Saturday, March 20, 2010

Two weeks old already and thoughts of more babies!

During my pregnancy and immediately after Adelita's birth I told DH adamantly that I was done at two babies. The pregnancy was very hard due to the SPD which got worse as time went on and I also had terrible fluid retention and high blood pressure. The birth was also very hard not as hard as some people have it but hard enough for me and harder than Dylan's birth. All of this has turned me off my ideal of having three kids and so I have told DH I am done. He actually has witnesses to this too, my midwife Louise heard me saying it to him after the birth. He he. He wishes he had got it on video.




BUT....





Look at what my DH and I created!!!!!!!





How can I stop?

I told my darling friend A that I was having second thoughts about stopping at two and she has reminded me that the lovely newborn phase which is what Adelita is in only lasts about 4 weeks and if that was the reason for having more then it was a bit silly. And she is quite right. I am in love with the lovely gorgeous soft newborn stage Adelita is in and I know it will not last and if I had another baby their newborn phase would only last a short time too. I can uunderstand why Michelle Dugger keeps going back for more!!


BUT.........
Look what else my DH and I created!!!!!!!!!!!!


Surely I could make just one more of these?
Will give it a few years and see if I feel the same in a while. And of course if DH will be in agreeance.



















Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The birth of Adelita Evangeline 7th of March, 2010.





Well as the title suggests my baby is finally here. She was born on Sunday the 7th of March this year at 10.58pm after a 15 hour drug free labour. She was born 3 days after her due date. And oh my goodness she is a she. She is beautiful and gorgeous and soft and lovely and I am absolutely besotted with her.

I had no inkling that Sunday was going to be her B day. I had had no show. I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks but these had been very infrequent, painless and I had been having them for weeks. I had had no pre labour anything so I really thought I was going to be having another very late baby as DS was 10 days late. I had had a midwife appointment on the Wednesday and I was measuring a week ahead as I had been for many weeks and baby was still on the brim and only 4/5 engaged. The midwife I had at that appointment Tammy had told me that she was working Friday night or Sunday morning and those were good times to give birth as she would be there, turns out I had her on the Sunday morning for a few hours. At the appointment she booked me in for a 41 week appointment the following wednesday and also for a Monday appointment when I would be 41w4d and that appointment would be for an ultrasound to check the fluid around bub, a CTG monitoring session and a stretch and sweep. I had hoped to avoid this especially the S&S. I was also advised that if nothing by 42 weeks I would be induced and would not be able to give birth in the birth centre. So going into labour naturally was a relief.



On the previous Monday we had moved into our new house. I did not do any of the moving but I did do some packing and some unpacking, probably too much. I had suddenly got my nesting bug and wanted to go with it. I had not been able to nest in the old place as we were packing it up and also there was no space for baby there anyway so I was doing it at the new place. I started with the kitchen, then DS' room, then our room and then finally the best bit the baby's room, aaaaah it was all set up and ready for our baby. The last thing that was done for it was DH setting up my beautiful new seed pod for our new baby to sleep in, he did this on the Friday in the nick of time. So I really think all of this packing, unpacking and nesting was helping bring this baby out into the world. I did none of the natural induction techniques that I used with Dylan it just happened. I had actually started using evening primrose oil at 38 weeks when we got the settlement date for our new place so I stopped using the EPO as I wanted to move in before baby arrived.


On the Sunday morning I awoke early, well earlier than normal with the urge to go to the toilet and I was in quite a bit of pain. So I got up and went to the toilet and then went again and then again. I suddenly thought this is how labour started with Dylan. Then I got worried about the possibility of being about to go into labour and the house being a bit untidy for my mother in law (who had to come over to mind Dylan) so I set about tidying up. At 8am pretty much on the dot I had my first contraction and I thought was that a contraction or another toilet pain? 10 minutes later I had another pain the same and I remembered what the midwife had said about bub being pretty much posterior and not to slouch about on the couch but to bend forward to get bubs into a better position so I leaned forward over the bench through that contraction. Then I thought I had better go and tell DH that I was possibly in labour but that he should sleep for a little while longer. In the meantime DS had gotten up and so I made him breakfast and had a little myself. I finished all of my tidying and then went to tell DH that yes it was labour and the contractions were 10 minutes apart. I was using the bench to lean over and was rocking my hips a bit to help with the pain which was not too bad at this stage. Hubby got up and I went and had a shower. I asked him to call his mum and sort out what we were doing with DS. They decided that it would be better if we dropped him at their house to stay. So we quickly packed up a bag of stuff for him and then I called the birth centre.


