To summarise:
Felix George Sebastian born Saturday 22nd November at 10am exactly, weight 7lb 11oz
The FULL story...
Thurs 20th Nov
I had a trickle of what I thought was probably waters, but I pretty much ignored it and didn't call the hospital, as didn’t want to be put on the timer for labour to start.
Friday morning (21st) went to buy my last frivolous purchase of nail varnish before impending motherhood, and accepted the offer of beautification from the Lancome girl in House of Fraser.
Already had an appointment with my doula (Caroline) for Friday lunchtime, and she was going to give me some homeopathy to maybe get things going, but when she arrived I had had more trickling and also a pinkish show, and while she was actually here my waters properly went and it was time for the disposable nappy in pants trick.
We then went on a surreal outing to a local farm shop, and I bought chocolate fudge cake and some lunch. Caroline left around 2pm, and I had some lunch and pottered around the house. No contractions at this point, but some tightenings. I decided around 5pm to cook a casserole (this was as close to nesting as I was going to get, I think). DH phoned at 6pm to say he was coming home, and I was apparently quite brusque: “I’m cooking, Oh, and I’m in labour”.
When he got back I ran a bath and the ctx carried on, which I was really pleased about, then got out the bath and stuck the TENS machine on. This was to be my constant companion!
The ctx were a consistent 5 mins apart from the start according to contraction timer, but frankly gave up on that as it was too much faff to think of that as well as everything else.
8pm Caroline came over – she hadn’t bothered with her evening plans, as said she knew I was in labour when she left. It was about now that I started throwing up – not great, but I wasn’t really thinking about anything other than breathing.
11pm felt it was time to go to hospital as was beginning to zone out during ctx.
DH called the labour ward and they wanted to talk to me – think it was apparent that I needed to come in once I had 2 ctx 3 mins apart on the phone! They were a bit
at the fact I hadn't called about my waters.
Lovely starry night, very clear and cold. I was hanging on back of passenger seat in the car for the (thankfully very short) journey.
Arrived at the unit and had to stop for a ctx in the hall, scaring the chap leaving! Then refused point blank to take the stairs to the third floor as I wanted to be in the delivery room NOW. Then had a difficult time trying to get to the loo, as they were insistent that I go. For the rest of the labour I just wee’d on the floor during contractions.
Had an internal and was 4 cm, which was fantastic news. I was still throwing up, which was not great. Midwife offered an anti-emetic, but I felt my body wanted me to throw up for a reason, and it would probably push the baby down, so I declined. I had a think about gas & air, but the midwife said this could make me feel more sick and my throat dry, so I decided to stick to just TENS.
Then time passed really. I tried lots of positions and spent lots of time kneeling with my elbows on a chair and then kneeling against the bed. Then I moved to hanging around DH’s neck (his back was in agony, but he coped). I’m fairly sure they did another internal around 4am, and I had to lie on my back, which was agonising. I was 9.5 cm though, so that was great news. I was still using the TENS, which we kept forgetting to take off ‘boost’, and using breathing to get through the ctx. DH and Caroline were still trying to get me to take some calories, but I kept throwing up everything other than water. Eventually we found the dextrose tablets and I had a few of them. Caroline was giving me homeopathic treatment too, but I was really hyper-sensitised to all smells and tastes, and finding it all quite overwhelming.
I moved to kneeling up against the head of the bed and hung off DH and Caroline vertically during ctx. At this point I had the pushing urge and really thought baby would be here by dawn. No one stopped me pushing, as I had been at 9.5cm, so I think they assumed I was all the way there now.
Unfortunately nothing had changed 3 hours later at 7am, when the midwife did an internal (with me sitting up rather than completely reclined, as that hurt way too much) and found there was basically a lip which hadn’t dilated and was holding the head up. It had become swollen from where I was pushing against it. At 8:30am the Consultant came round and wasn’t happy with the lack of progress. There was talk of using a syntocinon drip to fully dilate me by increasing the strength of the contractions, which I was worried about as I knew it was unlikely I would manage to cope with just breathing and TENS. However, the monitor trace on the baby was not robust enough to have that. The consultant left and came back with a team of people.
All this time I was convinced that the baby was really really low down, because of the pain and the pressure in my pelvis, and I started saying “can you not just get him with the ventouse?” The midwife was saying that we couldn’t see the head, so that wasn’t possible. I was getting a bit despondent at this stage – couldn’t believe that I might get to 9.5cm in 12 hours with no pain relief and then end up with a c-section.
At 9:30, the consultant thought she could have a go at pushing the lip back over the baby’s head so that he could descend, and this was the point when I hit the gas & air hard and got completely out of it. It was still the most excruciating experience of my entire life. Once the lip was pushed back, the baby descended, and I put my hand down and felt the head for the first time – so much hair!
Then everything got a bit medicalised, I had my legs up in the stirrups, and had a local anaesthetic for an episiotomy and the ventouse. I still had to push with the ventouse, and Mark says actually the Dr didn’t need to do much, once baby had started descending he turned well and I pushed him out myself – exactly 10am. I was really pleased at this point that I hadn’t had any drugs, as I was able to concentrate.
I was given a quick look at my beautiful new son before he was whisked to the side and given some puffs of oxygen. He had the cord wrapped round him, which might have been why he was getting distressed, and Apgar at 1 minute was 6, so he needed a bit of help.
He was soon on my chest and we were having lovely cuddles while I was being stitched up – sharp fingernails though! Then we had the first feed and he proved to be a champion at latching, which was a fantastic feeling. We were then left in the delivery room together for 3 hours, which was great and very calm.
I felt my birth experience was hugely positive, and I’m so pleased I did all the preparation and reading up beforehand. I think it helped hugely having a doula too – would recommend this to every woman, especially for a first birth. I am also full of praise for the hospital staff, for letting me really try everything for a completely natural birth, and also for carrying out the procedure to push back the lip, which not all consultants will do. I suspect had I been in a busy London hospital I would have had a very different experience, and the Registrar who delivered Felix (and trained in London) said he agreed I would probably have ended up with a c-section.
I have that lip too...
Enjoy your lovely little Felix.
