It feels funny to write a birth story given that Z arrived by elective c-section, but I guess the thing about having babies is that things don't always go the way that you planned them every single time, and Z's birth was no exception!
I'd had the date of 16 March to have him for months, so had been eagerly counting down the days until his arrival. Knowing exactly when he would be born was starkly different from the first time around, where my water broke at 4am, 39w2d, and my son was born by emergency caesarean 20+ hours afterwards. We made the most of the time we had left, spending as much time out and about as possible, ticking the last things off our to do list and preparing for our baby to arrive.
The night before I lay in bed and struggled to sleep, so excited about the prospect of meeting our man, and due to be at the hospital at 7:30am I knew I would find it impossible, but somehow I got a few hours. We decided when we woke up to walk to the hospital, about 30 minutes away, to try to work off some of the nervous energy we both had!
When we arrived at the hospital, we were taken to a small cubicle to wait our turn. My midwife and her trainee met us, and told us that because of a large number of emergencies overnight, we might have to wait until about 10am, which was fine by me. We hung out in the cubicle, listening to the sounds of women giving birth around us. At one point I heard a scream and "I can't DO THIS ANYMORE!" and thanked my lucky stars that wasn't me
10am came and went, my midwife informed us we'd have to wait a bit longer but it'd probably be about midday. Apparently they'd had a couple of complicated births, someone needed to be stitched up in theatre and there was another EMCS.
Midday came and went, the midwife told me it would probably be about 2pm by the time we got to go into theatre. At this point I was delirious with both hunger and thirst as I wasn't even allowed water. We knew that it wasn't going to happen any time soon, so my midwife placed an IV for me so I could at least get some hydration. This made a huge difference and I managed to get some sort of sleep while waiting.
Finally, at about 5:30pm, 10 hours after arriving, we were told that it was finally our turn! I walked to the operating theatre and sat on the edge of the table to have my combined spinal/epidural placed. Unfortunately it took 3 or 4 turns to attempt to get the epidural in. Each time the needle entered my spine it caused a loud pop and the left side of my body jumped like I had an electric shock. My neck was cramping from holding it down and I was nearly in tears from the pain. Eventually they managed to get it placed and I started to go numb.
Once the anaesthetic was in effect, they started the operation. At first things were fine, I felt him being pulled from me as they pushed down on the top of my stomach - I heard him gurgle and then cry as he was pulled free, and I sent my husband over to be with him. Z was born at 7.01pm weighing 4.5kg (10lb!).
Unfortunately this was where things started to go wrong.
Soon after he was pulled out, I started to feel what was happening. It was no longer pressure, but pain I was feeling. The right side of my body was quickly coming around from the anaesthetic and as I heard the surgeons talking about some difficulty placing my bladder, the pain came into full effect. I could feel everything, their hands inside me pulling and tugging. I tried to speak to the anaesthetist but couldn't because of the immense pain I was in. She topped up the epidural but this did nothing, and it was all I could do to gasp at her to please do something. A decision was quickly made to put me under a general, and my husband and newborn son were swiftly removed from the theatre.
The next thing I remember was coming to in recovery some time later. I am not sure how long I was under for, but I felt incredibly groggy and couldn't figure out what was on my face (the oxygen mask) or what was happening. Eventually I started to come around properly and things fell into place. The pain was still quite intense but not nearly as bad as it had been, as they started the IV drip of fentanyl. Z had his first breastfeed and got dressed in his first outfit
We spent a couple of hours in recovery before being moved to the ward around 11pm I think, I was up and about the next morning for a shower, and we were discharged after 36 hours.
Z is the apple of my eye, and I am so utterly in love with him!
