My/Edith's Birth Story

It's taken me almost 4 weeks to write this up so apologies if some of the details are quite vague.

I was 4 days overdue so decided to go out for a curry with a couple of our new friends that we'd met at our NCT classes.  Immediately after the curry I had a "show" so I knew that things weren't too far away.

The following day I had quite bad backache which escalated into cramps in the evening and overnight more of a "show".  These cramps weren't too painful but did stop me sleeping, so around 3:30am I got up to watch some tv and to bounce on my birthing ball.  The pains (still not severe) lasted around 30 secs every 10-15 mins.  I took some paracetamol and went back to bed around 5am and managed to sleep a little bit.  My husband got up to go to work at 06:45 and I told him I'd been having pains.  I was worried that things may move on quickly and it would be a struggle for him to get back from work in time.  We decided that he should go to work if only to bring some work back later.
I got up around 9am and decided to have a shower meanwhile my husband was trying to get hold of me.  As I didn't answer my mobile and the landline (I was in the shower) he panicked and immediately jumped in the car and made his way home.  I was very relieved to find out he was coming home as didn't fancy spending the day alone - I was getting quite scared to be honest.

We already had a midwife appointment booked for a sweep so we went along to that at lunchtime.  The midwife confirmed that my cervix had started to stretch but that I wasn't at all dilated.  She did think that something would happen within 24hrs but advised us to go home and pretend nothing was happening! Easier said than done!
  
By the afternoon the pains had got stronger so we decided to hook up the TENS machine.  This helped distract me from the cramps and gave me something to control.  They were still only lasting about 30secs every 15-20mins.  We spent the afternoon visiting some more NCT friends (and their 4 day old baby).  I cuddled the baby but had to stand up each time I had a contraction as it was way more painful sitting down.  I still had the TENS machine on and started to ramp up the strength of the pulses.

By the evening the contractions had got stronger and more painful.  I turned up the TENS machine and took some more paracetamol and tried to go to bed to get some rest.  

By 10:30pm it was clear that rest was going to be tricky.  The contractions were now way too painful to lie down through so I got up and sat in the nursery (for inspiration).  They were lasting around 45secs now and were every 7-10 mins.  I tried to remember what I had learnt at my Antenatal Yoga and NCT classes.  I breathed deeply during the contractions and visualised walking up a hill (with the peak of the contraction being at the top).  At around 01:30am I had a really strong contraction and then the immediate need to go to the toilet (sorry if too much information).  Following this I felt what I described at the time as a big baby movement and then a gush.  We now know this was my waters breaking.  My waters continued to trickle for the next 24hrs!

I called the community coordinator who advised me to take more paracetamol and to try and rest.  There were no midwives available for me at the Grange and I should try and stay at home as long as possible.  She also suggested that it wasn't my waters breaking.

So for the rest of the night I paced from the nursery to our bathroom, up and down the upstairs landing, trying to breath, visualise and not cry out too much in pain.  My husband had a lousy night too.  He couldn't help me at all and obviously couldn't sleep much while I was pacing and moaning.  The contractions were now between 4-7 mins apart and lasting around 45 secs still.

At 6am I felt like I couldn't continue much longer on my own.  I called the coordinator again who confirmed there was still no one available at the Grange.  She suggested I had a bath and tough it out until 8am when the Grange opened.  She also mentioned I should eat and drink something.
The bath felt good mostly but lying on your back in a restricted position whilst having a contraction is not a good place to be.  I was in the bath for almost 2 hours in the end so it must have been nice. 
The coordinator called me around 8am and told me to make my way to the Grange where a midwife would meet me at 9am.

We were looked after by the usual Grange staff from 9am as the midwife hadn't yet shown up.  They didn't want to examine me until she had arrived so I spent the first two hours still pacing but now at least I had the gas and air to take the edge off.  It was now that they also confirmed that my waters had indeed broken and that it included some meconium.  They monitored Edith's heart rate and she wasn't in distress so there was no need to worry.
By 11am the midwife still hadn't arrived so they decided to examine me.  Disappointingly I was only 2cms dilated but the midwife managed to "stretch" me to 4.  They now admitted me.

My midwife finally arrived at lunchtime and I laboured for the rest of the afternoon.  I continued to stay upright not only because I knew this was a good position to be in for a quicker labour but also because sitting or lying down made the contractions way to painful.  I was really pleased to be allowed to get in the pool (something I'd campaigned for as there was a threat that it was to be shut down).  The water felt great and it was good to get the weight of my legs as I'd basically been stood up for 12 hours by now.
After an hour or so our midwife said that my contractions were slowing down slightly and I should get up and walk around a bit.  I walked around the Grange (with the gas and air canister), watched a bit of The West Wing in the day room and tried to get things moving again.  Unfortunately it didn't work.  My contractions whilst they were now lasting around a minute each time they had not increased over every 4 minutes since we'd been there.  And I was still only 4 CM's dilated.

At around 5pm the midwife suggested that we should transfer to QA.  Things weren't progressing fast enough and although Edith wasn't in any distress it would be good to be there "just in case".  As my waters broke at 01:30am and they like to deliver within 24hrs I guess we were running out of time.
The ambulance arrived around 6pm and we made our way down the road in the rain.  The husband actually got there before us!

It was suggested that I should go on the Syntocinon drip to speed things up.  I was in a considerable amount of pain already and asked if I could have an epidural if things were to get stronger and more painful.  Unfortunately both anaesthetists were in theatre and will be there for quite a while and they didn't want to delay me even further so the drip was set up.
The contractions continued stronger but still weren't more frequent than every 4 mins.  I was absolutely exhausted by this point and was desperate to sleep.  I still couldn't lie down due to the pain and my only respite was to sit on a birthing ball and to rest my head on the bed between contractions.

At 8pm the midwife finished her shift and passed me over to another.  Things continued in the same vein for the next couple of hours. Finally an anaesthetist became free around 11pm and I managed to get about an hour or so's sleep once the epidural was in place. The drip kept getting turned up and I started to feel the contractions again.  I used the booster button for the epidural but it didn't seem to do anything.  We later discovered that it wasn't plugged in! :-)
After 2 or so hours with the epidural and the drip pretty much turned up to max I was still only 4cms dilated and my contractions never got more frequent than 4 mins.  The obstetrician suggested a C section and I was only too happy to agree.  I was way too exhausted and couldn't contemplate the thought of pushing a baby out.

So the hubs got kitted out in scrubs and we went into theatre in the early hours on Wednesday morning.  More than 24hrs since my waters broke and 48hrs since I started feeling my first contractions.  

Edith was delivered at 03:58 by a team of professional women - everyone in the theatre (apart from the husband) was female.  What a great start for my daughter's life!

When they opened me up they commented that she was face up (i.e. back to back) and was large.  She turned out to only be 7lb 8ozs but I guess in comparison to my belly she took up a lot of room.  The reason I didn't progress was because of her position.  Her head was not pressing on my cervix and therefore it didn't dilate fully.  Her position was determined when we were in the Grange so I guess she must have turned at some point during labour.  I wonder now if there was some other positions or movements I could have carried out that would have moved her back - hindsight is indeed a great thing.

We didn't have the best first 2 weeks together.  We struggled to get a latch for breastfeeding and then I couldn't produce enough milk. Since introducing a bottle fed formula top up for each feed and a dummy things have improved beyond recognition.  Edith is finally above birth weight (it only took 25 days) and is a lot more chilled - and hence so are we!