tiggertea
Mum of Two
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Well, 1 week on (almost!) here it is.... the long and tangled tale of how my little angel Abbie came into the world. (And hopefuly she'll remain an angel and let me get this typed up! hehe)
Monday 9th March 09.
Hubby's alarm went at 5.15am, and he had the obligatory "chat" with bump.... this particular morning it went something along the lines of: "you were supposed to come today so I didn't have to get up for work, daddy's disappointed". I told him not to be horrible to bump and "who know's - i might even be fonig as soon as you arrive in work to get you home again" - that had been a joke.... little did i know how right i was!
Hubby's work is about an hour away, so I text him at 6.45, the usual "have a good day" type thing etc etc. then at 7am the fun began.... crampy pains. Every 10 mins. I sat on here discussing the possibilities with my March buddies. I was sore(ish), but only some of the pains were accompanied by tightening of the bump. I wasn't feeling sick or anything. Just these cramps. 10 mins apart, lasting about 45-50 secs each. (contractionmaster.com - fantasticly handy for timing these things accurately!) Oh, and a teeeeeennnnsy bit of pink in my suddenly very watery discharge..... hmmmmmmm...... my heart wanted it to be baby sooooooooo badly, but my head was worried that if I let myself believe "this is it", it would stop and i'd feel like a right prick! I didn't want to get hubby home in case it was a false alarm, and i didn't want to call the hospital in case they laughed and told me not to be silly, it was just "one of those things - a niggley late pregnancy thing"....
I decided at about 11am that a bath was in order.... if the pains didn't ease/disappear completely I MIGHT let myself believe that it could be something more than a normal niggle..... Bath was lovely and relaxing, but nope pains still coming.... small
in order me thinks! hehehe
At the insistence of my aforementioned March Buddies (thank you ladies!!!) I gave in and called hubby home - it WOULD take him an hour to get here afterall, and it didn't seem like this was going to go away anytime soon.... was getting to the point i just didn't want to be alone! So, he left work at 12, I had some spicy curry for lunch (desperate times call for desperate measures!!!) and settled down to watch some crappy tv and wait..... well, the pains came again, stronger (still only about a 3 in a scale of 1-10) and longer (1 - 1 1/2 mins now!) and much closer together.... by time hubby arrived home at 1 they were about 6-7 mins apart. Was sooooo glad I'd gotten him home when I did, coz it all seemed to be kicking off.... with every pain that came, I needed the loo (tmi alert!!) - so THIS was what a clearout was like?! hehe, no mistaking that one!
By 2pm they were coming (with bump tightening each time by now) 5 mins apart, and I needed to be walking about through the pain - still not crippling pain, and still able to talk through it all, but thought I should probably call the hospital just to see if they thought I should stick it out at home for now or come in.
Well, mistake number 1: calling admissions instead of my consultant (we were seeing a lovely consultant privately due to bad NHS experiences from the outset... but that's a whole other story!!!) they told me to "take 2 paracetamol and see if the pain disappears".... now call me stupid, but paracetamol doesn't half cure a headache never mind labour pains!!! I was to call back in an hour if they were still regular.
Needless to say, pains were still there, coming 4-5mins apart, and still walking and talking through them. So, I called the consultant directly. Explained the situation, and how the admissions people didn't seem so keen on having me in at all.... he said he'd see me in half an hour, that it sounded like i should already have come in.... finally i could believe that this was it - baby was on the way and in a few hours (hopefully!!!) i'd be holding my little boy or girl and after 9 months of waiting, I could finally meet the little monkey that had made me sick, given me heartburn and lets not forget the bright purple stretchies on my legs and belly!
Arrived at the hospital and was asked for all my details.... and a urine sample! oooopsie! Mistake number 2: I wasn't aware i needed one! Was sent off to the loos by a snappy admissions lady to pee in a bottle - all the little drop i could squeeze out - i'm amazed they were able to test it at all!
There were a few people in front of me - who, might i add, didn't seem to be having pains or symptoms at all - so i had to wait my turn, pacing the waiting room.... til my consultant walked past and saw me - mid contraction pacing, holding the bump. He was furious! They were supposed to call his office the minute I arrived. They hadn't. He brought me into the admissions examination place (whay can't i think of the correct name?!
) ahead of the others waiting (ooopsie - sorry about that ladies! 
) and did an examination..... I was 5cm dilated already!!!! 
even he hadn't seen that one coming! So, I was brought straight to delivery - no anti-natal ward for me, baby was coming, and that was that! woooooooooooooo! 
