MrsPod
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I think this is going to be a long one. I want to keep this so that our son can read it and so that I never forget, so sorry for the length and detail!
So, for those who dont know, I had been booked in for a scheduled c-section on Friday 11th April because of severe SPD and SJD. The consultant had decided that my pain free gap in all directions was not suitable for a natural birth, but our little boy had other ideas!
I woke up at 4am on Tuesday 8th April with what felt like period pain. Knowing that this could go on for weeks before birth and that I had shown no other signs of being close to delivery (Id seen my midwife on the Friday before whod thought he may be engaging, but that was it) I wasnt particularly worried. I tried to get comfy and to ignore the pain. At some point (no light so I couldnt see the time) I realised the aches had turned into something that came and went, and though stronger, I thought that this was proper Braxton Hicks or false labour, that if I could move, and with the SPD and SJD that was really difficult, things would settle down.
Just before 7am, OH woke up. He was surprised to see me sat up in bed, I explained and he asked if I thought I was having contractions, so I said that I didnt think they were contractions. We decided to get on with our day and he helped me into the shower. I had 2 or 3 pains in the shower, but was still convinced I wasnt contracting. I had the paracetamol Id usually have and a little breakfast. Hubby asked me if I wanted him to take the day off work, but I was sure that things would calm down. When I had a couple of pains that really made me stop and think though, he convinced me to ring labour ward.
The lovely midwife told me I was having contractions, which was a bit of a shock! She told us to monitor things and ring back when they got to 5 minutes apart. We started recording times on a piece of paper, but hubby had taken it upon himself to do some dusting, had broken a small ornament and I couldnt track them that way, so downloaded an app things started to feel real then. Right away I noticed that I was already contracting at 5 minute intervals, but still I thought things would calm down. OH asked again if he should go to work. I dont know, I said, so he decided to stay home, and within half an hour things were definitely ramping up, and 3-4 minutes apart, so this time he rang labour ward, who said I should go in to be assessed.
Hubby rang his Dad, who was going to drive us to the hospital and ran around getting last minute bits and bobs together. When his Dad got here, they took the bags down to the car, then FIL gave me hubbys steel toe cap boots to wear! I still dont know why! I did get my own shoes on, and 5 contractions later, we were out of the front door and in the car.
I dont remember much about the journey, apart from trying to pay attention at the roadworks at a major roundabout so that I knew what Id have to do when going through there in a couple of months time!
The labour ward team had a wheelchair waiting for me and we were taken into room 2, where I was hooked up to the monitor and OH was given a cup of tea. We were told that wed be monitored for half an hour, general obs done, then an internal and then the doctors would see me to decide whether I needed a c-section that day or whether Id be admitted to the ward for monitoring.
The monitor showed that I was contracting every 3 minutes and babys movements were fine, the internal was done, I was 2cm posterior. Then we waited for the consultant.
At about this time, hubby started telling me to breathe a lot through the contractions. You see the partners doing that on One Born Every Minute and think that its a ridiculous thing to say, but actually it really focused me. I lost my plug and started telling him to rub my back during the contractions. He must have thought that I meant the nice, gentle, relaxing back massages I usually prefer, but no, I wanted that back rub to be hard!
The consultant came and said wed be going for the c-section that day and would be first on the list, so I was due to go down at 1:30pm. A Portuguese trainee midwife put in a cannula and took bloods, a doctor called Jamie took me through the consent form and all the risks, and we waited for the anaesthetist.
The contractions were coming faster by now, about 4 in ten minutes and Id not had any painkillers since 7:30am. Hubby helpfully commented that, rather than moo-ing through the labour pains, I was baa-ing! It about 1:15pm and I was starting to wonder where the anaesthetist was when we were told he was delayed. About half an hour later he (Nigel) turned up and took me through his part of things. Then we just had to wait for theatre to be ready.
I went down at just after 2pm. I cant remember all the names of the people in theatre, but my surgeon was a lovely man called Andras and the midwife was Bex. There was another lady called Hannah, who talked me through the whole procedure and was really supportive and friendly. I was her last c-section before she went on maternity leave herself, so that felt quite special. It took about 20 minutes to get the spinal in the anaesthetist couldnt find the gap and eventually went in blind with me saying ooh, that was like electric shocks on the left not easy when you dont know your left from your right when youre not contracting!
