One of the worst things about being overdue is constantly being asked if you've 'popped' yet, because the euphemism 'popped' isn't even remotely accurate for how a baby comes out, unless 'popped' refers to something like your eyeballs or rectum from all the pain and straining that is yet to come.
I was 10 days overdue before I went into Labour - this is not a fun part of the pregnancy. You feel like you've come all this way and your body just isn't going to cooperate. Why is my body not doing what it's supposed to do? I did everything. Raspberry Leaf Tea, Pineapple, Sex, Walking, Spicy Food, Clary Sage, Reflexology, Hot Baths - and even tried to have two membrane sweeps at the hospital.
The sad part about going overdue is the realisation that your picture perfect 'birth plan' is probably going to be shoved out the window. I wasn't aware of this and nobody tells you but you can't give birth in a birthing centre if you a) go over 42 weeks, or if you have to be induced with prostaglandins. This was a disappointing revelation because I had planned on a birth centre birth and didn't want to have to give birth in a labour ward.
The first membrane sweep I had they weren't even able to get their fingers up there to sweep anything because my cervix was high and closed. Unfavourable. I was given a 47% chance of going in to labour spontaneously. These aren't percentages anyones wants to hear when they think their body is failing them of this one essential life experience.
The second membrane sweep was booked in for the 10th day of my overdue date on Sunday morning. Again they weren't able to do the sweep, so I was booked in for a prostaglandin induction on Wednesday. I left the hospital feeling pretty depressed about the whole thing. So rather than mope around at home eating pineapple whilst having sex and drinking raspberry tea I decided we should just get our minds off it and go see a film. We ended up seeing 'Man of Steel' - the new Superman movie which was totally shit, except for the scenes where Henry Cavill cavorts around shirtless and beardy on an oil rig, it was also the most ridiculously LOUD movie I have ever been do, there were almost no dialogue scenes but scene after scene of destruction and action. The baby was having a fit in my stomach and breakdanced the whole time. On the way home I brought some hair-dye because I figured may as well dye my hair tonight so it's a nice colour in a weeks time when the baby is induced out of me.
Around 6pm Sunday afternoon we went for a walk to the shops because my body had been leaking 'waters' but the midwives kept telling me my waters hadn't broken and that is was 'hindwater' whatever that is. I was going through a new pair of pants every hour, so we walked to the shops to buy some giant pads. On the walk home I started getting braxton hicks contractions. I had the craving to watch 'Breaking Dawn - Part 1' so we did that, and this is the movie where Bella falls pregnant and has a vampire baby in her and Edward has to gnaw it out of her body at the last second... during the movie I noticed my braxton hicks contractions were coming in at around 20 minutes apart. but still I didn't think it was real contractions. and didn't want to get my hopes up. They started becoming a bit more painful around 10pm, so we decided to try timing them on our 'contraction' timer on the iPhone. We also got out the TENS machine just to try it out - thinking the were probably Hicks and would be good practice for 'real labour'...
What can I say by midnight that night was in Real Labour. The contractions started coming every 10 minutes, then every 8 minutes, 7 minutes etc. The Tens machine was an incredible distraction during this period, the pain was moderate and having buttons to click and tingly vibrations certainly helped keep any worry about Labour pains out of my mind.
Between midnight and 9.30am the next morning I laboured at home. I went into a complete cave zone. I turned my bedroom into a pillow nest and dealt with the contractions in positions I had learnt in m NCT course. Lenny followed me around the apartment keeping an eye on me and generally being a calming influence. The thing about contractions and the pain of labour is that you can deal with them because they come at you in a wave, and by the time you are 30 seconds into it, its already peaked and you are coming out the other side of it. Well it is bearable until it isn't anymore.
My doula Allie came around about 5am and by this time I wasn't really able to speak. I was unable to move during a contraction and was past the stage of 'breathing through the pain' and just screaming through the pain. The Tens machine worked, but even there comes a time when it stops being of any use. Around 8am I had vomited all over the place, was yelling at Mark to call a cab and get me to the Hospital. They called a cab and Allie guided me into the cab, putting a pillow over the backseat and telling me to ride backwards so I could breathe through the pain. All I could do was put my head in a pillow and breathe until we got there. By the time we got to the hospital I couldn't walk when having a contraction, but my method of dealing with it was to put my head against the wall in my pillow and stamp my feet and breath until the contraction past. They were coming in at 60 - 90 seconds every 4 minutes.
I was admitted into the midwives who gave me a quick examination because they won't let you into the birthing centre/labour ward until you are at least 4cms, and luckily I had dilated to exactly that. I can't describe the pain I was in during contractions, other than it was all encompassing, I had no other thoughts in my mind except to want to be away from the pain, and was highly agitated, and in panic mode. I begged for an epidural. Having been a staunch "anti-epidural" advocate I was surprised a caved so early, but the pain was not manageable for me. My doula sensing I was making a rush decision based on panic and adrenaline reminded me that I wanted to go down the birth centre route and I shouldn't abandon that yet and to try the other options at my disposal before going down the epidural one - because once you do that there in no changing your mind.
I agreed with Allie, however the midwife informed me that the birth centre was full, and i've have to be admitted to the labour ward anyway, they said there was one room with a birth pool in it and they'd book me into that as soon as it became available. I was happy with that, and even moreso about there being imminent drugs in the room I was moving to.
