Hey guys,
first of all thanks for all the congrats and well wishes and support along the way.
So ... my newest little man is here ... and it's hard to believe.
Here's an attempt at a birth story. As you all know on Fri nothing was happening in terms of dilation. Sat I woke up feeling no different, but I was very excited to find a lot of mucous when I went to the toilet at 10am. By about 11am I was having contractions anywhere from 8 to 15 mins apart. Alex went down for his nap about 1pm and things started to get more consistent so we called the people who were going to look after him and arranged to take him around when he woke up. I think Duncan took him around about 3.30 once he'd woken up and got over his usual "just woken up grump".
Duncan got home about 4.30pm and by then my contractions were much stronger and I was having to sway and rock through them over the kitchen bench. All of a sudden I felt one that to thjust felt different and decided I needed to go to the toilet. I sat down and immediately my waters broke. We decided that I really should go to the hospital so called the midwife and a taxi and headed off.
I was thrilled to get to the hospital and find that I was 6cm already. We sorted ourselves out a bit and was checked at about 6pm and found I was 7-8cm. The midwife said she thought that Id deliver before her shift ended at 8pm ... I was stoked. But that's when it all went wrong. I laboured for another hour and started to want to push a little. She came and checked ... still 8cm. i sat under the shower for an hour ... so time for her to leave and still 8cm. She got the new midwife to check (a man I'd heard some bad stories about so I wasn't thrilled) - I was hoping that being a man he'd think it was more then 8
but no. However, he did say that he thought I probably was almost fully dilated, I just had quite a thick lip still. He kept his hand in and had me push through a couple of co0ntractions and was actually able to manipulate the lip of the cervix away. He removed his hand, I did some more labouring when I was allowed to push a little and he checked and woohoo it had worked I was staying fully open by myself so it was action time.
We started really pushing about 8.30pm and it was taking a long time to get anywhere then eventually they said they could see some blonde hair. I was on my back at this point so asked if it would be worth trying to get gravity to help out a little. He said he was just about to suggest the birthing stool so that's what we did. I loved it! 1. it really helped me focus on where and how I was pushing (just like a really hard BM) and 2. they put a mirror down so I could actually see what was happening and that when I did a good push I could see the head descend. It was the best motivation in the world. The head was crowing (can we say ow) when he decided that he was going to need me back on the bed for the actual delivery. It was near impossible getting onto that bed, but I did and then I was pushing again and man was it hurting. Things get a bit fuzzy at this point, neither Duncan and I really know what happened but we think that Oliver got a bit stuck. They called in extra nurses, my legs were pulled down straight then flung up above my head to 'open' me up but then he was being placed on my chest. They rubbed him down and warned me that he might need oxygen, but he cried and turned red so was left where he was. His apgars were 9 at 1 min and 10 at 5, so no problems at all. He was also checked carefully for shoulder dysplasia but he came through ok. I tore but only needed two stitches ... better than the episiotomy I got last time I think.
I was given the option of going home once he'd fed, I'd showered and peed (so about midnight) but we decided that I may as well stay at the hospital so that Duncan could have a good night at home by himself (Alex was sleeping over). I hope he slept well because I was in a room with 3 others and all our babies so it wasn't that relaxing!
I'm so proud of Alex ... it was his first time going to sleep at friends and he was perfect. He's been good today - Duncan is playing with him now ... I'm supposed to be sleeping with Olive
Oliver still seems tiny to me ... I was shocked when they said 4420g ... but I guess I'm used to boy who's closer to 11kg right now so anything would seem tiny. He's a bit like Alex in that he doesn't have much hair, but it's a lot blonder than I remember Alex's. I still have to download pics sorry ... I'm writing this in bed on Duncan's laptop and the camera card is downstairs in the other laptop so I'll have to do it later.
Right - that turned into a novel. Thanks for reading!
Thanks again for the well wishes ... pics will follow soon.
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