WARNING: My longest ever post... birth story!

OMG - why do they scream? pmsl (not really)

I just finished texting you girls (Jen and Jess) asking how you were going and telling you BTK was settled. RIGHT! Just lying there screaming his head off. He was fine in his bouncer, in the bathroom with me while I was sitting on the loo expressing (oh dear, what a sight) then I put him down and bang - WAH WAH WAH WAH! One of those painful cries. Then I start crying. I think Mum is in there with him. I had to walk out and get a coffee.

Jess, good for you for managing on your own. Mum helps me heaps during the day but then at night it's just Ocean, BTK and me!

How about a birth story to cheer everyone up?

I pretty much went into labour on my EDD (Wednesday) but it was mainly back ache all day. The next morning I woke at 6am with contractions. They weren't that bad. Called the hospy and they told me to monitor them etc.

Called Belinda (mate who was coming with me) later in the morning and she said she'd drop her kids off and come over at lunchtime. Called my best friend in Perth and told her - she then called me back 10 minutes later telling me I had to hang on until 7pm as she'd booked a flight and wanted to be there! (She?s the best - they both are)

By the time Belinda came over, the contractions were about 2 minutes apart and fairly painful (or what I THOUGHT was pain at that ignorant stage of my life). We stayed at home until 4pm then called the hospy and they said to come in.

Mum drove me, Belinda followed and we got to the family birthing centre at about 4.30pm or so. Had another couple of hours of contractions and finally lost some of my plug. My godmother came over and had a coffee with us (it was all pretty chill at this stage and we were having a lovely "girls only" time! ) - so it was Mum, Belinda, GM and me. Contractions started to get worse and the midwife (also called Belinda - a legend!) suggested time for a bath. As I sat up, I thought I was going to be sick and then my waters broke. I got such a fright I burst into tears. Midwife then told me there was a lot of meconium in the waters - I knew that meant I had to be transferred into the "normal" clinic bit. She felt really bad but I was cool with it. I knew all along that this was a reason to be moved. Whatever's best for bub and me.

So, got transferred at about 6.30pm. Contractions were increasingly worse. I sucked on the gas and couldn't quite work out what to do with myself. I was moving around on the bed and couldn't get into a good position. The monitor kept falling off so they put one of those monitor's inside me, into his little head! At the time, I freaked about it. I remembered them showing us those in the classes and I thought "holy sh*t... that's scary". It wasn't so bad though and much better for me as I could move more.

Before I had left the FBC, the midwife had said I was about 7cm. At 8.15pm, they did another internal told me I was only 6cm!!! I?d had it. At about the same time, my best mate arrived from Perth. I looked at her and said, very firmly, ?GET ME AN EPIDURAL!? (She now tells me that the look in my eye was one of ?I?m going to kill someone if they don?t make this pain go away?)

It felt like forever waiting for the anesthetist. He came in eventually and the epidural was in by 9pm. (Sam, the anesthetist, nearly ended up with a little boy named after him ? I was so thankful for the pain relief! My best mate was also eyeing him off ? he was pretty hot!)

I must say, having an epidural was something I absolutely didn?t want. Not only did I want a natural birth but I was scared of becoming paralysed! (I know, doesn?t happen) After it kicked in, everything was cruisy. We were all sitting up chatting (god mother had long gone), eating lollies and generally having a great ?girl?s night out?. The OB had put in a drip of Syntocin as the contractions had slowed down after the epidural and said to us that she would come back in at 2am and check on me so at 10.53, Belinda called her husband and said she?d be a while. At 10.58pm I was speaking with her husband on the phone, laughing and telling jokes and at 11.03pm, I had Billy on my chest briefly before they whisked him away.

Somewhere around 11pm, we noticed Billy?s heart rate dropping on the monitor. The girls (who both have children) said it was nothing to worry about but I found out later, they were both extremely concerned and it was Belinda who had pushed the emergency button on the wall. His heart rate dropped from around 120, down to 80 then back up briefly and the last time I looked, it was dropping below 60. Before I knew what was going on, there were doctors everywhere. They had put an oxygen mask on me (which is when Mum said she knew something was wrong), put my legs up in stirrups and people were calling out ?CODE BLUE PEDIATRIC? and then someone else said ?call a code on the patient?. (I can?t recall the colour)

I don?t think I quite realized what was happening, nor did Mum, which was probably good because we both remained quite calm. Both of my friends had to leave the room but they said Mum could stay.

The OB was so good and calm. She just told me we had to get the baby out, now. She asked me to push once (not that I could feel it) and she pulled Billy out on that push with forceps. They briefly touched him on my chest, which is when I saw a huge set of testicles and said to Mum ?it?s a boy ? or a girl with a big problem!? My friends told me they heard that and burst into tears.

The next few minutes were spent checking Billy and apparently trying to stop my bleeding before they calmly told me I had to go the theatre to get the bleeding stopped. Still I was calm and everyone reassured me that Billy and I were going to be fine. So they topped up my epidural and off I went. Sam the hot anesthetist came with me and talked me through the whole thing. I couldn?t stop shivering and he gave me warm blankets (do you see now why Billy was nearly named Sam? )

In recovery, they brought Billy in to me ? all wrapped up in his gorgeous little clothes with his funky star hat on. Mum came in, Dad turned up, my mates came in and then Billy?s dad came in with his sister. It?s all a blur really. I think Mum finally left my room at about 3am and went home. Billy spent the night in the nursery with a high respiration rate and I stayed awake, texting everyone! (sorry!!!)

What I found out later was that the Syntocin drip had made me dilate too quickly ? I?d had some reaction to it ? and Billy came down too fast, rupturing the placenta and tearing me internally. He made it out ok, as did I but I lost 1.5L of blood and that?s why I?m having milk production issues now. (or so they tell me) The doctor?s also later told us that them coming back at 2am to check on me would?ve actually been to take me off for a Caesar if nothing had happened. I?m so glad I didn?t know any of that at the time.

All the hospital staff members who saw us over the following days said, ?oh, you?re the two that caused the codes?! Famous already! Hell, even the hearing test lady knew. pmsl

So, that was that. I didn?t post this earlier as I didn?t want to scare anyone. I think that was the scariest moment of my life so far. I hope they aren?t any more ?moments? like that one. Of course, it was all worth it to have my gorgeous little Strawberry in my arms.

Dammit, now I?m crying?

x