Noodlejuice
Mum to 3, expecting #4!
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After a month of false labour, several trips to the hospital and my midwife thinking I would deliver by Christmas, when labour finally started for me I refused to believe it...and the continued with the theme of denial right through to delivery!
On Tuesday the 11th I got up as normal, feeling about as achey as I usually did, and set about wrangling my four year old daughter out of bed. She got up, my two year old son shouted to be fetched from his cot, I got them both their breakfast and started cleaning the kitchen while they nommed. Then, back upstairs to get ready for school.
As I got to the top of the stairs with them I felt a gush of fluid and thought "could this be my waters, maybe?" but after asking my daughter to wake OH up while I went to the bathroom (as it is one of her favourite jobs) decided that it was, once again, just milky discharge. Lots of it, but discharge nonetheless.
So! At 40+6, convinced another day was going to pass with no signs of labour, I got everyone ready and announced to OH that I would walk my daughter to school to see if a good trudge down there might get things started.
Just as we were about ready to leave the house I felt a trickle and went to the bathroom to check, sure it would be just more discharge. It was a pink liquid, about the size of a 50p. Well, I've had babies before. I knew what this was.
I was having none of it. I mentioned it to OH and said "I'm not sure if my waters are leaking..." then promptly decided that I would walk my daughter to school anyway, but would call the midwife for advice on the way. Spoke to the birth centre who said I needed to keep an eye on it and let them know, then called OH back to tell him what they'd said...but as he answered the phone all doubt was removed when I felt an almighty gush!
At this point I was already half way through the fifteen minute walk to my daughter's school, so tried to call my friend who lives down the road to see if she could come out and take her the rest of the way. It was the one morning a week she was at work. I plodded on, feeling gushes every now and again, then luckily bumped into the Dad of one of Heather's friends. I explained to him that my waters had broken and asked if he'd take H for me so I could get back home...but when I asked Heather "would you go with Martha's Daddy?" she freaked out and clung to my leg, the little diva. Luckily Nick is a nice guy who walked with me to the school and then insisted on seeing me back to my front door again afterwards
We mobilised the troops to look after my son and get my daughter picked up from school, and luckily OH's Dad was able to take us to the hospital...as there's an electrical fault with our car, leaving us with no transport. Perfect timing!
I was checked out, was apparently only 1cm dilated (wtf? I believe I was 2cm a couple of days ago?) and my cervix was still quite long. I wasn't really having any noticable contractions, so decided to call a taxi and come home. I was so comfortable, in fact, that I got OH to arrange borrowing his Dad's car so that we could get to the hospital when we needed to and back home again, resulting in me sending him out of the house for 40 minutes to get this sorted!
Not much happened all day and I started getting tearful, feeling like a clock was ticking down to the 9.30 induction time I'd been given the following morning. OH ordered a dominos pizza to cheer me up, then at about 8.30 (just as I was enjoying my pizza) I felt some almighty contractions start up. They were really quite painful straight away, but I was convinced it was only painful because bubs had got his head on nerve endings - there was no way these contractions were really that strong, I was obviously just not handling the pain very well. Or so I thought.
At about 9.15 they were so bad that I curled up on my side on the sofa and was having to really focus through the pain, even moaning slightly to get through them (which is really unlike me...I HATE making a fuss about things or making a scene!) OH told me we were going back to hospital...but I said no, there was no way I'd progressed much in the space of 45 minutes worth of contractions - I did NOT want to spend hours in hospital. I had another contraction and I was handed the phone to call the birth centre to tell them we were coming back immediately
I should have realised things were happening faster than I'd expected, but my denial was fully fledged - after so many false starts I didn't want to believe it! During the ten minute journey to the hospital I had three strong contractions, each lasting around a minute. I was still arguing that there was no point being in hospital so soon.
When we got there they needed to clean a room, so I expressed that I really wanted a water birth and they promised they'd sort one of the rooms next to the pool out for me. We went into a private lounge to wait for the room. At this point I was having contractions every three or four minutes, and actually had to get onto the floor on hands and knees to cope through them. I was still convinced it wasn't really happening.
We got into the room at about 11 and a midwife offered to examine me. I accepted and said that I didn't expect to even have made 3cm by this point...nope, fully effaced and 5cm thank you very much. I was very surprised!
