ceebee
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I finally found a moment to write this down - think I've got most of it right, but a lot of it's a blur now!
I went to bed early on Wednesday night as I felt particularly achey/crampy and hadn't slept well the night before. Thank God I got a few hours sleep as I woke up at 12.30am on my baby's due date with a really strong cramps that felt worse than the Braxton Hicks I had been experiencing for weeks. I really hoped this was the start of something, but wasn't sure so I didn't want to wake my husband and I got up and started trying to time the contractions. They seemed quite irregular, but they were very painful and I phoned the delivery suite at the hospital who said it might be early labour. After another hour or so the contractions had got so painful that the noise I was making woke my husband up and I told him I thought it was it. I also had a bout of diarrhoea around then.
We started timing the contractions again and they seemed to be coming every 3 minutes or less and I was bent over double with the pain. I dealt with the pain by making lots of noise and going on my hands and knees but it didn't help much. I also put on my TENS machine which served as a distraction at least! I knew I couldn't deal with the pain any more on my own as it was so intense so at 2am we left for the hospital. At this point I knew I wanted an epidural, despite being dead set against having one before. I was scared how I was going to cope with the 20 minute journey, but somehow with the TENS and shouting a lot we made it there. The contractions were so close together that I had was on my hands and knees several times as we made our way to the delivery suite. I was making a lot of noise mainly saying 'ooowwwww!!!' over and over, very loudly which helped take my mind off the pain a little, as did the TENs machine.
I immediately asked for pain relief as I felt I couldn't cope but I was told I was only 1cm dilated so couldn't have an epidural, even though my contractions were on top of eachother. The midwife gave me a half dose of pethidine which made me a bit dopey, but didn't help the awful pain. I lose track of time a bit here, but I just know that with every contraction I made a hell of a lot of noise and kept on asking when I could have an epidural. The contractions were so strong and coming every 2 minutes or so, so there was virtually no time for me to recover from each one and it felt like forever.
At around 6am I was told I was 3cm dilated and they decided to break my waters. They were waiting for the results of a blood test I'd had, so couldn't give me an epidural. The contractions got even more painful at that point and I was howling with the pain. I was offered gas and air and once I got the hang of using it, it made me feel a bit numb, like being drunk and took the edge off the pain. Again, this is quite hazy for me as I was pretty out of it. I had to stop making so much noise too in order to use the gas and air effectively.
At around 8.30am my sister, who was my 2nd birthing partner turned up and not long after that (don't know exact timings from here) I was 10cm dilated! No epidural for me then! By the time I got to this point, I was absolutely exhausted, probably from all the shouting I'd been doing! I felt the urge to push, but felt like I had hardly any energy left to do it. This felt like the longest part of the labour to me but it was actually the shortest. I had to stop gas and air to push, but at this point the pain wasn't so much the issue as the amount of effort required for pushing. I had my husband holding one hand and my sister holding the other and they really encouraged me to push really hard. The doctor was called I think because I was getting so exhausted and baby wasn't quite in the right position so they decided to use forceps, and I had an episiotomy, which they used local anaesthetic for. I kept on pushing and I remember thinking that I had to push as hard as I could and then it would be over quicker, even though I felt too worn out to do anything. I was also worried that if I didn't push hard enough and ran out of energy they may have to do a c section, so with the help of my birthing partners, forceps and some strength I didn't know I had, I finally pushed baby Harry out at 10.34am, pretty much 10 hours after it all started.
They placed him straight on my chest and we had skin to skin contact. He cried straight away and his eyes were open. I was so relieved that he was out safely and couldn't believe he was actually there with me. I still can't quite believe it 6 days later! The doctor sewed me up,which wasn't much fun, but it only lasted 10 minutes and it wasn't too painful with the anaesthetic.
Although he was absolutely gorgeous and perfect, Harry had swallowed some meconium so we had to stay in hospital for 3 nights while they gave him antibiotics as a precaution. He was taken away from me and put in special care, which was really hard and it was horrible when I went to see him and he had all these wires coming out of him. Thankfully, 4 days after he was born we were given the all clear and we finally took him home. I still can't believe he's mine, but slowly it's sinking in that I'm a mummy to the most gorgeous, lovely baby boy
My husband is absolutely besotted with him and we both feel overjoyed that baby Harry James has come into our lives
I've already posted this photo on the forum elsewhere, but it's my favourite one of him that I have on the computer and haven't had a chance to upload more. The other photos I have don't seem to do him justice...
