CarlyD
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- Jul 12, 2011
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Ooh it's been a while. SO much has happened so here goes:
Labour
It all started at 41 weeks and 4 days. I'd had my second sweep the day before and at 3am I felt my waters go. No 'pop' or huge gush, more than a trickle though. When I checked my pad there was thick yellow discharge-like stuff in there. I'd been losing my plug for the past 4 days though and googled meconium and wasn't convinced that it was that, so I went back to bed.
At 8am I phoned the Day Assessment Unit to explain what had happened. The lady said it didn't sound like meconium and said to wait until the evening to see if contractions started by themselves. After this I had contractions that started at 5 minutes apart consistently for a few hours. My mum came and sat with me and my DH kept texting from work to see if he could leave yet. Unfortunately they got further and further apart so by 7pm I phoned the hospital back and was told to go in to the birthing unit or labour ward, I forget which!
When we got to the unit we were redirected to the Day Assesment Unit. I'd had a few bad experiences with these guys before, being left for hours in the waiting room, hours on the monitor, and waiting hours for a doctor to give the ok - so I was apprehensive about it! We got round there and was asked to wait in the waiting area. So we did, for an hour or more
We were finally put on a monitor and left on there for an hour and a half (was supposed to be half an hour!) I really wanted to be checked to see if my waters had definitely gone, to see if there was meconium in them, to see if I was dilated etc. None of the above! When they finally took me off the monitor ("Oh a lovely trace" - I could see I'd had very regular contractions on it! Check meee!) By this point I could feel the contractions again and was in pain. They gave me some painkillers, took a sample from 'down there' - midwife said it looked like there could be meconium in there and we'd hear from a doctor as soon as they knew. Well after this point things are very fuzzy. I was having VERY painful contractions, I was back on the monitor, and I started to feel very cold. DH got a few blankets for me and the next thing I really remember is it being 4.30am, I'm shaking and sweating and curled up in pain on the bed, and the midwives FINALLY notice me! They examined me, took blood, took my temp (sky high - 40+ degrees I think) and they instantly got me on the wheelchair and sent me round to the high risk labour ward.
This is where we started to get looked after. I had to have a cannula and antibiotics and painkillers on an IV drip. They kept me monitored as my heartbeat/pulse was consistently high - they had to keep turning off the alarm after every reading lol. I was allowed gas & air! Yay! It helped quite a lot but I was still in a lot of pain. The doctor recommended I have the epidural as they were going to have to give me the hormone to properly start labour and get me dilating and it would be painful. So I had the epidural, to be honest I was already in so much pain I barely felt that! Something weird happened with it though to do with the equipment and it didn't work properly until something had a new battery. Very confusing cos I thought it was literally just an injection but seemed to be a machine that distributed the drug after the needle thing had been done?
Anyway that got sorted and the next thing I know the doctor is in again. Now I thought he said "the baby has no heartbeat" and I FREAKED OUT... I asked if that's what he said, nearly choking on the tears that were about to burst out.. The doctor, the midwife and DH were all like "no, no, no, no.... he's fine" at this point I realised what the doctor had actually said was "the baby is not happy" - he had a very thick accent lol. But the baby's heartbeat was constantly going too high, as a direct result of mine being too high. All this was because of a placenta infection which I believe I got from being left for a day and a half with my waters broken. The doctor said I needed a c-section to get the baby out quickly. I was shaking sooo bad, partly from being scared, partly from still being upset that I thought he'd said the baby had no heartbeat!
I really hadn't wanted a c-section, but when the doctors are telling you it needs to be done you just go with it! I signed the forms and got wheeled round.