I decided I didn't want any gas and air at this point, as I thought I had hours to go and wanted to wait until I really needed it so that I would feel the benefit of it. I also said I didn't want to get in the pool yet as I didn't want to slow my contractions down...I was still convinced they'd stop if I did anything.
Apparently at one point OH said "I think this is going to be fast", to which I responded "what, are you a fucking midwife now!?"...at which point a midwife came into the room and said exactly the same thing I don't remember this. Also, apparently, I lost my rag with the woman next door who was screaming the place down and muttered to OH "I wish she'd shut the fuck up"...I do remember feeling like I wanted to go in there and give her a slap, then minutes later saying to the midwife that I actually felt sorry for her as she sounded really panicked. Hormones going mad, much?
At around midnight the midwife asked if I wanted to get in the pool. Nope, couldn't she see I still had hours to go? HOURS! As far as I was concerned, it just wasn't worth the risk - what if I was only about 6cm still and everything slowed down!?
This is my third baby. I should know the signs. But for some reason, when a few minutes later I moaned to OH that I was just having too many contractions, that I wasn't getting a break in between, it just didn't click. After a while of this I reluctantly decided it was time to try the gas and air...although I still thought I was shooting myself in the foot and wouldn't feel the benefit in a few hours time
I'd been on the gas and air for about ten minutes when I felt my body give a little push, all of its own accord. Instinctively I yanked the gas and air out of my mouth and told OH "press the button, get a midwife, I think my body's trying to push". The midwife was there in a flash...but even then I was saying to her "it probably wasn't, I'm probably only about 6cm or something" but she told me we'd just see what happened and just to listen to my body. I remember thinking I was going to feel really foolish when I was still going in a few hours, and that the push was probably just wishful thinking.
Lo and behold, my body started pushing in earnest...and I remember being frightened that I wasn't dilated enough and that I'd be bruising my cervix by doing it.
Still fully in denial, I wouldnt believe I was getting close to delivering until the midwife told me she could see his head!
He came out in a rush...I delivered him all in one go, head and body in the same push. I never did get into the pool, and I'm still slightly in shock about how well it went (and how fast, in relation to my other births!)
Jasper Anthony Evans was born on 12th January 2011, weighing 8lbs 5oz, 57cm long.
On Tuesday the 11th I got up as normal, feeling about as achey as I usually did, and set about wrangling my four year old daughter out of bed. She got up, my two year old son shouted to be fetched from his cot, I got them both their breakfast and started cleaning the kitchen while they nommed. Then, back upstairs to get ready for school.
As I got to the top of the stairs with them I felt a gush of fluid and thought "could this be my waters, maybe?" but after asking my daughter to wake OH up while I went to the bathroom (as it is one of her favourite jobs) decided that it was, once again, just milky discharge. Lots of it, but discharge nonetheless.
So! At 40+6, convinced another day was going to pass with no signs of labour, I got everyone ready and announced to OH that I would walk my daughter to school to see if a good trudge down there might get things started.
Just as we were about ready to leave the house I felt a trickle and went to the bathroom to check, sure it would be just more discharge. It was a pink liquid, about the size of a 50p. Well, I've had babies before. I knew what this was.
I was having none of it. I mentioned it to OH and said "I'm not sure if my waters are leaking..." then promptly decided that I would walk my daughter to school anyway, but would call the midwife for advice on the way. Spoke to the birth centre who said I needed to keep an eye on it and let them know, then called OH back to tell him what they'd said...but as he answered the phone all doubt was removed when I felt an almighty gush!
At this point I was already half way through the fifteen minute walk to my daughter's school, so tried to call my friend who lives down the road to see if she could come out and take her the rest of the way. It was the one morning a week she was at work. I plodded on, feeling gushes every now and again, then luckily bumped into the Dad of one of Heather's friends. I explained to him that my waters had broken and asked if he'd take H for me so I could get back home...but when I asked Heather "would you go with Martha's Daddy?" she freaked out and clung to my leg, the little diva. Luckily Nick is a nice guy who walked with me to the school and then insisted on seeing me back to my front door again afterwards
We mobilised the troops to look after my son and get my daughter picked up from school, and luckily OH's Dad was able to take us to the hospital...as there's an electrical fault with our car, leaving us with no transport. Perfect timing!