They tilted the table to get the anaesthetic working all the way up, I was hooked up to all the machines and OH was brought over and told not to put his legs under the table as they moved it up and down during the operation.
I was told it was like washing up in your tummy, and I suppose some of it is, but there are other bits where it really felt like I was on one of those simulator rides, being yanked about. They had a bit of a tussle getting him out and there were comments about my endometriosis. Finally, the blue screen was lowered slightly and there was a cry, followed by the longest pause, and then proper cries and he was there! OH and I both cried.
They took him off to be weighed and asked if OH wanted to trim the cord, which he did. We then had first cuddles while, until I started feeling really odd. There was some confusion at first as theyd just given me antibiotics and were wondering whether I was having an allergic reaction, and I couldnt get my thoughts straight to tell them it was different to that, then they realised my blood pressure had gone from quite high at the start of the c-section to very low, so I had medication for that and OH took over the cuddling for a while.
When I was feeling a bit better, we had skin-to-skin and I was wheeled in to recovery, where we decided on his name.
So Albert Jack Philip was born at 2:52pm on 8th April 2014 weighing 6lb 13oz.
We had a few hiccups since then, with blocked ducts meaning one breast was frustratingly out of action for 24 hours. We also had to go back to hospital on the Monday evening, after Id asked the midwife about some marks Id noticed on his bum. She described them as bruise-like and the implications of that and how that felt will never leave me. Theres no history of blood clotting disorders on either side and I was quite a mess, getting there with FIL, waiting to see the paediatrician, time just seemed to drag.
We saw the consultant who instantly said he had Mongolian Blue Spot, essentially a birth mark that results from a genetic throw-back. He explained that 5-10% of white Caucasian babies have it if they have an ancestor in the last 5 generations of a different ethnic background. Because we know we dont have this in that span of the family tree, it makes Albie much rarer, and as a result his bottom became quite a source of interest for the doctors on the ward for the next hour or so! The consultant wrote a note in Alberts red book and were going to make sure that its noted in his medical records with the GP as soon as hes registered with them.
Hes now 8 days old, and I cant imagine what life was like without him. Our special, miracle boy, who came down with the perseids last summer.
So, for those who dont know, I had been booked in for a scheduled c-section on Friday 11th April because of severe SPD and SJD. The consultant had decided that my pain free gap in all directions was not suitable for a natural birth, but our little boy had other ideas!
I woke up at 4am on Tuesday 8th April with what felt like period pain. Knowing that this could go on for weeks before birth and that I had shown no other signs of being close to delivery (Id seen my midwife on the Friday before whod thought he may be engaging, but that was it) I wasnt particularly worried. I tried to get comfy and to ignore the pain. At some point (no light so I couldnt see the time) I realised the aches had turned into something that came and went, and though stronger, I thought that this was proper Braxton Hicks or false labour, that if I could move, and with the SPD and SJD that was really difficult, things would settle down.
Just before 7am, OH woke up. He was surprised to see me sat up in bed, I explained and he asked if I thought I was having contractions, so I said that I didnt think they were contractions. We decided to get on with our day and he helped me into the shower. I had 2 or 3 pains in the shower, but was still convinced I wasnt contracting. I had the paracetamol Id usually have and a little breakfast. Hubby asked me if I wanted him to take the day off work, but I was sure that things would calm down. When I had a couple of pains that really made me stop and think though, he convinced me to ring labour ward.
The lovely midwife told me I was having contractions, which was a bit of a shock! She told us to monitor things and ring back when they got to 5 minutes apart. We started recording times on a piece of paper, but hubby had taken it upon himself to do some dusting, had broken a small ornament and I couldnt track them that way, so downloaded an app things started to feel real then. Right away I noticed that I was already contracting at 5 minute intervals, but still I thought things would calm down. OH asked again if he should go to work. I dont know, I said, so he decided to stay home, and within half an hour things were definitely ramping up, and 3-4 minutes apart, so this time he rang labour ward, who said I should go in to be assessed.
Hubby rang his Dad, who was going to drive us to the hospital and ran around getting last minute bits and bobs together. When his Dad got here, they took the bags down to the car, then FIL gave me hubbys steel toe cap boots to wear! I still dont know why! I did get my own shoes on, and 5 contractions later, we were out of the front door and in the car.
