Kayla's Belated Birth Story - 5/11/07 @ 34 weeks
4th Nov 2007 (33+6 weeks) - I wasn't feeling real well throughout the day and was having some intense braxton hicks. I remember mum watching me wince my way through each one with a worried look on her face while we ate dinner. I was positive it was just stomach cramps... although the occasional one got me wondering as well!
Through the night I got quite sick, vomiting quite regularly and gradually getting more dehydrated.
5th Nov 2007 (34 weeks) By morning I was crying in bed I felt so weak & sick. It was decided I should go see my OB as I was worried about my hydration. Tallon was dropped off at Nana's and off we went to the Dr. On the way I started getting tightenings again. When I got there I saw the nurse and I think she could just tell I was in early labour.. and by this stage I was pretty sure too LOL. She watched me sit through a few contractions and got me a glass of water while I waited to be squeezed in after another patient. My OB did a quick ultrasound and an internal. I was fully effaced and the baby's head was hard up against the cervix. He admitted me into the hospital to be put on the drip to be rehydrated, to have antibiotics in case it was infection causing prem labour, to have the steroid shots for bub should she come early, and to start blood pressure tablets to try and stop labour. (hmmm.. that sounds so much when I list it like that!!)
Because I'm writing this 21 months later I can't be sure of exact time frames! But I think we got down to the dr?s about 9-ish in the morning. And I'm pretty sure it was a few hours of taking a few doses of the blood pressure tabs to try and stop the contractions. I can tell you now.. it didn't work LOL. Nothing was slowing down. But nothing was speeding up either. When the OB came back and did an internal I was 4cm dilated and his words were "you're having this baby today!". I was a bit ticked off that early labour had been prolonged by the stupid tablets, but totally understand that the effort needed to be made to prevent me going into labour, and at the least stall it long enough for bub to get the steroids. He then told me I had to go over to the public hospital because the hospital calculated my dates as 33+5 weeks, not 34 weeks as per our dates! and they won't let me birth at the private under 34 weeks, so I got wheeled over to the public hospital labour ward.
OK.. I am now thinking through that wonderful fog that fades out the painful details of labour LOL... but the things I remember are: Firstly, spontaneous labour is just wonderful. Labour with Tallon was augmented with the synto drip so was pretty full on, but with Kayla, I was twiddling my thumbs between contractions! In fact I was wondering when it was going to get going! Eventually I was feeling the urge to push, but I knew it wasn't quite right. I told the midwife that it felt like I was dilating and pushing at the same time, which really hurts btw! This went on for quite a while and I guess they could tell it wasn?t progressing... I knew it too. I had an internal, one where my OB kept his hand in there during the contraction (ouch!!) and he could feel the dilation to about 8cm and then it dropping back down to 6cm. Looking back, I could probably have positioned myself better to push bub through and hold that dilation somehow.. but for some reason when I labour, I prefer to just perch myself on the edge of the bed and get through the contractions. Next time I want a doula, just for some encouragement to get up and move and squat. It's funny, my head knows all the things I should be doing, but I just have NO inclination to do them when I'm labouring.. so I don't even know if a doula will convince me to do it.. but anyway.. worth a try next time I guess.
Being prem, they had monitoring on me too, and I think they freaked themselves out when they realised they were picking up my heartrate and not bubs. Turns out I was tachycardiac (sp?) and so was bub. So the suggestion was made to rupture the membranes to try and help things along (I'm pretty sure it was at this stage that I had ARM). All I can say is ewwww.. what a mess. I had spontaneous rupture at home with Tallon and most of it was gone by established labour.. just enough dribble to need a pad.. but this was just soooo messy. Every contraction it gushed everywhere. It did add a certain satisfaction to each push though. Nothing really progressed, just stayed the same and contractions were neither slowing down nor speeding up. It was quite different to my first labour. Even tho my first was augmented, it had definite stages.. 1st stage, transition was very recognisable, and then I had that small rest just before pushing, and pushing felt sooo good. But this time it was all just a mishmash of everything. I was dilating and pushing at the same time, I don't recall a transition? It was just very different.
I remember them taking my temperature regularly, but I don't remember whether it was going up or not, but I do remember the concern about my heartrate. My OB decided to put me on the synto drip to move things along. I don't recall it making any difference TBH. It ended up with him with his hand up there helping bub's head out of the cervix... all I can say is OWWWWW. But never fear, I had my revenge.. DH informs me that I both wee'd AND poo'd this time PMSL!! I had to laugh.. isn't it every woman's fear to poo in labour? Meh.. who cares? I certainly didn't haha. Aaaaanyway.. once bub was out of the cervix, she was born very very quickly. And so arrived Kayla Beth at 9.30pm, weighing in at a whopping 3.585kg, 48.5cm long and HC of 35.5cm, she had apgars of 9 & 9. She came out so purple and swollen LOL (I was told this was because she ended up birthing quite quickly) but that went down within the next couple of days to reveal our beautiful baby girl ;) We had a cuddle and then she was examined and taken off to NICU because of being prem. I was brought a sandwich and a drink and I scoffed that down, had a quick shower and went and found bub in the NICU. She was the hugest one there by far LOL. And so began our journey with the NICU and the SCN! I will compose that some other time :)
I will say though, I cannot fault the public hospital, the midwife I had was just lovely, and the care was great (my only complaint with public is the shared room and the food!!) And I don't mind being a snob when I say that the people that were in the public hospital were very different to those in private LOL. The woman I was sharing with had social workers (or someone) come and talk to her about some abusive situation with her brother and OMG she was just so rough.. not really sure why they were seeing her there at the hospital actually, perhaps they tracked her down there?? And then next door to us one woman was being guarded by police! LOL. So I was very happy when I was transferred over to Private around day 4. It was a bit of a trek walking back to the NICU for each feed but worth the comfy bed & the meals! haha. Kayla was eventually transferred over to me there, but yeah.. will write the NICU story shortly :)
Thanks for reading!
