So, I came home from the hospital yesterday, and have been playing catch up ever since. Luckily not only is Cupcake the most beautiful thing I (well I can only really speak for myself but I obviously mean Patrick and I) ever made but she is also the hungriest little baby so I have been able to *try* and catch up on journals and the bajillion emails I had missed.
First of all I want to say thank you to everyone for the kind words and congratulations. You've all been amazing support, virtually on here, and especially to those of you that I interact with on a daily basis and have established IRL friendships with, so thanks for that.
So, for any of you curious as to what happened, here is a run down of things. Don't worry, its not gross or anything!
As it happened, we were all posting away in that Cupcake thread when my water broke around 1ish am. After much debating, I had to send a picture to Sally and Windy to get either them to confirm that they had or had not broken. I remember going "it doesn't smell like pee but it isn't a gush like in the movies!" a lot.
As I had no contractions, I didn't do anything, and tried to get to sleep eventually. Half three in the morning contractions started and were pretty close together, but I starved them off with a bath and waited until 6am to call my friend Gemma who came with me to the hospital. We waited for my midwife to check me over, but that was about 8am. I wasn't very dilated, only 1 or 2 cm, and she asked if I wanted to go home. I said no, so had another bath there, and that eased off the contractions a bit, which were relatively mild but still close together. Then I sat about on a birthing ball doing some breathing stuff and being plied with tea and toast and jello (not at the same time). And heartburn meds. I still had killer heartburn right up until the last min haha.
At noon they checked me over again, and I was 4/5cm dilated. I could finally get into the birthing pool! This took a while to fill up so made it in there for 1pm, but things developed pretty quickly after that. It took me 56 mins to dilate 4cm to 10cm. Apparently this is pretty awesome because most first labours go a cm per hour, and my midwife thoguht I would be still pushing come 8pm that night. At 2pm I said I had to push. Gemma and my midwife didn't believe me and I had to keep on insisting that I did. The midwife checked me over and went "oh wow, no you do need to push don't you!" So yeah 56 mins. I wimpered a little bit and apologised for things that I didn't do and was generally extremely quiet which is quite rare for me! I got offered some gas and air but frankly couldn't get along with it. It tasted funny, didn't work, made me feel sick and I couldn't get the hang of the timing or the breathing (having done some hypnobirthing breathing techniques all morning) but still clung onto the apparatus and broke it (and then panicked that I broke it).
When it came to push time, I pushed for what seemed like forever. I think I was pushing for about half an hour. My midwife thought I would have been pushing for about 15/20 mins but by that point I was exhausted. Gemma kept on going "I can see the head! ... oh its gone in again!" and my legs felt like they were burning all over.
Towards the end I couldn't really talk and saved all my breath for the scary Amazonian grunts I let out when I pushed. Cupcake was oblivious to the hardwork I was putting in and sat happy inside me. When she came out, I won't lie, it stung like a mother fucker, but you don't really feel it at that point. There is too much going on. As I was in the pool, she popped out and floated up to the top of the water and the midwife put her in my arms and we sat in the pool a while, waiting for the cord to stop pulsing, and then the midwife cut it and took her from me and checked her over whilst I made a (very monged out) phone call and did the whole after birth thing (again, no injection, that was natural too) and then I got out of the pool and sat on the floor wrapped up, where I was given Cupcake and she breastfed a while. She lay there in my arms and stared me all relaxed and peaceful. By the time we transferred into the next room she has already pooped haha.
I had to get some stitches, which was possibly the worst thing I experienced ever. Because I had no pain relief I ws pretty sensitive. Obviously if you had an epidural or something you'd not feel it. I got 2 anaesthetic injections which were supposed to feel like a scratch, but they were excruciating to go in. But once done, made the stitching pain free.
So there you have it. It was, for me, an amazing experience and I would happy do it again.
Adelaide Eileen Shannon was born 30th October 2008, at 14.36pm (GMT) weighing 8lb 6oz and measuring 62cm in length and I couldn't imagine my/our lives without her.
First of all I want to say thank you to everyone for the kind words and congratulations. You've all been amazing support, virtually on here, and especially to those of you that I interact with on a daily basis and have established IRL friendships with, so thanks for that.
So, for any of you curious as to what happened, here is a run down of things. Don't worry, its not gross or anything!
As it happened, we were all posting away in that Cupcake thread when my water broke around 1ish am. After much debating, I had to send a picture to Sally and Windy to get either them to confirm that they had or had not broken. I remember going "it doesn't smell like pee but it isn't a gush like in the movies!" a lot.
As I had no contractions, I didn't do anything, and tried to get to sleep eventually. Half three in the morning contractions started and were pretty close together, but I starved them off with a bath and waited until 6am to call my friend Gemma who came with me to the hospital. We waited for my midwife to check me over, but that was about 8am. I wasn't very dilated, only 1 or 2 cm, and she asked if I wanted to go home. I said no, so had another bath there, and that eased off the contractions a bit, which were relatively mild but still close together. Then I sat about on a birthing ball doing some breathing stuff and being plied with tea and toast and jello (not at the same time). And heartburn meds. I still had killer heartburn right up until the last min haha.
At noon they checked me over again, and I was 4/5cm dilated. I could finally get into the birthing pool! This took a while to fill up so made it in there for 1pm, but things developed pretty quickly after that. It took me 56 mins to dilate 4cm to 10cm. Apparently this is pretty awesome because most first labours go a cm per hour, and my midwife thoguht I would be still pushing come 8pm that night. At 2pm I said I had to push. Gemma and my midwife didn't believe me and I had to keep on insisting that I did. The midwife checked me over and went "oh wow, no you do need to push don't you!" So yeah 56 mins. I wimpered a little bit and apologised for things that I didn't do and was generally extremely quiet which is quite rare for me! I got offered some gas and air but frankly couldn't get along with it. It tasted funny, didn't work, made me feel sick and I couldn't get the hang of the timing or the breathing (having done some hypnobirthing breathing techniques all morning) but still clung onto the apparatus and broke it (and then panicked that I broke it).
When it came to push time, I pushed for what seemed like forever. I think I was pushing for about half an hour. My midwife thought I would have been pushing for about 15/20 mins but by that point I was exhausted. Gemma kept on going "I can see the head! ... oh its gone in again!" and my legs felt like they were burning all over.
Towards the end I couldn't really talk and saved all my breath for the scary Amazonian grunts I let out when I pushed. Cupcake was oblivious to the hardwork I was putting in and sat happy inside me. When she came out, I won't lie, it stung like a mother fucker, but you don't really feel it at that point. There is too much going on. As I was in the pool, she popped out and floated up to the top of the water and the midwife put her in my arms and we sat in the pool a while, waiting for the cord to stop pulsing, and then the midwife cut it and took her from me and checked her over whilst I made a (very monged out) phone call and did the whole after birth thing (again, no injection, that was natural too) and then I got out of the pool and sat on the floor wrapped up, where I was given Cupcake and she breastfed a while. She lay there in my arms and stared me all relaxed and peaceful. By the time we transferred into the next room she has already pooped haha.
I had to get some stitches, which was possibly the worst thing I experienced ever. Because I had no pain relief I ws pretty sensitive. Obviously if you had an epidural or something you'd not feel it. I got 2 anaesthetic injections which were supposed to feel like a scratch, but they were excruciating to go in. But once done, made the stitching pain free.
So there you have it. It was, for me, an amazing experience and I would happy do it again.
Adelaide Eileen Shannon was born 30th October 2008, at 14.36pm (GMT) weighing 8lb 6oz and measuring 62cm in length and I couldn't imagine my/our lives without her.
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