Oliver Michael 16/2/08

This is from my blog so its very long and quite detailed.

On Thursday (Valentine's Day) I decided I had to go into the city to Lincraft as they were having a half price fabric sale, and buy 1 get 2 free on McCalls and Simplicity patterns. I?d been having a mucosy show for the past couple of days which had started to be streaky so I had a feeling something would happen sooner rather than later. Which suited me just fine as my back was killing me. So I hopped on the bus to the city and went to Lincraft.

Don?t tell my mother but I spent a good couple of hours carrying bolts of fabric to the counter to be cut. I got some red and some navy polar fleece for some sleeping bags I want to make and for some small Honeyboy nappies. I also got some other bits of interesting material, a dress pattern for me, the sleeping bag pattern, and some other baby/toddler patterns.

So finished up at Lincraft and met up with Elliot and one of his workmates. We decided we would get an early dinner in the city and went to Una's at Darlinghurst. It was clearly the restaurant of choice for gay couples on Valentine's Day. We had an early night.

I woke at 3am with mild, regular contractions about every 7-8 minutes. The baby was being very active at this time, lots of wriggling. I've had worse period pain to be totally honest, so I assumed it was early days, took two Panadol and went back to sleep.

On Friday the contractions increased in severity but lost regularity - they were all over the shop in terms of time. Elliot stayed home from working thinking something exciting was happening - I think he was quite disappointed in the afternoon when I was still having random contractions. I decided at 2pm I'd start sewing up the dress I'd cut out a couple of weeks ago to try and distract myself as I'd started having to breathe through each contraction. I got the bulk of it together (with French seams!) including the zipper before it got too hard to concentrate, about 7pm. We decided to go get some dinner so went up to the kebab shop. I had three contractions during dinner. I had a bath when I got home to try and relax.

I called my midwife at 11pm thinking I should call before it got too late, and was diverted to a different midwife as mine had been on duty all day with another lady. The replacement midwife seemed to think it could still be ages since it was my first baby. She suggested taking 2 Panadiene to take the edge off so I could get some sleep. I managed to sleep from midnight to about 2.30am, only waking for a couple of especially painful contractions. At 2.30am though I woke up writhing in pan so there was no going back to sleep after that, but the pain was still all in front - no back pain at all which surprised me as I?d been told posterior babies cause back labour. I was quietly optimistic that maybe bubs had turned anterior this night before. I spent some time on the fitball, leaning forwards on the bed and rocking through the contractions while Elliot slept and the cats stared at me, but that wasn't that effective. So I hopped in the shower and spent ages under the hot water, which was great. However after a while I started to feel a bit woozy from the heat and leaving the shower curtain open didn't help, so I got out. At this point I woke Elliot so he could time the contractions again.

I had to stand through all my contractions after my shower. Elliot called the midwife again and she suggested trying the bath again, which I did but I couldn't bear sitting down - when a contraction hit I stood up so quickly Elliot was afraid I would slip over. I tried hands and knees but it was just as bad as sitting down. I spent a lot of time leaning on the tallboy or holding onto the towels hanging from the over-door towel rack and breathing through the contractions. I still felt like I could cope at this point.

Amusingly enough, Zeke (the cat) had started following me around the house and meowing at the top of his little lungs every time I had a contraction. At about 5am I told Elliot I couldn't take another 8 hours of contractions and wanted to explore my pain management options. He rang the midwife (who could here Zeke going nuts in the background) and we arranged to go to the hospital. It took an hour even though we live maybe 10 mins away with no traffic, but it took me ages to get to the car as I kept having to stop and wait for contractions to pass, and then once we were in the car I made Elliot pull over so I could hop out and lean against the car for each contraction (there were five on the way to the hospital). Twice I was passed by joggers who gave me very strange looks.

We got to the hospital at 6am and I was still having to stop for every contraction and lean on the rails in the corridors. The midwife met us in the corridor outside maternity and asked if I could feel the contractions in my bottom ? which I now could. We made it to my room and I spent another contraction leaning on the baby warmer thingo.

