The birth of Caelan James 14/1/11
A bit of back ground first- DH and I live in a small rural community. We moved here about 7ish mths ago from Sydney. We have no maternity hospital in our town, so the choice was to travel to Dubbo when I went into labour, which is a 3 hour drive away, or we could travel to Sydney to give birth, which is a 9hr drive away. We chose to go to Sydney 3-ish wks before my due date, since we have family there and they would be able to help with our big kids when I went to hospital. Plus I had birthed my other babes there and they had my medical history. We stayed at my mum’s house.
My day began at about 4.30am with some slight niggly contractions in bed. I was officially 38wks and 2days pg. I was timing the contrax and they came about every 10-15mins, just a dull ache in my pelvis like period pain. I had lost some of my plug over the last week but had not had a lot of pre labour, lots of Braxton Hicks (which I get normally anyway), but not really prelabour. I laid in bed for half an hour or so trying to get back to sleep just in case I really did go into labour (I was in denial that it might really happen!) but couldn't. I couldn't help but be a bit excited that my pg might be over soon, since I had not enjoyed being pg very much at all this time, suffering with SPD, sciatica, and all the other joys of pg like heart burn (and just being absolutely HUGE!).
Got up about 5am-ish and pottered about mums house for a while, ate breaky enjoyed a coffee in peace and then my beautiful girl graced me with her presence. She was all excited because we had organised to go to a play centre with some friends for the morning and was asking every 5mins if it was time, lol! DH and DS got up not long after that and I told DH I thought I was having mild contractions. He was also doubtful today would be the day, since I was only 38wks pg and I had had about 2wks of pre labour with DS before real labour started and I was induced with DD! I did as I usually did and went on with the day, my contrax slowly got closer and a little more intense, but nothing I couldn't forget about mostly if I was doing things.
We ummed and ahhed about going to the play centre, but decided to go because DD was just jumping out of her skin to see her friends and I really wanted to catch up with mine too. If I was having a baby that day it would be the last chance this visit to Sydney that I would get to see them. So at about 10am, off we went. We had fun, the kids ran around like crazies and I chatted to my friends. They couldn't believe I was there and in the beginnings of labour, lol! I told them I wasn't in labour it would all stop soon. But it didn't and as time progressed, so did labour. By the time we'd been there about 2 hours, contrax were about 5-ish mins apart, and were stopping me talking, so DH and I decided to go back to mums. Going around round abouts was getting a little hairy by the time we got home and I was glad not to be sitting in the car anymore!
I finally decided that this might really be IT and called my doula, Trisha. Told her what was happening and she said she'd organise her kids and be over in an hour or so. I tried to lay down and rest, but the kids were in and out and making me crazy, so I got into the bath and locked the door. Silly DH came in a while later with DS1 who then wanted to get into the bath with me. Besides the fact he just wouldn't fit in there, I was in too much pain and in my zone and couldn't deal with him talking to me or touching me. He got really upset, which upset me because I wanted to hug him and be with him but just couldn't handle it. DH took him out screaming for me, with me in tears in the bath, lol!
By the time I got out of the bath at around 3.30pm, contrax had progressed to about 3mins apart and about 45sec long. I started getting dressed and organised to go to hospital. DH wanted to go then and there, but I told him it was time yet. I was still managing contrax and could still talk and relax through them. I lost a big lot of my plug around then and things started to intensify a bit more. When my contrax were between 2-3mins apart and 55secs long, I called the hospital to ask if I should come in. The midwife said I could, though it sounded like I was handling things ok and could probably wait another hour or maybe a bit more, but DH was antsy, so we got SIL to take the kids to her place and packed the car and off we went. Luckily the hospital is only a 5min drive because I was terribly uncomfy sitting in the car and going over bumps was ridiculously painful!
We got to the hossy just as my doula did and walked into maternity stopping on the way a few times for contractions. I was still able to listen and talk relatively coherently, though I was losing bits and pieces of conversations, lol! I was admitted to the labour ward at around 5pm. I got comfy, had a cannula put in (because I tend to hemorrhage after labour), put on my nighty and was put onto the CTG for a little while to make sure all was well with bub. Laying actually fairly comfortable for me, and when the midwife took me off the monitor and asked me to try to pee before she did an internal, I sooo didn’t want to move! But I did and went to the loo. She then did an internal and I was disappointed to learn I was only 5cm dilated. I thought I would be around 7 or so at the stage of labour I was at and was a little miffed at my body, lol!
