Charlie had been very quiet in my tummy for the few days before. The day before, I'd had my midwife visit and mentioned that he hadn't been moving much, if at all, and she popped me on the monitor, and of course, Charlie, started kicking again. My midwife, Susie, saw how uncomfortable I was and offered me a stretch and sweep, which I happily accepted. It did nothing really, that I noticed, but later that day, I felt a gush, which I chose to ignore, because that's what I do. There was definitely some dodgy looking discharge in my undies, which I chose to ignore, attributing it to the stretch and sweep.
Charlie didn't move all day, except for one big kick at dinner that night, and by 3am, I'd barely slept. I was worried about Charlie not moving, and was increasingly disturbed by the ongoing discharge. I started googling, which is always a stellar idea at 3am, and convinced myself my waters had broken, and they were meconium stained.
I woke John and asked if we should call Susie, which he agreed we should. Susie told us to come up to this hospital just to check things out. So we called John's mum to come over to look after Alex, and got to the hospital about 4am. When Susie arrived, she popped me on the monitor, and of course, Charlie started moving again, and checked out the discharge situation, which she agreed definitely looked like my waters had broken, and were in fact meconium stained. My blood pressure was also up to 140/90.
A "junior doctor" came in to check, and we agreed that I should be induced as soon as possible, so she set about popping a cannula in my arm. I've had cannulas before, but apparently the one you need when you're being induced is the size of a frigging hose, and hurts like a bandit to put in. Miss Junior Doctor had two goes, and eventually got the hose in, took some blood, then went to consult with her supervising doctor.
A few minutes later, Supervising Doctor came in and said, no she didn't think my waters had broken, the baby is moving on the monitor, so I didn't need to be induced, I can go home, and to come back in two days to get my blood pressure checked. Basically, I'm healthy, the baby is healthy, there was no reason to induce. We just had to wait around for an hour or two for the blood test results, to make sure everything was all good. Two hours later, around 10am, they removed the cannula and we were on our way.
About five seconds after paying $10 for parking, Susie called and asked if we'd left yet. The senior obstetrician had looked at my file and wanted to review it before I left. By this time, there was absolutely no parking, so we had to drive around the hospital for 15 minutes before Susie called and asked me to come back up to the delivery suite. The senior obstetrician had decided that I was full term, I'm healthy, the baby's healthy, there was no reason NOT to induce. Research shows that in cases of stillbirth, the mother has felt the bub stop moving in the 24 to 48 hours prior, so they decided to avoid a potential law suit and induce me.
John couldn't find a park, so he had to drop me off, and then ended up driving back to his mum's, and she drove him back. As soon as she got there, they broke my waters, which was somewhat disgusting. Turns out they hadn't broken before, and were not meconium stained...
Anyway, contractions kicked in after that. John and I went for a walk and grabbed some banana bread and gatorade, and went back up to the delivery suite after an hour, waiting for labour to establish. Two hours later, contractions were still quite irregular, so I had to have another cannula put in, which also took another two tries, and had the synctoconin drip.
I know that walking around and being active is better for bringing on labour, and getting bub downwards, but by that point I was totally exhausted, and really only had the energy to lie on the bed, and ride out the contractions. They got more and more regular, but still not intense enough, so the midwife kept pumping up the drip.
A few hours later, I was no longer able to breathe through the contractions, and was in intense pain. A lot more intense than my contractions with Alex. I could only really cry through them, which is so pathetic. The midwife did an internal and said I was only seven cm dilated. It felt like two contractions later, I needed to push. I had no choice but to push. I didn't even realise I was pushing out the baby. The two midwives kept trying to get me to turn onto all fours or kneel, but I was in so much pain, I could only roll on to my side.
Ten minutes later, our little muffin was born. He went straight onto my chest, covered in all matter of bodily fluids, and was so gorgeous. Exactly like his big brother. It was almost like deja vu.
I had the oxytocin injection to hurry up birthing the placenta, and a few minutes later, we had a lotus birth. Apparently. Our midwife was slightly authoritarian (not Susie, she'd had to go home earlier), and made John cut the cord. Charlie attached and started feeding straight away, which was a relief after the breastfeeding hell I had with Alex.
About 20 hours later, we took our new little man home, and he's been an angel ever since. Alex adores him. He rarely cries. He settles himself to sleep. He feeds so easily. He's even started only waking once during the night. He settles himself to sleep at about 7 or 7:30, wakes at about 3 for feed, then wakes at about 6. It's freaking awesome.
So now our little family is settling in. It's pretty easy so far, but I'm prepared for the wheels to fall off at any point, and that's ok...
No comments:
Post a Comment