The day Charlie made his entrance !
For weeks prior to my EDD of the 18th of April, I was getting loads of Braxton Hicks that were painful and regular. But usually after a few hours, they’d stop until the next day. I wondered during this time whether I’d recognise if I went into real labour.
On the 13th of April, I went in to see my ob for my weekly appt and he checked my cervix. It was 4cm dilated and ¾ effaced and at my request, he did a stretch and sweep. He said it looked like I was going to go into labour very soon.
So when I started getting contractions every 5 mins apart on the evening of Saturday the 15th of April, DH thought maybe I should speak to the hospital. I personally wasn’t convinced it was ‘it’ but when I spoke to the midwife, she insisted I come in straight away.
DH and I arrived at the hospital and were taken straight into a birthing suite. I was assessed – still 4cm dilated – and was told that, yes, I was in labour and would likely have bub that night.
DH and I watched tv, talked and walked around, all the while timing my contractions. They remained 4 mins apart for 3 hours, but at about 9pm, I noted that they seemed to be getting less strong. At 10pm, my contractions started to drift back to 6 mins apart. By the time the midwife came in to check on me at 11pm, the contractions were 20 mins apart.
I was devastated, exhausted and getting ****ed off, and more than a little embarrassed that it all seemed to be a false alarm. I asked if I could go home at that point, and the midwife went off to discuss it with my ob.
Ten mins later, she came back to let me know that my ob would prefer me to stay overnight, and that he’d talk to me in the morning if I didn’t go spontaneously by then. DH and I were transferred into the maternity ward to spend the night.
Once installed in the maternity ward, I was just dozing off when I suddenly felt baby start booting me frantically. This frenzied movements continued for over 2 hours, and at the tail end of it, the contractions started again, 10 mins apart. By 7am on the 16th, they were 5 mins apart again, and the midwife called my ob.
My ob suggested that to ensure that my contractions didn’t slow down again, that they break my waters. I readily agreed, and at 9.30am, I was brought back into the birthing suite and my waters broken. My DH and ob exchanged looks, and I knew something was wrong. My ob then confirmed that my waters had loads of meconium in it and that they needed to get bub out quick. We decided to induce, with continuous monitoring, and my ob also got on the phone to book the theatre for a c/s should I need it.
At 10am, they put the syntocin drip in and that’s when my midwife, my DH and my ob all gently suggested an epidural as they needed to get the contractions going really quickly and I wouldn’t be able to be active to work through the pain because of the monitoring. By 10.30am, the epi was in.
Once the epi kicked in, the drip was turned up in increments every ½ hour until it was on full dose. The midwife never left my side as she monitored the baby’s heartbeat, and strong little man that he is, bub’s heartbeat slowed to about 105bpm during the contractions, but never lower than that. He was doing great and as long as he held up, I was on track for a vaginal birth! It was frustrating being confined to bed for monitoring, but after the scare with the meconium in the amniotic fluid, it was also comforting to hear the little'un's heartbeat the entire time.
At 12.50pm, the midwife topped up my epi, and at 1pm an internal showed that I was 6 cm dilated. At 1.20pm, I had progressed another 2 cm to 8cm. My ob came in 10 mins later just as I started to feel some pressure on my bottom, and at 1.35pm, I was fully dilated and was told to push when I felt like it.
Problem was, I didn’t feel like it! It was only about 10 mins later, as my epi started to wear off, that I started to feel the urge to push! The pain started coming back with a vengeance, but strangely enough, because it helped me with the urge to push, I welcomed it. I started pushing in earnest at about 1.50pm, and with much more effort - and pain - than I remembered from when I birthed my other 3 children, Charlie was finally born at 1.59pm on Easter Sunday, the 16th of April! He weighed 7lb 14oz, was 51 cm long, and had a head circumference of 37cm, and was incredibly beautiful! He had an Apgar score of 8 and 9, and I needed 3 stitches all up.
The birth was not quite the natural, active birth I had hoped for, but once I saw my beautiful boy, all I could think of was how happy I was that he was finally here, in all his glory for his doting parents to adore. How he arrived seemed incidental… though I readily admit, I’m kinda glad I didn’t end up needing a c/s!
love
sushee
