Dana's Birthstory - born 23/03/97

I was 36 weeks and had enough!

It was summertime in the tropics (Bundaberg) and I was huge!   My feet were continually swollen and I couldn't get cool no matter what I did.  My blood pressure was starting to rise, not that much...but enough to indicate that I was over being pregnant.

I presented to the hospital with some pretty massive contractions, which turned out to be Braxton Hicks, but I wasn't to know that at the time.  I was admitted and told that these were 'grey area' contractions...whatever that meant, and that they expect that I'd be in labour by the end of the day.

Turns out that the midwife had mistaken my massive BH contractions with prelabour contractions (I know this now LOL) and 6 weeks later I was 2 WEEKS overdue and still going!

At 41 weeks and 5 days, I was at my wits end, my blood pressure was still borderline, but again nothing to really worry too much about.....and I was even bigger than I was 6 weeks prior....my feet and ankles were even bigger and I felt like I was walking on stumps.  My hips ached continuously and had done since about 5 months.  And the heat was phenominal!!!! Not to mention that I'd have massive (grey area/prelabour/bh...whatever you feel like calling them) contractions for 3 months straight...to the point of pain!

When a doctor finally told me that they would induce me, I was elated!  I wanted this kid out!!!  I did not want to be pregnant anymore, I wanted to have this baby already, I was over it!  Induction just sounded like a godsend to me!

So I presented on the 21nd....all set to be induced, thinking that this was going to be my baby's birthday.  I was admitted and waited for what seemed like hours.  Nurses came in and out and said that they didn't think I'd be induced that day.  Are you kidding me???  But I kept telling myself that they're only nurses, what would they know.

Hours went by and my hopes were failing as I was preparing to unprepare myself for the birth that wasn't going to happen that day.

Finally at around 4 in the afternoon an Ob came down to tell me that they were actually fixing switchboards or something and although they still had a couple of labour wards open they couldn't justify putting me in labour and using one of them if an emergency walked in and needed it.  So he postponed the induction till the following day.  He explained that my cervix wasn't even nearly ready yet and they would have to put in the prostglandin gel on the cervix anyway, to soften it.....and this may not even put me in labour and I'd have to be induced the day after that even,  If I wasn't lucky enough to go in either on my own or from the stimulous of the prostin' gel.

Oh God!!!!!  So I argued the point!  "Please?"  I said  "I can't handle this anymore....I will be exactly 14 days overdue by then!"  He told me that in and ideal world he would have me in there right then giving birth, but that this wasn't an ideal world and things happen.  So he gave me a gate pass for the night, told me to go out with my hubby and family to sizzler or something and have a nice night out and be back in the morning by 8am and he'd be there!

So we went to sizzler, I tried to enjoy myself.  I had cravings for the pumpkin soup they had there so I felt a little better after the soup ;)

The following morning I was there at 8am only he wasn't there till 8.05, I told him that I was disappointed that he was late.  So I still had a trace of my sense of humour through all of it ;)

Cervix was still long and tight and no where near soft so in went the prostin gel.  And then I walked....I walked and I walked and I walked.  Nothing happened!

At lunch time the Dr returned and checked on my progress and my cervix hadn't done much so he inserted some more gel and left.  For some reason, my body decided to have a massive reaction to the gel this time and I had a huge contraction that lasted about 3 minutes straight.  My legs buckled and I was bent over and in agony!

This is it!

No!

After lying me down, the contraction went away and I was back to the usual BH contractions that I'd always have! 

Man!

I couldn't sleep that night!  I was hoping so much that I would just go into labour myself.  I was hoping that the gel was enough and that my body would just take over on it's own.  I was given a sleeping tablet so I could get some much needed rest....lord knows I would need it for the induction the next morning, but I still had a restless sleep, tossing and turning and sweating all night....to wake up in the morning in bitter disappointment that I was still 'intact' and that the pool of 'wetness' underneath me was NOT my bag of waters that I'd hope they'd be....it was sweat!

*sigh*

But today was the day!  This was it!  I was going to be induced today!  So I pulled myself together and got excited.

8am

First thing - Cervix checked....and yes it was starting to soften - yay!

Second thing - My waters were broken

Third thing - Syntosin (sp?) started.

Fourth thing - Strapped in with monitors.

Then we waited...and waited....and yes I had a few contractions.  The syntosin is designed to get contractions happening - but I wasn't in established labour.  I was given till lunch time to see if things would kick in and then they were going to up the syntosin drip.

By then I was bored, hungry and sick of sitting around in bed.  So I asked if I could go for a walk around (after all walking is suppose to help right?), so after they turned up the syntosin, I went for a stroll.   So here I was walking up and down the corridors with my friend the drip, and I don't mean my husband either ;)

I craved chicken twisties so I asked my mum to run out and grab me a packet and by the time I'd gotten back to the labour ward she had returned with the twisties.

So here I was sitting on the edge of the bed...happily eating my twisties and I remember saying to my mother "I wonder when the contractions will start - these are really dumb"  then it hit me!  A mammoth contraction lasting for about 3 or 4 minutes!  Just like the day before!  My stomach had clamped down and I was bent over...and yelling on top of my lungs with chewed up twisties dribbling down my chin.

It seemed that my body decided to get it's act together...right when the drip decided to finally work.

It was on!

Contraction after contraction....one after another, no space in between!  It was just on and on and I was in agony!  I asked for gas....sucked on that....did nothing.  I asked for peth...got a jab of that....did nothing.  By then I was 6 cm dilated and I just kept thinking I had ages to go.  I'd been at it for 3.5 hours and the middie said that on average we'd expect another 4 hours (cm an hour).  4 hours??  So I begged for the epidural!

I don't know if they gave me a half block or what....but it also did nothing!  zilch nada felt everything - nothing! 

I went from 6cm to 10cm in half an hour though, and suddenly I was in transition and yelling like no tomorrow!  I kept saying over and over 'hurry up hurry up'.  I didn't want it to end, I didn't want to go home....I hated the pain but I knew the only way it would stop is when the baby came out!  So that's what I focused on.  I pushed and pushed....and really I don't even think I was pushing all that much as my body was just doing it.  If felt like my body was taking over and I couldn't help but bare down along with my body.  15 minutes it took. 

15 minutes it took for my 9lb 5.5oz baby girl to grace us with her precence.

And it was over! 

4 hrs it took all up and it was finally over!

All I could do is make 'relief' noises over and over and I repeated 'my baby, my baby' over and over as they put this slimy alien like 'thing' on my chest!

But that 'thing' was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.  She didn't even cry.  All she did was whinge as if to say "Hey I'm trying to sleep here"...but then after a while she opened her eyes and she was the most alert baby I'd ever seen. 

I have video footage to this day of her and her father just looking at each other in sheer amazement as he held her.  It was a beautiful moment and I'm glad my mum captured it.

Meanwhile, I had torn a little and needed stitches.  Thankfully there weren't too many but I remember how awful it was to have my legs strapped up in stirrups while the doctor's head was cms away from my hoo haa while she stitched me up.  I asked for the gas,....just so I could bliss out during that part LOL

I'd lost a little blood, just enough for the doctor to let me know that I may want to go on iron tabs for a while...but nothing to worry about.

Apart from that....no complications and a big, fat, healthy baby girl.

That alertness and observation skills never left her.  She has grown up to be a very perceptive young lady who is a joy to have as a teenager.