needed to call the midwife every 10 minutes.
I first called the midwife at 2:37am, she sounded very tired and told me to call back when I couldn't handle the pain any longer.
By around 5am I was starting to feel like I had no energy so I sent Mat off to get some pinapple lumps (a type of candy/lolly) and some petrol (for the car). Before he left I remember having a strong urge to get some fresh air so I hobbled out to the car and put the carseat in the back. While he was gone the contractions got a lot more painful, and I was walking around the house wailing like a banshee and hanging onto door frames. The cat was not impressed!
Mat came back at 5:20 and not long after I had a doozy of a contraction and my waters broke. It wasn't like on TV, it was just a trickle. It was green so that meant baby was in distress and had poo'd inside, so again the midwife was called. I remember being pissed off that she talked so slowly and I felt she didn't care that I was in pain, which knowing her sounds about right.
She said to start getting ready to go and that she'd meet us in the hospital. I hadn't yet really packed my hospital bag so it was a bit of a panic trying to remember what I was meant to take. The drive was very uncomfortable, sitting hurt pretty bad! Mat drove very nicely and didn't rush which I appreciated.
When we got there I had to sit down in a waiting room area as we had forgotten to bring my bag in. I didn't want to go into the labour ward without Mat as I was worried they wouldn't tell him where I was. So I sat in the waiting room bit with all these other people, gritting my teeth through contractions and trying not to make any noise.
We finally got into a room around 6:30am. Weirdly my contractions slowed right down and weren't as intense, I think due to being nervous. I hate hospitals and I really didn't get on with my midwife, so was thinking about how she was going to see me nude and I felt sick.
The birthing suite was fabulous, huge with a big bathroom, a birthing pool, a bed, and lovely views across the city.
The midwife turned up around 6:45am and commented repeatedly that I didn't look like I was in labour and kept asking me where my contractions were, which was bloody annoying. I am good at hiding pain. She then hooked me up to this machine that recorded and printed out my contraction times and lengths, and the baby's heartrate. I felt extremely uncomfortable being on my back! She then did an internal exam which hurt worse than any contraction. I almost screamed. I was 3cm dilated. She said the baby had his head turned into a bad position, and I recall Mat being shocked that she could feel his head.
The details of this time are a bit fuzzy to me, but at some point a team of people came in and hovered around looking at my pregnancy notes, looking at me, and at the printout from the machine. I was told that my labour wasn't progressing and that baby's heartrate was dipping low and staying too low with every contraction. Meanwhile my waters kept on "breaking", I felt gross and messy and hated all these medical people looking at me like I was a scientific experiment. I was drinking water like crazy but was so thirsty and dehydrated, so a drip was put in - which didn't help. A little heartrate monitor was screwed into the baby's scalp as my weight was making it hard to monitor externally. I was allowed to stand up for a minute next to the side of the bed after this was put in, but the contractions hurt too much and I was leaking waters everywhere so lay back down.
It was agreed at some point that if nothing had changed by 10am, that they would start me on a drip, syntocinon, to make my contractions stronger, longer and more regular.
I was checked again at 10am and was still at 3cm dilated, so this drip was put in. Over the next few hours the amount was increased. Contractions got more painful but not really any stronger or closer together and the baby was still showing signs of distress. The amount of syntocinon was increased every so often. At one point I was crying in pain and the midwife commented "Oooh, someones finally in labour!" which made me want to slap her.
Hours went by, and eventually the midwife asked me if I wanted an epidural. "Yes please!" I said very gratefully. At this point Mat had gone out to the car for a nap, and I was glad as I didn't want him seeing the epidural going in as he hates stuff to do with spines. The guy that did it kept calling me Michaela, it was funny (my name is Michelle). I had to sit on the edge of the bed and hunch over and keep perfectly still through all the contractions, it was hard work! The relief was AMAZING and instant. It was like this warmth spread all down my back. After the epidural was in I kept grinning like an idiot. There was no longer any pain and I couldn't feel the contractions. I then had a catheter put in, and I was so dehydrated that my urine was almost red!
By around 1:45pm things still weren't progressing, I was still at 3cm, and the team of medical staff came back in. A cross-eyed (not being mean, just stating a fact) woman told me that we could keep trying with the drugs, but that the baby had been in distress for a long time and it would be best if I had a c-section. I was pretty devastated, and tried really hard not to cry. Mat was very calm and reassuring, he was such a rock. I was so scared. I was wheeled off, and Mat went to change into some blue scrubs. All these people kept coming up to me asking me the same questions - was I allergic to anything, did I have any major health issues, etc etc. I was wheeled into theater, it was a small room with heaps of people in it and massive bright lights. I was transferred onto the operating table, and had a blood pressure cuff attached to my left arm. It automatically took my blood pressure once every couple of minutes.
