Birth Story, Gladys 11/09/11
Trying to get this written down before I start forgetting. I was high on gas for a while which probably dulls my memory too. Just after I posted on the 10th I started getting cramps every 15 minutes or so. I jumped in the bath, then into bed to read Kelley Armstrong when they started getting too intense I started timing- every 4-6 min. That didn't seem right, it was meant to start gentle-ish right and build up, I felt rather cheated at this point, and quite pissed off that I wasnt going to get a good nights sleep.
Went downstairs to Toomaj and we went for a walk around Vistaberg (our development) to time and see how things were feeling. Walking helped a lot, though it seemed like I had pains in between the contractions too- which was a bit mean I thought, as we got back closer to home I started feeling really sick, and it really started to hurt.
We got back and timed 5-6 which were coming every 4 min, I had Toomaj hold my hips pretty tightly every contraction which helped, I also started being sick at this point, usually just after a contraction. Toomaj saw my hesitation to call the hospital, so he did it for me. Normally they want to listen to you talking, but I think the groaning in the background was enough, in between contractions I got our bags together and off we went. This was about 11:30pm
I was sick twice in our drive before getting in the car (must remember to clean that up and not step in it!). Had 2 contractions on the drive to the hospital, (where the one set of traffic lights in the middle of no-where and at late night was against us bah) then 3 walking from the car to the door- we left the bags in the car as I was convinced that we'd be sent home and I was just being a big wuss.
Waiting for them to come to the door to let me in seemed like forever. A undersköterska (one below nurse) met us, and took us to the examination room. They took my vitals and checked my ID and hooked me to a external monitor (hated being on my back so fucking much) for 15 min, then we met our night shift midwife and an internal examination from her (ouchie) confirmed me as 4cm, with no mucus plug (okay where the frick did I lose that?) and therefore admitted. This was 1am I think - my patient wristband certainly says I was admitted on the 11th anyway. Took about 20min to prepare my room which felt like forever, especially as contractions were at 3-4 min with mini ones between (dammit wanted to steal the graph and totally forgot), was also a bit sucky as the room wasnt very good for being comfortable in. Once we got our delivery room, the midwife asked if I wanted to change into their gowns- at which point I was really hot so stripped my top off and decided to be top half naked for a while, with their incredibly sexy pants on. heh
All modesty flew out of the window at this point for the whole event. They set me up some gas and air, and I took to enjoying that for a while- it didnt seem to have much effect on the lowest setting, but like hell was i going to try a contraction without. At this point I was still having Toomaj squeeze my hips together every contraction which felt like bliss but when he needed to go pee /super cry. I was also quite kissy and think T was worried we were scaring the midwife, haha.
She gave us a lot of space and wasnt in the room so much. At 2am ish I hit a sudden urge to push and so called in the midwife. they strapped me to the bed for a bit to measure ponyos pulse and my contractions and then examined me - 6cm which made T w00t, i was a bit dispondant as the feeling had been so intense, that was probably the hardest few contractions. After that passed I really started focussing on imagining my cervix opening out like a flower ( silly I know, but I think it really helped).
At some point I put a gown on. Mmmmmm straw
It gets a bit fuzzy around this point. At some point I changed from standing by the bed to kneeling on the bed with it's back upright leaning over the edge, clinging to the gas and air for dear life. They hooked me to the monitor at this point but it wasn't picking up contractions or Ponyo's heart rate - so again I had to lie down. They checked me at this point as well (5am) and I was suprised to hear that I was 10cm dialated - but Ponyo was still really high. They warned me that maybe they would want to internally monitor if they couldn't get her on the monitor and they would need to break my waters to do so - but the machine seemed to be working -well except it wasn't picking up all my contractions which was seriously sucky as the midwife would be saying 'but you're not contracting why are you supping the gas?' To which I'd reply that it was, she'd feel my belly and apologise.
This was a 'last pregnancy shot' at 10cm dialated. Gas on the side.
I think language barrier didn't help so much as I missed some converstation (could have been the gas) - also I wish I'd read more around the baby descending as I didn't have something to focus on during the contractions only that it wasn't time to push yet. Also Toomaj tells me that the shift change at 7am meant that they weren't around as much as they should have been to help me then.
During that time Toomaj slept for about an hour, and I started tripping on gas and air (totally twilight zone time) I was listening to the songs and being transported back in time - we were listening to Sweden Classic Rock Radio
When the new shift came in they were concerned that my contractions werent so effective and that Ponyo was getting in distress. The external monitors (bloody awful having to be on my back) weren't picking up the heart rate or the contractions very well still.
My bladder was utterly full, so they instructed me to go wee - which I really couldn't do. I'd expected to find sitting on gym balls and the loo would be comfortable during labour - but it was the one thing that I really couldn't do from going into labour at home till when she emmerged.
