The Amazing Birth of Buster
For such a speedy birth Buster's story turned out to be quite long! So get comfy and enjoy...
After giving birth to our first son in August 2009, DH and I felt we would like a smaller age gap for many reasons. We were happy with just two children and hoped to TTC when Moo was around 9 months old. We felt ready a few months before then but the only problem was the absence of AF...I was lucky to not get it back until 12 months to the day on Moo's first birthday!
So we jumped on the TTC rollercoaster once more, thinking it would be as quick as Moo who we were blessed with first try. Unfortunately it was 5 months of trying which becomes very long when you're living in 2 week blocks! Of course I thought I was pregnant every month which made for a very emotional time.
I was devastated when I started bleeding at 6 weeks pregnant and the weeks that followed were extremely low. There was lots of blood tests, ultrasounds and doctor visits but no one could confirm what I already knew - that I had lost the baby. After 3 weeks of torture I finally had an answer and I shut out the world as I came to terms with our loss. I still can't think of this time without crying, even as I hold my newborn son in my arms.
Fast forward to 3 months later, I discovered we were pregnant again on April 1st! I was very apprehensive and even the horrible morning sickness couldn't shake the fears away, I sat in the radiology waiting room with a bucket on my lap and tears rolling down my face waiting for that first early scan.
As the weeks went by I started to relax and I ended up really enjoying the pregnancy, a stark contrast to my first son who has given me trouble right from the start! We found out we were having another little boy which we were both very happy about. Due date was estimated to be December 12th but I always felt it would be earlier in the month.
Bubs was engaged at 33 weeks, this surprised me as Moo never engaged. I hoped this would lead to an easier birth - Moo was a 22 hour labour, 2 hours of pushing with no urge to push whatsoever due to his presentation. I also had lots of pains coming and going in the week before I went into labour, again I thought this might be a quicker birth with all the work my body was doing prior.
A couple of weeks before I felt like I needed to prepare and made myself cook meals to freeze etc, not so much nesting but I certainly felt better once I declared myself 'finished'! I kept myself busy with appointments and outings in the hope that I would have to cancel them due to going into labour. I was happy to make it to the Mattel Factory on the Wednesday night though! My DH does rotating shifts and was due back at work on the Friday, I complained that night that I had really thought he wasn't going back and was disappointed that it looked like I was wrong. My most comfy maternity pants split during this conversation and I secretly hoped this was a sign!
Thursday morning (December 1st) I was laying in bed when I had an odd feeling and jumped out of bed. As I stood up my waters broke! I called my midwife who I had an appointment with that afternoon, we decided if I had no contractions I'd attend the appointment which was at the hospital. I was 38 weeks and 3 days, DH called work and told them he wouldn't be back in until next year (he was to start annual leave after these last shifts). I was right after all!
Due to an earlier 'scare' I already had all my bags packed and ready so I alternated between sitting around and jumping in the shower until it was time to go. I hadn't had any contractions by this stage which didn't worry me.
What I didn't realise is I was to be monitored while at the hospital. I had assumed it would just be a quick check with my MGP midwife and was completely unprepared when my 2 year desperately needed a nappy change! My poor DH took Moo out to the car where a newborn nappy, a whole pack of my flushable toilet wipes, a decent amount of my face wipes and some duct tape from my TENS machine did the job...which was not helped by Moo jumping to his feet whenever he heard a truck go past!
Meanwhile I had to have another lot of monitoring, I'm actually not 100% sure of the reason why the first lot wasn't enough because then my blood pressure went up...and up...and up. I explained that I felt fine but was just keen to get home, Moo had no food and was due for a nap and I was getting anxious about all that. My midwife (K) was taking it again my DH came back and told us what happened with the nappy - she said "I'm not even going to write that one down, I'll be back in 20 mins to take it again!"
When she returned she had brought one of the doctors with her which made me more anxious. I really just wanted to get back home, I was also starting to worry about induction as this hospital likes to give you 24 hours after waters breaking and I didn't know how I felt about that. I didn't think I'd have to worry about any of that until I was overdue so was feeling very unprepared. Luckily my BP had dropped right down and I was free to go...then I started having contractions.
By this stage it was mid afternoon and Mum had already been called from 2 hours away to come look after Moo, as I was going to have to come back to the hospital at 7am to discuss induction with a doctor. I didn't feel like I should leave as I was in quite a bit of pain so DH took Moo home for a nap and to wait for Nanna. While he was gone I jumped in the shower and bounced around on the fitball with the water on my lower back. I had all the lights off and commented to K how nice it was to be alone for once.
The contractions were coming very close together but were erratic with a few really strong ones in amongest lots of relatively small ones. Unfortunately by the time DH came back an hour later it had all come to a stop again, just like it had been doing all week. I was so disappointed and felt like an idiot!
K gave me the option of having a VE and most likely going back home or staying overnight in the postnatal ward. Either way I was coming back at 7am. She was concerned about me being 'on the clock' once she did the VE, plus she was thinking about how quick the labour might be if I went back home. I chose to stay overnight on her recommendation, plus my Mum was home with Moo so I thought it might be less stressful to be in hospital! Because she is my own midwife through the program I'm in, K stressed that the girls on postnatal would call her if she needed to come back for me and went home to get some rest.
DH got me settled in my room then took me to the cafeteria for a nice big latte. I called my sister to fill her in then went back upstairs. I got DH to call home about 8pm to check on Moo. Then about 10pm he was preparing to go home and started getting my TENS machine hooked up in case I needed it overnight. Suddenly I had 3 big contractions in 15 minutes! The postnatal midwife assigned to me walked in during this and commented that it looked like things were starting up for me.
