Warning: This post is very long and fairly detailed/a bit TMI at times! You have been warned…
I woke up in the early hours of my due date to discover I had started having contractions – exciting!! I waited a few hours before waking James up to let him know things were starting off, and then a little while later we were heading to the hospital to get things checked out. After Georgie was born we were warned by the midwife that things may not take so long the second time around (yea, right!!) so we shouldn’t hang about too long once things started – James was being a bit paranoid about this advice and insisted we headed in!
I was contracting steadily at a rate of 2 in 10 (minutes), but was only 2cm dilated so we were quickly despatched back home (with my urge to say “told you so” to James unfortunately not very restrained!). I spent the afternoon curled up on the sofa with my laptop continuing to have steady contractions at the same rate. We’d been told to head back in when coping with cocodamol started to get more uncomfortable, so back in we went that evening to see if I had progressed any further – we were a little worried as I hadn’t felt the baby move much as well.
Once I was on the trace it was a little scary, as although I was still only 2cm dilated the student midwife kept doing that thing where they squint at the trace, make a disappointed noise, tell you it will just have to be a bit longer than she said, and then disappear only to return with the lead midwife who repeated the whole performance. The baby was moving a little, but the heartbeat wasn’t varying enough and they were getting quite concerned. Eventually a few glasses of water and lying on my left hand side woke the baby up enough to get the heart rate as they wanted it, and we were allowed to go home. My contractions were still steadily going at 2 in 10…
At home, I curled up in bed and plugged myself into the iPad to watch some TV, and took some more painkillers, which allowed me to have a few hours sleep. At 5am I woke up and legged it to the bathroom – my waters broke! I had put a pad in before bed so thankfully the worst of the mess was contained. We waited at home for a few hours and then called the hospital at 8 to let them know, and headed in after some breakfast.
It took over five hours for them to decide to admit me! At the internal examination I was still 2-3cm dilated and contracting at a rate of 2 in 10, and the midwife couldn’t find definite proof that my waters had broken. The same thing happened with Georgie’s birth; I had PROM (Premature Rupturing of Membranes) in early labour, but as they broke high up they couldn’t be sure from an internal examination that they had gone. At least with this pregnancy the midwife believed me when I told her they had broken – when I had Georgie I had masses of stereotypical gushing all over the place and the first midwife we saw in triage accused me of wetting myself and being confused about it!
There was a little bit of discolouration in the waters that were leaking, so we were sent for a wander around the hospital to try to get things going enough to be admitted, and so they could look at the waters coming out to check for meconium (baby poo!). We headed back after an hour or so and the doctor declared that I had no membranes left, and what was there definitely had meconium in it; I had to be admitted for induction asap. We were transferred to a labouring room and after a few hours waiting around and being monitored on the trace, the first of many pessaries was inserted to speed things up.
Unfortunately, the pessaries mostly just made my contractions feel unnaturally strong, whilst doing absolutely nada otherwise. We were there all afternoon, evening & night in a horrible cycle of pessaries being put in, just to have them fall out and have to be replaced. I was too dilated for them to stay in, especially with my waters still leaking out, but the midwives didn’t want to give up on the idea or go any further with the induction procedure yet.
Instead, I had SIX pessaries put in after another, one of which was put back in five or six times! By the morning I was in a lot of pain, being refused painkillers thanks to one of the midwives giving me paracetamol when I already had cocodamol in my system, and still only 2-3cm dilated, contracting at 2 in 10. I spent the night moving about, trying to breathe through the pain, watching films on the iPad, and generally just getting through it as best I could. James was brilliant, and even managed to get a few cat naps in – using the bed to have a quick lie down when I was on the ball, etc.
Finally we were moved to delivery around 8 on Wednesday morning, as they decided that things weren’t moving fast enough. The presence of meconium in the waters and the fact it had been over 24 hours since my waters broke meant that they wanted to get the baby out asap! I changed into a super-stylish hospital gown and got my hands on the wonder that is gas & air. This is when things start to get a bit blurry… I was given an antibiotic drip and left to get on with things for a bit – you have to wait two hours between getting the antibiotics to allow them to cross the placenta to the baby, so they weren’t in a hurry at this point to speed things up.
By mid-morning my contractions were finally a bit closer together at 3 in 10, but I still wasn’t dilating enough, so they decided to start me on the Syntocinon drip to move things along. The artificial contractions were incredibly intense and I was pretty much breathing the gas & air constantly!
James reports that I said all sorts of hilarious things.. one of the snippets I remember was when they were fishing about to try to attach a foetal heart rate monitor to the baby’s head, but as I was only 4 cm dilated they kept missing. The beeping on the monitoring system sounded like Pong to me in my delirious state, and I’m pretty sure I informed the midwife that it was “fine, it’s just like being in a video game!” whenever she clipped it to my cervix instead of the baby’s head!
I also declared that I wasn’t going to have any more babies after this one about 15 minutes before I started pushing (which apparently means that the labour is going well!). I went on strike, too! Right as I had to push I declared that I wasn’t going to do it anymore, that I’d had enough, and I was just stopping right then. Hmm!!! When the midwife declined my requests to make it all stop, I asked for 5 minutes of gas & air (they had taken it away so I’d know when to push). After I’d had a lovely little break I was good to go and pushed our brand new baby girl out in about 3 pushes! She cried straight away and I was completely overwhelmed with love in an instant. Lydia was born at 1:24pm, two days after her due date – just one minute apart from her big sister who was 1:25pm, two days late!
The midwife showed us that she was a girl, and then the paediatrician checked her out straight away to check that everything was ok – with the PROM and meconium issues there were some risks that she’d need immediate attention. Happily she was declared absolutely perfect in less than a minute or two, and she was wrapped up and placed on my chest while the midwives gave me an injection and prepared to deliver the placenta.
