12 weeks ago today...

Okay, so an in-depth story about the birth etc, it only took me 12 weeks to get to this :P

Water broke at midnight, pretty much exactly. We rang the delivery suite and they said to come in. Husband and I got our stuff together and left home around 12:30.

We got to the delivery suite and they monitored the baby and I until about 3 in the assessment room, as they were not sure that I was in "active" labour.

In the delivery suite I tried a warm bath, but the contractions got a lot stronger, I requested gas for pain relief, about 4:30. I could not use it effectively as I didn't get any warning that the contractions were going to start to start the gas. It also made me only dizzy and did nothing for the pain (because of the non-warning).

The midwife asked which pain medication I would like, and I asked for an epidural, because I had reached my limit and was not comfortable with the morphine...

The anesthesiologist came within about half an hour of asking (5:30am) the epidural started around 6am, I got to rest until about 7:30am when the midwife change over happened. My right leg ended up totally in pins and needles and a different kind of numb to the rest of me.

At 9am I was asked if I was ready to push (as my cervix was effaced) and they decided to turn down my epidural to the lowest setting so I could have the sensation of pushing. So I started pushing around 10am. It became apparent to the midwife that she was either losing the baby's heartbeat or it was slowing down during each push.

Then it seemed to me that everything happened at once, we went from just Husband and the midwife to the midwife's supervisor, student OB, supervisor OB and at least one paediatrician. I didn't really understand while it was happening as I was rather distracted with the contractions/pushing. The student and then the supervisor OB had to check where the baby was positioned, as they could see the head, but pushing wasn't progressing as it should have. When they say you feel "pressure", that isn't what I felt..... having the doctor examine was as painful as the actual birth. So then they did an episiotomy (the student) and the supervisor had to put the vacuum thing in, her head was flexed the wrong way so the vacuum cup had to basically be placed at my tail bone (again.... "pressure")....

Then the fun began, the doctor began pulling as I pushed. It felt like a long time, but I am sure it wasn't. When the head was out, they discovered the cord around her neck, which explained the heartbeat problems....
Then when I was pushing again, the midwife told me to open my eyes to see the baby. They put her on my stomach, and I discovered that she was a girl (which was quite surprising as I was convinced that she was a boy while I was pregnant). They took her away immediately so that the paediatrician could make sure that she was okay. Husband went with her (still in the room, just across the room). Then I got stitched up (took forever) and by the time I got to hold Rona, she was cleaned and wrapped. (I am disappointed that I didn't get to spend time with her before they took her away).

Once I had held her for a little while I fed her and Husband, Rona and I had a good long time together.

Then I was stuck in bed while the epidural wore off, then had a shower and had to wait to go up to the post-natal ward.

And that is the fun labour story....