My Labour.....

So this turned out to be more of a novel than I had expected, so if you want to continue reading please feel free to grab a cuppa and a snack and read on...

The Examination

So the lovely midwives that administered me got me all set up in the labour room for the doctor to examine me as I had told them my waters had broken, turns out, they don't really believe you so they have to confirm everything (fair enough). When the doctor administer the examination - which consisted of a bloody speculum being inserted and opened, much like a PAP smear, it hurt like fucking hell. Then she actually tore the rest of the membrane and the rest of the "water" gushed out all over the bed. Awesome.

So because I was only 34+6 (34 weeks & 6 days along) I had to be administered to hospital to be monitored for the rest of the pregnancy, they had to give me a steroid shot for the babies lungs and I had to take antibiotics (which I think had something to do with him being too early to come out and my water breaking and he was susceptible to something they referred to in initials which I still don't really know what it was), they also booked me in for another steroid injection for the next morning.

At this stage I still wasn't having contractions and to be honest I wasn't looking forward to staying in the hospital for any extended amount of time.

Because of the diabetes I had to be hooked up to a glucose drip for the duration of my stay so they could monitor me more closely, but it also meant I had to do a finger prick EVERY HOUR! That sucked. It took 6 goes to try and insert the cannula for the drip, in the end they had to insert it into the crook of my arm, which is not an ideal place to have something that isn't allowed to be bent.

This all took about 2-2.5 hours. They then sent me off the the maternity ward, dragging my drip along beside me, to get settled in and to enjoy my stay.

The Maternity Ward

By the time I got over to the ward I hard started having small cramps, much like period pain, but even barely noticeable, so I didn't worry about it. I sat down with my husband (mum had decided to go over to our house to clean up and organise the babies room some more as she didn't really need to be there, plus we only lived about 10-15mins away from the hospital) and started to take my mind off all the drama and do some soduko. My pain level was slowly going up and by about 11am one of the nurses offerd me a Panadene Forte to take the edge off. Because I was in a public hospital I was in a 3 share room, but there was only one other mother in there with her newborn which was making a racket, which honestly never bothered me as babies are unpredictable, but she could here me talking and breathing/moaning and was trying to be very considerate which I thought was very nice of her. When the Panadene Forte kicked in it just made me really woosey more than anything and by the time lunch came around I couldn't eat anything, plus the contractions had gotten even stronger and made me feel nauseous. Sitting had become uncomfortable so I decided I would just stand and sway, and breathe. And go to the toilet. A lot.

By 3pm the contractions were getting pretty intense and really close together, so we timed them for half an hour ourselves and then decided we should get a nurse in here to check on me. So after a bit of facing about and another trip to the toilet, the nurse got me on the bed to be monitored. BIG MISTAKE. Lying down was just excruciating, the pain just went ten fold. I had always said that I wasn't worried about going through labour as it would never last as long as this pregnancy had, but I don't think I could handle going through this pain for days on end.

All I kept thinking at that moment was "GIVE ME DRUGS - ALL OF THE DRUGS - I WANT A C-SECTION - AND MORE DRUGS".

In that next moment my entire body started to recoil and started pushing! I was very freaked out and was mostly concerned that none of the nurses could see how urgently I needed to get over to that labour ward. Cause I was having this baby! I finally got some words out to the effect of "I'm pushing - I would like drugs", so finally one of the nurses said they were going to take me over to the labour ward and asked me "can you walk or would you like a wheel chair?" That blew my mind, can you not see me here, in labour, I could barely get to the toilet before this without having 2-3 contractions on the way.

Me: "wheel chair please, eerugheerugh (contraction)"

When they brought in the chair and they finally got off the bed, that is when my husband realised hoe bad I was as the side I was laying on was plastered in sweat.

I felt like the babies head was between my legs at this point, so I sat leaning to one side as I though I would crush him if I sat down normally.

The Labour Ward

We get in there, I told my husband to call mum so she could be there for the birth, the midwives faff about with more monitors and another bloody cannula in my other arm (blood went everywhere). All the while with every contraction my body is pushing all by itself, and as no-one said it was ok to push and I was trying not to - which is plain impossible. Mum walks through the door 15 mins later and first thing she asks was how far dilated I was - no-one had checked me since I was first examined that morning, so she got the midwife to check me (and called my sister around this time so she could be there as well). So the midwife checked me (not pleasant) and said that I was fully dial acted and could push when my body told me to (Hello! I've been trying to tell you this!) So it was too late for my drugs so I settle for gas, which I took ever so willingly. And the pushing started. They rung the "alarm" to get extra hands in and I had to have a Pediatrician as the baby was too early, the OBGYN because of my issues with diabetes and there were 2 midwives + my mum & husband. In 15 minutes my baby boy was out in the world.

At 4:13pm on the 18/01/2016 & weighing in at 2.6kg (5lbs14oz) Theodore David Barry Rumbel was born.

My first thoughts were; thank God that's over. I have given birth to a purple cone-headed alien.

The most perfect purple alien you have ever seen, that was covered in goo and peed on me as soon as they placed him on me. Ahh love.

He was born perfectly healthy and the Pediatrician gave him the all clear.

2 minutes later my sister walked in the room (after they had put my legs up in the stirrups to fix me up - sorry El - not exactly the best angle).

Mum was all over the phone ringing everyone that needed to be informed, so was my husband. Unfortunately because of the cannulas I couldn't really hold him properly.

The midwife came over to see if he would latch on for a feed, but because he was so early he wasn't able to breast feed yet.    

My sister in-law walked in next (feet still in stirrups getting stitched up - sorrrrry!)

They soon took him away from me to get checked over under the warm light as his colour wasn't improving. Then my father-in-law and brother-in-law showed up, they had to be kept out of the room as the doctor still wasn't finished fixing me up - that could have been awkward. At this point the midwife said they wanted to take him into the Nursery, but luckily the guys got to see him before they took him over.

I was told that because he couldn't stabilise his own body temperature or breast feed he had to stay in the Nursery for at least 2 weeks....

Looks like we weren't going home anytime soon....

To be continued...