Burton’s Birth Story

(Actual due date 14th July, 2009)

Monday 13th July

I woke up at about 5.30am with a kind of faint niggling sensation, but didn’t know what that really meant. So I got up and went downstairs and baked some cakes to pop into the cafe later in the morning. By the time Jon had started work (he works mainly from home) the niggles were a little sharper and I just thought they were probably Braxton Hicks, something I hadn’t had at all throughout my pregnancy. Afterall, how many first time Mums give birth on their actual due date? Jon thought I was in labour and made me phone my Mum while he phoned his, but I honestly did not think so.

So I vacuumed the baby’s room and tidied up a little. Then I popped into Sainsburys to collect some groceries for the cafe and then drove the 12 mile trip to Torrington. Every time a ‘niggle’ struck it did make me gasp a little, but I was adamant it was nothing. So after dropping the cakes and shopping off at the cafe I returned home and got dinner.

By bedtime, the ‘niggles’ were getting a little stronger and it was then that I accepted that I was actually in the very early stages of labour. I think I got about an hours sleep and awoke to the same pains and I just couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up and went downstairs to watch TV in the lounge while sitting (and swaying my hips) on my borrowed pilates ball. There was some film starring Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand on which was quite good!

Tuesday 14th July

By 7.30am ish when Jon came downstairs to check on me, the contractions (formerly niggles lol) were quite frequent and a little intense but manageable. So I thought I should call the delivery suite at the hospital to see what they thought. I knew from an ante natal class I attended on active birthing, that I didn’t want to go into hospital until the last possible moment so as not to slow everything down. I knew that once the pain was just too much to control myself that was the time to head in.

The midwife after hearing my description of events up until that point told me to have some breakfast and then pop in for an examination, just to confirm I was in labour. I can’t recall whether I ate breakfast or not, but we were up the hospital by about 8am ish I think. We only live about 10 minutes away. Jon also phoned my friend Kimberly, who lives in Bristol, to let her know what was going on as she was to be at the birth too. This is because for a long time Jon had said he didn’t know if he wanted to be at the birth, so I decided to ask my friend because not only is she a trainee midwife but as my best friend, I knew she would keep me going and if he decided to attend, she would be of great comfort to Jon. We also phoned the Mum’s again and my Dad just to let them know the situation.

Kimberly turned up while i was still at the hospital waiting for all the paperwork and checks to be carried out. I looked around the room – it had a TV! I didn’t realise delivery rooms would have one! I was then attached to a machine to check baby’s heart rate,while the midwife discovered that I was 2cm dilated and my cervix was paper thin as she described it. She offered to do a ‘sweep’ to speed things along, which I accepted, but it was very uncomfortable so she stopped. I look back and feel stupid about that because yeah it was uncomfortable and hurt a little, but it may well have saved some time! Anyway, the midwife concluded that as I lived so close, I was better off going home and coming back later once contractions were more frequent. She told us that she was on shift until that evening and she fully expected to see us again later that day.

So the three of us got home by about 10am ish and spent the next few hours drinking tea and watching ‘Mama Mia’ and a really funny episode of ‘Extras’. Jon, being the gadget obsessed geek he is, downloaded an app for his iPhone which timed contractions and presented the timings in graph form to help gage when I would be be in full blown labour!! I remember saying to Jon and Kimberly that contractions weren’t so bad really!! Lol All was going well until about 2pm when suddenly the contractions slowed right down! Typical! In fact they didn’t really get going again until about 6pm!

This time they built up and were getting stronger and closer together so I took some paracetemol, and used one of the cushions from the sofa to cover my face whenever a contraction occurred that I needed to breathe through the pain with. A couple of hours later the pains were uncomfortable so I went and a long soak in the bath which was lovely and helped ease the pain. However, by about 9.45pm ish after getting out of the bath I decided that I could no longer control the pain myself and I needed some pain relief and fast!! Jon phoned the hospital and told them we were heading back in.

So we got in the car and headed to the hospital while calling parents on the way. This is it then, i thought to myself. No turning back now! Maybe my baby was going to be born on its due date afterall 🙂 That journey was not enjoyable though it was uncomfortable for me and once at the maternity unit, the walk to the delivery suite was plagued by very strong, sharp and painful contractions.

