Where did 8 years go?

Today is Emily's 8th birthday.  I have no idea where those 8 years have gone.  It's been a hard slog a lot of the time, ME and parenting do not go well together, but we get by and are hopefully not making to bad a job of it!

Emily just born

A few hours old

This is what happened to me 8 years ago today

Our baby was due on February 20^th, so when I started with pains in the early hours of February 5^th I thought little of them, took some paracetamol and tried to go back to sleep.  Around 3am I had a show and was in quite a lot of pain, Rob got up and made us a drink and then we laid in bed talking for a while before drifting back to sleep. 

When it was time for Rob to go to work we decided it was fine for him to go as nothing was going to happen despite the pains.  He got to work around 9.30 and by 10am I was on the phone asking him to come back home as I was bleeding.  He rang a little while later to say he was just leaving and at the same moment my waters broke!!

I rang the delivery suite where I was due to give birth to say my waters had broken and to ask them what I should do.  They informed they were full and not taking any admissions so I should ring the other hospital and get them to see me.  I did this and they said they would ring me back to tell me when to go in.  They rang back a couple of hours later to say the original unit was now taking admissions again and to go to them.  The pains were getting worse during this time, but I still did not think I was going to have the baby!  It was bad timing as my grandma was being discharged from hospital that day after 12 weeks and my mum one of my birth partners was supposed to be there for her and seeing the social workers etc when she got home.  Rob kept ringing her to update her, but telling her there was no need to come up.

I got to the hospital about 2 o’clock; my contractions were 12 mins apart at this stage and very strong.  After monitoring me for about and hour and half they decided I was not in established labour and told me to go home and have a bath and gave me an appointment to return on Wednesday morning to be induced as they could not let me go longer than this with my waters having broken.

On arriving home the contractions were about 5 mins apart, so I decided to try a bath, this did not really help and I decided to get out, as I got out I was violently sick and doubled up in pain.  Rob thought we had better have something to eat so went to prepare something, but I was in so much pain I could not even sit down, so was on hands and knees in on the living room floor and still being sick!!  Rob gave up on food and bundled me into the car to go back to the hospital.  The contractions were now constant and I could not sit so was propped up on hands and knees in the back of the car, still being sick!!

On the way out Rob managed to grab a box of food, ring my mum and drop a key off with the neighbour to feed Timmy!  I have never known him be so organised, normally he is lucky to remember anything, still forgot the camera though as we always do when we need it.

When we got to the hospital I still could not sit, so was on my knees in my wheelchair, it was less than two hours since we had left the hospital.  This time I was taken straight into a delivery room.  They wanted to attach a monitor to me to check out the baby, but I was in so much pain I kept pushing them away and telling them not to touch me.  Eventually they got the monitor attached, but I could not stand lying on my back the pain was easier to bear if I was on my knees and I was still being sick too.  They asked if I wanted some pain relief, stupid question!!  But then they noticed the babies heart rate was dropping with the contractions and not recovering as fast as it should so they could not give me morphine, all they could offer me was an epidural, but they did not think I would be able to stay still enough for them to administer it.  They were also trying examine me, and finally discovered I was 5 cms dilated and said I was now in established labour, well I could have told them that I was!!!  Sometime during all this my mum arrived; she says I was on my knees and being rather stroppy with everyone! I remember I kept saying sorry to everyone. 

An anaesthetist arrived and said they would give me a spinal anaesthetic as this acted quicker than an epidural, but would only last for about 30 mins, but I needed to be very still despite the pain, so that’s what they did.  I never felt it go in or anything, but the relief was magic!  He then put in place the stuff needed for the epidural which could then be started as soon as the spinal anaesthetic wore off as it did about 30 mins later.  Once I was comfy I asked what time it was as the clock was behind me, mum said it was 8 o’clock.

Once the anaesthetic was working they were better able to examine me and attach a monitor to baby’s head, it kept falling off before as I could not keep still.  They were still worried about baby’s heart rate and decided to take blood samples from her head to check blood oxygen.  Most of the time there were four drs and a midwife in the room.  I kept asking them not to hurt my baby.  After the blood was checked and was ok they examined me again and said I was 10 cms dilated, this was about 10pm, they said I could begin to push in an hour and to get some rest. I did not get any rest as in less than half an hour they decided that they needed to get the baby out, this required an episiotomy and venthouse.   Once the venthouse suction cap was in place I was told to push and the baby’s head was delivered, the cord was round its neck so the Dr had to spend time gently removing it, once this was done I was told to push again and the rest of the baby was quickly delivered.  We were shown that we had a little girl; she was then taken cross the room to be checked out.  She never cried, but they assured us she was fine, she was quite alert with her eyes open and looking round.

Emily Catherine was born at 11.20 pm, weighing 5lb 8 ozs.

Some time later the placenta was delivered and then I was stitched, then we were left to have some time with our baby before I was transferred to the post natal ward.

Before I left delivery suite one of the Drs came to say she was sorry that things happened the way they did and that they had not been able to do what I had asked for in my birth plan.  I really did not mind as the main priority was to get Emily out safely.  The staff had kept us informed throughout and the atmosphere was very calm despite the problems. 

We were kept in hospital for 3 days and discharged home on Rob’s 30^th birthday. 

Few minutes old

It seems a bit strange that for most of her birthday I won't see her as she is at school all day and then having friends after school and then going to GFS, but we have a bowling party planned for Saturday.  I am hoping this is an easier option having put a lot of effort into previous parties and made myself ill.

This is Emily now 

Frozen card made using snowflake pattern from Stitching Cards