Kelsey shares the story of her first baby’s arrival
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It’s really quite hard to write this story. The entire event is a bit blurry. I made a point of reading my clinical notes before I left the hospital and I’m still sure I’m going to forget if I don’t tell you now.
For starters, I completely over packed for hospital. Poor Andy had to carry my hospital bag from the train station to the hospital! We did pack a lot of food though, as we were told it could take up to 3 days to get me into labour. So we got to WAU (Womens Assessment Unit) at 8.30am. The Midwife there was absolutely wonderful. They let me get settled in and then put me on the CTG for half an hour which was all nice and normal and then took all the standard observations and I pretty much waited around until about 10.30am when the MW came back to do a VE and apply the first round of gel, then was monitored for another 45min – all normal. The VE was awful. Kyra’s head was so low in my pelvis that the MW had to reach behind her head to find my cervix to apply the gel, on the bright side my cervix had already started softening so while I was still on the monitor the mild period pain started (was told it usually takes 2 rounds of gel to get that started) Andy and I headed off for a walk around the Domain – the weather was AWESOME but hideously hot so we ended up going back to the room cause it was considerably more comfortable and just chilled until 5pm when I was due for my first review.
I was disappointed to learn I still hadn’t started to dilate after all that awful period pain cramping but my cervix had really thinned out and moved forward so at least it was progress. More gel was applied and I was monitored for another 45min which showed mild and irregular contractions and that baby was responding as she should be. So I had dinner and slept from 7.30pm till 9.30pm.
When I woke up I got worried because the contractions seemed to be more mild than they were when I went to sleep and I didn’t want to be going backwards! I could no longer feel them in my lower abdo, only across the top of my tummy and I complained about it to Andy and he told me he could see me having contractions in my sleep the whole time and he couldn’t believe I was sleeping through them! I knew I was having another review at 10.30pm so we settled down and watched some Chuck and the contractions started coming back and Andy kept asking if I wanted him to call the MW and I kept telling him not to worry cause she was coming soon anyway and they weren’t that bad – as it turns out he was timing them and they were getting closer and closer together and just before 10.30 I opened my eyes after a contraction and he had his finger on the buzzer and I was about to tell him off and he said “You’ve had 3 contractions in the last 8 minutes!!”
So then the MW put me on the CTG for another hour which showed I was having strong regular contractions and that baby was responding well and they decided to ‘let me get some sleep and not apply any more gel’. So at 11.30 I got off the monitor and went to the loo – which takes bloody forever when you have to keep stopping what you’re doing to breathe through contractions – and my waters broke, but I didn’t really realize it, I just thought the contractions were making me pee more. So I made Andy walk with me up and down the hall way until I suddenly realised I was ‘weeing myself’ every time I contracted, so I called the MW to ask and showed her my pad and she said ‘hmmm.. that’s a bit sad looking if it is liquid,’ and she did a VE (this is around midnight) to find my waters had infact broken and I was 3cm dilated. She asked me if I wanted pain relief to which I said “I was hoping to just hack it through with gas” and she said “okay, I’ll just go have a quick read of your notes and come set that up for you”, by the time she came back the contractions had kicked up to the point where I could barely stand and had Andy set up the bed so I could kneel and drape myself over the back. She explained to me it was probably going to be a long night and I wouldn’t get any rest if I relied on gas and suggested pethidene – which I just said yes to – I was so tired and I didn’t want to be too tired to push my baby out, so at 12.25am I was given pethidene and she said she was just going to call Delivery Unit to let them know what was happening. I had to get Andy to call her back to because I suddenly needed to push. I got to Delivery Unit at 12.45am.
I was sitting in the wheel chair waiting for the contraction to pass and I remember asking ‘what are my chances of an epidural this far along?’ and being told that there was a long queue before me for an epidural and me replying ‘alright, lets do this then’ and quickly getting up on the bed trying to beat the next contraction. Kyra was born at 1am on the dot.
The whole event was completely amazing. I can’t get over how clever the human body is. No doubt there were times where the pain was completely overwhelming, but at the same time I can’t recall it ever being ‘that’ bad (but obviously bad enough to ask for an epidural LOL).
Kyra had a short cord (perhaps explains why she was head down from at least 19 weeks and never moved??) as when they handed her to me (between my legs) and I went to hold her to me they had to stop me and say ‘that’s as far as she reaches Kels!” – it made cord cutting very awkward for poor Andy! I was already thinking about my next baby before we even left the Delivery unit! lol. I think I had the cruisiest induction EVER. It was over so so quickly and I had no concept of time whatsoever.
I’m absolutely loving being a mum. And she just fascinates me no end. 😀
Welcome Kyra, 2.97kg (6lb 8oz) <3
