Toby | Birth Story Part Two

If you haven’t already, it might be a good idea to read the first part of the birth story!

We pulled up to the hospital about 7.30pm on Thursday night, hospital bag and all, expecting to be staying there, only to be told, actually, I was only 2.5cm dilated (“but I can see why she probably said you were 3cm”) and that we should go home.I was going backwards, yet I was in more pain. I hadn’t made ANY progress in 3 hours. She had initially given me some gas and air to help while I was there, but I obviously wasn’t inhaling it correctly. My tongue was SO dry it was unbelievable. I had this image in my head of a really crusty piece of sponge and thought that the name “Spongebob Crustytongue” would be most fitting, and most hilarious, because I could not stop giggling. At the time, she was trying to examine me, but every time I thought about my tongue’s new name, I had a fit of giggles. In the end she had to go out of the room and come back.

She sent me home with some codeine, as they don’t admit you until you’re at least 5cm unless there’s something they need to keep an eye on. This was going to be a long night! I was told to have a good meal as I’d need the energy and to have a bath.

I managed a bath when I came home, after having taken the codeine while we were still at the hospital. I remember Jamie sitting in the bathroom with me to make sure I was OK and me rolling side to side, slurring my words when I was telling him how “this codeine is rubbish”, “it’s not working”. Clearly, it was working because I could hardly get my words out. He managed to get a rolled up t-shirt for a pillow and I was so (unnecessarily) worried about getting it wet! I got out of the bath, managed some mango chicken for tea and went to bed. I remember dozing quite a lot, but it got to 12.30am and I couldn’t take it any longer, the contractions were getting worse, and I told Jamie it was time to go. Again.

I half walked and half struggled while bent double, all the way from the car park up to the delivery suite. They examined me and told  me I was 5cm dilated – PROGRESS! I had plenty of time on a bouncy ball, had to have every wee checked and measured, rocked side to side, having to stop and half bend down when I was having a contraction, and was then given a TENS machine as well as more gas and air. I found it absolutely useless and, for me, it didn’t work at all. Unfortunately, because my waters had been confirmed as broken the previous morning they wouldn’t allow me to have a water birth for the risk of infection – I was absolutely gutted as I’d really had my heart set on having one.

I kept getting panicky because I was biting on the mouthpiece for the gas and air so hard that it kept detaching from the pipe! I even held one between my teeth so hard it snapped. Eventually I had to ask for more drugs, so they gave me pethidine which is the best and worst thing ever. The worst because you have no memory of anything from this point on and, if you do, it’s only flashbacks. I was telling Jamie all about Queen Victoria wearing a pink, frilly frock! The best because it really helps to forget the pain. Fast forward to 5am (ish) and I’ve made very little progress, again, and I’m by the midwife that she can feel my waters bulging. I’d only had a hind leak, and my waters hadn’t actually broken – so I could’ve gotten into the water after all, except now I’d had the pethidine I couldn’t. She proceeded to break my waters, afterwards handing the hook to Jamie asking if he could just hold it for a minute – he wasn’t particularly impressed!

That was it. PAIN. PAIN. PAIN! Breaking my waters had acted like a plughole and he had turned with the water ending up back to back. It was absolute agony. In the end I had to have an epidural, even though it was one of my last resorts. It took them 4 attempts to actually get it in, and I think they had a job trying to get me to sit still in between the attempts. The next thing I remember was being woken up around 10am and being told that I was 10cm and that I should get ready to push. Apparently, they had me in all sorts of positions trying to push him out for a good 2 hours, but nothing was working and I was exhausted.

The decision was made that I needed an assisted delivery and so off I went to theatre. Initially they had wanted to perform a caesarean and I was very against it, so they agreed on forceps. A little while later at 12.37pm .. Toby Simon was born.

Any similarities here with you? Did your birth go as planned? Better or worse?