So, a quick re cap with Joshuas birth... i had a 3 day labour in total, after the first day the hospital sent me home because i had stopped dilating... then called me back in when i became dehydrated. I then had pethidine to calm me down and help me sleep as i was a wreck. I then got offered an epidural which i took and it caused all sorts of complications leading to a five day stint in hospital and not being able to move for two of them. then i was discharged and re admitted again with the same problem. I had two blood patches done in theater and ...well it was all pretty horrible and so i swore the second time would be different.
so, i was due on 9th Feb. That date came and went, even though i was convinced (as was my midwife) that i would pop earlier. On the 15th (the wed) David and i went to the movies to watch the muppets and had what i suspected would be our last date. I had woken up that morning convinced that that was the day. I wasn't far off. Throughout the movie i felt my tummy contracting but it wasn't painful really and was just under an hour apart. We went to the in-laws for lunch and i told David to go to work in the afternoon/evening, as normal. Throughout the afternoon the pain increased a little but not in frequency and i was still doing everything as normal. I put Joshy to bed at 7.30 and as i lifted him into his cot i felt the first 'proper' contraction pain. perfect timing really. However, it was still 40 minutes apart so i went to bed, put on Dawsons creek (im a geek) and chilled out. the pain was more intense and i had to actually focus a little more but decided to try get rest. It worked. David came home, i told him to let his boss know he wouldn't be there tomorrow and then i went to sleep. I woke up every half hour, had a contraction and was blessed enough to get myself back off to sleep every time. at 4.00am i woke and decided i should eat because in a few hours i wouldn't want to. so i did...rice krispies and bananas :) I then went back off till joshy and david woke me up at 8.30. I thought the contractions had stoped...then i stood up and gravity obviously took force and they hit hard going straight to every 6 minutes. so, i got in the bath for an hour which was lovely, and breathed my way through the contractions... by then i stopped timing as it was making me more aware of pain. Instead david put music on and i got out and added the tens machine onto my back which was actually fab. it has a magic 'contraction' button which worked wonders. After about an hour david informed me that he had secretly been timing and i had been contracting every 2 minutes... it was now 11.00am and i was surprised at how in control i was and how i was reacting to the pain. I had joshy around and so im convinced that he helped with distraction, plus i didn't want him to see me in pain. However, David called his mum at this point to come have him, we put him down for a nap to keep his routine and then we called the hospital who said to hang on an hour. Shirl got to us at 11.40am and she rubbed my back a bit whilst david packed the car up and put in the baby seat. I was too scared to go to hospital in a rush in case they sent me home again.
we left for the hospital at 12.35ish and i was very grateful for our heated seats. I remember it was a beautiful day and we drove with the windows open but my heat full blast. it worked a treat but i contracted iterally the whole way there. On our arrival we were offered the birthing suite instead of delivery ward. basically, its all natural and no drugs allowed except gas and air. one on one midwife led and birthing pools... well thats what i wanted so i was glad it was available. We said yes and headed in. by now the contractions were making me sick and shaky but i still felt incredibly in control. i asked if i needed to be checked to see how far dilated i was, she said no its fine, we'll just let nature happen. this scared me a little as i wasnt sure i could stay in control much longer.
the room was kitted out with birthing balls, mats, rocking chairs... cushions... lovely. i found a position near a window at first but i could hear people laughing and it distracted me. the gas and air helped a little but it annoyed me as i wanted to breath through my nose not my mouth (small things). So i decided to try the ball. i grabbed it in all fours and found a squeak... odd i know but the rubber squeaked on the floor and i focused my breathing on it. all this took 10 minutes. then i wanted to push. I told david to get the midwife and by the time she got there (2 mins later) i was pushing and Sam was on his way. OH MY WORD... the pain was horrible. i actually thought i would die.... but i was so anxious to go all the way naturally and i could feel how close he was. 20 mins of pushing and he was here. Whoop... it was a dream labour and a dream delivery and to say i was proud of myself is an understatement. i know thats big headed but i was and im soooo happy that it was such a positive experience. so good infact that we were released 6 hours later, the minimum we had to stay in hospital.
Sam was born 8llb 10oz which shocked us all as joshy was only 7llb 7oz. Sam was way ugle freshly out ha ha. cute now though so its ok. he is feeding wonderfully, sleeping better than joshy ever did and Joshy so far is liking him... loving is too strong for now!
i feel so blessed and lucky to have been able to do it all exactly how i wanted. As much pain as it was, he was worth every bit!!
10 mins old
Meeting his little brother
1 comment:
Congratulations. Sounds like it went pretty close to perfect and now you have a new little snuggle buggle.
P.S. Remember that time it was Pres Chapman's birthday and we had a visiting General Authority for Zone Conference so you and I got all the missionaries in the zone to give Pres a chocolate bar and say "Happy birthday," as we shook his hand? He ended up with a stack of like 30 chocolate bars. We are so cool.
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