The birth

I thought I'd post a little (well probably a lot) about the birth of little Jamie. It was an intense couple of days, but I know people are probably wondering what happened and why I had to have a caesarean. This will probably be a lot more detail than some people want to know about, so I thought I'd warn you in advance. My friend Jill did this and which she said she found very therapuetic and I am sure I'll find the same.

I had my sweep Monday morning and as I posted, I had progressed over the weekend, probably thanks in part to that awful Norovirus, which well and truly got my guts moving, just like they say spicy food should do. Nothing much happened during Monday, but Tuesday morning I woke up and I realized that I had started contractions. They started about 10-20 minutes apart and not very painful. Throughout the day they became closer and more painful. Paul had gone to work, and he wasn't sure when he should come home and I said to wait a bit, but after about an hour his boss said "What the f* are you still doing here, go home" and so he did. I mostly hung out with my mom during the day and watched tv when I could to try to distract myself. I was also using a TENS machine throughout the day for pain relief, which basically sends through little electrical pulses through electrode pads on my back between contractions, and when I start having a contraction, I push a little boost button which causes the pulse to become continuous until I depress when the contraction is over. In retrospect, I'm not really sure it did much, other than signal to everyone else when the contraction started and ended. I think it did give me something to focus on, but perhaps it caused me to focus too much on each contraction. I didn't really sleep much during the day as I was afraid I'd slow down the process. In retrospect, I think that was a mistake. I spent a lot of the day pacing the house, trying to get them moving along. Here's a photo of me with my TENS and a gingernut:

Most of the late afternoon and evening my contractions were 6-8 minutes apart, lasting for about 90 seconds. The hospital don't really want you coming onto the ward until your 3-4 minutes apart, lasting 90 seconds and are painful. We called to update them a few times and they encouraged us to stay home as long as possible. Around midnight that night, they were getting closer to 4-5 minutes apart and quite painful, and I was sick once with the pain, so I decided it was time to go in. My mom, Paul and I went in. We had our own room and the midwife asked us a few questions, took my blood pressure and disappeared for a long time. She said she was going to assign me a midwife (she was the head midwife on duty), but we're not really sure what happened with that. She came back a while later and asked me how things were going. Contractions had sped up and were more painful, she did an internal and said I was only at 2 cm. She said I wasn't that far along, so I could either go home or go to the maternity ward (where you're in a room with 3 others) and see if I progressed there. At this point it was 4:30am, and I was so exhausted (as were Paul and mom), that we decided to go home, hoping the contractions would go crazy on the way home and we could turn around and come back. Not the case...

When we got home we all were so wiped that we slept for a bit. My contractions did slow and for the rest of the day they became very erratic. In the afternoon, they were still erratic but more and more painful. I had my induction still scheduled for that night, so I called the hospital and asked if I should still come in and they said yes because they could progress the labor (why not the night before, I don't know!). Anyway, I was asked to come in the hospital at 8pm. When we got to the hospital, I was put in the ward with others being induced. They took my BP and hooked me up to a monitor to see how the baby was doing. Within a couple of minutes, I was surrounded by 3 midwives and a doctor, I assume someone pulled some sort of alarm, but had no idea why. Apparently the baby's heart rate dropped. They started talking to me about having to break my waters to see if the baby recovered or they'd have to an emergency caesarean. They rushed me into a labor room and the doctor broke my waters. Luckily he recovered and I continued with contractions, and I at that point I was at 3cm. I had to stay monitored throughout the night. The contractions became stronger and I used 'gas and air' or nitrous oxygen for pain relief. You bastcally just beathe into this tube when you feel the contraction coming on. It worked pretty well. However, occasionally I took too much on and threw up, but it was worth it. Halfway through the night, I was really getting exhausted (it had and decided to have an epidural. Man, that was worth it! I could still slightly feel them on one side (I found out later the epidural came out on one side). Unfortunately, my contractions slowed a bit, though I still progressed to 6cm.

