Here is Cole’s birth story, as shared by his mum Sam.
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About 2-3 weeks before the birth I started to get irregular contractions, they would mostly come at night and sometimes during the day and were regular but never got worse in strength, they drifted off after a couple of hours and some paracetamol – to only return the next day leaving me pretty frustrated!
During that time I went to see the midwife who established my blood pressure was getting high but there was no protein in my urine, she send me off for a blood test and when the results were in they showed my creatinine levels were climbing too indicating I was developing Pre-eclampsia. The next weeks followed a lot of bloodtests (every 2 days) and by the next visit I had the feeling my waters were leaking. Midwife checked me over and established it was not my waters BUT I was 3cm dilated and fully thinned!!
Sweet we thought, it wont take long now, midwife gave me a sweep and said “I will most likely see you later tonight or this weekend.”
Well the weekend came and went and apart for the usual mild contractions nothing was happening.
Come Monday I was called to hospital to asses me as blood pressure was still rising as were the kidney levels and it was now borderline.. but as i was still feeling alright they send me home again in the hope it would happen naturally.
The last blood results were in Thursday morning and the midwife gave me a call in the afternoon to ask if i could come to the hospital at 5.30 (2 hours after the phone call) as they would induce me by breaking my waters.
I called DH got the bags ready and couldn’t wait to meet my beautiful baby boy!
At 5.30 we met the midwife at hospital and got comfy in the birthing suite (which was a fab room) I was placed on the bed and Mary broke my waters which felt like a huge bucket of hot water gushing over my legs! Though it didn’t hurt at all.
Specialist had a look and mentioned putting me on a pictocin drip to get things going though Mary thought it better to wait it out which I was very great full for. 20 min on the loo was all I needed for the contraction to pick up to a very high level. I was in pain, and completely taken by surprise but my body had been preparing for so long that labor set in full strength right away.
I originally had my mind set on a water birth and ended up having a shower for the next hour and I was ready to ask for pain relieve. DH was wonderful trying everything he could to comfort me though I just didn’t want anything and tried to cope..
Mary gave me some Gas & Air which made me feel awful and 2 hours in (at around 8 ) I asked for an Epidural but because I was diagnosed with Pre-eclampsia they would have to do more bloods first which would take another 1.5 hours before i finally got the epi..
In the mean time Mary persuaded me to have a shot of pethadine which i accepted as i was shaking violently by this point. Boy does that stuff make you feel woozy, but it helped me cope until the epi man came.
At that point (around 9.30pm) i was already at 8cm dilation and sitting still was an absolute chore but i managed to pull through some how..
The next couple of hours were passing by and gave me a good rest, the epi was bliss and i could barely feel anything – just the pressure and mild period pain on my right. By 11pm Mary checked and said I was ready to go and the pushing started. Pushing went pretty well and by 12pm they could see his head *with loads of hair! The next hour existed of my pushing as hard as I could but Cole had a different idea and managed to turn his head sideways every push down – even with the midwife’s turning him he would not cooperate and as i was passing the 2 hour pushing time Mary decided to get the specialist who suggested the ventouse.
Though I really did not want to have to deliver with ventouse I was thankful I had gotten this far and I didnt end up needing a c-section. With a cut and 2 pushes later Cole was out!
Introducing: Cole , weighing 7lbs 13oz (just like his daddy!) after a labor of 7.5 hours!
I stayed in Hospital for 2 nights getting the breastfeeding right (so many different opinions and ways from the midwifes there!), though my milk didn’t come in till the first day at home which was quite stressful.
Things are settling down now, he is feeding well and gaining weight as well as starting to sleep a bit longer at night when he is finally down
And even though it was quite the adjustment i am completely in love with him and so is his Daddy.