So, off we went to delivery suite, and the mw strapped the monitor on to hear baby - all was well, happy little heartbeat galloping away. They gave me a pill to stop sickness as they had a "nil by mouth" policy in delivery, and offered me the gas and air. Pains were certainly more intense since the internal examination, but so long as i could still walk about, i was coping really well with it, so i refused. consultant and even mw were praising me for coping so well
proud moment that was, since normally i'm a big wuss when it comes to pain!
Consultant went off to have some tea (perfectly understandable since it was tea-time and he'd already done a day's work!) and mw started pushing me to take the g&a.... and pethidine, and epidural.... now, i should say, i had gone in with the hope that i'd do without ANYTHING for as long as possible, then use the g&a, pethidine if necessary, and under no circumstances did i want an epidural - needles in my back - effectively paralysed?! no thank you!
I was adamant i wanted to wait, but then she wouldn't let me walk through the pains anymore, she wouldn't even let me stand up - it was getting intense.... too intense for me to breathe through it on my own.... i think the fact that control had been taken from ME had me panicked and uncomfortable, and ultimately downright terrified. I really didn't like this MW - and she looked like a horse.... an ugly one. I think i may have told her that too when I had a few puffs of the g&A....
The g&a is funny stuff..... it gave me the feeling of being drunk - out of it really, kind of fuzzy but it didn't really take the pain away - with every wave that came i sucked harder and harder on the tube - this lying down thing wasn't working for me - too intense. sooooo needed to stand up... it was better - i was more comfy. MWs respose to that was nope, no can do! so i jumped round in the bed onto my knees (even hubby says he thought i was gonna do a runner at this stage, and i do remember catching a look of complete shock on his face after my sudden movement!!) They put me in a rocking chair at one point - thought it would help, i had my feet on hubby's knee and ended up kicking him in the baby making bits at one point oopsie!
Anyways, it went on and on like this for a while and I agreed to a shot of pethidine.... oh, so NOW it's ok for me to stand up, to get a needle stuck in my bum?! (b1tch!) I couldn't tell one pain from the next at this stage and had to have a drip attached as one side of the cervix hadn't softened enough to allow delivery. They popped my waters sometime around now too.... Really wasn't possible for me to walk around anymore (even though i still felt the need to!) I was very aware at this stage of "needing the toilet" - I kept shouting that i needed the loo and MW asked if i REALLY needed to go. I decided to ignore her at this stage
rofl: it's funny now looking back how much I completely HATED the woman at the time! I guess she was just doing her job though!)
Shifts were changing at 9pm and a lovely (young) softly spoken, caring mw took over and i warmed to her immediately. she calmed me a little and called the consultant back to assess my sitution, by this stage it was about 9pm and I was starting to get super-tired and complaining... "I can't do this anymore - i just can't" I remember squatting on the bed begging them to make it all stop coz I was too tired. I was screaming, but not coz of the pain really.... it was more the effort required and the stress of the whole experience I think.
Consultant recommended an epidural as I was still only 8cm - i said no. He asked why and I finally admitted it was coz I was scared.... I can't remember now what he said to make me change my mind but I agreed anyway. He said he wouldn't force it but he would definately recommend it as i was so distressed. I remember saying this and thinking "Debz ur an arse!" after.... "ok gimme the epidural but i don't want it really!" So off he went to get me an anaethsetist (sp.) i was handed something to "read and sign" i asked if hubby could sign it. no. so i scribbled something on the page and handed it back - hubby told me later i signed my maiden name
And then it all became quite heavenly! i was somewhere very calm - lying peacefully on the bed (like a well behaved lady in labour - not a pain-ridden, midwife hating, squatting, screeching loon!) IT was like having pins and needles in my legs - i could feel em, and move em but they were just a bit numb. and as for the rest of my lower body - it was just numb i guess. example would be when i had the catheter inserted, i felt it, yes, but it kind of, well, tickled.... o dear it sounds a bit daft now.... but that's the best description i can come up with! they kept testing how well the epidural was working by rubbing ice on my bump.... when it felt cold, that's where the effect ended.... never thought i'd say "ice feels warm" 
but it did.... right the way up so all worked as it should.
