Birth Story - part 2

Day 2 – 2nd July 2007

Another internal in the morning found that while things were looking (or feeling) better, they felt more gel would be the go. So more gel, another stretch and sweep and another morning of waiting. The tightenings returned although not as strongly as the previous afternoon and evening.

The afternoon exam showed that the gel had not had a huge effect, so it was decided to rupture the membranes. They do it with this long plastic crochet hook – a really bizarre looking thing. It didn’t hurt, though like all things in that area, it was uncomfortable. No gush or anything, there was very little fluid that came out.

My MW arrived and I was walked to the birthing suite (around 3 pm). I settled in there with the monitor attached to my tummy meaning no more movement allowed. The drip and fluids were inserted into the thing in my hand (finally it was getting used! This is good as it was the most uncomfortable part previously.) Well that syntocin really, really works and works fast. I went from nothing worse than a tightening similar to period pain to full on 2-3 minute apart contractions instantly. Oh. My. God. I am so pleased that we had already arranged for the nice epidural man to come and see me as soon as he was free. Not being able to move due to monitoring meant that I had no way to cope with the pain.

I had about 3 or 4 contractions before the epi man showed up. They were just awful. Going from nothing to full blown was a huge shock to my body. I went from normal to breaking out in a huge sweat and feeling a huge amount of pain in a matter of seconds. If anyone has the syntocin and does it without any pain killers, my hat off to them as it was the worst pain ever.

Anyway, the epi man arrived and began preparing me for it. They give it to you sitting up on the side of the bed, slouched forward. I had one contraction in the middle of it and the difference in pain from the ones I had lying down to the one I had sitting was substantial – shows how important movement and gravity is if you can use it. I know they say it can take time for the epi to work, but it didn’t seem to take that long at all. It also did not hurt at all going in. You feel the local, sure, but that is just a needle. The epi itself is not bad at all. You kind of feel it graunching against bone while they get into the right place, but it isn’t uncomfortable.

Anyway, the epi worked and slowly the severity of the pain began to subside. It isn’t a full block so you can still feel the contractions, which is very reassuring. They also changed the monitoring from external to internal – not so nice for bubs to have things shoved in her scalp, but more efficient for seeing what is really happening. One side effect of the epi started around now, I started shivering, though not constantly (yet!)

Meanwhile the trace (fancy name for monitoring) showed that bubs heart rate was pretty high, so they tried to fix that by getting me to lie on my side. It didn’t really help, so an obstetrician was called in to check things out. It was found that I was fully dilated (about 2-3 hours from membrane rupture) so he decided I could push. So for the next 45 minutes I pushed about every 1-2 minutes, 3 pushes each contraction. Nothing happened. She didn’t move at all.