If you're squeamish, don't like
the 'nitty gritty' details and don't like talking about lady parts, then this might not
be the post for you!
The 2nd August 2015 started off
just a normal day, up early with Stewart leaving for work, up having my
usual breakfast of toast, bowl of fruit and a yogurt. Washed, dressed,
hair done, makeup done. I went to Asda then went about my daily routine once
I was home. I wasn't feeling great and hadn't been for a couple of days now. My
Braxton Hicks were getting worse ever since the two days previous, I could feel
huge pressure down below, mainly when I was walking or sitting down. I had been
told a week before this that I was in slow labour but could be for up to a
month.
The slow labour was most
definitely, agonisingly slow. Most days I was taking 3 Evening
Primrose Oil capsules orally with water, 1 in the
morning, 1 in the afternoon and 1 before bed. This is apparently supposed to
help soften the cervix, and since I had already been told that my cervix was
already starting to soften and open up, I thought it couldn't hurt. I used to
drink Raspberry
Leaf Tea which
is supposed to tone the uterus (womb) so that it helps your labour progress at a
steady pace, but it used to give me bad heartburn and make me sick, so I was one
wives tale down and wanted to find something to help ease on the labour even
more.
I was sat on my birthing ball
every day when I was watching TV, eating dinner, just relaxing etc. so there
definitely no difference this day. Stewart finished work at 6pm that Sunday so
he picked me up when he finished and we went to his mum's for dinner and stayed
the night.
I, being a typical woman, had
been asking if we could try the most common remedy to bring on labour, sex! For
ages though he was scared as he didn't want to encourage labour too early as I
was only 38 weeks pregnant and still technically had another 2 weeks till our
baby was fully cooked. So that Sunday night when he said yes but then fell
asleep before it, I obviously went in a huff, lay as far to the opposite side of
the bed as I could and read my book until 1.30am. I was adamant that I'd show
him how pissed off I was in the morning...but then 3.30am came!
LABOUR
3.30am - I woke with a huge gush of water pouring from my hooha I
instantly knew I hadn't just peed myself. I lay for a minute wondering if I was
dreaming so I stuck my hand down my trousers (classy) and realised I was actually soaked. I woke Stewart with an almighty shove shouting 'Stewart my waters
have gone!!' I just lay there as I didn't know what to do, do I get up and soak
the floor as well as the bed? Every time I even moved an inch, more fluid was
coming out. Stewart went and woke his mum and they got towels for me to waddle
with between my legs. I phoned the midwife and she told me to go to the hospital
to be examined.
4am - We arrived at the hospital where I was taken to triage for an internal exam to find out how dilated I was and to confirm my waters had in fact gone. They had. Result!
4.30am - I was told that I was only 2cm dilated and was asked if I was having any contractions, as I said no, I got sent home. The worst part about this? I got off the bed and more fluid came gushing onto the floor with a plop. But no contractions. Then I looked back to the bed to find some gooey mucus plug laying there. Baby was definitely on his way! The midwife gave me some old paper knickers to wear along with a hayuuuge pee pad to catch anymore fluid and gave me a leaflet that told me that if my contractions hadn't started by 8.30am the following day, I was to go back in to kick start my contractions.
5am - Half way home in the
car, I felt them start. Contractions. They were noticeable, but very bearable. Until I got
home. I was sat on the couch, with a bin bag and huge sanitary pads under me
that normally go on a bed, and 2 hot water bottles. One on my bump and one at my
back. I had taken some paracetemol but by the time it got to around 8am I
couldn't bear the pain much longer and the midwives told me to come back to
hospital.
8.30am - Almost instantly upon arrival I
was taken to a triage room and given gas and air, which at first made me
chuckle and I felt as if the pain was just a tickle, but admittedly the contractions started to get 100 times worse.
10.15am - Eventually after only a couple of hours of taking gas and air and being sat in triage as I wasn't classed as being in 'established labour' just yet, I was examined and told I was 4cm and
could be transferred to a delivery suite. In the delivery suite I was given an
injection of Diamorphine which knocked me to sleep for an hour or so. Once I woke up, I realised it wasn't a dream and the contractions were very real and very sore but I got through them.
