Born: Sunday 22nd July 2007 via emergency C-S with Spinal
Time: 11.41pm
Weight 5lb 12oz
Gestation: 36+2 wks
Length: 50.5cm
HC: 33.5cm
We named you Lucas after your uncle who passed away from leukemia in January 2007. Unbelievably, you also arrived into the world on what would have been his 24th birthday 22nd July 2007.
On the morning of 22nd July 2007 we were going out to take flowers to Uncle Lucas’ memorial at the cemetery. As we were going to pass the hospital on the way, I’d arranged to pop in for a CTG scan as you had been really quiet all week in my tummy. This was unusual for you as you were such an active baby so we thought we’d just have a quick check as we were going out past the hospital that morning.
After two hours on the CTG machine and an internal, the doctor decided to send us to John Hunter Hospital where you were due to be born the following week. The CTG scan showed that you were active but your heart rate was not responding as it should, and the internal showed that I was 1cm dilated and the doctor thought I’d probably go into full labour before I was due to be induced.
At 4pm the air ambulance arrived to fly me to Newcastle. Daddy made the mad race home to grab my bags and then he drove down arriving only 10 minutes after me at John Hunter Hospital at 7pm. Needless to say we never made it to the cemetery that day!
At JHH I was taken to labour and delivery and hooked back up to the machine for another two hours. It was determined I had polyhydramnios via ultrasound (excess amniotic fluid), and the results of the CTG were still unfavourable. So at this point the doctor looked at me, and I will never forget, said “Will I be ruining any natural labour dreams if I send you for an emergency caesarian?” It was so sweet of him to ask but I was really not looking forward to an induced labour so my answer was a resounding “No!” Also it was obvious it was better for you to be born without delay.
So as I was prepped for the surgery, Dad donned his surgical greens, which were actually blue, and then we chatted with our beautiful midwife Fiona while we waited to be taken away for the birth. I also want to say at this point that I had never felt so calm in all my life. The whole day I had experienced this amazing sense of peace and I had the biggest smile on my face and so did Daddy. I will never forget how calm and peaceful I felt that day.
Anyway the time for the birth came, it must have been after 11pm and I was wheeled into theatre to have a spinal block. I sat up on the edge of the bed and curled up into a ball and the anesthetist lady injected me with some local anesthetic while I squeezed the living daylights out of DP's hands, this is the only part that hurt a bit. It took immediate effect so the spinal itself was painless.
They laid me back down and I started to feel really sleepy. The spinal also had an 8 hour dose of morphine in it so I guess this is why. The anesthetist then put ice blocks on various places of my legs and asked me if I could feel it, and when she was satisfied I couldn’t they wheeled me into the operating room.
Ten minutes later, at 11.41pm 22nd July 2007, I heard my baby’s first cry and it was the best sound in the whole world. At this point I was shaking like a leaf due to the spinal, I could have been cold too, but the stuff made me shiver uncontrollably. DP came over to me when they started to put me back together and said, “He has huge hands and feet and he is absolutely gorgeous”. I kept smiling at everyone around me but no-one would smile back, until I felt nauseous and spewed that is. But I was smiling again afterwards. The whole birth took only 35 minutes from start to finish, was totally pain free, and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
Then they bought they baby over so I could have a one second look and I touched his soft little head before they whisked him off for his own surgery to repair his gastroschisis. They were about to transfer me onto my hospital bed when I said to the man on my left “You’d better move mate”, and I spewed again which was weird as I couldn’t feel anything from my chest up and I was flat on my back! After I was done I felt great again and was taken down to recovery until I could wiggle my big toe (about an hour?) and then down to the post-natal ward.
At first they thought that they would not be able to do a primary repair of Lucas’ gastroschisis as they said there was a lot more bowel exposed than they expected. But at about 4am the surgeon came to me and said the surgery was complete and they were able to do a primary closure after all. They suctioned all the gunk and fluid out of the bowel and everything fit in perfectly.
Come 7am I was ready to get up. I had not slept and wanted to go and see my baby but the nurse said I had to wait 11 hours after the spinal so at 11am I made the nurse remove my cathedar and clean me up and off I went. I stayed on heavy pain killers for the first 3 days then they started to wean me off them depending on which nurse I had. The overnight nurses were the worst, which was also when they pain was worse. I would never have seen Lucas if not for the painkillers as it was a very long walk to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)!
I was discharged on day 8 from the hospital and I stayed at Ronald McDonald House until on day 16 we were finally able to take Lucas home, then after one night in the local hospital we were able to take him home when he was 17 days old.
I am so proud of my little man for going though what he had to in his first weeks of life. He was in a lot of pain the first few days but recovered beautifully and was breastfeeding by day 10. The staff in NICU were amazing and Lucas was a bit of a favourite with the nurses with his cheeky grin and head full of beautiful dark hair. He was so brave and we are so lucky to be chosen as his mummy and daddy.
He is doing great at home and is a wonderful baby to care for. He is content to sleep between booby feeds or look around the room with his big dark eyes that we are yet to know the true colour of. I just went to check on him and he opened his eyes, smiled at me, and then went back to sleep. Ahh what a blissful baby, hopefully things stay this way!!
I've been thinking about you wondering where you have been!
I'm so pleased to read it all went so well, what a lovely birth story. Sounds like you were in the best of hands too. That's so special that Lucas came on his Uncle's birthday
I've had Fiona look after me before, she is just a beautiful person, I'm so so glad to read it was a positive experience under the circumstances.
I look forward to reading about little Lucas's babyhood!
i just wanted to say congrats on the birth of your beautiful son Lucas and I'm sure his uncle will be very proud.
I'm not sure if you remember me but i used to be friends with your older brother Ben... (if not, i probably have the wrong person).. it was about 7 years ago we used to hang out all the time and then i moved away.
Thanks Sirenz and I will tell Ben I bumped into you here on BB!
Fiona was an excellent midwife! So friendly and gentle it would have been amazing to have her if I was actually in labour. She was there for the us during the caesarian though, supporting me and DP. I gave her the biggest hug when I saw her in nicu a few days later and she said she had been thinking of Lucas all weekend wanting to know how he was.
Great to hear from you alana and I will definatley keep an ear out for anyone needing a trainee doula in the newcastle area, all the best for your studies.
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The Birth Of Lucas Jay
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