The unexpected and early arrival of Ashton Chris
I really don't know where to begin this so I am going to start from the Sunday prior to Ashton being born as we think Lachlan may have resulted in my early labour but we will never know for sure.
Sunday 8th October 2006 - After a late night the night before, I was sitting on the lounge in a reclining position watching the Bathurst 1000. At some stage I must have fallen asleep and I woke up to Lachlan doing a flying leap from a standing position on the couch landing right across my stomach. After that I had a bit of pain but never really gave it another thought.
Monday 9th October 2006 - Woke up feeling okay, but I just couldn't get my head around anything, it felt like I was really spaced out. Went and had a shower to "wake myself up" a bit and I wanted to make the shower hotter. I seriously stood looking at the hot water for 5 mins wondering which way I had to turn it to make the water hotter. Got out of the shower and rang mum and had told her what happened in the shower. I said to her "I think my body is trying to tell me something" so she advised me to go finish packing my hospital bags. I rolled my eyes even though she couldn't see that being on the phone, but I did go and put some more stuff in hospital bag when I got off the phone.
After lunch I had to sort out some old Hi-8 video tapes we had and was watching them through the video camera on the flip out screen. Half way through the 2nd tape I got really bad motion sickness, something that has never happened to me before. Andrew sent me a txt msg shortly after to let me know he wasn't going to work back and by the time he got home an hour later the room was still spinning from my motion sickness. I was never physically sick, and came good about 20 mins after Andrew getting home.
Tuesday 10th October 2006 - Andrew knocked of at 10.30am due to me having a growth scan at midday. After the scan we went to our local bulk food warehouse so I could get a few things for Kameron's upcoming 5th birthday party. We got home and wanted to take our laptop down for repair, but Lachlan had fallen asleep. At 2pm I decided to go and get a few things I needed at the shops including a new going home outfit for Ashton cause the scan said he was only 4lb 11oz, so the 000 outfit I had for him was going to be too big as he would be around 6lb something when born.
I got home just after 3pm and Lachlan woke shortly after. So I said to Andrew "come one we better get this laptop in otherwise it will run out of warranty" we all got into the car and had only been gone 2 mins when I felt a "period like" pain. Didn't really worry to much about it and ignored it. Half way to Hilton I had gotten a couple more period like pains so I started to time how far apart they were. The pain was coming at 10 min intervals.
I knew Andrew was desperate to out to Blackwood at 6pm that night, and so I made an executive decision not to tell himabout the pains as I had given him a few hard times about going out on me at night in the last few weeks, so I didn't want him to think I was trying to pull another guilt trip on him.
I msged Lea13 and told her that I thought I was having contractions but wasn't sure if they were just Braxton Hicks or not as I had never experienced proper Braxton Hicks before. So Lea's msgs kept my mind off things for the rest of the journey to Hilton, I was still having pains on the journey home as well and jumped onto MSN to Lea when we got in.
Around 5pm they had settled down somewhat and I was having just the odd ouchy contraction. Yep definitely Braxton Hicks... in my very experienced (NOT) opinon. Andrew left at 5.30pm and he just happened to ring me shortly after 7pm from Blackwood where he had to go, to get a street address. He asked "how are you" so it was only then I told him about the contractions. Blackwood is an hours drive away, so I told him to stay put and I would see him when he got home.
Kameron fell asleep on the couch around 8pm but something in my head told me to leave him there and not pick him up and put him to bed, as my contractions had gone back to 10 mins apart. Andrew got in not long after 10 and from about then my contractions were getting a bit more painful. Tried to goto sleep but no sleep was going to happen for me.
Wednesday 11th October 2006 - (going on inside my head) "Should I ring hospital", "Nah i'll be right", "hmm better ring hospital" goto dial hung up.... "just ring them". I finally ring at 12.15am and told them my contractions were 10mins apart and getting a bit painful. The midwife told me to take 2 panadol and get a heat pack and try to get some sleep, but to ring back if they got to 3 mins apart or I couldn't cope.
Only pain relief I had here was panadine forte, so I took 2 and filled the hot water bottle. The panadine forte never really took the edge off and made me more sleepy. Felt the contractions were coming a bit faster so decided to time a few. I was now 5 mins apart and they were lasting for around 30 seconds.
At 3.30am I rang the hospital again to tell them I was now at 5mins apart, she asked how I was coping and I said "I think I am doing okay for now" so she said "if you want to come in just ring and let us know your on the way" Andrew got up and re-filled my hot water bottle.
At 5.30am I got up and Andrew decided not to goto work, so I filled the bathtub and I had a txt msg from Melinda at 6am about something else, so I msged her back and said "I think I am in early labour". I got out of the bath and msged another friend of mine who I was supposed to be seeing for lunch to cancel the plans.
At 9.00am things seem to subsided a bit and I was feeling a bit guilty that Andrew had to have the day off. I was thinking of going in to get monitored after lunch if they picked up but they didn't. Andrew and I did some housework together and just hung around. I was still having contractions but they were back out to 8-10 mins apart and I wasn't feeling too bad.
