Not to worry!!
Ok, so long story short, I'm not pregnant anymore (thank heavens for that!! haha) I have instead a gorgeously handsome new little boy baby we named Sullivan Cole. He's such a dreamboat and I am officially in love with him. :o)
He was born on September 20th of last year (2011) at 3.50pm after a really amazing labour! Let me fill you in.
On Tuesday morning, at 39 weeks and 1 day, I woke up feeling as
I puddled around, organised Eli some food, had a snack myself, tidied up the house a little bit (as best I could with what felt like dislocated hips..) and sat down to relax and surf the net on my phone. 10 minutes later I heard a pop, which kinda felt like a balloon popped in my pelvis, and I paused, knowing that this was more than likely that infamous "pop"before a "gush" of "waters". I leapt off the couch with speed greater than any I'd shown during my entire pregnancy, just in time for the flood. I stood there, with water literally pouring onto the floor. I was SO HAPPY!!!! Of course, this means it's time to have the baby I'd been dying to meet. It was all going to come to a climactic end TODAY! *insert delirious screaming here*
While I was standing there like a human waterfall, Eli walked in and dramatically paused, announcing, "Mummy!! You're weeing!!" No baby, no. Go get mummy her bath towel darling.. and off he ran to save the day. He was awesome too, cos he returned lightning fast with my towel and went about helping me clean up. I let all the relevant parties know what was going on and soon had mum and aunty in my house, making me food, asking me frequently if I had had any contractions. About 11.30am-12pm (an hour or so later) I started getting gentle contractions. They weren't overly painful and were irregular - about 6-8 mins apart. Every time I moved I would get another one, I'm thinking if I'd just got up and moving it would've been an extremely quick labour - as in, quicker than it already was - but I was still waiting for Hubby to arrive from 3hrs away, so I didn't want to speed things up until he got there. :o)
At about 1.30 I decided I should go and shower, to get comfy and obviously clean. The contractions were getting worse, but not unbearable, and they were about 5 minutes apart (regular). I jumped into the shower, and they instantly intensified. I don't know if that was because I was standing (quite possible) or if it was the heat, but the shower ALWAYS works for me at getting things going. By 2pm-ish I decided to go to hospital. Hubby still hadn't arrived, so we called him and told him to meet us at the hospital.
When we got there, they strapped some monitors on me to see how the contractions were measuring. For 15-20 minutes they made me stay there, and the machine failed.. it didn't measure a single contraction!! I was starting to fret a tiny bit, because these buggers were really starting to hurt!! They were about 3 minutes apart, and lasted around a minute. At around 2.45 I wanted to get into the shower. I was there for all of 10 minutes (on a hard plastic chair.. uncool people..) when I decided I wanted some drugs. It was getting gnarly by then and I didn't fancy the thought of pushing a baby outta me with no drugs on board...
Mum and Hubby started to recognise the signs of transition (that really intense bit right before the pushing stage) and they all hurriedly got my out of the shower to do an internal exam. I got back to the bed and dressed (don't remember how to be honest) and they did a VE. I was 8CM!!!! You can imagine how pleased that made me... :o))))
Within the next 10-15 minutes (or by about 3.20pm) I was in delivery suite. I started sucking down on that gas like no man's business, and begged for something QUICKLY, as I knew it wasn't going to be long. It was too late for anything more than the gas, so they just kept telling me to keep going, keep breathing and that it wouldn't be long now. I declared at that point that I was quitting. I wasn't going to push. Cut the baby out. I'm done. It would've been funny to watch a high as a kite labouring woman say such ridiculous things - but I believed it. ;o)
All of a sudden I felt the need to get on all fours.. so they organised me and then it was time to push. OH MY GOD!!! What an amazing feeling. It's a welcome pain after the agony of those last few contractions prior to that point.
Sullivan was born with 2 big pushes and some panting, and had his cord over his shoulder and down his belly. This meant that when he came through the birth canal his cord was compressed, limiting his oxygen for a good few minutes. He was very limp and grey and they worked him pretty hard to get him empty of fluid and breathing well. But! All is well, and it didn't take long and he was thriving! They put him on my chest and he managed to wriggle his way down and attach for his first feed.
He is amazing, and Eli is a great big brother. They are going to terrorise me when they're both older.... :o) I can't wait.
A. xo
