After 2 weeks of putting it off, I decided to start Colby’s Birth Story today and haven’t been able to stop. Sorry that it is so long but I just wanted to get in every detail for myself! Hope you enjoy.
This pregnancy had been a very hard and draining journey but beautiful all the same. The pregnancy was planned but not planned to happen so soon after the birth of my first daughter, Briley, only 4 months before. Right from the beginning the pregnancy was totally different to my first.
I took my first pregnancy test at 15 days past ovulation and found a very faint positive. I decided to take another test in the morning to see if a stronger positive result would come up. The morning test was just as faint as the one the day before so I decided to make an appointment with the Dr.
At the Doctors a test was taken and the test again showed a very faint positive so I was sent for a blood test. The first came back that I was pregnant but that my HCG levels were low so I was sent for another which showed an increase in HCG. After a second blood test came back showing a definite rise in HCG, I finally let myself celebrate the pregnancy.
Things ran smoothly until the 23 week. DP was leaving for a new fly in fly out mining job one morning when I noticed I was getting mild period like pains that were coming and going. I mentioned this to DP but didn’t take any notice of it. It wasn’t until after the plane had left that I noticed that pains were coming with tightenings. I called the Birth Suite at the hospital and was told to come in straight away.
Once at the hospital I was given an internal to check my cervix. It was found that my cervix was softening and that I could be going into pre-term labour. I was very shocked and quite upset. I was told that because the baby was so pre-term that nothing would be done to stop labour if it started and that nothing would be given to help the baby mature while still inside the womb. The rate of survival of a 23 week old foetus is 50/50. However on the 2’nd day I was given steroid injections to try and mature the baby’s lungs. Why the change of decision I do not know.
Luckily for me nothing progressed from the tightenings and period type pains and I was diagnosed with an Irritable Uterus. Something of which I had never heard of. I was to have 2 more of these hospital stays after this one but real labour never eventuated.
From there things continued on the same path. Continuous pain and tightening right up until the day the baby was born. I had many, many visits to the birth suite for various things and was known on first name basis with all the midwives!! Even the receptionist who worked business hours knew who I was. She knew my voice as soon as I would speak and would ask how many weeks I was up to now and how I was going. Lovely of her I thought.
As the due date approached I had several false alarms and was completely and utterly over the experience. I felt that my body had worked so hard to keep the baby in there that long and I was just tired. By the time my due date came I was totally exhausted. So exhausted I was dreading the day labour came and was scared that I wouldn’t cope.
The week of my due date I had yet another false alarm where I thought my waters had broken. I had felt a trickle of fluid followed later by mild contractions. A speculum was done and my cervix was found to be closed tight and that my waters hadn’t broken after all. I was very disappointed to be sent home and made it my mission to try and bring on labour naturally at home.
DP’s aunty is a remedial massage therapist. So on the day before my due date I asked her up to my house for a massage and to try and hit some pressure points to bring on labour. The massage was excruciating but obviously had some effect as the next morning I woke at 6.45am to a strong contraction. I also remembered that I had been having some throughout the night. This contraction made me feel like moving my bowels which made me think maybe something was happening.
The contractions were not regular at all so I paid no attention to them. Then at 7.30am I had DP start timing them and I had my first real contraction which was followed by another one a minute and a half later. They were lasting 1-1 ½ minutes long. This continued and I then knew this was it because I was having to rock through the contractions. I was a little worried at how close they coming together and the length of them.
So we got up and into action after this. MIL was called to meet us half way to collect Briley and then off to the hospital we went. Our house is a 40 minute drive to the hospital and by the time we got there I was in quite a bit of pain. The contractions were still coming at the same pace and rate but were much more intense now. I had arranged to meet my mum at the front of the hospital and she had got a midwife to come down with a wheel chair for me! I don’t think I could have walked anyways. I was crying through some of the contractions now and walking would have made it all worse.
We arrived at the birth suite at 9.30am where I met my midwife Katie. I was taken straight to a labour room. Due to the closeness of my contraction Katie thought that things were going to happen quite quickly. However at 10.15am an internal was done and to my disappointment I was found to only be 1-2cm dilated. I had an eternity to go. I was set up on the monitor and it showed that bub was happy as larry.
