Ethans Birth 25/07/07

Well its been 1 month and 5 days since the arrival of my first child, Ethan Cyril and this is the story of his birth.

Everyone kept saying "your going to go early", "you wont carry full term" blah blah blah! So in the end thats what i thought, but no, he wasn't early he arrived right on time...His due date!!

I went to bed around 10pm on the 23rd of july and slept soundly until i woke about 1.30am on the 24th to a few uncomfortable contractions, didnt bother waking dh as they were not regular and really didnt hurt at all, i ended up going back to sleep. I got up at 7 with no more contractions since and at 9ish i called my mum and asked her if i could have contractions that would just stop and go away and she said yes, so i figured that was what happened and thought i still had a wait ahead. At 10.30am i sat down to have a milo with dh before he headed out and noticed he had spilt some on the floor, so i squatted down to clean it up and as i did felt a trickle/wet feeling down below and thought eew gross, not even thinking it was my waters until i stood up and it just gushed out everywhere. Dh just stared in shock as i ran (well waddled at that stage LOL) to the bathroom shouting "OMG MY WATERS JUST BROKE"!! I took my pants and stuff off thinking that there mustn't be much left after how much came out and wanting to get changed when at the same time as dh walked through the door, it started gushing out again. I told him to ring my mum and let her know and while i was getting changed (sorry if this is TMI!!) I heard dh say to mum "it looked like a waterfall coming from her crotch, lol how nice! Any way i rang the Larissa (the midwife)and she said to come to the hospital. So i grabbed the bags and off we went. Still no more contractions but m/w confirmed it was amniotic fluid and checked ethan, who was fine then said i could go home and if nothing had happened by 5pm to come back as i may need to be put on a antibiotic drip due to risk of infection. So between then and 5 i went to lunch with mum and walked endlessly around my house waiting for something to happen. By 5 pm other than a few twinges now and again nothing was happening so off we went again to the hospital, i was given oral antibiotics to take over night and was sent home again so that if labour started i could labour at home comfortably, but was told if i was still the same at 7am the next morning i would have to come in and be induced. So home again, me with my fingers crossed that ethan would come so that i would not need to be induced. Just as we pulled up at home (we're less that 5 mins from hospital) i was hit with my first strong contraction it was about 6pm. They were 10 mins apart lasting about 1 min, by 7.30pm the pain was getting pretty bad but i didnt want to go to the hospital yet, so i climbed into bed and tried to sleep (impossible!) at about 8.15pm i was crying from the pain but held out until 9.30pm when i told dh to ring the hospital, that the contractions were 5 mins apart and killing me. By the time dh got off the phone to mum and the m/w contractions had gone too 2 1/2 mins apart still lasting for 1 min. When we got there mum was waiting and my m/w's Larissa (student) and Kate got me settled in my room and checked bubs then did an internal and told me i was 4cm dilated, i said WTF...is that it?? Kate said thats good love, i mumbled not good enough i want this over with NOW!! After 2hrs having contractions 1 1/2 mins apart lasting for about 45secs, i couldnt handle the pain anymore and gave in asking for pethadeine, which did nothing whatsoever except make me feel extremely drunk and tired! After another 1 1/2 hrs, at 1am with contractions coming every 30secs i was sitting in the shower when the m/w's came in and (sorry TMI again) and noticed something hanging from down below, at first they scared me b/c i heard them say something about cord prolapse but when kate had a better look (the lights were out so she had to get a torch!) she said Larissa, wheelchair, labour ward NOW!! I got so excited b/c i thought it was almost over...not quite though. Things get a bit hazy from here (thanks to the gas!!) as soon as i got to the labour ward they did an internal and WOO HOO, FULLY DILATED!! At 1.30am i said i was ready to push, and the m/w's smiled at me and said well lets do it then love, lets meet your son. At one stage i remember asking the dr how long this was going to go on for and he said it shouldnt be too much longer and i told him i didnt believe him as he said that before, lol. It was around this time i asked for the gas which apparantly i had a fair bit of and then told mum to pi$$ it of i dont like it!! (i dont remember that!!) At 2.30am after an hour of pushing i kept repeating i cant do this anymore and asked kate if she thought ethan would be here by 3am, she said if we worked hard and gave some real strong pushes then yes he would so i pushed with everything i had with the next few lots of contractions and then heard dh shout I can see his head keep pushing lol, I reached down and felt his head and it just gave me a burst of energy and the strength to push the rest of his little body out. After 1 and a half hours of pushing at 2.58am on the 25th of july ETHAN CYRIL finally made an appearance, with his eye's wide open and after a tap on the bottom and a very loud healthy scream (which hasn't changed!!) He was put straight on my chest and i started crying, i looked at mum and dh and said i love him soooo much already, then both of there tears started as well! During this time the placenta was delivered (felt so good when they got that out!!) the cord cut and i was stitched up (i ended up with 2 2nd degree tears, grazing and a broken tail bone:cry:) I was then given an anti d injection and had to lay there for 1/2 hr then while ethan was taken to be weighed i went and had a shower. Then ethan was brought to me for feeding, he latched on with no trouble at all and was nick named Little pig by larissa and kate!! Ethan weighed 7pd 3oz, was 48cms long and Head circ was 35cms. Labour for me was the most tiring, painful, horrible, exciting, wonderful experience and was totally worth it. I must apologise that this has turned in to a bit of a novel, but if you made it this far, thankyou for reading my birth story.

JESSIKAH:)

congrats on the birth of Ethan Jessikah. What a great birth story!!

Well done Jessikah! Be very proud, sounds like you did very well when things got tough!

Congrats on having a beautiful little boy!

What a great story. You did a great job!

It's funny how you can never really appreciate what going through labor is like physically and emotionally until it's happened to you and it's also such an individual experience.

Congrats hun ! You did you fantastic job ! You little boy is adorable !

That was great Jess! LOL at your DH's description!! And your description of birth is very true - it is just so many different things all in one - so amazing!

Fantstic job Jess. Congratulations!