It's been 2 weeks since my beautiful daughter was born so here comes her birth story.
I had a consultant appointment on her due date - 26th Sept. To my surprise I was offered a sweep which I eagerly accepted. I was 1cm dilated and my cervix was described as moderately soft. Saw the midwife later that day who said she didn't expect anything to happen over the weekend and that sweeps are more effective post term so she agreed to do another sweep the following Thursday at my next appointment with her.
My back felt a bit achy in the afternoon after having the sweep I had some light bleeding following it but knew that was what to expect. About mid evening I noticed that I was having regular tightenings, comparable to strong braxtom hicks. But the discomfort was low down in my pelvis and in my back, so a different feeling to the braxton hicks I was used to experiencing. I decided to time them about mid evening and they were coming every 10-12 minutes but I didn't think anymore of it. Watched tv, was on the pc until quite late etc..
However, in the early hours about 1.30 ish they woke me up and were still 10 mins apart but were stronger and getting more uncomfortable and painful. About 4.30/5 am ish, they suddenly got more regular. More like 4/5/mins apart. Had a bath and paracetomal and DH got my tens ready but after he had already told me once I agreed we should call the labour suite. They heard me in pain during a contraction whilst I was in the bath and said I should go down as soon as we had childcare arranged etc..
My son woke up at 6am and thought it was funny to see Mummy in the bath! Didn't want him to see me in pain but it couldn't be helped. He offered me Fireman Sam to help with the pain, bless him. Put the Tens on after the bath but it wasn't helping with the pain too much at that point. The contractions were still 4/5 mins apart. Got to hospital at 6.45 am. They put me on the monitor, shortly afterwards examined me as and I was pleading for pain relief.
She said it's much the same as yesterday (when they did the sweep), only 1cm. I was expecting them to say that. My heart sank and I wondered how I could go on with no pain relief and probably be sent home.. But as she was examining me I had another contraction and she let that pass and then tried again and realised that I was actually more like 5cm! Hurrah. I had a shot of diamorphine and could use the gas and air. Combined with my TENS machine, the pain was bearable and under control. My DH was fab, making sure I breathed deeply through each contraction to get the max benefit of the gas and air.
Couple of hours later, my waters broke. Felt a big pop and I was ready to push straight away. But that's when my contractions slowed down and became less powerful. I kept feeling baby slip back up the birth canal. Ended up pushing for 2 hours! Had to have another episiotome as the scar tissue was not stretching from the cut I had with my son. Thankfully the cut wasn't as bad as with my son. Ended up with 2 doctors and 2 midwives holding my legs up and they had to use a ventouse to help pull her out even though her head was actually crowned. Not a usual ventouse delivery, they'd never done one like it before - typical me. So it wasn't painful and she didn't have a mishapen head or anything. Thankfully she came out after all 4 of them were shouting me to push - what a sight it must have been. The pushing stage ended up being a marathon, but it wasn't painful. I was just focussed on pushing with each contraction.
Best feeling though when she came out and I could find out for myself what sex she was, it was amazing. We were both so convinced that we were having another son, we both did a double take when we saw that we had a girl. Still can't believe we have one of each now. I was so focussed and aware of what was going on which I wasn't when I had my son as I'd been labour for 24 hours by the time he was born. Had to have stitches which was worse than giving birth.
There was meconium in the waters so we had to stay in hospital overnight for observation of Georgia.
Overall, things were much quicker and straight forward than first time around for which I'm grateful. We got a room to ourselves so we had peace and I was able to indulge in bonding time with my new daughter which was lovely.
The next couple of days, my upper body and back and thighs ached like mad from all the different positions we tried to get her out. LOL.
The midwives told DH he should be very proud of me, they said I was fantastic. Hee hee, I will remind him of that. Bless him, I'm sure it must be worse for the men watching us women go through all that. I think I'd still go through it again. But don't quote me on that.
Really enjoying being a new Mum again. Georgia is beautiful.
And I'm back in my normal clothes and managed to get back into my jeans just a week after the birth. Everything is just so different to first time around.
