Temperance Alice Fraser, Born 27/08/08 @ 3.27am. 6lb 5.5oz
This is my birth, and hospital stay story.
Tuesday 26/08
We went into hospital for 8.30 ready to be induced.
When we got there we were told to go wait by this bed and a midwife would be with us shortly. It was very busy with doctors, midwifes and hospital staff constantly walking up and down the ward at 100mph. At about 9 am a midwife came in and checked me over and told me the plan of action.
Go on the monitor for an hour,
Have first exam
First lot of gel
Go for a walk around but be back for 12pm
Then half hour checks til 4pm when Id be examined again and a second lot of gel administered or my waters broken.
So I had the gel administered and was put on the monitor at around 10am.
We left the ward at 11am, went for a walk around the hospital and had one last mad phone round to see if we could find someone to look after Nichola so he could be with me later. After several phone calls we had something to eat and were back on the ward for 11.50am. There was another girl there when we got back she had the curtains round and sounded like she was in pain. Just before the midwife came in to check me over Ians boss rang and said if Ian could drop Nichola off he could look after her during the day and even overnight if needed. I had a check over and was told the midwife would be back in a half an hour to check on me again. This was when Ian decided he was going to go home and check on the dog and take Nichola over to his bosss place.
At 1pm the midwife came over to tell me that she had to go to the labour ward with the girl in the opposite bed and that another midwife would come check on me soon and the second girl left not long after.
At around 3pm another woman came in looking like she wasnt far off, she disappeared into the loo just as I was going to go so I went down the ward to another loo and when I got back even shed gone down to the labour suite. This is when I thought,
*Im Rachel from Friends, and all I need now is a Janice (the Oh . My God .one) to turn up!*
Ian got back at 4pm and at 4.30pm I still hadnt had another check, so wondered over to the midwife station to see if theyd forgotten about me, and they said weve been really busy, we havent forgotten about you, someone will be in soon to check on you.
At 5 ish a midwife came in and as she was wiring me up to the monitor again a felt a pop just under where shed just put the contraction strap. I thought nothing of it until I all of a sudden feel like Im weeing myself and couldnt stop. I said to the midwife what was going on and she says jump off the bed and well have a check it did and found that I was now stood in a puddle and that the midwife was sniffing my knickers (eww) then she goes yep, your waters have gone, well monitor you for a bit then sort you out to go down to the labour suite at 8.
Woohoo!!!
Im now buzzing and after soaking almost everything in my suitcase I give in and just bounce on my ball in my knickers, t-shirt and dressing gown. I must have looked a right state. I was going through pads and pants like there was no tomorrow so the midwife very kindly gets me some Tena pads, you know the ones that look like huge baby nappies, and some rather unflattering hospital knickers that are like tights that stop half way down your thigh oooh sexy!! So since my waters had broke I started to get more intense contractions so I started to time them while bouncing on the ball which was the only thing I could seem to do to ease the pain in my back. Contractions were 2/3 mins apart and it was really beginning to drive me mad.
8 oclock comes.
In comes Liz, my labour midwife.
She explains that shes now going to be with me until the birth and asks how Im doing. I say, well it hurts and each time I get a contraction and i get a river running down my leg! And then I show her my magic bit of paper thats got all my contractions written on, Looks promising she says, well have a look when we get down there. When we get down to the ward she has a little look and goes your cervix is still a little long and youre only about 2-3cms gone.
At 9 oclock things still hadnt gotten to where they were hoping to be and Liz says well leave you for another hour to see if you get any better just get bouncing on that ball and walking around.
10 oclock. By this point my contractions are getting more painful but start to get further apart and she says were gonna have to seriously think about putting you on the drip. Is that ok? Im like yeah but that means having to stay on the bed doesnt it? Shes says pretty much but at least you dont have to worry about not delivering on a bed now! That made me smile. In comes the doc with the biggest needle Ive seen in a long time. I tried to be brave but I hate needles with a passion (yes I have tattoos and piercings but theyre different). I start to cry and the midwife asks if I want to try the gas and air for the canula being put in. I said Ill be ok, once its in I was in such a tizz with myself that I couldnt calm down. Once I had calmed down I notice that my contractions are really starting to hurt and I get hooked up for gas and air. First time I use it I pulled the mouth piece off! But I got the hang of it after that and managed not to pull it off til later!