I dont remember much about the journey, apart from trying to pay attention at the roadworks at a major roundabout so that I knew what Id have to do when going through there in a couple of months time!
The labour ward team had a wheelchair waiting for me and we were taken into room 2, where I was hooked up to the monitor and OH was given a cup of tea. We were told that wed be monitored for half an hour, general obs done, then an internal and then the doctors would see me to decide whether I needed a c-section that day or whether Id be admitted to the ward for monitoring.
The monitor showed that I was contracting every 3 minutes and babys movements were fine, the internal was done, I was 2cm posterior. Then we waited for the consultant.
At about this time, hubby started telling me to breathe a lot through the contractions. You see the partners doing that on One Born Every Minute and think that its a ridiculous thing to say, but actually it really focused me. I lost my plug and started telling him to rub my back during the contractions. He must have thought that I meant the nice, gentle, relaxing back massages I usually prefer, but no, I wanted that back rub to be hard!
The consultant came and said wed be going for the c-section that day and would be first on the list, so I was due to go down at 1:30pm. A Portuguese trainee midwife put in a cannula and took bloods, a doctor called Jamie took me through the consent form and all the risks, and we waited for the anaesthetist.
The contractions were coming faster by now, about 4 in ten minutes and Id not had any painkillers since 7:30am. Hubby helpfully commented that, rather than moo-ing through the labour pains, I was baa-ing! It about 1:15pm and I was starting to wonder where the anaesthetist was when we were told he was delayed. About half an hour later he (Nigel) turned up and took me through his part of things. Then we just had to wait for theatre to be ready.
I went down at just after 2pm. I cant remember all the names of the people in theatre, but my surgeon was a lovely man called Andras and the midwife was Bex. There was another lady called Hannah, who talked me through the whole procedure and was really supportive and friendly. I was her last c-section before she went on maternity leave herself, so that felt quite special. It took about 20 minutes to get the spinal in the anaesthetist couldnt find the gap and eventually went in blind with me saying ooh, that was like electric shocks on the left not easy when you dont know your left from your right when youre not contracting!
They tilted the table to get the anaesthetic working all the way up, I was hooked up to all the machines and OH was brought over and told not to put his legs under the table as they moved it up and down during the operation.
I was told it was like washing up in your tummy, and I suppose some of it is, but there are other bits where it really felt like I was on one of those simulator rides, being yanked about. They had a bit of a tussle getting him out and there were comments about my endometriosis. Finally, the blue screen was lowered slightly and there was a cry, followed by the longest pause, and then proper cries and he was there! OH and I both cried.
They took him off to be weighed and asked if OH wanted to trim the cord, which he did. We then had first cuddles while, until I started feeling really odd. There was some confusion at first as theyd just given me antibiotics and were wondering whether I was having an allergic reaction, and I couldnt get my thoughts straight to tell them it was different to that, then they realised my blood pressure had gone from quite high at the start of the c-section to very low, so I had medication for that and OH took over the cuddling for a while.
When I was feeling a bit better, we had skin-to-skin and I was wheeled in to recovery, where we decided on his name.
So Albert Jack Philip was born at 2:52pm on 8th April 2014 weighing 6lb 13oz.
We had a few hiccups since then, with blocked ducts meaning one breast was frustratingly out of action for 24 hours. We also had to go back to hospital on the Monday evening, after Id asked the midwife about some marks Id noticed on his bum. She described them as bruise-like and the implications of that and how that felt will never leave me. Theres no history of blood clotting disorders on either side and I was quite a mess, getting there with FIL, waiting to see the paediatrician, time just seemed to drag.
We saw the consultant who instantly said he had Mongolian Blue Spot, essentially a birth mark that results from a genetic throw-back. He explained that 5-10% of white Caucasian babies have it if they have an ancestor in the last 5 generations of a different ethnic background. Because we know we dont have this in that span of the family tree, it makes Albie much rarer, and as a result his bottom became quite a source of interest for the doctors on the ward for the next hour or so! The consultant wrote a note in Alberts red book and were going to make sure that its noted in his medical records with the GP as soon as hes registered with them.
Hes now 8 days old, and I cant imagine what life was like without him. Our special, miracle boy, who came down with the perseids last summer.