It was now after 9am and the contractions were 5 minutes apart and were lasting 60-90 seconds. I called the birth centre I talked to Donna and told her I was in labour, she asked me a bunch of questions and heard me experience a contraction and told me to breathe through it, and then asked me what I would like to do and I said "Ah come in to hospital!" and so off we went. I think at this stage I thought it was going to be a quick labour and was excited it would be over soon, my labour with DS had been 21.5 hours which is quite long! We realised we had no petrol so stopped for petrol and just like when I was in the car in labour with DS I was totally paranoid that every other driver would know that I was in labour, in fact while DH was paying for the petrol him and the attendant both looked at the car at the same time and laughed and I was convinced the petrol station attendant knew I was in labour and DH was telling him I was. In reality they were talking about the terrible storms that Melbourne had experienced the day before, LOL, what a kook I am! We dropped DS at his grandparents and MIL ran out to the car to get stuff and later on told me she couldn't look at me. But she did provide me with a plastic bag and a towel as I had told DH I felt really nauseous. I couldn't get out of the car so DS had to say goodbye to me while I was still in the car. As he went inside I had a few tears that ours and his life was about to dramatically change. DH took only a couple of minutes to settle DS and then we were off again. I was timing the contractions using the stopwatch on my mobile and writing the times and duration down on a notepad. The contractions were ranging from between 5 and 3 minutes between them and between 90 -110 seconds by this stage. I was using distraction techniques and breathing to get through them.


We finally arrived at the hospital about 11.30 and had to go up to level 5 to the birth centre, in the lift there were people discussing which floor they had to go to and it was decided it was floor 5 to visit a new baby. I told them I was going to floor 5 too to have a new baby. They asked if I was ok/scared/etc and I told I had done it all before. We made it to the birth centre and Donna met us at the door and took us straight to a lovely homely room and told us to settle in and that she would be back shortly. She came back and told us she had to monitor me to see what was happening with me and with bub and she asked lots of questions. DH in the meantime went down and moved the car and got my bags. During the monitoring process it was discovered that I had high blood pressure I think it was 150 over 100 which is quite high. I had had high blood pressure at various points during the pregnancy but never the other symptoms for pre eclampsia. So due to my high BP I then had to be strapped up to a monitor and had to have a blood test and had to do a urine sample which I could not do (and I tried for hours!). When they finally got urine out of me (via a catheter) it did show protein in there so I was stuck with three things attached to me.


I found standing either on the floor in the room and rocking, or in the shower and either banging on the walls (yes I did read Birth Skills by Juju Sundin) or just feeling the cool tiles on my feet and hands and face really helped during the contractions so I kept doing this for the first few hours. Also just either swaying, rotating my hips or rocking really helped. Donna had handed over to Tammy which was ace because I had had her for 5 of my midwife appointments. She basically sat outside the shower on fit ball doing paperwork and keeping an eye on the monitor and once in a while would ask me if I was ok. She sort of left me to do my thing in there. Oh and by the way when I say I was in the shower I was just using it as a room I did not have the water on. Sadly I only had Tammy for a few hours before she had to go home and she handed over to George.


George kind of annoyed me because as soon as he came in he asked me to come out of the shower and into the room. I think he thought I was just in there using the toilet and did not realise I was actually using the room as a zone. So he would ask me to come out and I would and then I would wander back this happened a few times during his 'shift". George would help me to breathe by breathing with me and telling me to slow down my breathing that kind of annoyed me too. After a few hours George told me that the policy of the hospital was to do an internal after you had been there 5 hours so it must had been about 4.30pm by this stage or around about that time. I very reluctantly agreed and had to relinquish my standing position and lie flat on the bed. It was excruciating and I was only 4 or 5 centimetres, sigh, so much for my quick labour! I had to endure a few more internals throughout and they just got worse and worse.


