Abby Rose's Entrance - 4/9/07

[totalfrog]

After many days of prelabour and being 9 days past my EDD i finally consented to having my waters broken. TBH I had well and truly had enough of being pregnant!! When I got to the hospital the midwife told me that I would be having my waters broken and that I was being given the drip AND that I would be hooked up to the stupid monitoring equipment for the entire duration of my labour. In response to this I got up, packed up and threatened to leave!! They quickly backed down and accepted the fact that I was only going to have my waters broken and that I would not be hooked up to any stupid machines.

The Dr came in ruptured my membranes and smugly told me that she would be back with the drip in an hour and a half , because there was no way that ARM would be enough to establish labour. I got up and commenced laps of the labour ward with my mum and I think by the third lap I was getting fairly decent contractions (the sort that really take your breath away!!).

We went back to my room where DH was happily reading the paper not expecting any kind of action at that point. He was shocked to see me breathing through a contraction as I came in the room but he was happy as he didn't want me to have the drip and the monitors either (I have a very supportive hubby ).

A student midwife came in and timed my contractions - they were 2 minutes apart and lasting for one minute. All up it had taken just under an hour to get into established labour.

Mum and DH took turns cooling me down with cold cloths and rubbing my back. I kept on fiddling with my hair so mum hunted down some elastic bands and put it up for me without me even having to ask (I don't know why but this stands out!!)Smug Dr came back in about an hour into established labour and told me that in "early" labour that I could use the bath they had and that it was great for niggling early contractions.
The midwife waited until she was out of the room and told DH that there was no way I would be getting in the bath as they didn't do water births and bubs was well and truly on the way. Mum said her and DH were glad to hear that because if I was only having little niggling contractions then mum was wondering how anyone could get through the big ones!! This Dr seemed unable to accept the fact that ARM had been enough to get me into the swing of things.

That is about the last clear memory I have because once transition kicked in I went a little bit nuts and screamed at everyone to help me everytime I had a contraction. Luckily mum and DH knew that I really didn't want pain relief or I think they would have tried to talk me into it at that point. I didn't even notice the midwives setting everything up for the delivery, I for some reason assumed that there were hours to go when in reality bubs was just about to start crowning!!
Two really easy pushes later and she was out and I couldn't believe that it was over.

The midwives I had were great once my labour began. There were no VE's, they monitored my labour with their hands and the doppler instead of the dreaded CTG and there was no talk of centimetres and no directed pushing. They told DH that once I couldn't control the urge to push that would be the time to start and not before. (totally different from the birth of my first daughter when they told me to start pushing before I had the urge to and it took two hours to push her out!!)

I spent the entire labour upright, walking around, bouncing on the fitball or in the shower. I only got up on the bed for the two pushes it took for Abby to come out and only because I just felt I couldn't do it standing up. All up it took 3 hours. I required no drugs and Abby weighed just under 10lb. I was proud of myself for standing my ground and amazed that it was all over so quickly!!