I was checked out, was apparently only 1cm dilated (wtf? I believe I was 2cm a couple of days ago?) and my cervix was still quite long. I wasn't really having any noticable contractions, so decided to call a taxi and come home. I was so comfortable, in fact, that I got OH to arrange borrowing his Dad's car so that we could get to the hospital when we needed to and back home again, resulting in me sending him out of the house for 40 minutes to get this sorted!
Not much happened all day and I started getting tearful, feeling like a clock was ticking down to the 9.30 induction time I'd been given the following morning. OH ordered a dominos pizza to cheer me up, then at about 8.30 (just as I was enjoying my pizza) I felt some almighty contractions start up. They were really quite painful straight away, but I was convinced it was only painful because bubs had got his head on nerve endings - there was no way these contractions were really that strong, I was obviously just not handling the pain very well. Or so I thought.
At about 9.15 they were so bad that I curled up on my side on the sofa and was having to really focus through the pain, even moaning slightly to get through them (which is really unlike me...I HATE making a fuss about things or making a scene!) OH told me we were going back to hospital...but I said no, there was no way I'd progressed much in the space of 45 minutes worth of contractions - I did NOT want to spend hours in hospital. I had another contraction and I was handed the phone to call the birth centre to tell them we were coming back immediately
I should have realised things were happening faster than I'd expected, but my denial was fully fledged - after so many false starts I didn't want to believe it! During the ten minute journey to the hospital I had three strong contractions, each lasting around a minute. I was still arguing that there was no point being in hospital so soon.
When we got there they needed to clean a room, so I expressed that I really wanted a water birth and they promised they'd sort one of the rooms next to the pool out for me. We went into a private lounge to wait for the room. At this point I was having contractions every three or four minutes, and actually had to get onto the floor on hands and knees to cope through them. I was still convinced it wasn't really happening.
We got into the room at about 11 and a midwife offered to examine me. I accepted and said that I didn't expect to even have made 3cm by this point...nope, fully effaced and 5cm thank you very much. I was very surprised!
I decided I didn't want any gas and air at this point, as I thought I had hours to go and wanted to wait until I really needed it so that I would feel the benefit of it. I also said I didn't want to get in the pool yet as I didn't want to slow my contractions down...I was still convinced they'd stop if I did anything.
Apparently at one point OH said "I think this is going to be fast", to which I responded "what, are you a fucking midwife now!?"...at which point a midwife came into the room and said exactly the same thing
I don't remember this. Also, apparently, I lost my rag with the woman next door who was screaming the place down and muttered to OH "I wish she'd shut the fuck up"...I do remember feeling like I wanted to go in there and give her a slap, then minutes later saying to the midwife that I actually felt sorry for her as she sounded really panicked. Hormones going mad, much? At around midnight the midwife asked if I wanted to get in the pool. Nope, couldn't she see I still had hours to go? HOURS! As far as I was concerned, it just wasn't worth the risk - what if I was only about 6cm still and everything slowed down!?
This is my third baby. I should know the signs. But for some reason, when a few minutes later I moaned to OH that I was just having too many contractions, that I wasn't getting a break in between, it just didn't click. After a while of this I reluctantly decided it was time to try the gas and air...although I still thought I was shooting myself in the foot and wouldn't feel the benefit in a few hours time
I'd been on the gas and air for about ten minutes when I felt my body give a little push, all of its own accord. Instinctively I yanked the gas and air out of my mouth and told OH "press the button, get a midwife, I think my body's trying to push". The midwife was there in a flash...but even then I was saying to her "it probably wasn't, I'm probably only about 6cm or something" but she told me we'd just see what happened and just to listen to my body. I remember thinking I was going to feel really foolish when I was still going in a few hours, and that the push was probably just wishful thinking.
Lo and behold, my body started pushing in earnest...and I remember being frightened that I wasn't dilated enough and that I'd be bruising my cervix by doing it.
Still fully in denial, I wouldnt believe I was getting close to delivering until the midwife told me she could see his head!
He came out in a rush...I delivered him all in one go, head and body in the same push. I never did get into the pool, and I'm still slightly in shock about how well it went (and how fast, in relation to my other births!)
Jasper Anthony Evans was born on 12th January 2011, weighing 8lbs 5oz, 57cm long.
congrats and well done 
