I have written My Birth story across a few posts….Part 1 can be found here and Part 2 can be found here.
March 13th – Due date comes…..and goes…so very uneventful (much to my dismay – as every mumma knows you are just OVER IT at the end.) What are you doing in there anyway baby?
March 19th – I start to get mild cramps irregular…coming randomly 30 – 8 minutes apart in the evening.
March 20th – i wake up and walk to the toilet and feel a little gush, like i pissed my pants, except i’m pretty sure that i didn’t piss my pants. Watery and pink so i think oh this is my show. I put a pad on and these little gushes start happening all day, especially if i lie down then get up, all the while those mild cramps are coming and going. So i think yay things are happening. But i suspect my waters are leaking slowly. I call Betty and update her – she has a shift at the hospital so she calls me about 10pm after her shift to check in on me. I’m OVER THESE FREAKING CRAMPS THAT ARE GOING NO WHERE and she can tell! She offers to pop in and see me and i am thankful. I ask for an internal – since i want to know if things are happening or nothing is happening. She does an internal and says “sorry you’re closed but low and soft”!
CURSE YOU VAGINA AND CERVIX for these sleepless nights for nothing!
This was Sunday night and we had a follow-up appointment with Dr Wonderful the next day – Betty told me to call her in the morning and let her know how i go overnight. I was not looking forward to another nights broken sleep with these stupid cramps.
Overnight the cramps get down to about 8 minutes and enough to keep me awake but not enough to make me scream like a mad woman so i feel discouraged….in the morning i LOSE THE PLOT and turn into a wailing heap cursing my body. Jake takes the kids and keeps them away downstairs and lets me do my thing to try and get this labour to kick in.
We had attended a calmbirth course during the pregnancy to help with the labour which i thought was fantastic but THE MAN thought it was for hippy freaks! It was all about visualisation and breathing etc. I pop the calmbirth cd on and proceeded to imagine my cervix “opening like a flower” whilst cursing these cramps that started to ramp up a little.
11am we call Betty – and she advises me to pack my bags because she is very sure Dr Amazing is going to want me to stay in since my waters have been leaking (hind leak) for so long now and he will be worried about infection risks etc. I think to myself, all that flower-breathing-imagination better have done something!
Our appointment is a 1pm so i pack my stuff and we head in…at the appointment I’m feeling so defeated and wondering whats going to happen – since i have had 2 previous cesareans any form of induction other than rupture of membranes is out of the question and quite frankly i only want my waters ruptured if there is a good reason to. He asks if he can do an internal and I’m quietly praying that the mornings mediation on my flowering vagina cervix has done something…and you know what? IT DID! I was currently 3 cm and my cervix PAPER THIN! DR Bisits says you are ready to kick into labour any moment…please proceed to check into the HOTEL OF PAIN birthing unit and i’ll see you soon!
WOOHOOOO i couldn’t believe. Thank you cervix, you do work after all and i wasn’t even in established labour. I guess the odds were in my favour seeing as though i actually laboured to 10cm with Ethan.
We check in and get settled into the birth unit around 2.30pm-ish and then….nothing. NADA. ZIP. I felt like an idiot pacing, walking around outside with these mild contractions coming every 10 – 20 minutes. What is going on…hello down there my time is running out – please pick up your game!
Dr Wonderful stays back on his shift to come check on me around 6pm-ish – he looks at me and asks whats happening – and i have nothing! He looks at the clock and says we really need something to start happening at the latest around 10-11pm-ish otherwise we have to start talking other options since my waters have been leaking so long (over 48hours now). He does another internal and stretches me to 4cm and then asks if he can break my waters as he think it will kick things in – “your cervix is so thin it really is ready to go”! So i agree, i had to weigh up the pro’s and con’s and that was fine. My waters are broken and he’s happy with the fluid colour nice and clear…then says see you again soon!
The midwives were fantastic – they basically left us alone, just popping in intermittently to check the babies heartbeat with the doppler then they were off again. They were happy we had Betty.
I decide to hop in the bath, and this is where the action starts! Labour kicks in about 10pm-ish while I’m in the bath. The bath was heaven and helped me to relax… this is where the pain kicked in and the contractions started coming on really hard and fast then after a while in the bath i start to feel pressure already down there. Our attending midwife says – “you need to get out love” NOOOOOOOO! but i’m in too much pain to argue. They must know i’m getting close.
From here its sort of a blur…as the pain is pretty intense. I ask for gas – suck hard out of my mind for a while but then end up just using the mouth piece as a bit to chomp down on during contractions. I’m next to the bed, leaning over Jake, holding his hands….breaking his fingers during contractions, he’s such a sweety he sucked it up good since he could tell i was probably in alot more pain than him having his hand squeezed to death. Dr Bisits gets called back in around the time my labours is fully established and he rocks up around 11pm. (did i mention i love this man!???)
