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Tuesday 17th February 2004. 5am; Woke up with period pains. Took some paracetemol which didn't really help.
6am - Woke Ian up because the pains had got worse and were happening every 10-15 mins with breaks in between of no pain at all. I just knew the pain had to be contractions. Ian was concerned about whether to go to work or not but I just told him that he should because if the pains were real labour pains that they could go on for hours. I wasn't worried about being alone because I knew Ian was only 10 mins away if I needed him. All morning the pains got steadily worse and more frequent.
12.15pm rang Ian at work in so much pain that I was crying and I was also getting a bit nervous. Ian came home in his lunch hour and put the TENS machine on me which seemed to help. I started off with the TENS machine on no.9. Ian asked me if he should stay with me but I told him to go back to work again. About an hour later I was getting contractions about 3/4/5 mins apart and so phoned the hospital. They seemed fairly happy for me to stay at home still as the contractions were not that regular but when I explained about having to get across town and the traffic that we'd have to contend with if we left it much later the hospital agreed that we should make our way in but not to hurry. I rang Ian at work and told him to come home because we had to make our way into the hospital. This was THE CALL he'd been waiting for. At the time Ian was sat in work having a coffee with the lads he'd told them what had happened at dinner time. Jeez and Paul Treasure were there at the time. The office phone rang and they joked that this could be "it" and it was. Ian said that he felt quite calm when he received the call and drove home to get me.
3.15pm We arrived at the hospital to be met by a midwife called Rachel. By now I had intense backache (all of my labour was pain in the back rather than the stomach). I was put on a monitor to monitor the baby's heart rate and my contractions. I had started to increase the settings on the TENS machine by now. I also had an internal examination which showed I was only 2cm dilated at the same time my waters broke but it wasn't the gush I was expecting just a constant trickle. I thought I'd be much further along considering the pain.
6pm By now the contractions were really painful and coming every 5 mins. I was still using the TENS machine and by now I had it on about setting 38 but also decided to have a bath and see if that would help. While I was in the bath Ian went to get some food for himself (lamb dopiaza) and my Mum stayed with me while I was in the bath. I didn't really like it in the bath and found the contractions to be a lot more painful because I couldn't have the TENS machine on.
8.pm I started shaking like mad I was examined again at 8.15pm and I was 3 cm dilated. A different midwife called Louise took over as Rachel's shift had finished. It was quite funny because it turned out that Louise and Ian came from the same area when they were younger and used to go to all the same places and knew lots of the same people. This gave them plenty to talk about for the rest of the night.
8.30pm By now the pain was so bad and I was starting to get tired so the midwife gave me some Pethadine. It seemed to kick in fast and I felt instantly relaxed. The contractions were still very painful but in between contractions I was able to relax and sleep for a few minutes. The contractions were 5-7 mins apart. During one sleep I dreamt that I was looking at a baby. Pethadine certainly help me relax and that must have helped me save up energy for the rest of the labour.
Wednesday 18th February 2004 12.40am By now the contractions are more painful and coming every 4 mins and lasting 60 seconds. I had another internal examination done, which showed I was 5cms dilated.
12.30am Because I was dilating slowly the midwife suggested me having a hormone drip, which would speed up the labour. She explained that it would also make the labour much more painful and that she'd recommend an epidural so that I could deal with the pain. I had to wait for the anesthetist to finish in theatre to come and give me the epidural.
5.30am 8cm dilated.
2.15am The epidural was given; by now I had been in labour for about 20 hours.
3.00am The epidural is fantastic I am now able to sit up and feel very comfortable.
4.15am I ask for an epidural top up. At 5.20am I am feeling much more comfortable.
6.20am I was given another epidural top up.
8am Still only 8cm dilated.
10.30am (ish) The midwife started getting concerned about the baby's reduced heart rate because it kept slowing down to about 38 and 50 when it should have been between 135 and 150. Ian asked why it kept happening and she was a bit concerned that the cord might be around the baby's neck causing the problem. There was quite a pattern of the baby's heart rate dropping so the midwife got the doctor in to consult whether they needed to monitor the blood flow to ensure that the baby wasn't getting distressed due to lack of oxygen in the blood flow. This was done about 4/5 times over the next 2 hours
11.30am (ish) Another blood test on the baby was done and again showed that the baby wasn't distressed and the oxygen content was fine. When they came back with the results they examined me again and I was 10cms dilated and ready to push.
11.35am I was told to start pushing. I was really nervous thinking that it would really hurt but of course it didn't because the epidural was working so well. I had to be told when to push because I couldn't feel the contractions. I pushed 12 times over the next 28 minutes and out popped Baby Rebecca. Ian was at the business end and saw it all , he even saw the top of the baby's head before it had actually come out. He then saw the head come fully out followed by the rest of her shortly after. He had a tear in his eye and looked amazed and emotional.
Rebecca was put onto my tummy and it was the strangest moment ever. My Mum had tears in her eyes. Ian was really emotional and I was just shell shocked. I kept looking at this baby on my tummy thinking; wow this is our daughter. Meanwhile Ian cut and clamped the cord.
12.10pm My next job was to push the placenta out but it wouldn't come out. I had a retained placenta, which meant it wouldn't come out because the uterus had contracted and grabbed the placenta so that I couldn't push it out. It was explained that I'd have to go down to theatre to have it manually removed.
At 12.45pm the midwife was showing me how to latch Rebecca on for breastfeeding. She took to it really well and had her first feed.
2pm My Mum went home so that Kathy could come in and see us and Rebecca. Kathy turned up and while she was cuddling Rebecca Ian and I fell asleep for an hour. Kathy didn't mind though because she was loving cuddling her new grand-daughter.
2.50pm I was taken down to theatre. I wanted Ian to come as well (so did he) so he had to wear theatre clothes and look after baby Rebecca whilst watching me go through the horrible spectacle of having hands put inside me to manually separate the placenta from the uterus. There were drs, registrars, anesthetists all in there. They had emergency on standby in case I bled excessively. Ian even heard some students being taught the dangerous potential of this op and the risk of serious blood loss. Something he could have lived without hearing!
Thankfully they all seemed happy that the procedure was a success, and they confirmed that they had managed to retrieve it all.