Continued

From the previous post, only six months behind schedule, and sadly, that ain't my latest deadline...

So, continuing from where I left off, contractions finally started four days late at 7am on Saturday morning:

**slightly graphic bits coming up**

After learning my lesson the last time, I took it real easy this time.  The in-laws came over to help out with some diy work around our house.  I took an afternoon nap.  The contractions continued throughout the day at a slow and steady pace, but they weren't in any way disabling or uncomfortable.

By 11pm, I was fed up and decided I'd been taking it way too easy.  The more I relaxed, the more the contractions slowed down and near enough petered out.  Any activity, and they'd start up again.  By this time, all in the house were asleep.

I decided to walk to try and bring on some stronger contractions and get this labour moving. So I walked round and round the bedroom, back and forth, back and forth, until 1am when the contractions suddenly came on hard and fast.

Quick call to the hospital, and off we went.

We arrived just after 1am. The hospital was full, so I had to wait in the waiting area for 2 hours!  While in labour!  There was nothing warm and fuzzy or private and comfortable in the waiting room. The lights were dimmed, there were a couple of hard blue plastic cafeteria chairs and that was it.  There was another lady in labour waiting too, and our contractions pretty much matched.

For the first hour, both of us suffered in silence, but by the second hour, the contractions had control of both of us and we were huffing and puffing and howling a bit. I was seriously uncomfortable. It was a race to see who bagged the toilet every five minutes as the pressure on our bladders was strong.

Each time an orderly or nurse came through the waiting room, we literally became stock still hoping that this was the moment we could move to the delivery ward.

Finally, after two hours, at 3am, the other girl got a spot in the midwife-led unit.  Happily for me, sadly for her, she came back two minutes later and I got the place instead. She had had a previous C-section so wasn't able to go to the midwife only unit. I have no idea how long she ended up waiting for a spot, and I really felt for her having to walk back into that waiting room.

First thing I did when I got to the delivery room, was find the gas-and-air and take the biggest, hugest lungful I could.

For the next hour and a half, the contractions came faster and faster, although nothing really seemed to be moving on. My waters still hadn't broken.  I wasn't in huge amounts of pain thanks to the gas and air (I want some in my home! Like tapwater!) but I was tiring, so got the midwife to break my waters.

She got right in there with her crochet hook and pierced the membrane, and that's when it really all started happening.  From that point on, it only felt like minutes to me, but apparently it was about 30 minutes or so.

The minute my waters broke, I felt the baby drop immediately, and the contractions became relentless.  I think it's very easy to focus on getting through the contractions and pain and overlook what you're body is trying to tell you and finally I realised that I needed to push.

At this point, things got terribly tribal.  It's not like I was on my knees on the jungle floor, and not to get too graphic, but the comfortablest place for me was sitting up on the bed. In fact, I think I was pretty much perched right on the edge of the bed, since it had been an absolutely huge effort to move anywhere after my waters broke. I made it to the edge of the bed and that's where I stayed.

The midwife got a colleague in to check on things as she was concerned that the baby was coming out breech.  But it turned out that her arms were up by her head so there was a lot of baby to get out in the first push.

So, three hours after arriving, and after a lot of long, low guttural noises (was that really me?), my beautiful daughter came into the world, all soft and red and sweet.  At 8lb 4 oz, she was 2oz heavier than her sister, and the absolute spitting image too.

Comments

[Kym]

It's actually nice to read about it, being all the way over here I missed out on so much. Actually feel like I was kind of there. What a great story to get out for later on. Well done sis.