4.20pm -
I asked for another injection as my last one had worn off completely, but the
second injection never took effect. So I had no pain relief except for gas and
air. The last few hours are still a blur as I was pretty much out of my face on pain relief that I go by the memories of Stewart and my mum. I do remember struggling after the second injection was ineffective and screaming at my mum for an epidural and yelling at the midwife telling her to 'just cut me open'.
5pm - I told the midwife I felt like I needed the toilet, at
which point she told me it was my baby almost ready to make his way out, he was
on his way down so she told me to start pushing.
BIRTH
5.30pm..ish - Pushing for the last half hour, I felt like I was getting nowhere. I kept telling the midwife that I was done and wanted to go home as obviously my baby wasn't coming. Until I felt his head,
with my hand. It was my only motivation to keep going as I finally knew I was
making progress as I kept thinking everyone was lying to me when they said they
could see my baby's head. I don't remember the 'ring of fire' but I do remember
a 'POP!'. Apparently that was his head A
couple more pushes after feeling his hairy little head...
5.55pm - Baby was born. Finally out. He was placed on to my chest
and the first thing I thought was, I still have something hanging out of me!
Then I remembered it was my placenta.
6pm - My baby got handed to someone, I can't
remember who, because I needed more gas and air for my placenta as I felt
intense pain and my contractions started up again.
6.45pm - After half an hour to an
hour, my placenta still hadn't delivered and I had lost around 2 pints of blood, and most of it was blood clots. Eventually a doctor came, tugged the cord, and snapped it! There I was, being
rushed to theatre for a manual removal.
7pm - In theatre, the anaesthetist wanted to keep
me awake and give me a spinal, but due to the amount of blood loss I felt
really unwell and faint so they put me under and done it while I was asleep.
10.45pm - I'm awake and I've woken up with an oxygen mask on, tubes hanging out both arms, a
catheter in, and a tube feeding me blood. I had no idea where I was or who I
was. I didn't even realise my baby was lying in a cot next to me. The midwife on
shift that night done all of my baby's feeds, changed his nappies and also
bathed him for me as I wasn't allowed out of bed and I couldn't lift my arms at
all from the tubes.
3.15am - I got my first proper cuddle with my baby, and we had our first photo taken together. Absolute perfection
3.30am - I phoned my mum and dad and woke them up crying telling them how perfect my little boy was and that I loved them and that they could go back to sleep haha.
7.30am - I managed to sleep on and off until now, but when I was up and wide awake a midwife took
me to a delivery suite so that I could shower as I was still covered in last
nights blood! I looked like a monster in the mirror and
my skin was blue from the cold and lack of blood.
It was that morning that I
found out what had happened. My placenta was firmly stuck to the wall of my womb
and wasn't for budging. So I had to get it manually removed with lots of
pushing against my stomach and a doctors fist in there trying to tug it out!
I
was losing gallons of blood, mainly in the form of clots. When the clots
eventually stopped, I had lost 5 pints in total. More than half of my
body's blood supply. I've been told, had I been left half an hour longer, I would have been in a critical condition and rushed to intensive care.
BEYOND
9.30am - We were finally taken to the labour ward where we could get settled in
and get to know one another.
11.30am - Me and baby were reunited
with Stewart, daddy. It was that morning that we decided on his name. Daniel.
Daniel William George McGhee.
He's my perfect, handsome,
comical little guy who I would gladly do it all over for again. My world has
been turned upside down since having him, but only in a good way! I would change
absolutely nothing about him, the way he arrived or anything in between. He's my
heart, my soul, my world.
Whether being pregnant and having your own child, or even for the women who play step-mother roles, your priorities and your life change drastically. Completely for the better may I add. Friends change, routines change, you change. Being a parent is the best thing in the world, to me any way. It makes you more responsible, more mature, and makes you appreciate the little things in life a lot more than you previously did. Time and memories become more precious, but the best thing of all, this little person is yours. Your
creation. Life will never be the same again, and I'm alright with that.
Gillian.x
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