Consultant was pleased with the epidural and, by 11pm after a nice snooze and chat about work, people we both knew and of course how excited we were to meet baby, consultant had another little poke around and was happy that I was "ready to go". He recommended an hour's rest, bringing me to midnight, then an hour's pushing. After that he would "reassess the situation"... I didn't like the sound of that part, and told him so! He did some of his magic reassuring chat and left me to rest. (Hubby went for a coffee at this stage too in preparation for the impending arrival lol)
My rest hour flew by, and suddenly hubby and consultant were back and ready for action... (oooh that sounds dodgy!) midnight and time for me to do some work....
Well, pushing was hard. I didn't know where to push (sounds stupid!) coz of the epidural but after getting it explained that i needed to "push like i was constipated" I soon got the hang of it. Unfortunately it soon became clear that my efforts alone weren't going to be enough and it was decided assisted delivery would be required. Again, something I had hoped to avoid but at least it wasn't a section! (THAT thought terrified me!)
It all transpired baby had turned, not quite back to back but sideways almost?! Consultant had to physically turn bub a little to allow me to get to the stage where, with some more pushing, encouraging words from hubby whispered in my ear
and basically cheering me on from consultant and lovely midwife, we managed to make it to the stage where forceps could be used...
next thing i know, i'm pushing and feeling bub helped out - very surreal i thought! and heard consultant say "there's an arm up beside the head coming too! Nothing else for it but to let it come now" Then a second or two later (felt like that - may have been more!), he said the cord was round the neck - but baby wasn't distressed. I think he may have cut it at this stage, but not entirely sure.... all I DO know is a short while later he congratulated us on the birth of our baby GIRL!
To that little snippet of info (we had had a yellow bump!) I replied "seriously? everyone had thought it was gonna be a boy!!! awww where's my wee girl - i want to meet her!"
All that over with, i had the injection to speed up delivery of the placenta, got that part over with (hubby had a good look at it when it came out and asked questions etc - he's so inquisitive like that - i was just glad to have it all over!) and me all stitched up after having been cut (for 2 reasons: the forceps delivery and the fact our little girl thought she was superwoman and arrived head and fist first!)
soon after we heard her cry we got a little while alone - just our wee family. I can quite honestly say I have never been so happy in my life. Yes, I had been sore before the epidural, yes i would be sore after it wore off but looking at my little girl's unique little face made it all ok. Her little hands gripping my fingers already. definately a moment.
So, at 38weeks+2days,
after a labour lasting from 7am Monday 9th March,
Abbie Black was born at 01.01am
Tuesday 10th March 09
Weighing 7lb6oz
Monday 9th March 09.
Hubby's alarm went at 5.15am, and he had the obligatory "chat" with bump.... this particular morning it went something along the lines of: "you were supposed to come today so I didn't have to get up for work, daddy's disappointed". I told him not to be horrible to bump and "who know's - i might even be fonig as soon as you arrive in work to get you home again" - that had been a joke.... little did i know how right i was!
Hubby's work is about an hour away, so I text him at 6.45, the usual "have a good day" type thing etc etc. then at 7am the fun began.... crampy pains. Every 10 mins. I sat on here discussing the possibilities with my March buddies. I was sore(ish), but only some of the pains were accompanied by tightening of the bump. I wasn't feeling sick or anything. Just these cramps. 10 mins apart, lasting about 45-50 secs each. (contractionmaster.com - fantasticly handy for timing these things accurately!) Oh, and a teeeeeennnnsy bit of pink in my suddenly very watery discharge..... hmmmmmmm...... my heart wanted it to be baby sooooooooo badly, but my head was worried that if I let myself believe "this is it", it would stop and i'd feel like a right prick! I didn't want to get hubby home in case it was a false alarm, and i didn't want to call the hospital in case they laughed and told me not to be silly, it was just "one of those things - a niggley late pregnancy thing"....
I decided at about 11am that a bath was in order.... if the pains didn't ease/disappear completely I MIGHT let myself believe that it could be something more than a normal niggle..... Bath was lovely and relaxing, but nope pains still coming.... small
in order me thinks! heheheAt the insistence of my aforementioned March Buddies (thank you ladies!!!) I gave in and called hubby home - it WOULD take him an hour to get here afterall, and it didn't seem like this was going to go away anytime soon.... was getting to the point i just didn't want to be alone! So, he left work at 12, I had some spicy curry for lunch (desperate times call for desperate measures!!!) and settled down to watch some crappy tv and wait..... well, the pains came again, stronger (still only about a 3 in a scale of 1-10) and longer (1 - 1 1/2 mins now!) and much closer together.... by time hubby arrived home at 1 they were about 6-7 mins apart. Was sooooo glad I'd gotten him home when I did, coz it all seemed to be kicking off.... with every pain that came, I needed the loo (tmi alert!!) - so THIS was what a clearout was like?! hehe, no mistaking that one!
