On Sunday 25th October, I picked up a rather nasty gastric virus. I had to call hubby to come home and look after Annabelle I was feeling that sick! It had been such a busy week too – I’d just finished work that previous Tuesday, had a friend come from interstate for the weekend and quite a few late nights. So I was really looking forward to resting for the next two weeks before meeting bubs (he was due 5/11)! And… I still hadn’t finished packing my hospital bag. The rest of that night was a bit of a blur, I was so sick and constantly running to the bathroom. Funnily enough, I do remember hubby jokingly saying that maybe this was natures’ way of clearing me out and wouldn’t it be funny if I went into labour that night.
At around 2am Monday 26th, after another race to the bathroom, I noticed that my waters were beginning to break. Not a huge gush of water, but enough for me to know what it was. This was a little different; as my waters had broken some time during labour with Annabelle. (I have absolutely no recollection of when exactly) I rang the hospital and a midwife suggested I have a shower and head on in. So, I woke a pretty grumpy hubby (he’d not long gone to bed), rang MIL to come over for Annabelle and drove the 10 minutes to the hospital. At this point, I could feel some minor discomfort that was the very beginnings of contractions, but nothing too bad.
Once we arrived the midwives set me up in a delivery room and determined I was quite dehydrated and would need to give me some fluids intravenously, to make sure bubs was OK. So for the next few hours hubby and I sat in the suite while the fluids kicked in. I was starting to feel more contractions, but nothing that could be determined as regular. Finally, a dr. came in and said that while it’s common for woman to go into natural labour within 24 hours of waters breaking, they often allow 96 hours before they actually like to perform an induction
. That seemed YEARS away. At that point, I couldn’t imagine still being in labour in three days time! The dr. rather reluctantly asked if I wanted to be induced the following day, provided there was a space. After quick consideration (the dr. stood there waiting for the answer) hubby and I decided to book the induction, thinking we could always change our mind later.After four hours in the delivery ward and with contractions still irregular, it was decided that I needed to move downstairs to the maternity ward to see how my labour would progress. The dr. didn’t want to send me home, as I had been so unwell the night before so down we went.
For the next few hours I laboured. The contractions slowly started becoming more frequent and increasing in intensity, although not as quickly as I was expecting (I was very naively clinging to the hope that this second labour would be quicker than my first). By 2pm I was having two contractions every ten minutes and had taken some Panadeine Forte to ease the pain, which by now was quite intense. By 4pm, the contractions had increased again in intensity, were lasting roughly a minute/ minute-and-a-half and were pretty bloody painful, but since I was in the maternity ward, all I was able to have was Panadeine forte which, by this stage, I was finding quite useless
. By 6pm I’d had enough. The contractions were really painful and lasting almost two minutes. I knew that things were moving along. I was also sick of being in the maternity ward. The midwives would come once an hour to check on me, and I needed something stronger to deal with the pain. I gave angry instructions to hubby to go and get the midwife and move me back upstairs. The midwife finally came. She said she would try to find a dr. to check how far I was dilated and determine whether or not I could move (since my contractions hadn’t gotten any closer together). This took another half-an-hour. Finally, she came back and said a dr. could be here in another half-hour or she could check (they were reluctant to check as my waters had already broken)I was more than happy for her to check, and she found I was already 6cm dilated. Thank goodness! I was able to go upstairs! Woo hoo back to the birthing unit and to some pain relief!
By 7pm I was in a delivery room and pretty much straight away, I asked for a dose of pethedeine which was delivered through my canula, still in my arm from the fluids this morning. OMG – instantaneous hit
! It was amazing! I almost fell asleep on the delivery table. It was such a relief! It really eased the pain of the contractions. I was really hoping we’d be meeting our little man by 10pm. But, my contractions pretty much continued at the same pace until 10.30pm. I didn’t seem to get the overwhelming urge to push that I’d had with Annabelle. Finally at 10.30pm the midwife decided I needed some help. So, into the canula went a dose of syntocin (sp?), to help with the pushing. A quick check at 11pm found I was fully dilated, and even though the urge to push still hadn’t really hit me yet, the midwife said it was time to try. By this stage I was really tired, the petheideine was beginning to wear off and I could really feel the contractions, which were still a fair way apart, but extremely intense. I don’t remember how quickly time passed or how many times I actually pushed, it took all of my concentration and focus to actually push. But at some point things were progressing so fast I remember the midwife pressing the emergency button near me to get another midwife in the room, apparently (according to hubby) because bubs was coming out a lot faster than she thought. I remember feeling him crown and the horrible feeling of waiting for the next contraction to push the rest of him out. Finally, at 11.28pm Louis-Alexander Michael Scott made his way into the world
. He gave a really good cry and was placed quickly on my chest for some skin-to-skin time. He was perfect . He weighed 3345g and was 52cm long. I was so busy staring at my beautiful little boy that I didn’t notice the midwives worried looks toward me as they were trying to get the placenta out. At this point, the cord broke away leaving the placenta still stuck in me. It looked as though I’d need to have surgery to remove it. Fortunately, I soon discovered that the very lovely midwives, who delivered Louis, were also very determined. Despite some very painful stomach pushes and some invasive pulling, yanking and thrusting, I am very grateful that they managed to remove the placenta without surgery
. So, after several hours, some painful stitches (well it was really all the anesthetic needles that were bloody painful and the not-so-gentle dr. who administered them) and another dose of fluids later Louis and I were finally moved downstairs for some sleep.
Three weeks later and Louis has settled in really well and Annabelle just loves her little brother. In fact, he’s the only one she’ll voluntarily give a kiss too
and maybe the occasional pat on the head. He's taken to breastfeeding really well, and I'm feeding with much less pain this time round which is great! Louis loves to be cuddled and is slowly slipping into a comfortable routine. Things are wonderful. If you've made it this far, well done!
Stats:
Louis-Alexander Michael Scott
Due: 5/11
Born: 26/10
weight: 3345g
length: 52cm
HC: 34cm
Hayli
