Saturday 23 February 2013

The birth of Connor James (Born in his sac in the water)

I wrote a quick version of my birth story on a forum i go on but some of the times were guesses and it was all from memory so some things were jumbled... since then i have found out my husband had been documenting times as they happened on his phone that was until i was squeezing his hand soo tight he could no longer use his phone.. so now i can write a better birth story, although still short as active labour was only a total of 1hr 10mins.. so here goes...

On Thursday 14th February at 10am 40+6days pregnant I had my membrane sweep done - twice! once from the student midwife and once from the proper midwife, I was already 2-3cm dilated and 50% effaced I was booked in for another sweep the following Tuesday 19th with Induction booked in for the following Thursday 21st. After my sweep i went walking around town and i kept feeling alot of pressure and was finding it difficult to walk, my son was due to leave nursery at 11.45am and i asked my mum to pick him up so i could head straight home as i felt like the baby was going to fall out! (he didn't of course). The rest of the day was just filled with pressure and random tightnings.

Come evening i was getting two contractions an hour (at the time i didn't realise they were contractions just put them down as braxton hicks) so i carried on as normal and ignored them like i had every other braxton hick. Come 2am i was still getting the two contractions every hour i was waking up with them and then falling back to sleep until 4am where i woke up with contractions coming every 4-5 minutes apart i laid in bed for a good 15 minutes and downloaded a contraction app on my iphone which showed they were coming on average every 3 minutes and lasting 50 seconds long. I decided to go downstairs, walk about a bit as i still wasn't convinced it could be real, i ate a bowl of cheerios and bounced on the birthing ball still getting the contractions every 3 minutes, by the time 5.30am rolled around the contractions had gone back to 5-6 minutes and i thought that it must of been false labour as surely the contractions would carry on getting stronger and not start to fade away? i carried on bouncing on the ball and walking the house and by 6am they were back to every 4 minutes again, I decided to wake my husband who was oblivious to everything going on downstairs and asked him to run me a bath which he replies "A bath? you don't even smell..." before nodding back off to sleep... "Stuart i need you to run me a bath please".. while holding my belly and pacing the bedroom in pain which he wakes up "You're in labour?" .. "I think so.. I'm not to sure yet" I had been getting consistent contractions for 2 hours now and having to breathe hard through some and i still could not convince myself I was in true labour.

Stuart came downstairs and ran me my bath, I jumped in and stayed in for an hour, during that time I only had four contractions but they were very painful and they lasted a good minute I told Stuart that this was it, the baby was coming today. We had no plans for the kids who were all asleep upstairs and the girls had to be at school in 2 hours - Stuart text his mum to ask if she could get the day off work to look after Lucas and take the girls to school, thankfully she could, otherwise we would of been a bit stuck. I text my mum telling her that she better come round as i think it would be time to leave for the hospital soon. Only 10 minutes after sending that text message the contractions were 3 minutes apart and very painful I know I needed something more to cope with the pain and rang up the delivery suite asking them if I could come in because I needed some gas and air, they were more then happy to let me come in. I text my mum asking her if she had left yet because i was leaving for the hospital NOW! she informed me she was around the corner and would be there in a minute, my dad was also on his way as he was driving us to the hospital. 

We left for the hospital at 8am and the contractions in the car went to 2 minutes apart. We arrived at the hospital at 8.20am and made our way up to the dolphin suite (bit more laid back then the delivery suite, it has rooms with pools in for water births and is designed to be a more homely environment with a laid back approach). 



As soon as I got in the room I started on the gas and air I don't know if it's because I suddenly felt relaxed I reached the hospital or got my gas and air but my contractions went back to 3-4 minutes apart. They started running the bath for me at 8.45am and they gave me an internal check (As requested) at 8.55am I was 6cm dilated, they checked baby's heartbeat then carried on filling the pool while i puffed away on my gas and air. In between contractions i was speaking to the midwife about one born every minute the lady on the latest episode had a water birth and only just made it into the tub before her baby was born!

9.05am I got into the tub, it felt lovely being in the warm water, the first 10 minutes were fine, contractions coming and going, puffing on the gas and air, relaxing in between. (excuse the facial expression, a contraction was coming and i told him to hurry up and take the pic!)




After the first 10 minutes the contractions got 2 minutes apart and very strong. 9.20 came around and they put on my wrist bands and checked the baby's heartbeat again, all was well so I was left to get through my contractions. 5 minutes later and I am hardly getting a break through contractions, I had my eyes closed through the rest of the labour as I was in to much pain to even open them and concentrate I was constantly sucking on the gas and air, I remember knocking over a glass of water on the side (as pictured lol) and swearing a bit, then my body started pushing, this happened with about 10 contractions before I felt a burning sensation and realised his head was there, before I could even register what was going on I screamed out in pain and his head was out, I barely had a minute to breathe and take it all in before his whole body was pushed out. He was born inside his sac still and the midwife broke it for him once he was out.


Connor James - 15th February 2013 - 9.56am - 41weeks

He was placed on my chest and I still had my eyes closed, I placed my hand on his back and just remember thinking "Omg he is so slimey and long.." and then I managed to open my eyes and take a peep at him, I was so amazed at how quickly it happened once I got into the tub that I found it hard to register this baby on my chest was mine and that he just came out of me. 

Being wiped over.



Daddy then got to cut the cord.



I then got out of the tub and got to rest on the bed with my new bundle before he got weighed.. I thought he was going to weigh around 8lbs 7oz and Daddy thought 8lbs 4oz



but infact he weighed a whole 9lbs 1oz!! I was very very shocked, where did i hide him? he was a big lad and most of the outfits i packed were for a 7.8lb baby!! he only just fit into 9lb baby clothes. 



and here is a picture of him with his teddy that his big sister bought him, i promised her i would take a picture of him with it.



I needed around 7 stitches for a second degree tear and we stayed in hospital over night as Connor was having some side effects to my medication, we had visits from his big brother and two sisters and then we went home at 4pm.





4 comments:

  1. Awww! Amazingly fast, you did such a great job birthing your pecos boy xx

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  2. Love the picture with his tongue sticking out. LOL.

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  3. Awww! You did so well!! I am amazed he was over 9lbs! All your other babies have been so tiny! :)

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