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Eve Lily's birth story
Hi, I'm from the Sept 08 forum but my little girl arrived 3 weeks early last Thursday.
Apologies that this is so long!!
I had a routine midwife appt last Tues and the week before she'd said I was measuring small. I was still small (somehow managed to be a cm less!) and blood pressure was high and there was protein in urine so she called the hospital and booked me in for them to monitor me. I went along thinking I'd be there half an hour but luckily threw everything into my hospital bag just in case.
After checking my blood pressure, bloods and monitoring baby's heartbeat for an hour they said I had pre eclampsia and would have to keep me in overnight and then they'd scan the baby in the morning. The scan showed while the baby was the right length, the head and waist circumferences were small. At this point my and my husband were in bits, after a textbook pregnancy everything was suddenly going wrong and we were terrified the measurements on the scan meant something was wrong with the baby's development. We sat there for 2 hours until a doctor came and explained the baby was fine but just a small baby and probably the weight was being affected by my blood pressure. They said they wanted to induce me so at 5.00 pm on the 13th I was taken onto labour ward.
The midwives on the ward were great but warned me it probably wouldn't work first time and if it didn't they'd give me gel again the following morning so I resigned myself to being there a couple of days.
They gave me the gel at 6.00pm and 5 mins later I was having contractions although again they'd warned me I'd get practice contractions because of the gel but they'd porbably have to break my waters and put me on a drip before the real thing. Because of my blood pressure they constantly had me on a monitor but I talked them into letting me bounce on a birth ball next to the monitor. While I was bouncing the contractions got more intense and were only afew minutes apart and I couldn't beleive this wasn't the real thing. I asked for pain relief as I couldn't cope much longer and everyone was telling me it was gonna get much worse than this, I was thinking well if it's gonna get alot worse there's no way I can do it. Eventually the midwife said she'd get me some paracetamol.
A doctor came in to see how things were going and the midwife explained I was finding the contractions really painful and she'd examine me soon and see if I'd dilated at all. I had a contraction while he was there and he dismissed it and said if I was in labour the contraction would be alot longer and I'd be in much more pain, again I was thinking oh my god how bad is this gonna get!!
About half an hour after I'd been given the gel I was sat on the birth ball and got a really strong contraction and then felt a sensation like an elastic band twanging. Shortly after I felt like I really had to go to the toilet and was begging them to get me off the monitor so I could go, I just got there and felt a trickle that I was sure must be my waters. The midwife gave me a pad and when she rechecked it she said yes my waters had gone then examined me and said I was 4cm dilated and definately in labour, she laughed and said I'd proven the doctor wrong and must just have a high pain threshold, she said I should have some pain relief (finally) and recommended pethidine and gas & air.
After that everything is abit of a blur as the pethidine kicked in straight away and I was falling asleep between contractions and the gas & air made me feel like I was really drunk. I can remember talking to my husband and forgetting what I was saying halfway through a sentence. I know some people don't like to feel they aren't in control but the pethidine and gas & air really worked for me, the time flew by and they made me focus less on the pain.
The next thing I remember is at about 11.30 the midwife examined me again and she looked shocked and said ok you're fully dilated. I felt abit panicky thinking this was gonna be the really painful bit but the pushing was probably more tiring than painful. We held off as best we could cos I told the midwife I wanted the baby to be born on the 14th rather than 13th, we just made it and my little girl was born at 12.27am.
It was abit scary cos they rushed off to give her oxygen but she was fine and we met Eve who was only 4lb 1oz. They then had to take her off to special care and the midwife gave me a couple of stitches as I'd torn naturally (which I didn't feel happen).
The worst part of the whole thing wasn't giving birth but the examination I had afterwards. After my stitches they said I was still bleeding and didn't know why. A doctor then examined me without any pain releif, he just told me to suck on the gas and air. The pain was terrible and I tried to grin and bear it thinking if he got on with it he'd be able to sort out the bleeding but after a few minuted I screamed at him to stop. He then announced I needed to be taken to theatre and they'd do an epidural so they could find what was causing the bleeding.
Next thing there was a commotion next to me and hubby had fainted!!! He was only out for a few seconds and there were loads of nurses round him offering him toast. I couldn't beleive it cos he's a police officer and used to seeing alot worse but he later said he'd seen what the doctor was doing during the examination and then when they said I'd be taken to theatre he could feel himself panicking, bless him.
Anyway they gave me an epidural (I was really pleased I'd not needed one for the birth so was abit annoyed I ended up with one anyway but never mind) and I was in theatre about 40 minutes while they removed a clot.
I was fine afterwards and had to stay in hospital a couple of days so they could monitor my blood pressure and now I feel fine and my sticthes are just abit uncomfortable sometimes but not painful. Eve is still in special care but is absolutely fine other than her low weight. She was weighed today and has put on 5oz and should be able to come home this weekend.
For anyone scared about giving birth like I say being examined afterwards was far worse and most people probably won't have that happen, while you're pushing the thought of meeting your baby keeps you going through the tiredness. Everything in my birth plan went completely out of the window (I wanted to stay active but was on a monitor the whole time and wanted to use birth pool but wasn't allowed to and I'd had a hypnotherapy session booked for that day that had to be cacelled!) but in the end I didn't care cos all that mattered was my baby arriving safely.
Good luck to everyone else.
