Tattoo
Mum of 2 girls
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2010
- Messages
- 1,730
- Reaction score
- 1
My new baby was born on Saturday 2nd May2015, so she shares her birthday with the new Princess Cambridge!
This birth story is a very positive one, but it does include baby being born with the cord around her neck. It does have a happy outcome, but this could potentially be triggering for some.
I was three days past my due date on Friday. I had an appointment with the midwife to have a sweep, and I was determined to get this baby out asap! I went ten days past due with my oldest, and I had a much easier pregnancy that time, so I really wanted to go into labour soon!
I walked up to the doctors and had my sweep. I was 3-4cm dilated and 75% effaced. Baby was fully engaged, so that was good news. There was a lot of bloody mucus on the midwife's fingers when she'd finished the sweep, which I took as a positive sign!
After my appointment I walked around two miles (not all in one go! I stopped at Costa Coffee!). I was starting to feel a bit crampy, but nothing too bad. I guess that was probably the after effects of the sweep, rather than the start of real labour. When I got home I mixed the oil from three big Evening Primrose Oil capsules with six drops of Clary Sage oil and massaged it into my bump. I'd been doing this for a few days already. I massaged for about an hour, while I watched tv. Then I had a bath and tried some nipple stimulation. I had a few contractions while I was in the bath.
DH got home from work about 4 o'clock, by which time I was having regular contractions every ten minutes. They weren't very painful or lasting long, though. He went to pick DD1 up from nursery and I texted my mum to let her know that things seemed to be moving along now. By 5 o'clock contractions were every five minutes and lasting around 50 seconds. I took some paracetamol and carried on timing. This pattern stayed constant until about 7 o'clock. I stopped timing then, because it was DD1's bath and bedtime, but the contractions stayed regular and became increasingly painful. Once DD was in bed I got on the gym ball and tried to relax.
10 o'clock came around. Contractions still around 50 seconds, but now about three minutes apart. I was still coping with the pain, but it was getting harder. I think it was probably time to call the birthing unit. But I decided not to, because I was completely knackered. I really couldn't face labour. So we went to bed.
Unsurprisingly, things stalled overnight. I woke frequently and I was still feeling contractions, but they were manageable.
Up at about 7 o'clock Saturday morning. I got back on the ball and bounced and bounced, and soon things were back up and running! Within an hour contractions were back to every three minutes and lasting about a minute, some were longer. I phoned the unit and they said to come in. So we grabbed the bags, dropped DD1 off at my mum's, and off we went.
I was examined and I was 5cm dilated. Not a huge amount of progress, but we were getting there! This was 8:45am. I was admitted to the unit and left to get comfortable.
The midwives had already started filling the birthing pool when I'd phoned, so I was able to hop in there straight away, and I had some gas and air for pain relief.
I laboured in the pool with the gas and air for the next few hours. It was actually the very same pool my older daughter was born in, back in 2012!
Things felt like there were going slow, but I felt calm and in control. I was able to eat and drink as I liked (I sat in the pool and ate a Twix!), and I didn't have to have any internal examinations at all. The midwife listened in to baby's heartbeat intermittently using a waterproof doppler.
Eventually the contractions got too painful for the gas and air, and I was actually crying out in pain with them. Here comes transition! I was on my knees, leaning over the edge of the pool, and DH was holding my gas and air pipe, and stroking my back. I had a huge, almighty contraction and...WHOOSH! Waters broke and out popped baby's head! I didn't even push! Midwife instructed DH to pull the emergency cord to call the second midwife back into the room. She only just made it, as the next contraction hit, and I pushed 8lb 8oz Ivy Elizabeth into the water.
Because I was on my knees, Ivy came forward towards me, so I had to catch her on her way down. The cord was wrapped around her neck. The midwife who was in front of me just slipped it straight over Ivy's head, before she was lifted to the surface of the water. She hadn't started breathing, so the risk of strangulation was low. She had a very long cord (over a metre, apparently!), so we were able to have skin-to-skin straight away in the pool and wait for the cord to stop pulsating before cutting.
