24th September 2008 – Had a show in the morning then contractions started about an hour later – straight in at six minutes apart, which was nice. Rang up the midwives and they asked me to come in.
Got to the birth unit at Weston super Mare hospital (only five minutes away so not all that exciting) and was checked over before being hooked up to monitors and all that malarkey. At this point the midwife got a bit worried about the baby’s heart rate, which was very fast indeed so I had to sit for an hour with the monitors so she could send the results off to a consultant at St Michael’s. We had three chats – in the first she said that I ‘might have to go to Bristol tonight to be checked over’, in the second: ‘You might have to be induced’ and in the third: ‘The heartbeat shows that he might be distressed so you might have to have a c-section’.
I panicked and cried and drank a lot of water and they faxed the results to Bristol who come back saying that they were happy with the results and that I didn’t need to go there after all. We were sent away for half an hour, which we spent in Tesco buying water and gaviscon supplies before returning for another twenty minutes on the monitors, at which point the baby behaved himself and his heart beat was fine. My contractions started to get worse but stayed ten minutes apart although they looked quite exciting on the monitor.
At this point there was some fuss and discussion about my dates and the size of the baby. The midwife measured me then called in another midwife to double check and they agreed that the bump was way too big and measuring 49cms when actually it should only have been about 40-41cms. I pointed out that I had been worried about the size of the bump all along and had always been told it was ‘normal’ except for during my appointment a fortnight before when one midwife wanted to send me for a growth scan. I was apologised to a lot and it turned out that I SHOULD have had a growth scan as this may well be one huge baby but more to the point they couldn’t let me have the baby at the birth centre any more because of the risk of his being too large and requiring intervention.
Phone calls were made to St Michaels and we were instructed to make the forty five minute journey there forthwith, only we were pissed off so we went home first for a bit so I could sort myself out and rant on my blog.
As for the baby – his head wasn’t as low down as they would like and my cervix was still totally closed and posterior so feck all was happening despite the contractions. Boo!
25th September 2008 – Well, we went off to Bristol in the middle of the night and spent a jolly five hours in a labour room admiring the storks stencilled on the ceiling and the view from the windows, which looked out across all of Bristol.
The midwife there was much, much nicer than the rather rude, nasty one that I saw at Weston and pronounced the baby’s heart perfect after monitoring me and kept offering me drugs for the contractions which remained a very boring ten minutes apart while I was there. I refused the drugs though as I wanted to get as far as I can on my own. Had a non bath, wandered around a bit, had pains and then after a horrible examination, which totally failed to gather any useful information other than that I was not in proper labour yet I was told that I could go home if I wanted.
Oh and the midwife didn’t think I was expecting a monster baby and said that he was probably either a bit long but not of above average weight OR there was a lot of fluid around him.
The atheist was dubious but I had had enough so off we went, with me having a contraction every time he went around a corner, overtook someone and went over a speedbump. Drove about a bit first so that I could have a contraction outside Harvey Nicks as well.
Pains became very bad overnight but I managed to get some sleep in five minute snippets in between. Dave looked much better in the morning though, which was important to me as I needed him to be all awake and stuff and I felt almost ready for the whole ordeal.
Headed back to the hospital the next afternoon, the 25th September only for the contractions to go away when I got there so they took us to a room, which turned out to be the exact same room that Felix was born in three and a half years earlier and then sent us off for a long walk around Redland and Cotham, where we admired the houses and lovely coffee shops. Returned to the hospital whereupon I fell asleep in a chair in the entrance hall. When my contractions were six minutes apart and lurked for a bit in labour mode, stoically refusing all pain relief.
After a few hours I gave in and started on the gas and air, which made me talk like Ozzy Osbourne at first. Was examined at about seven o clock and told that my waters were bulging and I was 5-6cms dilated so expected labour to occur very soon after this. Things started to get very painful and there was a midwife change (to the lovely Nikki and Amy) at ten at which point it was decided that I could carry on for another couple of hours and then be examined again to see what was happening. Spent a lot of time on the bed being monitored, which was horrible as I was in so much pain and not being able to move was torture.
There was some fuss and the head midwife came in to examine me and delivered the frankly grim news that despite having really good contractions (every 2-3 minutes and horrid at this point) I was only 1cm dilated so not even in labour plus the baby was no where near engaged. They said that this was either because of too much fluid between the baby and my cervix, disproportionate size of the baby, bad positioning or possible undiagnosed breech – none of which was good. There was talk of c-sections and I got very scared. In the end they monitored me for ages again and I opted to have a shot of pethidine, at which point I was released from the monitor, forbidden the gas and air and made to breathe through the contractions while sitting in a rocking chair. It was lovely actually and luckily I had my back to the clock as they had given me four hours to progress before they decided what to do and I panicked if I thought about it.
After four hours there was no sign of a baby and my waters hadn’t broken either so they brought in a doctor to scan and examine me. I had to have a scan done in the labour room, which was weird. The scan revealed that the baby was not breech but was lying back to back, thus the lack of engagement. The doctor examined me, found that I was three cms dilated so still not in labour and so decided to break my waters for me, which was a bit uncomfortable but okay except there was so much fluid and it came out in torrents all over the bed. An astonishing amount in fact so everyone thought that was why my bump was so big. Hahaha.
Requested more pethidine, which was a mistake but we all thought it would take hours for the baby to come so they decided to let me have it before putting me on the bed to monitor me again despite me protesting that if I got on to the bed again, I didn’t think that I would ever be able to get off. At this point things went very bad and I don’t really remember much but the pain became agonising, I couldn’t get off the bed so was stuck just lying there basically screaming my head off and the gas and air might just as well have been pure oxygen for all the good it did so I threw the pipe at the atheist and screamed a bit more. They decided to bring the head midwife in again and attach a scalp monitor to the baby, which was a bit scary although I was still sufficiently sane to realise that they didn’t have to delve around much to do it, which made me think that maybe he was almost out. I also realised that they had swiftly brought in a trolley of medical stuff, lowered a light down and put on goggles and gloves. This was it!
I then had the urge to push and couldn’t stop myself and they were telling me not to give in to it and then the next second they were shouting at me to push as much as possible, which I did, screaming all the time. It was very liberating. It wasn’t too bad, only about three or four pushes in total to get him out but it was pure agony.
The pain was gone instantly and we were handed our baby, who was absolutely perfect and beautiful in every way. The bombshell about his weighing 10lbs 5ozs came later on when he was weighed. His apgar at one minute was 9 out of 10, which is pretty good. I was examined and had a tiny first degree tear but was, amazingly, fine and didn’t need stitches or anything and labour lasted a total of one hour and ten minutes, so not bad really. :)
There was also much excitement when we realised that he had his mummy’s red hair. Lurked around the labour room for ages and Oscar had three big feeds and resolutely refused to sleep before we were transferred to the ward upstairs at about seven in the morning. The atheist could have stayed but he decided to go out to make phone calls and get food for us before coming back at the start of visiting hours. I felt rough due to the pethidine shot, which I had only twenty minutes before Oscar was born and he didn’t want to do anything other than sleep at first. The atheist went out to get supplies as Oscar was already too big for the clothes we had brought in for him and we needed food and stuff.
The ward wasn’t bad actually – it is amazing how quickly I get institutionalised! There were only three of us and it was quite nice really. I spent most of my time in bed, cuddling Oscar and feeling tired and a bit bruised until the atheist arrived in the morning with Felix, who was thrilled to meet his new brother and brought me hot chocolate and almond and chocolate croissants. He is fabulous.
So there we have it. A year ago today. I love you so much Mister Oscar, happy birthday! x
