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I was about to give birth to my second child - on the evening
of Saturday 24th March I began to lose my 'show'. On Sunday
I went down to the hospital querying if my waters had begun
to break but they hadn't and was sent home after being monitored
for an hour. On the Monday I went back to the hospital again
as it was to be my consultation as I had gone overdue, but
as I went in I told the receptionist that I thought my contractions
had started that morning and she sent me straight round to
the labour ward, I was put on the monitor again, given paracetamol
and kept in for the whole day until at 6pm I asked if I could
go home as there had been no change in my contractions, and
the consultant hadn't even been to see me.
At 6pm my husband came down and I went home. I was still
having pains every 5 minutes so went to bed and at midnight
they began to get worse and at 4am left for the hospital again......it
was to be a long night and day! The midwife that was on night
shift that night was actually the same one who helped deliver
my baby on her next shift! After having suppositories and
then having an epidural, as the midwife advised me it would
help things along if she broke my waters when I was only 4cms
dilated (my labour with my first child actually started with
my waters breaking naturally) I opted for an epidural again,
this was about 11am, in case the intensity increased and they
seemed bad enough then! It took a long time to get the epidural
in than from what I remembered having my first child, and
this time I was only partially numb! I do remember sitting
over the side of the bed and having it raised up as high as
it would go and breathing in the gas and air. At one point
I felt terrible because I was breathing in too much and I
felt like the bed was going up and down and round at the bottom
and then floating back up over and over again and then I realised
it was because I was having too much gas and stopped breathing
it! You know when you are drunk and the room spins round,
well, this was ten times worse! So after a few more hours
and me saying to my husband that I must be at least 8cms dilated
by now, when I was examined I couldn't believe it when she
told us I was still only 4cms!! I was then given the drip
to try and speed things up.
Anyway to cut a long story short, everything in that delivery
room I had!! Stirrups, oxygen, blood taken from the baby's
head to check her stress levels (they did this with my first
daughter 3 yrs ago and as she was distressed had to perform
an emergency c-section after 17 hrs of labour and reaching
9cms!) I felt a 'deja vu' coming on. I even had to have a
scan to check where the baby's head was and at one point I
was all prepared to go down to theatre, jewellery, nail polish
off etc. I cried when they told me it looked like I would
have to have another c-section but was finally getting used
to the idea when the doctor said to give me another half an
hour.....and then they decided it was time. I was still only
9cms dilated near the end as there was one little part of
my cervix which just wouldn't go! The midwife I had at this
time told me baby would probably be born by 8pm so we rang
all the family to tell them. My sister said she and everyone
were going nuts when 8pm came and went without a phone call!
My bladder was filling up all the time as well so I had to
have a catheter inserted every now and again.
When they eventually decided to help me deliver my baby
I was put up in stirrups, frozen down below for the ventouse
(felt a lot of tugging, pulling about as the doctor did that!),
and then I began to push. I wasn't pushing for very long really,
I would say maybe only about 5 minutes, before her head was
out and then in the next push or two out came her body - I
did feel the size of her!! I am not really all that big. The
doctor held her up and she was wrapped in a towel and given
to me, she was born with her eyes wide open and didn't even
cry. Just after the doctor had finished 'tidying' me up and
left the room he re-entered to tell me my mother was on the
phone! We told him to tell her we would ring her back shortly,
they were going insane waiting to hear from us especially
as though a c-section was on the cards. I stayed in hospital
overnight and came home the next day. I was quite ill after
returning home for a few weeks, with infections of one kind
and another but she was well worth it, and her big sister
loves her!
Shelley is now four and a half months old and just been christened.
She is a lovely smiley baby but also very hard work with 2!
He has a tattoo on each of arms which says it all.....his
little angels!!
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