Throughout the night, the baby's heart rate would drop after each contraction for 10s. That can happen as the baby's head descends down the pelvis. However, later in the night, it started dropping for longer, for 60-90s. The doctor said they needed to check the baby's blood oxygen levels, which they do by taking a blood sample for the top of the baby's head with a scope thing  (he still has the scratches on his head, poor Jamie). They did this twice in 90 minutes and his stats were dropping, and as I was only at 8cm and progressing about a cm an hour, I wouldn't be ready in enough time and the levels would go too low. They tested one final time, but the machine wasn't working, so they decided they should progress with the c-section anyway. They said it could be the cord around his neck.

They prepped me, and had to give me a spinal since the epidural had come out on one side. Paul scrubbed in and was able to stay by my head. The baby came out pretty quick, they took him and gave him a once over, his Apgar was 9 at delivery and 10 one minute later. They gave him to Paul and put him on my pillow too while they stitched me up. Apparently I lost quite a lot of blood (1.4 liters), not sure why, but we both made it through fine. The cord wasn't wrapped around his neck, so they don't know why his heart rate was dropping, but as rough as I felt after, I don't regret the decision as we don't know what might have happened had we waited. And I have my perfect little Jamie, so everything is good.

They recovery wasn't easy, especially the first day, but I'm getting stronger everyday. Paul and my parents have been an extraordinary help. And we all have Courtney to thank for the hundreds of photos she's taken. They left this morning and we'll miss them a lot. I've had a lot of emotional ups and downs these past few days, but after having Norovirus, 46 hours of labor and a major operation, we're doing pretty well and I'm looking forward to motherhood.

Here's our first ever photo together (not that pretty!):

antenatal course #2 and midwife appt

Sorry blogging has been a little more quiet lately. Wish I could say the new house was taking up all our time, but I don't feel like we've gotten much done here either. Busy with who knows what, but we haven't been in our house long enough to get anything substantial done. The end of February is looking less busy (so far...) so hopefully we'll make some progress then.

One thing that has taken up our time is another antenatal class which was all day Saturday. Another very helpful session. We talked mainly about the birth and some postnatal care. We covered things pain relief options (which will be necessary), ceseareans (which hopefully won't be), and birthing positions (I'll spare the details). In terms of pain relief, we covered four main options:
1.TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) machines-specifically for childbirth, which you can buy or rent. The send electric pulses which can block pain gateways to the brain and also help to release endophins. They are drug free of course and have no side effects for baby.
2. Drug similar to demoral-which is IV based drug, effecting whole body rather than a localized numbness and can sometimes slow labor. It can also cause nausea and sleepiness. I probably won't elect to use this drug.
3. Gas and Air-which is a mixture of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and oxygen. I don't think they use this in the US, but it's commonly used in the UK. Good thing about it is that it only takes 20sec to kick in and 20 sec to leave system, so if I don't like it, I don't have to use it.
4. Epideral-low or high dose. Directly into spine which numbs lower part of your body. There are lots of potiential side effects, plus you have to be tied to monitors constantly, which limits mobility. But you feel a lot less pain.

I want to keep an open approach to the birth. I don't want to go in with a set idea of I definitely want or don't want certain things.  Paul and I are going to write up a 'birth wish list' at some point this month which will outline how we want to approach the birth. 

This morning I also had another midwife appointment.  Everything seems to be in order. My blood tests from last month were back and all was good. My iron levels were high which is good. Blood pressure (118/64) was normal and so was urine test. We heard Baby W's heart beat which was strong. His position is head down, which is perfect and let's hope he stays that way for the last 6 weeks. My bump measured 34 cm which is perfectly average for being 34 weeks. Our next appointments are on Feb 15th and include my final ultrasound, a follow up appt with consultant for the fibroid and another midwife appt which is where we're meant to write up our birth plan with her. I say 'meant to' because I'm in the process of most likely changing to a local midwife so I can go to a local hospital rather than have to drive an hour+ to the hospital closest to our old flat. I've got an appt at my GP on Thursday who will refer me to the local midwife services and then we'll see how the first appt with her goes before I make a final decision.

We finally bought our nursery furniture today and just making final decisions on bedding. I won't reveal anything though until it's all put together. Maybe you can bribe my mom to give you hints as she's helping plan everything and we'll do together when she comes over early next month.  Can't wait!!