Joshua Rhys - 11/05/08 *Long*
Just a bit of background first - in March 2005, I was diagnosed with severe endometriosis and was told I'd never be able to conceive naturally as both my tubes were blocked and my chances with IVF were about 30%. In September 2007, a great miracle happened and I conceived naturally (we were holidaying in Europe at the time, Florence at the time of conception!). This is my birth story...
I had awoken at around 1am on Sunday morning 11th May to go to the toilet. I was very much used to several toilet trips during the night after nearly 9 months of being pregnant. After getting back to sleep, I awake again sighing as it was only just gone 2am. I felt a bit wet and thought to myself ?Great, now I am getting the incontinence as well?. I get up again and feel a trickle run down the inside leg of my pyjama pants. Off I dash to the toilet only to feel more coming out and starting to wonder if this was my waters breaking. Surely not as I was only 36 weeks and 6 days! I get to the toilet and more water is leaking out thick and fast now. I notice a glob of mucous in my knickers, which I wonder is part of my show. I am still unsure if this is my waters so I smell my pyjama pants to see if they smell like wee. Nope, no smell at all. I quickly grab a towel from the bathroom and put it between my legs and waddle back into the bedroom feeling excited, disbelief, and excited again. I reach over the bed and touch Mat on the arm to wake him up. He looks at me sleepily. ?My waters have broken? I quietly say to him. ?Really?? he says and I nod my head. He is up in a flash and we are now both fully awake. I ask him to get more towels as by now the water is gushing out of me. It is a strange sensation and not at all like I am peeing, it is definitely uncontrollable.
?I guess we should call the hospital?, I say to Mat and off I waddle to find the number. I ring and explain what?s happening and the midwife starts asking questions. ?How do you know it?s your waters?? she says. ?Because it is just gushing out of me and I can?t control it? I reply. ?Is it clear or another colour?? she asks and I quickly reply ?Clear?. She goes on to ask me about who my doctor is and then tells me I need to come in and to put on a pad and that she will see me soon.
By this time my contractions had started. All I could think of was what I learnt at the antenatal session with the physio ? low shoulders, long soft fingers, open thighs and breathe in and breathe out. I didn?t really think about how quickly they were coming but they were definitely making me stop what I was doing.
I put the phone down and Mat and I start busily packing the rest of my bag. I thought I had everything in there but didn?t. Four towels were strewn over the floor, all soaking wet. We do a quick look around the house, wondering if we have forgotten anything and I fortunately remember to grab my camera and I say to Mat ?Ok, let?s go?.
At around 3am now, we hop in the car and Mat asks me to tell him when a contraction starts and when one finishes. He times them at three minutes apart and lasting around one minute. I think to myself ?These have really come on quickly!? During a contraction I breathe in for a count of one, two, three, four, five and out for five, four three, two, one as well as thinking the low shoulders, long soft fingers, open thighs until the contraction is over.
The drive to the hospital takes about fifteen minutes and we park and a contraction hits so I wait for it to finish before getting out of the car. We walk over to the after hours entrance and talk to the midwife through the intercom. The door opens and we head up to the second floor. No one is at the front desk so we walk around to the other desk where a midwife explains that another midwife was coming to meet us. Mat had walked back to the other desk and I waited in the hall until I saw him and the midwife down the corridor where they waved at me to come so off I waddle. The midwife comments how fast I am walking for a pregnant girl and says ?You are really fit!?
She brings me into a birthing suite and begins getting the monitors out. She hands me a gown and a cup and says to change into the gown and pee in the cup. I do so and come back out and the midwife gets me up on the bed to put the monitors on. All I wanted to do was get back up and walk around because the pain was a lot worse lying on the bed even though I was partially sitting up.
I notice a midwife give Mat the meal menu for the day and I can hear him asking me what I want and I say yes to everything he says without even realizing what I food options I am saying yes to!
The midwife gives me an injection into my belly to stop my contractions and they do start to ease off slightly, but I still feel some pain in my lower back. Shortly after, a few people are in the room including the anesthetist. The midwife tells me Dr Yoong is on her way in.