They took me to Room 11, which was a plain room with a single bed, shit lighting, and no pool. The midwife informed me that procedure on the Labour Ward was to hook you up to a machine that constantly monitors you and the baby. I got really really angry about this because in the birth centre the midwives just monitor you with a handheld doppler occasionally, and here I was lying in a horrid hospital bed with two monitors strapped to my belly, and tubes and machines all around me. The midwife took the edge off me killing her by giving me the gas & air, which I have to say I felt was really weak as a pain killer, i felt off my face, woozy, light headed, a bit sick and still 100% aware of the pain of every contraction, which now felt worse because i was trapped in the bed with monitors and leads and wasn't allowed to stand up and stamp around or do any of the positions i'd been using at home for the past ten hours.. basically they were torturing me for the sake of 'regulations' and i ripped the monitors off, said i didn't want constant monitoring, i had a low risk pregnancy and if the birth centre wasn't full i wouldn't be putting up with this bullshit!! now get me into the birth pool or an epidural before i murder somebody.
They could see how mad I was and transferred me to the birth pool room which was much nicer, plus being in the pool would mean no monitors anywhere near me. I promptly stripped into the nude and jumped straight into the pool.. I was still able to have gas & air in the pool but I have to say it still didn't take the edge off as much as I was hoping. However I got into a rhythm of breathing the gas & air, being massaged, and using the water. I did this for a couple of hours - I even asked Mark to put some Lady Gaga on.. but in the end the contraction pain got worse and I just couldn't do it anymore and once again screamed for an epidural. The midwives thought I might be in transition in which case I should just power through because an epidural would effectively slow things down, so i agreed on an inspection where it was discovered I was still only 4cm's dilated... I couldn't deal with this much pain for god knows how long so I broke down and cried and screamed for the epidural, I had people come in and tell me that the anaesthesiologist was busy and i've have to wait. It was awful. Allie & Mark did what they could which was a lot of lower back massage to stave off me having a meltdown. By the time the anaesthesiologist arrived I was out of my brain. Shaking, crying, I couldn't concentrate on anything - i just screamed at them to stick it in. I could care less about the size of the needle, the drip, the spinal block - i just needed to be out of the pain. Once it was all administered I slowly felt the effects start to come over me and felt coherency for the first time in about 12 hours. It was magical. I became a much nicer person, and didn't want to kill the midwife anymore. I had a drink of coconut water and was 100% revitalised and happy and excited about giving birth.
I ended up having a nap or two, and after about 4 hours they assessed me again and I had only dilated to 5cm's. It was slow going so I consented to using the Oxytocin drip - another thing I was vehemently opposed to in my birth plan, but I was slowly realising that things in the birth plan go out the window pretty quickly when you are living the situation as opposed to planning it on a computer months beforehand.
They had to keep upping the oxytocin drip level because my cervix just wouldn't dilate. I did have the doctors come around and tell me that if the labour didn't progress we would have to discuss the caesarean option - which is not something I even wanted mentioned. I was not having a caesarean. The midwives and doctors were so amazing and understanding, they kept giving me more time, they helped me to move positions which might help dilation - i knew they wanted me to deliver the baby naturally and I was so thankful for that.
By now it was around 6am Tuesday morning and I'd spent10 hours of being on the oxytocin drip.... the baby wasn't in distress but my body was. The epidural was wearing off, it was called a 'low dose' epidural because you can still move your legs, but 10 hours of the stuff and I was practically paralysed. I had been in active labor for over 20 hours and i had reached the point of exhaustion. The doctor examined me one last time and I hadn't been able to dilate past 9cm's, despite the high dosage of drugs in my system, plus the baby had turned position and was now posterior - which would make delivery impossible.
I signed my consent to an emergency caesarean in a haze. I couldn't speak. I didn't even want to acknowledge the fact. I was so sad, so disappointed, so frightened.
They wheeled me out of the labour room and into the surgery room. I was terrified and freaking out. The midwives were really nice, but I was in a place where I never wanted to be, things were out of my control and I had 'given up' in a sense.
The anaesthesiologist came in to check my epidural to make sure it was fit for surgery, however when she did the freezing cold water spray test on my abdomen I could feel it, so I had to instead have a spinal block - meaning I would literally be paralysed from the neck down, for at least the next 4 hours. When they started performing the block I was bawling, uncontrollable heaving crying. The anaesthesiologist was like 'what's wrong?' .. wtf do you think is wrong? However everyone was like 'in a few minutes you'll be able to meet your baby!!' which is great except I won't be able to hold her because i'm now a quadriplegic. I did request however that when they did the surgery they let me and mark see what sex the baby is without announcing it. They began the surgery (painless) and within about 10 minutes they asked if i'd like the curtain dropped to "watch the birth".. are you fucking kidding me? no thanks. I declined, and they eventually got the baby out and they pulled it up over the curtain and I saw her little pink vagina and once again burst into tears saying 'it's Alvie! she's here!' - more uncontrollable crying on my part. They took her away and all I could hear were the midwives going "that is one giant baby!!" she was 9 pounds 3 ounces, 53 cm's tall, and totally adorable. She scored a 9 on the apgar test and was revealed to be a 100% healthy baby. Yay!! Although I still couldn't hold her or see her.
Over the next 30 minutes they sutured my wound closed and I recovered some feeling down to my boobs and arms. I was then wheeled into the recovery room where Allie & Mark were waiting with Alvie, they placed her on my chest for skin to skin time and she immediately latched onto my boob. Everyone was like 'would you look at that latch! that's textbook..' it was good to know that even if I couldn't deliver my baby, i could at least feed her. Then she wee'd on me. It was amazing.
We've been insperaable ever since. We spent a night on the delivery wing with other bruised and battered mothers. As soon as my spinal block had worn off I got out of bed, determined to go home at the earlist time possible. We were given the all clear on Wednesday afternoon and have been at home enjoying life together ever since.
She likes: boobs, being in the nude, sleeping in our bed, being super cute.
She dislikes: poo, and pyjamas.
Love her.