Birth Story of Macie
I had been feeling funny all day on the Thursday (2nd) as I just knew something was off but couldn’t place my finger on it. I had been on the swiss ball and had done another expressing session that morning. Late in the afternoon it started to thunderstorm and DH thought it would be a great idea to make me go for another big walk in it as his friend told him it was how he got his wife into labour. Halfway through the walk I had what I thought was a contraction. It made me stop in my tracks and I told DH. He made me walk all the way home – just to make sure that it was real labour. By the time we got home at 5:30pm they were varying between 7-10 mins apart. I still wasn’t sure if it was real labour or not as I had had contractions on and off before. They were still coming regularly after having dinner etc and DH said he thought I was in labour and should he ring the hospital. I said no as I knew if I was they would just tell me to stay and home and try and get some sleep. We headed to bed about 10pm and the contractions were getting stronger and stronger especially in my pelvis and back. By 11pm DH rang the hospital and they said to go in and they would check as they thought my water was leaking. We headed in and they said I was definitely in labour and having regular contractions and asked to do an internal. They said I was still 2-3 effaced but that I was dilated over 1cm and asked if I wanted a stretch and sweep to move things along. She said she could stretch to 2cm and that most of my plug had come out when she did it. I went to the toilet before they sent me home and the diahorrea had set in so I knew things were definitely on track. We headed home and I took some meds to try and sleep. I headed back to bed and contractions were 7mins apart and regular. DH rubbed my back during the next contraction and I felt a pop and thought, uh oh, I don’t think that was my back cracking. I said to DH I think my waters broken and he panicked. Was actually really funny because he didn’t want it to go all over the bed or the car. I told him to go and get me some towels. He came running back with them and helped me up and it went everywhere. I jumped in the shower and told him to call the hospital back and tell them my water broke and did I need to go in. Sure enough we headed back in; it was around 2:30am at this stage. They did an internal when I got there and I was completely effaced and now over 3cm. They decided to let me stay as I was the only one in the labour ward. I jumped in the shower and by now my contractions were more than 5 in 10mins lasting over a minute long. I was only getting like a 30sec break. I was in tears and telling DH I couldn’t do this. I was using the gas by this stage and it was just making me feel funny. About 5:30am I asked for and got an epidural. I was over 5cm by this stage. Unfortunately, the epidural killed my contractions almost completely and by 930am they decided to start the drip to bring the contractions back on. By lunchtime they decided to do another internal and I was only 6.5cm. They said they would give it until 2:00pm for the Ob to review and then turn up. By this stage, I was so tired and had had no sleep since Thursday morning or anything to eat as I was constantly spewing. The Ob reviewed me and I hadn’t moved any and said to turn me on my side and turn the drip up. They moved me to my left side but her heart rate dropped and wasn’t recovering all the time, and same with the other side. They decided not to turn the drip up as it was making her in distress. They said they would review me again at 4:30pm and see where I was and what the progress was and that we would start having to make decisions then. She also ordered that they darken room and not do any obs other than the trace for that time to try and allow me to get some sleep. I was reviewed at 4:30pm and was finally at 8cm. She consulted with the head OB consultant who said that I had until 6:30 to get to fully dilated otherwise it was directly to c-section. Finally at 730 I was checked again and was fully dilated. They decided to leave me for an hour for bubs to descend on her own and then start to push for an hour then it was either assisted delivery or straight to C-section. Finally started pushing and she was slowly moving but they discovered that she was stuck as part of my pelvis has a ridge that sticks out that we didn’t know about and she couldn’t turn her head fully one way or the other. She was stuck nose/ chin towards each thigh. She was transverse coming out and down. I pushed for two hours with the midwife trying to rotate her head on each contraction over the ridge before the Ob came in and decided to do a vacuum delivery. All of a sudden we had people everywhere from two special care nurses and the pead and three OB’s and two midwives. Talk about lots of people staring at my hoo haa! Finally started with Vacuum and with one set of pushes bubs head was out and created a massive tear (upwards) and then I had to wait three minutes for the next contraction to be able to push again. All I can say is thank god for my epidural as the pressure/ pain was bad enough with it that I would hate to have had to do it without! Finally at 10:14pm on Friday 3 May, Macie was born healthy weighing 3.55kg or 7 pd 8oz, 51cms ling and a head circ of 33.5cm.
They then gave me the injection to bring on the placenta and stop the bleeding, which I had a severe reaction to. The Ob started to stitch me up which took like 40minutes and my blood pressure sky rocketed and I started spewing uncontrollably. Poor DH had to do everything with bub, he dressed her, did her needles, changed her a few times, gave her her first feed(thank god for pre expressed milk). I was in la la land. I was so out of it, I kinda knew where I was and what was happening and what I supposed to be doing but I was also hallucinating big time. It took until about 4:30/5am before it work off enough for me to be back fully in reality and give bub a feed for real. Poor DH, he was amazing during the birth and all that happened afterwards. All on almost no sleep for over 48 hours. It was traumatic and not at all what I had envisioned but in the end we have a beautiful healthy baby girl.
I am still recovering and its slow going at the moment. I am still adjusting big time to having someone being totally dependant on me. I am teary at least once a day feeling overwhelmed and unsure if I can do this. Especially once DH goes back to work next week. Time will tell I guess….
Happy mothers day!!!
Our little bundle macie arrived on 3 may after a very very long and traumatic labour. She us going wonderfully and I am still recovering but we are getting there. I will be back soon with regular posts and some photos.
Xxx
It has been ages since I have had time to post on here in any real detail.
I am finally on maternity leave. 38 and a bit weeks and hopefully bub will be here within a few days according to the doctors. I am well and truly ready let me tell you!!
Busy day today for my first day off… cleaning, washing, and getting the last things organised.
Check up went okay. Measuring behind for the first time all pregnancy. Shes not engaged yet, unfortunately! I cannot wait to start maternity leave in two weeks. I cannot wait for little miss too arrive.
Hospital check up -36 weeks.
Can’t believe baby girl is going to be here within a few weeks.
theiateam:
Ed performs Small Bump on Sunrise
A bit over 30 weeks….
Ben is being great and has taken on way more then he needs to. All because of me and the baby. I hope he knows how much I appreciate all he does for us.
Feeling slightly better tonight. Still very overwhelmed with everything. Not sure how things will turn out. And we haven’t discussed anything. I’m not sure where things go from here. There’s only so much I can take….
Or the fact that half an hour after dropping him off that I am still sitting here in tears about it.
I give up. I honestly just give up.
I don’t know what’s worse. Tying to tell him that I am not coping with everything and getting ignored because answering a phone call wad apparently more important or the fact that he couldn’t even be bothered to talk to me about t afterwards and just forgot and has now gone out without even saying anything.
I’m still alive. I swear….
Whoops! I may have just incited a riot on Facebook about breastfeeding lol
Day 15- sweet good morning texts from the husband.