Birthing my big boy Ben!!
Thought I had better get onto this so here goes ...
It seems silly but this whole pregnancy I never saw 40 weeks as full term or my due date. I had my daughter at 39 weeks and 2 days so for some reason I was always counting down to this date.
So the morning of 39 weeks and 2 days arrived (02/10/10 ... the second AFL grand final date - which i HAD made plans for!!) and I woke up at 6:30am to DH having a shower and getting ready to start the day. Once he hopped out I sat up and said "Oh I am SO mad, if I was pregnant with Summer I would already be in labour". DH just smirked and said "oh well, at least we get to watch the grand final!". Still fuming I spat back "just go wash my car" (i had been on at him all week to do it so it was spotless for when we had to bring baby home). No sooner had he left than I get a sharp pain in my back and lower abdomen that makes me go 'ouch', tense up and have to breath through it. Time is 6:44am. I wait and about 10 mins later have another, followed by the urge to use my bowels. Realise, oh crap this is how DD's labour started. Message DH and say ... "umm, I think I just had a contraction". He rings straight back, "really? Do I need to cancel my Home Opens for this morning or can I still go to work?" - Me - "not sure, will let you know".
So I get up and jump on to Belly Belly (of course!!) and use the contraction timer on the internet. Contractions are between 4 and 5 minutes apart and its 7:30am. Keep having to go to the toilet and finally allow myself to get excited and know I am in labour. For the next hour I potter around the house, packing DD's bag, finish packing my hospital bag, clean the house, do some laundry. Finally ring my mum at 8:30am and tell her to come over and collect Summer. The contractions were manageable still, I would have to stop whatever I was doing and breath through them, leaning over a table or chair or something.
DH then arrives home, finishes getting Summer ready while I have a shower. By now contractions are 3-4 minutes apart and getting more ouchy. I hop out, manage to get dressed, yell at DH to pack the car cause were going to the hospital NOW. By the time Mum leaves and takes DD, and DH and I get going its about 9:30am. Luckily the hospital is only a 15 minute drive away. I have 4 contractions in the car. Everytime I would have one, I would close my eyes, grit my teeth, grab onto the overhead handle in the car and hope to hell that no one was looking at me from a passing car (especially while stopping at lights hehe).
Finally get to the hospital and I am so mad for some reason. Just hated being trapped in the car I guess!! Whilst trying to walk into the hospital I have another 3 contractions, finally make it to the reception desk, have another, then walk 10 metres down the hall to have another and then another a further 10 metres. By now Im saying to DH, I cant walk, get me a wheelchair. A nurse walking past hears me and rushes to get a wheelchair and takes me straight to the delivery room. Its now about 10:00am.
Get into the delivery suite and meet my midwife who immediately hooks me up to a trace for HALF AN HOUR!! "Just to see how baby is coping". Stuck to the bed, unable to move is the worst thing EVER. Continue having back pain and contractions every 3 minutes. My doctor gets called and arrives about 10:30am by which time they have finished with the trace and I got to get off the bed and onto the fitball for 1 whole contraction :shakehead: before getting back on the bed to do an internal. Doctor says I'm 5-6cm with waters bulging, he can break them now to speed things up or let me go. I get all panicky thinking no no no its just going to be more painful. Leave it be!! :lol:
Obstetrician still thinks it will be a couple of hours, so heads back to his surgery 10 mins down the road and will come back in an hour to check. When he leaves the midwife suggests a shower. I get in the shower, have 2 contractions which hurt like HELL and then I get the urge to push. I tell the midwife who says - right back on the bed and let me check. I try to move out of the shower but feel the baby 'drop' and start yelling at the midwife that its right there and I cant walk back to the bed. After standing there for about 2 minutes crying and shaking thinking Im going to have this baby right there in the shower, I manage to somehow get back on the bed (a whole 6 metres away from the shower ... WHAT A FEAT!!) :D
The midwife then says to push with the next contraction to see if the head is there, which I do and apparently it isn't :wall: Next contraction and my water bursts everywhere and its heavily stained with meconium. Midwife calls my obstetrician back and the paedeatrician on call at the hospital to come in to be there for the birth as there may be complications becuase of the meconium. The next couple of contractions I can feel the baby coming down the birth canal and my body is involuntarily pushing while Im trying not to!! Midwife checks me again and the head is right there about to crown. Doctor walks in at 11:30am and I start pushing.
My goodness, I know it hurt when my DD was born but this time the crowning and burning pain was SO MUCH WORSE, I think becuase it was so fast. Within 10 minutes (the whole time of which I am yelling and writhing around in agony), the head is out and the paed is suctioning the nose and mouth. One more huge push and baby is out and on my chest :clap: I feel instant relief, satisfaction, happiness, bewilderment, astonishment and everything else that you could possibly feel at that moment in time.
Baby: Benjamin Lees S*******
Date: 02/10/10
Time: 11:40am
Weight: 4150g or 9lbs, 3oz
Length: 51cm
HC: 36.5cm
Total Length of Labour: 4 hours, 55 minutes
Pushing: 10 minutes
Drug free birth with 2 stitches :dance:
This birth was so different to my daughters (even though hers was a drug free vaginal birth also), she was born after 16 hours of labour. It was so much more intense and so fast in comparison to hers, I was barely able to comprehend what was happening before he was here.
And you know what, after I had a shower and got back into bed with some lunch, it was 12:30pm ... just in time for the the bounce down of the grand final with my very own little footy player lying beside me :) BLISS.
