the arrival of Jackson

**mel_thekiwimum** · October 4th, 2007, 07:42 PM

Jackson's arrival

I had been told by my midwife and a lot of my close friends that it looked and felt like my baby's head wasn't engaged so our darling child would probably not arrive on time and would be late - both myself, my husband, my brother and brother in law were all late arrivals so I thought all these family genes would go against me, I also wanted every pain killer available as I don't handle pain too well at all

the week before Jackson was due I had a midwife appointment on the Friday, the midwife said the head was brimming into the pelvis so think about doing all the things to bring labour on such as having sex, eating curry etc so I cheekily told my husband this and we both laughed thinking it would never work. On monday night we ordered takeaway curry from a local restaurant and I scoffed it down as I have with any food during my entire pregnancy (I didn't get morning sickness just morning hunger!!!!)

Tuesday morning I had a show and called my mum in excitement, I then called the hospital and they asked me to come in just to check my waters hadn't broken, I'd had a few contractions but thought they were just braxton hicks as they weren't that painful and not very regular. The midwife told me my waters hadn't broken (as I thought) and advised me to go home and sleep (which I did)

Tuesday night around 8pm the contractions started to get worse and more painful - I called the hospital again and they said to stay at home, take some panadol, time them and if they were 2-3 minutes apart to call them back, I tried to time them but they were still irregular but getting more painful but I distracted myself with watching the wimbledon tennis (I think I now understand the rules)

after a sleepless few hours I crawled into bed next to my husband - dozed off for a while then woke up after feeling a huge gush of my waters breaking at 5am Wednesday morning OMG, called the hospital and they told me to come in but to take my time, have a long shower and have something to eat (yeah right like I could eat!!!) my husband did manage to force me to have half a piece of toast and a milo

when we got to the birthing unit, they hooked me up to the monitoring machine (CTG I think its called) which showed my contractions were regular and that the baby was fine, being in a public hospital had a few different midwives in and out which was a bit disconcerting at first but we soon got used to it. Each midwife said it looked as tho I was still in very early labour and told me that it could still be tomorrow (Thursday) before my baby came into the world - not one midwife did an internal so I had no idea if I had even started dilating so took their word for it and tried to breathe my way through each contraction - witout much success (as I said earlier I don't do pain!)

after giving me a couple of panadeine they sent me to the maternity ward on the next floor down as this was supposed to be more comfortable - once I got there the midwife asked me if I wanted a shower to help with the pain so I managed to get in the shower which was the best thing in the world - I tried to get out about 5 times but each time a contraction came along I'd turn the water back on (I think I was in there for over an hour - sorry to Sydney Water!!!)

I then began to feel a huge urge to push, which was getting stronger by the second, I mnaged to get out of the shower and stumbled back to the bed - the midwife came in and strapped me to the monitor again - took a quick look at the readout and then said we better get you back upstairs - the midwife put me in a wheelchair and with my mum and husband rushing behind me we got back to the delivery suite

Our lovely midwife who shall remain namless then finally did an internal exam and said well do you want the good news or the bad news, the good news was that I was fully dilated the bad news was I then had to get this baby out

the time was 1:30 pm and the midwife and my husband helped me onto my hands and knees and I began to push - it was the hardest work I had ever done in my life - but with each contraction and push I could feel the baby coming down and I knew I was closer to meeting my child - during this time the midwife and my husband were all laughing and cracking jokes and I had no idea at all what was happening - I just knew to push when the contraction came and rest in between

finally after around an hour and a half our little BOY made his arrival - he was 2.84 kg (6 lb 4 oz) and was 51cm long a little bit wrinkled but the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen - we named him Jackson (our little kiwi born in Australia)

so I managed the entire labour on 2 panadeine forte - I was certainly pretty pleased with myself and think that I was very lucky to have a relatively short labour!!!

Jackson is now 3 months old so I'm amazed I remember this so clearly!!!
thanks to all the other mums for their amazing stories!!!
Mel and Jackson

**aussienic** · October 4th, 2007, 08:17 PM

lovely story

and congrats!!

nicolle · October 5th, 2007, 11:20 AM

Well done! Thanks for a great birth story.

**Dragonbub** · October 6th, 2007, 02:20 PM

Beautiful story, so much for not "doing" pain huh? Well done,

**mel_thekiwimum** · October 8th, 2007, 09:54 AM

thanks for all your kind congrats
yeah - I think I had more pain relief when I had my wisdom teeth out
forgot to say that I did have to have a few stitches afterwards - but I didn't even notice in the moment of seeing my little boy for the first time
M