The Birth of my Mr Caleb!
This is the story of Caleb’s arrival.
Caleb was born at 11:02pm, on the night of Monday 21st of August 2006. His weight was 3405g or 7lb8oz, length 52.5cm and head circumference 36cm.
The actual birth was very quick but the story of the pre labour is what makes it long enough to enjoy a Cuppa and a few Tim Tams while you read it…
I’d had a bit of a show about 2 weeks before his EDD of August 13th and was almost certain it was going to happen soon. Well I was wrong there!
On the evening of his EDD I started having some regular contractions which were quite different to the Braxton hicks that I had been experiencing most evenings for the last month. DH was worried because with A’s birth, once my contractions got going properly it was only 2 hours before he arrived, so he rang his mum and told her that she may be needed tonight and to be ready to come over. 10 mins later she rang back to say she was coming over anyway.
This was the first of a few false starts over the week, resulting in me being tired from lack of sleep as the contractions I was having were strong enough to keep me awake and frustrated due to feeling like an inconvenience to everyone who was ready to help us when the time came.
By the next Sunday morning (August 20th) I decided to talk DH into a bit of nookie to see if it would help things along. Then we went out for a walk around the market (we put the bags in the car just incase). I was having quite strong contractions and after I’d had enough of dodging people at the market and my fill of those yummy little Dutch pancakes, I decided I wanted to go home.
That evening I had more of the same contractions with a back ache included, which got me hoping it was the real thing. When nothing had happened by morning I rang my OB’s office to see if I could have an appointment that day instead of the Tuesday when I was booked in for. I really needed to know if the contractions were doing something.
I was told to come in at 2pm. After an internal the OB told me that I was 3cm (yeehaa!) and he could do a stretch if I wanted. I said that was ok and thankfully it didn’t hurt too much.
Afterwards we went for a wander around Fountain Gate. I really noticed the contractions had picked up a bit on the ouch factor. I must have looked a sight waddling around BigW as I did notice a few concerned sideways glances!
Got home and checked out BB for a little while. By about 5pm I was uncomfortable sitting on the chair so I got my fitball and strapped on the tens machine and went and bounced in the lounge in front of the TV.
MIL had cooked a roast lamb and it smelt fantastic but I just felt sick at the thought of eating anything. I started feeling hungry about 8pm and got up and heated up my dinner. My contractions were now about 5 mins apart. Walking to the kitchen was quite ouchy. DH wanted me to ring the hospital but I said I wanted to wait. After ringing them twice during the last week, only for it to turn out not real, I was hesitant.
I ate dinner and went back to sitting on the ball. The boys went to bed at 8:30pm and then it was me, DH and MIL watching Greys Anatomy.
I could see MIL watching me out of the corner of my eye. Every time I checked my watch with a contraction she would ask how strong that one was. I was beginning to feel annoyed and would just answer “Not strong enough”.
By 9pm DH was telling me to ring the hospital and I kept saying “after Greys Anatomy if they are still this strong”.
Well the next one was like wham! And the next few were just as strong and only 3 mins apart all of a sudden. I announced that I think we’d better go so we left at 9:15pm for the 10 min trip into the hospital and I barely had a contraction on the way in (I was too scared to say anything to Trevor about that) but the walk into the hospital brought them on again and I had 3 on the way to the door and another 2 on the way to the birthing suite once we were inside.
Our midwife felt my belly and expressed her concern that the head didn’t seem far down enough for me to be in real labour so she felt my tummy through a couple of contractions and then said she liked the way they felt so she put me on the monitor. I didn’t want to be on the bed and asked for a ball to sit on.
I sat there for a little while breathing through them and then they were really strong all of a sudden and I asked for the gas. After sucking on the gas for a few contractions it felt like it was doing nothing and I wanted to get in the bath. The midwife told me no because she was worried because the babys heart rate had dipped to 60 with the last contraction. She sat and watched the next couple. The heart rate was still dipping low but not under 70. She told us that she was going to call the OB about the heart rate.
It was change of shift time and while the two midwives were talking about me my waters broke.
I told DH that the waters had broken and he called out to them. They came in to check me out.
The rest is kind of a blur due to me sucking on the gas like a demon. From here this is what I can remember:
I had two contractions very close together. They were very strong and I could feel my dinner coming up, but it stayed down.
I still had my pants on so I was helped to stand up and the waters gushed out everywhere. The midwife pulled them off me and she and Trev helped me up on the bed which still had the back rest in the up position. I knelt and leaned over the top of it, which was where I stayed with my tens controller in one hand and my beloved gas pipe in the other.
I felt the urge to push and I heard OB’s voice telling me to push the head out (I don’t remember when he arrived). I tried to stop pushing as I didn’t want to tear but I had no control over it. I was yelling into the gas pipe about not wanting to tear but they couldn’t understand me so they turned the gas off :(
One big heave and his head was out. Then with the next contraction the shoulders were out too and he was born. I was so relieved and happy to hear him crying but I couldn’t move to turn around and look. He had passed meconium at some stage on the way out and it was everywhere but it wasn’t a problem, just a mess that they all seemed to find amusing.
Because I was still leaning over the end of the bed they cut the cord and wrapped him up before helping me to turn around and see my little man. I didn’t realize that the original midwife had decided to stay until she handed him to me.
I looked up at the clock and was shocked to see it was only 11:05pm.
I was given an injection in the leg and seconds later the placenta came out intact so we were very happy about that including the OB who obviously was prepared for a trip to the theatre just in case it got stuck again.
My tear was stitched up, he was weighed and measured, and then it was time for his first breast feed.
