It's a bit late but here it is - what I can remember of Eva's birth.
I was 1 day overdue on October 27th and that evening I started having what I thought were strong braxton hicks contractions. I bounced on my ball for a bit and told DH "I think something might be happening". I think at this point he didn't believe the baby was ever gonna be born because his reply was "again? something's always happening". So I went to bed. I was woken up at about 3am on october 28th by quite a strong contraction. From then on they were coming throughout the night quite randomly. I had a bath (which really helped btw) and led there wondering whether to call my mum yet (she was coming to look after ds whilst I was having the baby) as it was so early in the morning and I wasn't sure it was the start of labour and if it was, how long this random pattern of contractions was going to continue. I think I was waiting for my waters to break as that's how it all started with ds. So I called the labour ward and they told me to come in when I was ready - preferably sooner rather than later as they needed to assess me so they could decide when to start giving me antibiotics for the group B strep. I think I got to hospital at about 9am. Dh still didn't believe anything was happening at this point and was more worried about how long we were going to be so he knew how much the car park was going to cost him. Typical man. But tbh, the contractions had near enough stopped by this point and I kind of expected to be told it was false labour and to go home again. I was worried Id called my mum and made her drive 2 hours and take a day off work for no reason. Anyway, after the midwife had strapped me up to a monitor for 30 minutes, she decided she needed to examine me to know what was going on as contractions were very weak and far apart by now. To our surprise I was 4cm dilated! I was really proud of myself. She also said my waters were bulging and if they hadnt gone by my next examination (in 4 hours time) shed break them for me. So we waited. We went for lunch and walked around as much as possible because sitting or lying down seemed to make the contractions stop. I was examined again at about 2pm, when the mw broke my waters for me. It hurt, and I forgot to ask how many cms dilated I was but I dont think Id got much further because she didnt mention it. The contractions got stronger, and the midwives changed over. The new midwife moved me to a bigger room with a pool and I spent some time in there which was HEAVEN. But it wasnt good because the warm water completely stopped my contractions. It was quite funny because every time I stood up out of the water Id have a big painful contraction. So I stayed in there for an hour or so until we decided I needed to get out and let the labour progress. I didnt want to choose the pain over the warm relaxing pain-free bath but I had no choice if I wanted to get that baby out, and I definitely wanted to do that asap! So out I got. The contractions were stronger but bearable. I was in a lot of pain but coping with it really well so I didnt ask for any pain relief until just before my next examination was due which I think was 6pm. By then it was getting really hurty and I was getting tired having been up all night. The mw didnt expect me to be much further along because I was coping too well. To everyones surprise I was 8-9cms dilated. She broke my fore-waters as the previous mw had only managed to break my hind-waters last time. OMG! Then it really got painful. Not that it wasnt before, but this was in a different league of pain. I managed to breathe through contractions with just gas and air. The mw told me I should be climbing the walls by now and that she was threatening to do all sorts of things to her husbands anatomy at this stage. I was quite proud of myself and it made me even more determined to carry on and do it as naturally as possible, with as little pain relief as possible. They told me the urge to push would come soon and they thought the baby would be here by 8pm (which was when mw number 2 was due to go home). The urge didnt come, and mw number 3 took over (but my lovely student mw stayed which I was really pleased about). I carried on sucking away on the gas and air but was really really struggling by now. The contractions were becoming unbearable. I so wanted to feel the urge but it didnt come. So the mw examined me. I was fully dilated and probably had been for a while, but just wasnt feeling the urge. The mw thought I resisting it because I was scared, but I swear I didnt feel it at all. Anyway, I started pushing with each contraction. OMG. I thought the contractions were painful. That was nothing compared to this. I never screamed whilst having ds, but this was completely different. And because it was so different I was convinced something was wrong, I remember screaming It feels all wrong, it feels like its coming out of my bum!! Apparently it was meant to feel like that. I didnt feel like I could do it. I was thinking theyd come along with forceps or a ventouse any minute because I just didnt feel like I had it in me to push that baby out. I thought Id die. I now wished Id taken all the drugs on offer but it was too late. Poor dh he was so worried. They all just kept talking to me and telling me I could do it and stuff like that but I dont really remember because I was just in a daze. I think I was on auto-pilot or something. And the lucozade I just remember them making me take sips of lucozade because I was just out of energy. Anyway I dont remember what happened or how I did it, but without any gas and air (because I was apparently relying too heavily on it and it was stopping me from pushing properly) I pushed her out at 10.09pm. No wonder it hurt so much and was such a struggle she was a big girl. But absolutely beautiful. She weighed in at 9lb 10.5oz.
I was given 2 lots of IV antibiotics during the labour for the strep b, but the paedeatrician wanted to keep her in for 24 hours obs anyway just to make sure she was ok. She was, and we got home on October 30th.
