Following a very painful membrane sweep (from a male Dr of course!) on Tues morning I started with contractions every 3-5 minutes at about 8pm. Called the midwife at 11.30pm and she came round – I was only about 2cms but she was happy to stay for a while, DP’s mum came round too in case Tilly woke up. I stayed the same for a couple of hours so the MW suggested trying to go to bed and we all retired…3 contractions lying down were unbearable so I was up again and unfortunately so was Tilly! After an hour or so we called both the MW and the MIL back and I got in the pool whilst Tilly played upstairs with Grandma ‘til 6am!!!
It was good to get in the pool as I knew that this stage would be very slow like last time and after a while I started on the gas and air too. Last time this had made me woozy but I really got the hang of it this time and it was great until we switched to the second cylinder – which was empty! So for an hour whilst the second MW drove to the hospital I woke up all the neighbours and Tilly and squeezed DP’s hand to a mush. I was very pleased indeed when the new canisters arrived, as was everyone I else I guess.
Around 9am everything went a bit haywire with 4 MWs in the house for a shift change and Nanny and Grandma changing shifts too! We had an assessment of the situation as I wasn’t progressing as I had predicted and was stuck at 4cm. I said that if they broke my waters I would have the baby out within the hour but hospital policy is that this is not allowed for homebirths so instead I was given two hours to labour on land before going in to hospital. To be fair the MWs did try to ‘accidentally’ pop my waters but couldn’t do it so off we went in convoy to hospital.
Protocol then kicked in and I had to be strapped to a monitor for a 20 minute read out which was delayed by the horrible cough that I had so it was about 40 minutes before they ruptured my membranes. There was actually no fluid there and the very tough membranes were stuck to the baby’s head so needed attacking with the crochet hook. The poor thing was just bouncing back with every contraction like a trampoliner! I than had a drip in and 3ml of Sytocin – I think the MWs were covering all angles! The contractions certainly got stronger and I decided I couldn’t do it any more so DP was great at talking me through each one and telling me how big they were on the monitor. I also changed to a mask for the gas and air and loved it even more!
Anyway as predicted just as one MW came back from doing her visits and the other one left I needed to push and there was a mad scramble to get everything ready and a mirror in place (highly recommended if you’re not squeamish) before the head crowned after about 6 contractions. The rest followed with the next push and we were all very surprised to discover that it was a girl as we had become convinced it was a boy! I had a slight tear but no stitches needed.
And so Kiah had arrived at 2.20pm on March 29th and within minutes was at the breast like a Hoover and has been ever since!! We were home after the 3 hours it took to get cleaned up, drink copious amounts of tea and have all the notes typed up. Just in time for Neighbours and the Tilly arriving home to meet her new little sister. Fab
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Another load for Laundrylover!
8 replies
laundrylover · 04/04/2006 17:33
OP posts:
what a day you had LL, shame about the hospital trip, but good that you were in and out of there like a flash, congrats
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