Thursday 22 August 2013

Elias Jae is here!

Our beautiful baby boy Elias Jae arrived at 11.15pm on Friday the 2nd of August, exactly two weeks before my due date. He was 3.515 kg's and 51 cm long.

If you don't want to read the details of his birth, stop reading now!

I'd been having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions all day Thursday and Friday. They were getting more intense and some of them were a little uncomfortable, but they didn't feel any different to the Braxton Hicks I'd been having for weeks so I didn't think anything of it. 6.30pm Friday evening as I was standing in the kitchen plating up dinner, my waters broke. It was just a trickle, but a trickle that didn't stop. As soon as I felt it I thought it was my waters breaking and by the time I got to the bathroom I knew it was my waters. 

I called out to Tiger, told him that my waters had broken and asked him to bring me some undies and a pad. Tiger immediately panicked and came racing into the toilet. When I went to the toilet my mucous plug came out. Whilst I was getting dressed and finding some clean pants, Tiger was racing from room to room in a panic not knowing what to do. I told him to calm down and call my Mum to come and look after Chai. After he'd done that I got him to call the hospital who told me to get my things together and come in. 

I had my bag packed and a list of things I needed to put in the bag so I got Tiger to eat his tea whilst I put the last few things in my bag. I then called my sister in law to let her know I was in labour just in case we needed her to come and get Chai (Mum lives an hour away). Due to the time, I got Chai's pj's and a nappy so that we could get him ready for bed whilst we were at the hospital and hopefully he'd fall asleep in the car on the way home. 

We got to the hospital and as we were walking in I was puffing and panting away due to the tightness in my stomach. I had a few contractions in the car on the way in, but nothing regular. I got to the labour ward and they put the monitors on me to see what was happening. Bub was happy and despite me having a few contractions whilst I was being monitored, they didn't show up on the monitor. 

The midwife didn't examine me as she didn't want to risk introducing bacteria so she got the Dr to come and see me. He looked at my stats, said that they'd see what happens and get things moving in the morning. He suggested that I go for a walk to see if that got things moving. The midwifes said I was hours away from delivering and probably wouldn't have bub until the morning, so I sent Tiger home with Mum to put Chai to bed. Despite what the midwife and Dr said, I was sure that bub wasn't far away. Tiger said he might try to get some sleep at home but I told him he needed to come straight back because my contractions were getting more intense and I didn't want him to miss the birth. 

I tried walking around a bit but I got a very heavy feeling and my contractions increased, so I lay down again to wait for Tiger to get back. I was pretty sure that the baby would be arriving sooner rather than later, despite nothing showing up on the monitors.

Tiger got back at 9.30pm and whilst I was still having contractions of greater intensity, they weren't regular. I was feeling quite irritable, Tiger was annoying me because he wasn't doing anything during my contractions, the fit ball irritated me because it squeaked when I used it, everything was irritating. I'm not sure what I was expecting Tiger to do, he was holding my hand and rubbing my back, but in my mind that wasn't enough, haha. My contractions were getting more intense but they still weren't regular. 

The midwife came in around 10pm, lay me on my right side and put the monitor on me to see what was happening. I was starting to have trouble breathing through the contractions, they were getting a lot stronger and I felt like I couldn't control my breathing due to the intensity. After a few minutes of laying on my side I needed to do a poo, but I couldn't whilst I was being monitored. My contractions were getting a lot stronger and by the time the midwife came back in I'd decided I wanted drugs NOW! When they finished monitoring me I told her I really needed to go to the loo. She examined me and as I was 6cm dilated she went to get the labour ward ready whilst I went to the loo. I was still really irritable and when she left the room I asked Tiger if she'd gone to get me drugs and he wasn't sure, so I told him I wanted drugs NOW! Then I went to the loo. Whilst I was on the loo I had two really intense contractions. I finished my business and was just getting up when I got a really strong contraction along with a feeling that the baby was coming. 

I told Tiger that I thought the baby was coming so he had a look and told me the baby wasn't coming, I just needed to do a poo. I didn't think he was right but gave an experimental push to see if it was a poo and I knew the baby was coming. I felt between my legs and could feel the pressure of the baby's head. I told Tiger the baby was coming and he again told me I needed to do a poo so I yelled at him to get a midwife NOW and pushed the buzzer for the nurse (Tiger said I nearly slammed it through the wall). Tiger raced out into the hall and yelled for a midwife. She came in took one look at me and pressed the emergency buzzer. 

My main concern was getting off the toilet cause I hadn't flushed it and I didn't want bub to end up in the loo. I managed to get off the loo. Tiger was behind me holding me up and I was leaning forward onto the midwife. They swapped places and she asked me if I could get to the bed but I couldn't move so she got me to move forward so that the baby didn't hit the toilet. Someone else must have come into the room because the midwife said "we have a ***". I don't know what word she used but I assume it meant "get in here as fast as you can because this lady is about to give birth in the toilet". There were four midwifes with me by that time and I somehow managed to get onto the bed. When I got onto the bed they asked me if I could lie down but I couldn't. I'm not sure if his head was out, I think it must have been because a midwife said "Oh no, the cord is around his neck, we'll just slip it off". A few seconds later they asked me to push, I gave one push and Elias came rushing out. 

As soon as he was out I ripped off my top, picked him up and lay down with my beautiful baby on my chest. I got to stay like that for ages, it would have been at least an hour. Tiger said that the first things I said were "Where's my baby? Give me my baby!" He was just beautiful, but I was a little concerned because his face, hands and feet were purple, but the midwife and Dr weren't concerned about it.

Fifteen minutes after bub had been born mum and Chai arrived at the hospital. Chai had woken up and wouldn't go back to sleep because he wanted Tiger or me. It worked out really nicely because it meant we were all together as a family for a few hours. Chai got to see and cuddle his new brother and then around 2am they all went home.

This was me in the morning 
And by the end of the day I was cuddling this little darling.
The whole thing felt really surreal, I couldn't believe it had all happened so quickly and I didn't understand how I had gone from 6cm dilated to fully dilated in a few minutes. The midwife said that because I'd had a full bowel, bub hadn't been able to move down enough for my cervix to open, so as soon as my bowel was empty, he moved down and I dilated. After the birth I had with Chai I am so glad that this was a quick, easy birth! 

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