By 2pm they were coming (with bump tightening each time by now) 5 mins apart, and I needed to be walking about through the pain - still not crippling pain, and still able to talk through it all, but thought I should probably call the hospital just to see if they thought I should stick it out at home for now or come in.
Well, mistake number 1: calling admissions instead of my consultant (we were seeing a lovely consultant privately due to bad NHS experiences from the outset... but that's a whole other story!!!) they told me to "take 2 paracetamol and see if the pain disappears".... now call me stupid, but paracetamol doesn't half cure a headache never mind labour pains!!! I was to call back in an hour if they were still regular.
Needless to say, pains were still there, coming 4-5mins apart, and still walking and talking through them. So, I called the consultant directly. Explained the situation, and how the admissions people didn't seem so keen on having me in at all.... he said he'd see me in half an hour, that it sounded like i should already have come in....
finally i could believe that this was it - baby was on the way and in a few hours (hopefully!!!) i'd be holding my little boy or girl and after 9 months of waiting, I could finally meet the little monkey that had made me sick, given me heartburn and lets not forget the bright purple stretchies on my legs and belly! Arrived at the hospital and was asked for all my details.... and a urine sample! oooopsie! Mistake number 2: I wasn't aware i needed one! Was sent off to the loos by a snappy admissions lady to pee in a bottle - all the little drop i could squeeze out - i'm amazed they were able to test it at all!
There were a few people in front of me - who, might i add, didn't seem to be having pains or symptoms at all - so i had to wait my turn, pacing the waiting room.... til my consultant walked past and saw me - mid contraction pacing, holding the bump. He was furious! They were supposed to call his office the minute I arrived. They hadn't. He brought me into the admissions examination place (whay can't i think of the correct name?!
) ahead of the others waiting (ooopsie - sorry about that ladies! ) and did an examination..... I was 5cm dilated already!!!! even he hadn't seen that one coming! So, I was brought straight to delivery - no anti-natal ward for me, baby was coming, and that was that! woooooooooooooo! So, off we went to delivery suite, and the mw strapped the monitor on to hear baby - all was well, happy little heartbeat galloping away. They gave me a pill to stop sickness as they had a "nil by mouth" policy in delivery, and offered me the gas and air. Pains were certainly more intense since the internal examination, but so long as i could still walk about, i was coping really well with it, so i refused. consultant and even mw were praising me for coping so well
proud moment that was, since normally i'm a big wuss when it comes to pain!Consultant went off to have some tea (perfectly understandable since it was tea-time and he'd already done a day's work!) and mw started pushing me to take the g&a.... and pethidine, and epidural.... now, i should say, i had gone in with the hope that i'd do without ANYTHING for as long as possible, then use the g&a, pethidine if necessary, and under no circumstances did i want an epidural - needles in my back - effectively paralysed?! no thank you!
I was adamant i wanted to wait, but then she wouldn't let me walk through the pains anymore, she wouldn't even let me stand up - it was getting intense.... too intense for me to breathe through it on my own.... i think the fact that control had been taken from ME had me panicked and uncomfortable, and ultimately downright terrified. I really didn't like this MW - and she looked like a horse.... an ugly one. I think i may have told her that too when I had a few puffs of the g&A....
The g&a is funny stuff..... it gave me the feeling of being drunk - out of it really, kind of fuzzy but it didn't really take the pain away - with every wave that came i sucked harder and harder on the tube - this lying down thing wasn't working for me - too intense. sooooo needed to stand up... it was better - i was more comfy. MWs respose to that was nope, no can do! so i jumped round in the bed onto my knees (even hubby says he thought i was gonna do a runner at this stage, and i do remember catching a look of complete shock on his face after my sudden movement!!