Chatted to Lea and Kelly and Aboll on MSN later in the afternoon and I was having a few painful contractions, and they were getting closer. Lea was trying to keep my mind of the situation and trying to entertain me on MSN. I was in chat to Kelly asking her if she thought "this was it" and she told me she thought it was it from my posts in mods earlier that morning.
I got offline around 5.30pm and started pacing around the house, and put my mobile phone onto stopwatch mode so I could time how long contractions were lasting. From 6pm they were getting serious so I started righting the times down. Contractions were spot on 6 mins apart but lasting anywhere from 45 secs to a min in length. My longest one was 1min 12 secs and the shortest over the hour was 35 secs long.
Just before 7pm I started to have a bloody mucus show, and a few really bad contractions. Andrew went into Ashtons room and got all my stuff and threw into the car. I still hadnt finished packing. I had no day clothes for myself, so I gave him a t-shirt LOL. I finally decided for him to ring his parents and come and collect the kids. They asked if they were going to be spending the night and Andrew said that he really had no idea at that stage, and he was asked "will they sleep" and Andrew said "that isn't my greatest concern at this point" After he hung up I rang mum and said "I think you better come I am not doing to well with coping so going to ring the hospital"
I rang the hosptial to tell them I wasn't coping so I was going to come in. Kelly sent me a txt msg to let me know she wasn't going to make it in time due to plane times, but she rang to see how I was going and gave me a bit of a pep talk down the phone line. I told her I was going to walk in and ask for an epidural. I could just picture the look on her face lol. So she told me to ring her at any stage and put her onto speaker phone if I needed too.
I was still on the phone to Kelly when the In laws arrived for the kids and shortly after my parents turned up.
We arrived at the hospital around 7.45pm I was placed on the fetal heart monitors but the belt wasnt really picking up the contractions. After 1.5hrs of being on the FHM I asked to be let off so I could goto the loo. I was told "if your in labour you need to stay on it as your only 36wks pregnant" I said "if I am in labour I want an epidural" she said she had called the doctor and he would be with us soon. He needed to check me out before epidurals etc could be given. At 10pm there was a change in midwifes, so I said we were waiting for the doctor, and that I wanted an epidural after I was checked out. The midwife just rolled her eyes at me.
The doctor appeared around 10.15pm and said he would be back in 2 mins so wanted me to get ready for examination. He did come back and then said he had been called to a lady that needed him more right at that moment so he would be back soon. Around 10.30pm he came back and the examination was performed. They placed the spectulum inside me and shined up the light and the midwife said “Oh my god” I said “what” and the doctor said “we can see your babies head and your membranes are bulging” I looked at mum, mum looked at me and I mouthed “Oh F***” I then preceded to go into shock and my legs started shaking and cried a bit.
Thursday 12th October 2006 – At 12.20am I really wasn’t coping at all and was really breathing hard through the contractions as well as crying out a bit. The midwife checked to see how far dilated I was, as I asked her if I was far enough along could she break my waters as I was getting really tired from being awake from 6 am on Tuesday morning. She checked and I was 8cm dilated, too late for an epidural but she asked me if wanted gas. I shook my head. She left for a while and I was thinking why do they always do that !! Ringing Kelly filtered into my mind as I really was not coping and I was tied down the Fetal Heart Monitor, but I kept thinking “surely these waters will have to break very soon” just after 1am I felt a warm gush “MUM call Annie (the midwife)” It turned out to be blood loss only and membranes were still in tact. Annie left again. At 1.20am I said “Get Annie back in here” so she comes in and she said “have they broken” and I said “No but I want YOU to break them” her reply was “are you sure?” and I said “yes” she said “things could get worse pain wise are you aware of that” I said “yes” but I knew in the back of my head that as soon as they were broken I would have to start pushing. I also informed her I was really hot, so she went and organised a fan, as soon as the fan was on I was cold so I asked for it to oscilate and not just be on me.
After the fan Annie went to get organised and she came back in to break the membranes. It took her a fair go to break them herself so who knows how much longer it would have taken me. She said “call me when you need to start pushing” she had just finished her sentence and I said “I have to push…. Sorry” she said “don’t apologise just push” I felt them turn Ashton around so he was face down, but it never hurt for them to turn him. I had a cold flannel in my hand from being hot so I was trying to use that to ease the burning of birthing his head. 3 huge pushes his head was born and his body slid right out after him. So Ashton Chris came into the world at 1.36am, weighing 2630g or 5lb 13oz.
We were originally told he was 5lb 1, but I knew that didn’t sound right as Kameron was 2722g born and was spot on 6lb. So we were guessing around 5lb 8oz, but I checked that hospital weight chart when we got home that I had from Lachlan’s birth and realised there was a 3 missing from what we were told originally.
Annie asked me how long I was in labour for at home and I said “how do I work that out” and she said “when you felt that you were really into the labour and they were significant pain wise” so I said from about 6pm the night before, so my labour totals 7hrs and 36mins.
I am pretty stoked that I did it. I had my first every spontaneous labour and I did it drug free. Okay I needed my waters broken, but I might still be there if I didn’t ask LOL.
