i'm so behind with this thread...dunno where to start!
(trying to keep off MN really these days, as have so much to do...i creep back occasionally tho )
birth story...goes something like:
it was tuesday 1st feb...bump was LATE, i'd had more than enough of all ways of getting it shifted (sweep, curry, sex etc etc). prawn (bump's nickname from v. early days in pg - )was v. comfy, thank-you!! 10 days late & prawn had gone quiet - quiet enough for me to be worried, NO movement all day. hmmm, i thought. rang mat. day unit thingy - come in & we'll check it out, they said. in we trotted, thinking it'd be nothing, home in no time. bump on monitor, all fine...except an odd moment on the trace, marked & unexplainable deceleration. midwives check with cons., cons. not happy. we have to stay in...
more monitoring, another decelation on trace, audible too. fast-forward early evening - induction now, says cons., breezing into early labour room, whilst outgoing confident MW cowers like a little girl in presence of cons.
much debate abt HOW to induce, feeling v. mucked around. dh calls bil (cons. obs. luckily) who says artificial rupture & drip NOW. i'm happily already 3-4cm when AR is done (& not feeling a thing so far ) at 10.45ish, OUCH at drip. bang goes active non-interventionist birth as i'm is strapped down w/ drip, monitor, tens. wires everywhere & not what i'd imagined at all. labour gets going pretty fast, roosdad enjoys checking out delivery room equipment & keeping track of scale of contractions (he'd probably have liked to download the data & plotted graphs of it..!) i'm coping ok, start on gas & air around midnight, head spins & i start wailing to dh between contractions 'i looooove yooooooou'. have so much g&a i distinctly remember not being able to hold my head upright . 1am & the pain is UNBEARABLE, MW offers pethidine, i say no, MW offers meptid as i'm only 7cm & she reckons it could be a while yet - i say ok, unable to imagine hours of pain to go before meeting 'prawn'! MW disappears, returns 15mins later & injects me w/ meptid. 15 mins after that i let out gigantic jungle/animal noise (think buffalo bellow - previously pretty quiet i think, unlike screaming woman next door) & roosdad has to catch me before i fall onto the floor, needles, straps & all. MW shouts '* WHAT are you doing?!' (harsh but she got my attention) mumble back, 'think i'm pushing'. MW checks me again & starts grabbing delivery pack etc - i'm 10cm hooray! MW asks whether they can wheel in auxiliary who's never seen a live birth - no probs i say! pushing is nice, remember loving the breaks between contractions & way in which pain just magically disappears (compared w/ constant pain of 1st stage). remember looking down the room at random auxiliary too, wondering what it looks like to her. 5 pushes in all - i reach down & touch roo's head before it emerges, head plops out & ... nothing happens! remember surreal moment in which head is born but all seems to stand still - what's happening now, i ask MW - oh we're just waiting to see which way baby wants to turn, she says. last contraction, roo spins round & out! he was born at 1.45am - had to laugh, as they weren't even going to examine me again after AR until 2am
& that's it, sorry for essay - surprised how much i can remember tbh!
...especially the 2hrs of puking afterwards due to physical shock & useless puke-inducing meptid (which didn't even have time to kick in before birth). didn't feed roo until he was abt 2hrs old, didn't even hold him actually until then, after initial delivery onto tummy/thigh. weird really. oh & roosdad cut the cord, & MW was dead keen to show ins & outs of placenta to us - like i cared by that point abt placenta!!
will now go & read rest of posts - have read birth stories, awesome stuff really!