) They put me in a rocking chair at one point - thought it would help, i had my feet on hubby's knee and ended up kicking him in the baby making bits at one point oopsie!Anyways, it went on and on like this for a while and I agreed to a shot of pethidine.... oh, so NOW it's ok for me to stand up, to get a needle stuck in my bum?! (b1tch!) I couldn't tell one pain from the next at this stage and had to have a drip attached as one side of the cervix hadn't softened enough to allow delivery. They popped my waters sometime around now too.... Really wasn't possible for me to walk around anymore (even though i still felt the need to!) I was very aware at this stage of "needing the toilet" - I kept shouting that i needed the loo and MW asked if i REALLY needed to go. I decided to ignore her at this stage
rofl: it's funny now looking back how much I completely HATED the woman at the time! I guess she was just doing her job though!) Shifts were changing at 9pm and a lovely (young) softly spoken, caring mw took over and i warmed to her immediately. she calmed me a little and called the consultant back to assess my sitution, by this stage it was about 9pm and I was starting to get super-tired and complaining... "I can't do this anymore - i just can't" I remember squatting on the bed begging them to make it all stop coz I was too tired. I was screaming, but not coz of the pain really.... it was more the effort required and the stress of the whole experience I think.
Consultant recommended an epidural as I was still only 8cm - i said no. He asked why and I finally admitted it was coz I was scared.... I can't remember now what he said to make me change my mind but I agreed anyway. He said he wouldn't force it but he would definately recommend it as i was so distressed. I remember saying this and thinking "Debz ur an arse!" after.... "ok gimme the epidural but i don't want it really!"
So off he went to get me an anaethsetist (sp.) i was handed something to "read and sign" i asked if hubby could sign it. no. so i scribbled something on the page and handed it back - hubby told me later i signed my maiden name And then it all became quite heavenly!
i was somewhere very calm - lying peacefully on the bed (like a well behaved lady in labour - not a pain-ridden, midwife hating, squatting, screeching loon!) IT was like having pins and needles in my legs - i could feel em, and move em but they were just a bit numb. and as for the rest of my lower body - it was just numb i guess. example would be when i had the catheter inserted, i felt it, yes, but it kind of, well, tickled.... o dear it sounds a bit daft now.... but that's the best description i can come up with! they kept testing how well the epidural was working by rubbing ice on my bump.... when it felt cold, that's where the effect ended.... never thought i'd say "ice feels warm" but it did.... right the way up so all worked as it should. Consultant was pleased with the epidural and, by 11pm after a nice snooze and chat about work, people we both knew and of course how excited we were to meet baby, consultant had another little poke around and was happy that I was "ready to go". He recommended an hour's rest, bringing me to midnight, then an hour's pushing. After that he would "reassess the situation"... I didn't like the sound of that part, and told him so! He did some of his magic reassuring chat and left me to rest. (Hubby went for a coffee at this stage too in preparation for the impending arrival lol)
My rest hour flew by, and suddenly hubby and consultant were back and ready for action... (oooh that sounds dodgy!
) midnight and time for me to do some work.... Well, pushing was hard. I didn't know where to push (sounds stupid!) coz of the epidural but after getting it explained that i needed to "push like i was constipated" I soon got the hang of it. Unfortunately it soon became clear that my efforts alone weren't going to be enough and it was decided assisted delivery would be required. Again, something I had hoped to avoid but at least it wasn't a section! (THAT thought terrified me!)
It all transpired baby had turned, not quite back to back but sideways almost?! Consultant had to physically turn bub a little to allow me to get to the stage where, with some more pushing, encouraging words from hubby whispered in my ear
and basically cheering me on from consultant and lovely midwife, we managed to make it to the stage where forceps could be used...next thing i know, i'm pushing and feeling bub helped out - very surreal i thought!
and heard consultant say "there's an arm up beside the head coming too! Nothing else for it but to let it come now" Then a second or two later (felt like that - may have been more!), he said the cord was round the neck - but baby wasn't distressed. I think he may have cut it at this stage, but not entirely sure.... all I DO know is a short while later he congratulated us on the birth of our baby GIRL! To that little snippet of info (we had had a yellow bump!) I replied "seriously? everyone had thought it was gonna be a boy!!! awww where's my wee girl - i want to meet her!"
All that over with, i had the injection to speed up delivery of the placenta, got that part over with (hubby had a good look at it when it came out and asked questions etc -
he's so inquisitive like that - i was just glad to have it all over!) and me all stitched up after having been cut (for 2 reasons: the forceps delivery and the fact our little girl thought she was superwoman and arrived head and fist first!)soon after we heard her cry we got a little while alone - just our wee family. I can quite honestly say I have never been so happy in my life. Yes, I had been sore before the epidural, yes i would be sore after it wore off but looking at my little girl's unique little face made it all ok. Her little hands gripping my fingers already. definately a
moment.So, at 38weeks+2days,
after a labour lasting from 7am Monday 9th March,
Abbie Black was born at 01.01am
Tuesday 10th March 09
Weighing 7lb6oz
xxx
