Hi guys this is an extremely long one! thought i would post my birth story because i always found it really helpful to read them, its nice to here the things that seemed significant from the mums point of view rather than the text book point of view! not sorted piccies tho so prob best to have a cuppa and read or just give it a miss
some back ground info on me
This is our first baby, and both hubby and i have little baby experience tho lots of animal experience! Im quite a scientific rather than the deep and spiritual type so bear that in mind!! I am 30 and hubby is 25, we had been ttc since august 2007 and had got pregnant on our first cycle tho (ovulated day 12!) had a mmc detected at our 12week scan. after this we started trying again straight away and fell pg again on my 3rd ovulation (after second AF after mc) then spent the first tri worried sick but after that started to relax and i had a super pregnancy, no morning sickness etc, only the odd ailment! my cycles raged from 32-45 days and this time i think i ovulated about day 28. i used fertility friend to plot my temp etc and it definately helped alot!! my first EDD by LMP was 23rd oct i think but by scan 5th november.
anyway....
i had planned to work up until my final week, mainly because of finacial reasons, luckily my health was good enough to allow me to do so! my last day at work was 39+1, i expected to be 'late' so thought id still get some time to myself to get sorted out. although there were days i felt id never made it i think i had 'late bloom' in third tri! i had a really good last day at work and felt like i didnt want to leave, it was really weird as previously id been counting down!
at this point i had been getting BH since about 20 weeks, but the last 10days id had about 3 a day which were accompanied by period pains, however she still wasnt engaged and they werent getting worse or more frequent so i thought nothing of it. about the last 6weeks id been getting creamy discharge also. no blood or show etc.
anyway first day off! 39+2. i woke up about 4am and went to the loo as u do, i remember hearing a funny noise like a 'creak' it wasnt even a pop, i checked, but nothing. we woke up at 7:30am and hubby was late for work, i went to the loo (again) and felt like id weed a bit more than i thought, i wondered if it was my waters so bounced a bit, but nothing so went back to bed. as i sat down i felt wet again so ran back to the bathroom and there was a little trickle down my leg. at this point i thought my waters must of gone. i stuck some tena lady pants on (my new best friend) and hubby checked the bed, luckily the size of the patch was enough for him to call work and say he wasnt coming in!! i thought it was my waters but otherwise felt fine so i thought id see what was happening, wel basically i kept getting intermittent trickles and after about 30mins i needed a new pair of pants, but no gush for me.
It was halloween which was odd as this time last year we had had our scan which had showed our baby had died at 9weeks so i was feeling a bit emotional, plus i went downstairs to see one of my ancient but favourite gerbils had died so i was a bit confused and upset.
anyway we called the hospital and they said to come down and get checked out, so was expecting to be examined and given a time for induction if i didnt go into labour which is what basically happened. i was annoyed that id never got around to shaving my legs etc but i didnt care enough to do it wen i got home- so girls do these things before ur maternity leave if ur woprking til late!
They confirmed my waters had gone and said to come back the following morning for induction providing nothing happens before hand. They said to return if contractions started at every 4 minutes and if they lasted for a minute.
We had ordered a new bed and it had arrived that morning so we thought we better get it put together before we run out of time, during this time i kept trickling out at intervals and i think i ended up getting thru about 5pairs of tena pants during this time!
Thruout the day i kept having the odd 'contraction' as i had been having the last 10 days or so, so didn't think much of it. Towards the evening, they were pretty strong period pains and were causing me to curl up in a ball and breathe thru them. i decided to time them on contraction master. they were between 30-60secs and between 8 and 2 minutes. there was a period where they were lasting a minute and coming about every 4 minutes, they hurt but they were 'ok' my parents were round and my hubby and everyone was saying i was in labour and should go to the hospital. i just didnt really feel this was it as altho it hurt i just thought some how it would be worse. In the end hubby rang the hospital, they said if i could manage i should stay at home longer but i could see hubby getting annoyed with this suggestion so i decided to go down, but i was a bit upset as i was worried they would keep me in over night for induction the next day and send hubby home. I think we got there at about 11pm ish and i was put on a monitor for 30mins or so. As it turned out everything seemed to slow down. contractions wen to about every 15mins and didnt last as long, i started to get really tired and felt like i wanted to sleep, i knew hubby would get sent home so i decided to go home too. i felt a bit silly like id over reacted.