I talked to the midwife about my birth preferences, told her I wanted to have a natural birth, preferably no synto after birth, though due to my hemorrhaging after my other births, she told me she’d have to have it on hand and wouldn’t be letting me bleed much before giving it to me, which I was quite happy with. I wanted skin to skin, to try a breast crawl before any weighing or measuring was done, to let the cord pulse before cutting it… She talked to my doula for a while and seemed happy to leave us and do things for ourselves for a while. She seemed to have similar beliefs to us.
I moved around a little from position to position, on the birth ball for a while, in the shower, leaning on the bed, sitting (slouching) on the chair, sitting on the loo, in the shower…..The shower was really lovely and I was annoyed they didn’t have 2 shower heads so I could keep one on my body and stay warm, and have the other on my lower belly. I was a lot more active than when in labour with DD (since I was induced and was confined to bed and didn’t know better) and DS1 (since he was born about an hour after I was admitted!).
I was handling the contrax ok, and with Trish’s guidance breathed through them on my own. I was starting to get pretty tired my this time (about 9pm-ish) and while sitting on the birth ball, I rested my head on the bed and dozed between contrax. All of a sudden I felt sick and had a bit of a vomit, which I have done with all three labours when the pain gets to be a bit much. I was starting to think it was getting too much and that I wanted to stop the pain and that I wouldn’t be able to get though it all. So I then got up and had another shower (I had about 4 thought the night, lol). I stayed there for a fairly long time because the contrax eased in the shower and I could regroup and think positively again that I could get through it all. I sat on the loo for a little while and vomited again quite violently, all the while having really intense contractions. The look on my poor DH’s face said it all, he look so horrified and sorry for me, lol! It is a horrendous feeling trying to vomit and have intense contractions and involuntarily push all whilst sitting naked on the toilet in front of 3 people. Noice.
I got off the loo and went to the bed to try to lay down again because I felt so tired. It was about 10pm by now I think, and I was thinking it would never be over because I had thought bub would be there by now. The midwife came in to check on me and did another internal and told me I was only 7cm. She vaguely suggested she could hook me up to an IV and ‘get things moving quicker’ and seemed really happy and kind of relieved when I said no thanks. She then suggested breaking my waters, which I agreed to. I could feel bub moving inside and my contractions were terribly tight and intense and I could feel the baby and see his legs and feet outlined with each contraction they were so tight. I figured by breaking the waters they wouldn’t be so tight feeling. So my waters were broken with a huge gush (what a horrific feeling having all of that warm liquid seep in under your bum, lol!)
Things ramped up a little then, the contractions changed and I felt bub move down into my pelvis a bit. I stayed on the bed because I was actually rather comfy, and I could close my eyes and rest between contractions. My contrax were getting very strong and I was totally oblivious to what was going on with DH and Trish, I just asked for water occasionally! I hate people touching me when in labour, or talking to me so DH and Trish were just ‘there’. At about 10.30pm, I felt kind of different and I figured transition was nigh. I started feeling ‘pushy’ and with a few contrax my body pushed by itself. By about 10.55pm, I was involuntarily pushing with all of my might with every contraction.
A new mid wife came in and introduced herself briefly, and promptly told me to stop pushing, she wanted to do an internal. I told her ‘too now, late he’s coming’ there was no hope in hell that I was going to be stopping pushing at that stage. She checked me and told me seriously that I really had to stop pushing or I would tear. Trish was there telling me she was serious and I would end up with a really bad tear if I didn’t stop right then! I could feel that it was all happening too quickly but my body was pushing by itself and I had to muster every ounce of determination and will to stop myself pushing with the contractions. I could feel baby’s head filling my pelvis and knew he was right there and all I wanted to do was pushing with all my might to get him out and stop the pain I was in, but I had to go slowly and gently. I managed to do it and it has to be the most difficult part of this labour! I pushed slowly and gently and my little man’s head came out, and then his shoulders and the rest of his body came all at once with the next push. I did end up tearing a little anyway and had several grazes.
Caelan James Slade was born totally naturally, on 14th of January 2011, at 11.06pm. He weighed 3.8kg, length 57cm, HC 36.5cm. Apgars of 9 and 9. He had a beautiful full head of brown hair and is just divine!
Then the ‘fun’ began. I started hemorrhaging and the midwife was nagging me to cut the cord and was dying to start the synto drip. She started debating with me then about the pros and cons of leaving the cord attached and telling me about her duty of care and she didn’t want to get into trouble. I so could not give a rats about if she’d get into trouble! I let her cut his cord after only 5 or so mins of him attached to it and she attached and started the drip for me. Caelan had his first feed and was a champion feeder like his brother was. It was a long time before I stopped bleeding and the Doctor came in and stitched me up. I was tachycardic (heart was beating too fast) for a few days after wards and ended up having a blood transfusion.
