On the 24th of January, at 38+6 weeks, I decided that I’d had enough with being pregnant, so ordered DH to make a spicy chicken curry for dinner in the hopes that it would get things moving…..
On the 25th of January I woke up at about 2am with what I initially thought were period pains. After a few minutes I realised that I shouldn't be getting period pains as I am pregnant and when I thought about it I realised that they were coming and going about 10 mins. I got a little excited but had heard so much about labour starting and then going away that as much as I liked to think it was 'it', didn't want to get my hopes up. That being said, I stayed awake for a couple of hours timing them (I wanted to make sure they weren't going away lol) and then eventually fell asleep (or should I say dozed???) and woke again around 6.
When I woke my immediate thought was “are the 'contractions' (or what I assumed were contractions) still coming?”. I realised they were and started timing again and they were then around 5-7 mins apart. DH woke at about 6:45 to get ready for work and I told him that today may be the day but things probably wouldn't happen for a while yet. At 7:30 when he was about to leave for work I rang the hospital (just to check he should go) and they said that since I could still talk through them and they weren't painful as far as I was concerned that something 'may' be starting but DH could go to work, but just have his phone handy. They suggested calling back in a few hours.
When DH got to work his boss heard that I was having contractions and sent him home. He arrived home a little after 9am. We thought we'd watch a movie to help pass the time. Somewhere between 10-10:30am things started to get a bit more 'ouchy'. I could still talk through the contractions but I found that it was more comfortable to stand up and walk around when they were coming (around every 3ish mins). When the movie finished at 10:45 I rang the hospital to check back in and they said that as I'd tested positive for strep B to come in and they would check how things were going.
We arrived a little after 11am and left the bag in the car as we half expected to be sent back home (after all, things weren't as 'ouchy' as they should be if you were about to have a baby!). So, I walked into the labour room with my handbag and a bottle of water and DH and I sat on the couch and stayed far away from the bed sitting in the middle of the room. The midwife soon had me on it though so they could monitor the baby and my contractions (I secretly rekon just to check they were actually coming as I really still didn’t feel like I seemed as if I was going to have a baby anytime soon). After about 15 mins I asked if I could please stand as it helped with the contractions, I couldn’t wait to be unhooked from the machine so I could actually walk around!
Just before 12 I was unhooked and the obstetrician came in. I was given antibiotics for the strep b and was then ‘checked’ to see how dilated I was. I was really hoping to be at least 3-4cm as I didn’t want to go back home. To my surprise (and to what seemed to be a surprised obstetrician and midwife) I was 8cm dilated! I felt pretty good that I’d not only got to this stage so quickly but with what I considered to be not much pain. My waters were then broken and the pain hit. To me it was like you’d hurt yourself and just don’t know what to do with yourself to take the pain away. I was offered gas but after a couple of puffs I just felt sick so I threw that away. The midwife suggested I get into the shower. She got me a chair and I sat on it and got DH to hold the shower head onto the lower part of my belly (the only place I really had any pain throughout the whole labour). She also gave me back the ‘gas’ which was now turned down so it was just oxygen (it gave me something to distract me with during contractions…..). After about 30 mins (which really didn’t feel like that long at all) I suddenly jolted forward and felt like my body was pushing down and an involuntary grunting noise came out at the same time. DH later said that he could see the baby just ‘drop’ all of a sudden. The midwife heard this and asked if I felt like I needed to push. I said ‘yes’ and I was brought back out to the bed to be checked again. This time I was 10cm dilated so we were able to get the show on the road!
The obstetrician took my ‘gas’ away and told me the best way to get rid of the pain would be to get the baby out. To be honest, I don’t think I pushed very effectively during the first few contractions as I was really nervous about how much it would hurt as the baby actually came out. After a few contractions though I decided I just wanted the baby OUT so gave it all I had. I don’t know how many contractions I had but I only pushed when my body was doing it with me, no matter how encouraging the midwife or obstetrician were to get me to push more often, and in no time the head was out (which actually didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would) and I was told that I needed to pant as they needed to untangle the cord a little. I didn’t do this for long though as my body wanted to push again and she was out, all in the one contraction!
Amelia was born at 1:09pm, after just 3 hours of active labour!
I couldn’t believe it when Amelia was put on my belly! This thing in my stomach was a real-live person, not at all like that small blood clot that I had lost 10 months earlier at just 6 weeks. I was a little worried at first as she was so purple and not doing anything, but apparently she was just a little stunned from being born so quickly. She was soon more alert though and DH and I just marvelled at her for ages!
I did sustain a 2nd degree tear but I had no idea at the time. To be honest, it hurt more having the injection and having it stitched up!
Stats:
Weight: 3.31kg
Length: 52cm
Head circumference: 35.5cm
Thanks for reading
Last edited by chody47; February 17th, 2012 at 12:23 PM.
The speedy arrival of my first baby Amelia
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