Birth
Maybe it was something to do with the epidural not working 100% first time, or maybe it was something to do with the infection, but during the section I felt A LOT. I literally cried out in pain when they really started pulling to get him out. The anaesthetist seemed concerned and put a mask over my face which I assume was meant to have pain relief or anaesthetic or something, but unfortunately (everyone's worst nightmare) NOTHING was coming through the mask, not even air! I literally couldn't breathe and had to yank my head away from the mask. I'm sure I wasn't just being a drama queen though all this, I normally have a very high pain threshold. They finally got my baby out at 11.25am and he was monitored by a paediatrician in the theatre. 9lb 7oz. I could see the shape of him but couldn't properly see him, I kept staring over while they were stitching me up. His breathing was a little shallow and he couldn't cry properly, so they brought him over to me so I could see him, then took him round to neonatal to be monitored. DH went with him and I was taken to the recovery area. Luckily Dh and baby were back in about half an hour as baby had picked up I started breastfeeding straight away and he was an angel!!
Aftermath & Illnesses
I self discharged the next evening. We'd been waiting ALL day for the paediatrician to do a final check and they never came. I left at 11pm because all I wanted was to be at home. We went back to hospital the next day and he got the all clear from the paediatrician. Then we were fine for 4 or 5 days and everything was great. But he started to develop large spots, which turned into more sinister blister type things on his head, between his legs, on his back.. The midwife came to do a check and we asked.. she said it didn't look 'normal' and to get him to a doctor. We went to the NHS walk-in centre (waited 3 hours!!) and the doctor sent us straight to hospital. At hospital we saw a paediatrician, senior paediatrician and a consultant and no one knew what it was! They took photos and sent them to great ormond street, and put in a cannula and started the little guy on IV antibiotics I was inconsolable, crying my heart out, but he didn't mind! They gave him sugar water while they put it in and he was so happy with that he didn't even notice the needle!
Baby and me had to stay in hospital and on day 4 of him being on IV antibiotics I got really ill. Once again my temperature went up to 40+ and I got rushed round to high risk labour ward so I could be monitored properly. I was there for about 4 days, I had a blood transfusion, 3 x-rays, an ultrasound, countless blood tests. They eventully found out I had strep A, which had also caused pneumonia and blood poisoning. So me and baby both on IV antibiotics for most of his life by this point! We finally got a diagnosis on little man - neonatal impetigo.
Well we both recovered I'm so happy with my little man and even though it's not until September, I'm completely dreading leaving him to go back to work I want to be with him all the time!
Labour
It all started at 41 weeks and 4 days. I'd had my second sweep the day before and at 3am I felt my waters go. No 'pop' or huge gush, more than a trickle though. When I checked my pad there was thick yellow discharge-like stuff in there. I'd been losing my plug for the past 4 days though and googled meconium and wasn't convinced that it was that, so I went back to bed.
At 8am I phoned the Day Assessment Unit to explain what had happened. The lady said it didn't sound like meconium and said to wait until the evening to see if contractions started by themselves. After this I had contractions that started at 5 minutes apart consistently for a few hours. My mum came and sat with me and my DH kept texting from work to see if he could leave yet. Unfortunately they got further and further apart so by 7pm I phoned the hospital back and was told to go in to the birthing unit or labour ward, I forget which!
When we got to the unit we were redirected to the Day Assesment Unit. I'd had a few bad experiences with these guys before, being left for hours in the waiting room, hours on the monitor, and waiting hours for a doctor to give the ok - so I was apprehensive about it! We got round there and was asked to wait in the waiting area. So we did, for an hour or more
We were finally put on a monitor and left on there for an hour and a half (was supposed to be half an hour!) I really wanted to be checked to see if my waters had definitely gone, to see if there was meconium in them, to see if I was dilated etc. None of the above! When they finally took me off the monitor ("Oh a lovely trace" - I could see I'd had very regular contractions on it! Check meee!) By this point I could feel the contractions again and was in pain. They gave me some painkillers, took a sample from 'down there' - midwife said it looked like there could be meconium in there and we'd hear from a doctor as soon as they knew. Well after this point things are very fuzzy. I was having VERY painful contractions, I was back on the monitor, and I started to feel very cold. DH got a few blankets for me and the next thing I really remember is it being 4.30am, I'm shaking and sweating and curled up in pain on the bed, and the midwives FINALLY notice me! They examined me, took blood, took my temp (sky high - 40+ degrees I think) and they instantly got me on the wheelchair and sent me round to the high risk labour ward.This is where we started to get looked after. I had to have a cannula and antibiotics and painkillers on an IV drip. They kept me monitored as my heartbeat/pulse was consistently high - they had to keep turning off the alarm after every reading lol. I was allowed gas & air! Yay! It helped quite a lot but I was still in a lot of pain. The doctor recommended I have the epidural as they were going to have to give me the hormone to properly start labour and get me dilating and it would be painful. So I had the epidural, to be honest I was already in so much pain I barely felt that! Something weird happened with it though to do with the equipment and it didn't work properly until something had a new battery. Very confusing cos I thought it was literally just an injection but seemed to be a machine that distributed the drug after the needle thing had been done?
