Well girls - Ethan Riley was born on Friday 18th June, at 17
6, weighing a very healthy and tear inducing 8lb 15.5oz. Only half an ounce shy of 9lb!! Here's the story...
Went into hospital to be induced at 8am. Quite a bit of waiting in the waiting area first. Hazel (My midwife) intended to do an ARM (Artificial Rupture of Membranes - i.e breaking your waters) with stretch and sweep and then put me on a hormone drip if nothing happened after a few hours. I was hooked up to the cardiotacogram for the entire duration. Whenever I needed to pee I had to unplug it from the machine and carry the wires with me to the toilet. Must have been quite a sight!! The first canular she tried to put in blew. She did another one on my other hand, but when she tried to take blood it wouldn't let her. In the end, she took it from my arm the normal way. I look like a pin cuhion now haha. Luckily I didn't need inducing with hormones. She broke my waters at 11am, gave me ONE HELL of a stretch and sweep while she was at it and I started contracting at about 12.30. No warning or build up. Started straight off 3 minutes apart and really painful. The birthing ball helped at first, but after a while it was much more comfortable on the beanbag on the floor, on my knees, leaning against the bed. I started using gas an air at about 140 (NB: Great stuff!!)
At 15
0 she examined me and I was 4cm dilated but only 50% effaced so she sugested using the drip to move things along a bit quicker, but I wasn't keen. She discussed it with the rest of the team and they agreed to give me another hour to see how I was progressing before they'd use the drip. An hour later I was having some serious contractions and she said by the way I was contracting, I probably wouldn't be needing the drip. Half an hour later (about 160) I felt a slight urge to push, but from experience knew it wasn't quite time yet. When it's time you don't "think" you need to push, you HAVE to push. She examined me and said I was still 4cm dilated. I remember sort of saying (quite loudly) "What?!?!" but she told me not to worry. My cervix was "paper thing" and I would dilate in no time. She wasn't wrong. I dilated the remaining 6cm in an hour and I gave birth to Ethan! Very quick delivery too. Paperwork says 9 minutes. He was born with lots of hair and quite a bit of fluffy downy hair on his skin. I don't think he was late after all! My midwife agrees with me. They must have got my dates wrong. He looks perfectly on time if not a tiny bit early. Considering the size of him, I'm very glad they got my dates wrong! Hazel was in awe at the size of the placenta. Apparently it was "a whopper" (her words).
Had to stay in overnight because they were concerned about the amount of blood I was losing. They put me on a drip (amongst other unpleasant things) to help my uterus contract. Blood loss settled down after a few hours and all was well! We're home and both doing well. His umbillical cord fell off last night. Breastfeeding is a dream now that the engorement period is passing. Everythings fantastic! Just going to upload pics now... xxx
Ok that's annoying. They aren't supposed to be smileys. They're supposed to be " : " followed by "0" or "3" for the times such as 4.30pm Grrrr. Sorry about that... If I could delete and start over I would x
by intuition 23 June 2010
by intuition 23 June 2010