If someone had said to me on Friday 13th November that I’d be going in to labour that evening, I would’ve probably scoffed at them. I’d crossed fingers for a Friday 13th birth because it’s a cool date, but with not even so much as a twinge by tea time I thought it unlikely, and went about ‘business as usual’.
Around 8pm my lower back felt a little uncomfortable, which I put down to sitting on my lazy arse too long. I ate, and popped on to the computer to chat with my bees. By 10pm the backache hadn’t subsided, so I decided to go to bed to get some rest. I was tempted to ‘tweet’ about it, but after having seen the reaction to my twinges on the 12th — which resulted in me feeling like I’d let the world down — I thought better of it. However, within seconds of lying down, I was getting waves of period-like pain and decided pacing the front room was a more pleasant option.
Out of curiosity I timed a few of the contractions using the stopwatch on my phone. I didn’t expect to get much out of it… I mean, you read stories about women who start off labour days before they actually give birth, and have wildly far apart contractions followed by blocks of no pain. Seemed a bit odd then that mine felt quite close together, and no wonder: they were 4.5 mins apart almost to the second.
I rang the hospital to ask for advice on when would be a good time to come in (given that it was a 40 minute trip) and she advised I head straight over. Cue a mad dash to get the bags and a few remaining bits and pieces together, and then we started off on the journey. Not 5 minutes down the road I realised I’d left my maternity notes at home, so I had to get Karl to turn around and go back — contractions and speed bumps, fun fun! — so that I could pick the bloody things up.
Anyway… shortly after arriving at the hospital, I did a pee sample, I was hooked up to a monitor for half an hour, and given an internal only to be told I was 3cm dilated. Because my birth was still relatively low risk (despite the low iron) I was assigned a midwife and we went into a labour room to continue with a “normal” labour. I was hooked up to a TENS machine for pain relief, although I don’t really think it did a fat lot, and was given gas and air (Entonox) which started Karl off making Darth Vadar jokes. I had blood drawn, and was hooked up to a drip because they detected ketones in my urine (although this didn’t surprise me, I knew I was at least slightly dehydrated and had been for weeks because my pee was far too dark.)
I had every intention of doing hourly updates via text message to twitter at this point, but the contractions were just under 4 minutes apart and were getting more uncomfortable with each one. I was squeezing Karl’s hand and had already dictated one message to him so that I could concentrate on breathing.
A couple of hours in I was told that the results of the blood test were back and that my iron was absolutely fine. Talk about annoying. I stand by my original theory that someone had mixed up my blood test with that of the other woman who was pregnant at the same time as me and with the exact same name (I don’t see any other reason why my iron level would drop so suddenly and then go back up in a week, despite having stopped taking the Spatone!) My labour was downgraded to lowest risk, and I was moved from the room I was in — with Entonox through a valve in the wall — to a smaller but more “cosy” room in their midwife-led unit with a new midwife. Not quite the MLU I wanted to birth in but a better option than being stared at by consultants for no real reason.
(To be continued…)
08 Dec at 6:19 pm
Boooring. Get to the part with the baby! :P
08 Dec at 6:57 pm
Patience :p It was getting too long for one entry!
08 Dec at 7:48 pm
Fantastic story, though all the pre-birth stuff sounds a bit painful and gory for my liking.
08 Dec at 8:15 pm
*waits impatiently for next part of story*
You are a real trooper for even thinking about tweeting during labor, I have to say. I think all I’d be focused on would be screaming and um… screaming.
08 Dec at 8:20 pm
Darth Vader* :P
I’m with Aisling; part 2 better be coming up soon!
08 Dec at 9:06 pm
Congratulations!
08 Dec at 9:16 pm
No birth photos, no cheese. :P
08 Dec at 10:03 pm
DUN DUN DUN! And the epic saga continues. :O
08 Dec at 10:18 pm
Gee, labor sure sounds fun. Haha, Karl mocking Darth Vader reminds me of something my dad would do. XD
Some advice from my mother: "Cherish every minute with her, because before you know it, she’ll turn into a bitchy hormonal teenager."
08 Dec at 10:48 pm
Aww, I don’t think anyone meant to make you feel bad about the twinges. :( We were all just so excited!
I am excited for the next part! :D
09 Dec at 2:36 am
Ok, interesting, but I think you are teasing us. We want pictures, Jem.
09 Dec at 3:54 am
I loooove birth stories!!! Do continue. :)
09 Dec at 6:33 am
Well I said baby would arrive on the 14th :o) I was a teeny bit over the weight I’d guessed too, does this mean I win a prize? :)
Despite all the hassle she caused in her arrival I still say Isabel is well worth it don’t you agree?
09 Dec at 4:33 pm
I hope I get to read the rest of this before I go into labor!
09 Dec at 5:02 pm
first point – you killed that TENS machine. The battery was probably flat within minutes.
And as for Darth Vader – it was just sounding so similar..I couldn’t help it.
09 Dec at 7:24 pm
My favorite part was most definitely Karl and Darth Vader jokes. Despite my somber time in ICU, I did that when I had my bicap on. It was loud enough and perfect for Vader tiems!
I’m just glad that things turned out smoothly with the iron after all. It’s weird how one thing can make a huge dent in how things will go.
09 Dec at 8:42 pm
@Mumblies – No, you don’t get a prize. You are there with Jem, Karl & Isabel. You get to see the precious little beautiful baby. Hee hee, envious person here. Doesn’t mean anything by it. Just teasing.
09 Dec at 11:30 pm
Wow. Even before the baby was coming, you were already having some pain in the neck moments. At least everything turned out good, and both you and the baby are fine.
10 Dec at 5:18 am
Wow… I like that you have your priorities straight: don’t forget to Twitter. That is not to say that I didn’t obsessively visit your/your mom’s Twitter pages. I was just thinking I’d probably had been much too freaked out if it were me.
And like the rest: part two, part two, part twoooooooooo!
10 Dec at 5:29 am
I’m not normally a fan of ‘mommy blogger’ type entries, but I must say that this particular entry was quite captivating to me! I can’t wait to read the rest. :)
And of course, congratulations on the birth of your daughter!
PS: I hope my posting this doesn’t cause any, er, unpleasantries, as this wasn’t my intention. I’ve been visiting and re-visiting for awhile now to read about how your pregnancy was coming along, and I started to feel like a bit of a stalker, simply sitting here silently, lurking in the shadows … So I finally decided to just go ahead and comment. :)
10 Dec at 9:44 am
Congradulations on the little one!
10 Dec at 9:38 pm
I was ready to read the whole birth story only to find out that we have to wait for the part where you curse and scream while in labour… However it’s nice to know you actually wanted to Twitter while you had better things to worry about :)
*Waits impatiently for part 2*
11 Dec at 8:21 am
@Hev
HaHa….Actually I did get a prize! Not only did I get to see little Isabel within a few hours of her birth, but I get to see her almost daily too :D
I’ve cuddled her, burped her and told her (whilst Mummy was in the Dentists’ chair) all the thing we will do when she is a little older ;) but the nappy changing is left to her very capable parents so far. :)