I LOVE MY LITTLE HARRY!!!!!!!!!!! HE'S SUCH A GORGEOUS LITTLE MUNCHKIN
I went to bed early on Wednesday night as I felt particularly achey/crampy and hadn't slept well the night before. Thank God I got a few hours sleep as I woke up at 12.30am on my baby's due date with a really strong cramps that felt worse than the Braxton Hicks I had been experiencing for weeks. I really hoped this was the start of something, but wasn't sure so I didn't want to wake my husband and I got up and started trying to time the contractions. They seemed quite irregular, but they were very painful and I phoned the delivery suite at the hospital who said it might be early labour. After another hour or so the contractions had got so painful that the noise I was making woke my husband up and I told him I thought it was it. I also had a bout of diarrhoea around then.
We started timing the contractions again and they seemed to be coming every 3 minutes or less and I was bent over double with the pain. I dealt with the pain by making lots of noise and going on my hands and knees but it didn't help much. I also put on my TENS machine which served as a distraction at least! I knew I couldn't deal with the pain any more on my own as it was so intense so at 2am we left for the hospital. At this point I knew I wanted an epidural, despite being dead set against having one before. I was scared how I was going to cope with the 20 minute journey, but somehow with the TENS and shouting a lot we made it there. The contractions were so close together that I had was on my hands and knees several times as we made our way to the delivery suite. I was making a lot of noise mainly saying 'ooowwwww!!!' over and over, very loudly which helped take my mind off the pain a little, as did the TENs machine.
I immediately asked for pain relief as I felt I couldn't cope but I was told I was only 1cm dilated so couldn't have an epidural, even though my contractions were on top of eachother. The midwife gave me a half dose of pethidine which made me a bit dopey, but didn't help the awful pain. I lose track of time a bit here, but I just know that with every contraction I made a hell of a lot of noise and kept on asking when I could have an epidural. The contractions were so strong and coming every 2 minutes or so, so there was virtually no time for me to recover from each one and it felt like forever.
At around 6am I was told I was 3cm dilated and they decided to break my waters. They were waiting for the results of a blood test I'd had, so couldn't give me an epidural. The contractions got even more painful at that point and I was howling with the pain. I was offered gas and air and once I got the hang of using it, it made me feel a bit numb, like being drunk and took the edge off the pain. Again, this is quite hazy for me as I was pretty out of it. I had to stop making so much noise too in order to use the gas and air effectively.
At around 8.30am my sister, who was my 2nd birthing partner turned up and not long after that (don't know exact timings from here) I was 10cm dilated! No epidural for me then! By the time I got to this point, I was absolutely exhausted, probably from all the shouting I'd been doing! I felt the urge to push, but felt like I had hardly any energy left to do it. This felt like the longest part of the labour to me but it was actually the shortest. I had to stop gas and air to push, but at this point the pain wasn't so much the issue as the amount of effort required for pushing. I had my husband holding one hand and my sister holding the other and they really encouraged me to push really hard. The doctor was called I think because I was getting so exhausted and baby wasn't quite in the right position so they decided to use forceps, and I had an episiotomy, which they used local anaesthetic for. I kept on pushing and I remember thinking that I had to push as hard as I could and then it would be over quicker, even though I felt too worn out to do anything. I was also worried that if I didn't push hard enough and ran out of energy they may have to do a c section, so with the help of my birthing partners, forceps and some strength I didn't know I had, I finally pushed baby Harry out at 10.34am, pretty much 10 hours after it all started.
They placed him straight on my chest and we had skin to skin contact. He cried straight away and his eyes were open. I was so relieved that he was out safely and couldn't believe he was actually there with me. I still can't quite believe it 6 days later! The doctor sewed me up,which wasn't much fun, but it only lasted 10 minutes and it wasn't too painful with the anaesthetic.
Although he was absolutely gorgeous and perfect, Harry had swallowed some meconium so we had to stay in hospital for 3 nights while they gave him antibiotics as a precaution. He was taken away from me and put in special care, which was really hard and it was horrible when I went to see him and he had all these wires coming out of him. Thankfully, 4 days after he was born we were given the all clear and we finally took him home. I still can't believe he's mine, but slowly it's sinking in that I'm a mummy to the most gorgeous, lovely baby boy
My husband is absolutely besotted with him and we both feel overjoyed that baby Harry James has come into our lives I've already posted this photo on the forum elsewhere, but it's my favourite one of him that I have on the computer and haven't had a chance to upload more. The other photos I have don't seem to do him justice...
I LOVE MY LITTLE HARRY!!!!!!!!!!! HE'S SUCH A GORGEOUS LITTLE MUNCHKIN
