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Well, we finally had our baby, 4 days late.
My waters broke on Friday 28th September. It was not like you see on TV, I was not left standing in a puddle. It was actually just a tiny little bit, then about an hour later, a tiny bit more. So I went to see my OB, and they sent me straight up to the maternity ward. Mum had come with me, and we had taken my bag just in case. I was apparently still only 1cm dilated, which I had been for about a week already. So they were planning on inducing me, otherwise I could have been there days before anything else happened.
So I got onto the maternity ward around 2pm Friday. I had just done the admittance forms and been taken to my room when Gordon arrived from work. Everyone over here gets a private room for delivery, which is pretty big, with a hospital bed, a sofa bed, a couple of other chairs, TV and DVD player, and en-suite bathroom. You stay there til the birth, then get moved to another private room, slightly smaller but also with sofa bed for the Dad, TV and DVD, and en-suite bath. I have since learned that giving birth in an NHS hospital in the UK is a vastly different experience, and I am glad I did not have to go through that. It was horrific but at least it was in relative luxury.
I was put on Pitocin to induce labour, and wired up to fluids as I was not allowed to eat anything. The thing I was most disappointed about was that I was not able to use the birthing tub, which had been the main part of my birth plan, as the waters had broken already. The contractions started fairly quickly after the drugs took effect, and by around 9pm Friday they were every 2-3 minutes apart and really painful. But when the doctor checked and told me I was still only 1cm dilated, I felt like crying! I knew there could possibly be many more hours to go and I couldn't take the pain any more, especially as I was tired as well, so I asked for the epidural, which I had around 10.30pm. But I hated it, it really freaked me out. I stupidly hadn't realised that my legs would be completely numb, and I hated the fact I couldn't feel anything at all. It took me almost 2 hours to calm down enough to fall asleep. Gordon and Mum slept on the sofa bed and gliding chair. We took up offers from various friends to walk and feed Reggie for us while we were there, so she had a parade of people through the house, but seems to have coped very well.
Saturday morning they said I was fully dilated but there was still some cervix over the baby's head, so they would leave me to labour down for a while, meaning allowing the baby to move down without pushing, which sounded fine to me as I was scared of that part! They said we could do that so long as the baby was not under any stress, and until I felt pressure and the need to push. The monitors showed the baby was fine, but several hours later I still could not feel anything, which did not surprise me since I was still on the epidural. So they turned that off for a while, then I started the pushing part around 2pm.
At first I thought it was a lot easier than I had expected, since I didn't feel the pain of contractions as I was concentrating and holding my breath to push. But after 2 hours of that, I was worn out, and telling the nurse to count faster (I had to hold my breath and push for a count of 10, 2 times in each contraction)! Finally I gave birth to a baby girl at 4.19pm Central time Saturday 29th September. She weighed 8lb 7oz, which was a bit of a shock since all predictions from the doctors had put her at between 7 and 8lb. She was 19.5" long.
We have called her Addison Janet, possibly to be known in the future as Addie or AJ, and she is just adorable.
See Gordon's blog for photos: http://www.chicago-usa.blogspot.com/
My waters broke on Friday 28th September. It was not like you see on TV, I was not left standing in a puddle. It was actually just a tiny little bit, then about an hour later, a tiny bit more. So I went to see my OB, and they sent me straight up to the maternity ward. Mum had come with me, and we had taken my bag just in case. I was apparently still only 1cm dilated, which I had been for about a week already. So they were planning on inducing me, otherwise I could have been there days before anything else happened.
So I got onto the maternity ward around 2pm Friday. I had just done the admittance forms and been taken to my room when Gordon arrived from work. Everyone over here gets a private room for delivery, which is pretty big, with a hospital bed, a sofa bed, a couple of other chairs, TV and DVD player, and en-suite bathroom. You stay there til the birth, then get moved to another private room, slightly smaller but also with sofa bed for the Dad, TV and DVD, and en-suite bath. I have since learned that giving birth in an NHS hospital in the UK is a vastly different experience, and I am glad I did not have to go through that. It was horrific but at least it was in relative luxury.
I was put on Pitocin to induce labour, and wired up to fluids as I was not allowed to eat anything. The thing I was most disappointed about was that I was not able to use the birthing tub, which had been the main part of my birth plan, as the waters had broken already. The contractions started fairly quickly after the drugs took effect, and by around 9pm Friday they were every 2-3 minutes apart and really painful. But when the doctor checked and told me I was still only 1cm dilated, I felt like crying! I knew there could possibly be many more hours to go and I couldn't take the pain any more, especially as I was tired as well, so I asked for the epidural, which I had around 10.30pm. But I hated it, it really freaked me out. I stupidly hadn't realised that my legs would be completely numb, and I hated the fact I couldn't feel anything at all. It took me almost 2 hours to calm down enough to fall asleep. Gordon and Mum slept on the sofa bed and gliding chair. We took up offers from various friends to walk and feed Reggie for us while we were there, so she had a parade of people through the house, but seems to have coped very well.
Saturday morning they said I was fully dilated but there was still some cervix over the baby's head, so they would leave me to labour down for a while, meaning allowing the baby to move down without pushing, which sounded fine to me as I was scared of that part! They said we could do that so long as the baby was not under any stress, and until I felt pressure and the need to push. The monitors showed the baby was fine, but several hours later I still could not feel anything, which did not surprise me since I was still on the epidural. So they turned that off for a while, then I started the pushing part around 2pm.
At first I thought it was a lot easier than I had expected, since I didn't feel the pain of contractions as I was concentrating and holding my breath to push. But after 2 hours of that, I was worn out, and telling the nurse to count faster (I had to hold my breath and push for a count of 10, 2 times in each contraction)! Finally I gave birth to a baby girl at 4.19pm Central time Saturday 29th September. She weighed 8lb 7oz, which was a bit of a shock since all predictions from the doctors had put her at between 7 and 8lb. She was 19.5" long.
We have called her Addison Janet, possibly to be known in the future as Addie or AJ, and she is just adorable.
See Gordon's blog for photos: http://www.chicago-usa.blogspot.com/
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