Liam Jeffery's entrance to the world- 17/8/08
Well, where to begin...I guess it all started the weeks before he was born, with me having tightenings every 15-20mins all night.I got excited when they started to get closer together, but they never got any more regular than about 8-10mins, and were fairly easily manged without too much troubel. This went on for the whole week, on and off and mostly through out night. I had a very sleepless week that week!
I had a thousand calls from friends and family asking if the baby had come or if he was close. It was kind of disheartening every time I said nothing had changed, it was all the same and bubs was still cooking.
DH had no idea what to do with me, as the week went on I got crabbier and sooo tired. It was so hard to do all of the normal day to day things, look after DD and have these pains. By the Friday I asked him to take time off work as I just couldn't handle it all.
Then on the Saturday night things changed a bit, and the pains got a bit more serious. I went into hospital to get some pain relief and after about half an hour on the ctg the midwife said I was having some tightenings, but not real labour. She gave me some panadeine forte and sent me on my merry way. The tablets helped for a few hours, though I still couldn't sleep through the pains. I got some rest all the same.
That night the pains got a bit worse and I had about four showers to try to ease the pain, all the while, DH and DD slept the night away! The pains got to about 5-7mins apart and again I got a bit excited, but again they eased off a bit and I layed on the lounge to try to sleep. But every time I relaxed, the pains returned. I was so tired and just wanted sleep. Saturday during the day I had some pains, but the were managable and we even went to the shops without too much trouble.
Saturday night the pains got pretty serious. By about midnight, I was too sore to sleep or rest and showers weren't doing much so I ran a bath which was where I stayed for about 3hrs, emptying and topping up the hot water. I managed to sleep on and off in the bath for about half an hour at a time. DH got up to DD and then came to see what I was doing at about 2am, and just told me not to drown...no help at all!!
Sunday morning I was in tears on and off and so tempted to go to hospital to ask to be induced! But DH had his soccer grand final to play in....priorities!! So I went to mums for her to look after DD and we went to the hospital again to get some panadiene forte but they were really busy and said I'd be waiting for hours to be seen by anyone. I left there in tears to go and have another marathon bath at mums.
By now the pains were different, like a band tightening around my back, hips and belly. The bath wasn't helping now either, and I was pretty distressed. I called DH home to go back to hospital, as I was desperate for some relief. When we got to the hospital it was all quiet thankfully and they checked me straight away. The pains had eased by now (of course!) but the midwife did an internal anyway after I asked her to. She checked me once, and I asked 'is it all good?' She said 'Hmmm...' and checked again then said 'I just had to make sure...but you're 8cm dialated and your waters are bulging, if you want we can break your waters'. I was in a bit of shock, I couldn't believe that I was almost ready to have my baby!! After so long having these pains, it was almost time.
I went to a labour suite and DH went to get my things from the car, I called my doula, who nearly had kittens! At this time though the pains had died down again and were easily managable. I called mum and told her she'd be a grandma again soon, and that she had a little visitor for the night, LOL!
At 6pm, the midwife broke my waters and things started up again in earnest. I had some meconium in my waters so had to be monitored. I started having contractions every 5-7mins, with every 3rd one or so pretty ouchy and making me feel sick, and wanting to push. After about 1 1/2hrs, I had a few serious contractions, and really had to push...after 3 or 4 pushes my little man made his entrance into the world, very squished and bruised from his speedy arrival!
After a tough week and not even knowing I was in labour our beautiful little man was born at 7.40pm on Sunday 17th August 2008.
I have to say big thanks to my doula, Trish. Without you hun, I would have gone insane and probably ended up having been induced. Thankyou for all of the phone calls, messages and encouragement. My birth went exactly as I wanted with your support.
