The smooth arrival of big boy DS2
DS2 was born in June this year. Here is his birth story.
I was 7 days overdue and had been booked in for an induction to happen 11 days overdue. I had given up on the thought of DS2 arriving before then. It was a Friday night when I started to feel uncomfortable sitting down. I was really really big at this point so thought nothing of it. I went to bed as normal only to wake up at 10:30pm with some crampy feelings. I thought that it could be the start of something, and I knew I'd need my rest, so I made a big effort to go back to sleep.
I woke up at 1:30am on Saturday morning covered in sweat with quite powerful cramps. I snuck out of bed and headed to the lounge room. The midwife had said to spend one hour on hands and knees with my butt in the air as soon as the contractions started, as DS2 was posterior. I put on a recorded TV show and also had an internet contraction timer open. I stayed in the prescribed position for an hour - getting up a few times though to get a drink and to have some nutrigrain to eat. The contractions had become regular by 2:30am and I coped with that by walking around and visualizing peaceful images. I put my TENS machine on too (though it was a bit hard to put the pads in the right place by myself) I sorted the washing and made up some food for DS1. The contractions were coming every 2 and a half minutes and were good strong ones. At about 4am I decided to wake my husband. Soon after that I thought we should start getting ready to head for the hospital, so I had a shower and DH called his parents to come and get DS1. The nutrigrain made a reappearance and the contraction were about 2 minutes apart. At this point DH said, "should we called the birth centre midwife?" and I said yes please. I was starting to feel a bit like pushing and the contractions were intense and lasting about a minute. The midwife said we should come straight in, if we thought we could make it in time! (I have no idea why I didn't call the midwife earlier or start making our way to the hospital earlier - it just didn't occur to me!)
Leaving home at about 4:45am, DH drove very fast to the hospital, including going through a few red lights (after checking that the intersection was clear). He is very proud of the fact that we got there in 12 minutes. I am very GLAD that we did! It was pretty tough for me to walk up to the birth centre as the contractions were intense and there was a lot of pressure on my cervix. I would only take 5-10 steps between contractions with DH egging me on and trying to get me to go faster. As we approached the birth centre a lovely midwife (not mind) asked if we were being taken care of and my response was to vomit again (luckily I had my trusty icecream container with me!). I felt so rude!
We arrived at the dimly lit and comfortably warm birth centre room. I sort of ummmm and ahhh about where to sit/stand/lie and decided that I needed to go to the toilet. DH had to go and move the car out of the loading area. The midwife could hear that I was pushing and wanted to call DH to tell him to run back or he'd miss the birth. Unfortunately I hadn't memorised his new number so I couldn't tell her. The midwife said a few times to breathe and to wait and try not to push, or DH wouldn't make it. I said (in between contractions) that he wouldn't care and that the baby was coming! The midwife suggested I move to the birth mat with a bean bag.
DH snuck back into the room as I was pushing in earnest. My midwife was great in coaching me through the pushing. I felt the warm gush as my waters broke and the midwife said to the assisting midwife "there's meconium". It is policy to be transferred to the birth suite if this is the case, but I though, no way am I moving at this point! Luckily they didn't ask me to move. One midwife was trying to page a pediatrician, but couldn't get a hold of one. My midwife continued to encourage me with pushing and I clearly remember saying "ouchie" as DS2 crowned (other than this I had been very quite the whole labour) The midwife asked me to kneel on one knee to open my pelvis up a bit more. His head emerged and then with the next contraction his shoulders and the rest of his body was born! What a wonderful relief! DH told me later that the midwife actually seemed to be giving DS2 a fair tug to help him come out. He was born just 20 minutes after we arrived at the hospital and after less than 3 hours of active labour, 7 minutes of pushing.
I looked down between my legs to meet the new little man. My first thought was "he looks different to DS1" and then "he is quite chubby". The cord was very short, so I couldn't move or pick up him. The midwife said that she could cut the cord and it seemed like the only practical thing to do (I couldn't hold that position for much longer). She then said that I was bleeding a bit and they wanted to administer synctocin. I was happy with that, given the cord had to be cut. The placenta was born in a few minutes. I did notice that I was in a fairly large pool of blood at the point. I had a bit of a graze but no tearing. I was quite shaky when I got up to have a shower and was delighted to hop into bed to have some lovely cuddles with baby. We were left alone (apart from a few checks) for a few hours to have some breakfast, a nap or two and lots more cuddles. Eventually the midwife came into weigh DS2 and we discovered he was very long and very big - 4.5kg! As there was meconium in the waters we had to eventually get transferred for a night stay on the post natal ward, but we got to spend a fair bit of the day in the lovely birth centre room.
I am very pleased with how the birth went and I feel I recovered really well from it and quite quickly too. DH was pretty pleased that it was quite short (particularly as he was only awake for some of it). And he really wouldn't have minded missing the birth - he thought he might have too! I have to say I am quite proud of giving birth to a larger baby quite quickly. My midwives both said something along the lines of "better head in a bit earlier next time"!
PS I know that syntocin is a drug and some wouldn't count this as a drug free birth, but it seemed like the best fitting prefix.