They told me that they would get the urine out for me (to give space for P) and I didn't care, prior to labour I was dreading getting an epidural as they catherterise - but as it stood I really was just happy for them to do what they needed, it didn't hurt just felt uncomfortable. They were asking if I felt relieved afterwards, but I wasn't really feeling anything - which had been the same issue with trying to go on the loo - don't really know why (afterwards I had to drink quite a lot before I could make myself go - but I managed). I had drank a fair bit during labour (they had the most awesome cherry squash).
At about 7:30am they broke my waters, and put an electrode on her head to monitor her (I was quite high on gas and air), I'd made a bargin that once that was done they would monitor me in a better position for me then I was able to get back into my favourite fully dialated position (knelt on the bed with the back rest fully up and leaning over it for contractions).
At 8 ish they decided to put me on some IV to up the contractions and called the doctor to deliver with ventrouse. They also helped me through some contractions to try get her down without the ventrouse, but in the end she was delivered at 8:46 with assistance from the cone-head making machine. I'd given up on the gas and air once the IV had been shoved in, not sure why think I was just sick of the mask. Never have so many people been looking at my cooch at the same time!
Crowning wasn't so bad, but they had sprayed me liberally with oil and topical anaesthetic. After a few pushes I crowned with the help of the ventrose and some well aimed pushes. Sadly in Litho. position (on back, knees up) but meh, can't have everything. Next contraction everything else came out and I got a ponyo on my belly (who immediately pooped then weed!)
At this point I might have been crying a little. First thing I ask after I hear her screaming 'what is it?'
I had 2 little tears, but nothing that exciting (she's not that big afterall) and overall a really awesome experience - I know that it's not ideal that they had to pull her out, but the cord blood test showed that oxygen levels coming from the placenta had dropped so it was good that they upped the ante when they did.
Placenta was delivered with help from the midwife at 9am - that was wierd - it didn't hurt so much, and was quite slimy slipping out compared to Ponyo, it was intact and a much darker colour than I was expecting.
Toomaj got to cut the cord - initially he'd hoped to catch her coming out, but sadly with the way it ended he didn't get to.
She was 2810g (6lb 6 ish?) 49cm long. To say she was 7 days late she's tiny! So very glad now that my dates got changed!
Here's a few more early pictures of her:-
On the boob, resting though - lazy fish
A bit smaller than we were expecting.
With a tired mum.
Probably quite a mixed story as I've written it over several days - a few things to note Ponyo=Gladys, secondly there are a few bits I'm fuzzy on - the whole interactions were in Swedish (other than my swearing), so I'm not really sure on some details of what was going on - namely what was in the IV though! I know there wasn't pain relief though, :P)
Went downstairs to Toomaj and we went for a walk around Vistaberg (our development) to time and see how things were feeling. Walking helped a lot, though it seemed like I had pains in between the contractions too- which was a bit mean I thought, as we got back closer to home I started feeling really sick, and it really started to hurt.
We got back and timed 5-6 which were coming every 4 min, I had Toomaj hold my hips pretty tightly every contraction which helped, I also started being sick at this point, usually just after a contraction. Toomaj saw my hesitation to call the hospital, so he did it for me. Normally they want to listen to you talking, but I think the groaning in the background was enough, in between contractions I got our bags together and off we went. This was about 11:30pm
I was sick twice in our drive before getting in the car (must remember to clean that up and not step in it!). Had 2 contractions on the drive to the hospital, (where the one set of traffic lights in the middle of no-where and at late night was against us bah) then 3 walking from the car to the door- we left the bags in the car as I was convinced that we'd be sent home and I was just being a big wuss.
Waiting for them to come to the door to let me in seemed like forever. A undersköterska (one below nurse) met us, and took us to the examination room. They took my vitals and checked my ID and hooked me to a external monitor (hated being on my back so fucking much) for 15 min, then we met our night shift midwife and an internal examination from her (ouchie) confirmed me as 4cm, with no mucus plug (okay where the frick did I lose that?) and therefore admitted. This was 1am I think - my patient wristband certainly says I was admitted on the 11th anyway. Took about 20min to prepare my room which felt like forever, especially as contractions were at 3-4 min with mini ones between (dammit wanted to steal the graph and totally forgot), was also a bit sucky as the room wasnt very good for being comfortable in. Once we got our delivery room, the midwife asked if I wanted to change into their gowns- at which point I was really hot so stripped my top off and decided to be top half naked for a while, with their incredibly sexy pants on. heh
All modesty flew out of the window at this point for the whole event. They set me up some gas and air, and I took to enjoying that for a while- it didnt seem to have much effect on the lowest setting, but like hell was i going to try a contraction without. At this point I was still having Toomaj squeeze my hips together every contraction which felt like bliss but when he needed to go pee /super cry. I was also quite kissy and think T was worried we were scaring the midwife, haha.
