clareybell
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So I've finally got around to posting my birth story after the most amazing week of my life - plus Joseph just had his best night yet and is currently sleeping soundly, so yey!
Warning - this is a long one as it's something I want to save as a keepsake
so don't read on unless you have time!
For those of you who don't know, I was due in to go for induction on the night of Sunday the 12th due to high blood pressure. For a couple of days before, I'd felt like I had a huge period on the way, and I'd suspected plug coming away as I had a lot of milky discharge which was unusual for me.
From about 4pm on Sunday, I'd started to get slight cramps in my lower back, which made me think, hmm, contractions? But honestly they were so mild I felt silly for even suspecting it was. So went to my Mam's for Sunday dinner as normal, with these back cramps coming and going every 20 mins or so but sometimes didn't feel them, so thought must be braxtons.
So we arrived with bags packed at the hospital for 9.30pm and went to delivery suite where they had a room all set out for me, this was the room I was going to give birth in! So surreal and exciting! The midwife was lovely, put me on the monitors which was all fine, my crampy pains were barely showing on monitor and seeing as my stomach wasn't tightening with them, I was convinced these weren't contractions and so was the midwife. We had a quick ultra sound to confirm baby was in right position and midwife did an internal. She's explained before that if, as she'd expect, my cervix was hard and far back, that they would leave me until morning and then put in a 10mg pessary. However, when she checked, my cervix, although far back, was very soft, 1cm dilated and she could feel babies head! She was as surprised as I was, and so put in the smaller 3mg pessary to see if I could progress further. My back cramps were contractions after all!
Midwife explained it was likely still to be a long time for things to happen, and so said she'd not disturb me over night, and check me again at about 5am. I decided to try and get some sleep, and seeing as we don't live far away, I told OH to also go home so he could get some proper sleep while he still could!
I did keep drifting in and out of sleep, but pains (still all cramps in lower back) where getting more frequent and slightly stronger, at around 2am I thought they were about 5mins apart - I called midwife to let her know and she gave me some paracetamol and codeine, which I think sent me back into sleepy for a while.
I then woke up about 5am with pains getting stronger, and by 6am was really starting to feel uncomfortable, I called midwife again who suggested I ring OH as it looked like things were starting - to be honest at this point I was slightly panicky as I thought, these are coming really frequent (every couple minutes) and were really painful and was thinking Im not sure how I'll cope with this for hours and hours.
OH arrived at 6.30 and this is where it becomes blurry, my blood pressure was rising fast and the doctor was giving me medication for this, and contractions were feeling really strong and I was making noises I never knew I could make - poor OH, god knows what he thought when he walked in. Babies heart rate was dropping with each contraction, so at 7.30am they broke my waters, at which point midwife was saying I was only four cm dilated, and I remember thinking, my god I'm going to need every drug there is!
Midwife then went to do hand over, I'd started using gas and air now, which to be honest I didn't feel the full benefit of, but found it helped me to breathe and gave me something to bite on!
So new midwives came in, OH said looking quite shocked at the frequency and intensity of my contractions and went to get me diamorphine and then said they'd examine me again. I remember before now saying to OH I feel like he's there, and with each contraction feeling like I was pushing although trying not to.
Blood pressure was still rising and I was given more medication for this, doctor had gone and was coming back soon to review.
Midwife then finally examined me and said babies head was there and with next contractions I could start pushing! I remember feeling so relieved and determined now I knew end was in sight.
Four contractions later and four almighty pushes and baby Joseph was born at 8.44 am and put straight on my chest as the pain totally disappeared - him finally being there and on me was the most amazingly, happy feeling, I can't even explain.
We'd expected a slightly small baby, the growth scan had estimated 6 lbs 9, but he was only 5 lbs 13! But he's absolutely fine and totally perfect.
After they'd checked him, I had him back on my chest while they started stitching me up - at which point I used the gas and air and actually felt the benefit the way it should be! Was great! I had 2nd degree tears, but midwife did a great job on my stitches and they have hardly bothered me.
However it wasn't over yet! About 2 hours after birth, I felt this big, hot gush from down below, told OH to call the midwives quickly and just started to feel extremely dizzy and as if everything was far away, like there was a bubble over my head! Suddenly seemed like there was people every where, Joseph was taken from me and given to OH. Stuff was being pumped into my hands, and from my bp being high, it went extremely low to something like 70/40. I slowly started to feel myself come back, and a doctor started to push on my stomach and internally to get the clots out - I lost a litre of blood in total, but luckily didn't need a transfusion and am just on a high dose of iron tablets!
And there we go! After this we had some lovely time just the three of us, and went up to the ward later that day. I tried to breast feed, but it wasn't successful and because of his size, I needed to make sure he was feeding, so he's being bottle fed. Due to the few complications, we were in for a couple of days, but got home on Wednesday afternoon, and he's really doing great! Already can't imagine life without him - absolutely the best experience of my life!
