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Christopher Sex: boy Born: 23 February, 2010 Age: 1 years & 356 days Birthday in: 9 days Starsign: Pisces Development: See the 23 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Original due date:
Type of delivery: Cesarean section
Duration of labor: Forever.......
Weight @ birth: 9lbs 5oz
Length @ birth: 55cm

My waters broke on Sunday 21st February around 3.45pm. This was in my brother's house and for some strange reason I found it hysterically funny. I didn't feel scared, it was just so uncontrollable that I had to laugh. We drove home and called the hospital who said to wait it out to see if labour would start, and even if it didn't to come over later on in the night after visiting hours were over (because of problems parking) and they would check me out. So by midnight I was in a fair bit of pain and to us it seemed quite regular so we decided to head on over and get checked. Long story short I was having tightenings rather than contractions but they confirmed that my waters had indeed gone. They suggested I come in to be induced either the next morning or on the Tuesday morning. However depending on what day I picked meant either just me, or me and the baby would need antibiotics. So we decided to go for Monday morning. By this time it was about 2am on Monday morning and we went home with the intention of returning at 9am. We had a short amount of sleep and by Monday morning I was feeling very weepy and a bit scared. I never wanted to be induced and it frightened me.

Anyway, we gets to the labour suite at 9am and a very nice lady said go on up to ward 50. We never questioned this and went up to the ward. Well that was a big mistake because it turns out the labour suite were too busy to induce me and had sent me to the ward to wait. If I had known this I would probably just have gone home again but they were a bit sneaky about it all. So I was told to wait it out and labour suite would call me when they had a space. I sat on this ward all day, having contractions with the only offer of pain relief being co-codamol! I felt quite panicked at this point because I was on a general ward where people were having visitors etc and I was really worried that the pain would become too much for me and I couldn't have effective pain relief. I questioned them as to what would happen if I went into full blown labour and they said they would treat me as such and I would go through labour on the ward! My husband was very upset at what was happening and he told them as much and finally they put me into a single room. This was about 7pm at night. I was in considerable pain and had had my co-codamol which never touched it. I asked them if they would examine me to check if I was dilated at all and they said they couldn't because they had no reason to. Seems they have to have a reason. I was very weepy by this point and not handling the whole thing very well because I was shattered and scared. I asked them about additional pain relief and they said they could give me morphine which I didn't want to take. I asked what had happened to the option of gas and air and they couldn't give me it because I would have to be constantly monitored and they didn't have the staff on the ward to do that. So it was morphine or nothing. By this point we have been on the go for over 24 hours with about 3 or 4 hours sleep and the two of us were done in. I tried to encourage my husband to sleep on the bed but he wouldn't. I personally couldn't lie down because the pelvic pain that had plagued me throughout my pregnancy had returned with a vengeance in labour and I could not lie on my side. I also could not lie on my back because the baby was so heavy and I felt faint when lying for any length of time. Anyway, finally both husband and I fall asleep around 2am. Him half on the bed with feet on a chair, and me sitting upright on another chair. At 4.30am we are woken up and told that the labour suite are ready for us now. I couldn't function. It felt like the middle of the night (which is was) and I was completely disorientated. The nurse asked me what was wrong with me????? I said I can't do labour feeling like this, I'm exhausted. She said if I didn't hurry up (!) I might lose my space in the labour suite. Husband asked for a wheel chair for me to get taken down in and she felt it was better if I walked down because it might progress my labour. So against our better judgement we began to walk. Once we were in the lift I had another contraction and there were other people in the lift. We then began to walk along to the labour suite and there is work going on in the hospital as it is under major reconstruction. Workmen were in the corridor putting concrete on the floor. One side of the corridor was roped off and they were working on the concrete. I had to walk along by them and of course I then had another contraction which took my breath away and made me stop in my tracks. I was mortified, and tried very hard not to squeal.

Finally we gets into our labour room. The first thing that happens is the midwife introduces herself and asks me if I want to try gas and air. (Do I???). Yes please. She gives me it and I turn into a maniac. It sends me loopy loo! But it was wonderful. Husband had to plead with me to come up for air occasionally. And inevitably because I was so out of control with it it made me sick. After that I knew I had to try to calm down a bit and began to listen to him and take a bit of control back. It made me feel as though I was away somewhere else for about 10 minutes at a time and then I came back. I knew that this must have been scary for him to watch so I tried to explain that I wasn't aware of any pain when I was 'away' and that I would squeeze his hand when I was 'back'. This helped to calm us both down. And so began about 4 hours of me not really being aware of what was going on. I was given an epidural after that and I was topped up continuously throughout the day of Tuesday. The epidural made me really sleepy and not very responsive but I also kind of knew what they were saying to me. I knew labour wasn't progressing as it should have and that I wasn't dilating. I knew I was at about 4cm, but had been at that since I had come down from the ward. During the afternoon of the Tuesday the baby began to become a bit distressed and she could no longer tell effectively how dilated I was because his head was bulging. She couldn't really get a good reading on his heartbeat either and so they decided to put the clamp on his head. My husband asked at this point how long they would continue with this or would we be given a section. The told him to wait another four hours and see if any difference had been made. As I said I was out of it, but he had to sit there for another four hours. As well as this the baby's heartrate was not recovering quickly enough after each contraction. They were worried about this and eventually it was for this reason that they decided about 5.45pm on the Tuesday to section me. I was wheeled into theatre almost immediately and baby was born by section at 6.24pm. He was quiet when he came out and did not cry but there was never any sign that anything was wrong with him, just that he didn't cry. Eventually we heard his little voice and he was handed to my husband who put him beside me on the headrest. I couldn't see him properly because my eyesight had went a bit funny but I was able to see he looked so much like my husband. I eventally said to him please take him and hold him tight. I will see him when this operation is over. I just wanted him to have some proper comfort after all he had been through. So husband held him.

I was put through to recovery where we were able to spend a good couple of hours with him until I was moved up to the ward and husband was sent home. What happened on the ward is a whole other story which I am not going to bore you all with, but suffice to say it was the most awful experience and one I would never wish to experience again. I eventually demanded they let me home on the Friday morning and they conceded and I got home around 3pm on Friday 26th February.

Verdict:

Co-codamol - bollocks!

Gas and Air - fantastic, just go easy

Epidural - wonderful

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