Birth Story

Monday 21st April 2003

On Sunday I'd managed to get a little nap in the afternoon and so I wasn't too worried about getting to bed at my usual 10pm but instead scanned some of Keith and Viv's photos from South America onto a website. I was feeling odd twinges but wasn't at all sure if it was anything important but phoned Mum just in case to ask her whether I could still call her even if I went into labour in the middle of the night. I went to bed at about 12 midnight but noticed a 'show' when I went to the toilet. The book said this isn't necessarily a sign of labour as it can come up to six weeks before the birth. I went to bed but couldn't sleep and by 1am could feel contractions coming about every 10 minutes. By 2.30am when they were still coming every 10 minutes, although not painfully, I called Mum and she said she'd come up to be here for Oliver. I also called the midwife to let her know things had started but that I would be staying at home for the time being.

I watched some TV, made tea, had a hot cross bun and then watched Bridget Jone's Diary on video. Simon happily slept on and as I wasn't in much pain, I thought I may as well let him get the rest. Mum arrived at about 5am when the contractions were still as they were at 1am. At about 6am, Oliver woke and Simon got up. Mum went to bed for a couple of hours and I had a bath. The minute I got into the bath, the contractions seemed to stop. I wasn't sure if the bath was just a very good pain relief or if I'd just stopped contracting. It appeared to be the later. At 9am the midwife Lu called to check how I was going. By then I'd just started contracting again. It was a bit on and off until about 11am though. After that they did seem more painful and a bit closer together. By 12 I was in quite a lot of pain but they were still 5-10 minutes apart. I decided to go in after 1pm due to the pain. We had lunch and put Oli down for his nap, explaining Nanny would look after him whilst Mummy went into hospital to bring home his baby sister. He was very tired so went straight to sleep.

Simon and I arrived at the hospital at about 2pm. We were given a rather dissappointing room by a rather unhelpful midwife. I prayed a team 6 midwife would be available and asked them to be paged. Lu arrived just then and left us to settle whilst she got ready. Lu put me on the monitor and got me a nice rocking chair whilst all the checks were done. She made Simon a pot of tea which kept him happy. Meanwhile the contractions remained at about 5 minutes apart but each was very painful. I tried out the gas and air and found that helpful. Lu did an internal at about 3.30pm and said I was a good 5-6cm dilated. This was good but I felt dissappointed as it had been 14 hours since the contractions had started, albeit not very painful, and I thought it was supposed to be quicker second time around!

By 4.30pm I was in a lot of pain and a bit spaced out on the gas and air. I was thinking of having an epidural by now. Lu was reluctant to do another internal only an hour on but had a quick feel and said that I was about 7cm dilated now, so thinking 1cm per hour = 3 hours, I demanded the epidural. The next hour was a bit of a blur and even Simon had a funny turn and had to leave the room. I felt I couldn't cope but the epidural wasn't coming fast and she was asking questions I couldn't answer when in such pain. The epidural didn't go in correctly first time and I was getting the urge to push but found it difficult to converse due to the pain and being so spaced out on the gas and air. It was silly, I was thrashing around in pain and half hearted pushing whilst the aneathesist was trying to put the epidural in. I was told it would take 10 minutes to set in but didn't think I'd last it. They finally realised I was pushing and another midwife arrived. With their encouragement and a lot of screaming on my part, I managed to push the baby out at 5.35pm, before getting any effect from the epidural. The cord was wrapped around the baby's neck so Simon couldn't cut it but they acted quickly and it was fine. I was told it was a girl but I was so out of it, I didn't really take it in for a good 10 minutes or more. The placenta was delivered with a close shave of being ruptured.

Amelia was weighed in at 7lb exactly. Adelaide, the second midwife, bathed her. I eventually started taking it all in and was especially happy when told I hadn't torn! Amelia took to the breast with only a little initial problem and sucked happily for a good 10 minutes. I had a shower, saw a few people about this irregular heartbeat which seemed to have become a problem purely because it had been detected and not because it had caused any problems in labour. Mum arrived with Oliver as we were being moved to the ward. Oliver was very excited and kept saying "baby". He was extremely good with Mum. Amelia slept...and slept...and slept.