My Happy New Year!!!

[little_mrs]

Reading everyone else's birth stories helped me so much during my pregnancy, so i only thought it right to post my own... So grab a cuppa, its long!

To not make this too long, i wont include details of the days leading up to the birth, i was contracting irregularly for pretty much 2 days solid after having my S&S and being 2cm dialated at 40+4 on the morning of Dec 30th.

New Years Eve we decided to go out for dinner and then off to the early (9pm) fireworks with my visiting family, well my contractions were still strong but irregular when we left the house just after 5pm. Sitting in Hogs Breath having dinner i was having to breathe and lean into DH thru the contractions, i'm sure the teenage waiter was crapping himself thinking i was gonna have a baby at the table there! After that we wandered around the Darwin waterfront waiting for the fireworks display (we got there an hour early) and finding a good spot to watch from, but by 8:30pm i was crumpling to the ground in tears with each contraction and they were only 5 mins apart so DH scooped me up and off we went to hospital.

Got to the hospital within about 10 mins and they took one look at me and all bets were on how many minutes after midnight my bub would be born. We got settled in our room, contractions were every 3-4 mins and i was 4cm dialated. DH held hot water on my back in the shower while i rocked on my knees with my arms and head on a fit ball, and we stayed like that for about an hour. Then it was in the same possie wrapped in a sheet (i had no interest in getting dressed!) on a matress on the floor, DH rocked me back and forth by my hips each contraction, my god the rocking made all the difference. We tried the tens machine on my lower back but the second it touched my skin i was screaming to get it off me! Another thing that made a huge difference with my dealing with the pain was music, we just had our normal rock/alternative favourite tunes on the iphone and i rekon i just wouldnt have coped without it!
Midnight hit, the new year broke in and DH jumps up saying 'happy new year!' I was mid contraction, and replied loudly with 'GET ME AN EPIDURAL!!!!' The midwife tried to talk me out of it, saying it would slow things down but after an extremely painful internal (because i started contracting halfway thru it) showing i was only just getting to 6cm I didnt care. It took a while to get the epidural after them trying to take blood tests and things first, which took ages coz my contractions were only 2 mins apart lasting around 90seconds each. The epidural took a while to kick in too, but by about 2am i was on the bed still able to feel pressure but not pain, and DH had a kip on the couch while i chatted to the MW for a few hours.
Come around 7:30am it was shift change for the MW's and bad timing for my epidural to start wearing off. The new MW topped it up and started a synto drip. Next internal showed i was 10cm but bub was still fairly high and a bit off-centre. After pushing for the next 1 1/2 hrs and getting nowhere, they decided to up the synto and cut the epidural to speed things up, and next thing i remember they're prepping me for theatre because both me and bub were just too exhausted to keep going.
About an hour later after a snip and forceps (thankfully we didnt need the c-sect they had me ready for just in case) my little girl was placed on my chest for a brief minute before in my exaustion i remember seeing DH over at the crib cutting the cord and i asked him who she was. He brought her back over so i could see and even though we were certain she was going to be named matilda, it just didnt seem to fit. I touched my daugters face for the first time and said Georgia, DH agreed and you couldnt paint a bigger grin on his face!
I struggled to keep my eyes open long enough to give my bub her first feed and then was asleep before we even left recovery, I woke up in maternity ward 45mins later to DH staring adoringly at his daughter, and after a quick shower i felt amazingly refreshed and got my first proper look and cuddle at my girl, and have been totally smitten since!! 48hrs later we left the hospital, and have been learning as we go (with help from mum and MIL visiting from WA) and for first timers i rekon were doing ok! Georgia is a strong girl, holds her head up and focuses well towards different sounds and faces, and is putting on weight nicely.
Stats: Georgia Delain was born at 12:19 on 1/1/11, weighing 3990g (8lb 13oz), 50c long and 35.5cm HC after a 19hr labour. She is now 10 days old and feeding and sleeping well, we were the 4th baby born but 1st girl born for the decade at Royal Darwin Hospital.