As soon as i got home i went to sleep as i was so tired. i woke up again a few hours later with quite bad pains, between them i was dozing off. i had no idea how often they were coming, but after a while i wasnt getting back to sleep between them. The pains were different and really strong, in the end i rang the hospital and said i couldnt manage and needed pain relief so they said to come down, it was about 3am. i woke hubby and we got ready to go.
As we walked in the hospital i heard a miaow and there was a cat at the reception desk! it scratched hubby tho and he hasnt stopped going on about it since! we both found that really odd as we have 7 cats and it seemed right a cat should be involved somehow!!
i was quite pleased as i got the same room and they said they knew id be back! i was surprsed as i thought they had thought i was making it up or something!! I was a bit disappointed that wen i got there they wanted to monitor me instead of giving me my pick of pain relief!! (i never really planned on a 'natural birth'!!), but they said they needed to see how often they were coming. As it turned out altho really strong and painful they were coming at about every 15-30mins for about 30secs, again i think the journey to the hospital slowed them down a bit!
It seemed that girls in the next room seemed to come and scream and then id hear a baby cry and then another would come in and the same would happen again. I pretty much got monitored to the morning as it seems they were pretty busy.The staff changed a couple of times and then it was the morning. A mw came in and appologised as id been left a bit but i wasnt really a priority i guess!
The induction actually started later than planned at about 10am, i still had the pains but as they were quite infrequent they said there wasnt really any suitable pain relief- they said i needed them to be more frequent for G&A or tens or they wouldnt really help. i felt like i was being a bit of a baby being in so much pain. I had the first dose of the gel and they explained the next one would be at 4:30 if nothing had happened (tho as it turned out they would only of given me one dose before the oxytocin drip as i had my waters broken at this point now over 24hours ago). They said i had a softening cervix with a dimple and it was posterior so i hadnt dilated at all i couldnt believe it. I wanted to think that this day (1st november) would be our babies birthday but i still wasnt sure at this point.
The pains continued thruout the day but at about 1pm they were becoming significantly more painful, infact wen they were coming i was either curling up and crying or being sick. at this kind of time i had a midwife change again, she said i was about 4cm dilated and there was still a long way to go. i said i felt i couldnt continue with the current pain level. she was concerned as my contractions were still quite far apart- about 15mins because the plan was to next start me on the drip and so contraction frequency would increase. At this point i requested an epidural (which i had always planned to anyway) she started to explain i would have to go to a high risk room and be catheterised etc, which was fine as i knew the pain was too much. Over the next 15mins or so tho my contractions really increased in frequency to about every 5-10minutes but some were lasting 2.5mins, luckily she came in during one and saw how intense they were and said it was unusual for them to last so long and that it must be a reaction to the gel. I remember thinkning at this point that this was the worst iv ever felt and how id never have a baby again and i hurt so much i felt like i was going to die (the mw told me not to be so stupid!) As she was organising the room i got to have a go on the G&A in the meantime!! I think this is where i started to make a bit of a fool of myself!
I loved the G&A. at first it doesnt feel like its doing much, u need to take quite alot in! it tastes a bit yuk and made my lips and tongue go a bit tingly but then once u get into the hang of biting the mouth piece and breathing harder with the contractions u start to feel really spaced out. Ud start saying something then u start laughing and falling over and so u just sound drunk like ur talking rubbish. u sort of know what ur saying but u dont really care and so come out with all sorts. I know i had alot of it and i was saying allsorts i can remember most of it but not all of it... but i remember screaming lots asking for epidurals and caesarians and apologising and saying it hurt alot, and loads of other embaressing things... time seemed to fly during this period and i think i must have gone into full blown labour at this point im not sure how long i was on it for, but im not sure id of coped without it! Saying that the pain was still intense and i was crying the whole time, the memory of it is better than how i felt at that time!!
At this point i was transferred to the high risk room and the epidural was set up, its was really difficult being still for it, but it was great. i had an area where it didnt work on the LHS of my bump but it reduced the pain so much it was amazing and of course i still had the G&A (although the anaesthetist did comment that he thought id had too much of this!), plus this allowed me to still feel the contractions. After this I was pretty quiet and we chatted away with the mw and it was really good experience. i really felt having the epidural changed what was an awful and painful experience to an amazing and really good experience and after this i really enjoyed it. For me i wouldnt of had it any other way.