Something else was plugged up to my drip and my body went numb from the chest down. A man rubbed ice over various parts of me to see if I was properly numb, which I was. The surgeon introduced herself, and a curtain was pegged up in front of my face. Mat sat to my right and we talked a bit, he kept asking if I was ok. I felt the surgeon and her assistant doing stuff, I didn't realise I was actually being cut open at that point but I was. They surgeon chatted to her assistant about how annoyed she was with her mother.
At one point I felt like I was going to pass out, Mat told me afterwards that my blood pressure and heartrate had dipped extremely low and gone red on the monitor. I told the anaesthetist how I was feeling and he adjusted something and I felt much better.
At one point there was a lot of tugging going on and I felt pain, I kept telling people but they couldn't find out why I was feeling pain so I gritted my teeth and handled it. It felt like the catheter was stabbing my bladder.
It wasn't long until Thomas was "born" at 2:21pm and held up briefly above the curtain for me to see. He was covered in red goo and had green stuff pouring out his nose and mouth. I only saw him for 2 seconds. Mat then walked off and I remember feeling really lonely. Various faces of the medical staff loomed up next to me telling me that Thomas was perfect. I finally heard him cry, and I felt like crying myself so I had a quick sniffle. I felt alienated from my own baby.
About 5 minutes later Mat brought Thomas up to my face and I couldn't really see him well, but he was cute and I gave him a kiss. Mat had cut the umbilical cord which I was surprised at, as he hadn't wanted to. It didn't feel like Thomas was my baby, and that lasted a few days. His APGAR scores were 9 and 10.
I was stitched up, and while that was happening I asked Mat how he felt about Thomas and he said he loved him. I felt like Thomas wasn't mine, it was really weird, I kept thinking my baby was still in my tummy - this can't be my baby!
My midwife loomed up from the rear and said something along the lines of "Good job, he's beautiful, I am tired and going home to sleep, see you tomorrow.". Good ridance, Mat and I both thought, and gave eachother a knowing look.
I was wheeled into recovery while Mat pushed Thomas along in this plastic bassinet thing on wheels. In recovery they raised my bed and I got to do skin to skin with Thomas and tried breastfeeding. I got rubbed with ice again every 20ish minutes and could feel my body coming back to life. I was still hooked up to a blood pressure machine, and also had something else attached to my index finger that was taking my pulse and measuring the oxygen in my blood.
We were mostly left alone to look at Thomas and talk. I got my cellphone out and let my mum know he was born.
He weighed 3.3kg just like the ultrasound said and I remember thinking that was pretty cool.
Thomas was clean and smelled nice, though he hadn't been bathed and had blood all through his hair.
A nurse came in and swaddled him for us and put him in the plastic bassinet and I was wheeled off to my room. Mat went off to change out of his scrubs. My room was lovely, it was huuuge and up high and I had a great view of the city and ocean (which I didn't see until the next day).
We were left alone in my room for a while, and Mat decided to go home to shower, shave and have a snooze. I can't remember what I did except for sit on the bed and cuddle Thomas. My mum and dad came in at some point, dad cried a bit and said Thomas was beautiful but refused to touch him as he was scared. Mum held him and said all the things that you expect of a new grandma.
At 7:45 my uncle, his partner and my then almost 1 year old cousin came rushing in for a quick visit. Lien, my uncles partner, reswaddled Thomas for me and was gushing over how cute he was.
I was given a wipe down on my bed by two women who treated me like I wasn't there, I hated that.
That night I got zero sleep as the nurses and midwives kept barging in to check on us, and leaving my lights on, grr! My buzzer fell to the floor and I couldn't reach or or even get off the bed to change Thomas so I got really upset and had to yell out for help. I yelled for ages before anyone came.
Thomas's temp was taken around midnight and they said he was too cold, so I was instructed to have he and I naked and have him sleep chest to chest on me with heaps of blankets over us, so I held him like that all night. I thought he was a very good baby as he only woke to feed every 6 hours and slept a lot. On the second night though it was a different story and he cried all night and fed constantly.
A lovely midwife from Sweden heard us both crying, came in and gave me a long hug and offered to take Thomas for a while so I could sleep. I didn't want him to go anywhere, so she soothed him, swaddled him and tucked him into the bed next to me and he slept, woohoo! It was at that low point of misery and sleep deprivation that I finally realised how much I loved Thomas.
And that's about the end of that! I will add in more if I remember it.
https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/65760_1480062205427_1349955239_31030918_7915048_n.jpg
https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/63414_1480059885369_1349955239_31030905_7581693_n.jpg
https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/nb%20to%20now/nbthom030.jpg
https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/a31cefiro/nb%20to%20now/nbthom041.jpg