Here she is at 6 weeks:
I was 1 day overdue on October 27th and that evening I started having what I thought were strong braxton hicks contractions. I bounced on my ball for a bit and told DH "I think something might be happening". I think at this point he didn't believe the baby was ever gonna be born because his reply was "again? something's always happening". So I went to bed. I was woken up at about 3am on october 28th by quite a strong contraction. From then on they were coming throughout the night quite randomly. I had a bath (which really helped btw) and led there wondering whether to call my mum yet (she was coming to look after ds whilst I was having the baby) as it was so early in the morning and I wasn't sure it was the start of labour and if it was, how long this random pattern of contractions was going to continue. I think I was waiting for my waters to break as that's how it all started with ds. So I called the labour ward and they told me to come in when I was ready - preferably sooner rather than later as they needed to assess me so they could decide when to start giving me antibiotics for the group B strep. I think I got to hospital at about 9am. Dh still didn't believe anything was happening at this point and was more worried about how long we were going to be so he knew how much the car park was going to cost him. Typical man. But tbh, the contractions had near enough stopped by this point and I kind of expected to be told it was false labour and to go home again. I was worried Id called my mum and made her drive 2 hours and take a day off work for no reason. Anyway, after the midwife had strapped me up to a monitor for 30 minutes, she decided she needed to examine me to know what was going on as contractions were very weak and far apart by now. To our surprise I was 4cm dilated! I was really proud of myself. She also said my waters were bulging and if they hadnt gone by my next examination (in 4 hours time) shed break them for me. So we waited. We went for lunch and walked around as much as possible because sitting or lying down seemed to make the contractions stop. I was examined again at about 2pm, when the mw broke my waters for me. It hurt, and I forgot to ask how many cms dilated I was but I dont think Id got much further because she didnt mention it. The contractions got stronger, and the midwives changed over. The new midwife moved me to a bigger room with a pool and I spent some time in there which was HEAVEN. But it wasnt good because the warm water completely stopped my contractions. It was quite funny because every time I stood up out of the water Id have a big painful contraction. So I stayed in there for an hour or so until we decided I needed to get out and let the labour progress. I didnt want to choose the pain over the warm relaxing pain-free bath but I had no choice if I wanted to get that baby out, and I definitely wanted to do that asap! So out I got. The contractions were stronger but bearable. I was in a lot of pain but coping with it really well so I didnt ask for any pain relief until just before my next examination was due which I think was 6pm. By then it was getting really hurty and I was getting tired having been up all night. The mw didnt expect me to be much further along because I was coping too well. To everyones surprise I was 8-9cms dilated. She broke my fore-waters as the previous mw had only managed to break my hind-waters last time. OMG! Then it really got painful. Not that it wasnt before, but this was in a different league of pain. I managed to breathe through contractions with just gas and air. The mw told me I should be climbing the walls by now and that she was threatening to do all sorts of things to her husbands anatomy at this stage. I was quite proud of myself and it made me even more determined to carry on and do it as naturally as possible, with as little pain relief as possible. They told me the urge to push would come soon and they thought the baby would be here by 8pm (which was when mw number 2 was due to go home). The urge didnt come, and mw number 3 took over (but my lovely student mw stayed which I was really pleased about). I carried on sucking away on the gas and air but was really really struggling by now. The contractions were becoming unbearable. I so wanted to feel the urge but it didnt come. So the mw examined me. I was fully dilated and probably had been for a while, but just wasnt feeling the urge. The mw thought I resisting it because I was scared, but I swear I didnt feel it at all. Anyway, I started pushing with each contraction. OMG. I thought the contractions were painful. That was nothing compared to this. I never screamed whilst having ds, but this was completely different. And because it was so different I was convinced something was wrong, I remember screaming It feels all wrong, it feels like its coming out of my bum!! Apparently it was meant to feel like that. I didnt feel like I could do it. I was thinking theyd come along with forceps or a ventouse any minute because I just didnt feel like I had it in me to push that baby out. I thought Id die. I now wished Id taken all the drugs on offer but it was too late. Poor dh he was so worried. They all just kept talking to me and telling me I could do it and stuff like that but I dont really remember because I was just in a daze. I think I was on auto-pilot or something. And the lucozade I just remember them making me take sips of lucozade because I was just out of energy. Anyway I dont remember what happened or how I did it, but without any gas and air (because I was apparently relying too heavily on it and it was stopping me from pushing properly) I pushed her out at 10.09pm. No wonder it hurt so much and was such a struggle she was a big girl. But absolutely beautiful. She weighed in at 9lb 10.5oz.
I was given 2 lots of IV antibiotics during the labour for the strep b, but the paedeatrician wanted to keep her in for 24 hours obs anyway just to make sure she was ok. She was, and we got home on October 30th.
Here she is at 6 weeks:
!!!
