Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!

My first gorgeous boy was born 10 days "early" in

January 1999.

It was nothing at all how I had "decided" it would be.  I hoped for a drug-free natural birth- but had no idea (then) how to prepare for one.

I went in for my ordinary 38 week check on a Friday, and found my BP was high (it had been for ages, but it was higher still), my swelling was chronic (I hadn't worn shoes for quite some time), and I had protein in my urine.  I had to have blood tests, then went home again (I was already on maternity leave).

That night, B and I were eating (late) dinner when we got a call from the hospital to say we had to go in *now*, because I had toxaemia and they needed to get the labour going.

I had an induction, then was expected to try to sleep...I couldn't because of hte contractions (though I was really just uncomfortable), and constant stream of people coming in to take blood (at the end I counted no less than 27!! needle wounds).

I had another induction in the morning, and yet another that afternoon.  Plainly this was a baby that didn't want to come yet!  I hadn't slept the night before and was feeling very tired with all that was going on.  At 6pm, they gave me an epidural because they thought it would be a long labour (I had guess that since it had "begun" 21 hours before.  Then I had to stay in bed, and had syntocynin pumped in- the largest possible amount to really get the labour going.  I was reasonably comfortable, just really tired- but every time the epidural wore off I was hit with another contraction for which my body/mind hadn't been preparing for (because of the pain relief).

B was told to go home around midnight since nothing was happening- I was still only 3cm dilated!  However, the next thing was that J was in distress, and I was in shock- my kidneys failed, and I was literally bouncing on the table (lying on my back).  My body was out of control, so the baby had to come out *now*.  They phoned B who came straight back in, and we had J by emergency c-section at 1:46am Sunday.  As they pulled him out (he slipped back in), they said my pelvis was small, and an unusal shape, and I would be highly unlikely to ever give birth naturally.

A C-section was so not what I wanted, but I was led to believe it would have been death for the pair of us had we waited...so then I felt if he had come out my nose I still would have been happy!  He was lovely and bald, 7lb 12oz, long like his Daddy, and completely gorgeous.

After J's birth, the independent midwife a thte hospital wouldn't hear of me having anythign but an elective caesar.  However, I was determiend to at least *try* for a natural birth.  I felt that if I could just avoid inductions, go in to labour myself, and remain mobile (ie: not attached ot a bed) I could do it.

I researched *so* much while I was pregnant, reading about vbac's, and how veyr many women had gone on to have natural births after caesars.  Still, I couldn;t know until close to the time, because a) I might get toxaemia, and b) maybe it was true- my pelvis just couldn't allow a baby through.

10 days late, I couldn't sleep any longer at 4:30am one Monday morning.  I got up, hoping thiswas *it*, and desperate to not rest so that it slowed down.  I cleaned floors, and did all kinds of active things until B and J woke up.  B went to work, and J and I had a queit morning close to home...with me stopping for contractions while he played.  At lunchtime my best friend arrived to help me out (so sweet- she left work just for me!).  We took J to Kindergarten to play, with me having contractions fairly regularly by then.  B came hoem from work to pick J up, and played with him as the labour continued.

By 5pm, the contractions were close together and a minute long, so B and I took J to the hospital (the most hideous car ride of my life), where Auntie J picked him up to stay with her.  Things slowed down once we arrived, so I had my waters broken around 10pm.  Everything went fast after that, and I had A at 11:06pm- it had gone very well (no drugs), but I felt as though I had been ripped in half...and it turned out I had a 2nd degree tear.  I kissed my little princess, 8lb 12oz, fairly bald but hair quite black, very gorgeous.  Then I needed to have a GA and be stitched- it was supposed ot take 15 minutes but took 2 hours, and I was told later it was the worst tear they had seen.

I didn't see A again until 5am the next day!  The feeling of her rushing out stuck with me for so long -I had done it...it came at a price, but I had had a vbac against all odds.

T was born 5 days "late" in November 2006.

I started to look in home births...could someone like me actually have a baby at home?  The more I read, the more convinced I became that  Icould do it, and it would certianly be better for us both than going not a hospital.

I found a midwife who believed in home births, and she saw no reason at all why I shouldn't try for one.  Everyone I spoke ot about it thought I was mad- given the two briths I had had, it seemed like the loopiest thing in the world.  In fact I had been advised to have a c-section next time to avoid re-tearing.  However, my best friend eventually decided it was a good idea, and not only that- she would have one herself for her first birth (due around 2 months after mine).

The pregnancy went very well- we had no car for 4 months, after I crashed it , which meant I actually got really fit!  My hindwaters broke on a Sunday, so we thought it wouldn't be long...then I started having contractions every night, but nothing came of it.  I spent a week like that, feeling like I could hardly move in the afternoons, then coming right, only to have contractions all evening, which finished around midnight. 

On the Friday, I had contractions all through the day, but they weren't major- so I carried on getting shopping with hte kids at the mall (stopping occasionally for a contraction).  I still didn't think it was *it*, since I had been thinking I might be in labour (and wasn't) all week.  The contractions that evening were quite intense, but not that much worse than they had been all week.  I went to bed around midnight, and J came to listen to me read Harry Potter.  At 12:15am, my waters broke!  I was really excited, but not as much as J! 

Well, the labour progressed super-quickly, and the midwife arrived 30 minutes before he came.  T was born at 2:34am Saturday, 9lb 2oz, bald and beautiful, in our lounge (in a little-filled birth-pool) with both kids present.  For the first time, I held my little baby as long as I wanted- because as my wonderful midwife said- they don't weigh any different half an hour later.

We slept with our tiny boy that night, in the most natural way in the world- but the first time we had intentionally slept all night with a baby (except when the older kids were sick).