The contractions kept going and seemed to be the real thing. Unlike my first labour where it progressively got more intense, these contractions were painful enough that I had my TENS on 5 for them which is halfway to full power. The only difficult part was I was in a shared room and there was a poor new mum trying to sleep! I felt like I needed to make noise but obviously didn't feel comfortable where I was. So I sent DH to find the midwife who had just been in, in the hope that I could go somewhere a bit more private.
He came back shortly and informed me that she had finished her shift and gone home! I couldn't believe it! She had seen me in labour and hadn't told anyone. To make matters worse there were no rooms available so I had the choice of a waiting room that has two walls of windows, or the babies bath/check up kinda room that also has a wall of internal windows. They're as bad as each other but I went into the bath room. I felt like I was on show as the windows faced the nurses station, the room was all lit up and the door was wedged open. No one thought to make it more comfortable for me and I was too busy being in labour to do it myself.
I alternated between exclaiming to DH that "I may as well be in the middle of Westfield, it's so bright in here!" to "I may as well be in the middle of a cornfield, I'm so alone in here!" I'm pretty sure there were a few F words thrown in there as I was really p'eed off with my lack of care. No one came to check on me and I was worried that K was going to miss everything. I felt like I was going to have my baby all alone in this room. I think my DH made the mistake of replying "oh well!" to one of my rants at which point I cracked it and sent him out to find someone because "I have to get OUT OF HERE!".
Thankfully he came back with another midwife, who promptly told me she would organise some pain relief. This got my back up as I was quite comfortable with just my TENS and this just amplified the fact that no one there knew anything about me or my wishes. I informed her my pain relief was just fine but she could do something about my environment as that was my main problem. She called down to Birth Suite and discovered that there was a room available (hooray!) so DH and I went and got my bags.
Worryingly as soon as she'd said I could go downstairs, and all the way down the three levels to the Birth Suite I didn't have one contraction...I thought "oh that's wonderful, it's all stopped again!" But as soon as I got in the door of my new room I had the biggest and most intense contraction yet. I still had a bag hanging off my wrist and DH was trying to get my hand off the table to get the bag down but I couldn't move - I really was in labour!
By this time it was around 11pm, DH called K himself who said she had gone to bed awhile ago to rest as she thought she would be getting a phonecall! So she got into the hospital about 30mins later.
In that small space of time I had gone from being really excited about going through the birth process again to feeling really scared. I kept thinking of Moo's birth and how long and painful it was. Although I was comfortable with the contractions I was focusing on how much worse it was going to get.
DH told K all this as by this stage I couldn't talk much and she said that was completely normal. Whenever I had a contraction she reminded me to breathe and just talked me through it, keeping me relaxed and more able to cope. I was leaning over a beanbag that was on top of the bed at this point but my knees were beginning to ache. We lowered the bed so I could just kneel on one knee and alternate legs to minimise them aching. Everytime she told me to change knees I'd refuse politely, until she kinda made me :)
Suddenly the room started spinning and I felt like I was going to throw up. I also heard someone call my name twice which freaked me out a bit. Then it all stopped and I heard my voice change and knew I was about to have a baby! K said something about the baby being ready to come down and told me to just trust my body and breathe the baby out. This whole time DH was behind me on a seat with a heat pack on my belly and a cold washer on my neck. I was amazed as I was waiting for it to get worse and now it seemed like it was almost over!
At this point K got a buzzer ready and told DH to press it when she said so and got ready to catch the baby. I could feel the baby coming down on his own and felt so happy at how different a birth this was turning out to be. K checked the heartbeat of the baby and said "Your baby's heartrate is slowing down, you need to get the head out." She had set up a bean bag to the left of me and told me lay down, I told her politely that I couldn't. She just said "Yes you can" and guided me down. DH pressed the buzzer and was holding one of my legs up, when a couple of midwives came in to assist. DH moved to kneel beside me and took my hand. For the next two contractions I pushed with absolutely everything I had and my second son was born at 12:25am December 2nd just 45 minutes after K arrived at the hospital.
She handed him to me and I pulled him up to my chest. The first thing I said was "Is he ok?" then "Hi, hi, hi" to him and kept repeating that. It was just so hard to believe that he was finally here and that he was perfectly ok. DH sent a text to my Mum telling her that Moo had a brother, she couldn't believe it as last she heard he was on his way home!
I was hoping to have a natural 3rd stage but I was desperate to get up off the floor and had started shaking so I ended up having a managed 3rd stage. We discovered that our little guy had a knot in his cord but because it was still plump it wasn't a concern apparently.
Total length of labour was 2 hours and 25 minutes with a 2nd stage of just 23 minutes. I was lucky enough to not sustain any tears or grazes and got through with just the TENS machine for pain relief. He was a whole kilo lighter than his big brother at 3.1kg (6lb14oz). I didn't have any clothes small enough for him as I was expecting another 9lber so my sister went shopping for me that day. He started feeding very soon after birth and I went home early that same afternoon. I'm still completely amazed at what a fantastic birth his was, nowhere near as painful as his brother's with a much easier recovery.
It's now 12 days later and I am so besotted with our latest addition. Although in the grand scheme of things people go through a heck of a lot more to bring home a baby, I didn't realise how much I had been hurting until he came along and began to heal me, I feel so incredibly blessed.
Thanks for reading :loveshower:
