The Birth of Shayla Florence
I know that this is an old birth story (nearly a year old now) but I thought I would post it as I have not long been on the site and I thought others may like to read it. Have a cup of tea/coffee ready 'cause it will probably be a long one.
I was supposed to be going into hospital on 7th April to be induced at 2pm. As Trent (DH) was at work on the 7th Dad was going to take me to the hospital to check me in and make sure all was ok. To my disappointment at 1:15pm I received a call from one of the doctors at the hospital saying that they were full and they would have to put my inducement off for 5 days until the 12th, as they wouldn't book me in over the Easter weekend. The main reasons that I was so disappointed/upset was because 1. They rang only 45mins before my check in time and 2. After 9 months of expecting our baby to arrive on the 3rd I had been given a definite date and had worked myself up and had got all excited and then it was taken away from me. Five days seemed like it was a life time away but I thought hey you never know I could end up going into labour myself now. Easter seemed to drag by and I always thought to myself why would someone go out to the shops (or similar) close to or on their due date? Here I was a week late going out and about with Trent. I felt good but I was just wanting the baby to hurry up!
Finally Monday 12th arrived. I woke up at 6am after a restless night with strange stomach pains and went downstairs to watch Sunrise (not a bad show to watch if your up that early). I was like a child at Christmas waiting for Mum and Dad to get up so I could open my presents. I still had to wait until my check in time of 2pm which seemed so long away. I tried to busy myself for as long as possible. When I thought it was 10am I took Trent some breakfast in bed of Hot Cross Buns (turned out the microwave clock hadn't been turned back). Trent went back to sleep and I said I would wake him at 10am, I ended up falling asleep and Trent woke me at 11am. I then started to get ready to go to the hospital but I was still a little nervous of the hospital ringing and saying that they weren't going to be able to fit me in again. Trent eventually convinced me that considering I was now 9 days over my due date they wouldn't ring as they usually induced people at 7 days.
At last it was 1:45pm and Trent and loaded the car with all my stuff and left for the hospital. As we were driving there I mentioned to Trent how surreal the whole idea of birth was. After 9 months of waiting it was finally time to give birth but it just felt strange that within 24 hours we were going to have a child all of our own. When we got there we went to admissions to check in but because it was a public holiday it was closed and we had to walk around to emergency to check in. When we told the nurse who I was and why I was there they couldn't find any of my details to say that I was checking in (turns out no one had moved my details from the Wednesday to the Monday). I have to admit I got a little worried that it had been changed again but that soon passed when they handed over my paperwork and told me to go to the maternity ward on level 1 to let the midwives finish checking me in.
When we arrived on the maternity ward we were shown the room I would be staying in (a share room but I was the only one in it at this time) and then the midwife took us around the ward to show us where everything was. Once that was done I then had to sit and wait in my room for the change of shift so that the new midwife could start the inducement. While I was waiting another lady was admitted into the other bed in the room as she too was being induced. After the change of shift the midwife (Robin) came in and told me that if I had to go to the toilet I should go now as they would now have to monitor the baby for 30 mins to an hour and wouldn't be able to go to the toilet during this time. I then had to lie on the bed while Robin attached a monitor to my belly. This monitor was to register the baby's movements and heartbeat. After about 20/25 mins Robin came back in to check how things were going the baby's heartbeat was going just fine but there was no movement at all (we assume the baby was asleep). So Robin stopped the machine for a little while so I could move around on the bed a little bit and Robin pushed slightly on my belly hoping that would at least move the baby a little bit. This seemed to work cause about 15 mins later the machine had recorded enough movement for Robin to put in the first lot of gel. To put in the gel Robin had to do an internal examination to see how dilated I was and then insert the gel. By the time all of this happened it was 4pm and I then had to sit in bed for another hour whilst the baby was monitored to make sure that the gel didn't cause the baby to have some form of reaction (increased heart rate etc etc). During this hour Trent went home for a little while to grab a few things that I forgot. Kerry (my older sister) also rang me during this time to see if it was ok for her to come and visit me. At about 5:15pm I rang Trent as I was starting to get back pain and I wanted him to come back and keep me company.
By the time Trent got back the pain in my lower back was getting even worse. He started rubbing my back which was working well but he wasn't getting much of a break as the pain would only go away for about 1min or so. Kerry arrived soon after with a bag of food, drink and some magazines but I couldn't even talk to her as I was in too much pain. Kerry put one of the bottles of orange juice on my back which relieved the pain a little bit so she went and asked Robin if we could have a cold compact or similar to put on my back. This worked for a little while but the the cold wasn't doing anything for the pain. Kerry ended up going home at around 6:30pm as she couldn't cope with me being in so much pain. After Kerry left Trent went and asked Robin if there was anything we could do for the pain and she suggested that we go for a walk but I couldn't cope with that so when we got downstairs Trent went round to emergency to borrow a wheelchair. We then went outside for a little while to see if the fresh air would make me feel any better. We were outside for about 5 - 10 mins (if that) before I said to Trent about going back inside to the midwife to see if there was anything I could do for the pain. She suggested that I take some Panadine Forte as she believed that the pain I was getting was just a reaction from the gel working. After I took the Panadine Forte Trent continued to massage my back until about 8pm. Trent then rang Mum and Dad and asked someone to come down to the hospital to help him massage my back as he was getting extremely sore arms and he wanted some relief.