I have posted some photos of my operation on page 4 of the C-section photos thread in the Caesarean area of B&B if anyone is curious
Pic 1 - my last intact photo before surgery
Pic 2 - Z's first photo
Pic 3 - meeting me
Pic 4 - meeting his big brother
Pic 5 - my gorgeous boy
I'd had the date of 16 March to have him for months, so had been eagerly counting down the days until his arrival. Knowing exactly when he would be born was starkly different from the first time around, where my water broke at 4am, 39w2d, and my son was born by emergency caesarean 20+ hours afterwards. We made the most of the time we had left, spending as much time out and about as possible, ticking the last things off our to do list and preparing for our baby to arrive.
The night before I lay in bed and struggled to sleep, so excited about the prospect of meeting our man, and due to be at the hospital at 7:30am I knew I would find it impossible, but somehow I got a few hours. We decided when we woke up to walk to the hospital, about 30 minutes away, to try to work off some of the nervous energy we both had!
When we arrived at the hospital, we were taken to a small cubicle to wait our turn. My midwife and her trainee met us, and told us that because of a large number of emergencies overnight, we might have to wait until about 10am, which was fine by me. We hung out in the cubicle, listening to the sounds of women giving birth around us. At one point I heard a scream and "I can't DO THIS ANYMORE!" and thanked my lucky stars that wasn't me
10am came and went, my midwife informed us we'd have to wait a bit longer but it'd probably be about midday. Apparently they'd had a couple of complicated births, someone needed to be stitched up in theatre and there was another EMCS.
Midday came and went, the midwife told me it would probably be about 2pm by the time we got to go into theatre. At this point I was delirious with both hunger and thirst as I wasn't even allowed water. We knew that it wasn't going to happen any time soon, so my midwife placed an IV for me so I could at least get some hydration. This made a huge difference and I managed to get some sort of sleep while waiting.
Finally, at about 5:30pm, 10 hours after arriving, we were told that it was finally our turn! I walked to the operating theatre and sat on the edge of the table to have my combined spinal/epidural placed. Unfortunately it took 3 or 4 turns to attempt to get the epidural in. Each time the needle entered my spine it caused a loud pop and the left side of my body jumped like I had an electric shock. My neck was cramping from holding it down and I was nearly in tears from the pain. Eventually they managed to get it placed and I started to go numb.
Once the anaesthetic was in effect, they started the operation. At first things were fine, I felt him being pulled from me as they pushed down on the top of my stomach - I heard him gurgle and then cry as he was pulled free, and I sent my husband over to be with him. Z was born at 7.01pm weighing 4.5kg (10lb!).
Unfortunately this was where things started to go wrong.
Soon after he was pulled out, I started to feel what was happening. It was no longer pressure, but pain I was feeling. The right side of my body was quickly coming around from the anaesthetic and as I heard the surgeons talking about some difficulty placing my bladder, the pain came into full effect. I could feel everything, their hands inside me pulling and tugging. I tried to speak to the anaesthetist but couldn't because of the immense pain I was in. She topped up the epidural but this did nothing, and it was all I could do to gasp at her to please do something. A decision was quickly made to put me under a general, and my husband and newborn son were swiftly removed from the theatre.
The next thing I remember was coming to in recovery some time later. I am not sure how long I was under for, but I felt incredibly groggy and couldn't figure out what was on my face (the oxygen mask) or what was happening. Eventually I started to come around properly and things fell into place. The pain was still quite intense but not nearly as bad as it had been, as they started the IV drip of fentanyl. Z had his first breastfeed and got dressed in his first outfit
We spent a couple of hours in recovery before being moved to the ward around 11pm I think, I was up and about the next morning for a shower, and we were discharged after 36 hours.
Z is the apple of my eye, and I am so utterly in love with him!
I have posted some photos of my operation on page 4 of the C-section photos thread in the Caesarean area of B&B if anyone is curious
Pic 1 - my last intact photo before surgery
Pic 2 - Z's first photo
Pic 3 - meeting me
Pic 4 - meeting his big brother
Pic 5 - my gorgeous boy
glad you & your LO are ok Hun. Congrats xx
