My labour experience

As you may have read in one of my previous posts, I was getting quite anxious as the weeks to due date went by. It's one of those things that you hear stories about - good and bad - but then there's a point that you make the link that it will be you in the 'hot seat' soon enough and you will have your own story to tell!

My story is very different to what I had hoped it would be. It wasn't horrendous, like some I have heard, but it wasn't as straight forward as I would have hoped either...

Now, my plan was to have a natural birth, with the use of gas and air, and my TENS machine as my pain relief. I wasn't opposed to an epidural, but I wasn't going to jump right to that option either - I just wanted it to be my choice, in my time. So let's start at the beginning:

It all started with the fact that I needed to be induced - for 2 reasons - 1. I had VERY itchy feet (yes a pregnancy related thing surprisingly - will talk about this in a post to follow), and 2. I had reduced movement so was obviously a concern. With these 2 things combined, my obstetrician (the fantastic Dr Alistair Morris) and I discussed an early induction, and came to the conclusion that this may be the best option. I expected this to be in 3-4 days, given that we would need to wait for a last minute slot, but I got the call on Tuesday 2.30pm while having my lunch, and by 8pm, I was in a gown waiting patiently in my hospital bed for it all to start happening!! I was not ready for this - I had only just begun my maternity leave on Monday, and had planned to do all my prep reading and have some quality relaxation time before she came along - oh well!!

So anyway, I was induced with the gel form at around 9.30pm on the Tuesday night, and told to expect some cramping through the night. I was allowed to take pain killers, but declined the option as I figured it was about to get a lot worse anyway! I was also given the option of sleeping tablets, as I was going to need a lot of energy the next morning! Though I'm not a fan of these, or any kind of medication during the pregnancy, I had literally been surviving on 4 hours sleep a night for the last 2 weeks due to the damn itchy feet, so decided to go for it. Another nurse delivered the tablets, I took them as instructed but still woke in the night at 3am as usual. Thinking this was a bit weird, I checked the packet I was given in the morning, and found that I was given pain killers instead of the sleeping tablets! Grrrrr!!! The midwife had robbed me of the my last proper night's sleep for the next 18 years lol!!!

Moving on... the cramping started around 5am, being mild at first and very manageable, to heavier cramps, and then full blown contractions. Now I like to think of myself as having quite a high tolerance for pain, but this was something else!! I think I was pretty controlled, and I don't remember too much of it all now (I think my brain has purposely blocked it out!), but I do remember Jay looking so helpless as I know he hates to see me in pain. He doesn't often have to deal with it as I pretty much just get on with things usually, but this was one I know he was dreading. I used a mix of things to help try and control the pain - breathing exercises, the TENS machine, birthing ball, a warm bath etc etc. I was getting really bad uncomforatable pain down in my very lower back so I felt like I wanted to sit on something hard, to relieve it. Oh, not to give too much information but I felt like I needed to go to the loo every 5 minutes, which is fine, but I couldn't go by myself due to being hooked up to the machine tracking my contractions and baby's heartbeat, so needed to ask Jay every time - in that moment it was a loss of all the independence I work so hard to maintain lol! The things women have to go through!!

To cut a long story short, after 12 hours of strong contractions (25 hours from induction), I had only dilated 3cm, and my obstetrician advised that we should consider a cesarean - NOT my plan at all! Soooo not my plan, that I hadn't even ready anything much about it - I really just didn't think it would come to that. We had the discussion with him, and when he said that when feeling for the baby, her head was quite swelled, my decision was made. The last thing I wanted was for my baby to be distressed and if I could save her from that, I would. That was more important than my own ego for the sake of having a natural birth. I knew in that moment that all my decisions from here on were going to be in the best interests of my baby girl -  maybe I could begin to understand the whole pushy mum thing afterall haha!!

20 minutes later it was all go - me being wheeled down to theatre and Jay scrubbing up putting on his overalls. It was a mix of emotions - nothing different to the whole pregnancy really - excited but scared! This was it, these were the last few minutes before our lives were literally about to change forever. 2 were about to become 3. A couple becoming a family :-)

I don't know why, but I didn't think that the baby would be out quite as quickly as she was - she was out within 10 minutes. As I said, we hadn't read into cesareans so we were going with the flow. One minute there was a screen up, and the next my Obstetrician was saying that it was okay to lower the screen so Jay and I could watch Mia being pulled out! I'm not sure how I felt about that, but we really didn't have time to think about it - it was happening, and WOW, that was something I won't forget! It was the most amazing thing - this was our daughter. OUR daughter! Everyone thinks their child is beautiful, and I was no different - this was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen, and she was all ours :-)

They took her to be weighed and tested, while I was being stitched up. I knew that all wasn't great when Jay didn't come back quickly to let me know that all was okay. Apparently the oxygen in her blood was not at the level it should be so they wanted to take her to Special Care - obviously panic set in at this point, but I was assured that it was just to be on the safe side and there was nothing that was an emergency situation about this. I sent Jay to be with her - I didn't want her alone. I could cope alone, but she needed one of us. 

That wasn't the end of it! Apparently, my numbness should have been reducing by now, but instead, my numbness was increasing, and rising to my neck level! What the...??!! As scary as this was, I couldn't get my mind off my baby. Was she okay? How long would she need to be in special care? What exactly did 'not enough oxygen in the blood' mean? What causes it? All these questions and more - I just wanted to hear that she was okay.

They wouldn't accept me on the ward until a certain level of my numbness had reduced, and that was keeping me from seeing my baby girl. I had 2 really lovely nurses with me, who were doing their best to distract me with talk of all the great things to come with my daughter and tips for recovering well etc. Finally after what felt like forever, but was actually only about an hour or so, the took me up to the ward, along the way, wheeling me to special care to see my baby. She was ready to be released from there (thank god!), so off we went to my room for the next 5 nights. I didn't even look at the room - I couldn't take my eyes off this beautiful thing we had created. And Jay? Well he literally couldn't take the smile off his face - it was so beautiful to look at - the way he was looking at her just made me melt and brought a tear to my eye :-) She was very hungry so he had to pass her to me (I don't think he wanted to let go of her otherwise!) and there the feeding journey began (and what a journey it was going to be - I will talk about this in a later post).

Jay wasn't allowed to stay that night, so here we were, just me and my girl - the moment I had been waiting all these months for, and to be honest, my whole life for... :-) xx