Sienna Poppy. Not the entrance we had prepared for!
This is the birth story of my second beautiful daughter, Sienna Poppy.
Sienna was a lovely little bubby in my tummy, she grew and grew but never gave me morning sickness, just a little heartburn and a little tiredness, apart from that she was perfect. We did not know that she was going to be a girl, we didn’t find out which drove our family crazy!. Her due date was shuffled around from the 12th to the 6th of December and she arrived on Thursday the 3rd at 2:15pm. A day before my sister's Birthday.
On the Tuesday before, (the 1st) I started getting a little cramping and a slight show, and felt really heavy ‘down there’ Then on the wednesday it started getting more intense and my show was getting redder. I have never had any Braxton hicks so I thought that in the back of my head that this little baby was coming sooner than we thought and that this was the real deal.
I decided to call mum on the Wednesday afternoon to put her on standby to come and get our 21 month old Lila, if we needed her to in the middle of the night. All Lila’s bags were packed and we had them waiting at the back door. On the Wednesday night was had a yummy Thai Laksa delivered and I had a lovely bath. I even mentioned to my Husband Andrew on the Tuesday that I thought this baby might be coming before his last day of work that was on Thursday. On the Wednesday as the contractions were not going anywhere, but not consistent, I thought it might be a good idea if he didn’t go to work in the morning so he called in and let them all know I was going into hospital (we worked at the same place so everyone was very excited).
At about 2am on Thursday Morning I woke up and started to time the contractions, they were from 7 - 5 mins apart and all over the place but definitely so much stronger and too strong to be able to sleep through, so I lay in bed with my ‘ipod labour app’ and timed them all, Andrew slept soundly by my side.
At about 4am I had enough of just lying there and craved a nice warm shower, washed hair and clean clothes (it was a really hot and balmy night) I kept picturing myself sitting on our couch all clean with wet combed hair watching Foxtel, so I got up and head for the shower, still timing my contractions.
From about 4 - 5:30am they got closer and closer together so at 5:30 i woke andrew up and suggested that he get up as things were starting to move along fast. I started to use my stress balls to bang with and tupperware full of rice to shake in my ears for distraction..(yes I have been to Juju's Birthing Skills classes) and then at about 5:50am we decided to call my Mum to come and pick up our daughter Lila. We had to wake her up and my dear mum arrived at about 6:20 and left shortly after.. giving us a big hug and wishing us the best of luck. We then called the hospital. By this time the contractions were about every 3 min’s and lasting 50 seconds and quite severe, (ouchy!) I had to stop what I was doing whilst they took hold.
We got all my things together in the car and head off for the Hospital. It was only 6:30am so the traffic was great and we arrived at about 6:45 and went up to the maternity ward were we were led into one of the birthing suites where a midwife checked baby’s heart rate and my blood pressure. We were asked if I wanted a bath so the midwife started to run one.(I love my bath's!) She was finishing her shift at 7am so we waiting for the next midwife on duty to arrive. Andrew set up the room, got out my photos and stuck them on the wall and continued to time all the contractions. After about 10 min’s we were told that one of the team midwives whom we may have met was sick that day so a lady (Shelly) whom I didn't get the chance to meet during the pregnancy introduced herself . She checked my blood pressure again and heart rate and then checked the dilation and she said I was around 6 - 7cm. PFWOOR!
A little while later the bath tub was ready so I got into the bath...aahhhh immediate relief, I felt so light! and the contractions seamed to be easier to manage. Shelly came in a few times to monitor the babies heart beat and after about 20 min’s I felt that the bath was slowing down my contractions so I got out and got into my nighty.
I continued to pace around the room, moving during contractions from staring at the photo’s on the wall to banging my stress balls together (bless Juju Sundin!) I didn’t want to start stomping as it kind of hurt a bit and I didn’t want to get to tired as I didn’t want to run out of steam like I did in the last bit of Lila’s birth.
I remember watching the clock and seeing it was about 9am and it felt like I had been in that room forever. Shelly, checked the dilation again and I was about 8cm. At some stage it started to get really intense. I think it was after Shelly broke my waters to get things going along, maybe around 90 mins later. Unfortunately she kept promising to do things after say 2 more contractions and then leaving the room and not getting back to be able to do them... and as it was getting harder and harder to keep it mentally together it was getting frustrating having her say, 'we will check the dilation after 3 contractions or we will break your waters after 2 more contractions' etc etc and not have her back in the room there to do it. I think I remember waiting for 20 min’s after she said she would check how dilated I was for her to finally do it. Agony!
