Please note that my mum has pretty much had to write most of this as I can't remember anything other than the epidural and Thomas making his appearance.
September 3rd 2008, my 24th birthday. I started to get blurred vision that didn’t get any better as the day wore on, so my dad rang the doctors and the doctor took my blood pressure which was very high. He said that there was a possibility that I had pre-eclampsia and he rang the Derby city General hospital and said that I was to go straight down. Luckily I had my hospital bag already packed ready for the birth of my baby.
We all went to the hospital and they did lots of tests on me and confirmed that I had pre-eclampsia. My blood pressure was very high, the protein in my urine was also very high, I had blurred vision and oedema. They said that I had to be admitted immediately as this was a serious condition and if it went untreated could lead to fitting and even death.
The next two days consisted of more tests and being kept under observation. On Saturday 6th September 2008 I was moved down to the labour ward as they were going to induce me 3 weeks early. My mum said that she would stay with me as she was my birth partner. They put 2 monitors on my belly, 1 to monitor babies heartbeat and 1 to monitor contractions. I was given a pessary and they waited 6 hours but nothing happened so they gave me another one, still nothing. At 10.00 Saturday night they decided that they could not wait any longer as my blood pressure and protein levels were even higher. They decided to break my waters. They did this at 11.15.
I started in labour. Each contraction got worse. By this time I was hooked up to a bp machine. A saline drip as I was dehydrated, a hormone drip and a magnesium sulphate drip. The pain got worse. They said that I needed an epidural as this would lower my blood pressure and relieve some of the pain.
The anaesthetist arrived and did the epidural. It worked for a while but it also gave me very violent shivers. After a while it did not work anymore and so they gave me a top up. Once again it was fine for a while. By this time my cervix was 3cm dilated. They then decided that they could not wait any longer and examined me and started to up the dose of hormones to make my cervix more dilated. I was examined again after an hour and the cervix was fully dilated and they could feel babies head although he was facing upwards and they wanted him facing downwards so they turned him
They told me I needed to push for half an hour. This was very hard, I was in so much pain and could not have another top up of the epidural or it would stop me pushing. After the half hour was up they said that I could not push any more as my blood pressure was even higher and I would have to have an assisted birth. They put my legs up in a stirrup and took the end of the bed off. A midwife, sister and 3 consultants all came into the room.
One consultant gowned up and took out what looked like a huge sink plug with a chain on it. She then injected an anaesthetic into my vagina. She had to cut me to allow baby to come out. She attached this to the babies head and told me to push. As I did she pulled on the chain. I felt a tickle and Tom was born at 10.02 on the morning of Sunday 7th September 2008 weighing 6lb 10oz after 11 hours of labour.
They put him straight on my chest and mum took pictures to show to dad who was in the waiting room. They then brought out the placenta which also felt like a tickle. They put baby to my breast and he took a little milk and then fell asleep.
After a while my dad was allowed in and he was able to cuddle baby. They then cleaned me up and said that I had to go on the high dependency ward. I was kept on this ward until 11th September. Baby had a touch of jaundice and an eye infection. My stitches were very sore but it was good to be going home.
On 12th September the community midwife visited and did tests on baby, his weight had gone down to 6lb 3oz, but this is normal, and made an appointment for me to visit Ripley hospital the next day to the post natal clinic.
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs425.ash1/23517_1369316921884_1500553962_962945_7078554_n.jpg
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs385.snc3/23517_1369316881883_1500553962_962944_8083068_n.jpg
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs241.ash1/16843_1312822229552_1500553962_844257_7553797_n.jpg
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs385.snc3/23517_1369315641852_1500553962_962916_4496145_n.jpg
September 3rd 2008, my 24th birthday. I started to get blurred vision that didn’t get any better as the day wore on, so my dad rang the doctors and the doctor took my blood pressure which was very high. He said that there was a possibility that I had pre-eclampsia and he rang the Derby city General hospital and said that I was to go straight down. Luckily I had my hospital bag already packed ready for the birth of my baby.
We all went to the hospital and they did lots of tests on me and confirmed that I had pre-eclampsia. My blood pressure was very high, the protein in my urine was also very high, I had blurred vision and oedema. They said that I had to be admitted immediately as this was a serious condition and if it went untreated could lead to fitting and even death.
The next two days consisted of more tests and being kept under observation. On Saturday 6th September 2008 I was moved down to the labour ward as they were going to induce me 3 weeks early. My mum said that she would stay with me as she was my birth partner. They put 2 monitors on my belly, 1 to monitor babies heartbeat and 1 to monitor contractions. I was given a pessary and they waited 6 hours but nothing happened so they gave me another one, still nothing. At 10.00 Saturday night they decided that they could not wait any longer as my blood pressure and protein levels were even higher. They decided to break my waters. They did this at 11.15.
I started in labour. Each contraction got worse. By this time I was hooked up to a bp machine. A saline drip as I was dehydrated, a hormone drip and a magnesium sulphate drip. The pain got worse. They said that I needed an epidural as this would lower my blood pressure and relieve some of the pain.
The anaesthetist arrived and did the epidural. It worked for a while but it also gave me very violent shivers. After a while it did not work anymore and so they gave me a top up. Once again it was fine for a while. By this time my cervix was 3cm dilated. They then decided that they could not wait any longer and examined me and started to up the dose of hormones to make my cervix more dilated. I was examined again after an hour and the cervix was fully dilated and they could feel babies head although he was facing upwards and they wanted him facing downwards so they turned him
They told me I needed to push for half an hour. This was very hard, I was in so much pain and could not have another top up of the epidural or it would stop me pushing. After the half hour was up they said that I could not push any more as my blood pressure was even higher and I would have to have an assisted birth. They put my legs up in a stirrup and took the end of the bed off. A midwife, sister and 3 consultants all came into the room.
One consultant gowned up and took out what looked like a huge sink plug with a chain on it. She then injected an anaesthetic into my vagina. She had to cut me to allow baby to come out. She attached this to the babies head and told me to push. As I did she pulled on the chain. I felt a tickle and Tom was born at 10.02 on the morning of Sunday 7th September 2008 weighing 6lb 10oz after 11 hours of labour.
They put him straight on my chest and mum took pictures to show to dad who was in the waiting room. They then brought out the placenta which also felt like a tickle. They put baby to my breast and he took a little milk and then fell asleep.
After a while my dad was allowed in and he was able to cuddle baby. They then cleaned me up and said that I had to go on the high dependency ward. I was kept on this ward until 11th September. Baby had a touch of jaundice and an eye infection. My stitches were very sore but it was good to be going home.
On 12th September the community midwife visited and did tests on baby, his weight had gone down to 6lb 3oz, but this is normal, and made an appointment for me to visit Ripley hospital the next day to the post natal clinic.
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs425.ash1/23517_1369316921884_1500553962_962945_7078554_n.jpg
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs385.snc3/23517_1369316881883_1500553962_962944_8083068_n.jpg
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs241.ash1/16843_1312822229552_1500553962_844257_7553797_n.jpg
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs385.snc3/23517_1369315641852_1500553962_962916_4496145_n.jpg
