Hamish Baxter's Natural Birth
So based on my dates, our little bundle was due on the 15th, and from the U/S he was due on the 17th of December. As I went nearly 2w late with Jenna, I was sure that I was going to be late with this baby, especially as at my 36w appointment with the hospital consulting obstetrician he told me “it was a small baby”. I didn’t worry too much at this point, as I thought small baby in OB talk meant a nice little 7lb, which is what I was expecting. Shane on the other hand worried, and got even more worried when at my 38w appointment the midwife told me that he was still very skinny. We had an appointment with the family GP (who I saw with shared care the previous pregnancy) and even she told me I looked pretty comfortable for 38w.
All this to me confirmed that he was going to be late. Period – I would be spending Christmas in hospital fur sure!!
So the niggles all started around about 39w. I was getting lots of back pain, and it was all just getting a little unpleasant. I didn’t think too much about it though – you can’t whilst chasing around super toddler, and besides I was sure I was still 3w away.
The day before I was 40w, we were at the Harley Davidson shop looking at stuff, and I was really uncomfortable. I had to rock my back and I was getting super ratty. Shane thought I was putting it all on as like I say – still 3w to go ;)
Friday morning at about 3am, I awoke as usual to some nasty pains in my back, a few tiny contractions, and I woke Shane up and asked him to rub my back – he begrudgingly obliged. Then I got a swift kick to the bladder, so I thought I’d better get up and go to the loo. Imagine my surprise that my wee wasn’t contained, and I spilt a little on the side of the bed, all down my legs, and it sort of dribbled out without any control into the toilet. It took me 10mins or so to realise that this could be my waters leaking – more than likely my hind waters as it wasn’t gushing, just constantly dribbling.
Then I did something really, really weird…… I had been hassling Shane to help me out “trimming downstairs” for about 2weeks, as I couldn’t reach or see, and it was rather unkempt. So at 3am he got the scissors and we had a haircut over the toilet. I guess this was the only nesting I really had.
After the trim, I put on a pad, jumped on BB for a while, and then got back to bed about 4am. When I woke in the morning, the pad was soaked through, and I was still dribbling. I called the hossy and they told me to put on a fresh pad, and see if it soaked through within an hour. It did!! So I rang them back again, and they asked me to come in for some monitoring.
Bec came over with Eliza, and the girls played together, and I called Shane at work suggesting that it might be time to come home from work as if nothing else, someone had to watch Jenna. He put in for his leave that day, and was totally stoked, as he hadn’t wanted to work the following week!!
At about 10am, we headed into hospital where they slapped a CTG on me, did all the normal obs, and left me alone for about 1hr. The CTG machine they had was crap, so it wasn’t picking up the contractions I was having (about every 10mins or so), so the midwives said – go home, and call us in the morning as you will probably need more monitoring again if you are still leaking. They also told me to think warm comforting thoughts to help labour get started.
As soon as we got home I called the acupuncturist and managed to get an appointment for 4:30pm that day, which was great. We went shopping to pick up a few odds and sods that afternoon, I was having nice contractions that I had to stop for on occasion, but it was all really irregular and silly. The acupuncture session went well at 4:30, she said I had come at a good time as prelabour is a great time to get the help from the needles. She had me hooked up in about 10 spots, and they were connected to an electrical supply for more stimulation. She replaced the needles with little pressure dots and I was coached on which dots could be pushed for different results, energy, strengthen contractions etc.
We got home and did the dinner, bath and bed thing for the other child, and sat down to have a beer. For the first time I watched the clock, and my contractions were about every 5-6mins and were lasting about 45seconds. So this was good!! I called the hospital, and spoke to Andy (my favourite midwife) who was about to leave for the night, but was on call from 5am before her 7am morning shift. She said if I hadn’t gone during the night, which she thought I would, I would need to come in for more monitoring in the morning, and I needed to have a chat with the Dr’s regarding an induction.
During the night I woke about 3 times with strong contractions for about 30-40mins, but they would just peter off and I could go back to sleep. So at 8am Andy called and said to come in :( Darn it all!!
As soon as I got there we had a chat about options (waters breaking, infection risks, induction options etc), and then she did all the regular tests and hooked me up to the CTG for another 30mins or so. We discussed options about being admitted, and agreed that the best thing for me to do was have the recommended antibiotics, and then go home with a bung in my hand, returning every 6hrs for a top up. Lucky the Drs that were on were pushovers, and didn’t mind toooo much (although they were a little nervous). So by 12pm or thereabouts, we were home, and I got cracking with the nipple stimulation. This was working really well for me. Every time I started it, contractions came on really strong and heavy, and lasted for as long as I let them. Unfortunately I was finding that every time I focussed on something other than the birth of this baby, everything stopped for me.
So between 4-4:30, I was having regular and painful contractions about 3-4mins apart, but as soon as Shane’s sister arrived to baby-sit Jenna while we went back in, everything stopped. Grrrrr.
