the Labor Story

So here is the detailed events of Liadan Siobhan Lawson entering the outside world.

It all started before two am in the morning on the 10^th of Oct with contractions that I had been semi timing for the last hour. I really didn’t think it was going to be it.. I figured it was the false labor everyone seems to get in the movies first and I really didn’t think she would come before her due date as I though she was going to be late.

Just before 8am when it was just getting to be too much to handle I though let’s go to the hospital. When we got there the contractions started coming on thick and fast ...so i said bring on the drugs.. so i got fitted for an epidural. For those of you who may not know what an epidural is it is a needle/tube they insert into your spin and inject you with drugs to numb you from the waist down. They give you a dose that is not a much as it used to because you can still feel the contractions and when the push and all the rest and I could move my legs. Then as the feeling starts to come back they top you up through the handy tube they have just hanging over my shoulder. It was good.. definitely took the edge off but of course the down side is that its slows the contractions down.

I was 3 cm when i got there and then four hours later only 5 cms.. urgh... then in the evening I was fully dilated but my waters still had not broken so they broke them for me ... oh what a very wet occasion that was and on my drugged up legs I had to get out of bed.. while they changed me and the bed as everything was absolutely soaking.

After that labor speed up a little which is what they were trying to do …
more epidural drugs please cause man my lower back was in so much pain. So while I held out before I got a top up on my epidural I gave the ol’ gas and air a go. I have to admit it was lovely so I finished a tank of that off for them. Many hours later she is SLOWLY coming at 7:30 they wanted to see how far she got in an hour and that would decide if they were going to give me this other drug to speed up the contractions again. But an hour later she had made good progress so they gave her one more hour to “Come on Down” before the main pushing event.

Eight rolled around and we had a shift change so we met all the new doctors who were on and my new midwife and so everyone got caught up on my situation. At 9:30 she was pretty much ready to be pushed out and the doctors came in before hand and said that I would pretty much have 1 hour to push her out see how far we got and if it was not going fast enough they were going to give me the contractions speedy up drug so we could get her delivered and that they may decide to use a ventouse and episiotomy. Not to happy with the cutting side of the whole thing but at this point I was a little exhausted and on board with whatever needed to be done to make sure she came out ok and in good time.

Pushing began… I could feel the contractions fully but was pretty numb from the waist down so i was using all my memories of taking poos to figure out what muscles I think I should be using to push her out and cross my fingers I was actually flexing them. The Midwife and Andrew seemed to be happy with the muscles I thought I was using so I went with it. The pushing took lots of concentration which is good as it takes your mind off what is really happening in my neither regions as you can sort of feel that something so large is starting to come out. Over the next hour her little head popped out but still not far enough for the doctor so in we go with some assistance ..i push, he pulls. For those of you who do not know what a ventouse is its like a little vacuum cap they put on her head and pull as I push.

So Shortly after she was on her way I could feel her head on the way out and then of all things the doctor tells me to stop pushing.. so her head can come out smoothly.. that was almost harder than the pushing. And then out she came blue and bloody and all safe and ok but I have to admit it didn’t seem real when they gave her to me I didn’t really know what to do. Then they took her for the pediatrician to do his once over clear her lungs and make sure she is really alright and the doctor started stitching me up. Then when they brought her back to me that is when it hit home a little more that this wrinkly little thing was our daughter. She started making her foodie faces right away so we gave breast feeding a go, she seemed happy. Then it really was time to relax after the I was all sewn up and rested for a little I had a shower and got back into some clothes. The midwife brought us a cup of tea and we had some quiet time.

My blood pressure was high so they would not discharge me to the ward till it had come down so Andrew and I got to chill in the room longer which was nice since if they had been able to check me to the ward Andrew would have had to leave. So we got to be together the three of us till about 2:30am when they took me upstairs to bed.

And that was the pretty much 24hours that Andrew and I became a family.