Apologies for my late birth story but spending so much time in hospital, its the first time i have had chance to take stock and write it all down!
Went in Thursday at 3pm 28/08/08 for a planned induction, the Midwife examined me and i was still 1-2cm dilated as i had been on Tuesday when i was given a sweep.
It was decided to break my waters straight away as my cervix was in a good position apparently to do this, it didnt hurt one bit and when my waters started to go, i couldnt stop laughing as it felt so strange, everytime i laughed it would gush out!
I was then left for 2 hours to see whether that would start things off.
After two hours, i hadnt had any contractions so it was decided that i would be started on the Syntocin Drip.
They had to monitor Babys Heartbeat first before they could start the drip, Macey always played up when they did the CTG traces with the belts and today was going to be no exception - they would find her heatbeat for afew seconds and then she would move and they would take ages picking it up again! The poor midwife ended up physically holding the tracer on my belly more or less constantly from 8pm - 9am she only left the room to go to the toilet or have a quick drink!
They started the drip at about 8pm by this time i had a canula in my left hand that was feeding me insulin from one line and glucose from another line, so they had to put the canula for the drip in my right hand, i knew they wouldnt be able to get a vein there so it ended up at the side of my wrist which surprising hurt alot less than the one in my other hand
So they started the drip, and every so often they would increase the dose, they were still struggling to keep babys heartbeat on the monitor so they decided that they would stick a monitor on babys head next time they examined me, i am sure they got the doctor with the biggest hands possible to do it as it was mighty uncomfortable and he was practically shoving me up the bed when he tried to put it in they got it attached but it would still only give a very sporadic heartbeat reading which they said was unusual which kinda unnerved me!
So the drip continued, they put it up in units and at 36 she asked if i wanted any pain relief i said no thanks i was fine, she said i was doing really well as most people started asking for it then, i did tell her that i wanted an epidural at some stage as in my head i knew things would get out of control. The contractions were very manageable at this stage just very strong period pains but i could breathe through them fine, so Dean went for a sleep in the day room and i just sat talking to the midwife who was still holding the CTG to my belly!
At about 0600 the drip had been cranked up to 60 which apparently is the highest they like to go to and at this point in a matter of minutes i had gone from having nice regular contractions to being "hyper stimulated" basically i was having my own contractions as well as the induced contractions they were just constant she said on the trace 2 a minute so she left the room to go to the loo with me nice and calm and came back to find me sobbing and begging for Dean to come back!
At this point she gave me the gas and air and made sure the anethetist knew i was waiting - he was in theatre but i was next on the list!
The gas and air was great - i didnt like it at first as it made me feel out of control but then i got used to it and it felt like i had drunk to bottles of wine, it also made my voice really deep which both me and Dean found hilarious!.
The anethetist then arrived to do my epidural, the first time he hit a blood vessel, but the second time it was spot on, Dean had to leave the room so i just had to sit there sucking on the gas and air while he got on with it!
The difference it made was amazing, i could still move my legs but was in no pain whatsoever!
The doctor came in at about 0900 to examine me again and found that even though i had been on the drip now for 13 hours i had only got to 6cm dilated, he said they could either leave me another 6 hours by which time baby could be in distress or i could have a c section -well for me there was no hesitation i wanted a c section, i knew she wasnt going to come out on her own!
So they got all the paperwork out of the way, Dean got dressed in his scrubs - very dishy! and i got wheeled down to theatre, i already had the epidural in so they just topped it up, - too far as i was numb up to my boobs but thats another story!
So the c section got under way, felt lots of tugging, and heard them maybe panicking a little, i then started feeling sore on my left hand side it felt like a burning sensation so they had to top up the pain relief
Whilst they were panicking i started to feel really sick and started being sick, i glanced over to the blood pressure monitor and noticed my blood pressure had dropped to 80/40 so i started to worry a little!
After what seemed like an age they got Macey out and they all gasped at the size of her apparently as they werent expecting her to be that big,
The surgeon said they struggled to get her out as the poor thing was well and truly wedged in my pelvis and the cord was round her neck so she would never have got out, she was just too big, they checked her out and then gave her to Dean who then laid her next to me whilst they sewed me back up her Apgar score was 9 after a minute and 9 after 5, so she was ok, she was grunting and had nasal flaring at that point but they were happy with it
I got wheeled back into the delivery suite where i started feeling unwell again, i was shaking uncontrollably and my nails and fingers were going blue, Dean said things started getting panicky in there and about 8 different doctors, consultants ran in, i was gushing blood and they were pulling clots out of me, they changed my sheets twice in about 5 minutes and i lost two litres of blood!
Macey then started to get poorly, she was still grunting and her temperature was dropping so they decided she needed to go to SCBU, so poor Dean was running between the two of us 3 floors apart! i was still being violently sick which my this point was excruciating as the epidural was wearing off and it felt like i was ripping myself apart everytime i hurled, i was being given morphine every two hours which wasnt doing anything, and they kept making me roll over whilst they changed to sheets and i would be screaming in agony!
I ended up having 2 units of blood and staying down on labour ward until about midnight, they brought Macey down to me for about ten minutes and she spent the night in an incubator on SCBU they also had been cup feeding her but then decided she needed a feeding tube
I was then taken up to maternity ward which i hated as everyone else had their babies and i just had to lay there and listen,
Macey came down to me the next afternoon and i had her with me that day before i commented on how yellow she was, so they tested her jaundice level which came back at 450 which apparently is critical level for causing brain damage etc so she spent the next ten days in SCBU under phototherapy.
We came out Tuesday and havent looked back! she was 11lb 4 0z at birth, went down to 10lb 3 oz and was 10lb 8 0z on discharge,
I was very poorly and ended up having MRI scans etc, but i wont bore you with that as i am fine now!