I'd requested not to have an induced third stage this time. I'd had the injection with my first delivery, and ended up with the placenta coming out too quickly, taking too much blood with it and leaving me in pretty bad shape (dehydrated, weak, low pulse and dangerously low blood pressure). So this time I wanted to try it naturally. Once the cord was cut we got out the pool, I got on the bed and cuddled Ivy skin-to-skin. The midwife felt my tummy and said that my bladder was very full and might be blocking the progress of the placenta. She asked if I'd consent to having a catheter to empty my bladder and, hopefully, get things moving. I agreed. This was pretty uncomfortable, but not awful. It felt like having a nasty UTI. But as soon as my bladder was empty, Ivy latched onto my breast, which triggered a contraction, and I gave a good, hard push, and out came the placenta. It was massive, apparently! It didn't fit in the bowl the midwife tried to catch it in! And it filled the hazardous waste bucket, so she had to really cram the lid on!
I was so, so glad I had a natural third stage, because I was dreading feeling as awful as I did after my first birth. But this time I felt completely different. I was vomiting after my first birth, but this time I happily accepted the tea and toast! Ivy's first breastfeed lasted a whopping 40 minutes! We were left to relax and enjoy this time together as a family, before Ivy and I were checked over. Once she'd finished her feed she was passed to DH for some skin-to-skin cuddles and I needed a few stitches. I think I had three internal stitches, and three in my perineum. But...I got to have the gas and air back! Woohoo!
It was like having some wonderful, safe drugs trip. I thought I was on a cruise ship! 
Ivy had her checks and was dressed then. The midwives helped me move to the postnatal room and ran me a bath. Ivy had another good feed and went to sleep, so I had a nice soak in the bath, got dressed, and felt almost human.
We'd elected to go home the same day, so then it was just a matter of waiting out the clock until Ivy was 6 hours old and could have all her routine checks. We were left privately in the postnatal room to relax. The midwives did pop in and out, to check we were all doing ok, and feeding was going well, and to tell us the press were on the phone! As Ivy was the only baby born that day in Solihull, they were quite interested in her, due to the Royal baby being born the same day!
All our discharge checks were fine, and we finally left the unit at 8:45pm, twelve hours after we arrived!
This birth story is a very positive one, but it does include baby being born with the cord around her neck. It does have a happy outcome, but this could potentially be triggering for some.
I was three days past my due date on Friday. I had an appointment with the midwife to have a sweep, and I was determined to get this baby out asap! I went ten days past due with my oldest, and I had a much easier pregnancy that time, so I really wanted to go into labour soon!
I walked up to the doctors and had my sweep. I was 3-4cm dilated and 75% effaced. Baby was fully engaged, so that was good news. There was a lot of bloody mucus on the midwife's fingers when she'd finished the sweep, which I took as a positive sign!
After my appointment I walked around two miles (not all in one go! I stopped at Costa Coffee!). I was starting to feel a bit crampy, but nothing too bad. I guess that was probably the after effects of the sweep, rather than the start of real labour. When I got home I mixed the oil from three big Evening Primrose Oil capsules with six drops of Clary Sage oil and massaged it into my bump. I'd been doing this for a few days already. I massaged for about an hour, while I watched tv. Then I had a bath and tried some nipple stimulation. I had a few contractions while I was in the bath.
DH got home from work about 4 o'clock, by which time I was having regular contractions every ten minutes. They weren't very painful or lasting long, though. He went to pick DD1 up from nursery and I texted my mum to let her know that things seemed to be moving along now. By 5 o'clock contractions were every five minutes and lasting around 50 seconds. I took some paracetamol and carried on timing. This pattern stayed constant until about 7 o'clock. I stopped timing then, because it was DD1's bath and bedtime, but the contractions stayed regular and became increasingly painful. Once DD was in bed I got on the gym ball and tried to relax.
10 o'clock came around. Contractions still around 50 seconds, but now about three minutes apart. I was still coping with the pain, but it was getting harder. I think it was probably time to call the birthing unit. But I decided not to, because I was completely knackered. I really couldn't face labour. So we went to bed.
Unsurprisingly, things stalled overnight. I woke frequently and I was still feeling contractions, but they were manageable.