There was some problems with her heart rate decelerating which was due to pressure on her head on the cervix (so at some point she had become engaged), but when they checked her head was visible so i was fully dilated and everyone said she had lots of hair . because of the heart rate they connected her head to an ecg machine but they were happy with her, the doctor came in and was happy to give me an hour of pushing before using forceps etc. It was really hard pushing because u cant feel u are pushing and so i had my legs up but i was so comfortable and free of pain it was all good- everyone was cheering me on! All i could think about was how i should of done more perineal massage and that i didnt want to push like i was pooing incase i got really bad piles this probably slowed me up a bit in hindsight! In the end the doctor popped back in and said she was nearly there so i was passed the stage where they would section me, so i decided just to get on and push and get the baby out!
Not sure on my timings but I kept pushing and everyone said i was doing well (tho im not sure if they were humouring me!), i eventually pushed and as i got the head out the whole body followed in one go, tho i think she was bobbing backwards and forwards for a bit! They tried to give her straight to me but her cord was too short so they got hubby to cut it first. I didnt even realise the third stage had happened, i think i had the injection for this. Baby had vitamin k too.
They gave me baby and it was such a shock and hubby was crying it was amazing. we didnt get rushed off either.
Brooke was born at 9:42pm and weighed 8lb.
They said i had a small internal tear that would be ok without stitching...they said i didnt tear because she came thru slowly so gave my body time to stretch- tho they may of just been polite!!
After this i suddenly felt so tired so hubby held her for a while. it was so hard wen i was moved to the ward because hubby couldnt come and he had to go home and as i was given baby she cried and cried as daddy had gone.
I kept waking up that night just to look at her, i couldnt believe how amazing she was, i had to keep picking her up to see her as i couldnt believe it. there were lots of mums and babies and one mum whos baby was in special care and i felt so bad that she had to stay there on the ward with all of us. 9am the next day all the dads turned up and it was so good for us to be back together again and we later went home that day.
I was dying for a bath, i think i never expected such severe pain after. I literally feel like my whole underneath has been thru a lawnmower tho its gradually getting better! lots of baths and parcetamol! Id highly recommened tena lady pants!! i havent been out of them since they catch everything better than sticky pads for sure and u can stick extra pads in them too.
Its amazing how time is just flying by, just getting up and getting ready takes hours. I know everyone says it but its amazing how much u love them straight away so much. Its really weird i never got the final count down, i cant actually remember having a bump (tho i still have a baggy tummy of course!), but at the same time it feels so good to be able to sleep on my tummy again!
I feel so proud of her and seeing her with her dad is amazing.
still need to sort some pictures out so may add them later, sorry its long! ps its day 6 for me now with baby and my god my boobs are huge!!!!!
some back ground info on me
This is our first baby, and both hubby and i have little baby experience tho lots of animal experience! Im quite a scientific rather than the deep and spiritual type so bear that in mind!! I am 30 and hubby is 25, we had been ttc since august 2007 and had got pregnant on our first cycle tho (ovulated day 12!) had a mmc detected at our 12week scan. after this we started trying again straight away and fell pg again on my 3rd ovulation (after second AF after mc) then spent the first tri worried sick but after that started to relax and i had a super pregnancy, no morning sickness etc, only the odd ailment! my cycles raged from 32-45 days and this time i think i ovulated about day 28. i used fertility friend to plot my temp etc and it definately helped alot!! my first EDD by LMP was 23rd oct i think but by scan 5th november.
anyway....
i had planned to work up until my final week, mainly because of finacial reasons, luckily my health was good enough to allow me to do so! my last day at work was 39+1, i expected to be 'late' so thought id still get some time to myself to get sorted out. although there were days i felt id never made it i think i had 'late bloom' in third tri! i had a really good last day at work and felt like i didnt want to leave, it was really weird as previously id been counting down!
at this point i had been getting BH since about 20 weeks, but the last 10days id had about 3 a day which were accompanied by period pains, however she still wasnt engaged and they werent getting worse or more frequent so i thought nothing of it. about the last 6weeks id been getting creamy discharge also. no blood or show etc.
anyway first day off! 39+2. i woke up about 4am and went to the loo as u do, i remember hearing a funny noise like a 'creak' it wasnt even a pop, i checked, but nothing. we woke up at 7:30am and hubby was late for work, i went to the loo (again) and felt like id weed a bit more than i thought, i wondered if it was my waters so bounced a bit, but nothing so went back to bed. as i sat down i felt wet again so ran back to the bathroom and there was a little trickle down my leg. at this point i thought my waters must of gone. i stuck some tena lady pants on (my new best friend) and hubby checked the bed, luckily the size of the patch was enough for him to call work and say he wasnt coming in!! i thought it was my waters but otherwise felt fine so i thought id see what was happening, wel basically i kept getting intermittent trickles and after about 30mins i needed a new pair of pants, but no gush for me.