At 5pm we went back in, and the same old thing. CTG, AB’s injected and monitoring for about 1hr. At this stage I was really not interested in being strapped to a machine for so long, but I succumbed, lay on the bed next to Shane, put the cricket on the TV and tried to relax. It worked! Contractions back, and about every 4-6mins. Great. Then we had to make a decision. The next dose of AB’s were due at midnight, so I could either go home until then, or stay and relax in the hospital. We decided to stay, as it was much nicer and easier than being at home with Jenna, and besides Shane’s sister was at home, and I couldn’t be bothered dealing with her. We had missed the dinner service, so we walked into town (about 10mins) and bumped into friends with their 4m old. We ended up having dinner with them – although they did find it pretty odd that about every 10mins I had to stop talking and breath. By 8:30pm we were back at hospital feeing much better, we went back into the birthing suite, lay on the double bed and tried to sleep with the lights dimmed. Kathy, the afternoon shift midwife left at 9:30pm, at this time I was having nice regular contractions, and there was no one from the FBU on that night (weekend), but Margie was on call if I felt I needed her. But we sorta expected to be going home at about 12:30 after the next round of AB’s. Chris was a normal midwife (i.e. not FBU) and she immediately admitted me to hospital, as she wasn’t comfortable with the arrangement that was happening. As soon as she came into the room and chatted, everything stopped again!! This was unreal. I am sure everyone thought I was faking the whole thing.
By 10:30pm I had to get up and walk around, and at 11:30pm I did a lovely big poo, which kicked everything off. I really had to breathe through the contractions, and I was leaning on Shane with every one. When she came to do the 12am AB’s I was in a fair amount of pain, and had heat packs stuck to every part of my body. Heat is your friend when you are in pain.
By 1am I was no longer comfortable walking, and had to rock with each contraction on a fit ball leaning against Shane. I had changed into my pyjamas, as it was pretty clear we were staying, and I decided that I needed the FBU midwife to be called in. So Margie got the call, and was there looking slightly dishevelled at about 2am.
Can you believe as soon as she got there, contractions stopped – for over 30mins this time!!! I felt so bad calling her in at that time of night, and I felt like a big old phoney.
I did some more nipple stimulation, and that got things going again, and it was just all sore, painful, regular and unpleasant. I was getting to the stage where I needed help in a big way. So at 3am I got my first internal, and I nearly cried when she said I was only 3-4cm, the head was still high and my waters were intact. I had been further along than that with Jenna’s birth and it had still been hours of pain before she came along.
As soon as I sat up from the internal, the contractions were hitting my lower back, and I had to get into the shower. I stripped off, and barked at Shane to get his togs on and get in too to rub my back. I was in a lot of pain, and wasn’t sure how much more I could take of this. Each contraction since the internal was killing me, they were about 2mins apart and with the 6th one I felt the urge to push. I told Shane to push the buzzer, and as Margie arrived I was having a really strong urge to push – in fact I couldn’t stop myself. She told me to let it all just happen. The following contraction nearly broke me in two as Hamish crowned (I was up on my tippy toes with my arms on the rail and my bum out facing the world) and the little guy (as well as a bit of water, blood and some brown stuff…..) was popped out with two good pushes into the midwives hands at 3:13am. They all got a little wet. I could see the funny little guy between my legs, and after a couple of minutes they had the towels around us as we sat together, skin to skin on the ledge.
We were there until everything calmed down – maybe 4 minutes or so, and then the midwives helped me up back to bed. As I got into bed I said “Fu** that hurt!!!” and everyone laughed. We lay there cuddling for about 10-15 minutes, and then the cord was cut. I was getting really bad afterpains and the placenta was delivered, then Hamish had his first feed.
I felt great. Really really good, and didn’t feel like I had given birth 30mins earlier. The after pains were excruciating though – I found them so bad I couldn’t trust myself to hold Hamish, so I handed him to Shane and they had a cuddle in bed together. As I still had the bung in my hand, they gave me a shot of morphine that made me feel warm and fuzzy for 30mins or so, but then wore off. I couldn’t sleep, I was amping to get up and get moving, so by about 6am I was up getting dressed, texting everyone, while Shane slept it all off. Poor guys.
All in all it was a pretty cool experience. Shane was brilliant through it all, and I’m very happy that I had a completely natural birth (excluding the AB’s hat turned out not to be necessary). I think my bond with Hamish is probably stronger as a result.
I still feel a little jibbed that Jenna’s birth didn’t go to plan, but I guess this kinda helps to make up for it? Will I go again……? I know I could do the childbirth thing again. It was hard, and it hurt, but I reckon that I dealt with it all really well this time. I’m a bit concerned about Hamish’ low birth weight, and whether than would happen again, and to be honest I don’t know if I can do 3 children as toddlers.
Second time around things are much easier, from breastfeeding to the actual birth itself, so I guess something up there is telling me to keep breeding. Just not sure. Wait and see!!!
