Hi everyone... sorry its been such a long time since I last posted- this last week has been so crazy, well its not even been a week. It was last Wednesday when I went to the hospital for my 40+10 check up and its all been a bit of a whirlwind since then... I still haven't really got my head around it. Every minute I have to myself, I just keep re-running the last week in my head.
Tee- I hope you are now feeling more relieved and being a bit easier on yourself after what must have been a a tough time for you. xxxx
effie- its kinda nice to hear that you know someone else with the same name as Caelan, albeit the different spelling! I am quite suprised at the amount of 'ooh thats a weird name' comments we have had already... its not like I have made it up!! Yesterday we took him out and someone asked his name, and when I told them, she replied 'oh so he's a girl then?'. No! Not Caitlin!!
ineed- I love you idea about cutting and pasting all your pregnancy posts- that sounds like a great idea, and bet its really interesting to read!! I wish I had been posting earlier than I had!!
Want to say thank you to everyone for all your messages of encouragement regarding my induction... I was reading all of your posts during my stay in hospital and they helped a lot! Thank you all xxx
Welllll.... I know birth stories are a bit old hat now, with some of you have 4, 5, 6 week old babies (!!) but I would like to tell mine anyway!! I went to the day unit last Wednesday for my 40+10 check up, and from the scan they said they couldn't see much fluid around the baby, and with me also only measuring 36 weeks, they decided they wanted to induce me the next morning at 7am - oh my god I'm gonna have a baby!! I asked the midwife during the scan if she could see how big the baby was going to be, as although I was measuring small, so was my mum when she had me, and I ended up bing 9lb 7ozs and 59cm!! Anyway... midwife reassured me that there was 'no way there was a 9lb baby in there'... .
So I got myself rather upset because I was pretty much kissing bye bye to my water birth/ as little intervention as possible birth plan... in fact the midwife told me I shouldn't have even bothered writing one as they never work out . So I went home that night and packed my 15 hospital bags, and returned the next morning . This is when I most appreciated all you kind messages, as we were not even seen by a midwife until 9am, and the two hours waiting was horrible. I was given two doses of the pessaries, 6 hours apart, and after the second dose started to have mild contraction 2-3 mins apart. I was due to be examined again at 10pm to see how I had progressed, and to see when I would move from the assessment rooms that I was in, to the labour rooms. Anyways, after a good 3 hours of contractions, I asked the midwife to have a look to see how I was doing, and by that stage there had been a shift change, and my very nice midwife had changed into horrible abrupt midwife from hell! She told me I wasn't dilated, and if I couldn't cope with the pain I could have some morphine (I never even mentioned I couldn't deal with the pain, I just wanted to see how I was progressing...). All my notes have needle phobic scrawled all over them, after my midwife at the clinic watched me try to have my booking in bloods , so her suggestion of an injection, and the declaration that I had not progressed at all, coupled with the fact that she then turned around and said 'you'll have to go up to the labour ward now and you (speaking to dp) will have to go... you can come back tomorrow morning', oh I got so upset . Anyways... I went up to the labour ward, said goodbye to dp, and cried and cried .
Got up the next morning very scared about the prospect of the drip (due to needle phobia), and went down to the labour rooms at 7am. Just walking into the room and seeing the bed, and knowing that I am going to be strapped to it, being monitored, until I had my baby made me so scared I could hardly speak! I am such a wimp! I really didn't want to be monitored constantly, stuck to a damn bed not being able to move, and the only outcome I could see was a great big pair of forceps!! ... anyways, after another shift change at 8, my midwife for that day came in to meet me. She was lovely! She went through my birth plan with me, unfortunatley most of it comprised of telling me that I couldn't have what I had said in my plan, but she was very nice about it! She explained that they were going to break my waters and then have me up on a drip, and about 4 hours after the drip had been put in they would re-examine me and be hoping for me to be 2cm. They broke my waters at 9.30am (dp felt vey much involved at this stage as he was asked to hold the hook and pass it to the midwife when required !!), and I started having quite strong contractions straight away. I was hooked up on the damn monitor, and I could see that they were quite regular and strong. But they still insisted on the drip, and after half an hour of hysterics , they finally got it connected up and going at 10am. That then led to stronger and stronger contractions, and by half 12 I was in agony!!! I couldn't believe they thought this would be going on all day, and just couldn't see how I would be able to cope! 15 mins later I started to push, and at 13.31pm Caelan Jak was born, weighing 8lb 6.5 ozs. So much for there being no chance of a 9lb baby, and so much for being 2cm after 4 hours!! It was all so crazy and intense, I still can't get my head around it.
When Caelan was born, DP cried his eyes out, and he isn't usually the emotional type! It really took me by suprise, and made me realise what I had just done... oh my god I had just had a baby! I still can't really get my head around it!!
My mum was pacing the corridor outside and she was allowed to come in after I had had a few stitched etc etc (2nd degree tear), which was really nice! She has been so excited, and it was really nice to see her so happy, as she has had a rough few years! Seeing the people close to me so happy because of something I had done was amazing, so surreal...
The last bit of worry around my pregnancy was releived when the doctor came in to examine Caelan. I had put in my notes that I would like him to be examined asap, as at his 20 week scan they had picked up two soft markers for Downs and we had been given a 1/100 chance. After an excrutiating 5 minutes where the doctor looked at him however, he told us Caelan was healthy, and then it was my turn to cry!!
Sorry for the essay everyone, its just so weird, I cannot comprehend that this is real life, and the last week has actually happened!! I will put pics on my profile of Caelan, and his big head of hair asap!! Hope for a much less self-centred catch up very soon!!! xxx
Oh one last thing... what kind of post-natal care have all you ladies had?? I tranfered from the care of one trust to another while in hospital, so the midwives that are coming round at the moment aren't familiar with my notes, and my notes don't have the templates in that they are used to, so I kind of get the feeling they are making it up as they go along!! Also, the hospital took all my antenatal notes, so I don't really have any information now... is there a way I can get my birth notes from the hosptial??