James and I were in that amazing bubble of love and emotion, agreeing with each other that she was definitely going to be our little Lydia, when suddenly things got incredibly scary, incredibly fast. The midwife pressed the alarm and called a code, Lydia was whisked away from me into James’s arms and he was sat in a corner out-of-the-way, and about a dozen people crowded into the room and started working over me.
After I delivered the placenta, I had Primary Postpartum Haemorrhaging. I lost about a litre of blood in a very short amount of time, and had to be given loads of different drugs to make my uterus contract properly after delivering the placenta. A second drip was put in, I was being repeatedly examined, given gas & air on and off, stabbed in all sorts of places with different needles, fitted with a catheter, having my blood pressure taken over and over again, having blood taken, and lots more besides – all at the same time.
The team at the hospital who worked on me after the birth were absolutely incredible and I am so grateful to them all. One of the midwives was so great at helping me keep calm; I was completely bewildered and upset and confused and scared all at once, and she managed to get eye contact with me and talk me through what I needed to do and what was happening to me.
I couldn’t see James or Lydia properly from the bed which made me feel really alone despite the masses of people standing over me, and I just remember it being a whirlwind of activity, instructions and pain. We’re still not entirely sure what I had done to me to stop the bleeding, only that there were lots of holes & bruises that we were still discovering three or four days later!
In less than an hour they had the bleeding stopped and most of the team were able to go, leaving behind my midwife & her student, and the doctor who explained what had happened and that it was possible that I may have to have a blood transfusion, or even surgery, depending on my blood test results, and whether the bleeding had completely stopped or not. He came in a few times over the course of the afternoon & evening, to check on my progress, and declared me officially out of danger later in the day.
I was relieved to still be able to have skin-to-skin time with Lydia, complete with a great first feed. It was about an hour after she was born instead of straight away, but it was still amazing to be able to have that contact with her so soon after the birth. As soon as things had calmed down enough she was given back to me to hold, and it was absolutely the best thing possible to have happen after such a terrifying ordeal!
Once Lydia was fed, dressed, cuddled, and safely asleep in her cot, the midwife support workers came in to help me get cleaned up (there was blood everywhere!), and sent James home for a shower and change of clothes. Unfortunately I spent the afternoon that followed being horrendously ill; I threw up everything I tried to keep down and my temperature started climbing. I was still on the Syntocinon drip, although it was turned right down, and so I was still having small contractions and feeling quite battered & bruised too. I was physically & mentally exhausted, had tubes all over the place, and couldn’t stop shaking.
They were pushing fluids but I was still really dehydrated and not really with it! I managed to get a few hours sleep which helped a lot, and so despite the fact I still needed a lot of help with things, they decided to move me to a postnatal ward as they had run out of delivery rooms for new labours. Once I was in my new bed I was given a new drip and they pushed paracetamol and more fluids to try and get my temperature and hydration levels sorted.
James was sent home at the end of visiting hours and I spent the night looking after myself and Lydia as best I could! I still had a catheter in and one of the drips, so getting around was difficult. Once all the fluids were in it got easier as I could lift Lydia out of the cot myself as long as I was careful! Feeding her was awkward though – I couldn’t hold her properly with my right arm to my breast, as the cannula was in that wrist, so I ended up mostly feeding off the left (which made my milk come in faster on the one side so I’ve had a wonky few days!). The latch was not quite right too, as I had to keep defending my drip tube from her grasp and avoid squishing my catheter tube and things!
Thursday was mostly spent sitting around waiting for the news I could go home, with an added visit from Georgie to meet her little sister in the morning! I’d been drinking bottles of waterbaby like mad in the night to help get my fluid levels up, and had been shedding all my tubes gradually throughout the night. After getting the results of my morning blood tests back I was declared anaemic, given a months worth of iron tablets, and sent home with strict instructions to drink lots and take it easy!
James has been a star looking after me and Lydia the past week or so, bullying me into drinking plenty and nagging me to take my iron and vitamins! I’m feeling a lot better and my bruises and holes are nearly all faded away. I am still having a few wobbly moments and dizzy spells when I forget to drink enough, but we have been able to get out & about while James has been off work, which has felt amazing.
Anyway, more on what we’ve been up to during his paternity leave another time… If you’ve read all this, well done! It’s been helpful to type it all out, getting it straight in my head and having a record of what happened.
Sounds scary as hell! And LONG! She’s gorgeous though! Well done to you all 🙂
Hehe thanks – it was a pretty drawn out and terrifying experience! Totally worth it though 🙂
you now know what it’d be like to have a section. that’s kinda what it was like with Roo’s birth. feeding was impossible with all the canulas in my hands and arms. thankfully everything is good now and both you and Lydia are doing well. big hugs to you all and well done once again x
It was definitely difficult to feed her but I’m pleased I managed! I had cannulas in both hands for the first few feeds.
Things are definitely a lot better now! Detta told me off for not drinking enough this evening and being too pale still – I must try to be good! Thanks xx
@zoecorkhill shall read this in a bit xx
RT @zoecorkhill: Lydia’s (very long) birth story: Warning: This post is very long and fairly detailed/a bit TMI at times! …
AAAAAAAARGH. You weren’t kidding about buying shares in Durex after I had read that!
Glad everyone is safe and well, good job to James for being such a supportive and fab hubby and daddy, and I can’t wait to meet Lydia. Georgie is a great big sister! <3
I had a very scary PPH after my girl’s birth too and wound up needing three units of blood the next day. I found it really interesting to read your perspective on it! I’ve written about mine on my blog. Lovely baby. Congratulations