21st July 2008 - The arrival of Veygas Jakobi Phoenix - long
To start a little way back, I had an appointment with a specialist OB at around 34 weeks because my platelet and haemoglobin counts had been going down (they had actually started to come back up, but then dropped again). He did an ultrasound, because I also have a history of polyhydramnious, but surprisingly, this time around, my bump was alot more baby than fluid.
Based on these factors, and the fact that I have had early (and quick) labours previously, we made the decision that, either way, this baby would be born at 38 weeks.
At 37+2 weeks (a Wednesday), I had another appointment with him, and after doing an internal, he decided that the best thing would be for me to stay in hospital until bubs was born. My cervix was quite soft and favourable, yet only 2cm dilated, but since my 3rd baby had been born in 8 minutes, and we live about 1.5 - 2 hrs away from the hospital (depending on traffic and weather conditions!), he didn't want to take any chances.
I had been having niggles, cramps and pains for some weeks, so as hard as the decision was to spend time away from my family, I knew the best thing would be to stay. I was having irregular contractions, and my OB said that if they didn't pick up and labour start progressing, that he would induce me the following Monday.
My inlaws came to look after our other kids, and my DP came down to the hospital to visit every day. It was actually nice to have time together alone - something we hadn't done for ages! We walked around the hospital, day in, day out, and on the Friday, I started losing my plug.
So, we got to Sunday, and still not a heck of a lot happening, except for the irregular contractions getting stronger and VERY uncomfortable. So the booked induction was going ahead.
Monday morning was quite exciting, as we knew our baby would be here very soon. At 7.30am, the midwife took me down to the delivery suite, and on the way, I had to call DP to let him know what was happening.
After getting changed, getting comfortable and having the monitor put on, the doctor came in to break my waters at 8.47am. After this was done, the doctor did a quick internal to make sure everythig was fine, and I had immediately thinned and dilated to 5cm! She said my body was definitely ready to labour, it just needed a kick start!
The doctor and midwife left it up to me whether I wanted the pitocin started straight away, or whether I wanted to wait. Nah, lets get this show on the road! So they started it at the lowest dose at 9am. We joked that because of the last one being so quick, we'd have this one by lunch time, after 5 minutes of pushing!
Contractions started to intensify around 10am, so they turned the drip up a little, but by 10.30am, I asked them to turn it down again - it's not that the contractions were unbearable, my body just didn't feel ready yet.
By 11.30am, contractions were regular and strong, and at 12pm, I chickened out and asked for pethidine! At 12.30pm I told the midwife it felt like I needed to push, but I wasn't sure that I was ready, and she asked if I wanted an internal done ... I didn't get a chance to answer straight away, as another contraction occurred, but then she looked and said an internal wasn't necessary. I could already feel the baby's head crowning and instinctively started to push.
Our little man, Veygas Jakobi Phoenix entered the world at 12.45pm on Monday 21st July. Labour established at 11.30am, 1st stage labour 1hr 10 minutes, 2nd stage 5 minutes! 8lb 5oz, 50cm long, HC 36cm. No tears, no episiotomy, no stitches!
We were home the next day.