I then decided that I wanted to see if going in a hot shower would help the pain at all. With the water running straight onto my lower back and Trent massaging at the same time it was working really well. After about 30 mins Kerry stuck her head in the bathroom to see if we were ok. Since Kerry had seen me in pain already she was more prepared for me to not be happy and to be in pain, so she had come down as Trent's relief. After about an hour in the shower Trent pressed the call button for Robin as he was getting concerned about the pain as it had started to get more intense again. Robin asked me if I wanted to have another internal now to see how dilated I was but she would not be able to do the next lot of gel until 10pm as there had to be 6 hours between the 1st and 2nd lot of gel. There could be the possibilty that I may not need the 2nd lot of gel if I was dilated enough though. Trent said yes on my behalf, so we got out of the shower and I got back into bed so she could do the internal in between the contractions. I was now in so much pain that I didn't really want her to do the internal but if she told me I wouldn't need the next lot of gel I was going to be extremely happy. Unfortunately she told me that she was going to have to do the gel at 10pm anyway as I wasn't dilated enough. Due to the pain I was in and how dilated I was Robin thought it would be best if I had an injection of pethadine to help with the pain as it would be a while before I was to give birth. By the time Robin came back with the injection it was 9:20pm and I wanted the pain to stop even if it was for 30 mins I would be happy. I asked Kerry to ring Mum as I wated her to come down as she was going to be there for the birth and I was in so much pain I didn't want her to miss anything.
At 9:30pm Kerry rang Mum whilst slightly kneeling on the bed behind me rubbing my back. While she was on the phone my waters broke so I quickly told her to move so she didn't get any of the fluid on her. Robin finished doing what she was doing with the other lady in the room before coming back over to me. Robin then decided it was time to take me into one of the birthing suites, so she went to find a wheelchair to take me there. As I was getting pushed to the birthing suite about 10mins later Mum was at the nursing station asking where I was. When we all (Trent, Kerry, Mum, Robin and Myself) got into the birthing suite I got onto the bed and the new midwife gave me the gas to suck on during the contractions. When using it you sound like Darth Vadar it was quite funny. At 10:15pm Robin left the room to start doing some paperwork before her shift finished at 10:30pm. She told Kerry to press the button next to the bed if she was needed and she would come straight in. When she left Trent started to get a little upset as he couldn't do anything to get rid of the pain and he felt completely useless.
After about 5 mins (if that) Kerry pressed the button to call Robin back as I felt the need to push. Robin came back in (with a nurse/midwife I'm not sure what she was) and was telling me to push as she could feel the head. When you are pushing they take the gas away from you, which I personally didn't like as that is when you need it the most. When pushing the new lady was telling me to lay on my back to push but I was a lot more comfortable on my side so I just ignored her. My back was killing me and felt like it was going to tear open but I think I was concentrating on my back more than anything else as I was scared I would injure it or something. When I got told they could see the head I felt less tired as I knew it was almost over but geez it bloody hurt. It is kind of like a burning/tearing feeling but within a couple more pushes they told us we had a baby girl and all the pain was gone. Trent then went round to cut the umbilical cord and she let out a little whimper but that was all. Trent then went with the new woman to do all the checks on our little girl. While they were doing that Robin gave me an injection in my leg so that I could push out the placenta (which looks like a big lump of liver) and they check it to make sure it is healthy, which it was. She also then checked to see if I tore at all and would need stitches and to my relief I didn't.
Trent then bought our little girl (now named Shayla Florence) for me to hold. I was so tired yet so awake at the same time. I had been awake since 6am and now at midnight I was holding our daughter. Every single bit of pain, sleepless nights, hot flushes, and every once of weight put on was worth it when the end result was a perfect little girl. Trent was wonderful throughout the whole thing (even if he didn't think he was) and I'm glad that I had Mum and Kerry there for them to share the experience as well. Dad turned up at the hospital about 15/20mins after Shayla was born and walked in with a can of Pepsi for me (one of my biggest cravings during the pregnancy). Trent then helped bath, weigh, measure Shayla and then everyone had a hold of her.
By the time everyone left it was 2am and the midwife took Shayla into the nursery so that I could get some sleep. I wish Trent could have stayed longer and didn't have to work the next day but he had 2 weeks holiday starting at the end of that shift so I was happy about that.
NAME: Shayla Florence Hill
SEX: Female
DATE: 12/04/2004
TIME: 11:02pm
WEIGHT: 8lb 7oz (3830gm)
LENGTH: 50cm
HEAD Circ.: 37.5cm
Thank you for reading, I hope I haven't bored you all.
Clare
