The birth story

As promised, this is my birth story. I'm still a little traumatised by the memory of it but at the risk of sounding cliche, it is all worth it when I hold my gorgeous baby boy.

As I'd mentioned, I started to get mild contractions on my due date (Tuesday) which started to get more frequent and uncomfortable through the day and I thought that was the start of things but they subsided into the evening, which was annoying and disappointing. I had some moderate and irregular contractions and other early signs over the next day or so but I was getting really impatient for things to progress. Then Thursday morning and afternoon I had some spotting which then increased and became darker in the evening so I called the hospital and they told me it was probably a show but to come in and check it just in case. We were there all Thursday evening and they confirmed it was a show and sent me home. We got home around 1.00am and my contractions started around 2.30 and got really painful and really frequent very fast. I had a terrible sleepless night being woken by them every few minutes, some of them were much more intense than others. I called the hospital at 6.00am and they said to take Paracetamol (Tylenol), get some rest and eat something for the energy, then call again in two hours. Let me tell you, Paracetamol is worse than useless for contractions! I don't think I was even in bed for more than 15 minutes before I sat up and shouted "Paracetamol is SHIT!!! It doesn't do ANYTHING!". Rest was futile and I never got around to eating anything because my waters broke dramatically at around 7.30 and we called and went straight into hospital. Because I was Group B Strep positive I had to go straight in as soon as my waters broke to get the IV antibiotics started because of the increased risk of infection. At 9.00am I was 4cm dilated but they found meconium in my waters so had to put baby on continuous monitoring which I hated because it meant with that and the IV I had to pretty much be strapped down to the bed. It wasn't the active labour I had hoped for and I found it really uncomfortable being confined to bed like that for hours. It was a long labour, I was progressing but not as fast as we'd like and it looked like the baby was getting distressed. His heartbeat was dropping off after contractions and there was talk of doing an emergency c-section but they did a fetal scalp sample and decided we could continue with labour. The pain was intense, some of the contractions were so much harder than others. The midwife said that happens with meconium in the fluids, it can give some contractions more of an edge. I started off with entonox which made me really drunk/high but after a while didn't take enough of the pain away so I asked for an epidural. After waiting a while for it I got it but it didn't work! At that point I was giving up hope but they redid it and the second one worked a treat. By then I wanted to have the anaesthetist's baby I was so happy!! I had hoped to avoid having an epidural but the way things worked out it felt really necessary because not only was the Entonox no longer effective for some of the more intense contractions, but I was so exhausted by then from a tortured sleepless night and low on energy from an empty stomach (I had last eaten the previous evening but had thrown my guts up since) that I simply wouldn't have had the energy to push if I hadn't had the epidural and managed to sleep for a while once the pain was gone. I finally ended up having an assisted delivery with ventouse, which wasn't exactly the birth I'd wanted but wasn't as bad as I'd expected. The actual pushing stage was quick as we had to deliver urgently by that point. It turned out the cord was wrapped around the baby which was what was causing him distress. Luckily it wasn't around his neck but he was wearing it like a sash and it was pulling him back as he was descending which is why he was showing distress during/after contractions.

Hubby was just amazing, I don't know how I would have done it without him. I know he was worried about being abused and yelled at, that's what people kept telling him would happen, but I didn't lose it with him at all. I don't think I had the energy! I was grateful he was there and he was totally supportive and helpful in all the right ways. What I found invaluable was having him there to encourage me during the pushing. I was so tired and finding it really difficult and it also felt like I was busting blood vessels pushing hard but nothing was happening because I couldn't really feel anything. What encouraged and spurred me on when I was tiring and wanting to give up was him telling me I was doing great and he could see the baby's head. (Of course I didn't believe what the doctors and midwife were telling me!)

Our darling son was born at 9.20pm, very healthy despite his ordeal and mine, so we were thrilled. He was 7.5 lbs and 20.5 inches long. They were pleased that both of us were doing well, even though my body was a battlefield, and let us come home the next day.

We are typical first time parents, gazing adoringly at him all the time and marvelling at how wonderful and perfect he is. He has been keeping us up at night and we are both completely exhausted but it's all totally worth it, he is just amazing.