Chelsea Rose’s Birth Story
It all started 3am Monday 27th November. I woke up to go to the toilet and discovered mucus. Thinking to myself this must be the show and got slightly excited. When Craig woke up at 6am i told him that id found the show and by then was in immense pain. We began timing the pain and they were coming every 7-8 minutes, then they slowed down to 12 minutes. Because my parents live in NSW i gave mum the call, ‘Your grandchild could be on its way today, but standby til further notice’. She was so excited and happy.
Some friends come over to pick up Craig for work, but were quickly in ‘Kims in labour happy mode’ and Craig stayed home for the day. Had some breaky and by 11am the pains had gone. Not a slight little niggle pain could be felt. I was so upset, i was thinking my baby would be here, and then they vanished. It stayed like that all day and i began to worry, i couldnt feel my baby moving so at 7pm i called the hospital to touch base and let them know, they told us to come in for a CTG. We arrived a little after 8am where i was put on the monitor, but it showed nothing but a happy active baby….with no contractions. We were sent home to rest.
Monday night, early tuesday morning they were back. I was in pain again but could hardly move. Everytime one would hit id try and walk it out but end up racing to the loo, i had the worst runs (i have since been told thats a good sign of labour and my body was getting prepared). Craig had to go to work, he was only working down the road at our friends place who, again decided that Kim was in labour so they wouldnt go into the city office, but stay local incase we needed them!
The pains were on and off all day, never really making much progress. I took advantage of sleeping through each pain i had. I had a feeling i was in for a long night. When Craig got home from work i was feeling a bit better so we headed out to get some dinner and a few groceries. At 7pm again i was getting immense pains and was curled up in so much pain. I went to the loo and discovered i was bleeding and screamed for Craig to call the hospital. They told me to come in and it was probably just part of the show. Off we went again…they hooked me up to the CTG again and done an internal. It hurt so much. The doctor said he thought i had an UTI and gave me a script and sent me packing….AGAIN. On the way to the chemist i began getting pains, stronger and longer. By the time we got home they were 4 minutes apart. Around midnight i was in agony, Craig called hopsital, they said to come back in and we called our friends who drove us back because Craig was so tired.
We arrived and our friends left. I was hooked up to the CTG once again, the nurse tried to tell me i wasnt in labour, she could not find any contractions and if they were there they were mild and bub was a long way off. But due to me being so tired and not have slept in days i was given a pethadine shot around 330am to help me sleep. Craig curled up on the bean bag on the floor and we both got some shut eye…..we were going to need it.
7am the nurse and dr come in to check on me. It turned out i was 6cm dialated. The doctor called me his silent dialater and the nurse was beside herself, after telling me i wasnt in labour and had no contractions, she kept asking the doctor if he was sure i was 6cm…LOL. They both said maybe i should have my waters broken and get the show on the road, once they did boy-o-boy did it speed things up!
My 2 midwives come in and things got started. I didnt want any drugs but said ok to gas and if i needed it id use it. Which i did, but only now and then. I prepared myself to breathe through as many contractions naturally as i could and for the severe ones i used the gas. All i wanted to do was push but kept being told ‘NO’ or ‘OK now u can’ and i tried my hardest. DH was shown bubs head and they kept saying ‘Not much longer’ and i remember saying ‘How much longer, whats the time’. Over and over again! The OB came in after 1 hour 40 mins of pushing to check on me. Bubs heart rate was dropping and they kept loosing the trace and it was decided a vacumm exctraction was needed. Again i asked was i going to be cut because thats what id learnt in birth class. I was told no but it might need to happen but they would see. I didnt. In it went and the ouch factor was turned up….along with the gas 70% nitrogen 30% oxygen. I heard the dr say push, but from what i have now been told no one including me heard him say stop pushing…and it resulted in Chelsea coming out like a torpedo, where the doctor literally had to catch her on the fly. (He also said its the first time thats ever happened to him and had to catch a speedy baby) LOL. It also ment i ended up with a 2nd degree tear, lucky all external!
Then the ‘Its a girl was screamed’, Craig had tears and i was over the moon. It wasnt until i held her i heard her first cry. She took to the breast straight away and had a good feed for over an hour. The midwife said she must have been a thumbsucker to latch on so quickly.
She was weighed and Apgars of 10 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes. Cant get much better then that.
Chelsea weighed 3385 grams (7 pounds 4 ounces), 48cm long and head circumferance of 34cm.
Total labour was 10 hours 25 mins.
I thought it was only 4 hours but when i got the discharge papers they started labour time from when i arrived in the early hours of Wednesday morning, not from when they broke my waters.