Earlier on DP had given my birth plan to Katie. I had said that I wanted a natural drug-free birth with minimal interventions so Katie suggested I hop in the bath for a while. I agreed and was in there for half an hour or so but found that sitting just made the contractions to unbearable. By this time I knew that standing was the only way that I would make it through the labour. Lying down was just too painful. The contractions seemed to be 10 times more intense. This was hard as I was very tired and sore from standing so much. I was just looking at the bed wanting to lie down but knew that it would just be too painful.
So I just laboured away breathing, crying, moaning, yelling, and sometimes screaming, through the contractions. I had great support from my family and Katie. They praised me constantly and talked me through the bad contractions. Katie was a wonderful midwife. She was always asking me if I wanted to do this or that to help with the pain but never being too forceful or annoying. At times I would just look at her while I was hurting so bad and she would just say softly “You’re doing so well”. I really needed to hear things like that.
For a long time I kept saying “I can’t do it anymore” and “I just want it to be over”. I don’t know if I was going through transition at these times. I think I was just so tired before labour had started that the labour itself was just too much. Even though I would say these things pain relief never crossed my mind. I was dead set on having my natural birth. My mum would sometimes say “Just have some pethidine Sara” but I just wouldn’t. She was never forceful either though. She just didn’t want to see me in that much pain. I can remember at one point Brent saying I was making mum cry.
At around 12.30 Katie left for a lunch break and another midwife came in to keep and eye on me. I don’t remember this midwifes name but she just stood there quietly also talking me through my contractions. After a while I asked her if we could break my waters as they hadn’t broken on their own yet. I was sure that the bag of waters was what was slowing the baby from moving down. She said that I had to wait for Katie to come back.
Finally Katie came back and we spoke about breaking my waters. She was happy to break them but was worried that it might cause baby’s heart rate to play up. She agreed to do it if when she checked me I was fully dilated. So an internal was done and I was found to be fully dilated and she went ahead and broke my waters. I was so shocked at how much fluid came out. There was lots and lots and lots. It felt as though someone had turned on a hose with warm water and left it running between my legs. After seeing the amount that came out I was sure that the baby had to be a little one as I had carried so big this pregnancy. Much bigger than Briley anyway.
To my disappointment, after breaking my waters, Katie announces that the bag of waters was bulging so much it was holding open my cervix. Now because we had broken the waters I had gone backwards and was no only 8-9cm dilated!!! I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t take anymore. Again going through the ‘I can’t do this anymore’. Finally I gave in and decided to lie down on the bed to give my back a break. I was having terrible back labour which was later found to be from bub being posterior.
While on the bed I was having terribly painful contractions and with one I finally got the urge to push. I did one little push and felt the head their straight away. Throughout my pregnancy I knew that I had wanted to give birth squatting either on the bed or on the floor. Because Briley was also posterior I had given birth on all fours on the bed and knew the how well it had worked for me. As soon as I felt baby’s head this time I spun around on the bed and knew that this was how I wanted to birth the baby. It was very instinctual.
The urge to push was totally unreal. I didn’t really have much of an urge with Briley. Not as strong as this time anyway. Katie was trying to look for the head and telling me not to push in case I wasn’t fully dilated. There was no way in hell I was not pushing. The babies head was there and I could feel it. Every contraction I pushed even though I was being told not too. My body was telling me too so I went with it. I could feel the baby coming down with every push.
Finally after another contraction, which I pushed through, I was told that I could go ahead and actively push. After several pushes the baby’s head was born at 2.41pm. Looking back now I can’t believe how much control I had birthing the babies head. I just gave little pushes which slowly brang the head out. As much as it was hurting I had so much control. I am very proud of that moment.
I stayed that way, with the babies head out, for about 2 minutes before I got another contraction. Then with one last contraction, at 2.43pm, I pushed out the rest of the baby. I felt every little bit of the babies body come out. With Briley, once her head was out, I couldn’t feel anything after that and found it a little hard to push out the rest of her body. This baby I felt the whole lot and had great pain afterwards.