I had a consultant appointment on her due date - 26th Sept. To my surprise I was offered a sweep which I eagerly accepted. I was 1cm dilated and my cervix was described as moderately soft. Saw the midwife later that day who said she didn't expect anything to happen over the weekend and that sweeps are more effective post term so she agreed to do another sweep the following Thursday at my next appointment with her.
My back felt a bit achy in the afternoon after having the sweep I had some light bleeding following it but knew that was what to expect. About mid evening I noticed that I was having regular tightenings, comparable to strong braxtom hicks. But the discomfort was low down in my pelvis and in my back, so a different feeling to the braxton hicks I was used to experiencing. I decided to time them about mid evening and they were coming every 10-12 minutes but I didn't think anymore of it. Watched tv, was on the pc until quite late etc..
However, in the early hours about 1.30 ish they woke me up and were still 10 mins apart but were stronger and getting more uncomfortable and painful. About 4.30/5 am ish, they suddenly got more regular. More like 4/5/mins apart. Had a bath and paracetomal and DH got my tens ready but after he had already told me once I agreed we should call the labour suite. They heard me in pain during a contraction whilst I was in the bath and said I should go down as soon as we had childcare arranged etc..
My son woke up at 6am and thought it was funny to see Mummy in the bath! Didn't want him to see me in pain but it couldn't be helped. He offered me Fireman Sam to help with the pain, bless him. Put the Tens on after the bath but it wasn't helping with the pain too much at that point. The contractions were still 4/5 mins apart. Got to hospital at 6.45 am. They put me on the monitor, shortly afterwards examined me as and I was pleading for pain relief.
She said it's much the same as yesterday (when they did the sweep), only 1cm. I was expecting them to say that. My heart sank and I wondered how I could go on with no pain relief and probably be sent home.. But as she was examining me I had another contraction and she let that pass and then tried again and realised that I was actually more like 5cm! Hurrah. I had a shot of diamorphine and could use the gas and air. Combined with my TENS machine, the pain was bearable and under control. My DH was fab, making sure I breathed deeply through each contraction to get the max benefit of the gas and air.
Couple of hours later, my waters broke. Felt a big pop and I was ready to push straight away. But that's when my contractions slowed down and became less powerful. I kept feeling baby slip back up the birth canal. Ended up pushing for 2 hours! Had to have another episiotome as the scar tissue was not stretching from the cut I had with my son. Thankfully the cut wasn't as bad as with my son. Ended up with 2 doctors and 2 midwives holding my legs up and they had to use a ventouse to help pull her out even though her head was actually crowned. Not a usual ventouse delivery, they'd never done one like it before - typical me. So it wasn't painful and she didn't have a mishapen head or anything. Thankfully she came out after all 4 of them were shouting me to push - what a sight it must have been. The pushing stage ended up being a marathon, but it wasn't painful. I was just focussed on pushing with each contraction.
Best feeling though when she came out and I could find out for myself what sex she was, it was amazing. We were both so convinced that we were having another son, we both did a double take when we saw that we had a girl. Still can't believe we have one of each now. I was so focussed and aware of what was going on which I wasn't when I had my son as I'd been labour for 24 hours by the time he was born. Had to have stitches which was worse than giving birth.
There was meconium in the waters so we had to stay in hospital overnight for observation of Georgia.
Overall, things were much quicker and straight forward than first time around for which I'm grateful. We got a room to ourselves so we had peace and I was able to indulge in bonding time with my new daughter which was lovely.
The next couple of days, my upper body and back and thighs ached like mad from all the different positions we tried to get her out. LOL.
The midwives told DH he should be very proud of me, they said I was fantastic. Hee hee, I will remind him of that. Bless him, I'm sure it must be worse for the men watching us women go through all that. I think I'd still go through it again. But don't quote me on that.
Really enjoying being a new Mum again. Georgia is beautiful.
And I'm back in my normal clothes and managed to get back into my jeans just a week after the birth. Everything is just so different to first time around.
HUN.