It was halloween which was odd as this time last year we had had our scan which had showed our baby had died at 9weeks so i was feeling a bit emotional, plus i went downstairs to see one of my ancient but favourite gerbils had died so i was a bit confused and upset.
anyway we called the hospital and they said to come down and get checked out, so was expecting to be examined and given a time for induction if i didnt go into labour which is what basically happened. i was annoyed that id never got around to shaving my legs etc but i didnt care enough to do it wen i got home- so girls do these things before ur maternity leave if ur woprking til late!
They confirmed my waters had gone and said to come back the following morning for induction providing nothing happens before hand. They said to return if contractions started at every 4 minutes and if they lasted for a minute.
We had ordered a new bed and it had arrived that morning so we thought we better get it put together before we run out of time, during this time i kept trickling out at intervals and i think i ended up getting thru about 5pairs of tena pants during this time!
Thruout the day i kept having the odd 'contraction' as i had been having the last 10 days or so, so didn't think much of it. Towards the evening, they were pretty strong period pains and were causing me to curl up in a ball and breathe thru them. i decided to time them on contraction master. they were between 30-60secs and between 8 and 2 minutes. there was a period where they were lasting a minute and coming about every 4 minutes, they hurt but they were 'ok' my parents were round and my hubby and everyone was saying i was in labour and should go to the hospital. i just didnt really feel this was it as altho it hurt i just thought some how it would be worse. In the end hubby rang the hospital, they said if i could manage i should stay at home longer but i could see hubby getting annoyed with this suggestion so i decided to go down, but i was a bit upset as i was worried they would keep me in over night for induction the next day and send hubby home. I think we got there at about 11pm ish and i was put on a monitor for 30mins or so. As it turned out everything seemed to slow down. contractions wen to about every 15mins and didnt last as long, i started to get really tired and felt like i wanted to sleep, i knew hubby would get sent home so i decided to go home too. i felt a bit silly like id over reacted.
As soon as i got home i went to sleep as i was so tired. i woke up again a few hours later with quite bad pains, between them i was dozing off. i had no idea how often they were coming, but after a while i wasnt getting back to sleep between them. The pains were different and really strong, in the end i rang the hospital and said i couldnt manage and needed pain relief so they said to come down, it was about 3am. i woke hubby and we got ready to go.
As we walked in the hospital i heard a miaow and there was a cat at the reception desk! it scratched hubby tho and he hasnt stopped going on about it since! we both found that really odd as we have 7 cats and it seemed right a cat should be involved somehow!!
i was quite pleased as i got the same room and they said they knew id be back! i was surprsed as i thought they had thought i was making it up or something!! I was a bit disappointed that wen i got there they wanted to monitor me instead of giving me my pick of pain relief!! (i never really planned on a 'natural birth'!!), but they said they needed to see how often they were coming. As it turned out altho really strong and painful they were coming at about every 15-30mins for about 30secs, again i think the journey to the hospital slowed them down a bit!
It seemed that girls in the next room seemed to come and scream and then id hear a baby cry and then another would come in and the same would happen again. I pretty much got monitored to the morning as it seems they were pretty busy.The staff changed a couple of times and then it was the morning. A mw came in and appologised as id been left a bit but i wasnt really a priority i guess!
The induction actually started later than planned at about 10am, i still had the pains but as they were quite infrequent they said there wasnt really any suitable pain relief- they said i needed them to be more frequent for G&A or tens or they wouldnt really help. i felt like i was being a bit of a baby being in so much pain. I had the first dose of the gel and they explained the next one would be at 4:30 if nothing had happened (tho as it turned out they would only of given me one dose before the oxytocin drip as i had my waters broken at this point now over 24hours ago). They said i had a softening cervix with a dimple and it was posterior so i hadnt dilated at all i couldnt believe it. I wanted to think that this day (1st november) would be our babies birthday but i still wasnt sure at this point.
The pains continued thruout the day but at about 1pm they were becoming significantly more painful, infact wen they were coming i was either curling up and crying or being sick. at this kind of time i had a midwife change again, she said i was about 4cm dilated and there was still a long way to go. i said i felt i couldnt continue with the current pain level. she was concerned as my contractions were still quite far apart- about 15mins because the plan was to next start me on the drip and so contraction frequency would increase. At this point i requested an epidural (which i had always planned to anyway) she started to explain i would have to go to a high risk room and be catheterised etc, which was fine as i knew the pain was too much. Over the next 15mins or so tho my contractions really increased in frequency to about every 5-10minutes but some were lasting 2.5mins, luckily she came in during one and saw how intense they were and said it was unusual for them to last so long and that it must be a reaction to the gel. I remember thinkning at this point that this was the worst iv ever felt and how id never have a baby again and i hurt so much i felt like i was going to die (the mw told me not to be so stupid!) As she was organising the room i got to have a go on the G&A in the meantime!! I think this is where i started to make a bit of a fool of myself!
