The birth story and pic of William!

hey guys,

Ok I’ll have to type fast as my little guy is fast asleep at the mo, but there’s no telling when he’ll wake up for his next feed!!

The birth story….well, I wrote in here on Thursday 24th that I was grumpy. In reality, I wasn’t just grumpy…..I felt like I had raging PMT all day. That night I was in floods of tears, for no real reason.

At about 10.30am Mike and I were watching Property Ladder on TV when suddenly I felt a GUSH. I knew straight away that I hadn’t wet myself (sorry, I’m sparing no details here!!). My waters had broken in spectacular style! I sat on the loo as they gushed and Mike was saying over and over, ‘this is it…..we’re going to have a baby!’ and I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t stop shaking!!!

I rang my mum who said to call the birth centre, so I did, and they told me to come in, just to check everything was ok with the baby. So we got a taxi and the stupid taxi driver drove insanely slowly the whole way there, and then couldn’t find the blooming place!! I thought Mike was going to punch him!! By this time I was getting crampy pains and was getting quite anxious!

We eventually found the place, they examined me and monitored me for an hour because the baby’s heartbeat went up a bit. But then it steadied and they sent me home. My mum and dad came to the hospital to take us home, and then stayed with us the whole night! None of us had any sleep….we sat around in the lounge drinking tea! My contractions had started but they were pretty mild, and could be eased by breathing and leaning over the sofa.

However, towards morning they were getting VERY painful so we went back to the birth centre. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be able to stand the pain….it was awful and I knew that it was only going to get worse! I began to wonder if I could really cope with the natural birth I had craved!! They examined me, said I was only 2cm dilated and sent me home again!! I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT!!!!

That Friday (25th) was HORRENDOUS. The birth centre had given me a TENS machine to strap to my back to help with the pain. But the pain was all-consuming. I’m not sure how I got through it. I couldn’t watch TV, read, talk to Mike, or anything. In between contractions I was just thinking about how to get through the next one. I was so tired from no sleep but just as I was drifting off in between contractions, one would strike and I’d writhe in agony! I later found out my contractions were so bad because of the baby’s awkward position.

Eventually it was unbearable and I needed some form of pain relief so we went back to the birth centre and I started chuffing gas and air which was BRILLIANT-it really took the edge off and made me feel drunk!!! I was slurring at the midwifes!!!

The same pattern happened all throughout Friday night. Contractions, gas and air, TENS machine strapped to my back, no sleep. My mum and Mike were with me the whole way and were BRILLIANT, helping me get through each contraction. Leaning over a birthing ball and rocking really helped. 

At about 6am on Saturday morning (the 26th) the midwife examined me and to her shock found that I was fully dilated!! It was time to push!!! The only problem was, by this time I had had no sleep for 2 nights and my contractions were weak because I was exhausted. I pushed for 4 HOURS. Standing up, lying down, on the toilet (!!). His head kept on coming out and then going back in again. I just couldn’t get him out and it was so frustrating! My contractions were irregular and it just wasn’t happening, so eventually I had to go down to the labour ward and have a drip put in me to help contractions. By this time I was so desperate to get the baby out, I would have agreed to almost anything!!

After another 30 mins of pushing without success they called in 2 doctors and I had to be cut not once but twice (cringe). When that STILL didn’t work, they used a ventouse (cup) to pull him out-man, that was painful! The relief when he was finally pulled out….oh my GOD, I can’t describe it. It felt amazing and he opened his lungs to give a big hearty cry!!! He was a bit bruised from the cup on his head but he was otherwise perfect, weighing a healthy 7 lbs 2 oz. If I had gone to 40 wks he would have been HUGE!!!

After that natural delivery, I was then told I had to have an epidural because my tearing was so bad!! I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT!! But I didn’t really care…I was on an incredible high from the delivery and couldn’t believe I was a mummy!!

Well, that’s the birth story…I’ll write more tomorrow about William’s first week in the world!!! Thanks for all your lovely notes…will catch up with them as soon as I have a bit more spare time!!!

In the meantime, here’s a little piccie……… 

lots of love happycookie and William! xxxxxxxxxxxxx