Now you are all probably wondering what DH was doing through all of this. He was reading the paper, doing the crossword, sitting still and quiet. Doing everything the midwives asked of him, giving me sips of water, and so on. He remembers what I was like during DS' labour and wanted to stay out of my way. Basically he knew I wanted to do my own thing and not be disturbed. It was important for him to be there but to not be a very active member of the labour experience. A few times during the labour I would smile at him or talk to him but basically I was in a zone and there I stayed. We think the midwives thought it was odd that he wasn't a very active birth partner but that is the way I wanted it.


George kept at me to do a wee as they needed to check for protein (which I did have) and I tried and I tried and I tell you it was so painful getting down on that toilet and everything would just close up and i could never do it. He got one out of my finally with a catheter as he thought that by having a full bladder the head was not descending. Sadly that made no difference. The 8 or so hours I had George are kind of a blur about when things happened. I know he did at least two more excruciating internals and didn't think the progression of my labour was fast enough as it kind of seemed to be stopping and starting. For a couple of hours I would get the uncontrollable urge to push but it would only be about one in every four contractions. George would sometimes tell me to go with it and sometimes ask that I breathe through them. He tried me in all sorts of positions to get things moving like leaning over a birth ball on the bed, standing, lying propped up on a beanbag, on a birthing stool and on my left side where he would lift my right leg and get me to push. During my second internal he found I was 8-9cm dilated and during the next one I was 9 but half the cervix lip was still there. He tried to move it OMG owwwwwww but it wouldn't budge. He then decided to get a doctor in to check and see whether they thought I needed Oxytocin to speed things up. At this point I had had enough and had a cry and asked him if that would mean I would have to move out of the birth centre and into the labour ward and if the answer was yes could I have drugs or was it too late! He asked me what drugs I wanted and that it was not too late. "EPIDURAL!!!!!!" was my reply. Sadly it seemed my intervention free, natural, drug free, lovely birth was becoming out of reach for me. But at that point I was over it and the contractions were just so bad (a lot in my back due to her position) that I didn't care I just wanted the pain gone. When the doctor came and did yet another excruciating internal she decided that all was ok and I could keep going the way I was going and would not need the Oxytocin, yay but not yay as no Epidural but drug free birth which I appreciate now. The doctor actually managed to move the cervix lip and broke my waters and I was nearly there. They also discovered bub had not moved into the ideal position of left but was still on my right side. Getting me leaning forward was supposed to help this.


As darkness approached we had another handover of staff and my new midwife was the amazing Louise, who was the midwife I saw for my very first appointment, she was motherly, more experienced and just lovely! I am so grateful I had her for the last stage of this birth experience. She got the details of everything from George and set about making me comfortable and DH comfy (actually offered him a coffee 10 hours after we got there, poor fella didn't eat for over 30 hours!), and set about getting my baby out. I think her shift started about 9pm ish! Louise set me up on the bed with a bean bag and many pillows including my own from home behind me which was ace because I was very tired by this stage, I think I had been in active labour for 12 hours or so. So I lay there while she prepared things and talked to DH and the whole involuntary pushing thing started again and was happening more often which was good. She offered me the gas which had not really been done earlier and I decided to give it a go (I did use it for Dylan and it helped) but after trying it through 2 contractions I was so violently ill that I had to have a shot of Maxalon. After about an hour of this she suggested I get on the toilet for a wee. I politely said "Thanks but no thanks" as I thought it would hurt too much. But Louise was insistent and got me off the bed and onto the toilet with DH's help. Aaaaahhhh that actually felt good and after my wee the baby's head started finally coming down and then my involuntary pushing suddenly got very intense and my contractions seemed to stop and I could feel the beginning of her head crowning, finally something was happening. Louise knew she had to get me off the toilet but I was refusing. She called another midwife and DH in to help get me off and standing over a mat. A few more pushes and Louise was telling me where the baby's head was at, "I can see the forehead, I can see the eyebrows, I can see the eyes, I can see the nose." When I got to the chin it also all goes a bit blurry, the two midwives got me down on all fours which I was also reluctant to do. Then I think when they could see bubs chin or the top of the chin that is when they realised there was a problem and Louise pushed the EMERGENCY button. At this point 3 more midwives and two doctors rushed in within seconds and they got me on my back on the floor, and the doctors got her out very dramatically, very painfully, but suddenly I felt a sucking and a pulling and baby was out and on me. Very warm, very wet and crying looking at me. I lifted bubs up and saw that she was a girl and said "Oh my god its a girl, a girl!"