Up at about 7 o'clock Saturday morning. I got back on the ball and bounced and bounced, and soon things were back up and running! Within an hour contractions were back to every three minutes and lasting about a minute, some were longer. I phoned the unit and they said to come in. So we grabbed the bags, dropped DD1 off at my mum's, and off we went.
I was examined and I was 5cm dilated. Not a huge amount of progress, but we were getting there! This was 8:45am. I was admitted to the unit and left to get comfortable.
The midwives had already started filling the birthing pool when I'd phoned, so I was able to hop in there straight away, and I had some gas and air for pain relief.
I laboured in the pool with the gas and air for the next few hours. It was actually the very same pool my older daughter was born in, back in 2012!
Things felt like there were going slow, but I felt calm and in control. I was able to eat and drink as I liked (I sat in the pool and ate a Twix!), and I didn't have to have any internal examinations at all. The midwife listened in to baby's heartbeat intermittently using a waterproof doppler.Eventually the contractions got too painful for the gas and air, and I was actually crying out in pain with them. Here comes transition! I was on my knees, leaning over the edge of the pool, and DH was holding my gas and air pipe, and stroking my back. I had a huge, almighty contraction and...WHOOSH! Waters broke and out popped baby's head! I didn't even push! Midwife instructed DH to pull the emergency cord to call the second midwife back into the room. She only just made it, as the next contraction hit, and I pushed 8lb 8oz Ivy Elizabeth into the water.
Because I was on my knees, Ivy came forward towards me, so I had to catch her on her way down. The cord was wrapped around her neck. The midwife who was in front of me just slipped it straight over Ivy's head, before she was lifted to the surface of the water. She hadn't started breathing, so the risk of strangulation was low. She had a very long cord (over a metre, apparently!), so we were able to have skin-to-skin straight away in the pool and wait for the cord to stop pulsating before cutting.
I'd requested not to have an induced third stage this time. I'd had the injection with my first delivery, and ended up with the placenta coming out too quickly, taking too much blood with it and leaving me in pretty bad shape (dehydrated, weak, low pulse and dangerously low blood pressure). So this time I wanted to try it naturally. Once the cord was cut we got out the pool, I got on the bed and cuddled Ivy skin-to-skin. The midwife felt my tummy and said that my bladder was very full and might be blocking the progress of the placenta. She asked if I'd consent to having a catheter to empty my bladder and, hopefully, get things moving. I agreed. This was pretty uncomfortable, but not awful. It felt like having a nasty UTI. But as soon as my bladder was empty, Ivy latched onto my breast, which triggered a contraction, and I gave a good, hard push, and out came the placenta. It was massive, apparently! It didn't fit in the bowl the midwife tried to catch it in! And it filled the hazardous waste bucket, so she had to really cram the lid on!
I was so, so glad I had a natural third stage, because I was dreading feeling as awful as I did after my first birth. But this time I felt completely different. I was vomiting after my first birth, but this time I happily accepted the tea and toast! Ivy's first breastfeed lasted a whopping 40 minutes! We were left to relax and enjoy this time together as a family, before Ivy and I were checked over. Once she'd finished her feed she was passed to DH for some skin-to-skin cuddles and I needed a few stitches. I think I had three internal stitches, and three in my perineum. But...I got to have the gas and air back! Woohoo!
It was like having some wonderful, safe drugs trip. I thought I was on a cruise ship! Ivy had her checks and was dressed then. The midwives helped me move to the postnatal room and ran me a bath. Ivy had another good feed and went to sleep, so I had a nice soak in the bath, got dressed, and felt almost human.
We'd elected to go home the same day, so then it was just a matter of waiting out the clock until Ivy was 6 hours old and could have all her routine checks. We were left privately in the postnatal room to relax. The midwives did pop in and out, to check we were all doing ok, and feeding was going well, and to tell us the press were on the phone! As Ivy was the only baby born that day in Solihull, they were quite interested in her, due to the Royal baby being born the same day!
All our discharge checks were fine, and we finally left the unit at 8:45pm, twelve hours after we arrived!
Congratulations and welcome to little Ivy xx
