Welcome Caden Rome!

[Dragonbub]

I have finally had time to sit down and put this in writing!

Things were going along fairly normally. I had a good pregnancy, very little morning sickness, and the scans were perfect ? we had a little high achiever on our hands. We didn?t find out the gender, as we wanted it to be a surprise. I started getting some fairly severe oedema at around 30 weeks, and struggled with extremely swollen ankles. Over the next 6 weeks, this just got worse and I ended up swollen from the waste down, in my face and my wrists.

Thus begins the start of our birth story. We attended the 36-week check up with a different Obstetrician, as my normal one was on holiday. My BP was around 160/95 so he was a bit concerned and said to wait a bit. He confirmed what my usual OB had been saying all along - this is going to be a big baby! My BP taken again was 160/105, so he decided to do the urine sample, and there was ++ of protein - hence I was admitted to hospital with the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia and the threat that if things didn't settle down, I would be having a C section and a baby within 24 hours.

We went home stunned and packed my bag. I felt really shell-shocked, and thought that I wasn't ready to NOT be pregnant just yet. Not to mention worried for my little jellybean who was too little to be coming out yet.

Back to the hospital for monitoring, blood tests were fine, but BP and protein still up but stable. We had avoided a C-section for now, but I was monitored in and out of hospital for the next week.

36 + 6 weeks - still in hospital, blood tests starting to indicate things going pear-shaped, therefore the decision is made to induce me at 6pm. I was already having some mild contractions anyway, and was 2 cm dilated by the time they broke my waters on the Tuesday evening, the day before we were 37 weeks. Bub was fully engaged, so we got to try the natural way! The contractions started fairly well straight away, lasted about a minute each, and were 3 - 5 minutes apart. Over the whole labour, they pretty much stayed in this pattern; they just got HEAPS more intense.

At first I used the birth ball or just walked around. I had a shower, which was soothing for a while. I used the loo too which was also soothing, but I seemed to have so much pressure down there I was worried I would push inadvertently As my legs and feet were so swollen, I didn't have a lot of mobility, so the birth ball was the best thing. I tried to stay as active as possible to assist bub descend.

At around 3 in the morning (not too sure of times) things were starting to get quite intense. Cathy, the midwife, was assisting me with breathing, deep breath in; breathe out like blowing up a balloon. I found this so helpful and soothing, and was extremely focussed on it the whole time. An internal was done and I was only 5 - 6 cm. I felt so disappointed as my head did the math that this was only 4 cm in 10 hours! I just couldn't go on much more, particularly as the internal moved all the pain to my back and it seriously felt as if my back was breaking at each contraction.

At that point I decided to stay on the bed and I also asked for an epidural. I had told the MW that I didn't want one to be offered, I would ask for it if/when the time came. After 10 hours of this I had decided that I didn't want any more pain, I mean, it is not like you get a medal at the end of it that says you did it pain-relief free is there? heh heh. Cathy suggested the gas, so I gave it a go. It really did remove me from the pain; because I kept repeating a mantra to myself - this is not happening to me, this is happening to someone else. After a while I requested the epi again, as the gas interrupted my breathing and also made me feel sick. The breathing was better pain relief anyway, and the gas had disrupted my focus.

Very soon the anaesthetist arrived and gave me the epi. I stayed perfectly still the whole time, which was pretty amazing considering I had a couple of contractions whilst he was doing it. The first contraction after the drug went in was about 80% intensity, then 60% then 40% then almost gone ahhhhh relief! Things settled down a bit then and we got some sleep. The monitor was put on me and my BP was still through the roof but bubs heartbeat was absolutely perfect.

A few hours later I was checked again and found to be 8 cm or so. Each time the epi was topped up I threw up, which sent my contractions haywire. As I was so close, the OB decided to give me some syntocin to keep the contractions regular and get me over the final hurdle. Even at this point I realised a C-section was just around the corner. The syntocin did the trick, and before I knew it, the OB announced that it was time to push! Due to high BP, I was told that a vacuum delivery would be needed, but the OB assured me that "there was plenty of room" and therefore I didn't need an episiotomy! (cheeky man). All of a sudden it became very businesslike. My bed was raised, the epi topped up with a really strong dose, my feet were put in stirrups and a catheter was inserted (eww). Once the vacuum was put on bubs head, we all waited around for a contraction. My OB asked what names we had chosen - he said his guess was that it was a boy. As a contraction came, the midwife instructed me how to push, and after 3 contractions and about 9 pushes, Caden Rome was born! He weighed 3585 grams and was 50 cm, with a very pointy-head of dark hair. He took a bit to yell, as his mouth was full of fluid and he did a big poo as he was placed on my tummy. I couldn't believe how big he was. He was whisked away and suctioned (I think) and later given an Apgar of 9 and 9. Once he returned to me he latched on straight away and starting talking to my boobie (he still does this now). The lactation consultant said it is the best thing Caden has ever seen in his life!

Our hospital stay was quite eventful, with some feeding issues, jaundice, weight loss, and my high blood pressure, but after 7 days after Caden was born, and almost 2 weeks in hospital, we got to take our baby home

In all I am really happy about the experience; next time I would like to try it without the epi, but I do realise that I was carrying about 20 kilos of fluid, and that made it so much more difficult this time. Hopefully it will be shorter as well, so after my 10 hours of pain I should be pushing instead of requesting pain relief. AND fingers crossed no pre-eclampsia

Thanks for reading!