The baby cried straight away. This was something that I had wanted to happen all the way through my pregnancy. Briley had been a quiet baby when she was born, from the effects of the pethidine I am sure. Brent then came in to cut the cord and I was asked to take my baby. We then realised no-one had announced the sex of the baby and we checked and found we had another beautiful little girl. Colby Jayne.
Colby was passed around to me where I looked in awe at what I had helped create. She was covered in so much vernix and was whimpering away. I then turned back around and placed her on my chest for skin to skin contact. While we waited for the placenta to arrive we gave her the first feed. She latched on straight away. Another thing that I hadn’t achieved with Briley’s birth. Again I relate this to the effects of the pethidine.
I continued to hold onto Colby until things started to take a turn for the worst. I was so very sore and still hadn’t birth the placenta 25 minutes after I had had her. Even after having the syntocin injection and breast feeding. The staff were massaging my stomach and trying to pull out the placenta but I just wouldn’t come. Several doctors came in and were also trying to pull it out but it was no use. By this time I was beginning to lose quite a lot of blood. And after another pull on the cord it snapped. It was decided that the placenta would need to be removed manually.
Everyone went into panic mode now. The doctors were trying to put a cannular in my hand but my veins were bad due to the blood loss. They were trying to organise a theatre and whatever else. I wasn’t really panicky as I was too tired and exhausted. I just wanted to go to sleep but was being told to stay awake. I think they might have taken Colby away from me now and given her to Brent. Everything is a haze now.
I do remember that even though she was mean to finish at 3pm, Katie stayed with me until after I was handed over to the theatre nurses. She even came down to visit me on the ward the next day. She was a great midwife and I am very glad to have had her looking after me.
I lost 1 litre of blood and I was given a blood transfusion the next day. The was a disaster as well because my veins were still deflated and it was too painful to get through the full 4 bag of blood they wanted. We managed to get 3. Because of this it will take me 3-6 months to get back to normal. Lucky for me I didn’t have any tearing or grazing down below.
Colby was fine until day 2 when she started showing signs of jaundice. After some blood was taken they showed that her bilirubin levels were high. So she was placed on the “billi bed” for the remainder of our 5 day stay. She also had to have an ultrasound on her lower back as she had a tuff of hair and a dimple at the top of her bum crack. These are both possible early signs of spina bifida. The ultrasound showed that everything was fine thank god. Briley did have the same thing but not as bad. And so do I. The poor girls must inherit this from me!
Everything is going well for us now. The breastfeeding is going wonderfully. I only managed to breastfeed Briley for 1 month and really wanted it to work out this time. Colby is a great feeder. She latches on perfectly every time. We went for out 5-10 day check-up the other day and she had put of 200grams since birth. She was never weighed on discharge so I wasn’t able to manage her weight loss when we went home. 200gram weight gain is great though.
Briley has adjusted well to Colby. She is a little rough at times but that is only because she is too young to understand. She gives Colby lots of cuddles. The first week home was quite tough for me. I broke down to a friend about my anxieties for Briley. I was sad for her really. Sad that I hadn’t let Briley have “her time”. She is still a baby. And here I was bringing home another baby. All normal feelings I suppose.
Well this birth story has definitely turned into a novel so I better end it here. Colby is a wonderful content baby and a joy to add to our family. There will be a bit of a gap to the next baby so I am enjoying her as much as I can. I am cherishing those newborn moments.
I hope you enjoyed my birth story. Thank you for reading this far!
oh Sara thanks so much for sharing your birth story, what a wonderful story to read! yuo did such a fantatic brave strong job, a prosterior birth with no drugs! Colby is beautiful just like her big sister, well done!
I can't believe Colby came on her / "our" due date!! My little man was in a hurry to get out! I know how you feel with the blood loss though... mine wasn't as bad as yours but I am on iron tablets (I was nervous about a blood transfusion... I had so many needles etc I didnt' want anything else jabbed in me!) to get my levels back up as they dropped to 72. I am sure you will bounce back quickly though!!
Yes the placenta experince was quite scary. At the time though i was so tired the full effect of what was happening did'nt really occour to me. The really scary thing is that apparently i have a risk of it happening again next time!! At least then i will be prepared for the possibility of it!
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Colby Jayne's Birth Story - 3 August 2007
She is gorgeous!
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