Wednesday, December 11, 2013

baby Olivia's birth story - Part Two!

Catch up on Part One here -

...not long after my Mum arrived we made the decision to head to the hospital because the pain had gotten so bad I felt I wouldn't be able to get in a car if we left it too much longer!

So, we did one last trek around the house, trying to think of anything we had missed that we would need, locked up and headed to hospital...

After arriving at the hospital (and oh boy, getting out of our suburb was interesting while in labour....full of twists, turns and roundabouts!) the hubs dropped my Mum and I at the front, parked the car and then joined us, and we made the slow trek to the birthing suite. Upon arrival, we were informed that the caseload midwife working that day was in prep with another client, as she was getting ready to have an emergency caesarean. So we waited for a monitoring room to be ready for us (all the while my pain level was getting worse!) and I was hooked up to a monitor for baby's heart rate to be monitored.

I was so excited to have yellow straps...
everything for Little Bean was yellow!

It felt like we were in that room forever! All I wanted to do was get in the hot shower and it felt like I was waiting for an eternity...meanwhile, the pain in my hips was getting worse and worse with every contraction. I eventually got off the bed and tried sitting on a chair beside the bed, leaning onto my husband or the bed...until *finally* they let me get into the shower in the room - only to discover the water in the shower was inconsistent, going from nice and hot to cool! Talk about irritating! All I wanted was hot, hot, hot! I had used a heat pack all the way to the hospital, and I remember getting one of the massive gel ones while I was waiting for the shower - it just didn't do the trick!

I tried to work through the pain in the shower for as long as I could, but it just kept building to the point I felt I couldn't handle it - and it didn't feel right. Having been in the labour room with my sister, when she gave birth to my nephew, I had a fair idea what to expect (my poor sister was in labour for 3 days!) and I have a fairly high pain tolerance. However, the pain I was getting during contractions was all in my hips - it honestly felt like my hips were going to crack! I started mentioning to my husband that I didn't think I was going to be able to do it without some assistance...

After a while, we were moved to a birthing suite - number 5! By this stage, I was pretty much set on getting an epidural. Anyone who knows me knows how much of a big deal that is, and I think the decision to get the epidural was harder than actually getting the epidural! However, the midwife who was watching us had set up the bath for me to try first, and encouraged me to use some gas. The gas I HATED, and after one contraction I told them to get it away from me - it made me feel dizzy, nauseous and out of control...not something this a-type lady wanted! The bath just didn't help at all...I feel like if I had gotten in it sooner, when I was managing the pain a little better, I might have held out a little longer.

After the gas attempt, I got out of the bath to get a cannula in preparation for the epidural. The guy was lovely, particularly when I gave him a heads up about my phobia of all things medical, in particular needles. I think the cannula was worse than the epidural! The epidural was so scary for me, I have always been scared of getting one so I was terrified. Luckily the anesthesiologist we had was lovely, and listened to my fears and helped me through it (I advised her that unlike most patients, I did *NOT* want to know what she was doing, for her to just do it). This was where our Calm Birth preparation really helped me - I focused on my breathing to really keep myself calm and still as I was terrified of moving while they put in the needles. I remember the anesthesiologist asking at one point if I was having a contraction because I was so focused on breathing - I wasn't!

After the epidural, everything suddenly became peaceful and I knew I had made the right decision. I had been in natural labour for approx. 6 hours at that point (I believe I got the epidural around 12.00?), and suddenly I felt like I could actually enjoy the process of giving birth to my baby. I remember passing my sister in the hallway on the way between the monitoring room and the birth suite (she had been adamant that even if I couldn't have her in the room, she was waiting in that hallway until I gave birth) and I couldn't handle the thought of anyone else in the room, no matter how much I wanted to give her the experience she gave me. However, after I had the epidural, I had my Mum go and get her, and she spent the rest of the time in the room with us. It was so nice to be able to do that...I am still a strong advocate for natural birth, and I will try again next time, but having the epidural was the right decision for me that night - as it turns out, it was a good thing I got it...

To be continued...

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