birth story for my 3year old!

i just typed up DS's birth story so i don't forget it with this upcoming
birth. it's only taken me 3 years to type. it's kinda long, but i thought
some of you might be interested.

Short version:




5th pregnancy - 1st child

DS born 20th August 2002 at 7.02pm at 36 weeks.

Weight: 3040g or 6 pounds 11 ounces.

Length: 49cm.

Head circ: 34.5cm.

Apgars 6 (4) & 10.



Long Version:




Nesting. The only nesting that I did was to pain my nails, shave my legs &
do my bikini line (badly - who can do that with a big belly?). I wanted to
wash my hair, but there was no conditioner. No cleaning the house for me!



3.15am. I woke up & went to the bathroom & felt DS positioned strangely,
very far down & very far to the right. I went to the bathroom. I thought I'd
go back to bed and get him to move. On the way back to the bedroom I felt &
heard a "pop". I wondered if that was my water breaking or of something had
happened to DS. I got back to the bedroom & fluid started to drip out. I
raced back to the bathroom where I sat on the toilet & there was a huge
gush. The fluid had a little blood but no meconium. Now I started to worry
as it was too early at 36 weeks & I knew that now my water had broken that
DS would be coming pretty soon one way or the other. I waited for the major
fluid to stop trickling, put some toilet paper between my legs & went back
to the bedroom.



3.30am. I woke up DH & told him my water had broken. He asked if he could go
back to sleep. LOL! I said ok, but I'm going to the hospital. So he gets up
& I grab some pads & while I'm bending over, I start dripping on the floor
again. I raced off to the bathroom to try & fix the leak as best I can, but
the pads were pretty useless.



3.45am. I found the all important yellow hospital card & rang the hospital.
They asked me all the usual questions & then said to come on in within the
hour. I was starting to get flustered, but DH was pretty excited. I turned
the computer on to see whether we were still in Leo or in Virgo but I couldn't
work it out. My brain had left. I wanted to have a shower, but we needed to
pack the hospital & labour bag (oops). I was trying to do it all at once &
just getting more worked up. I decided to have a shower first & that was
pretty good. I stayed in there for ages. I eventually got out & started to
collect everything from the bathroom I would need. Then I started to race
around and tried to get everything we needed. We ended up with a labour bag,
hospital bag & baby's bag after a while.



5.00am. So much for being at the hospital in an hour! DH brought the car
down & I grabbed a towel to sit on in the car. As I was walking out the
door, a small contraction happened. It was not very intense, just like a
painful braxton hicks. We drove to the hospital. As it was very early in the
morning, we chose the freeway (we live about 40 mins from the hospital with
me driving or 20 mins with DH driving like an insane idiot). I was getting
contractions every 8 minutes or so.



5.20am. We arrived at the hospital & left everything in the car as we weren't
sure what was going to happen. We went in the after hours entrance after we
waited for a contraction to pass & rang the bell of the birthing unit. We
went into the first "checking" room with the midwife. She asked me a few
questions about the water breaking & the contractions.



5.30am. When checked, I was 2 cm, but as it was my 5th pregnancy (but first
child!), I am usually 1cm or so dilated when I am not pregnant. DS certainly
wasn't engaged. He was still up quite high. I was taken into my delivery
room and hooked up to a monitor for contractions & DS's heartbeat. I was
having contractions that registered above the scale, but they weren't
dilating me at all. Probably because DS was not descended at all. The
contractions were painful, but the were certainly manageable. I sat with DH
& the monitors for the next 9 or so hours. We tried a few different
positions, I drank lots of red raspberry leaf tea. DS's heart rate was
having trouble coming back up from the decelerations on some of the
contractions. I tried getting in the bath. Oops. Contractions fizzled out.



2.45pm. Still 2cm. Talked to the midwife and she suggested induction with
the Syntocinon drip. I started to cry. I was pretty tired & I was scared
that induction would lead to epidural. I have a big needle phobia. They were
ok with me going to the ward to wait until labour started spontaneously, but
because DS was in distress, they really suggested the induction. I just
wanted what was best for DS, so I agreed.



This is where everything gets pretty hazy.



2.55pm. Syntocinon drip was started. OUCH! I seem to be very sensitive and
although it was turned increasingly down, I was having one big, long, horrid
contraction and I was not coping at all. We tried different positions, but
nothing helped. I couldn't get ontop of the pain as there was no end to a
contraction, it just went on & on. The drip was on minimum & I begged them
to stop it. One midwife got cranky at this (??why??).



3.30pm. Drip was stopped. I was still having the one big long contraction
and I certainly wasn't coping. Writhing around like a possessed banshee is
probably what it looked like. I was asked if I wanted pethidine. Yeah, why
not. Please! Anything!



