My Princess...Her Birth Story...

So, my beautiful Princess Saphira Joy turned ONE this week! What a milestone! I can hardly believe that so much time has flown by!!

Although I'm keen to put up photos of her Birthday, and her Birthday Party, I really thought I should first post her Birth Story. *sigh* SO many people tell me I'll forget the pain etc. They were wrong! I still have nightmares that I'm trapped in a never-ending cycle of eternal labour *cringe* and added to that, my scar is still painful, I think I'm pretty safe in saying that I have not, nor will I EVER forget that torturous event.

Saphira’s Birth Story…

Contractions…

Sunday night, 28 April, we went to bed around 10:30pm. I had some minor pains but nothing major, so I went off to sleep after not very long.

I woke up at 2:15am to stronger pains, and then spent the next hour or so trying to time them. They were sparodic and came between 5-8 minutes apart.

At 3:30am I woke Husband, and he phoned the hospital. The cranky midwife (Clair) was on, and told me to take a shower and go back to bed for a few hours...clearly she was at the end of her shift and didnt want another baby that morning! :) I had a shower and Husband went back to bed. Almost immediately upon stepping into the shower, the contractions got stronger, and by the time I was *trying* to get my 9-month-pregnant body dressed they were MUCH closer together.

Husband called the hospital again at around 4:20am and told cranky midwife that we were coming in. He then called my Mum and told her we were leaving, as she was having Pepper. It still took us 40 minutes or so to leave the house (luckily our bags were already packed and in the car!) and then we drove down to Mum & Dad's house. We unloaded Pepper, her bed, her toys, some food etc...and when we *finally* left there at around 5:30am, I remember saying to Husband that I thought we'd left it too long...and that I was NOT having my baby in the car!!!

The Journey…

As we drove past the Deer Farm (a neighbouring property), the roof of one of the sheds looked white – like snow had fallen on it. As we got closer (and I stared harder!) I realised that the ‘white’ roof was actually the reflection of the full moon. It was very bright!

As we were driving past Cooroy (a small town halfway between our house and the hospital) I had FIVE contractions in a row, with NO GAP!! *ouch!* ...and I thought the pain had been bad BEFORE!!

So, when we were about 1/2 hour out from the hospital, Husband called them with a 'reviewed' time of our estimated arrival - the midwifes were very pleased as they were due to have a shift change at 6:30am, so by the time we got there at around 7am, the new midwives would be on duty.

When we were about 10 minutes away from the hospital, we passed a McDonalds and I was desperate for a bacon & egg McMuffin! But I refrained from asking Husband to stop as I was certain we wouldnt make it in time!! LOL :) ...and then I started to feel REALLY nauseaus, so it was a good thing we didnt stop :)

Michael was awesome! He didn’t take a wrong turn anywhere!! (which really surprised me, as every time we’d had to go to the hospital or the OB’s he took the wrong turn at some point!)

The Hospital…

When we arrived at the hospital, he pulled in to the ‘bus zone/tow away zone’ area as it was right at the bottom of the ramp that enters into the hospital. Then I suffered a major contraction as he was trying to get me out of the car L Fortunately, an off-duty nurse was passing by, and she was so caring and lovely. She helped him to get me out of the car and onto the bus bench. She also told him to not worry about his car, he could come back and move it later on J Once she’d gotten me settled, she raced into Maternity to let them know I was there, and to get an orderly with a wheelchair – the woman was an angel! J

While we were waiting, a GREAT parking spot opened up, so I told (yep, I told him. Not asked, or suggested…definitely TOLD him) Michael to take that park. He repeated that the nurse said he could leave his car where it was…this resulted in me yelling at him to ‘take the darned park!’ …he promptly did as he was told J

While he was getting our bags out of the car, a midwife appeared with said orderly and wheelchair. Let me add, those wheelchairs would not be sufficient if I had a broader backside then I currently do! VERY narrow!! The orderly was lovely and was joking with me all the way to the birthing suite J I don’t remember what he said, now, but at the time I was really grateful that he was trying to take my mind off of things J

The Birthing Suite…

By the time we got to the birthing suite (and we scored one with a delivery pond*YAY*, as some of them didn’t have one) the contractions had slowed a little…but overall, weren’t terribly painful – I could totally do this labour thing! *thumbs up*

My midwife, Tracey, was awesome!! She was very kind and thoughtful, and decided that I wasn’t far enough along to be in the birthing suite after all, so while we waited for things to progress a bit more, we’d go back to my room, so I could make a little nest, and my OB would come in a little while to check my progress.

