Tuesday, 21 June 2011

My labour and delivery..

I started having period pain on Thursday night, but it was mild so I didn’t think anything of it.. I've had mild period pain throughout the pregnancy due to the womb stretching. It was stronger than the period pain I'd previously had, but I just thought that was because I was at the end of my pregnancy. It woke me up throughout the night.
On Friday the pain got a bit worse, but it was constant and not rhythmical like contractions. I had my first sign of my mucus plug at around 11:30pm on Friday, it was only a tiny tiny dot of blood but I'd had bits every time I went to the toilet since.
The period pains turned into contractions and started getting rhythmical sometime in the day, however they were very very mild. I didn’t sleep much Friday night because I was in too much pain.
On Saturday morning (early – at around 5-6am) my contractions were 6 minutes apart, but after that they started coming randomly and irregularly. Which really pissed me off to be honest, ha ha!
I went to town with my mother and then to antenatal clinic in the morning. The midwife told us to call if they got to unbearable and regular but I seemed to be managing fine at that moment in time, and she said I was really in control when I had a contraction because I breathed in and out and rocked back and forth.. She said most people just panic, ha ha! The baby was 3/5ths engaged at that appointment.
When we got home at around 1ish, I finally slept for 1-2hours in the afternoon, but the contractions were still irregular.. The closest were 2-3 minutes apart, and the furthest were 10 minutes apart, so yeah.. They were definitely irregular!
I somehow managed to cope with the pain right up until 11pm. But at that point the paracetemol was no longer taking the edge off, and I was so exhausted. So around 11ish I phoned the midwife and asked her to come out and see where I was at, etc.. My midwife Penny didn't come, but the one who came (named Penny too, aha) was the one who took my 28week bloods, and she is absolutely lovely. I nearly fainted and she was so nice, ha ha. She came to my house at around half 11. She told me that she didn't think I was in full blown labour and that she didn't see the need to examine me, but she still would if I wanted an idea of where I was at.. So I asked her to, and it turned out I was 4-5cms dilated! She was really shocked. I don't know if she was shocked because it had happened fast, or because I was coping so well or what..
Anyways, she gave me a TENS machine and told me that I should start to think about going in to the hospital if I wanted to have a hospital birth. She phoned the labour ward and told them to expect us soon. She explained that I was 4-5cms so she said there was no need for us to go to the maternity ward first.. We'd just go straight to the labour ward. She told me to have something to eat and to then go in, and there should be a delivery suite waiting for me.
I decided I wanted a bath first, so I had one and then my mother made herself, James, and I some toast and cups of tea. After the toast and halfway through my tea I really couldn’t cope with the pain any longer, so we went into the hospital. It was around 1 in the morning.
We got the labour ward and they sent us back to the maternity ward. We were there for half an hour, and all they did was bitch because I was meant to be straight in the labour ward haha. I was examined in the maternity ward and I was 6-7cms. The woman who examined me was NOT happy that I got sent away from the labour ward, haha. So she took us to the labour ward. We got told what delivery suite we were in, and she introduced herself proper as Lynne and told us she'd be staying with us because she was on night duty and she didn't think Julie (a midwife from my local team who was on call that night) would be needed. Soon after we got in the suite I was on gas and air as well as using the TENS machine. I was violently sick EVERYWHERE like an hour (give or take) into being in the delivery suite! It went all over the bed, pillow, floor.. Everywhere. So I went to the toilet and changed my nighty and Lynne had to change all the sheets, etc. Haha.
My labour kept on picking up and then slowing down due to my exhaustion. It was by then that I was too tired to waddle around and rock when I had a contraction (it's best to keep active, and it does really help) so I just lay in the bed from then on. I got told so many different times that the midwife expected the baby to come throughout the night – first she was expecting to deliver in the early morning, then lunch time, then late morning, etc.. It annoyed us all that the labour wasn't consistent. Poor Lynne must have put her apron and gloves on ready to deliver about four times since we got into the suite, ha ha!
At around 6 or 7 in the morning the midwife finished her shift and Penny, the midwife who examined me at home, was now on duty and she was assigned to watch over me. I was happy that she was going to be the one delivering my daughter because she's just so lovely..
Anyway, my waters broke a few hours later and I honestly didn’t realise that they did – Penny checked me over and said she thought my waters had finally broken, but I said it was probably just wee. (It honestly just felt like I weed myself at each contraction! It was the bad ones where I had the urge to push and couldn't control it, lol!)
Really soon after that I was (uncontrollably) pushing Lilia out. The midwife tried to tell me to stop as the head was crowning, she was screaming 'BREATHE!' at me and trying to hold her in! But i couldn’t control my own body so she was delivered completely in one. No head then pause then body, it was just a big shoot. The midwife had to catch her because she came out so fast, ha ha!
I was completely high off gas and air, for about the last two or three hours I had no clue what I was doing. And according to James and my mother I was slurring at every word and doing stupid actions instead of talking, ha ha.. Pretty much like I am when drunk then!
I had to have stitches as I had a second degree tear on both the left and the right side, but I was let out three hours after she arrived. It was horrible having a shower after she was born - the amount of blood is just ridiculous! I hate blood and it was just dripping out of me constantly. I had to sit on the shower floor and let my mum wash my hair and body, ha ha. I refused to even touch my private parts because they were so sore. And I was too afraid to wee. I think I had my first wee in the night, and it wasn't bad. It stung a bit but I was totally overreacting by refusing to wee , ha ha!
My labour was counted from 11pm Saturday until she was delivered at 8:45am on Sunday. I said I'd been in pain for much longer than that but apparently it wasn't established labour. Ugh, ha ha!

1 comment:

  1. That sounds just amazing, I am glad Lilia had such a lovely entrance into the world, I feel less scared of the whole thing after reading your experience!

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