Apologies for the length - but I've found it really useful to do this to help me remember everything, and I want to keep this to show Joseph when he's much older
Warning - this is a long one as it's something I want to save as a keepsake
so don't read on unless you have time!For those of you who don't know, I was due in to go for induction on the night of Sunday the 12th due to high blood pressure. For a couple of days before, I'd felt like I had a huge period on the way, and I'd suspected plug coming away as I had a lot of milky discharge which was unusual for me.
From about 4pm on Sunday, I'd started to get slight cramps in my lower back, which made me think, hmm, contractions? But honestly they were so mild I felt silly for even suspecting it was. So went to my Mam's for Sunday dinner as normal, with these back cramps coming and going every 20 mins or so but sometimes didn't feel them, so thought must be braxtons.
So we arrived with bags packed at the hospital for 9.30pm and went to delivery suite where they had a room all set out for me, this was the room I was going to give birth in! So surreal and exciting! The midwife was lovely, put me on the monitors which was all fine, my crampy pains were barely showing on monitor and seeing as my stomach wasn't tightening with them, I was convinced these weren't contractions and so was the midwife. We had a quick ultra sound to confirm baby was in right position and midwife did an internal. She's explained before that if, as she'd expect, my cervix was hard and far back, that they would leave me until morning and then put in a 10mg pessary. However, when she checked, my cervix, although far back, was very soft, 1cm dilated and she could feel babies head! She was as surprised as I was, and so put in the smaller 3mg pessary to see if I could progress further. My back cramps were contractions after all!
Midwife explained it was likely still to be a long time for things to happen, and so said she'd not disturb me over night, and check me again at about 5am. I decided to try and get some sleep, and seeing as we don't live far away, I told OH to also go home so he could get some proper sleep while he still could!
I did keep drifting in and out of sleep, but pains (still all cramps in lower back) where getting more frequent and slightly stronger, at around 2am I thought they were about 5mins apart - I called midwife to let her know and she gave me some paracetamol and codeine, which I think sent me back into sleepy for a while.
I then woke up about 5am with pains getting stronger, and by 6am was really starting to feel uncomfortable, I called midwife again who suggested I ring OH as it looked like things were starting - to be honest at this point I was slightly panicky as I thought, these are coming really frequent (every couple minutes) and were really painful and was thinking Im not sure how I'll cope with this for hours and hours.
OH arrived at 6.30 and this is where it becomes blurry, my blood pressure was rising fast and the doctor was giving me medication for this, and contractions were feeling really strong and I was making noises I never knew I could make - poor OH, god knows what he thought when he walked in. Babies heart rate was dropping with each contraction, so at 7.30am they broke my waters, at which point midwife was saying I was only four cm dilated, and I remember thinking, my god I'm going to need every drug there is!
Midwife then went to do hand over, I'd started using gas and air now, which to be honest I didn't feel the full benefit of, but found it helped me to breathe and gave me something to bite on!
So new midwives came in, OH said looking quite shocked at the frequency and intensity of my contractions and went to get me diamorphine and then said they'd examine me again. I remember before now saying to OH I feel like he's there, and with each contraction feeling like I was pushing although trying not to.
Blood pressure was still rising and I was given more medication for this, doctor had gone and was coming back soon to review.
Midwife then finally examined me and said babies head was there and with next contractions I could start pushing! I remember feeling so relieved and determined now I knew end was in sight.
Four contractions later and four almighty pushes and baby Joseph was born at 8.44 am and put straight on my chest as the pain totally disappeared - him finally being there and on me was the most amazingly, happy feeling, I can't even explain.
We'd expected a slightly small baby, the growth scan had estimated 6 lbs 9, but he was only 5 lbs 13! But he's absolutely fine and totally perfect.
After they'd checked him, I had him back on my chest while they started stitching me up - at which point I used the gas and air and actually felt the benefit the way it should be! Was great! I had 2nd degree tears, but midwife did a great job on my stitches and they have hardly bothered me.
However it wasn't over yet! About 2 hours after birth, I felt this big, hot gush from down below, told OH to call the midwives quickly and just started to feel extremely dizzy and as if everything was far away, like there was a bubble over my head! Suddenly seemed like there was people every where, Joseph was taken from me and given to OH. Stuff was being pumped into my hands, and from my bp being high, it went extremely low to something like 70/40. I slowly started to feel myself come back, and a doctor started to push on my stomach and internally to get the clots out - I lost a litre of blood in total, but luckily didn't need a transfusion and am just on a high dose of iron tablets!
And there we go! After this we had some lovely time just the three of us, and went up to the ward later that day. I tried to breast feed, but it wasn't successful and because of his size, I needed to make sure he was feeding, so he's being bottle fed. Due to the few complications, we were in for a couple of days, but got home on Wednesday afternoon, and he's really doing great! Already can't imagine life without him - absolutely the best experience of my life!
Apologies for the length - but I've found it really useful to do this to help me remember everything, and I want to keep this to show Joseph when he's much older
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