I loved the G&A. at first it doesnt feel like its doing much, u need to take quite alot in! it tastes a bit yuk and made my lips and tongue go a bit tingly but then once u get into the hang of biting the mouth piece and breathing harder with the contractions u start to feel really spaced out. Ud start saying something then u start laughing and falling over and so u just sound drunk like ur talking rubbish. u sort of know what ur saying but u dont really care and so come out with all sorts. I know i had alot of it and i was saying allsorts i can remember most of it but not all of it... but i remember screaming lots asking for epidurals and caesarians and apologising and saying it hurt alot, and loads of other embaressing things... time seemed to fly during this period and i think i must have gone into full blown labour at this point im not sure how long i was on it for, but im not sure id of coped without it! Saying that the pain was still intense and i was crying the whole time, the memory of it is better than how i felt at that time!!
At this point i was transferred to the high risk room and the epidural was set up, its was really difficult being still for it, but it was great. i had an area where it didnt work on the LHS of my bump but it reduced the pain so much it was amazing and of course i still had the G&A (although the anaesthetist did comment that he thought id had too much of this!), plus this allowed me to still feel the contractions. After this I was pretty quiet and we chatted away with the mw and it was really good experience. i really felt having the epidural changed what was an awful and painful experience to an amazing and really good experience and after this i really enjoyed it. For me i wouldnt of had it any other way.
There was some problems with her heart rate decelerating which was due to pressure on her head on the cervix (so at some point she had become engaged), but when they checked her head was visible so i was fully dilated and everyone said she had lots of hair . because of the heart rate they connected her head to an ecg machine but they were happy with her, the doctor came in and was happy to give me an hour of pushing before using forceps etc. It was really hard pushing because u cant feel u are pushing and so i had my legs up but i was so comfortable and free of pain it was all good- everyone was cheering me on! All i could think about was how i should of done more perineal massage and that i didnt want to push like i was pooing incase i got really bad piles this probably slowed me up a bit in hindsight! In the end the doctor popped back in and said she was nearly there so i was passed the stage where they would section me, so i decided just to get on and push and get the baby out!
Not sure on my timings but I kept pushing and everyone said i was doing well (tho im not sure if they were humouring me!), i eventually pushed and as i got the head out the whole body followed in one go, tho i think she was bobbing backwards and forwards for a bit! They tried to give her straight to me but her cord was too short so they got hubby to cut it first. I didnt even realise the third stage had happened, i think i had the injection for this. Baby had vitamin k too.
They gave me baby and it was such a shock and hubby was crying it was amazing. we didnt get rushed off either.
Brooke was born at 9:42pm and weighed 8lb.
They said i had a small internal tear that would be ok without stitching...they said i didnt tear because she came thru slowly so gave my body time to stretch- tho they may of just been polite!!
After this i suddenly felt so tired so hubby held her for a while. it was so hard wen i was moved to the ward because hubby couldnt come and he had to go home and as i was given baby she cried and cried as daddy had gone.
I kept waking up that night just to look at her, i couldnt believe how amazing she was, i had to keep picking her up to see her as i couldnt believe it. there were lots of mums and babies and one mum whos baby was in special care and i felt so bad that she had to stay there on the ward with all of us. 9am the next day all the dads turned up and it was so good for us to be back together again and we later went home that day.
I was dying for a bath, i think i never expected such severe pain after. I literally feel like my whole underneath has been thru a lawnmower tho its gradually getting better! lots of baths and parcetamol! Id highly recommened tena lady pants!! i havent been out of them since they catch everything better than sticky pads for sure and u can stick extra pads in them too.
Its amazing how time is just flying by, just getting up and getting ready takes hours. I know everyone says it but its amazing how much u love them straight away so much. Its really weird i never got the final count down, i cant actually remember having a bump (tho i still have a baggy tummy of course!), but at the same time it feels so good to be able to sleep on my tummy again!
I feel so proud of her and seeing her with her dad is amazing.
still need to sort some pictures out so may add them later, sorry its long! ps its day 6 for me now with baby and my god my boobs are huge!!!!!
