Birth story of Alaska Payton - didn't think i was in labour
The birth story of Alaska Payton
Our little girl was due 8 Dec 2011.
On Wednesday 23rd Nov i was getting twinges every 20 min for 2 hours but then they went away and i thought damn i was hoping this was it.
On Friday 25th Nov i woke up at 4:30am with some pains. I went to the toilet then hopped back into bed. At 4:50am i got another lot of pains and thought hmmm 20 min apart - ah this isn't it - this same thing happened the other day. I drifted off back to sleep. At 7:20am Hubby left for work. I had another pain around this time but didn't mention it to my Hubby as it wasn't very bad and i thought it was just braxton hicks. I started to have more pains so was monitoring the time between. The first 3 were 20 min apart then it dropped to an 8 minute gap. I text Hubby to tell him what was happening and i mentioned "braxton hicks suck" and i hopped into the bath for some pain relief. Suddenly 3 mins later i got another contraction. I went from 20 to 8 to 3 in 3 contractions. I was still in denial that i was in labour. The only thing that made me think hmmm maybe just maybe was the fact i went to the toilet and had a "clean out" - sorry TMI. I seriously thought it was just braxton hicks i had been experiencing. After 4 contractions in 12 minutes i decided to hop out of the bath and ring my sister in law for some advice. I asked her if it was normal for braxton hicks to come so frequently. Straight away when she heard my breathing she said "you're in labour." I said i wasn't but she insisted. All of a sudden i got a little excited. She told me to ring my Husband to come home so we could go to the hospital. I told her i wasn't sure but she was pretty persistant. I rang my Husband and while i was telling him what was going on his sister was ringing through on his other line because she didn't believe i would actuall phone him. I kept saying i wasn't sure if he should come home because this might not be it and i'd be so embarrassed if he ended up returning to work later that day because his wife was imagining things. Anyway, he insisted on coming home as he said it sounded like i was having proper contractions based on my breathing. At 9am my Husband arrived home and my contractions were 2 mins apart. I told him i was going to be so embarrassed if i got to the hospital and this was only braxton hicks.
By 9:30am we were at the hospital and a check discovered i was 3-4cm dialated. I remember saying "Oh, so i'm not crazy? I am in labour?" I was offered the option to go home but i said no as at least i had pain relief at the hospital for when i needed it. I was given a morphine injection as i said the contractions were quite painful, and taken to a labour suite. After a hot shower and gas which didn't work, i was re-examined and found to be 4-5cm. After an hour of pacing around, trying to find comfortable positions and using a heat pack, i was offered an epidural by a midwife who made me feel like i was a sook because of how much pain i was in. Just before they called the guy in to do the shot, i was examined again and found to be 7-8cm. The midwife was shocked i was so far so soon and called Mr Epidural to come. After that went in things were great except the epidural didn't work on my right side. I felt EVERYTHING on that side. After a few hours of crying and telling the midwife i could feel everything, she said i could have the epidural re-sited but i declined the offer because i really didn't want them having another go at it in case i felt even more after it. I found that using the gas once the epidural was in, was great- it seemed to work... pity it took me a few hours to give the gas another chance.
By 3pm i was fully dialated and ready to start pushing (so i was told because i had no urge to push which i hear happens with an epidural). I was pushing for about 45-50 mins which was completely pain free (i had to ask if it was pushing correctly because the epidural made it hard to feel what i was really doing down there). I remember saying to my Husband that it was weird the pushing part didn't hurt at all. I ate my words VERY QUICKLY. The last hour of pushing was EXCRUCIATING. It was like someone had tied a strap around my pelvis and was tightening it constantly. I was in so much pain that at about 4pm they offered to do a vacuum extraction. I said yes as i had been begging the midwife to just take me for a c-section (i was hysterical - and weird from the gas... i remember saying "just reach in there and yoink her out - i'm done lady!"). They phoned my doctor and 20 mins later he still wasn't there (clinic 15 away - yeah how unreasonable was i haha) and i was in AGONY. Yes, i am a sook. The midwife mentioned there was another Doctor in the hospital who could come and do the vacuum. I told her to get him as i didn't care who delivered the baby as long as she got here SOON. This Dr came in who i will call Dr Negative. Dr Negative put me in the stirrups and in he goes with the vacuum. He is pulling while i am pushing. The vacuum came off numerous times and he looked like he was going to pull the baby's head off. Dr Negative said "it's not going to happen - prep her for a caesar" - The midwife told me to keep pushing with each contraction. I said "Nope, i'm done. Over it. Why would i keep going through this pain if you're just going to do a caesarian?" - the midwife didn't realise i had heard the Dr. Next thing Dr Wonderful (Dr Jameson my obsetrician) arrives and comes over and asks me how i'm doing. Pretty sure i told him i was dying. The midwife told him i was going for a c-section and he said hang on a minute, let me take a look. I asked him if he wanted me to push and he said yes. I pushed as hard as i could for him and he said, "everything is going fine here, baby is moving well, i will have her out in no time" - at this point Dr Negative left the room. In 2 more contractions and with a whole heap of extra effort from me because of the positive reinforcement Dr Jameson was giving, bub's head was out. 2 more contractions and she was born. All i needed to hear was something positive was coming from all that pushing and once i heard "here is her forehead" "her nose is nearly out" - i really gave it my all. It is amazing how much strength you find when you know it's nearly over. That beautiful cry was what i had been waiting for. I thanked Dr Jameson over and over and over because he came in the nick of time. The difference between that and the c-section - thank you!!!!!
After she was born i saw Dr Jameson stitching up and i realised i was cut. I couldn't have cared less. I was just glad she was safe.
Alaska Payton was born at 4:48pm on 25 November 2011.
She is so absolutely perfect and such a long time coming for us to finally have the family we so desperately wanted after losing our son last year when i was 5.5 months along.
Thanks for reading!