We were shown into our delivery room at approximately 10.15pm and I remember asking the midwife if I could please have some pain relief, but she said I couldn’t have any until after I was checked again! I didn’t realise I would have to wait!! I was asked to give a urine sample but when I went to produce one, all this blood and clots came out down the toilet! I was suddenly very worried about the baby and called Kimberly to come in. She assured me it was nothing to worry about, but,of course,I was worrying.I was also thankful to be at the hospital when that had happened, because if I had lost that much blood at home I would have really panicked. I still don’t really know what all that blood was about but it was obviously nothing to be concerned about.

So my cervix was checked again to see how dilated I was now……………can you believe it I was now 3cm! Only 1cm more than I had been that morning! I just couldn’t believe it. I kept saying just that – something which both Kimberly and Jon found, and indeed still do find – funny! The look of dismay on my face said it all apparently!

Anyway, I was soon on the gas and air…………..ohhhh how I enjoyed that lol. I remember how it left a kind of taste in my mouth reminiscent of old man mothball smell, and it made my voice a little deeper! The sensation I got after that final inhalation of it as the pain was numbed and I drifted off a little into a trippy haven was fab! I remember saying aloud at one point that I could see my breadboards from home and keys from my iPad keyboard lol ahhhhh good old gas and air! I could hear Jon and Kimberly talking – discussing deep sea diving at one point – but I was in my zone and taking control of the pain and letting my body go with whatever was happening to it.

Wednesday 15th July

I know that I dilated quite quickly once I was in that room, unfortunately I cannot be time specific because I was concentrating on the task at hand. My waters did not break by themselves and had to be burst by the midwife. I also remember at one point suddenly feeling that while I was trying to breathe through the contractions with the gas and air, near the end of the contraction my pelvis area started wanting me to do the opposite. I also remember asking the midwife why the gas and air had be turned off, to which she replied that it hadn’t! She then said that I probably wouldn’t be needing it anymore as it was no longer working for me!

As I mentioned, my body was telling me to push and I said this aloud to which I was told to start. I was pushing for a while when I was told to try out a different position, as I was currently on my back. It’s funny because after attending that active birthing session at my ante natal class, where it was advised that the best way to deliver baby is to keep active, to move around and how going on all fours was one of the best positions to help baby come out quicker and more easily. Well, by the time I was on my back, having been awake since 5.30am on Monday, I was too knackered and quite frankly being active was the last thing I wanted to be! I tried to turn on my side but it made the pain worse, I managed to turn over and kneel up over the back of the chair/bed I was on but as much as I pushed,no baby! As I kneeled there I remember saying to those present, that I apologised for the state of my nether-regions as I had tried to tidy myself up earlier in the bath but couldn’t see whether or not I had done a good job! Haha as if anyone really cared! I know I had a drip fitted to me aswell I think that was for energy because I hadn’t eaten much for several hours. Again,having read my pregnancy book, I had packed energy drinks and sweets but I just couldn’t face eating or drinking anything!

I also know at one point they had to wake the baby up because it had gone to sleep which wasn’t helping matters.

So I ended up laying on my back again and I was trying to push as hard as I could , but apparently as I pushed with the contraction, the baby’s head could be seen but as soon as I stopped pushing it got sucked back up inside me again! Poor thing. The midwife was telling me to puuuuush and I was and I told her so but I was just sooooo tired. I said that I couldn’t do it as I didn’t have the energy 🙁

By this point, the midwives were getting worried about the baby because it’s heart beat was very slow (it later turned out that like me, Burton has a very low pulse) and they were worried for it’s health. So I was asked if I would be happy to have some intervention in the form of a ventous delivery to which I immediately agreed. Suddenly I had a spotlight positioned in front of me and several new faces were suddenly peering down there at me, well not me exactly but you know what I mean! I remember looking over towards the door and seeing a special care baby machine being wheeled in, which made me a little concerned that maybe something serious was wrong with it. Anyway, after being cut and having my bladder emptied, the cap was in place and on the next contraction as I pushed, the baby was pulled out!! A boy! Hurrah! Thankfully he was perfect and not requiring any special care once born.

So after almost 46 hours of labour, from start to finish, at 3.18am, weighing 8lbs exactly, my beautiful Burton was born 🙂

Like this? Share it...

Twitter

Facebook

Pinterest

Linkedin

StumbleUpon

Digg

email