Gracie’s Life Experiment

Just in case we decide to have any more children, I am going to record my gory birth story so I can remind myself about the pain!

Waters Breaking:
Had a bath on Thurs evening. Got out of the bath and went to the toilet only to find that I was in fact trickling.  For about 10 seconds I sat there wondering if it was my waters and then suddenly it just went whoosh and it felt like the flow/stream was about 3″ in diameter for about a minute.  Then it went back to a steady trickle/flow for about 5mins. In the meantime I was calling hubby and he was rushing about like a madman trying to get all the bits and bobs ready.  Came back into the bedroom fully expecting things to be like Thurs am again but this time contractions started.  Put on the TENS machine which I must admit was really great (in fact I found that each time the TENS stepped up and was on burst it actually hurt more than the contraction).   They started about 10 mins apart for 40 seconds, and within 2hrs they were 3 mins apart for 60 seconds and getting quite painful.  John rang up the hospital who told us to come in and then I slowly and calmly put on clothes and went downstairs (stopping along the way for contractions) – meanwhile John was buzzing about panicking and locking up the house and dog. 

Getting to the Hospital:
We got in the car for the 45 mins drive to hospital, John made it there in less than 30 mins.  Luckily we didn’t meet any police cars on the way!  It was really very painful being in the car and every little bump or drain in the road seemed to feel like the Himalayas. Got to the A&E entrance at around 1am (Friday 25th) only to find that the Delivery Suite was miles away. They put me in a wheelchair and ran me down all the corridors – I must say that the nurses were very fit as they went v quickly. Got to the Delivery Suite and was assessed at 2cm dilated, as I was already in quite a bit of pain and wasn’t going anywhere fast (they say about 1hr per cm of dilation).

The Drugs/Pain!!!:
They offered me some drugs (Diamorphine) which was great as it sort of made the pain not feel as bad (still had the TENS machine on) but it did enable me to rest between contractions. Hubby said that I was actually falling asleep between contractions. The diamorphine lasted about 3 hrs and then I was on gas and air (entonox) for a couple of hours. Entonox is just like being pissed! I felt my upper lip going a bit numb, just like when I’m drunk and hubby said I was rambling on just like it was 2am on a Sat night Had another lot of diamorphine after that and then then pains were getting very bad. By the time that started to wear off, I was thinking I couldn’t cope on just entonox after that and decided I’d like an epidural (I HATE needles, but the pain was like nothing I’ve ever had before and the needle seemed like a doddle compared to the labour pains). They put the epidural in at around 8am and I was 5cm dilated. Hubby fainted whilst they were putting the needle in my back. One second they were saying stay really still, and next second I said “hubby is falling over” and everyone around me suddenly abandoned me and ran round to where hubby was laying flat out on the floor!! The epidural completely numbed my uterus but I found that I still had pains in my bum and in particular the tail bone/pelvis. I must say that the epidural was very good and I got through the first syringe in relative calm they assessed again and I was only 6cm so they decided that they would put a hormone drip in to induce stronger contractions (Syntoxinon?). They changed the epidural syringe and the pain started to get worse (not sure if it was a dodgy batch or the effects of the hormone drip). My contractions went all doolally and had no pattern. They were monitoring the uterine activity as well as baby’s heart rate. Even though I was screaming blue murder, baby was happily asleep in there for the whole time. Each hour they ramped up the hormone dosage and the contractions were so painful. Even though I had the epidural in my tail bone and pelvis felt like they were going to crack. At 3pm I was at the highest level of hormone drip that the midwife could administer and she assessed me again and I was 5cm dilated (wtf? 7hrs since last check and all that pain and hormones and I’m actually going backwards?). The doctors came in at 4pm and decided to up the hormones again (60ml/hr) and reassess at 6pm. Those 2hrs were the worst 2 in my life as I just knew that there was going to be yet more pain, but had a sneaky suspicion that there would be no gain (more dilation). I was right and at 6pm they assessed and I was still 5cm dilated. I had also started to develop contraction pains in my lower back and deep in my left thigh!! I couldn’t move onto my back as everytime I did the pain was so great I vomited. They decided that an emergency c-section would be in order. I was so relieved when they said that as I really couldn’t take anymore.

C-Section:
This was the quickest bit. As soon as I signed the forms about a million different drugs syringes and injections were pumped into me via the drip and epidural point. Within 1/2 an hour I was numb from my waist downwards. You can’t feel any pain, but you can sort of feel what they’re doing. It was really strange being tugged around like that.

Evie’s Arrival:
At 7.10 pm Evie came out weighing 7lb and 1oz! She mewed a little and they cleaned her up and gave her to hubby to cuddle. She was so small and cute. It took them about 45 mins to put me back together again (I really kept thinking about that Operation game, you know where the nose buzzer goes off!!). I was so knackered I fell asleep.

So in summary – 20 hrs of active labour, followed by a cut and shut! Lots of pain for mummy, lots of pain (indirectly via hand crushing) for daddy, and lots of love and attention for baby.