More....

OK--here is my birth story for DD1-- Its kind of weird, because everything that I was frightened of about labor ended up happening to me. But it was all just fine and nowhere near as bad as I could have imagined.

I woke up on New Years Day at 5am, having contractions 5 minutes apart. After an hour or so I rang the hospital, who said to give it a while and have a bath and ring when they were stronger and closer together. So I bathed and sat on the birthing ball until 9am, when I decided to wake hubby. He was really excited and funny trying to get ready--He was wandering around trying to decide what to wear and ironing shirts, which cracked me up. By 10 my contractions were 3 minutes apart so we rang the hospital and set off. They were strong pains but I could breathe through them. But when we got to the hospital and they checked me out, I was only 1.5 cm dialated, but 100% effaced. So the midwife said we might be best to leave for a while and let things progress, otherwise I would be depressed hanging around the hospital waiting all day. So we went home via Tesco, where we bought a copy of Knocked UP to watch while we waited for things to move along. The contractions got stronger and by the time the movie was finished I was crying with the pain, and felt I couldn't breathe through it anymore. It was 40 minutes back to the hospital, by which time I was doubled over in half every 3 minutes, so it took ages to get up to the ward. But when I got there, the midwife was great and handed me gas and air within about a minute and two contractions later I was happy as I could be. It was dark outside, so I think it was 5 or 6 by that point. After that it all got to be a bit of a blur--the gas was great but after a while I was in lots of pain again--it was back labor because the baby was facing the wrong way. There were no epidural machines available, so they offered me Pethidine, which I took gratefully. At the time, they told me I would say it didn't work, which was true. I felt like it made me stupid and dopey, and apparently I was saying some really really funny things, but I was still in lots of pain. So when an epidural came available, I jumped for it, even though I had always been terrified at the thought. The good thing was that the pethidine relaxed me so much that I didn't even feel the epidural and wasn't aware of it at all. In fact, I wasn't really aware of much after that. I know they told me it was time to push and that when my waters broke there was meconium in them. I was dimly aware that there was a problem and that the pedeatrician and several other people were in the room. My husband could tell that I wasn't really understanding what was happening, so he took the gas and air away from me so I could sober up--the midwife told me that I had to get the baby out and needed an episiotomy and maybe some suction. That was it--I couldn't feel contractions or pushing but I was determined to get the baby out quick so I just kept bearing down with everyithing I had. At 3.42 I felt a pop, and the baby's head was out--with a cord wrapped twice around her neck, which had caused the problem. After that, the rest was simple. She cried a minute later and her Apgar went from 4 to 7. They handed her to me and she latched on and started feeding instantly--it couldn't have been easier. It makes me cry now just thinking about it. Overall, it was hard and painful and scary--but all of that was gone the moment I had her and when I look back at the labor, I wouldn't change a thing. (Well, ok. I could do without the episiotomy AND the urethral tear--my undercarriage has more stitchwork than a patchwork quilt!)

Hoping for a happy baby in the new year, & getting all the sleep I can before then!

--ART BZOINK.COM SURVEY CO-->