I started to kneel over a been bag and across the bed, the pain seamed to be going on forever and i really felt like I was going nowhere. I was getting tired too and I got onto the bed and the pain just seamed to increase with having to hold back from pushing so Shelly suggested that I try some gas, which really felt quite yucky and did nothing to help out with the pain.
From what I remember that went on until about 1pm, almost 11 hours since I had woken up. I thought 2nd labours were supposed to be faster!!! As I lay on the bed I was checked again. I don’t know who did it or what really happened yet I think that the dilation was checked and immediately after I felt the most horrific pain I had ever felt in my whole life. It came from the right side of my lower back and I remember yelling many horrible profanities and turning towards Andrew saying that this was just not right squeezing his hand and crying and screaming in pain. Soon after I felt like I was going to vomit and Andrew was given a plastic bag and I threw up several times. From then on I was told by my midwife not to push at all until she had someone else come in to see what was going on, but I had not been pushing for ages so by this point even though I was fully dilated as my cervix was getting more and more swollen as little Sienna became more and more stuck, not being able to pass through the cervix and kept going backwards (this happened with Lila as well) ..... my pain threshold was now running out the window and down the street!
A more senior Midwife came in to help us decipher what the pain was, she probably heard me screaming!!!. A quick examination she told us that Sienna was now ‘brow presentation’ and I was told that we would need a c-section. I just remember having this lovely midwife touching my head telling me that this was the only safe option and I just burst into tears crying and asked her if I really had too. I had gotten so far (almost 12 hours and fully dialated) I felt like such a failure and so scared.
Andrew was holding my hand and he looked as petrified as I felt. At this point I still had no pain relief except a few sucks on that gas, I thought that this labor would be like my first and that I could do it without any relief, but this pain was just extraordinary, and was definitely a major sign that things were not at all right or going well for us.
A medical team of what seamed like hundreds descended upon the room and I was quickly given pethadine in the thigh and a drip in my left wrist. I was still told not to push and as every contraction was roughly every 90 seconds and lasting 60 seconds it seamed like torture. They did not know what was causing the pain though. Andrew was given a gown and head gear and I was moved onto a trolly and given a gown as well and quickly removed from the delivery suite to the long trolly ride down to the operating theatre.
The ride in the lift was so painful too, it took me by suprise. I was pushed past the women waiting in the midwives clinic, (possibly letting out a little discomfort). Not the sight you want to see when you are 35 weeks pregnant and waiting to see a Dr.!. It was such a hot day too.
Andrew was told to wait outside the theatre while they did numerous things to me. I remember just staring at Shelly my midwife, trying to not push through my contractions, absolutely dreading the next one and wishing they would hurry up with the epidural. It seamed to last forever and I just kept thinking how I would be meeting my baby soon and that soon all the pain would be gone and everything would be OK. I really never thought about having a c section, so I had no idea what I was in for but after the epidural (BLESS THANK GOODNESS!) I found I could feel nothing but a little pulling and tugging..... then I heard the best sound in the whole entire world, my baby girl crying at the top of her lungs. She really wailed! They cleaned her and called Andrew over to the table and announced that we had a baby girl. It felt like an eternity until she was placed on my chest and I looked into her eyes and forgot everything that I had just been through. Andrew was holding my hand and crying.... She was so so so warm, so beautiful and her eyes were just absorbing everything around her. Totally oblivious to everything that we had all just been through.
After more pulling and tugging and I was stitched up and wheeled into the hospital recovery area. I had lost over 1 litre of blood, and as she was already on her way out when the c section was called for she had to be pushed back up and pulled out (youchy). Sienna had a little bruised brow but I couldn’t tell. She was placed to my breast and started nuzzling straight away. I had various tubes and things in me, oxygen in my nose, catheter, morphine, and something that was draining all the blood out. I was just so relieved that it was all over and we were all ok.
I ended up speaking to one of the midwives later on and was told that my uterus had begun to rupture, that was the stifling pain too... we were very lucky.
But now we are home. I have my beautiful girl and she is thriving. She was 3.97kg and 34cm HC. Such a different birth than what we expected but funny thing is... I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
I hope that this was not hard to read, every labour is different or goes off the plan, but ours was the perfect outcome, we have our girl.