Anyway that got sorted and the next thing I know the doctor is in again. Now I thought he said "the baby has no heartbeat" and I FREAKED OUT... I asked if that's what he said, nearly choking on the tears that were about to burst out.. The doctor, the midwife and DH were all like "no, no, no, no.... he's fine" at this point I realised what the doctor had actually said was "the baby is not happy" - he had a very thick accent lol. But the baby's heartbeat was constantly going too high, as a direct result of mine being too high. All this was because of a placenta infection which I believe I got from being left for a day and a half with my waters broken. The doctor said I needed a c-section to get the baby out quickly. I was shaking sooo bad, partly from being scared, partly from still being upset that I thought he'd said the baby had no heartbeat!
I really hadn't wanted a c-section, but when the doctors are telling you it needs to be done you just go with it! I signed the forms and got wheeled round.
Birth
Maybe it was something to do with the epidural not working 100% first time, or maybe it was something to do with the infection, but during the section I felt A LOT. I literally cried out in pain when they really started pulling to get him out. The anaesthetist seemed concerned and put a mask over my face which I assume was meant to have pain relief or anaesthetic or something, but unfortunately (everyone's worst nightmare) NOTHING was coming through the mask, not even air! I literally couldn't breathe and had to yank my head away from the mask. I'm sure I wasn't just being a drama queen though all this, I normally have a very high pain threshold. They finally got my baby out at 11.25am and he was monitored by a paediatrician in the theatre. 9lb 7oz. I could see the shape of him but couldn't properly see him, I kept staring over while they were stitching me up. His breathing was a little shallow and he couldn't cry properly, so they brought him over to me so I could see him, then took him round to neonatal to be monitored. DH went with him and I was taken to the recovery area. Luckily Dh and baby were back in about half an hour as baby had picked up
I started breastfeeding straight away and he was an angel!!Aftermath & Illnesses
I self discharged the next evening. We'd been waiting ALL day for the paediatrician to do a final check and they never came. I left at 11pm because all I wanted was to be at home. We went back to hospital the next day and he got the all clear from the paediatrician. Then we were fine for 4 or 5 days and everything was great. But he started to develop large spots, which turned into more sinister blister type things on his head, between his legs, on his back.. The midwife came to do a check and we asked.. she said it didn't look 'normal' and to get him to a doctor. We went to the NHS walk-in centre (waited 3 hours!!) and the doctor sent us straight to hospital. At hospital we saw a paediatrician, senior paediatrician and a consultant and no one knew what it was! They took photos and sent them to great ormond street, and put in a cannula and started the little guy on IV antibiotics
I was inconsolable, crying my heart out, but he didn't mind! They gave him sugar water while they put it in and he was so happy with that he didn't even notice the needle! Baby and me had to stay in hospital and on day 4 of him being on IV antibiotics I got really ill. Once again my temperature went up to 40+ and I got rushed round to high risk labour ward so I could be monitored properly. I was there for about 4 days, I had a blood transfusion, 3 x-rays, an ultrasound, countless blood tests. They eventully found out I had strep A, which had also caused pneumonia and blood poisoning. So me and baby both on IV antibiotics for most of his life by this point! We finally got a diagnosis on little man - neonatal impetigo.
Well we both recovered
I'm so happy with my little man and even though it's not until September, I'm completely dreading leaving him to go back to work I want to be with him all the time!