Here is the first picture of me and Macey together, neither of us look well!
Went in Thursday at 3pm 28/08/08 for a planned induction, the Midwife examined me and i was still 1-2cm dilated as i had been on Tuesday when i was given a sweep.
It was decided to break my waters straight away as my cervix was in a good position apparently to do this, it didnt hurt one bit and when my waters started to go, i couldnt stop laughing as it felt so strange, everytime i laughed it would gush out!
I was then left for 2 hours to see whether that would start things off.
After two hours, i hadnt had any contractions so it was decided that i would be started on the Syntocin Drip.
They had to monitor Babys Heartbeat first before they could start the drip, Macey always played up when they did the CTG traces with the belts and today was going to be no exception - they would find her heatbeat for afew seconds and then she would move and they would take ages picking it up again! The poor midwife ended up physically holding the tracer on my belly more or less constantly from 8pm - 9am she only left the room to go to the toilet or have a quick drink!
They started the drip at about 8pm by this time i had a canula in my left hand that was feeding me insulin from one line and glucose from another line, so they had to put the canula for the drip in my right hand, i knew they wouldnt be able to get a vein there so it ended up at the side of my wrist which surprising hurt alot less than the one in my other hand
So they started the drip, and every so often they would increase the dose, they were still struggling to keep babys heartbeat on the monitor so they decided that they would stick a monitor on babys head next time they examined me, i am sure they got the doctor with the biggest hands possible to do it as it was mighty uncomfortable and he was practically shoving me up the bed when he tried to put it in
they got it attached but it would still only give a very sporadic heartbeat reading which they said was unusual which kinda unnerved me!So the drip continued, they put it up in units and at 36 she asked if i wanted any pain relief i said no thanks i was fine, she said i was doing really well as most people started asking for it then, i did tell her that i wanted an epidural at some stage as in my head i knew things would get out of control. The contractions were very manageable at this stage just very strong period pains but i could breathe through them fine, so Dean went for a sleep in the day room and i just sat talking to the midwife who was still holding the CTG to my belly!
At about 0600 the drip had been cranked up to 60 which apparently is the highest they like to go to and at this point in a matter of minutes i had gone from having nice regular contractions to being "hyper stimulated" basically i was having my own contractions as well as the induced contractions they were just constant she said on the trace 2 a minute so she left the room to go to the loo with me nice and calm and came back to find me sobbing and begging for Dean to come back!
At this point she gave me the gas and air and made sure the anethetist knew i was waiting - he was in theatre but i was next on the list!
The gas and air was great - i didnt like it at first as it made me feel out of control but then i got used to it and it felt like i had drunk to bottles of wine, it also made my voice really deep which both me and Dean found hilarious!.
The anethetist then arrived to do my epidural, the first time he hit a blood vessel, but the second time it was spot on, Dean had to leave the room so i just had to sit there sucking on the gas and air while he got on with it!
The difference it made was amazing, i could still move my legs but was in no pain whatsoever!
The doctor came in at about 0900 to examine me again and found that even though i had been on the drip now for 13 hours i had only got to 6cm dilated, he said they could either leave me another 6 hours by which time baby could be in distress or i could have a c section -well for me there was no hesitation i wanted a c section, i knew she wasnt going to come out on her own!
So they got all the paperwork out of the way, Dean got dressed in his scrubs - very dishy! and i got wheeled down to theatre, i already had the epidural in so they just topped it up, - too far as i was numb up to my boobs but thats another story!
So the c section got under way, felt lots of tugging, and heard them maybe panicking a little, i then started feeling sore on my left hand side it felt like a burning sensation so they had to top up the pain relief
Whilst they were panicking i started to feel really sick and started being sick, i glanced over to the blood pressure monitor and noticed my blood pressure had dropped to 80/40 so i started to worry a little!
After what seemed like an age they got Macey out and they all gasped at the size of her apparently as they werent expecting her to be that big,
The surgeon said they struggled to get her out as the poor thing was well and truly wedged in my pelvis and the cord was round her neck so she would never have got out, she was just too big, they checked her out and then gave her to Dean who then laid her next to me whilst they sewed me back up her Apgar score was 9 after a minute and 9 after 5, so she was ok, she was grunting and had nasal flaring at that point but they were happy with it
I got wheeled back into the delivery suite where i started feeling unwell again, i was shaking uncontrollably and my nails and fingers were going blue, Dean said things started getting panicky in there and about 8 different doctors, consultants ran in, i was gushing blood and they were pulling clots out of me, they changed my sheets twice in about 5 minutes and i lost two litres of blood!
Macey then started to get poorly, she was still grunting and her temperature was dropping so they decided she needed to go to SCBU, so poor Dean was running between the two of us 3 floors apart! i was still being violently sick which my this point was excruciating as the epidural was wearing off and it felt like i was ripping myself apart everytime i hurled, i was being given morphine every two hours which wasnt doing anything, and they kept making me roll over whilst they changed to sheets and i would be screaming in agony!
I ended up having 2 units of blood and staying down on labour ward until about midnight, they brought Macey down to me for about ten minutes and she spent the night in an incubator on SCBU they also had been cup feeding her but then decided she needed a feeding tube
I was then taken up to maternity ward which i hated as everyone else had their babies and i just had to lay there and listen,
Macey came down to me the next afternoon and i had her with me that day before i commented on how yellow she was, so they tested her jaundice level which came back at 450 which apparently is critical level for causing brain damage etc so she spent the next ten days in SCBU under phototherapy.
We came out Tuesday and havent looked back! she was 11lb 4 0z at birth, went down to 10lb 3 oz and was 10lb 8 0z on discharge,
I was very poorly and ended up having MRI scans etc, but i wont bore you with that as i am fine now!
Here is the first picture of me and Macey together, neither of us look well!
