Having had a very traumatic first birth, I was booked in for an elective cs this time and was looking forward to a calm, serene experience. Or so I thought...
Our appointment was for 8am, and we were at the hospital at 7.30 all prepared psychologically to meet our new baby. We were shown into an antenatal ward, where we waited... and waited... and waited...
Twice we went to the front desk and asked what was going on. Each time they said I was next on the list, but they couldn't guarantee a time as they were really busy. Then at 2pm, a midwife told us "They're ready for you in theatre now!" We were rushed into a delivery room where we got changed into theatre gowns and I signed a consent form. We were just walking into the operating theatre when a doctor came in and said "Sorry, change of plan, there's been a failed forceps attempt next door and we need to bump you down the queue".
It was a real anticlimax, but having been one of those emergencies myself last time, I have great sympathy for them and could hardly complain. We went back to the waiting game. At 4pm we were told to get ready as they would be operating on me in 5 minutes, but 15 minutes later another doctor told us there had been another emergency which needed to take precedence over us.
Finally, at 6pm we were given the bad news that we had missed our slot, and no operation could be carried out that day. Because it was a Friday and they were short staffed at weekends, they wanted us to go home and come back on Monday morning.
I chose this moment to tell them that I had been having contractions since lunchtime, which had been bearable and half an hour apart, but which were now getting stronger and coming every 20 minutes. I saw 2 doctors exchange glances at this. They strapped me to a monitor for half an hour to check that it was actually happening, and once they could see the contractions they advised me to stay in the hospital overnight.
A midwife brought me a ham sandwich as I hadn't been allowed to eat or drink anything all day. I was just on my second bite when a doctor came running back into the room saying "You haven't eaten anything have you?" They had just found an anaesthetist, and called in an off-duty midwife. I spat out the mouthful I was eating, and they tactfully ignored the one mouthful I had swallowed.
Five minutes later I was in the operating theatre having the spinal block, and seven minutes later our baby was pulled out, a gorgeous little girl with lots of black hair. The c-section itself was a wonderful experience, totally painless and a real contrast to the one I'd endured 2 years earlier. This time, I lay back listening to the Mozart CD we'd chosen and felt nothing but excitement and happiness.
Our daughter is called Emma and weighed 7lb 8oz. Sorry for the length of this post, but it did take quite a long day to finally meet her!
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Baby Tutti Frutti arrives
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TuttiFrutti · 13/02/2007 21:12
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