Tameeka's birth story

23 Dec (40wks) - Today is my due date :) i started having contractions 5 mins apart & more painful then the ones on saturday. we went up to the hospital were i was monitored & my contractions were mild & still abit irregular. The midwife did an internal and said i was 4 cms dilated at 6pm which she said that was still considered normal because i have already had kids and i was 4/5 engaged. Baby would move her head around whenever the midwife tired to see which way her head was facing so baby is not stuck & looking very comfortable. she said i could be in early labour but my body still had not decided weather it wanted to go into labour or not so she sent us walking to see if we could keep things going. things only got a little more painful & the contractions went to 5-7 mintues apart & lasting a little longer. she said i could stay there or go home. so we went and stayed at my parents place just incase things got moving during the night.

Tameeka Jasmine Deacon’s Birth Story

Born:25th December 2003, Thursday
Time:11:30pm
Weight:3080 grams or 6lb 12.8oz
Length:50 cms
Head Cir:34 cms
APGARS:9, 10

After a few false labours, Christmas Day was the day. I woke up at 5:30am & by 6am I had a bloody show. I had irregular contractions all day with a continual show. By 6pm I was in a lot of pain, but contractions still weren’t regular, I could have 1 every 5 minutes or 3 in 5 minutes then nothing for 10 minutes. But we went to the hospital again anyway to check things. I knew I was already 4 cms dilated from the 23rd. So my mother Evalyn, husband Ashley and I arrived at the hospital at 7pm where we met my sister Natasha. We went to the birthing suite where I was monitored for 20 - 30 minutes where is showed I was having regular contractions and that baby was fine. Tameeka was still moving a fair bit. I was given an internal and was 5cms at 8pm. So we went for a walk to try and get the contractions stronger and more regular. At 8:30pm we got a checkup and sent for another walk. At 9pm I was already sick of walking and my calves were starting to hurt. So we sat in the birthing room and we all talked which passed time very quickly. The contractions were getting a lot stronger by 10pm when I asked about an epidural. So the midwife did another internal and I was 7 cms dilated. So I knew it wouldn’t be long. The midwife said she could break my waters and see what happened. But I knew it would be too quick and wanted an epidural (would be my first epi). So she called the epidural lady up and they told me about it. I said I still wanted it so they put the drip in and at 10:40pm started putting the epidural in. The worse part was trying to stay still during a contraction which I had 3 in 5 minutes so they had to keep stopping. So at 11pm everything was finished and they gave me the first epidural dose. They said it would start to relieve the contractions by 11:20pm and I should have full pain relief by 11:30pm. By 11pm I was having a lot of pressure downstairs and it felt like my waters were going to break (I remember from when mine broke with Jacob) By 11:15pm the contractions were starting to lessen but I still had a lot of pain downstairs. The midwife asked if I wanted my waters broke but I said I would wait to see if it would happen itself. A few contractions later I said stuff it and my waters were broken at 11:20pm. I was told I was fully dilated and could push when I wanted too. Well I was still waiting for the epidural to work so I didn’t push. After 5 minutes the midwife said I should just do a few little pushes if that is all I wanted to do, so 3 little pushes were done and baby was down the birth canal. This was a very weird feeling because I could still feel it and focus on what was happening at the same time. I had a mirror to see baby coming out, I believe it helped a lot in the pushing process. The midwife told me to do a big push with the next contraction. So one big push and we could see the babies head, the midwife told me to keep pushing (by now all I wanted to do was take a deep breath and relax) so I continue to push and the baby’s head just kept getting bigger, I was then told to stop pushing and baby’s head came out. The midwife checked for the cord but everything was fine. The midwife then told me to put my hand down there and I touched baby’s head. It was so weird but wonderful. The midwife then asked me to put my other hand down there (I was so confused…lol) But I did anyway. That is when she told me to push a little so we could get the shoulders out (that hurt the most and I really didn’t want to do it) Just after her shoulders came out a little the midwife told me not to push and she told me to put my fingers under baby’s armpits because I was going to pull her out with the next contraction (talk about shock I didn’t even ask for that to happen and didn’t even think about doing it) so with the next contraction I pushed and pulled my little girl into the world and she went straight up onto my tummy. Well I was a crying mess. It was so wonderful having control over things and not having to worry about the pain completely. If I knew the experience was going to be so good I would never have been scared to have an epidural with the other two children. I had still up and down about whether to get one with Tameeka but I am so glad I did. The birth experience was wonderful and I felt so good afterwards and I was so emotional. I cried for a good 15 minutes. I was then given the needle to deliever the placenta, my sister Natasha cut the cord and with a few little pushes I got the placenta out. I didn’t have any cuts or tears and didn’t even feel sore down there. I got up and had a shower straight away. Tameeka was born on 25th December 2003 at 1130pm weighing 3080grams (6lbs 12.8oz) she was 50 cms long and her head cir was 34 cms. We went home from the hospital at 11am the next day.