Labour starts to get more progressed and at around 1am Liz checks me again and now says that Ive gotten to 4-5 cms. She also says that if I was going to have the morphine that I had to have it now cos I was starting to speed up and if I left it any longer I wouldnt be able to have it. Then the clock went mental. Imagine how I was, Id just been stabbed in the bum with morphine for the first time ever having it and on top of that being dosed to the eyeballs with gas and air, watching the hands spinning round on the clock!! Aarrgghh!!!!
It was at around 3 am when I got to the point where I felt like I wanted to push but I kept saying its too soon, Im not gonna be dilated enough, Liz reassures me that shed check next time I get a contraction what my tummy is doing, contraction comes and she says well yep, you really do want to push dont you. Once it started to calm down Liz says once the contraction has completely gone can I have a look? I agree, she looks, and says that Tempys head is 1 inch or so within my vagina!!
I got a killer contraction at one of the few times Liz steps outside and Ian gets me to look at the monitor which up til then had only gotten to around 86 on a contraction and this time it was flying past 125 and he made me look at it. I took the gas and air out my mouth and screamed F**K Liz comes running in and goes Whats up? I explain what Ian did to me and she told him off!!!
**More about this later!!**
So the contractions continued and stayed at just under 2 mins apart. I had couple of pushes and Liz says Ive almost done it. Once Tempys head was out she says dont push, get on the air and dont push, dont push, dont push. Never mind!! It took 4 or so big pushes and Tempy was out. What had happened was she was tangled up in her cord, and that they needed to untangle her, but I hadnt given them chance to. I was out of it once she was out. I remember being told to push to get the placenta out, I asked what about the injection? Liz goes Ive already done it.
Ian cut the cord, and she was put on my chest for skin to skin, I was so dopey from the pain once she was out that I had no idea what was going on
`They said what have you had? (I had asked that I wanted to find out myself in my plan) and I had to ask Ian to look and he just brings her to me and says look, its a girl!! (Im getting teary now). Ian got loads of cuddles next as I just zonked. I was given my tea and toast and I just fell asleep! Temperance was checked over and they said that she was a little cold and that they wanted to put her under the heater for a while to warm her up.
After attempting several times to drink my tea and failing badly (I kept falling asleep) I was unhooked from my drip and tried to stand up, big mistake. I went all faint and ended up being sick (eww). Well I welled myself up and had a shower then was taken in a chair up to the ward where I got an hours sleep before I woke myself up just as the midwife came in with Tempy. Once Id had some breaky the midwife came round, took the canula out and checked on Tempy, she was a little cold again so they took her into SCBU to go under the heaters. They checked her blood sugars at this point as theyd decided that for being 9 days late she was quite small, and they were low 2.4 (should be between 3 and 10). I was told that if she didnt start to warm up under the heaters theyd put her in an incubator. At around lunchtime I went into to SCBU and she was in an incubator
. I started to get all emotional and started to ask if Id done anything wrong, and I was reassured that I had done nothing wrong, it was just one of those things that happen sometimes. For the rest of the day I just slept. Everyone in the bay was having visitors and I was just sleeping in the corner. I was having trouble with breastfeeding, the midwives were really nice, they helped as much as they could and asked me to express using an electric pump, it didnt work very well and I was only getting a few mls if I was lucky so Tempy ended up being given that then being topped up with formula from a syringe at first then from a feeding cup. I was doing this so much that Im now quite an expert at it!
On Friday morning I woke up and did an express to give to Tempy and when Dawn (one of the SCBU midwives) came round to give us a check she almost passed out, I was half way through expressing and I already had 40mls!! She says dont top her up. Try her on the boob and dont you dare waste any of that milk, treat it like liquid gold! Finally I was starting to get somewhere. That afternoon I was having a chat with Paula from the bed to my left about our births and she said something thast got me giggling. We were both in the labour suite at the same time and it turns out she was in the room next to mine and when I had my F**K moment the labour sister (who was delivering her baby) turns round and says lets have a race!! so I was disrupting everyone that morning!!!
We came home Saturday but only after everyone else in my bay was let home and I kicked off. I threw a childish wobbler after I was advised to stay for another 24 hours to get breastfeeding properly established. I refused and was finally released at about 5pm.
Since weve been home Im finally breastfeeding and I feel FANTASTIC!!!!
Tempy is now over her birth weight and has outgrown her first lot of baby grows.
