Secondly...hurrah!! I'm no longer in pain! Oh happy day.
I've been working my way up to this post and, to be honest, it's only been the last few days I feel my head is on properly and I'm able to write anything...let alone a blog post.
Ok, so the birth. In the end, it all went to plan and was fantastic (or as fantastic something extremely painful can be) but I was so amazed that there weren't any hiccups, to be honest. I also got my water birth which was really beneficial...but let's start from the beginning.
My waters broke at 4am (2 weeks ago, so one week after my last false labour) after having strong Braxton Hicks and back pain the day before. I was hanging on with gritted teeth but I was in lots of pain, uncomfortable and flipping miserable, so when something conclusive happened it was a HUGE relief. I knew that labour was definitely imminent now and that he would be out soon, even if I had to be induced. I obviously couldn't get back to sleep, so I just chilled out, ate (definitely a good move), and the contractions started at 5.30am (it's a good thing I'm writing this down, because already I can feel my memory getting hazy). We went into hospital at about 7am, as the contractions were 5 minutes apart and getting stronger, and luckily Lib woke up just before we headed up there so we got to explain and say goodbye. She was so excited - I seem to remember a large amount of bed bouncing. :)
So there we are. In the place I had planned to give birth! They got us breakfast and we just chatted in between contractions. It was very....peaceful. Completely different to being on the ante-natal ward last time. Then came the crunch. I was examined at 10am, and lo and behold...."sorry darling, your cervix is still thick. It's not a labouring cervix." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! You are f**king kidding me!!
I was very close screaming/crying/tearing my hair out, but I managed to keep my cool. After all, my waters had gone. I knew it was happening, it might just be a much longer labour than last time. Get over it, Chloe. Though they were more than happy for me to stay they suggested that I go home if I would feel more comfortable there, but my god, I swear they wouldn't have been able to prise me out of that room even if they wanted to. I was not leaving until my baby was out, goddamit! I politely declined and explained again that I went from a non-effaced cervix and 1-2cm dilated to my daughter being out within 3 hours last time. Luckily we had put my birth notes from last time on Si's ipad so the midwife had a read. "Of course, every labour is different" my (wonderful despite telling me what I didn't want to hear) midwife said, but I just had a feeling it was going to run the same. It all felt so similar. Of course, Junior being Junior didn't make things too easy because he was lying with his back facing my right side instead of in front, so he needed to do a whole load of turning if he wanted to get out any time soon. As it goes though, staying there was completely the right decision. I had a clary sage massage after my obs, listened to my hypnotherapy tracks, and by 11.30am we were definitely underway. Contractions were running thick and fast and I got Si to get them through to see me again. I got in a good rhythm with my breathing, tried my damned hardest not to tense up, and in the end it took an hour and half from start to finish! It was intense. Very intense. The contractions just seemed to be constant, though I'm sure there must have been small breaks in between. I had a couple of co-codamol and it did feel more painful than last time, but I'm sure that's just because I didn't get any relief in between contractions, and of course Junior was having to turn around as well (it felt so odd every time he moved, and made the contraction more painful with it). Luckily they got me in the pool pretty quickly which was a great help. I would definitely recommend it, especially if you have mobility problems, and it really helped with the pain especially at the pushing stage.
So there we go. The little chap was born at 12.55pm at 38 weeks and 5 days....weighing in at a big 'ol 8lb 10oz! No wonder I was so fatigued..and thank goodness he was early. He would have been huge otherwise! Lib and Grandma got to come in and meet him later that day, and I got to stay in over night to get my head around things with the support of the fantastic midwives. I left the next day feeling tired and sore (obviously) but relaxed and calm, and since then, aside from a few rocky emotional days and my cold coming back, things have been going swimmingly.
What a relief. :)
Snuggles.
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