Leanne xx
Apologies that this is so long!!
I had a routine midwife appt last Tues and the week before she'd said I was measuring small. I was still small (somehow managed to be a cm less!) and blood pressure was high and there was protein in urine so she called the hospital and booked me in for them to monitor me. I went along thinking I'd be there half an hour but luckily threw everything into my hospital bag just in case.
After checking my blood pressure, bloods and monitoring baby's heartbeat for an hour they said I had pre eclampsia and would have to keep me in overnight and then they'd scan the baby in the morning. The scan showed while the baby was the right length, the head and waist circumferences were small. At this point my and my husband were in bits, after a textbook pregnancy everything was suddenly going wrong and we were terrified the measurements on the scan meant something was wrong with the baby's development. We sat there for 2 hours until a doctor came and explained the baby was fine but just a small baby and probably the weight was being affected by my blood pressure. They said they wanted to induce me so at 5.00 pm on the 13th I was taken onto labour ward.
The midwives on the ward were great but warned me it probably wouldn't work first time and if it didn't they'd give me gel again the following morning so I resigned myself to being there a couple of days.
They gave me the gel at 6.00pm and 5 mins later I was having contractions although again they'd warned me I'd get practice contractions because of the gel but they'd porbably have to break my waters and put me on a drip before the real thing. Because of my blood pressure they constantly had me on a monitor but I talked them into letting me bounce on a birth ball next to the monitor. While I was bouncing the contractions got more intense and were only afew minutes apart and I couldn't beleive this wasn't the real thing. I asked for pain relief as I couldn't cope much longer and everyone was telling me it was gonna get much worse than this, I was thinking well if it's gonna get alot worse there's no way I can do it. Eventually the midwife said she'd get me some paracetamol.
A doctor came in to see how things were going and the midwife explained I was finding the contractions really painful and she'd examine me soon and see if I'd dilated at all. I had a contraction while he was there and he dismissed it and said if I was in labour the contraction would be alot longer and I'd be in much more pain, again I was thinking oh my god how bad is this gonna get!!
About half an hour after I'd been given the gel I was sat on the birth ball and got a really strong contraction and then felt a sensation like an elastic band twanging. Shortly after I felt like I really had to go to the toilet and was begging them to get me off the monitor so I could go, I just got there and felt a trickle that I was sure must be my waters. The midwife gave me a pad and when she rechecked it she said yes my waters had gone then examined me and said I was 4cm dilated and definately in labour, she laughed and said I'd proven the doctor wrong and must just have a high pain threshold, she said I should have some pain relief (finally) and recommended pethidine and gas & air.
After that everything is abit of a blur as the pethidine kicked in straight away and I was falling asleep between contractions and the gas & air made me feel like I was really drunk. I can remember talking to my husband and forgetting what I was saying halfway through a sentence. I know some people don't like to feel they aren't in control but the pethidine and gas & air really worked for me, the time flew by and they made me focus less on the pain.
The next thing I remember is at about 11.30 the midwife examined me again and she looked shocked and said ok you're fully dilated. I felt abit panicky thinking this was gonna be the really painful bit but the pushing was probably more tiring than painful. We held off as best we could cos I told the midwife I wanted the baby to be born on the 14th rather than 13th, we just made it and my little girl was born at 12.27am.
It was abit scary cos they rushed off to give her oxygen but she was fine and we met Eve who was only 4lb 1oz. They then had to take her off to special care and the midwife gave me a couple of stitches as I'd torn naturally (which I didn't feel happen).
The worst part of the whole thing wasn't giving birth but the examination I had afterwards. After my stitches they said I was still bleeding and didn't know why. A doctor then examined me without any pain releif, he just told me to suck on the gas and air. The pain was terrible and I tried to grin and bear it thinking if he got on with it he'd be able to sort out the bleeding but after a few minuted I screamed at him to stop. He then announced I needed to be taken to theatre and they'd do an epidural so they could find what was causing the bleeding.
Next thing there was a commotion next to me and hubby had fainted!!! He was only out for a few seconds and there were loads of nurses round him offering him toast. I couldn't beleive it cos he's a police officer and used to seeing alot worse but he later said he'd seen what the doctor was doing during the examination and then when they said I'd be taken to theatre he could feel himself panicking, bless him.
Anyway they gave me an epidural (I was really pleased I'd not needed one for the birth so was abit annoyed I ended up with one anyway but never mind) and I was in theatre about 40 minutes while they removed a clot.
I was fine afterwards and had to stay in hospital a couple of days so they could monitor my blood pressure and now I feel fine and my sticthes are just abit uncomfortable sometimes but not painful. Eve is still in special care but is absolutely fine other than her low weight. She was weighed today and has put on 5oz and should be able to come home this weekend.
For anyone scared about giving birth like I say being examined afterwards was far worse and most people probably won't have that happen, while you're pushing the thought of meeting your baby keeps you going through the tiredness. Everything in my birth plan went completely out of the window (I wanted to stay active but was on a monitor the whole time and wanted to use birth pool but wasn't allowed to and I'd had a hypnotherapy session booked for that day that had to be cacelled!) but in the end I didn't care cos all that mattered was my baby arriving safely.
Good luck to everyone else.
Leanne xx
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Replies
Anyway congrats again and enjoy. K x
God bless
xxx
Han xx
19 days to go