They then start getting me ready for surgery. I have placenta praevia so bubs wasn?t going to come out the normal way ? it was going to be a caesarean for me. I am wheeled off to the area near theatre and the anaesthetist puts the cannula in my hand for the drip. I am lying on my left side on the bed with one of those warm hospital blankets over me. The midwife mentions that we gave everyone a scare up in the birthing suite as bubs heartbeat dropped. I think it is because I moved around trying to get comfortable. Mat heads off with Dr Yoong to scrub up while I am wheeled into the theatre room.
They arrive back and the anaesthetist is getting ready to do the epidural/spinal block. I sit up and listen to their instructions to curl forward so they can put the needle into my spine. I am squeezing onto Mat?s hand for dear life remembering the size of the needle in the ante-natal class! The anaesthetist tells me he is going to wipe down my back and it will be cold. Cold is an understatement ? it is freezing! It was strange however, because it wasn?t a wet cold, it was just cold, a very dry cold. He then tells me he is going to put the needle in. I begin to feel it on my skin and then a big cold splash over my back. He says the needle broke and it is just the anaesthesia I could feel splash over my back. He tries again and it goes in all ok. It is not as bad as I imagined it to be and I am surprised at myself about how calm I am.
Very quickly, my legs start to feel tingly and numb and the midwives lay me down and move me from the bed onto the operating table. It feels quite strange to be able to have feeling above the waist and not feel anything from the waist down. I still have a slight tingle in my left toe but the anaesthetist assures me this is fine. He starts to put an ice pack over my skin. I feel the cold on my shoulder but feel nothing on my belly, just a sensation of pressure as he presses it on my skin. He does this several times to be sure and Dr Yoong starts.
Mat is sitting at my head with me, holding my hand. The other midwife sits on my other side chatting to me and Mat. I hear someone tell Mat the head is out and he can stand up and look if he wants so he does and says ?oh cool?. At this moment, the midwife at my head tells me that I will feel pushing on my belly and it will feel rather uncomfortable. I say ?ok? to him and prepare myself for it. It certainly does feel uncomfortable and I make some groaning noises and Mat quickly sits back down and asks ?Are you ok?? I say ?yes?.
I hear someone say ?It?s a boy? and I hear a big loud cry ? my son is here! He is whisked over to the little table and Mat goes over there with him. I turn my head to the right and I watch them cut his cord and take photos and clean him up. I don?t even notice Dr Yoong removing the placenta and sewing me up. I am just watching my boys.
The paedatrician hands our little boy to Mat and he brings him over to me and pops him down on my chest. I have a son! I stare at him at awe until the midwife says ?You can give him a kiss!? I take a deep breath in smelling that newborn baby smell and kiss his tiny little head. He has golden blonde hair and he is so little. The midwife takes a few photos of all three of us together. I get to cuddle him for a few more minutes while Mat goes with our little son up to the nursery to get weighed and checked over.
The midwife asks ?what name have you chosen?? and I say ?I think we are going to call him Joshua?. Mat and I had only talked about names the previous night and we had only just decided on a boy?s name ? Joshua Rhys. The midwife says it?s a great name and he chats to me some more as Dr Yoong finishes and I wait in recovery for about twenty minutes or so. Dr Yoong tells me that my placenta was very interesting as it has an extra bit on it. I ask her ?What does that mean?? She says, ?Not sure, I have not seen it before so we are sending it off to pathology to check it over?. Later I find out that it was nothing bad at all, just an extra bit! They then lift me back onto the bed and I get wheeled up to a room where Mat and Joshua are waiting for me. I cuddle him straight away and start breastfeeding. I can not believe that he is finally here! This is my son, the child I never thought I would ever be lucky enough to meet and he suprised me by coming 3 weeks early to make me a mum on Mother's Day!
Weight: 3.195kg / 7lbs
Length: 50cm
HC: 34cm
Thanks for reading!
