Saturday 1 February 2014

When Minilemming Became Bethany (Birth Story Part 1)

I was right when I was said Minilemming wasn't in a hurry to come up anytime soon. I spend my overdue days resting and waiting and waiting, with Hubby never far from my side. We spent nights talking to bump to try and coax them out sooner. I was soon getting frustrated, being big and tired there wasn't a lot i could do to pass the time, Hubby even has to wrestle the hoover off me at one point.

I got to my 41 week appointment and was offered a sweep to try to move things along, at this point I was happy to try anything. I went food shopping with Hubby but soon wanted to go home as I started to feel unwell, by late afternoon I was getting random tightenings at all sort of times, they continued through Saturday and Sunday where I was curled up on the coach with paracetamol. All the signs where there - I was in the first stages of labour.

4am Monday morning my waters went with a small pop with one of my tighenings, I called the Midwife unit and they were happy to let me stay at home as I was coping OK. I left my husband to sleep and settled in front of the TV and tried to rest. I called the unit a little later and they were still happy for me to stay at home, I now was getting more regular and consistent but was still thinking everything was fine.

After sleeping all day, I called the unit again early evening 12 hours after my waters broke and they asked for me to get checked out. We gathered bags and went down to get assessed, thinking that I would be sent back, oh how wrong we were. My husband dropped me off, drove back home (we only live 5 minutes away) and said he'll see me soon. I was examed by one of the midwives who said that Minilemming had done a poo in my waters and I needed to get to hospital ASAP. I called Husband and it was full steam ahead, racing across the countryside with consistent contractions to the hospital 30 minutes away.

The birthing centre has already called ahead and told them to expect me, they got me into a room and hooked up to a monitor with every contraction just focusing on breathing and remembering that it only lasts a short time before it goes. After 3 hours they decided to keep me overnight as I was now not far away from labour. I was joking that it was a waste of time booking in for my induction in the morning then. At this point I finally got given some paracetamol and codine as well as an IV for antibiotics to reduce infection because of the length of time my waters had gone. The IV was a huge problem as I have tiny veins, so they tried several times, in the end the anesthetist came in later and did another for them. I did finally drifted off in some kind of sleep (The husband got known because of the woman next door and the argument she was having with her drunk partner over the phone).

At 5am everything was getting stronger and my thinking was that the pain killers were wearing off so I asked for some more, this meant more monitoring and the midwife having a feel up there. She turned round after a few minutes and pressed a button for the whole team to come in - I was already 9cm dilated and was millimeters from being fully, I need to get to a delivery room, NOW!

I was rushed in, put in a hospital gown, and given gas & air - I will declare my love for gas & air now, amazing stuff but don't go too mad on it or you'll feel sick/dizzy. I had sips of water in between contractions and the atmosphere was relaxed and joking. At what would of been my induction time, I was told that we were starting the hour of pushing, and yes I pushed, putting everything into each contraction and having my cheerleaders cheering me on.

An hour came and went, I was exhausted and we couldn't figure why nothing was progressing, my contractions were decreasing and there was signs that all was not well inside. I was put on a hormone drip to bring them back and half an hour later the specialist was called in. He apologised as he had a feel around (having a baby is not for the shy people!) and immediately said that we need to get to the theatre as the baby was facing he wrong way, they were facing to my right so the head was not in the right position and I needed help.

This is where things become a blur - While things were explained to  dazed me, Husband was put into blue scrubs as well as his size 11 feet into only shoes they had, green crocs in a 6. I signed the consent forms and off through the hospital we went. I re-met the anesthetist who explained quickly what was going to happen with the epidural, the one thing I did not want to have was about to happen. I was going to have a kelland forcep delivery attempt, this meant that they were going to turn them correctly and help me delivery, if this failed I was having an C-section. I prayed that it wouldn't come to this, as they numbed half my body - everything was now in their hands.

The team of 8 worked quickly and my baby girl was born 11.21am, she was taken away, cleaned and brought over. As I was hooked up to every possible IV/monitor going, Husband got to hold her first. I was smitten straight away, she was and is beyond gorgeous, it was moving to watch those first moments with my daughter and my husband. While we bonded, I was stitched up as I had to be cut (20 stitches in all) as well as all the post labour bits. I was wheeled into recovery were my daughter was put beside me for my first cuddle, it was here she was named Bethany Kathleen and was no longer known as Minilemming.

2 comments:

  1. Aw what a lovely post she gorgeous, sounds like the birth wasn't to good but glad there wasn't any major problems! Hope you're all well and little Bethany is settling well X Jess xx

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