 

Nesting…

While we were travelling down, Mum and Dad had dropped Pepper off at Rachie’s and were following us to the hospital. By the time I made it back to my room (to ‘nest’) Mum and Dad were already firmly ensconced there, and had made several trips from the car, bringing in our presents for the birth. Again with the *thumbs up* J

So I nested for a while, but the contractions were quite strong so I wasn’t really doing anything but pacing/squatting/leaning/wishing it were all over with. A couple of times I really felt like moaning with the contractions, but Dad was there, and it felt kind of weird, so I refrained. Mum kept wanting to talk to me – I don’t think she realised that I wasn’t capable of holding a conversation J At one point, Dad made a funny comment on how one time I totally stuffed up doing a join in some cable (to pull through a new piece of cable). It was a completely random comment, and I had to really wrack my brain to figure out when exactly he was talking about. I finally came up with it! It was back when I was a first year apprentice (think: over 5 years ago!) and I was only in my first couple of weeks…and in my defence, he hadn’t really taught me how to do a join, so I’d just kind of ‘winged’ it, and he had gotten REALLY mad when he’d seen what a bodgy job I’d done! J

Hours later, Mum had asked him why he’d mentioned it, and he just replied ‘Well, it took her mind off (the contractions), didn’t it?!’ J How thoughtful! J

After about ½ hour of nesting, my OB came in and did a check (after booting Mum and Dad out of the room) and was extremely surprised to find that I was already at 9cms!! …so was Tracey!!! They immediately walked me back around to the birthing suite. Where, oh where was the guy with the wheelchair now??

As Michael and I came out of our room, Dad surprised us with an *giggle* inflated doctor’s glove! He he! And then he re-introduced himself to Kirsten as Dr Bruce! He he! J Even Kirsten found that funny J

 

The Birthing Suite (again)…

Once back at the birthing suite, Tracey suggested I go have a shower. The showers at Buderim Private are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! It’s a ‘corner’ stall (that really takes up more than half the bathroom!) with two shower heads, one on each wall, so that you can have one aimed at your back and the other on your tummy. *bliss*

So I got nekked and jumped in the shower (still had feelings of modesty at this stage, as I was nervous the midwife would come in to check on me and see me!). Husband changed into his boardies and swim shirt, but didn’t really get in the shower with me…he obviously didn’t want to get wet! And I laboured in there for what seemed like HOURS ****Check time with Husband!****

After a little while, I felt like I’d progressed, so I asked Michael to go get Mum out of our room and to bring her to the birthing suite. It felt that close that I wasn’t sure if he’d make it back in time! (Our room was about 50m away from the birthing suite). When he got back I asked him to ask Tracey if I could have a panadol. She said ‘That isn’t even going to touch the sides at this point’ …so basically, that was a ‘no’. He came back and told me that and I actually cried! L About 10 minutes later I sent him out with another request to ‘PLEASE let me have some panadol’. He also added that we knew it would just be a placebo effect, but at this stage who cares?!

…I got my panadol! (YAY me!!)

…she was right, it did absolutely nothing L

 

The Pond…

After a bit, Tracey suggested that I move into the birthing pond. I came out of the shower feeling really self-conscious as my towel definitely did NOT cover everything it needed to!

Mum was in the room at this point, but she’d taken her glasses off (to give me privacy – how thoughtful!) and as I also had mine off, it wasn’t anywhere near as awkward as I’d thought it might have been.

I asked Michael to put on my birthing music. We’d started listening to all the ‘nature’ music on the drive to the hospital, but it became apparent that the ‘nature’ music just wasn’t going to cut it! We switched over to Pink, and listened to that the entire day! J Because that’s just how we roll!! J

I laboured in the birthing pond for forever!

My Husband was a true blessing. There was a detachable shower head attached to the birthing pond, so he used this to spray my back with hot, blessedly hot, hot water. This also kept the water in the pond hot, but it seemed to fill up quickly! This meant that (it seemed like) someone was constantly reaching under me to pull the plug to empty the pond out a little bit.

Mum sat in the armchair next to the pond with the intent of doing her cross-stitch while I laboured (Im pretty sure she only got 2 or 3 stitches in, the entire time! LOL!) She received her first ‘job’ at this time. Her job was to pass me tissues whenever I needed them. My nose seemed to run an awful lot during labour! I also had a really annoying piece of hair that kept falling over my forehead, but I was so involved in the labour, I couldn’t take my hair down to re-do my ponytail. I remember a couple of times, Mum reached forward and brushed that piece of hair back, but it kept falling forwards and so she gave up after a while.

Tracey kept leaving us to go write progress reports on her computer (that was located in a little alcove near the door), and at one point the bath got alarmingly full while she was gone! Mum and Michael did a quick swap-over. Michael gave Mum the shower head and he tried to pull the plug (he had to go around the other side of the pond for that) and it was a little bit of a schmozzle. By the time Tracey returned, they’d worked it out…except by then I needed another tissues, but Mum didn’t have her glasses on, and she couldn’t see where she’d put the tissue box down! LOL! It didn’t help that the tissue box was grey, as was the flooring!!

Unfortunately, it seemed to take a very (excruciatingly) long time for me to work out when to push, and ‘where’ to push. Nintendo never honed my mind-muscle control (think: hand-eye control). Shame on you Mario Cart!

 

Progression (NOT!)…

After a few hours of labouring in the pond in the ‘frog’ position Tracey said things weren’t progressing, so I should try to have a wee in the bath as a full bladder can sometimes hold things up. Yuck! *cringe* I said ‘NO WAY!’ She said it was ok, but I was adamant, so I got out of the pond to go to the bathroom and relieve myself.