I felt her turn fully posterior in the bath and thanks to her ginormous head i can feel its not fitting in my pelvis the way its suppose to. It felt like she was trying to ram her head down and it was the wrong way. I kept telling Betty “somethings wrong her head isn’t going to fit!” Dr Bisits starts to wonder why she’s not progressing further during all my pushing so i investigates and says “i think she’s posterior” – great! Pushing some more….still get this funny feeling something is not right. Dr Bisits starts to wonder if she’s presenting FACE FIRST – OMG i think…NO WAY. He gets the ultrasound machine wheeled in and scans to see whats happening, all the while im asked to move from my lovely standing around gravity assisted p0sitions to lying on the bed. Scan shows baby is just posterior – thank God. He then tries to manually turn baby with no avail. Then he says lets get you up off the bed and down on to the birth stool. OMG please not moving again! I’m wailing NOOOOOO please i dont want to move again – i’m so exhausted and trying to move around was killing me! They talk me up…”come on you can do it”! So i try.
All the while all this moving around, getting up and laying down and turning over to get on and off the bed multiple times gives my little one all the movement in my pelvis she needs to actually turn into a full anterior position – perfect and ready to come out! Dr Bisits is excited and announces “baby has turned – keep going you’re nearly there”! So i push and push and push then he says lets get you on the bed – you’ve been pushing for a while now i think you may need just a little help with the vacuum – i was so exhausted by this point…the thought of having to get up and back on the bed, i’m losing it…NO PLEASE NO… but some how they all get me up there. I lay on my side and he says “i need to give you an episiotomy to attach the vacuum…” WHATEVER JUST GET THE BABY OUT NOW!!!!!!!!! and you know what? THAT pain was NOTHING COMPARED TO THE CONTRACTIONS. It felt like a pin prick, the vacuum goes on, i give a push and she’s out…and on to me. I couldn’t believe it!! I DID IT!
Elliot Rose was born 1.55am 22nd March 2011, 41 week + 2 days. It was over!!! She was placed on me and stayed there for hours – never leaving me whilst i was stitched up, they didn’t even need to take her to do all the stats so it was soooo wonderful to have my baby straight away! Her apgar scores were and 9 and 9 and the bets are on for her weight….Dr Bisits ends up being the closest with a guess of 4.3kgs…she is 4.2kgs (9p 4oz). She had a massive head of 36.5cm and was 56cm long. This big bubba was created and birthed from my tiny 5ft nothing body. After 2 previous cesereans i gave birth naturally to my biggest baby of all!
By this point THE MAN who under normal circumstances cannot stand the sight of lots of blood and doesn’t do too well with needles…well lets say he loses the plot, and needs to take a breather!! HAHAHHA…Betty notices and says “its ok Jake if you need to step out for a second”! The site of all the blood that came out behind Elliot was enough to send him pale… and here i am asking to see the placenta and cord since Ive never seen one. Thanks babe…at least you held it together till after she was born!
Once i’m stitched up everyone leaves the room bar the attending midwife doing her notes then taking Elliot to be weighed and checked etc….Jake starts to tell me…”You know I’m pretty sure i seen Betty picking up bits of poop with corn in it off the floor!”
Nice one Jake! Thanks.
Shout Outs to the following people:
Jake – for supporting me the whole way through all of this…and providing the ultimate hand for squeezing…never leaving my side (but i did let him use the toilet – unlike some other celebrity who made her lovely partner pee in a bottle)
Betty Vella – THE most amazing midwife…i can still remember her quiet encouraging words through all my screaming. I could have never done this without her.
Dr Andrew Bisits aka Dr Wonderful/Dr Amazing – who gave me better care as a public patient than i would have ever received as a private patient from a high rolling Ob in an ants pants hospital – he was with me for hours during my birth and his unwavering belief, never once offering a cesarean (which in all honesty i probably would have taken him up on the offer in the middle of all my pain!). He believed in me and for that i am forever grateful. He was on call and came in for my birth just like a private Ob would. A total sweetheart.
To the attending midwife (for the life of me i cannot remember your name!) – who lovingly and dutifully held the monitor on my tummy pretty much the whole pushing stage since we they couldn’t get the telemetry (wireless fetal monitoring) straps to hold it in place and i was in all sorts of weird positions!
Welcome to the world our beautiful baby Elliot Rose… 
Image Credits:
Cartoon – http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/pre%20birth%20wombtoons%20hehehee_62209
Congratulations – http://www.etsy.com/listing/65809725/congratulations-on-making-a-human-with
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