The long awaited arrival of Mitchell Lucas (LONG & May be distressing?
This is my story of how my beautiful little boy came into this world. It may be a bit muddled lol.
Monday was a normal day, I went to town & ran errands, did some grocery shopping, collected the mail. I got home unloaded the groceries & settled on the couch for some serious relaxing ‘Grays Anatomy’ time, I was feeling a bit down feeling that this pregnancy would go on forever. On one hand I wanted this baby out, my back hurt, I couldn’t bend over, I kept looking at my messy house & wanted to cry at all the things I should’ve had cleaned up but I was fed up & couldn’t be bothered. It was a bit later in the afternoon than normal when I finally got up to feed the dogs & horses, I had just started outside when my waters broke & I waddled back to the house.
I stripped off at the back door & grabbed the first towel I could lay my hands on & headed for the shower, grabbing my mobile phone on the way. I phoned my friend & asked ‘What do I do???’, my mind had gone completely blank LOL. I phoned DF next, luckily he was back in town from work & was heading home. I phoned the hospital & Midwife R said I could head in if I liked, I said I’d prefer to stay home for now as I was comfortable & nothing was progressing yet, she agreed that was fine but they would like me to come in for a check-up in approx. 4hrs.
DF & I spent the next few hours watching ‘Grays’ with me changing pads every half hour or so & just waiting for a contraction or anything to start. I started to get worried after a few hours when nothing was progressing so jumped on Bellybelly & was put at ease that labour could take quite a while to start. At 10:30pm DF & I headed to the hospital where I was put on the CTG for monitoring. Midwife R was happy with the results & said to come back in the morning to see the OB if nothing progressed overnight.
TUESDAY 8:15am we head back to the hospital. CTG monitoring again, but this time there were some mild period like cramps low in my pelvis. DF & I watched the monitor while we waited for the OB. Twice during very mild tightenings bubs heartbeat first jumped then dropped from 170 down to mid 80’s. The OB was concerned about the babys heartbeat dropping during the tightening. We were given the option of induction that morning, or waiting it out for labour to start naturally. We could wait till the next morning if we agreed to come in for monitoring & iv antibiotics every 6hrs. So we headed home, then back to the hospital at 7pm, 2am & then back for another OB consult at 8:30am Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY 8:30am Midwife S was on duty when we got to the hospital, she hooked me up to the ctg again while we waited for the OB. We watched the monitor again & when bubs heartbeat jumped & plummeted again, this time completely dropping off the monitor, DF went to tell Midwife S. She seemed cross at us for bothering her ‘That wasn’t a contraction, just a glitch on the monitor & you don’t need to be watching that, that’s what I get paid to do!’ was the response we got.
The OB did an assessment, stating that the ctg results from the previous night were good, so again we had the option of induction or wait for natural labour, with regular monitoring for infection, as it had been almost 40hrs since my waters had broken by this stage. I’d had some irregular contractions overnight, but they had stopped as soon as Id gotten out of bed that morning so I was probably more keen to get things going than I should’ve been. We opted for Induction, Syntocin drip was really our only option since my waters had broken.
Midwife R came on shift at 10am & we started the Syntocin drip, I was hooked up to the ctg on the bed to start with until she got a handle on how I was reacting to the drip. To start off with I could see my belly hardening but couldn’t feel anything. The drip was turned up two more times, at this stage I was allowed off the bed & could walk as far as the ctg & drip leads would let me. After an hour or two I was leaning on the bed for support & experiencing strong regular contractions, each a little longer & stronger. Midwife R said we were getting good, regular contractions at this stage so she was happy to leave the drip on that level for now. A little while later Midwife S was back & questioned why the drip hadn’t been turned up again, R explained she had been happy with how things were progressing, S argued that it needed to be turned up, so it was. R ducked out to grab a coffee, leaving S with us & it wasn’t long before things went downhill.
Within about 5-10mins I was doubled over the bed in serious pain with hardly any legs left to stand on. I was going to ask DF to get the bed lowered but I couldn’t quite get the words out in between the contractions. One contraction in particular hit & I just couldn’t get my breath back, it just kept going & going. I was crying out in pain & needed to get back on the bed before my legs gave out or I passed out. I heard DF ask if I needed the midwife & I nodded, I heard him tell her I needed some help & her response was ‘Well she’s in labour! What did she expect! It’s only going to get worse!’ as she stormed down the hallway to my room. As the contraction continued I could hear the beep of the ctg get slower & slower. Then suddenly the room was filled with people, someone grabbed me under the arms & lowered the bed, someone else stripped me from the waist down & lifted my legs onto the bed. There was alot of noise & yelling, the Syntocin drip was stopped & I had an oxygen mask put on me. Another midwife was monitoring bub with a handheld Doppler & S was telling the OB that bubs heartbeat had dropped below 80 & stayed down for a continued period of time. The OB did an internal examination & an electrode was placed on bubs head, which turned out to be painful & pointless as after much fiddling they couldn’t get it to work.
Soon after DF & I were left alone with S, R & another midwife. I was still trying to breath through the pain & contractions, at this stage they gave me the gas for pain relief. As I tried to get a handle on my breathing, S came in & said they needed to take some blood & she’d use the line my drip had been in so she didn’t have to needle me again. R said that she shouldn’t do that as the antibiotics & syntocin would skew the results. DF & I watched as S proceeded to argue with R over what was procedure, then argue over who should leave the room & get out of eachothers way. We were gobsmacked!!! A short while later the OB came back & explained they thought there had been a reaction to the Syntocin so it had to be stopped, as bub had gone into major distress during the contraction & they also suspected hisw umbilical cord was around his neck. It was at this point we were informed that emergency c-section was a real possibility if things didn’t continue to progress on their own in the next 2 hours. Due to the internal examination & length of time since my waters had broken, there was a huge concern over infection. Over the next 2hrs my labor failed to progress, with only mild, short contractions. So the OB informed they theatre team would be called in & an emergency C-section was the only option now. It seemed like a life time before they started preparations to take me up, in the mean time I had a few very nasty contractions, I sucked on the gas so hard I thought I was going to pass out. Not great timing as the gas was taken away from me when they wheeled me up to theatre, so I just had to breathe through them. More waiting again & some serious contractions that just about lifted me off the bed screaming in pain & a serious urge to push (we found out later the severe contractions were a result on infection starting to set in).
The anaesthetist went through the procedure of the Epidural, I had to sit up hunched over a pillow while they injected some local anaesthetic & then the Epidural......I thought how the faaarrk am I going to manage that when I can hardly breathe let alone sit up!! Somehow I managed, I had a lovely lady holding my arm & helping me breathe through it all telling me it would all be better soon. The pain was gone before I even lay down on the theatre bed. A midwife was monitoring bubs heartbeat still with a doppler, three times they lost it while we waited for the OB to be ready, I could tell they were concerned.
From that point on things went smoothly with the C-Section. I remember closing my eyes & just praying I would hear my baby scream & it wasn’t long before I did . It was the best moment of my life. DF got to cut the cord & had first cuddles. The midwife then placed DS on my chest but DF had to hold him there as I had the drip in one arm & blood pressure on the other. DS was so perfect & I was incredibly relieved that finally it was all over.
I am beyond proud of my DF, he was a great support to me & is a fantastic dad, he’s taken to it like a duck to water. He has dealt with my unexpected caesarean & the extra care that comes with it, helped with the housework & taken the pressure off of me with bub when I really needed the help.