Basically she had Shoulder Dystocia and was stuck by her right shoulder. Louise knew by the fact that the chin was not coming out that she needed help getting out. Had they realised earlier before she had started descending through the birth canal I may have ended up having a C-section. I think it was severe shoulder dystocia because the doctor later said her shoulder was stuck behind my pelvis. Anyway they got her out and I was elated. DH started taking photos and the room started clearing out, the staff were all saying "Congratulations" to us which was lovely. I had specifically asked for immediate skin to skin contact which I did not have with DS so Louise pulled back my nightie and got her onto my skin. Aaaahhhh. All I could do was stare at her and tell DH "That is it, this is the last one!!!!" LOL. Louise told me I looked so much better and so relieved and happy. That I was. She was out it was over. Niether of us wanted to cut the cord so Louise did it. I had an assisted third stage with the injection in the thigh and Louise pushing on my womb, I think she decided it was taking too long so assisted my placenta out herself.


Louise had a good look at my bits and decided I probably needed stitches and was not 100% comfortable doing them herself so called in a doctor to have a look. I had two doctors give their opinions on the 'area' and it was concluded that I did need stitches. The handsome young male doctor did the sutures and it took ages. Luckily I had local anaesthetic but it still was very tender. In the doctors words "It's just like a patchwork quilt" eeeekkkk I hate to imagine what it looks like down there. I had to have my legs in stirrups and of course had been helped up onto the bed by this stage as I had birthed her on the floor. While I was being stitched up DH had a lovely long hold of darling Adelita and she just couldn't keep her eyes off him, and he could not keep his eyes off her. He actually teared up which is so beautiful and one of the things I adore about my DH.


I found the whole experience very difficult and hard especially trying to have an active labour while being hooked up to 3 monitors. The worst one was the heart monitor for me which was attached to my finger it was just so distracting. I would get into a zone and then would lose it as the cords would stop me from doing whatever it was that was helping. I didn't get to have my water birth which is sad but oh well can't be helped, even if I had asked for one I wouldn't have been able to due to the monitoring and actually it would not have helped her come out so probably for the best that I didn't get in the bath. I also didn't use my heat pack nor my stress balls a la Juju Sundin they never came out of the bag.

After being stitched up Adelita was passed back to me and Louise helped her attach and we had our first feed together which was so nice she fed for so long. During this I got to eat which was heaven and DH had made me a lovely cup of milky sugary tea, bliss. As he had not eaten for so long and had to drive home anyway and as it was so late we decided DH should go home before I was taken to my room so I spent some time staring at my baby girl and bonding with her. Then Louise got all of my bathroom stuff out of my bag along with my jammies and helped me off the bed to have a shower and use the toilet but when I got into the bathroom I got a wave of dizziness and my hearing went (as I had lost quite a lot of blood) so Louise helped me back to the bed and gave me a bed bath, and I cleaned my teeth and got into my PJs. Then it was off to the ward for us (me in a wheelchair, Adelita in a little cot all wrapped up and in a tiny hospital gown) there she was weighed and measured and given her Hep B and Vitamin K shots. The midwives were all guessing how big she was and kept saying "She's a big one." I knew she was big, or that she was going to be big I could tell by how big I was and by how much pain I was in during the last few weeks. They were guessing 4.5, 4.6, he he. She was actually 4365grams (9 pound 6) and 53.5cm long, whoa how did I produce something that big and birth her naturally. DS was 3.9kg and 51.5cm long and was 7 days later than Adelita. And DH and I are not the largest people in the world. But both sides of the family just seem to produce big babies. None under 8 pound. Anyway I said goodbye to Louise and she gave me a kiss and a cuddle and we were settled into our room and I attempted to sleep, and couldn't.





We stayed in hospital for three nights as she and I had temps and she was also a bit jaundiced but that is all fine now. As we were public I was sharing with three other women and coincidentally the woman next to me is married to a guy I used to work with and she had a little boy the same day I had Adelita so we have exchanged numbers and will hopefully stay in touch.


Adelita is now just over a week old and thriving. She is 120 grams above her birth weight and loves her boobie. We have had no feeding issues so far apart from a couple of grazes on my nipples the first few days but they are all cleared up now. She is a great sleeper so far too but it is still early days things could change.


We are all in love with our little Adelita and I still can't believe I have a baby girl. She is so beautiful!