My pregnancy was very rough on me (i had hyperemesis amongst other things) so my due date could not come fast enough! I saw the dr on the 17th of Feb (my due date) and booked in for induction that night. However since my midwife was unavailable she changed it to the next day since she really wanted to be there and i figured i could deal with one more day. I was 2cm dilated at my appt and having lots of pain but they still didn't feel like contraction pains. I was up late as per usual because of insomnia. Got to sleep about midnight or so. At 5.15am i woke up with a contraction. a real one! and they kept coming. They were about 6 or so minutes apart. not very strong. I had a shower and made sure i had everything in my bag. They started getting stronger and closer together(about 3-4 minutes) so i called my midwife. She was just about to have a shower so said she'd meet me up at the birth centre soon. I called my mum and she was at the chiropractor. LOL and said she's go home and then come over to watch my other boys. seemed to take forever! The hospital is only about 5 minutes away but the parking is crap. So dh dropped me off and i walked up to the birth centre with my bag and he went and parked the car. lol I got to my birthing room at 9.20am. My midwife was already filling up the pool. She checked my obs and my cervix and i was 6cm! i've NEVER been that far before going to the hospital. I couldn't believe it! I actually said "are you serious??? You're joking!" lol My dh arrived and I got in the water. I just quietly laboured and joked and talked between contractions. They were getting stronger and more painful but the water was SO good. Sue(my midwife) got me some water and ice to eat - hospital ice is heavenly. perfect for my ice addiction. bubs heart rate was perfect the whole time. he wasn't fazed at all. The contractions were quite intense by this stage so i asked for some gas to take a few puffs at the start of each contraction. I started feeling a little pressure bit by bit. My knees were getting sore (i was on my knees leaning over the side of the bath) so i turned over for a bit. the contractions were quite intense at this stage. Then i started feeling like i was going to drown. lol silly but i just really wanted out of the tub. so i got out and onto the bed, on my knees still. I stayed there for a while. My shoulders were getting quite sore, despite dh rubbing them for me. And i was SO tired. Sue suggested that if i wanted i could have her break my waters so makes things go faster. She assured me she wouldn't do it if it wasn't safe. I thought about it a little while and decided to let her do it. I just wanted it over with. She examined me and i was 10cm and she easily broke my waters. I then turned back onto my knees. A couple of contractions later and i felt that HUGE pressure of the baby coming right down. Sue said i could start pushing if i wanted. I just let my body do the pushing with each contraction. Then i started pushing as he crowned. It seemed to take FOREVER to get anywhere though. His head would come out and then go back in, in and out about 5 times. And he'd come out quite far and then go back. Each times he'd go back in i'd say "no baby, don't do that!" LOL I'd puff on the gas for the start of the contraction and then just push with my life. The pain is so different for the actual pushing part that i didn't need the gas (not that it does much, just takes the edge off slightly. lol). Finally my dh said they could see his nose. Then eventually his head was all out. The pain was very bad then. I heard my midwife say in a VERY stern, no nonsense voice "TURN OVER NOW!!!!" She'd warned me about that voice and if she ever used it i had to obey. lol I knew something was wrong. I flipped in about 2 seconds flat. lol I could then just feel the room fill with people. I had midwives on either side pulling my legs up to my neck, one holding the gas tube and telling me to keep sucking on it. I was screaming. The pain was unbelievable. I also had someone pushing down very hard on my pubic bone and someone reaching inside me to pull his arm/shoulder out. He had shoulder dystocia. It was only 4 minutes but it felt like 4 hours. I was screaming and trying to suck on the gas at the same time and also praying in my head that it would all stop soon. Finally i felt relief and he was out. It was 1.24pm. Dh told me later he was completely floppy. I had my eyes closed the whole time so i didn't see any of it. I then opened my eyes and i could see a midwife in my face telling me it was ok. I then realised how many people were in the room. I could see my baby over on the table getting oxygen. He seemed ok and was moving. Another woman on my other side was telling me that i did great. she was SO nice. she told me she got the baby out and what happened. my dh took a photo to show me. I got the shot to help deliver the placenta. i barely felt it. I could have been poked with a thousand needles and wouldn't care. lol that pain was nothing.
They whisked him away to the special care nursery. I delivered the placenta easily. Then i got to rest for a few minutes before i got checked to see how much damaged was done. lol small 1st degree tear on a previous scar that didn't require any stitches i was so happy. LOL being in the water must have helped! I got to rest for a while. i was lying in so much yucky stuff. Head to toe waters, blood and meconium. it was gross. My waters flooded the room apparently. My midwife went up to special care and came back and said she knew what he weighed but wasn't going to tell. lol She wanted us to discover it ourselves when we went to the nursery. She had us guess a weight and promise the loser had to take the winner out to dinner. lol She checked my bleeding and my tear again. all was fine. Then she inspected the placenta. Nice, big and healthy with the longest cord! it was SO long.
After i'd rested for a bit, i had a shower and got dressed. Then rested some more. Sue got us some food and we started texting people. Then we went up to the nursery. He was all hooked up to the machines - cpap, monitors, iv, feeding tube. The nurses told us what was going on and what everything was for. Then the big reveal - his weight. My dh guessed 10lbs 5oz. I guessed closer to 11lbs. We were both wrong - 5.73kg.....12lbs 10oz!! both our jaws hit the floor! we got to spend a little time there before going back to the birth suite to wait until there was a bed in the ward ready.
our 'little' man was FAT with a large chest. head: 36cm, length: 54cm. His APGAR scores were 5 and 8. He had Pneumothorax, Meconium Aspiration Syndrome(MAS), Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) and severe shoulder dystocia. He spent 15.5 days in hospital but he's all good now! We called him James Robert Floyd. It's so great to have him home with us.
Woah!! What an amazing birth and a real chunky bubba! Sounds like you did a fantastic job, congrats!! I must say I am feeling like I need to cross my legs and pray my bub is not that big
Congratulations - that's a great birth story (and I thought one of our sons at 4.7kg was a biggie!).
Gives hope to those mums who are told that their baby is 'too big' etc and may need a c/s, just goes to show what our bodies can do.
Well done again
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The birth story of my big boy James
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