And Im wearing jeans that didnt even fit me before I was pregnant!
This is my birth, and hospital stay story.
Tuesday 26/08
We went into hospital for 8.30 ready to be induced.
When we got there we were told to go wait by this bed and a midwife would be with us shortly. It was very busy with doctors, midwifes and hospital staff constantly walking up and down the ward at 100mph. At about 9 am a midwife came in and checked me over and told me the plan of action.
Go on the monitor for an hour,
Have first exam
First lot of gel
Go for a walk around but be back for 12pm
Then half hour checks til 4pm when Id be examined again and a second lot of gel administered or my waters broken.
So I had the gel administered and was put on the monitor at around 10am.
We left the ward at 11am, went for a walk around the hospital and had one last mad phone round to see if we could find someone to look after Nichola so he could be with me later. After several phone calls we had something to eat and were back on the ward for 11.50am. There was another girl there when we got back she had the curtains round and sounded like she was in pain. Just before the midwife came in to check me over Ians boss rang and said if Ian could drop Nichola off he could look after her during the day and even overnight if needed. I had a check over and was told the midwife would be back in a half an hour to check on me again. This was when Ian decided he was going to go home and check on the dog and take Nichola over to his bosss place.
At 1pm the midwife came over to tell me that she had to go to the labour ward with the girl in the opposite bed and that another midwife would come check on me soon and the second girl left not long after.
At around 3pm another woman came in looking like she wasnt far off, she disappeared into the loo just as I was going to go so I went down the ward to another loo and when I got back even shed gone down to the labour suite. This is when I thought,
*Im Rachel from Friends, and all I need now is a Janice (the Oh . My God .one) to turn up!*
Ian got back at 4pm and at 4.30pm I still hadnt had another check, so wondered over to the midwife station to see if theyd forgotten about me, and they said weve been really busy, we havent forgotten about you, someone will be in soon to check on you.
At 5 ish a midwife came in and as she was wiring me up to the monitor again a felt a pop just under where shed just put the contraction strap. I thought nothing of it until I all of a sudden feel like Im weeing myself and couldnt stop. I said to the midwife what was going on and she says jump off the bed and well have a check it did and found that I was now stood in a puddle and that the midwife was sniffing my knickers (eww) then she goes yep, your waters have gone, well monitor you for a bit then sort you out to go down to the labour suite at 8.
Woohoo!!!
Im now buzzing and after soaking almost everything in my suitcase I give in and just bounce on my ball in my knickers, t-shirt and dressing gown. I must have looked a right state. I was going through pads and pants like there was no tomorrow so the midwife very kindly gets me some Tena pads, you know the ones that look like huge baby nappies, and some rather unflattering hospital knickers that are like tights that stop half way down your thigh oooh sexy!! So since my waters had broke I started to get more intense contractions so I started to time them while bouncing on the ball which was the only thing I could seem to do to ease the pain in my back. Contractions were 2/3 mins apart and it was really beginning to drive me mad.
8 oclock comes.
In comes Liz, my labour midwife.
She explains that shes now going to be with me until the birth and asks how Im doing. I say, well it hurts and each time I get a contraction and i get a river running down my leg! And then I show her my magic bit of paper thats got all my contractions written on, Looks promising she says, well have a look when we get down there. When we get down to the ward she has a little look and goes your cervix is still a little long and youre only about 2-3cms gone.
At 9 oclock things still hadnt gotten to where they were hoping to be and Liz says well leave you for another hour to see if you get any better just get bouncing on that ball and walking around.
10 oclock. By this point my contractions are getting more painful but start to get further apart and she says were gonna have to seriously think about putting you on the drip. Is that ok? Im like yeah but that means having to stay on the bed doesnt it? Shes says pretty much but at least you dont have to worry about not delivering on a bed now! That made me smile. In comes the doc with the biggest needle Ive seen in a long time. I tried to be brave but I hate needles with a passion (yes I have tattoos and piercings but theyre different). I start to cry and the midwife asks if I want to try the gas and air for the canula being put in. I said Ill be ok, once its in I was in such a tizz with myself that I couldnt calm down. Once I had calmed down I notice that my contractions are really starting to hurt and I get hooked up for gas and air. First time I use it I pulled the mouth piece off! But I got the hang of it after that and managed not to pull it off til later!