She gave us a lot of space and wasnt in the room so much. At 2am ish I hit a sudden urge to push and so called in the midwife. they strapped me to the bed for a bit to measure ponyos pulse and my contractions and then examined me - 6cm which made T w00t, i was a bit dispondant as the feeling had been so intense, that was probably the hardest few contractions. After that passed I really started focussing on imagining my cervix opening out like a flower ( silly I know, but I think it really helped).
At some point I put a gown on. Mmmmmm straw
It gets a bit fuzzy around this point. At some point I changed from standing by the bed to kneeling on the bed with it's back upright leaning over the edge, clinging to the gas and air for dear life. They hooked me to the monitor at this point but it wasn't picking up contractions or Ponyo's heart rate - so again I had to lie down. They checked me at this point as well (5am) and I was suprised to hear that I was 10cm dialated - but Ponyo was still really high. They warned me that maybe they would want to internally monitor if they couldn't get her on the monitor and they would need to break my waters to do so - but the machine seemed to be working -well except it wasn't picking up all my contractions which was seriously sucky as the midwife would be saying 'but you're not contracting why are you supping the gas?' To which I'd reply that it was, she'd feel my belly and apologise.
This was a 'last pregnancy shot' at 10cm dialated. Gas on the side.
I think language barrier didn't help so much as I missed some converstation (could have been the gas) - also I wish I'd read more around the baby descending as I didn't have something to focus on during the contractions only that it wasn't time to push yet. Also Toomaj tells me that the shift change at 7am meant that they weren't around as much as they should have been to help me then.
During that time Toomaj slept for about an hour, and I started tripping on gas and air (totally twilight zone time) I was listening to the songs and being transported back in time - we were listening to Sweden Classic Rock Radio
When the new shift came in they were concerned that my contractions werent so effective and that Ponyo was getting in distress. The external monitors (bloody awful having to be on my back) weren't picking up the heart rate or the contractions very well still.
My bladder was utterly full, so they instructed me to go wee - which I really couldn't do. I'd expected to find sitting on gym balls and the loo would be comfortable during labour - but it was the one thing that I really couldn't do from going into labour at home till when she emmerged.
They told me that they would get the urine out for me (to give space for P) and I didn't care, prior to labour I was dreading getting an epidural as they catherterise - but as it stood I really was just happy for them to do what they needed, it didn't hurt just felt uncomfortable. They were asking if I felt relieved afterwards, but I wasn't really feeling anything - which had been the same issue with trying to go on the loo - don't really know why (afterwards I had to drink quite a lot before I could make myself go - but I managed). I had drank a fair bit during labour (they had the most awesome cherry squash).
At about 7:30am they broke my waters, and put an electrode on her head to monitor her (I was quite high on gas and air), I'd made a bargin that once that was done they would monitor me in a better position for me then I was able to get back into my favourite fully dialated position (knelt on the bed with the back rest fully up and leaning over it for contractions).
At 8 ish they decided to put me on some IV to up the contractions and called the doctor to deliver with ventrouse. They also helped me through some contractions to try get her down without the ventrouse, but in the end she was delivered at 8:46 with assistance from the cone-head making machine. I'd given up on the gas and air once the IV had been shoved in, not sure why think I was just sick of the mask. Never have so many people been looking at my cooch at the same time!
Crowning wasn't so bad, but they had sprayed me liberally with oil and topical anaesthetic. After a few pushes I crowned with the help of the ventrose and some well aimed pushes. Sadly in Litho. position (on back, knees up) but meh, can't have everything. Next contraction everything else came out and I got a ponyo on my belly (who immediately pooped then weed!)
At this point I might have been crying a little. First thing I ask after I hear her screaming 'what is it?'
I had 2 little tears, but nothing that exciting (she's not that big afterall) and overall a really awesome experience - I know that it's not ideal that they had to pull her out, but the cord blood test showed that oxygen levels coming from the placenta had dropped so it was good that they upped the ante when they did.
Placenta was delivered with help from the midwife at 9am - that was wierd - it didn't hurt so much, and was quite slimy slipping out compared to Ponyo, it was intact and a much darker colour than I was expecting.
Toomaj got to cut the cord - initially he'd hoped to catch her coming out, but sadly with the way it ended he didn't get to.
She was 2810g (6lb 6 ish?) 49cm long. To say she was 7 days late she's tiny! So very glad now that my dates got changed!
Here's a few more early pictures of her:-
On the boob, resting though - lazy fish
A bit smaller than we were expecting.
With a tired mum.
Probably quite a mixed story as I've written it over several days - a few things to note Ponyo=Gladys, secondly there are a few bits I'm fuzzy on - the whole interactions were in Swedish (other than my swearing), so I'm not really sure on some details of what was going on - namely what was in the IV though! I know there wasn't pain relief though, :P)