I told the midwife that I understood she couldn't tell me exactly how long I had to go but could she estimate as if it was going to be ages I wanted to discuss options for the pain. She said she could do an internal to check but I would have to lay down, which I can?t say I was pleased about. I waited for a contraction to pass before hopping up on the bed. She checked me at said I was fully dilated and ready to push. I was so surprised, I was convinced she was going to tell me I had another 8 hours to go. She also confirmed bubs had turned and was no longer posterior, then let me up before the next contraction hit. I figured I didn't have much longer to go so that was it on the requesting drugs front.

The midwife put the bed up high so I had something to lean on and put a pillow under me (I assume in case she missed the baby?) and let me get on with pushing in a standing position as I still couldn't bear sitting, laying or kneeling. Elliot stood on the other side of the bed and let me crush his hand during contractions, and translated my face-into-the-bed mumbles to the midwife. Oh, and he held the bowl as I was bringing up small amounts of water and bile with every push.

I started having longer breaks between contractions, which was a relief, and I could feel the baby?s head moving with each contraction. At some point someone named Laura came in ? not sure but I think Laura was another midwife? The baby started to crown and I have to say the pain was bad at this point. I know they talk about the "ring of fire" but the "ring" part had gone straight over my head. I was expecting my perineum to burn, but I wasn't expecting my urethra and labia to feel like I was being stabbed with hot pins. My midwife was doing perineal massage so I had no pain there at all, it was all in the front.

I could feel the baby moving down for each contraction, then slipping back between which was frustrating. The midwife said I could try to hold him between contractions ? I tried and I could. She called Elliot around to see the baby's head crowning, which he did before coming back to hold my hand again. The burning pain got totally unbearable, to the point where I was sure she was doing something to make it worse, but she wasn't. I gave a massive push and Oliver was born in one push at 7.34am. The midwife caught him and as I looked down she handed him to me through my legs, still connected to me. I think I was in shock that he was out. I was so relived that the burning pain was over, I just held him and didn't think to have a look what sex he was for a while. They handed me a towel to wrap him in and Elliot came and cut the cord. I then passed him to Elliot so I could hop up on the bed. Oliver promptly peed on Elliot which amused me a lot. I was handed Oliver back to cuddle.

I refused the oxytocin injection for the placenta and asked if I could try birthing it without first, which the midwife agreed to. She massaged my belly and tugged on the cord, which wasn't as painful as I was expecting. I gave another big push on her command and managed to birth it in tact without issue, which I was pleased about. I didn't look that closely at the placenta but it seemed huge. They asked if I wanted to keep it which I declined.

Laura, the other attending medical person, examined me and said I had three labial grazes which required stitching. Once she finished up with that the midwife helped me put Oliver on the breast. He wasn't hugely interested at first but we got there in the end.

I felt great and the hospital were happy for us to go as soon as Oliver had been checked over by the paediatrician. We were told he would be around at 11.30am and were given a tentative checkout time of midday but the paed didn?t make it around until 1.30pm. We finally left at 2pm.

I'm thrilled with my birth experience and I'm pretty damn proud of myself for being able to stay home as long as I did, and for doing it drug-free. Oliver is doing well and breastfeeding like a champion.

Congratulations. Thanks for sharing your amazing birth story.

wow what an incredable story. YOu are a champion for staying home as long as you did and sounds as though you pushed like a champion.
congratulations on the birth of Oliver

Wow, you did a FANTASTIC job!! Thanks for sharing your story :)

Great Job - well done :clap:

Congratulations, what an unreal birth story. You trusted your body and did amazingly well. :clap:

Oh and BTW I love the name ;)

Lv Spring

~~~Congratulations on the birth of Oliver :clap: happy baby gazing ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lovely birth story ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

wow, that is an amazing story and i hope my birth goes exactly like that this time. I had all the drugs including the epidural with my first.

Going to try drug free this time.

Well done :clap: That was a fantastic birth story.

Congratulations on the safe arrival of Oliver :)

congrats on the birth of Oliver and doing it drug free..... I hope for a similar birth :)

Well done ....

Congratulations :D:D

Well done on such an inspiring birth :D:D