Welcome little kisses
Monday 15 December 2008
On Sunday 14 December, Gareth and I went shopping for curtains for the lounge and bedroom and blinds for the bathroom and kitchen. We had arranged a surprise birthday party for his Mom that day and thought that the morning could be used for our home tasks.
At about 11am I started feeling odd pressure sensations in my back that were coming regularly but not in time at all… I called my midwife at 2pm and she told me that she reckons that it could be the start of my labour.. so back home we have the surprise birthday party and I took things a little easy… had an early supper, and got into bed early to get some rest.
At 1 am Sunday morning I woke up with what felt like a genuine contraction.. not to strong but definitely there and about 5 min apart. I went back to sleep and woke up again at 3 am with very strong contractions about 3 min apart. I called my midwife and told her and called my doula (midwife support person) who came through immediately.
For the next 3-4 hours I was breathing through my contractions and using my birthing ball as a support post and having my husband Gareth rub my back through my contractions and to breath with me.
During labour, I needed Julie-Anne to turn as she was lying back to back and this really helped a lot
At about 10 am Karen (midwife) did an internal examination and I was 4 cm dilated and my contractions were about 1 min 20 sec apart and I was starting to feel like I was taking strain. She did a stretch and sweep and checked the baby’s heart rate which was doing good. In between all of this Gareth and Tam (doula) were busy filling the birthing pool in our spare room.
Round 11 I finally got into the pool and had some sense of pain relief, especially on my back… and about 15 min later Gareth got into the pool with me.
In the birthing pool, having Gareth there really helped
At 11:40 Karen checked me again and realised that baby got rimmed (cervix did not dilate any further and this was stuck on her forehead) and gave me an Atarax injection which is a muscle relaxant (I should say that this injection feels like somebody is slapping a branding iron on your backside).. at about 12:30 Karen checked me again and told me I was fully dilated and that baby was busy moving down the birth down canal. At this time, after feeling all my contractions in my back I was so relieved and so happy to be at the pushing stage. So I started pushing with every contraction which was coming every 45 sec or so now.
Here she comes!
Baby crowned and when I gave the push to get her head out Karen told me to stop pushing as her cord was wrapped around her neck. When she checked she said it was very tight and that I need to not push at all through my next contraction so that they can unwrap the cord without tightening it around her neck more. Once that was done and it was time to push out her body.. low and behold baby got herself stuck…. from where I was kneeling in the birthing pool Karen told me to get up on to my feet and I have no idea how…but I got up and gravity work and out she popped.
Lifting her out of the water to take her first breath
She was very blue due to cutting of the blood supply to her head with the cord and it took a few min for her to wake up and scream… her first Apgar was 7 and the second one 10 so she recovered from it very quickly.
Gareth and I cuddled her for a little while and bonded when Karen clamped her cord and gave the scissors to Gareth to cut her away from me…
This where her Dad cut her cord, she was about 20 minutes old, we waited for cord to stop pulsating first.
From there she went to him and I went to the bathroom to sort out the delivery of the placenta and to check if I had torn – which I did.. two small little tears that healed by day 4.
Having my baby girl at home, born in her own bedroom was by far the most significant and biggest achievement in my life.. I would do it all again in a heartbeat!
by Rickey
