FionaJill: November 2008

Well our 4th child has now joined the family. He was 1 week over his EDD. The older children have accepted him nicely in to the family and things are just great.

Here is the story of his birth.

The birth of Iain Jasper – 10/11/2008.

This labour & birth was a little different to my previous children. I went into it expecting I knew what woul dhappen & how it would all pan out. After all, my 3 older children all followed a simlar pattern. I thought I knew what to expect to some degree with this one also.

I was overdue once more & not really feeling as though anything was going to happen anytime soon. On Thursday the 6^th I had a ultrasound & midwife appointment.

The ultrasound showed a happy & healthy baby. All baby, not a lot of fluid but he was fine. The Sonographer commented on the blood flow through his cord & that it was exceptioally good. He also predicted he would be at least 8 & half pounds.

Later at the midwife appointment, I found the midwife to be alittle pushy in wanting to get things going. Asked me to return on Monday for monitoring and also a vaginal exam and to book an induction. I refused and let her know I would come in for monitoring but that would be all. I was not booking or agreeing to an induction this early into being “overdue”. She seem to think the more she said that I would agree. Instead I just laughed & said I will just go into labour on the weekend.

Well, Saturday I was getting the odd niggle here & there. We decided to go down to the shops & have a little wander around for christmas present idea’s for the kids.

By the time we came home I was having tightenings every 10 minutes. Nothing painful but there.

I went for a walk to the end of our road & back. We live in the mountains and the road we live on has a fairly big hill just at the start. Walking up that nearly killed me.

Once I got home there had been no real improvement on things.

Come midnight I thought I would head to bed & try to sleep.

Lying down made the tightenings more painful so by 1am, I got up again thinking things where starting to happen.

I had a show earlier in the evening so thought (from previous labours) that things are going to happen in the next 12 hours max.

But nope, getting up seems to slow things down once more. By 3 am I took some panadol & got back in bed. I did sleep, not heaps but I remember dreaming so I must have slept at some point.

Sunday I was tired and still getting tightenings every 10 minutes. Everynow then they would be 6 minutes. Just not lasting very long.

I went for another walk up my street to try & speed things along. Again it did nothing but give me sore legs.

I went on like this all day, getting more & more frustrated and tired. By late afternoon I had a cry to Simon. I don’t do well emotionally when I am tired & was getting scaredt aht being so tired would make the labour & birth more difficult as I would not be able to cope emotionally.

I called my Doula, Tracey & had a talk about were things where at and what I thought I might like to do. I decided I would call the hospital and see what they thought.

So I did this and was told it sounded like braxton hicks. But to come in when I am ready & have a check of whats happening.

So I called my Mum to come up around 9pm to stay with the kids while Simon & I went to get some postive news to help keep us sane!. When Mum arrived we decided it was better for her to take me down & Simon to stay home with the kids and sleep if he could.

We arrived at the hospital around 11pm. The midwife (Julie) checked me out & said I was 4cm but not thinning. She did a stretch & sweep and suggested going for a walk. If things had not picked up with in the hour then I should try & sleep as things wont be happenings if they didn’t pick up after the S&S.

So Mum & I walked the hospital for an hour & things did seem to pick up. But I was buggered from walking up my street earlier & really couldn’t keep walking around all night.
As soon as I sat things slowed down again. By 2 I decided that I would send mum home & try & sleep seems things are not progressing anyway.

So we went to go get my bag from her car & things picked up again. So in the end Mum stayed, slept best she could on the chair while I took some panadine & tried to sleep also.

Earlier in the evening when we first arrived Julie had said she wanted me to birth at 12 and the other lady coming could birth at 4am.

Well come 3 am I was still pregnant obviously,but I heard the other lady arrive. I listened as she laboured and went on to birth her son at 3 minutes past 4am! I later joked with Julie how spot on she got it for her. She laughed and said well you can go on have your baby at 6am.

By 5 am things seemed to be picking up so I got in the shower. While in there I felt the baby move down and actually felt like he gave me a good punch in the bum!

I sat towards the end of my shower and then took another 5 minutes once I turned it off to actually get up. I could feel the pressure and was worried if I got up I would need to push.

I got up and sat on the edge of the bed. I sat like this for about an hour I think untill I called Simon to come in. I also sent tracey a SMS to come to the hospital when she was ready too.

During the time I was waiting for Simon to arrive mum was encouarnging me to get up from the bed. But I kept saying No. I didn’t want to move. I just knew if I did I would soon be pushing and Simon had not arrived yet.

Things were getting more intense and I sent Simon a message asking how far away he was. He was in the car park.

Once he got up to delivery I felt better. Things actually easied off a little at this point I think. The kids pottered about touching things for about 10 minutes when Mum took them to go watch cartoons in the waiting room. Once they had left I was ready to stand up. I went to the toilet to pee & could feel the pressure there.

I returned to the bed, but asked to try sitting on the birth stool but it was too low for me to be comfortable so I stood leaning over the bed.

I had pressure but no real urge to push. But when I did go with the flow of the contraction I think I was putting more effort in standing then pushing. My legs were like jelly (that bloody hill!!).

Simon was massaging my back & tracey would place a calming hand between my shoulders and tell me how well I was doing. My midwife Leanne asked if it was ok if she she broke my waters as she could feel (even see) them bulging. I agreed.

After a few more contractions I was helped up onto the bed & leant over the back of it on my knees.

Again I could feel the pressure and the need to push but just no urge to push.

I even remember saying how weird it was that with the others by this point there was no stopping in between contactions and having a chat, they were on top of each other.

Leanee checked once again & im sure she was surprised I had no urge to push as he was right there. She nicked the membrains once more as she thought it was just the hind waters earlier.

Once she did this THEN I felt the need to push.

Iain Jasper came into the world with both hand up around his head. Once across his face & the other up around his ear. I felt his head born & he even had a little cry before I birthed his body.

I felt his body just as I did his head. With the others the body just followed. But Iain felt the same as his head.

So at 9.04 am Iain Finally made his entry to the world.

Simon cut the cord and went and got the kids & my Mum. Iain had his first breastfeed while the kids watched as I birthed the placenta.

Iain was weighed, coming in as my biggest at 9lb 9oz, 52 cm long and HC of 37cm (equal first in HC with my 2^nd child Glenn).

He is doing really well, slotting into the family perfectly.

I honestly feel that Iain would have been born at least an hour earlier had Simon been there. I just knew If I stood I would need to push. But I just had to wait till Simon had arrived. I couldn’t have birthed our son knowing he was only moments away.