After using the facilities, I felt the urge to get back in the shower. The shower wasn’t doing anything to help this time! L I then went and had another wee (as if that would help!) and Tracey came in and suggested that she could break my waters for me if I wanted. Apparently, my waters had been bulging for some time, but hadn’t ruptured of their own accord. She said that if she did break them for me, we’d be holding our baby in about an hour. An hour!! That was the single most desirable thing I’d ever heard anyone say. Ever! To think that there would be an end to this torture was SO enticing!! However, I did the appropriately ‘wifey’ thing, and asked Huband what his view was. He said if I was comfortable with that, then we should go ahead. My only concern was that once intervention was resorted to, we would need to keep having interventions. (I’d read that somewhere…turns out I was right!)

I hopped up on the bed (as nimbly as I could!) and Tracey said I’d feel a bit of a pinch and then I’d feel a really yucky feeling as my waters broke. She was right! It was very yucky!! Ewww! Then she had me get up straight away and got me back into the pond. Again, it felt like HOURS that I was in there labouring again L

Someone suggested having a wee again so I got out to use the bathroom again and ended up near the end of the bed, labouring on all fours on the ground. The hospital had these cool pads that they lay on the ground and you can use them to pad your knees (so you don’t get too bruised). Tracey kept trying to take the one I was using under my hands to put it under my knees and I kept refusing to let her take it! Man, midwives are awesome – they put up with a lot!! She got a spare one and put that one under my knees, but I wasn’t that worried about having bruised knees at this point. The one that was under my hands was a one-off that the hospital was given to try. It was filled with some sort of silicon stuff, so was really squidgy and was much better than the other one. YAY for me, for getting the only good one in the whole hospital! J

I remember hearing Tracey on the phone with Kirsten, but Im not sure at what point I heard this. A week later, I found out that I was one of three of Kirsten’s pregnant ladies labouring that morning! No wonder she didn’t come to see me earlier!

After a while of labouring on the floor at the end of the bed, Tracey stood me up (midwives must be really muscle-y too, as I did not help at all!) and tried to get me to do exercises. Again, with the no help on my part! I had her on one side, and Michael on the other, and they were lifting each leg, doing a big circle with it, and putting it down, to repeat it on the other side. This was supposed to help the baby to get her head in the right position to descend. They also did a vibrating rub to both thighs. Im sure either of these exercises would have worked if I had have been a willing participant! By this stage Tracey was starting to get a little more urgent in her instructions. She left (to talk to Kirsten again, I think) so Mum took over her side.

When Tracey came back, she got me up onto the bed again. Looking back, I think she wanted me on my back, but I didn’t want to lay down (even though I was exhausted!)

Instead, Tracey raised the head of the bed, and I was kneeling, facing the bed head. I laboured that way for ages, kneeling up, and then sliding down into a ball…repeated over, and over, and over.

Eventually Kirsten came in, so I was in the stirrups.

 

***When did they break my waters???*** Must ask Husband…

 

They gave me gas. That was Mum’s job, to pass me the suction thingy at the appropriate intervals…but she really sucked at it! J She kept forgetting to hand it to me, and I had to keep asking her for it! (YOU try verbally communicating when you’re in late-stage labour!)

Michael spent a great deal of time watching the monitor they had strapped to my belly…turns out our baby slept through most of end-stage labour! What the??

Kirsten gave me an episiotomy at some stage.

Tried suction twice – no success.

Tried using the forceps FOUR times – resulted in me SCREAMING L I was crying for her to take them out, but I was so exhausted (and dehydrated) there were no tears. There seemed to be a specific point that she kept hitting/brushing against that was excruciating!

Kirsten tried one more time to use the suction, and stated that if we weren’t successful, she’d have to take me upstairs (meaning a C-section). I was like, ‘TAKE ME UPSTAIRS! THAT’S NOT A THREAT!’

Right in the middle of the actual birth, Mum’s phone rang, and she answered it!!! LOL! J To her credit, she did tell the caller that she couldn’t talk right now, as the baby was being born right then! But…she DID answer the phone!! J AND I had to remind her that I needed more gas! J

Eventually, our baby entered the world, and Kirsten placed it on my tummy, which was surprisingly ‘doughy’. It had loads of hair!! Very black hair! It had very grey coloured skin…not pinky, like I thought a newborn would look like. Seems the labour was hard on it too.

I asked what we’d had…a boy or a girl? Kirsten and Tracey both looked at Michael J After a few seconds (to let it compute) he realised that they meant for him to look. Then it took many more seconds for him to *finally* tell us all that it was A GIRL!!!

At one point Tracey towel dried her vigorously, and emphasised that she never does it that well! She only did it so thoroughly because it was in my birth plan that I not get any of the ‘icky stuff’ on me. (and surely something had to go according to plan, right?!)

And that is the story of my beloved only-child's entry into the world. As I wrote this story a year ago, I cant remember if I mentioned that the whole labour and birth was to P!nk's (then) latest album. What a way to enter the world! :) I'll add photos at some later point (not icky ones!) as they are on a memory stick thing down at Mum's house and its too cold tonight to go and get it! :) I'll post Michael's version of the Saphira's Birth Story tomorrow :)