I've been meaning to do this for weeks, well three weeks and four days to be exact, since little Mahe was born. Well, finally I'm getting round to it, writing his birth story, and then, just for balance, and because I didn't do it before, I think that I might do Kai's too, although that's two years, three weeks and three days overdue!
Despite feeling for the last couple of months, that this baby might actually be early, instead of overdue, the 23rd of September came and went and still no sign of anything happening, apart from the Braxton Hicks contractions that I'd been having for weeks. I went to see the consultant on Friday morning, and he booked me in for an induction the following Thursday, I was really worried that he might have put me in for Kai's birthday on the Tuesday, which was the last thing that I wanted, but fortunately he didn't. He also gave me a sweep, and said I was already 21/2 to 3 cm diallated, so things were looking good. I fully expected to start in labour in the next few hours or so! Needless to say I didn't and come Sunday morning I was feeling very dejected, as 48 hours had passed since the sweep and nothing had begun. I was beginning to feel really quite desperate, as I really didn't want to be induced, or have the new baby on Kai's birthday, and not only that I was feeling HUGE and so uncomfy!
Later that day, after having a nap, I started to get contractions, I'd had about three, twenty minutes or so apart before I let myself believe that things might be happening. They got gradually stronger and closer together as the afternoon progressed, and after tea Mike took Kai over to my Mum and Dad's in case we needed to go into the hospital later that night. As it was I'd watched Heartbeat, and Poirot was just starting when I decided that it was maybe time to go into the hospital, as they were about five minutes apart.
They checked me out when I got to the hospital, and I'd reached 31/2 to 4 cm, but obviously I still had a long way to go. As I'd had a c-section last time, they were keeping a close eye on me, so they kept me in rather than send me home. Mike got to go home for some sleep, but I just spent a couple of hours doing crosswords and looking at those trashy magazines that I only read when I'm at the doctors or dentist or such like. After a few hours or so, I called the midwife and I'd progressed to around 5 cm and they moved me down to the delivery suite, as there was room, and called Mike back in.
It was about 5am on the Monday by this point, and I was hopeful that things would progress fairly quickly and I'd soon have my baby. In case I had to have a drip for some reason, they came to put the thing that they put in your hand in my hand (really complicated way of putting that and I have NO idea what the technical term for all of that is!) Only I have apparently quite small veins in the back of my hand, and it went in but came out the other side and ouch did it hurt! They had to put it in my wrist instead and the back of my hand swelled up, and every time I moved my arm or hand it really ached. I know that considering what else was happening, it would seem strange to complain about the pain from that, but really I think that it was one of the most painful things that happened that day.
Unfortunately when they checked me later, I hadn't progressed any further, so they decided to try and rupture my waters to get things moving. Not that that was a problem, I was just disappointed that things hadn't got any further on their own. A couple of hours later they checked me again, and as I still hadn't progressed they discussed the next step. Basically I could either go onto a drip to move things along, or have a c-section. I still really really wanted my vbac, although I'd been there for such a long time that I have to admit that I was tempted. They put me on the drip, and although I'd used nothing up to this point, I asked for some gas and air, as the contractions were getting to me a bit. A little while later the consultant came in, (not my consultant) and made it clear that he thought I should be having another section, they decided to give me until 4pm and then monitor things again.
All morning, and through three shift changes of midwives, they had been really impressed that I'd not needed any pain relief, and I was just sitting there doing my crosswords, watching tv and being generally quite cheerful. They increased the drip every half hour, and as they put it up to the strongest dose, I'm afraid that I had to ask for something a bit stronger to help with the pain. They gave me a choice of an epidural, which I didn't want, Pethadrin, or something beginning with M which was similar to Pethadrin, but didn't last as long or effect the baby, I decided to go for that, as I only had under two hours to go until they would send me in for a section if nothing had happened. They gave me a jab in my thigh, about half an hour later, and it kicked in another twenty minutes after that. It didn't really do much for the pain, just made me fel really light headed, so I felt a bit disconnected from the pain so it was easier to deal with.
Half an hour later I suddenly got this overwhelming urge to push, it took me totally by surprise, and I quickly pressed the buzzer to call the midwife in. I'd just about convinced myself that I was going to have to have another section, and was feeling pretty low about it all, so I couldn't quite believe what was happening. The midwife checked me and I was all ready to go! For some reason I fully expected this bit to take ages, but it really didn't, with every push the midwife kept saying right this next one will be it, but I thought she was just saying that. Less than half an hour later he was born! The head arrived, and I was really quite surprised how easy the rest was, he just slipped out with the next push, and was born at 8 minutes past 4 in the afternoon, 17 1/2 hours after I got to the hospital. The midwife put him on my chest, I'd been so convinced that he was going to be a she, that I was quite surprised to see his boy bits!
I fed him almost straight away, and he had a good feed, which I was so pleased about. He looked just like Kai did, newborn, except he was a pound lighter and had black, curly hair.
After the event Mike told me that when his head appeared, he was listening to the midwife who said that I had to really concentrate on the next push, and take it slowly. He'd decided to really concentrate on what was happening, so he could see everything that happened. I'd taken a look at the baby's head and asked if all was alright, I'd been quite surprised as I hadn't realised that he would be quiet at this point, and have his eyes closed. The Midwife said he was fine, but Mike was thinking, oh no, there's something wrong, she's just saying that. He says that he thought, right don't panic, and looked at the heart rate monitor. As this was still going strong, he relaxed as the baby must be fine, only to realise that Mahe was on my chest and he'd missed it while he was thinking all of that.
After they'd sorted me out downstairs, they sent me for a bath and then put me in a wheelchair back to the ward. They handed me Mahe and were about to wheel me out, when suddenly everything started to go black and I realised I was on the verge of passing out. I quickly handed Mahe back to them while I recovered, didn't think it was a good start to drop my baby. I was soon feeling better though, and able to settle down in the ward for a well deserved relax.
