Jemima Alice perfect except for birth story...
My labour story is not how I would have liked and I feel a little cheated and cry a little bit when I think about it but the result was perfect I'm just extra sore for a while.
I woke up on Saturday morning 3am with a show, felt pains basically straight away 15mins apart then quickly turned to 10 mins apart and they were all intense... (benji has been rubbing my back the whole time) at 5am i phoned the hospital and they told me it was prelabour but that would be seeing me today so that was exciting to know i was not getting "stuffed around" with fake labour as heaps of girls i know have lately!! At 8.30 I was 3-5 mins apart and very intense (benji still rubbing my back), rang the hospital and they said to come in even though i was only timing them being about 30secs long they said i was probably just feeling the peaks of the contractions.
Got the neighbours to feed the dogs and rang my Mum so she could prepare herself to drive to the hospital sometime that day.
Got to hospital at 9.45am and was 4cm, laboured until about 1.30 and was only 6cm (benji still rubbing my back) which i thought sucked but the midwife said that was better than she thought... she then broke my waters to try and progress things along. Then the contractions got more and more intense so about 2pm I said "tell me about the gas..." by about 3pm I said "whats the story with pethadine?" meanwhile Jemima's heartbeat is doing all sorts of weird things dipping up and down at one stage when they rolled me on my side it dipped ALOT a scary lot a scary enough for a couple more midwives a lot so we started to wonder what was going on....
The pain was mainly in my back so after being told i still had a long way to go I asked for an epidural (i am so glad i did) (then they just had to top it up for the c-section) that was 4pm (benji exhausted but still rubbing my back) as I remember getting told it would take at least 30mins..... the epidural guy was a weird russian dude that talked to much i have no idea what he said but it worked, i couldnt feel a thing but Jemima's heartbeat kept going UP and DOWN and up up up and down down down which we made a lighter point by saying when it was over 150 it was a girl and under it was a boy.... noone had any idea what was happening.
Am already secretely feeling like a failure to having all the drugs when I had in my mind I didnt want any....
By 7pm they phoned the OBS (which was not my normal guy it was his stand in that I did not like - she ended up being good though) they came back and said when she got here she would most likely recommend a c-section and that I should get used to the idea, so I did, I wanted my baby out and alive!
By 7.30 my parents were in the building i had rung them at 6.30 and told them to come in anyway even though baby was a while away so by 7.30 i was ringing them again saying i need you now they are going to cut the baby out
At 7.30 they were there for a couple of minutes and then they wheeled me away.
I have never been more scared in my whole entire life, I was so frightened something would go wrong with my baby..... I have been so lucky in life I started to think this might be the one time I am no so lucky!
the feeling of a c-section is so so weird quite an experience but in a way i feel cheated i dont know what it feels like to give birth "naturally" feeling like someone big and fat is jumping on top of you may feel better than trying to push watermelon out, I may never know.
The cord was wrapped around her neck twice, if i had tried to deliver naturally i dread to think what may have happened. I am so glad that nearer to my due date I was having blood pressure probs so started to have to consider being induced that would have most likely ended up with a c-section etc otherwise I may have fought it and laboured on and killed my little girl...
they said she was a girl and I got a quick peek (benji got to peak when they were pulling her out) and I said she was my little Jemima, then I checked with benji if that he was still ok with the name...
They took her away (i was already a little prepared for this as when they broke my waters there was meconium in it and they had said she would need to be checked straight away and then of course more so with c-section and cord problems)
Benji got to cut the cord closer to her belly and then i got to hold her all wraped up and so all i got to see was her perfect little face but it sealed the deal on calling her Jemima Alice she is so pretty, beautiful eyelashes and really long hair and fingers (i saw those after)
Benji and Jemima then left to be cleaned up while they were sewing me up.
While they were sewing me up they saw a mole on my belly that had been bothering me and the Obs offered to remove it - this was very exciting as I knew it had to go so I said YES (it now hurts more than the other wound!) so that was cool.....
In recovery I still couldnt hold her properly as I was shaking so so bad from the epidural etc but after about 3 hours I got an unassisted snuggle, couldnt sleep that night though upset I hadn't played with her yet, hadn't counted her toes or anything... eventually pulled her bed close enough to my bed so that i could get her out and have her on my bed for a while.
Benji looked so cool dressed up as a scrubs doctor, we have a whole heaps of photos of "Dr Wylie" I cry when I think about everything as it was so perfect in the end but I am still confused about how i feel about a lot of it.
Jemima is on day 5 right now and so far perfect, I am still waiting for an unsettled time that lasts more than 2 minutes, I am still waiting for her to do anything 'wrong' she has been so placid and relaxed and so so pretty, Benji and I have truely been blessed to have her!