3.45pm. Pethidine shot given. Didn't do jack for the pain, but just made me
out of it. Never having that again! Now I was sleepy but still having the
big long contraction. I was a sleepy possessed banshee. My coping was even
less effective if that was possible. I wasn't able to do active labour at
all, just writhing on the bed since the time I had the drip started.



3.50pm. Might as well start the drip back up. If I wasn't coping anyway,
might as well get it over with as quickly as possible! On with the long,
long contraction.



4.27pm. I am at 10cm! No wonder it bloody hurt. Fully dilated in an hour or
so. But DS still wasn't engaged. He was still at -1 at this stage.



4.30pm. Encouraged to push. Tried every imaginable position but because DS
hadn't engaged yet, I just couldn't push effectively and it certainly wasn't
a relief of the pain when I was pushing like you hear about. I was having
almost as much trouble coping with these "pushing" contractions as with the
labour contractions. I certainly wasn't getting anywhere. But at least it
went from one big long contraction to actual spaced out contractions.



6.00pm. Still no progress. DS still not engaged. Getting very tired, very
cranky, and very over it. And I still wasn't able to cope with the pain
well. There was a time sometime during all the pushing that DS's heart rate
got lost and all was suddenly a flurry of activity with talk of emergency
C-section and all that, but fortunately it was found again after I was
rolled over. Secretly, I was wishing for that C-section in a way just as I
was so tired. A scalp monitor was now put on DS so they wouldn't lose his
heartbeat again. Everyone felt I had been pushing for way too long & I was
just getting tired. I was offered an epidural & vacuum & a doctor or 2. I
agreed. Very, very scared.



6.10pm. Epidural inserted. It actually hurt less in the position I had to
sit in (crossed legs on edge of bed, leaning over on DH) for the
anaesthetist to put in the epidural, but I was way too tired to even
contemplate staying in that position. Two doctors arrived and so did a
neonatologist for when DS was born. The room was very full. The epidural
started to take effect & I tried pushing again and apparently it was
working. DS was descending. The vacuum was used.



7.02pm. DS arrived! His first Apgar was 4 & the second was 10. But the first
was written down as 6 so he didn't have to be in the special care nursery
and could room in with me. Needless to say, DH & I were ecstatic.



7.05pm. The placenta arrived. I had agreed to the injection to speed it
along. I had originally wanted a physiological third stage, but as I was
induced there wasn't much point. I didn't notice the placenta being
delivered, I was too wrapped up in DS. Apparently I had a few perineal
tears, but I didn't feel that because of the epidural. Someone reminded us
to take some pictures!



The rest. DS was a "mature prem". He had a few problems, but nothing life
threatening thankfully. He was not able to suck, which is common in 35 or 36
weekers. It took 7 days of expressing and lots of suck training, but he
eventually got it. (He's still breastfed at 3 years old!). He also had a
high level of jaundice and needed to be under the bili lights for 24 hours
and also needed some formula as well to help him as he was using all his
energy trying to get rid of the jaundice & just making himself sicker. I was
feeling fine & dandy after 3 days. DS was pronounced healthy & feeding fine
after 7 days and we got to go home then. The next 3 years are another story!




--
elizabeth (in australia)
DS 20th august 2002
#2 due 14th october 2005 (currently: 35 weeks)

"Worry is like a rocking chair--it gives you something to do but it doesn't
get you anywhere." -- Anonymous

Although a little dated...LOL, still glad to read it! I think it was a good
idea to get it written down before the next bub comes! I hope your next
birth goes a little better for you!
--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys, 1/3/03 -- My Big Girl, who started preschool, and loved it!
Addison Grace, 9/30/04 -- My Little Walker, who wants nothing more than to
go explore the world!

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"Jamie Clark" wrote in message
...
Although a little dated...LOL, still glad to read it! I think it was a
good idea to get it written down before the next bub comes! I hope your
next birth goes a little better for you!
--

thanks jamie. i'm feeling pretty positive, so i'm sure all will be well this
time round. i should have said in DS's story though that DS is worth all
that pain & stuff 100 times over!
--
elizabeth (in australia)
DS 20th august 2002
#2 due 14th october 2005 (currently: 35 weeks)

"Worry is like a rocking chair--it gives you something to do but it doesn't
get you anywhere." -- Anonymous

"arachne" wrote in message
...
i just typed up DS's birth story so i don't forget it with this upcoming
birth. it's only taken me 3 years to type. it's kinda long, but i thought
some of you might be interested.

Short version:




5th pregnancy - 1st child

DS born 20th August 2002 at 7.02pm at 36 weeks.

Weight: 3040g or 6 pounds 11 ounces.

Length: 49cm.

Head circ: 34.5cm.

Apgars 6 (4) & 10.

Wow I finally got to read your birth story! Thanks for sharing it! This
birth upcoming will go a lot better.

Hugs to you,

Carl