Labour starts to get more progressed and at around 1am Liz checks me again and now says that Ive gotten to 4-5 cms. She also says that if I was going to have the morphine that I had to have it now cos I was starting to speed up and if I left it any longer I wouldnt be able to have it. Then the clock went mental. Imagine how I was, Id just been stabbed in the bum with morphine for the first time ever having it and on top of that being dosed to the eyeballs with gas and air, watching the hands spinning round on the clock!! Aarrgghh!!!!
It was at around 3 am when I got to the point where I felt like I wanted to push but I kept saying its too soon, Im not gonna be dilated enough, Liz reassures me that shed check next time I get a contraction what my tummy is doing, contraction comes and she says well yep, you really do want to push dont you. Once it started to calm down Liz says once the contraction has completely gone can I have a look? I agree, she looks, and says that Tempys head is 1 inch or so within my vagina!!
I got a killer contraction at one of the few times Liz steps outside and Ian gets me to look at the monitor which up til then had only gotten to around 86 on a contraction and this time it was flying past 125 and he made me look at it. I took the gas and air out my mouth and screamed F**K Liz comes running in and goes Whats up? I explain what Ian did to me and she told him off!!!
**More about this later!!**
So the contractions continued and stayed at just under 2 mins apart. I had couple of pushes and Liz says Ive almost done it. Once Tempys head was out she says dont push, get on the air and dont push, dont push, dont push. Never mind!! It took 4 or so big pushes and Tempy was out. What had happened was she was tangled up in her cord, and that they needed to untangle her, but I hadnt given them chance to. I was out of it once she was out. I remember being told to push to get the placenta out, I asked what about the injection? Liz goes Ive already done it.
Ian cut the cord, and she was put on my chest for skin to skin, I was so dopey from the pain once she was out that I had no idea what was going on
`They said what have you had? (I had asked that I wanted to find out myself in my plan) and I had to ask Ian to look and he just brings her to me and says look, its a girl!! (Im getting teary now). Ian got loads of cuddles next as I just zonked. I was given my tea and toast and I just fell asleep! Temperance was checked over and they said that she was a little cold and that they wanted to put her under the heater for a while to warm her up.
After attempting several times to drink my tea and failing badly (I kept falling asleep) I was unhooked from my drip and tried to stand up, big mistake. I went all faint and ended up being sick (eww). Well I welled myself up and had a shower then was taken in a chair up to the ward where I got an hours sleep before I woke myself up just as the midwife came in with Tempy. Once Id had some breaky the midwife came round, took the canula out and checked on Tempy, she was a little cold again so they took her into SCBU to go under the heaters. They checked her blood sugars at this point as theyd decided that for being 9 days late she was quite small, and they were low 2.4 (should be between 3 and 10). I was told that if she didnt start to warm up under the heaters theyd put her in an incubator. At around lunchtime I went into to SCBU and she was in an incubator
. I started to get all emotional and started to ask if Id done anything wrong, and I was reassured that I had done nothing wrong, it was just one of those things that happen sometimes. For the rest of the day I just slept. Everyone in the bay was having visitors and I was just sleeping in the corner. I was having trouble with breastfeeding, the midwives were really nice, they helped as much as they could and asked me to express using an electric pump, it didnt work very well and I was only getting a few mls if I was lucky so Tempy ended up being given that then being topped up with formula from a syringe at first then from a feeding cup. I was doing this so much that Im now quite an expert at it!On Friday morning I woke up and did an express to give to Tempy and when Dawn (one of the SCBU midwives) came round to give us a check she almost passed out, I was half way through expressing and I already had 40mls!! She says dont top her up. Try her on the boob and dont you dare waste any of that milk, treat it like liquid gold! Finally I was starting to get somewhere. That afternoon I was having a chat with Paula from the bed to my left about our births and she said something thast got me giggling. We were both in the labour suite at the same time and it turns out she was in the room next to mine and when I had my F**K moment the labour sister (who was delivering her baby) turns round and says lets have a race!! so I was disrupting everyone that morning!!!
We came home Saturday but only after everyone else in my bay was let home and I kicked off. I threw a childish wobbler after I was advised to stay for another 24 hours to get breastfeeding properly established. I refused and was finally released at about 5pm.
Since weve been home Im finally breastfeeding and I feel FANTASTIC!!!!
Tempy is now over her birth weight and has outgrown her first lot of baby grows.
And Im wearing jeans that didnt even fit me before I was pregnant!
