Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't read through the messages from when I last posted about loose poos
Here is what happened since. You could say it's my birthing story. It will tmi in places.
I had a show Tuesday night/Wednesday which was tinged with brown blood which I knew was normal.
The loose poos pretty much went on all Wednesday. The coin finally dropped Wednesday evening when I remembered my antenatal classes where it was mentioned that part of latent labour might involve your bowls emptying in preparation for the main event. That is when I started timing the cramps. They were still random but I knew they meant something.
At about 1am Thursday, I had a cramp that was accompanied by another show but then followed by fresh blood. I don't remember any lessons on what to do when you see blood. I called triage who asked me to go in to get checked over. By the time dh and I had got to hospital it was 3am. I was scanned to establish baby's position and examined. The baby's heart beat was also monitored for a while. I was 2cm gone by then. We were sent back home to labour till later on. It was 6am then and by then the pain had gone up and I asked dh to go to bed and rest as it was going to be a long day. I couldn't sleep through the pain so it was on with coping with it. I tried sitting on the toilet, bounced on the ball, walking up and down the stairs, anything to see if it eased the pain. I just knew that when I stopped moving the pain was worse so I paced the house. It got to a point that none of it helped anymore and by 9am I was having 3 contractions lasting 1min or more in 10mins so we went back to hospital only to find that I was only 3cm gone. Off we went back home for things to progress and the pacing commenced.
By 1.30pm things had progressed and I was by then considering any form of pain relief to take the edge off so we went back to hospital. I was 4cm dilated on arrival. This is when I was officially admitted onto the delivery ward. I was given the choice of a normal room or one with a water bath but I was so out of it with the contractions coming every 2 mins that I didn't think even water would touch it. It was then suggested that pethidine might be an option. I had already discounted using pethidine as it might make the baby dopey but they sold it to me that I was still a long way off before I would be fully dilated and the effects would only last for 3-4 hrs. They were concerned that I had been awake for over 36hrs and was getting tired so a rest in between with gas and air might do the trick. Pethidine didn't take the pain away, just made it more manageable. In fact I didn't realise the effects of it until it had worn off.
The next few hours were a blur. I remember the pain increasing in intensity and frequency and begging to be examined as the urge to push was so strong. I was 7cm by then. This was the hardest stage as I wasn't supposed to push, every part of me was telling me I had the biggest poo pushing down that it had to come out! Fighting that urge was difficult and I was rather unreasonable as I threatened that I don't care what the experts say I was going to the loo and I was going to push the biggest poo out! That is when the waters broke. That gave me some relief somehow. Green pond water which prompted the midwives to ramp up the monitoring on the baby. They attached a heartrate monitor to babies head, taped it to my thigh and remotely recorded on to the main monitoring station.
I remember the urge to push got worse and worse but still 7cm that the midwife performed a sweep to speed things along.
The sweep achieved full dilation and I started to push. I was on all 4s by then as it the only position I was comfortable in. The pushing stage felt like forever but my notes say I was pushing for 23mins. Baby was born at approx. 8.30pm weighing in at 7lb 4oz on Thurday. Skin to skin wasn't immediate as baby had to be examined first due to the meconium waters. She was given the all clear so we had skin to skin. Placenta delivery took a while as it had refused to detach after the injection so I had to push it out with the supervision of a senior midwife. I had to be stitched in couple of places due 1st degree tears. I later had a shower and transferred to a post natal suite at about 1.30am. Dh stayed in the suite on a blow up bed.
I don't really remember trying to feed baby in all of that time though. The first time I remember trying to feed her was Friday at about 9am after a midwife woke her up to be fed. My notes recorded that I was so tired and barely responsive to 3 midwife check ups throughout Thursday night. The only one I remember is the one who came to remove the catheter sometime in the middle of the night.
I could say that my birthing experience was not bad considering. By 11am Friday I was starting to feel ok and itching to go home but we couldn't leave until I had done a wee and baby had done a poo and wee. I was still shaky at breastfeeding and I had no less than 3 midwives help with baby latching on. I finally got her to feed enough to produce a wet nappy. We were home by 5pm Friday.
Today she is 3 days old. Milk came in last night and she has had good nappies of poo and wee. She feeds all night though which is routine I hope to break after milk supply has been established. Sore nipples but I don't know how I can improve the latch.
Stitches still raw but ok. I have witch hazel and aloe vera gel to be delivered tomorrow. I hope to make frozen maternity pads to cool the whole area down.
I will now try and catch up with the other responses since Wednesday to what everyone is up to.