Sol’s Birth Story

OK – Sol’s birth ended up being fairly traumatic. For posterity I am recording my memories of his birth so that I don’t forget.

WATERS BREAKING
Woke up 14/09/11 and still had no twinges or inklings of labour starting anytime soon (even though we were 41w+4). Around lunchtime I went to the toilet and lost my mucus plug (bleurgh it was really gross). Now the mucus plug can come days or hours before labour so wasn’t expecting much to happen imminently. Had a lie down then around 3.30pm I heard this familiar click/pop sound and knew my waters had gone. I got up quickly and went to the toilet and the waters gushed straight out (thankfully not all over the carpet). Rang hubby to come home from work and my brother to come babysit Evie. Didn’t really feel any contractions starting, so rang the hospital to ask when I needed to come in. Because I was VBAC they said to come in when we could for assessment.

LABOUR
We arrived at the hospital around 5pm and I was hooked up to the monitor. During that 1/2 hour contractions started coming every 3 mins – they were uncomfortable but manageable and hubby was trying various techniques to distract me. At 5.30pm they decided that I was in labour and was 3cm dilated so transferred me to a delivery suite. They put the monitor on bub’s head so that I could move around. At 6pm I asked for the gas and air as the contractions were killing! As soon as I got out of the bed it felt like bub had suddenly pushed down 3 inches and the pain was double instantly! I tried the gym ball and that was excruciating. My body felt like it was bearing down and the midwife was telling me not to push. I was trying not to but my body had different ideas and it eased the pain a little. Unfortunately my cervix was only 5cm dilated so nowhere near ready yet and there were chunks and clots coming out after each contraction. I got back on the bed and lay on my side, but the contractions were now one on top of the other. Around 7pm or so I asked for pethidine (or anything really) and remember thinking why is the midwife not getting it!! I didn’t want to get an epidural as I knew this would probably mess up my contractions (as it had with my labour with Evie). By 7.15pm I was screaming for an epidural … and I distinctly remember saying that I wanted to go to bed and had had enough please!! At 7.30pm the midwife and doctors were worried because I couldn’t stop pushing and they were paging the anaesthetist to administer an epidural to stop me having that urge to push. Then I remember them asking about the pain and I was saying that the contractions were all in my bum, but they could see that I was clutching my abdomen in between contractions – I realised that actually the front of my stomach had this dull ache that didn’t go away. After each contraction, bub’s heart rate was slowing and not recovering as quickly. They then decided that I was going for an emergency caesar. I signed the forms and was whisked off.

BIRTH
One second hubby was running along holding my foot as they pushed the trolley and he was carrying his scrubs, next second he was gone. I had a caesar with Evie with a spinal block so had an idea of what would happen and was feeling secretly relieved that at least we’d see our baby boy soon. It was all really surreal as I was screaming in constant pain yet I have some recollections -if I think about it, it was almost like an out of body experience as I was so zoned out. Along the way to theatre they had decided that there wasn’t time to administer a spinal block and that my uterus might be rupturing so they were going to put me under a general anaesthetic. It felt like forever being prepped and the pain was awful. Then I was OUT!!

RECOVERY
Was roused in the recovery room and I just remember feeling really sore and in pain. They were saying something to me but I can’t remember what they said. There were pipes and wires and allsorts of things on me. Suddenly I remembered and asked where my husband and baby were. Thankfully I was told that they were both fine and on their way to see me. I remember hubby bringing Baby Sol in and thinking he was really really big (he was 1/2oz off 9lb). Hubby looked stressed but relieved. The doctor came in and told me that as they had opened my abdomen up my uterus had ruptured in front of their eyes and they’d had to get Sol out pronto. I’d lost over a litre of blood and they’d had to give me two blood transfusions. My memory goes hazy now as I don’t remember much else (I don’t even remember giving Sol his first breastfeed boo hoo, but hubby said I did).

HIGH DEPENDENCY UNIT
The next thing I remember was being in my bed but in HDU instead (I don’t remember how I got there). The nurse was busy hooking up all the monitors and drips and things. My mouth was so very dry and I kept asking for water all night.I had a self administered morphein drip (which I didn’t actually use that much I think once every couple of hrs), a fluid drip, antibiotic drip and plasma drip. I drifted in and out of sleep every hour or so as various alarms kept going off. I remember finally waking up in the morning and thinking that the baby was still inside – that was until I felt the pain and saw all the canulas in my arms and remembered!! I wondered where my baby was and when I would get to see him. The new shift started and the nurse took me for a shower (bleurgh so much blood and stuff all over me) which was really hard as I could barely move. After I got out of the shower they asked if I would like to see my baby which of course I did! I remember feeling really teary as I thought this was the first time we were going to meet (I had forgotten that I’d seen him the night before in recovery).

So yes although it was a traumatic way to enter the world, we are so thankful to God that we both made it out OK. It could have been so much worse. The doctor said 20 mins more and I’d have ruptured in delivery and we would both have been goners.